External WC setup using Acrylic Football Display

[MoreGooder]

Yep, you read that correctly. I used an Acrylic football display case to house an external water cooling system.

I've long debated what to do about my rediculously loud, frustratingly unstable computer. I tried using some of the best air cooling solutions out there, but the noise was driving me nuts. I discovered watercooling, and being the creative type, I decided to embark on my own design.

The basics of the system are not that unusual really: Pump, Radiator, CPU water block, GPU water block and Reservoir. However, I decided I wanted an external system that would hold large cooling components, such as a Chevy heater core, a MAG 3 pump, a large reservoir, with room for fans.

First, some initial info:

Intel P4 2.4C
Asus P4C800 Deluxe
Corsair PC3700 DDR memory
ATI All In Wonder 9800 Pro (and, yes, it's water cooled)
2 unremarkable IDE hard drives, CD roms and such.
All of this crammed into a Ahanix Platinum Pro ATX case.
Air cooling consisted of the two case fans that came with the case, a Zalman 7000A-ALCU CPU cooler, and dual fan generic power supply from CompUSA.

Well, there wasn't enough room in the Ahanix case for a "real" water cooling system. The tiny ones with 3/8" tubing seemed too whimpy for my taste, so I opted for an external 1/2" tubing solution.

After much searching, I happened across an ebay'er selling acrylic football display cases:

(continued on next post)

[9mmCensor]

Thats genious. Perfect size and shape. Nice find.

[Korndog]

yea, saw all shapes and sizes at a store call the container store if u've ever heard of it, check it out. wanted to do that, but dont' know how to make a good hole in acrylic :-/

[MoreGooder]

OK, so for some reason I can't finish posting my pics. Gotta figure out how this whole forum posting thing works..

Shrug...

MoreGooder

[Korndog]

pics can't be over 640x480 i think maybe thats it?

[9mmCensor]

Post reply...

If you have them uploaded to a server (yours ISP... etc) then use the IMG button (above where you type ur post) or

you attach them at the bottom of the post (ATTACH FILE) click browse locate file then submit reply

[MoreGooder]

The concept I had was to put all of the external cooling components on the top of the computer case so that it can be easily maintained plus strike up conversations by looking outrageous. The dimensions of the case as described seemed perfect so I preceded with my plan.

I also purchased all of the various bits for the system from the lowest price etailers I could find. The whole shopping process took the better part of 2 months. Patience pays when shopping for this stuff. I picked up a used radiator from another ebayer, the water blocks from Swiftech, and the MAG3 pump from an aquarium/pet fish supply etailer.

I realized after I had everything in hand that it would not all fit easily into the football display case. :-/ So, I contacted the ebayer that sold me the case and upgraded to one that is intended to hold a football and a miniature helmet. (Sorry, no pic of it with a football and hemet, but you'll see it with my stuff inside).

Everything fits perfectly in the case. The most amazing thing about the display case was that the little shelf that is intended to elevate the mini-helmet is the exact same size as the flanges of 5-1/4" bay accessories! That meant that a Superflower fan controller would fit perfectly and look awesome!

I found a cool water reservoir manufactered by Senfu. Only problem with it was that it uses the metric tubing, but I found a way around that, albeit tricky.

Here's how the components look inside of the case:

[MoreGooder]

Next, I plumbed everything up with wire reinfored tubing from McMaster. The tubing looks great and will never colapse due to the wire located inside the tube wall.

[johan851]

That's some nice tubing...I should play with that myself. Nice job, your setup looks great!

[Spanko]

should you move the pump so its not right up agains the back of the heatercore? Would the fan suck warm air from the pump through? or no air at all?

[Korndog]

thats awsome man
*claps*

[MoreGooder]

I had to drill lots of holes in the base of the display case:

1. A hole for each of the runs of tubing.

2. A large 120mm case fan hole plus screw holes for it. (this was accomplished with a 4.5" bimetal hole saw from Home Depot)

3. Holes to support the base of the pump, which I later didn't use anyway.

4. Holes for super size zip ties for supporting the radiator.

5. A hole for passing wiring down into the case.

I had to drill matching holes into the top of the computer case.

Now, let me tell you, drilling a 120mm hole with a bimetal hole saw into a steel case is not even remotely easy. The saw popped up and jumped all over the top of the case just as it started to make it through the opposite side of the metal, scarring it terribly. Luckily, I had already planned to use a white shelf between the Ahanix case and the water cooling system anyway because the display case was a bit too long to sit securely on top.

