Case Mod - In Progress Project: quiet, liquid cooled P182, Sept 2008

My CPU is a Core 2 Extreme quad at 3 Ghz. Mobo is an Asus Maximus. Water cooling is a 3 fan radiator inset into the top of the case using a Koolance 3 fan shroud. Antec P182 case. OS will be Windows XP Pro 32 bit. Disks are TBD, however...

I'm thinking of going with Velocirator disks. Price aside, this is a particularly foolish idea since my goal with this build was super-quiet and they are apparently far from it. I want to use 1 disk for the OS and another for the rest of the software to reduce disk contention. I've been pondering using 2 cheaper disks in RAID 0 for the OS and a single Velociraptor 300 for the second disk, but then I've also thought of just getting a 150 Velocirator for the OS. Which is a tremendous waste given the OS footprint.

A big problem I'm having is figuring out from websites just exactly what they think they are selling in regards to Velociratpors. Example: http://tinyurl.com/5a3qxl Do the comments about backplane installation mean I can't use this in a 3.5" drive bay in my P182, or are they just saying you can't remove this from the Icepak? Heck if I can tell...

I'm trying to focus on disk optimization in this build, so any links to sites that to into nerd-level detail on the pros and cons of setting up multiple disks for optimal windows performance would be appreciated. Comments welcome as well. I've been programming for 25 years and have a CIS degree so I understand the principles, but I do not know all that much about the details of Windows kernel performance.

I'll get some more pictures up soon.

 

Some updates

Here are a few more photos.


THE OBLIGATORY PILE OF HARDWARE PHOTO (NOT INCLUDING MOBO AND WATER BLOCKS)


VIEW OF RADIATOR INSTALLED IN HOLE IN P182 CASE W/ SHROUD ON TOP


REAR SHOT OF CASE W/ SHROUD AND ACRYLIC BEZEL INSTALLED IN CASE WITH SIDES ON.
(tan colored area is protective paper on acrylic bezel, not yet removed)

I need to order more parts then I can flush the water system and start to install with a vengeance. The disks are now installed in the stock P182 lower disk box: the 2 regular SATA disks will be in RAID 0 and will have XP on them. THe 300 Gig Velociraptor will have the rest of the non-OS software installed. 2 gig on the VGA card + 2 gig of memory maaxes out my Windows XP Pro memory install.

I'm still pondering where I want to put the reservoir, and how much custom bracketry needs to go inside to support the water loop.

 

Nice Start.

 

You don't NEED a nerd site...


RAID 0 is good for performance (but if one of the HDDs fails, you're stuffed)

JBOD otherwise

 

LOL, thanks.

I've been assuming there are more super secrets to Windows disk performance, but so far the most I've found is to eliminate the swap file and defrag to a desired size block.

I can't find the study, but it showed that cheap disks in RAID 0 were comparable to the older 150 GB raptor single. For now I'm assuming the same will follow for a single 300 GB Velociraptor. This is basically a compromise in price and noise. I could have bought 2 small Raptors and run THEM in RAID 0 but I've heard they are VERY noisy. The 150 GB SATA disks were just $50 each on sale!

My plan is to put the OS on RAID and everything else on the VelociRaptor. I'll create an installable image of the OS and back it up periodically (how I do that is TBD, suggestions?) and if the RAID dies all I'll have to do is re-install the base OS and the backup, with all my important data over on the Veloci.

 

Damn!

Antec just confirmed for me that my Phantom 500 (nice and quiet) PSU will NOT work with my chosen video card as the card needs a so-called PCI-E + 2 connector in addition to the regular PCI-E 6 pin connector.


Sooo... I'm perusing several different Antec PSUs that will work:

- TruePower Quattro 850
- NewPower 650 (NOT the 650 blue which has the fan in the wrong orientation for my case)
- Signature 650


[edit]

Price / performance caused me to buy more than I need: 1kw PSU

http://microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0257465

The one I had been looking at (above) was fine, but didn't have enough SATA power connectors. Ironically, the top of the line Signature series from Antec have *fewer* SATA connectors than the gaming-oriented line 1 tier own, which I purchased.



