Bender
08-29-02, 07:14 PM
Building the case and installing the chiller from conception to finish took a scant 12 days. My bud Nate (mr spec) and I were sitting around with nothing to do. I mensioned the idea of making an Acrylic case and sticking my chiller inside for cooling. Nate agreed that it would be one tight rig if we actually decided to build it. Since we were being altogether to lazy that day we decided to make a few measurements, go up to the local Home Depot and buy some acrylic to get the project underway. Well Home Depot 1 had the acrylic but they had no way of cutting it. Thankfully the native lurking around the corner knew that another nearby Home Depot would cut acrylic to any sizes I would like. Off to Home Depot Nater and I went. This one indeed had the cutting tools so I purchased the Acrylic there. The very helpful employee was able to cut me all the panels I would need using 2 sheets of 24x24” .25 wall acrylic. Once the acrylic was cut we flew home as fast as possible to begin gluing the rig together.
This is the beginning of construction. The motherboard is a mATX Asus P4S333-m so it looks a little dwarfed in comparison to the case. If you look to the left of the pic you see the core part of the chiller.
http://www.mtbcentral.com/Acrylic/DCP_1329.JPG
Here is the case with most of the panels glued in place. Construction went slowly since I had work full time. In this pic you see 2 172mm Comair Rotron Major fans which I didn’t end up using for this case. They are being saved for yet another project.
http://www.mtbcentral.com/Acrylic/DCP_1359.JPG
Roughly 1 week into the project I had finally finished the basic case design. I wasn’t completely set on the location of a few things like the HD and the chiller circuit boards. After test fitting the raw chiller with its components I decided I could probably squeeze everything into the front section of the case. I stuck the HD in the bottom of the case for convenience. If I change to a normal ATX board I’ll have to put it elsewhere. This entire week I spend modding the case and readying the chiller components to be placed inside. Wiring was fun. I ended up wiring the chiller and Maxi-Jet pump so they both turn on with the PC’s power. Installing the chiller went smoothly accept for the fact that I forgot to plug in the front LCD. I had to remove the chiller just for that. Lastly I put all the PC components into the case. Unfortunately during the process I dropped my Sanyo 24x burner. I think its toasted but I’ll have to take a look under the hood. After countless trips to Ace, Home Depot, Lows, and Radio shack I have a working PC cooled by a Solid State chiller inside an Acrylic case!
http://www.mtbcentral.com/Acrylic/DCP_1438.JPG
http://www.mtbcentral.com/Acrylic/DCP_1436.JPG
http://www.mtbcentral.com/Acrylic/DCP_1433.JPG
With water temp set to 20c my P4 @ 2.75 GHz is 32c FULL LOAD! I can go all the way down to 4c water temp but I still need insulation for the waterblock area. I’ll have to order neoprene from Dangerden since no place local stocks the stuff. CPU temps with 4c water temp should be 20ish. The chiller specs say it can handle 225 watts at 0c Delta T or 100 watts at -20c Delta T so this could even cool a dualie quite nicely. Looks alone would have sold me on this project but it has performance to boot!
This is the beginning of construction. The motherboard is a mATX Asus P4S333-m so it looks a little dwarfed in comparison to the case. If you look to the left of the pic you see the core part of the chiller.
http://www.mtbcentral.com/Acrylic/DCP_1329.JPG
Here is the case with most of the panels glued in place. Construction went slowly since I had work full time. In this pic you see 2 172mm Comair Rotron Major fans which I didn’t end up using for this case. They are being saved for yet another project.
http://www.mtbcentral.com/Acrylic/DCP_1359.JPG
Roughly 1 week into the project I had finally finished the basic case design. I wasn’t completely set on the location of a few things like the HD and the chiller circuit boards. After test fitting the raw chiller with its components I decided I could probably squeeze everything into the front section of the case. I stuck the HD in the bottom of the case for convenience. If I change to a normal ATX board I’ll have to put it elsewhere. This entire week I spend modding the case and readying the chiller components to be placed inside. Wiring was fun. I ended up wiring the chiller and Maxi-Jet pump so they both turn on with the PC’s power. Installing the chiller went smoothly accept for the fact that I forgot to plug in the front LCD. I had to remove the chiller just for that. Lastly I put all the PC components into the case. Unfortunately during the process I dropped my Sanyo 24x burner. I think its toasted but I’ll have to take a look under the hood. After countless trips to Ace, Home Depot, Lows, and Radio shack I have a working PC cooled by a Solid State chiller inside an Acrylic case!
http://www.mtbcentral.com/Acrylic/DCP_1438.JPG
http://www.mtbcentral.com/Acrylic/DCP_1436.JPG
http://www.mtbcentral.com/Acrylic/DCP_1433.JPG
With water temp set to 20c my P4 @ 2.75 GHz is 32c FULL LOAD! I can go all the way down to 4c water temp but I still need insulation for the waterblock area. I’ll have to order neoprene from Dangerden since no place local stocks the stuff. CPU temps with 4c water temp should be 20ish. The chiller specs say it can handle 225 watts at 0c Delta T or 100 watts at -20c Delta T so this could even cool a dualie quite nicely. Looks alone would have sold me on this project but it has performance to boot!