Scratch Build – In Progress Project: Der_Meister - custom alu case *Epilogue Nov 8th, 2007*

Thanks to both of you!

Sure, send me a private message with your email adress. I'm on a small vacation though until the week-end, so it can take a while before I answer.

 

Wow. I just read the first 5 or 6 pages of this and it took me about 2 hours. I wish I had the time to go through each and every page and get the full effect of this epic case. Amazing job!

You have giving me ideas for my fanbus.. thanks

 

I just sat here for a good 3 hours reading thru this. What an amazing mod ! the screens are awesome.
Im thinking of making a file server for my family network at home and am going to get a screen like the 10" one you h ave there.
Going to install it into a purpose built stacker. might even water cool it for longevity.
Thanks man ur an inspiration. Fantastic build.
LONG LIVE RAMSTIEN! DU HAST!

 

thanks for the nice comments.

The 10" you're referring to is actually an 8". I bought another one for my htpc, and it's the new generation screen of the same mnufacturer and it's A LOT better. So I guess those screens are also increasing in quality.

 

Nice casemod
same nickname as me
Keep it up

 

I remember when you started this project. All that hard has paid off!

Excellent job jokkos

 

thanks,

and, (although I wanted to wait a bit because I'm leaving on vacation tomorrow for two weeks and then I have to do some buying and some waiting till the stuff gets here) let me say that it isn't over...I'm not completely happy with the temps so there's going to be some extra watercooling and I think the CPU (core duo 6600) will get some lapping as well. Anyway, this will be something for the end of august at the earliest. But I'll post some pics for sure

 

The story continues – watercooling revisited!

Well, I’m back! Not that I ever left, but I’m back with this case. I mentioned something in this thread about it a while ago, and now it’s getting more concrete. Anyway, like always this will become a long post…if you don’t want to read it, just scroll down and read the stuff underneath the pics, I need some opinions there.


Der_Meister is doing great, the system is very stable (or almost – see below) and the watercooling does its job. So, one would think everything is okay…so why is there a ‘need’ for changes?

Well, due to the placement of the rad (pretty confined and needs to get the warmth of the HDD area out of the case), the fans are at 100% most of the time on those warmer summer days. I expected this in advance but since I finished the case in the winter, I needed to wait to get confirmation. It turns out the Noiseblocker 120mm’s are louder than I’d like them to.
It also gets pretty warm in the mainboard area. This is because I use a silent psu (slow spinning fan) and silent case fan, but mostly because there are a lot of heat sources there. There’s the NB, SB and Mosfets of the mainboard and there’s the second PCI vidcard as well, that really warms up quite a bit more then I expected.

Finally, there’s also something I can’t tell you much about at the moment *cough* publication *cough* for which I’m making it all a bit crazier

What will change? The short version:

1) NB and SB of my mainboard will be added in the watercooling loop. For this, I’m going to use two Aqua-Computer Twinplex XT chipset blocks, they look similar to my CPU block
2) I’m going to add an external radiator to the loop (see below – I want your opinions!)
3) The Mosfets won’t be watercooled but I’m thinking of the Thermalright HR-09U block(s) instead of just using small passive heatsinks
4) The second vid card will go


The long version:
1) Basically I’m going to do something about all the heat generators in the mainboard area. The NB and SB will be watercooled using Aqua-Computer blocks. Here’s the best lay-out I drew out so far.


The colors don’t mean anything, I just wanted to differentiate. The line with the lightest color will of course not make that bend, it’s just for clarity.
So, the loop will be: Pump > CPU > GPU > SB > NB > external rad > internal rad > res > back to pump.
I also did variants where the loop would do just the GPU and then go to the external rad, then the other blocks and then the internal rad. But I think that the ‘first all blocks, then all rads’ option is better. Comments and suggestions welcome!


2) While discussing the expansion of the watercooling loop with some people, the idea formed to add another rad to the loop. I know it won’t do much to the temps, but I’m thinking ‘hell yeah why not’…
There are basically two options. Take a look at my desk.


The first option is to put the rad in the black box thing beneath my monitor. It’s 12.5cm high so if I raise it a bit, a 240 rad will easily fit underneath it. It’s open at the front and back (or it will be). Two 120mm fans would be added so this would mainly be an actively cooled rad.

The second option is to put a ‘passive’ rad next to the case on the right side (so between the case and the wall in as tight a spot as possible). The choice here would be the new Innovatek Maxi Plus rad. It would look awesome since it’s a combination of normal and black alu, just like my case. Because my case already weighs a ton I would not attach the rad to it, so I would probably buy Innovatek’s stand alone kit. This includes a cross-blow fan so the rad could be actively cooled. However, I think the fan is pretty loud so it would be for the warmest days of the year only.

