Scratch Build – In Progress Project: ThinkTank (Updates: 05 July 2007)

The Lovely Wife needs a new PC, it seems to have a few unique requirements which are/will be fun/interesting to meet.

1. It must be decent speed, yet not necessarily state-of-the-art.
2. It will be in the living room and must fit in with the rest of the furniture.
3. It must be interesting or completely hidden! (I vote interesting)

is born the ThinkTank PC.


After experimenting with my Oil and Water Cooled PSU (see Modding section of the coolest site on the net) I decided that this concept could / should be extended to the entire PC.
After a little research I found that it has been done before and that there are a few components which can not be in the oil but other than that it should be great fun to give it a "GO".

So here we go:
I started out getting the measurements of my MB and PSU boards to decide the size of the tank. The size of the inside is 14" x 14" x 6". the box on top will contain the DVDrw and HD as well as 2 120mm fans on a Heater core radiator. I will likely place an air blower in here as well to generate bubbles for "decoration" but we will see how much space I have when we get that far.

After getting the size I choose a nice wood which is hard enough to handle the stress and yet easy to get at lowes / home depot called Poplar. Once finished this will be stained with a dark walnut stain and I personally as well as my wife really like the look of it.

The first cuts:
Started with a 2"x2"
and cut the corners off like this.

and finally.


I cut one for each side and for around the bottom, sanded them down and stained them.

 

Continued

Next I cut my plexi glass and using my now favorite "Modders Glue"
I glued the pieces together to make the Tank.




Once I had this part where it could be drying I started on the PSU. The PSU is an enramax which will easily handle the requirements of the PC and likely any thing that will ever be connected but it has to come out of it's case and have a few wires removed.




After this I removed the switch and bypassed the 230/120V selector. To force the PSU to always run on 120V I placed a jumper where the switch was.



I then removed the mains connector and soldered a piece of discarded PC power cable in the place where they were, I also added a ferrite core taken off of an old MB just for luck.



I then soldered a wire all the way around the under side of the PSU board at the GND points and connected it to the Ground pin of the mains connector, (in '.' Ground = the . ) this will connect with the ground plug in the wall and protect the system / user from any problems.

I forgot to get a picture of this but I have done this before.


This had the PSU ready to go.

 

Continued

Now my wife wants the inside to be lit up so it looks interesting in the dark so I purchased some 80mm fans with 3 light blue bright LEDs to let her see if she liked them. The Idea being to put them on the MB so they can help circulate the oil to all the critical parts and provide light as well. I also found some Antec 120mm fans for my radiator but could not find the ones with out LEDs. So I decided to use the LEDs separately in the case in the front inside of the corner.
I first snipped the power and Gnd wires from where they connected to the fan motor and unwrapped the flexible circuit board from the sides. I then unsoldered the power wires from this, as these were too short, and replaced them with longer versions.



These strips I glued into the 2 front corners of the case like this.


They light up the inside of the case very nicely!

While that was drying I decided to work on my radiator a bit. I started with a 77 Pontiac Bonneville with AC heater core and was lucky enough to get the ALL copper one. After filling it with water I took my torch to the pipes and removed then, since they were pointing at odd angles, and re placed them with straight 1/2" pipe. Just as a guide I have seen many places including here iirc this proved to be a very easy thing to do if you are handy with a torch and don't let it get too hot. I found some threaded brass barbs which actually allowed the 1/2" pipe to just fit inside the fitting and I soldered them on. Actually I did that before I soldered the pipes into the radiator because I was worried about the excess heat.
This is the result.




After this was cooled off I dried out the inside of the core for a while using air blowing through it (through the pipes) because I don't want any water in my oil system!

Once I felt it was dry enough I painted the whole thing black!



I need to get a few more pictures before I continue logging this but I am wondering what you guys think so far.
This is my first real case I have built, I don't count plywood boxes built in an "emergency"

 

Looks good keep it up
I used to make radiators back in australia.... good fun .. especially the great cough ya end up with after a few years of soldering with lead sticks n flux YAY!
just remember to keep the place well ventilated when working with that shiznit

anyways .. yeah sounds and looks like a great mod cummin up.

 

this looks to be an interesting project.
nice work on the tank part.

 

I hope you connected it to the ground pin on the power connector (the middle of the three pins on the IEC plug). Connecting it to the neutral is not safe.

/mike

 

You are very correct! I mistakenly called the Ground the Neutral thinking that their are 2 "Hot" wires and a Neutral. That is not the correct terminology and I will edit my previous post to reflect this so no one following me makes a mistake!

Thanks for pointing that out to me!