(Sorry for the horrible picture. Black holes through black acrylic are hard to show)

[9mmCensor]

Commendations are in order for some great work and great THINKING.

[MoreGooder]

Here's the water cooling system during its 24 hour test run for leaks.




Look Ma! No leaks!

[MoreGooder]

Here's my puter when it was still air cooled, thus this is the "Before" picture. Notice the proponderance of ugly wires and general sloppiness.

[MoreGooder]

And here it is water cooled. Lots betta!

Some features to point out:

The fan attached to the tubing above the video card cools the NB and the back of the vid card simultaneously. It is plugged into the motherboard's CPU fan connection.

The water travels in series from the CPU to the GPU. And yes, those are 90 degree elbows extending out from the GPU water block. I discovered that if I tried to bend the tubing around from the CPU block to the GPU block I would run the risk of cracking my brand new AIW 9800 pro.

I read that 90 degree elbows are bad news, but I don't buy into that. I have fantastic flow despite having SIX elbows in the system. I think the reason my flow is still great is because I have a high head height pump and I'm using 1/2" ID tubing throughout.

[MoreGooder]

Idle temp:

27 C during idle, just about same as ambient and I wonder if it's truly accurate. According to the Asus motherboard, this is the temp of the CPU. It also reports the motherboard temperature itself at 32C. Humm... Curious, no? Motherboard higher than CPU? I suppose it's possible with a water cooled CPU. If only we could water cool the entire back of the motherboard!

Fully Loaded temp:

A comfy 38 C when fully loaded, overclocked to 2.89Ghz, and the AF and AA on my 9800 pro turned up all the way while playing BF1942 for hours on end. And, it's SO QUIET!

Things left to do:

1. Install my case window.
2. Install my UV LED case lights
3. Change out the Water Wetter with some blue antifreeze, if I can find it. (See my other post from this evening)
4. Drill a hole in the display case cover behind the radiator fan. I'm nervous about this one, because the ebayer that sold me the case is not ebaying anymore, so if I ruin it I'll never have a proper dust cover for the system.


And, with regards to the pump being close to the radiator: Yes, it is close, but there's actually more than 1/2 inch of space between the back of the pump and the surface of the radiator. I did an experiment by placing the fan and pump in various locations and discovered that so long as I had a little distance I could not tell any flow difference coming out of the radiator. As you can see, there's really no room left for the pump to be relocated. Ideally, this reservoir is too large. It's actually intended to be used with a small submersed pump, but I decided I wanted to use the MAG3 and purchased the res alone.

And here is my machine tonight, with a nifty cold cathode tube eluminating the water res:

[kusojiji]

Do you have any pictures of the unit with the acrylic cover on? How is it drawing fresh air through the radiator?

Good idea. I am thinking of using your idea.

[MoreGooder]

OK, here's a pic with the Acrylic case cover on long enough to take the pic. I can't leave it on it until I cut the hole in it behind the radiator.

I have a piece of "practice" acrylic I bought today at Home Depot. I"ll refine my skills more. If you look closely, you can see that there's a 120mm case fan positioned under the res and just in front of the pump. I had to drill that hole, and it wasn't easy. The acrylic chips like Lays. I might try to grind down the sides of the cutty parts of the hole saw to prevent chipping.

[penquissciguy]

Very impressive. I have been looking for an external enclosure for my new wc setup and display cases had never crossed my mind.

Slinking off to eBay.... :)

Ken

[MoreGooder]

Just in case peeps are curious, the P4 CPU water block is the Swiftech MCW5002 with 1/2" barbs and the water block on the AIW 9800 pro GPU is the Swiftech MCW50 (yes, it fits nicely without mods to the board or the water block).

[MoreGooder]

Now I have the case window kit installed along with some UV LED and Clear/Blue UV dye flowing:

[mat6704AMD]

Very nice, great idea with the football case

[gulp35]

This is awesome. Deserves a bump (or sticky if even more steps were given) .

MoreGooder- type up a guide to this and submit it to overclockers.com; you could win 100$

[mata2974]

nice setup, good ideas, "bad" photos:D :D

[Borisw37]

Awesome. Im acutally planing on making an external enclosure for my WC system, over this winter break.
How is that tubing working out for you?
Can it be stretched at all? I have a rad with just straight (no barb) outputs that are 0.625in diameter, i can stretch regular 1/2id tubing over it, but will i be able to do that with wire reinforced kind?

