Quick Question on Water cooling in a desktop case?

[andyem]

Has anyone ever tried this?

I havent been able to find anything on anyone trying this. I know its easier to have it in a mid size or full size but I wanted to try it in my desktop case. Any suggestions or links to a guide?

Thank you in advance.

[Graystar]

Are you talking about a full-size desktop or a slim desktop?

A full-sized desktop is nearly as big as a small tower, so it has the space. The biggest problem is that the cover usually wraps around the sides and top. There’s no place to screw down a pump or radiator that wouldn’t have to move when you remove the cover. The answer is to build an internal frame to hold the WC components. Not a big deal, but certainly more work than a tower.

I’ve been wanting to do a slim-case job, but considering the performance of the heat-pipe heatsinks, it’s just not worth the trouble anymore. For such a case I use a Thermalright SI-97A heat-pipe cooler. Technically, it’s way too tall for slim desktop cases, but I cut a hole in the housing cover over the CPU and screw the fan to the housing cover. That actually works out great.

You can use this idea to cool a radiator as well. A Laing Delphi pump (MCP or 350, from others) will work well.


Aopen H340A Slim Desktop case with 92mm fan - SI-97A cooler
http://home.nyc.rr.com/graystar/SI-97AinSlimCase.jpg

[andyem]

Sorry forgot to mention that I always keep it on top of my desk with the cover off. I prefer it this way. Ya i know i have issues LOL. Here is a pic

[andyem]

So what your saying is to have another mini case house all of the big components like radiator pump etc and have the tubes then from there going into my machine? If so I'm very down with that lol

[rogerdugans]

Small systems require one of two things for water cooling:
1) External water cooling box
b) A lot of work. :)

I have gone the second route a few times, and currently have two "small" systems running-

mATX system with eheim 1048 pump and a thin Swiftech dual 120mm fan radiator
HTPC cased system (Antec Overture II) which IS nearly as large as a standard ATX case, but only 6" deep (just enough to clear pci cards, etc).

The smaller you go, the more compromised the cooling system will be, simply due to lack of room- 1/2" ID tube is unlikely to be good, and I have used both 3/8" and 1/4" in such systems. The routing difficulties of the tube makes smaller tubing actually work BETTER due to the lack of kinking and restriction involved with using large tube in a small system.

The likelihood of needing to build some type of framework/mounting system for a desktop isture, but not all that hard to overcome...But you will need an airflow opening for the rad and you had best get the cuts right the first time, because you're going to have a pretty big hole in the case. ;)

Not saying that you have an impossible goal here, but your case does look pretty small and it will NOT be an easy task. You could well end up with a very sweet little system there though. :)

[Graystar]

So what your saying is to have another mini case house all of the big components like radiator pump etc and have the tubes then from there going into my machine? If so I'm very down with that lolNo. You can fit the parts into your slim case. You just need to get some thin flat alluminum strips from Home Depot or some metal shop to make a frame to hold the radiator and the pump. You can probably get away with an original Black Ice radiator suspended over the CPU (it's about 1" thick as opposed to the Extreme which is about 2 inches) and in the front left corner you can stick a Laing Delphi pump. That should do it.

Go 3/8" on the tubing and use silicon, as it is more flexible. You just need to change it more often (so they say.) I never had a problem with it.

[andyem]

Interesting..thx guys if its possible (which anything is) then I'm in for it. I may need to research this further but you've all been a great help :)