It started with me getting a free radiator and fans to review. I had a Maze4 and some tube left over from an upgrade, so figured I might as well get a pump and reservior and end up with a cheap watercooling system for my second PC. £200 later, and welcome to my new project. Pretty much EVERYTHING in this has been scrounged on the cheap, or leftover from an upgrade. The case is a Lian-Li PC65, purchased from Bit-Tech for £65 including shipping. Was well chuffed when it arrived, being my first Lian-Li meant that it came with all the excitement and oogling over the new case. It truly is amazing. I decided to get the PC65 instead of the PC60, since it was available, cheap, and I was only going to put the same window in anyway. Unfortunately, I totally forgot to take a picture before I hacked it up so click here to see it's homepage. A rundown of the hardware that's going in the box: AMD Athlon XP 2500+ (AQXEA, Week 25...of course!) - I upgraded BlakIce to a 2500-M, so this was left over. Abit AN7 - Again, a leftover from my upgrade to a £40 NF7-S MSi Geforce 4 Ti4600 - I bought it in conjuction with the RAM (see below), a P4 2.2 and a P4 motherboard for £100 (all from a friend who upgraded), then sold the P4 and motherboard for £90, leaving me with a Ti4600 and the RAM for £10...so call it £5 each. I put a Thermaltake cooler on there (only decent thing I've seen come out of thermaltake). 2x512mb of Samsung PC2100 - This stuff is the ****! It's rated at 133 @ 2.5-3-3-6, but it will do 166 : 2-2-2-5 at stock voltage of 2.55v. £5, and some £1 headspreaders from eBuyer. Seagate Barracuda 7200.7, 80GB - I have a thing for Barracudas...so I splashed out on this one...£35 from some place in a sale. It's pretty much the only new piece of kit in the PC! Seagate U series 5, 30GB - Been around for about 7 years now, and still going strong. It's a backup/mas data transfer medium. Artec 16x DVD-ROM - Or something like that! I dunno, it was £15 from CPU City...I bought it at the same time as my 2500-M. Jeantech 350W PSU - Came in one of my cases. I'm choosing this over my 550W QTEC since this thing has already been braided. And the el-cheepo cooling solution! XSPC R120-D - Dual 120mm rad, with fans, all free because I reviewed it. Hydor L30 - eBayed for £20 Dual 5.25" acrylic bayres - £15 shipped from Bit-Tech. DangerDen Maze4 - I upgraded BlakIce to a TDX... DangerDen MAze4 - Over-clock had a sale on, I bagged this for £20. Brand new! DangerDen Clearflex 60 - Some leftover, some bought new...about £5 total. Random bits and bobs - barbs, clamps, UV dye, mounts, the usual bits...£15 worth in total, I think. Enough waffle about the kit, lets get this project started. The only problem is, I have no idea what to do with it. To pass the time, I stripped down the case. Then washed it with a combination of warm soapy water for the plexi and white spirit for the metal. I had now decided to start by mounting the radiator. Easier said than done! There is almost no space whatsoever for the radiator! The rad is actually poking out the front of the case, and the end tank is hidden by a drive bay plate! And there is still only about 2 centimeters left between it and the PSU. Also, note how there is literally millimeters on either side. Sadly, the thing is too tall, as all the drive bays below will be full, it has to occupy the top bay only. Unfortunately, it stuck down by about 2mm, so needed slimming. My solution? Sand down the fans! A ******* file took care of them and after about half an hour of non stop sanding, they were done. The radiator crammed in with the other parts. One fan will be blocked by the reservior, but that doesn't really matter. Next up was the mounting of the radiator. I started by removing the top and masking it down. Using the fans and radiator as a guide, and with some quick maths scrawled on the tape, I marked up the positions of the holes on the inside. Next up came the drilling. I always seem to forget the progress pics, so here is the next best thing... And after some more drilling, the other fan and the radiator side bits (removed to make them easier to work with) are in place. Radiator mounted. That concludes day one. Tomorrow, I will try to sort out the holes for the fans and mount the pump. I have no real plans after that, so check back to see what happens. I'm up for sensible suggestions of how to continue, as well as possible (again sensible) names for the project. I know that very little has been done, but I only had a few hours today. Great things will follow!
Hmm... Well, you say that the drive bays will be full? That means a crapload of wires... sleeve them and make a false bottom out of shiny aluminum! As for a name... I do not really have any idea where your gonig with this, so I can't really suggest anything there.
Fortunately, the radiator and dual bayres are taking up 3 of the 4 slots, so there will only be one drive with sires to hide. I mentioned that I had already sleeved my PSU, and I happened to do my old IDE cables at the same time. I'll get some pics of the hardware when I'm not relying on it so much.