So basically, both options are feasible. Here I’m looking for your opinions: should I go for the ‘active’ solution: adding the 240 (fans would be always on but as slow and silent as possible in combination with the internal rad) or for the ‘passive’ solution: the Innovatek rad (cross blow fan would be off as much as possible, most probably causing the internal rad’s fans to still be at high rpm most of the time)? I already got some help about this from Da_Rude_Babboon but other opinions are also welcome!


3) I’m not going to watercool the Mosfets. My first thought was to just use the standard passive heatspreaders, since I’ve got an 120mm casefan and the PSU fan is also nearby. Then I found the Thermalright HR-09U cooler and I’m thinking of getting one. It should cool way better than the small heatsinks.


4) For my 4 screens that are attached to the pc, I’m currently using a GF8800GTS and a secondary PCI vid card (GF MX4000). In a short while one of the four screens will no longer be connected. The PCI card gives a lot of issues, most noticably during windows installation and all driver updates etc. I need to unplug it for windows to boot, otherwise it’s always BSOD time. Like I said it also warms up too much for my liking. So it’s going. I’ll be left with my 8800GTS and three screens: main monitor, 8” TFT and the Psone screen. So they’ll all be connected on the same vid card, and I’ll need to come up with a way to get them all to show an image simultaneously, preferable extended desktop.

That’s it...thanks for your opinion.

 

Go with another Rammstein themed external rad kinda like those towers made by thermaltake minus the really crappiness then again you can just run a system powered by the sun on your roof . About the card I read in my CPU mag about a single cable connector for one port for 3 of your monitors but ima have to check about how it was setup because it works very nicely on my dad's workstations (fx5500 Quadro series in Quad SLI Cheesecake!!!! too bad it takes up most of the power bill...)

 

Hi Jokkos, really nice case ... I´ve been following your work since the beginning .. einfach super!

Regarding Watercooling, I´ve read active wc delivers more performance than passive. But it depends what u are using your pc for (are ou OCing?).

If the problem is the high temps inside the case (MB), I guess there is not enough fresh air coming in the MB area. There is only (in the MB area zone) 1 exhaust fan + 1 from the psu which helps not much + 2 rad ones which should cool water using fresh air ... not the hot air inside the case. Why not place one or two 12cm fan/s blowing air into the gpu/pci/sb cards + 1 nb/cpu. I used this solution and it works, although I was WC CPU + GPU.

If you think it looks horrible, yeah... do another loop .. and WC : i would suggest NB & SB only. Just try a heatercore , I have one and it really delivers nice temps. Just get proper fans too for the radis.

Hope I could help a little. Let me know what you think.

 

great post razzta010, only thing i don't agree about is heatercore. I agree with you for most cases, but this thing is a peice or art. I think he should get a real radiator, and not worory about a fugly shroud and whatnot.

Why are you getting rid of your second gpu again? i would try to keep it all internal IMO, and one more thing: that amazing case, and that monitor? lol

 

I agree. Is there no way you can try and keep evertying internal? I love the case by the way!!

Also, the monitor....

 

thanks for the replies.

Well I'm definitely going for a second external rad. It'll look great, don't worry.
At the moment I'm leaning towards the active one, that will be hidden in the monitor stand. But then I also think how good the passive one would look. If only I could find some info about how loud that cross-blow fan would be.

I have been stupid as well regarding the tubing lay-out of the new setup. Last night it hit me, I'm at work now so can't draw out the lay-out but I'll post a pic later.

Don't mind the monitor too much by the way, at the end of this upgrade you'll see a new one magically appear. I took a pic from the time I finished the mod, things have changed since then

The main reason the second vid card has to go is not the heat it produces, but more the problems it gives everytime I want to try a new driver or similar stuff. When XP reboots the first time after, it seems it can't choose between the two vid cards and on comes the BSOD. I'm tired of it.
One thing I discovered yesterday (didn't know it existed) is that apparantly there are now usb-vga adapters. They're not great, but would be more than sufficient for my third screen. If all else fails, I might just give it a try. (http://sewelldirect.com/usb2tosvga.asp?source=techblog

Edit: why doesn't this thread have a tag and where can I add one?

 

What do you mean a tag?

 

case mod / scratch build / project log

I dont' see one on this thread

 

Edit your first post, go Advanced, look towards the bottom and you can choose one.

I STILL love this case, BTW...

 

thanks, but I don't get any tags to choose from. Oh well.

 

http://www.instructables.com/id/EI5X834F3KLNTRA/
try that for the crt monitor your using!

 

LOL
no thanks, it's got another destination...

 

The sign in the CRT should read "No phishing".