 

man a ton of potential here! love the LED work

 

@ wbdog206, MoRBiD, Teyber Thanks for the encouragement I hope you all (as well as the wife) like it when it is finished!

@ MoRBiD Ya, I have been soldering this or that for years as well, and a well ventilated area is a must! No need for a nasty headache, cough or perhaps end up with lung cancer.

Now on to the updates!

 

OK, we left off with needing pictures of the radiator panted so...


Now on to the Mother Board and it's "tray"
I measured for the MB to sit at the very top of the tank so that all the connectors would be out of the oil so as to keep the connected cables clean. Then cut a piece of plexi that fit the width of the MB and the hight of the tank. I needed to place everything electronic on this tray that would be in the tank encase I ever need to take something out. So here is what I came up with.









I attached this to the tray with glue and while that was drying I went to the store and selected some blue rock and some white for the bottom of the tank.

I think this will look nice with the blue of the LEDs. I also picked up some glass beads to litter the bottom with for more decoration.
Oh... and some fish



After putting the rock in the tank I put the MB tray in to check the fit of everything.



This is the pump I chose for this tank. I chose to use a 120V one because the oil will likely require more power than a 12v system could provide with the additional load of the oils higher viscosity.


This pump is a MagDrive type (most water pumps are like this if they are design to be submerged) which will be much more forgiving if it cannot run at full speed. It will add more heat to the oil but I have more than enough cooling capacity so I am not worried about that.

 

interesting...

gonna keep me eye on this one...

 

Now with the MB PS and Pump in the tank it was time to start on the top.
The first thing I needed was a shroud for the fans and radiator. This shroud would always be covered up so it didn't have to look good, it only had to work!
Here is what I have came up with.






Next I built the brackets that held everything together. The DVD drive sits on the bottom of the brackets and is the base mount for the rest, the hard drive is mounted between the fans and the DVD which places the fans with radiator and shroud on top.
Once I put it all together I wired it up and took some pictures.
Perhaps you will forgive me, this being my first project log I have a bad habit of forgetting to take pictures of work as it is in progress.






Once I had this built I fired up the system and made sure everything came on, it did so I moved on the top cover.

 

looks like it is coming along nicely.
can't wait to see it complete, very good work
with the plexi,.

 

Notice that the HD and DVD are painted black? I was board while waiting on the glue for the shroud to dry.

The top must cover the entire top and sit on the corner rails of the tank so no weight is on the sides or plexi glass. I first built the top piece which was cut out of a 1x8 piece of poplar and sized to just fit the fins of the radiator.





I found that my "stack" was too tall for the available poplar so i was forced to use Red Oak, I think it turned out better looking like this anyway.



Once finished i made sure it would fit and attached a 1/2"x1/2"x2" block about 1" up in each corner of the box so it would sit on the corner post of the tank. Then cut a place for the DVD tray to come out on the left side and a place for cabling in the back side.

Next I sanded the cover and stained it.



Next I needed a cover or grill for the radiator so it would be hidden. I started with a 1"x1" Poplar board and a router. Using a round over bit I rounded over the the front and ends of the vent pieces and using the opposite router bit I rounded out the back side.
I ended up with this.


laid out on the cut out top.





Then sanded down and stained them.



After letting this dry I added as much oil to the tank as I could find at my local Wall-Mart and was happy that it at least covered the pump so I could turn it on.



Today I will be acquiring more oil (sold as a laxative in pharmacy section of many stores) and filling it the rest of the way, and hopefully attaching the grill insted of just sitting it on top.

 

That looks really good, in that Photo it acutally looks like your components are submerged.

 

Thank you!

They are!

 

Right....
Neat.
You're rather, um, adventurous?
I mean did you think about what she'll say if it leaks?


H.B.

 

Well, it is glued up better than the 60 Gal fish tank which is sitting next to it, so it should do fine. As to what she would say... likely something containing the words "Replace the carpet" and "NOW" and other things which I may have to selectively not hear. She says I have selective hearing as it is so this should be an easy one

 

looks great.
i see the led's on the fans on so do you have the pc running as well as the pump?
the first time i heard of submersion cooling i was like YEA RIGHT till i seen it in
real life.
very good job.

 

Yes, I had it running to test the pump and lights. The cord to the pump is soldered to the same switch / plug as the PSU so that at any time the PC is on the pump has to be on as well.

I have done quite a lot of research on the submerged cooling after I saw it done the first time. It appears that the big electric companies use it to cool most of the large transformers like the ones you see with the big fans and radiators stuck to the sides. The difference in fluid is that because they use a completely closed system they can use a much lower viscosity fluid which would evaporate on my system. Here is a link to a wiki on the subject.