[Miralcos]

Looks very nice and seems as though you had fun doing it. Great job! :beer:

[MoreGooder]

I'm pleased with the positive response to my WC endeavor! Thanks to everyone for the warm reception. I've been reading this forum for about 1/2 a year now, and I'm happy to be a part of the fun.

Ok, to answer some questions:

I will do a more complete writeup of this. In fact, I have already committed to doing so for my employer's internal community newsbulletin. I have to have it completed sometime in the early spring, so I'll do a version of it for the forum.

With regards to the wire reinforced tubing from McMaster:

I love it in general because it looks awesome, and there is never any fear of a tube collapse. However, because of the metal winding entrapped in the tubing wall it wants to spring back to a semi-curved state. Thus, I had to use 90 degree fittings to connect my CPU and GPU in series otherwise I'd probably split my AIW9800 into bits. The spec for minimum inside curve radius is 4", which I discovered is accurate. So, for connecting two points that are mechanically strong, you can indeed bend it to that tight of a radius. However, there will be significant spring recoil force from the tubing that could easily rip the threads right off of plastic screws or the heads off rivots. So, be advised against using this tubing for tight bends unless you have great mechanical rigidity in your design. By all means, do some experimenting if you have doubts. I suppose I could have used a more conventional tubing for that one short run, but it woulda looked odd. I already replaced on run of odd-ball tubing just to maintain aesthetic consistency.

If I had this to do all over again there's not much I'd change except I'd choose a smaller res. This one is overkill, but on the up side, it is very easy to maintain my fluid. Because of the large refill hole I am able to use a turkey baster to remove old fluid and a large funnel to put new in. I'm still playin around with fluids. Currently, I'm running Zerex Protectant (the non-super version) at about 10% concentration in distilled water. However, I have ordered some blue AF from a website. It should arive soon. I'll let everyone know how that turns out. I would never have thought there would come a day when I'd be concerned about the color of antifreeze! What's next? The flavor of my keyboard?

Hummm..... $100 for a writeup, eh? That would pay for my WC system! Well, not exactly. I have kept every receipt for this project, but I haven't had the nerve to add it all up. I wonder how many coin collectors keep a budget? Every hobby worth doing costs money. A hobby is fun when its on or under an informal budget. It's a pain in the A** when it's over a real budget. Perhaps I'll charge admission for people to see it in person. :D

Thanks again for the warm comments.....er..... the cool ones I mean.

MoreGooder

[MoreGooder]

Borisw37 wrote:

"How is that tubing working out for you?
Can it be stretched at all? I have a rad with just straight (no barb) outputs that are 0.625in diameter, i can stretch regular 1/2id tubing over it, but will i be able to do that with wire reinforced kind? "

Yes I believe it could be, however I would recommend that you use a pair of needle nose pliers and yank out the wire from the wall of the tubing in the area going over the barb. That is, through the outside of the wall ;) I found that it's still good tubing by doing so. Eventually, I discovered that if I coat the barb with petroleum jelly that I didn't have to resort to that. I was only using 1/2" barbs though. For 5/8" barb you will probably have to pull out the wire.

By all means, leak check your assembly for 24 hours before commiting your water cooling system to your electronics, irrespective of the type of tubing you use.


MoreGooder

[kusojiji]

thanks for the pictures. I just wanted to see how it all fit together.

So the air flow will be drawing air from inside the lower case through the horizontal fan, through the radiator and out the vertical fan?

I hope you have good luck in cutting the acrylic. I think the best blades are the fine toothed ones for acrylic. Hole saws are normally for wood and have very aggressive teeth. Perhaps a jigsaw might work better?

I think that you've sparked off a great interest and should buy stock in football cases!! :D

[kusojiji]

I found some info on cutting acrylic:

http://www.sdplastics.com/acrylic.html

Take a look.

[MoreGooder]

Yes, you are correct about the air flow.

There's also a 120mm hole in the bottom of the case and a matching hole in the bottom of the piece of white board on the base, and adjustable feet underneath that to elevate everything off the floor a bit. The fan there has a filter on it to trap dust but it nearly kills the air flow of the Panaflo. I leave it cranked up to get some flow but I can only barely hear it. I get some nice cool "floor air" up into the case with it.