The NewPower 650 is high on my list due to it being just $90 while the others are over $200

 

I have used both the quattro 850W and quattro 1000W PSUs in a lot of builds lately... theyre uber stable which is what i need when im overvolting and overclocking a lot... especially when its powering almost £600 worth of GFX cards. They run quite quiet too despite the (shameful and disappointing) lack of 120mm fans being used in em

 

Double post, mod pls delete!

 

Threads threads threads, I hate em!

I had to re-order some parts. First was confusion on my part what G 1/4" means. Then I finally ordered 3/8" ID nozzles. Now that they've arrived, I see the "ID" is referring to the ID of the HOSE, not the !^&(#^(@!! nozzles. Grrrrr.

 

Received my VGA water block

I decided to go with a Koolance water block for my 4870X2. Got the block today. It's very nice, securely packaged, nickel or chrome plated. What I don't like about the style of it is there's a metal plate over the clear cover plate with the Koolance name cut out. It's not enough to easily see the water flow.

So I removed the cover to see if I could just put the clear acrylic on. No luck. The metal is somehow glued to the acrylic I think. It also has plugs set in to it to run SLI while the acrylic has I think oversize holes. So I'll live with it.

The real surprise was when I examined the block after removing the cover. First, one screw was shorter than all the rest, which I think is a bug, not a feature. More importantly, the inside of the cavity is smeared here and there with O ring lube. It looks to be water-insoluble, i.e. some type of a transparent grease, maybe like petroleum jelly. I'll have to see if I can remove the O ring, clean the excess crap off with Q tips and alcohol, then re-assemble the whole thing. No wonder Petras tech shop recommends cleaning all water blocks before assembling the loop.

One thing I DO like is there's a lot of machined out cavity area with maybe 3mm cube type posts over the GPU chip areas so this should hopefully sink a lot of heat. The block is quite heavy



I'll get some pics up in the next day or so.

With luck, this weekend will be install and boot up day. If I get the remainder of my parts and all goes well.

 

I cannot see from the photos - what do you have on top of the case. You mentioned a shroud?

 

The fan shroud is one of these:




Sigh, ok here are some photos of the water block I got from Koolance today . First, the metal plate will come off by first removing the 2 round threaded plugs then re-installing them. I did not try to see if the stock screws would fit or if they would need stainless washers to account for the thickness of the removed plate, and this is why: whoever installed ththose plugs installed the fittings too tight, and there are stress cracks in the acrylic around the circumference of the threaded plugs This means I don't get to work on this this weekend . Damnit. Tomorrow I'll call Koolance and arrange for a replacement.

In meantime, here are some links to the water block in various states of undress, including one shot showing the grease all over the inside of the acrylic cover. However you can see hte inside of the waterblook which looks nice, aside from the grease all over the O ring inclding inside the water cavity.

 

The more I look at it, the more I think Koolance isn't using acrylic. This stuff is thin and reminds me a lot of the material sold in hardware stores to put on your screen doors. Not polycarbonate either; the stuff I'm thinking of is highly shatter prone when cutting it or snapping it. I don't see how the SLI mount rings go in either. The edges on both sides of the plastic are knurled so I assume one unscrews from the other, but close examination doesn't show any visible sign this is how it works. You can just see the edge of one of the fittings in the photo of the greasy clear part above.

The cracks are nasty, I'll try to get photos. THey're about 1-1.5mm long and I can feel them through both sides of the plastic. They are radial to the center of the large holes where the SLI port fittings are. I am peeved: I was THIS close to getting this box up and running this weekend....

I'm very tempted to just pay Tap Plastics to fab me a new plate of proper acrylic, minus the SLI mount holes, and double the thickness. If I hadn't paid full price for the Koolance unit (made in Korea ) I would do just that. God I hope installing the block isn't as nasty as dealing with the clear cover has been so far, because it looks like a nice block. Since it's new, I wonder if they've got some design bugs?

 

Great start, nice and clean. Sucks about your water block mate.