THose cases break into a lot of pieces, i've got one too. Nice WC gear, I look forward to seeing it in place. How are you attaching the radiator? -Xoddoza
An unexpectedly short update, I'm afraid. First off, some abcktracking. I forgot to put these pics int he last update, it's me filing off the drive support bit that will top the bayres from fitting. Four of these had to go...I used this cutesy little blue file: One done, three more to go. A slot cut in the top of the chassis to house the fan (it's so far forward that it needs this!) Marking out the holes for the fan using a fan grille...it's a surprisingly good circle. Next, the dremelling...partway done. After taking this pic, I turned on the dremel to do the rest. There was a pop, some sparks, and a burnign smell. Judging by the noises, the speed controller had died...probably a few too mayn aluminium filings. Ahh well, of to the service centre for a replacement...that cuts this day rather short. Still, it could be worse...
There's still a couple more updates worth of stuff for it yet...I'm currently LEDing it and making the front panel...whilst trying to revise for my A levels. Give it a week or two, and BlakIce will almost be done. PS: Using a hacksaw blade (not attatched to a hacksaw) I cut out the first hole. Quite why I didn't use a jigsaw, I will never know. Pics will come at a later date (you know what a hole looks like...and if you don't...guess).
Hi, this is looking very good! I have a very similar case (same one, but with blue stripes next to the drive bays). So I find it very intresting! I can't wait to see the progress on this one! Where can u buy similar watercooling equipment? Thanks, L
I bought my kit from a vairety of places, but a few good stores in the UK are: www.coolercases.co.uk www.watercoolingshop.com www.over-clock.co.uk However, you live in Belgium so shipping may be rather high! I also got some gear from eBay...that might prove useful to you. Good luck, and thanks for the comments.
It's been a busy day today! I finally got that darn radiator in, and put the system in for a quick test run. So, the radiator: First off, I finished the holes...using a friends Dremel clone. For some reason, the radiator hoels will not line up unless I remove teh side pieces (shrouds) first, bolt one side on, then put the radiator in and bolt the other side, then bolt the radiator to the shroud. It's odd, since my holes line up perfectly with the fans and guards. Sadly, the only way in required takign the case to bits, and rebuilding it around the radiator. Think of it not as "putting the radiator in the case"...more of "putting the case around the radiator". The fans get bolted in, along with one side piece. The top then has to go on, since it will not fit when the radiator is in (since the tank pokes out the front). The plugs get snipped off, the PC65's onboard fan controller will handle them. I remove the drive bays, they will get in the way when screwing the radiator to its shrouds. The radiator slides in via the PSU hole. And the other four screws get bolted on. Now the radiator is hung by the shrouds, but is not bolted to then. Now you can see why I was forced to remove the drive bays - they are right where the screwdriver for those screws needs to go. All screwed in. The bays are popped back in place. And the other 5.25" devices still fit!! The holes are drilled larger for my rivets (since I had ran out of the smaller rivets). A few "Pop!"'s later, the radiator is finally installed! This process seems short, but it took almost an hour! And it's almost completly hidden from view! Only the barbs can be seen hanging down.
ext up, the pump mounting: Simple! The rubber feet will cancel vibrations, and will hold it in place. The thing won't be inclined to move about as the pipes will hold itin position. To fit inside the pump cover, the clip that will hold the pipe on must be cut down. As must part of the flow-controller for when the pump is submerged (as it's running in-line, it will not need this): The pump goes in, and gets a piece of pipe to the radiator...for good measure. Time to being the transfer! The PSU is first...and see what I meant by "tight fit"? The graphics card with it's old air cooling: And with its new block: Motherboard and bits mounted on the removable tray... Most of the stuff in. Before I forgot...I needed to wire up those fans. Firstly, teh wires got stripped... ...and ghetto soldered together, then to an extension cable, then to an old fan plug convertor. OMFG Finally!! All the stuff is in. It's filled, leak tested (while running, of course!), and is sitting under my desk happily. What's next? I have no idea...after using almost all the UV dye (enough to do 10 litres) before realising that it only shows up in UV, I think some UV lighting would look good. Also, the PSU needs to be modified to take the pump wire (I can't put the side panel on yet!) By the time I've done that, I'm sure that I'll have thought of many other things. Until I do....any suggestions? (PS, this product isn't finished, this is only the beginning).
The pump controller. This is conneted to the PSU via a relay, and will automatically turn the pump on and off with the computer. There is also an override switch. With the switch and relay mounted, some plugs were put onto the PSU to allos me to disocnnect the pump controller. The old noisey fan got replaced by a quieter one. I dug up a load of normal 80mm jobbies and picked the quietest one. The stamped grille was replaced with a flat wire mesh one. The fan now plugs in, and can be removed at any time. Small update, but more to come!
Nah...the flash highlights the dust...it's really mainly clean. I cleaned it out whenI took it apart and almost choked to death on the dust from it.
