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Watercooled MicroATX

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Jungle

Member
Joined
Feb 26, 2004
Location
north of penguin land
i was wondering, mostly because i have a little microATX case that i built a Tivo in and i wanted to water cool it, has anyone every done this? i'm talking about a completely internal setup inside a microATX case. if anyone has pics, a link, or just a tip, i would appreciate it.

btw, this is the case i want to cool
http://www.powmax.com/pics/micro/3304silver.htm
its pretty packed, but i think i see a place for a pump and i could mount the radiator.....somewhere. i think copper tubing is about the only way to go on this one b/c of the rigidity (is that a word?) and so that it wont put pressure on the components. anyway, has anyone done this?


jungle
 
That looks like an atx midtower than a microatx. You can probably do it, 120mm radiator on top of the case and the pump on the bottom.
 
Exact case I am using to cool with my cooling towers (a few threads down in this forum). I'll post pics of it later. But mine is competely external.

With a CDROM in there, there is NO room. You could fit a csp750 pump in there and a mcw6000 but thats it... No way you could get a radiator in there unless you didnt have a cdrom.

Best thing you could do is squeeze the pump and block in there and use something like swifties rad box to mount a 120mm radiator on the top/side or back of the case some how.
 
I have done microatx ;)

Mine is much bigger, there are some atx cases smaller than mine.....

Anyways, are you using a cdrom? A TIVO box might not need one. if you do it the best way would to put the HC on the side of the case. Go 120 or dont do it IMO.

search around I know someone did a matx with a radiator on the side of the case.
 
billiam, maybe so, until you see that about 60% of the case height is taken up by a single sideways 5.25" bay. the part that looks like a drive cage is only one drive. sigh if my poor digi cam would work, i would take a picture. to answer the questions, i do have a cdrom drive. i don't have a flopy, though. the reason for the cd rom (actually a dvd-rom) is so that it will play dvds. this box will do anything... really. how do you like your eggs? anyway, i have a little room underneath the hd and some up at the top near the power supply. either of those places would work for a pump, i think. well, maybe. maybe i should just run it upside down and put the pump up at the top with the powersupply (the top becoming the bottom when its turned upside down). i think i might have enough room for a very small radiator at the base of the motherboard. i'll probably have to move the capture card up as high as i can. it will definately not be easy, but i think i can do it. the radiator will be the main problem. there is really no place to put it besides where i mentioned. but nobody has pics of an internal mATX watercooled case?
 
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Jungle said:
billiam, maybe so, until you see that about 60% of the case height is taken up by a single sideways 5.25" bay. the part that looks like a drive cage is only one drive. sigh if my poor digi cam would work, i would take a picture. to answer the questions, i do have a cdrom drive. i don't have a flopy, though. the reason for the cd rom (actually a dvd-rom) is so that it will play dvds. this box will do anything... really. how do you like your eggs? anyway, i have a little room underneath the hd and some up at the top near the power supply. either of those places would work for a pump, i think. well, maybe. maybe i should just run it upside down and put the pump up at the top with the powersupply (the top becoming the bottom when its turned upside down). i think i might have enough room for a very small radiator at the base of the motherboard. i'll probably have to move the capture card up as high as i can. it will definately not be easy, but i think i can do it. the radiator will be the main problem. there is really no place to put it besides where i mentioned. but nobody has pics of an internal mATX watercooled case?

a 60 x 60mm radiator isnt going to do you much good... You could turn the the top of the case into a radiator. Cut out a 12" x 12" square in the top lid and mount a 12" x 12" transmission cooler right ontop. make every fan in the case an intake, seal up all the holes in the case and force it to exhaust up through the radiator.
Might not be a bad idea actually...
 
i did notice that the width of the case is 135mm. maybe i could stick a radiator up in the top next to the power supply and put a blower on it. if i had to create pressure somewhere else in the case, wouldnt it be best to have the fans suck from the hole instead of exhaust through it?
 
i just got home and tried to fit my eheim 1048 in the case. its really tight, but it works out remarkably well if i turn my hard drive around and mount it the other way (it goes under the cd drive). so my plan to put the pump down in the bottom right corner has worked well. the only downside is that the flow will go pump>wb>rad>pump, but the little bit of heat from the pump should be dissipated by the copper pipe right? anyway i don't much care about that. there will be many more sacrifices in this project. there appears to be ample room in the top two 3.5 drive bays for a 120mm sized radiator as for a fan.... well we'll cross that bridge later. also, there is a completely clear path for the tubing to go between radiator and pump and putting the rad at the top of the case in this way will put it right next to the cpu. i can see a very tight, but feasible space for the tubing to go through to get to the proc. then there is a good way to go to the nb if i decide to do that (probably not), and finally a pretty straight shot back to the pump. there are going to be some 90 degree elbows in there, but hey weva. only problem i see now is mounting the fan for the rad. i'd really like to use a blower for it, but i just cant see how there is room in the case. i'd also really like to suck the air through the rad, that way i could have a little more flow through the case. then again, al li have is my power supply fan and my cpu fan now. i might be straight.

jungle
 
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Jungle said:
i just got home and tried to fit my eheim 1048 in the case. its really tight, but it works out remarkably well if i turn my hard drive around and mount it the other way (it goes under the cd drive). so my plan to put the pump down in the bottom right corner has worked well. the only downside is that the flow will go pump>wb>rad>pump, but the little bit of heat from the pump should be dissipated by the copper pipe right? anyway i don't much care about that. there will be many more sacrifices in this project. there appears to be ample room in the top two 3.5 drive bays for a 120mm sized radiator as for a fan.... well we'll cross that bridge later. also, there is a completely clear path for the tubing to go between radiator and pump and putting the rad at the top of the case in this way will put it right next to the cpu. i can see a very tight, but feasible space for the tubing to go through to get to the proc. then there is a good way to go to the nb if i decide to do that (probably not), and finally a pretty straight shot back to the pump. there are going to be some 90 degree elbows in there, but hey weva. only problem i see now is mounting the fan for the rad. i'd really like to use a blower for it, but i just cant see how there is room in the case. i'd also really like to suck the air through the rad, that way i could have a little more flow through the case. then again, al li have is my power supply fan and my cpu fan now. i might be straight.

jungle


Component order doesnt matter, much. The temp dif between the inlet and outlet of the wb will be something like < +/- 0.1c. What matters is sortest path possible and as few bends as possible so you have as little restriction as possible, which in turn gives more flow which equals lower temps blah blah blah.
 
Hmm, might there be room for a Thermochill 92.1 or BIM for an internal rad? Say below the CDROM?

That case is certainly a challenge. CSP750 looks to be a good choice for a pump, and MCP6000s are small enough form factor.
 
ok i've been measuring like crazy and i think i may have finally found the heatercore i need. i got a big list and copied it into excel. apparently its from the heatercore database, to which i can find no working link anywhere. anyway, my problem is all i have is this information :

Num: 348
Page: a346
Core Num: 2-708
L: 7.875
W: 3.375
D: 2
IN: 0.625
OUT: 0.625

now how the heck do i find it from that stuff? does anyone know what that core is? i guess ill have to semi-concede on completely internal and let the fan shroud extend out of the top of the case. but it should only be a couple of inches, and would blend in with the case pretty well i guess. shouldnt the closest edge of the fan be about 1" from the core itself? the cool thing is, it looks like this heatercore i found will fit exactly into the place for my 3.5" drive bays and come just about up the the power supply. its like a little custom mounting thing right there. anyway i need to find the core first and make the shroud next. any help w/ that?

jungle
 
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