 

Well, Koolance never responded to my customer service request, and I was getting anxious, so I DID pay Tap Plastics to cut me a couple pieces of Acrylic at double the thickness to a square shape. Now I need to finish it myself to fit the waterblock. The woman at Tap seemed to think that the stock Koolance part was acrylic. She said acrylic reacts poorly to alcohol and other solvents, and I did use alcohol to clean the stock part, so maybe it aggravated some micro cracks. Anyhow, I have the parts I need and now need to get some time to finish the job.

I need to procure some replacement screws for the Koolance shroud, as the stock ones are not long enough for the steel case and acrylic thickness on the cover I had made. I bought longer screws to secure the fan/radiator/shroud stack, buut I need to grind them down as they are slightly too long.

In the meantime I bought an Antec Skeleton case and put my current system into it. Very fun.

But, soon, I will have the new box assembled I think. I just need to fab some parts and get some time alone with them. I am not the speediest builder.....

In the meantime I bought an Antec Skeleton case and transferred my old system in to it. Lots of fun http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=159063

 

I thought Koolance would have responded to a service request. Major bummer for them. I can't wait to see your custom tops.

Do you mind posting up a few pics of your system in the Skeleton? I haven't seen any shots of the chassis with components in it before, looks really cool.

 

Well I'm back on the project. I have some photos of todays work and will get them formatted and up by tomorrow. I've been undergoing the hell of trying to find small screws and nuts locally.

Tonight I went to install the Koolance cooling block on the GPU and ran into a problem. I've moved to a new house since I started this, and after reading the instructions for the GPU block either I've lost a baglet of mounting hardware, or the instructions are wrong . The instructions say to use the supplied "screws and plastic insulating washers" and I can't find anything like that. However, the stock screws aren't insulated either, and are tapered headed. I've found a small bag of similar hardware, but it doesn't match the one picture on the crummy Koolance instructions. So I have an email in to them, I hope they answer.

The instructions also say "thumb nuts are supplied to take the place of empty screw hole positions on the top of the video card." There are some female thumb nuts in my mystery bag of mounting hardware, but a) there's no way to mount them to a hole, and b) why worry about empty holes? This kind of thing is what makes me suspect the correctness of the instructions...

Anyone familiar with the Koolance 4870x2 block or the quality of their instructions would be welcome to comment. The instructions in .pdf can be seen here http://www.koolance.com/water-cooling/product_info.php?product_id=731

Thanks,

 

Update with pics

My hacking on the case itself is almost done, thank god. I just need to machine a slot in the rear cover plate (see below) to run hoses from an external radiator/reservoir.

I removed the rear fan and mesh area then fabricated a spiffy cover plate on the inside and out using some scrap plastic I bought at my local supply store. I was happy to find some with the diamond plate look. Fortunately for me, the backside of the scraps matched the interior paint of the P182 very closely.


If you're wondering why I've covered up a ventilation hole: 1) I really needed a flat surface to mount a cylindrical radiator back there, and 2) I've confirmed that fans inside the case suck air in via the unused slots and the stock hose holes as well as the front vents, so I'm thinking I'll have plenty of air flow, and more to the point it will flow in low and be pulled up high through the exhaust fans on top of the main radiator.

Here are some pics of the radiator installed in the black lucite cover I had made with the Koolance fan shroud bolted on, along with the hole in the top of the case to accomodate the radiator:

http://www.atombum.com/Images/PC/radiatorunderside.jpg

http://www.atombum.com/Images/PC/tophole.jpg

And finally a shot of the Koolance GPU water block with my home made acrylic cover to replace the crappy one Koolance ships with:


By the way: a quick word on using the proper tool for the job. For the holes in the water block cover I bought a special drill bit for plastic: it's basically pointy-er than the standard drill bit with a more gradual taper. Worked GREAT on the acrylic. Today I needed to drill holes in the acrylic I covered the fan hole with, but the plastic drill wasn't big enough, so I used a standard drill. It was a lot harder to use, and one of the holes caught and craked (and had to be super glued). Next week I'm going back and buying a complete set of the acrylic drills. They're worth it.

 

Lovely

 

Fair one how much were the acrylic drills? I keep having cold sweats when I drill my acrylic bits

Like that fan shroud The card looks sweet with the new top too!