The vast majority of the air from the case is drawn out the back of the case through the normal combo of a case fan and a dual fan power supply. However, they are quiets too.

For the WC case I'm kicking around the idea of putting another 120mm panaflo fan on the right hand side to bring in additional air for the rad. But I'll do that only if I notice my temps change when I finally put on the case cover cuz I think it will kill the look.

Maybe a row of evenly spaced 3/4" holes all the way around the base of lid would like better. Hummm....... What do you think? I have an unused fan pot on my Superflower Fan Master that I could use for the fan, or just skip that and use a bunch of holes. The more holes, the higher the probability of turning the lid into a something I'd rather use as a showbox, hidden in the back of my closet.

This coming weekend I'll probably do that last big hole in the Acrlyc. *gulp* Still considering modifying my hole saw to make that hole less chippy-ish.

MoreGooder

[MoreGooder]

Hey, thanks kusojiji.

Yeah, grinding off the flared-out portion of the hole saw would significantly improve it. However, about 35% of the cutting bits of the saw are tilted so far out that I'd have to grind them off completely.

I'm going to do some grinding on the hole saw, practice making a hole on practice sheet of acrylic, and repeat, until I get it just right. I'll take pics as I proceed so everyone can learn.

MoreGooder

[kusojiji]

No problem. I hope the info helps. Practice is good!

As for the air flow, I'd punch holes in the acrylic, maybe a row across the bottom edge, to make it stylish?

Using hot, case air is not the best idea, as radiators work best if there is a big difference between the air being blown across the fins and the water inside the system. I think that is the reason why the swiftech cases don't fare too well. Alone, the components stand out. In the case or packaged systems, they don't do so well when compared to other complete systems because their radiators are always placed in the rear of the case and use the pre-heated air as the cooling agent for the radiator.

[MoreGooder]

Yeah, I realize that using air from the case to go through the rad is a potential problem now. Shoulda woulda coulda. Luckily, though, the case temp as measured by my Superflower indicates a temp just 1 degree C above room air. The thermal probe is located at the top of the case next to that 120mm fan that blows up into the WC rig.

This concern is the reason I'm considering a second fan blowing into the case lid and/or vent holes. Either way, the water cooling solution is far superior in cooling performance and noise level compared to the air cooling I replaced. That's probably not even worth mentioning.

Thanks for the advice and comments!

MoreGooder

[MoreGooder]

I see that the ebayer that I bought the case from is now back on ebay with more cases. I have written them an email to find out if they still sell the one I purchsed.

[kusojiji]

Did you make any attempts at cutting yet?

[MoreGooder]

Not yet. Going to do that during Xmas holiday. I'll keep ya informed.

[MoreGooder]

I cut the big fan hole in the acrylic lid tonight. All went as planned. I ground off the sides of the hole saw that were sticking out from the sides and this did indeed prevent the saw from grabbing. I ended up with a really nice hole.

But......

It looked like a resounding success, until a few minutes later after the hole was complete it started forming cracks all around. I quickly grabbed a lighter in the hopes of annealing the stresses out of the edge, but I think that made it worse.

Here's a pic of my little disaster:

[MoreGooder]

One of them is really bad now. I'm watching it spread across the side as we speak. Here's a pic of the bad crack:

[MoreGooder]

Ugh! And now I see cracks starting to form on the OTHER end of the lid! I haven't even touched that end with any sort of tool.

Apparently this acrylic is loaded with internal stresses.

Just like me right about now. GGRRRRR!!!!! :mad:

[kusojiji]

Damned, that sucks! Sorry it didn't go well. I guess it takes special/more specific tools. Cracking down the other side? That's very strange.

What speed did you turn during the cutting?

[MoreGooder]

Originally posted by kusojiji
Damned, that sucks! Sorry it didn't go well. I guess it takes special/more specific tools. Cracking down the other side? That's very strange.

What speed did you turn during the cutting?

I started out with a cordless, then it quit, then went to the corded, on slow speed. But, there was a bit of melting involved towards the end I'm afraid. Perhaps the heat was too much. I think drilling holes in 1/8" thick acrylic is best left up to the experts with the lasers.

*sigh*

I don't even have the nerve to install the second fan on it that is supposed to bring in fresh air in. I've also decided that it is OK for me to not have a nice fansy cover for it. It looks good just like it is.
:D


MoreGooder

[lclark2074]

good job grate show