My Heavily Modded Full Tower Case, 95% done

[mark]

You can see the specs and the rest of it here
http://www.mjstebbins.com/case.htm

http://www.mjstebbins.com/images/personal/case/fullfrontdone.jpg

http://www.mjstebbins.com/images/personal/case/back.jpg
http://www.mjstebbins.com/images/personal/case/sidebg.jpg

[Taylor]

Right on Mark, that's cool as November rain, (even if it <is> an intel box :p )

Are you going to paint it?

[Jeff Bolton]

sweet mod and nice temps!

jeff

[CrystalMethod]

Ditto, what Spike said.
Very sweet mod.

[mark]

thanks guys,
I am not thinking of painting it, and will probably make it an AMD XP system eventually.

My next mod(s) will probably have to get a new powersupply.
I have a 350 and a 300, the 300 runs the peltier and all the fans, when I on like a 120mmfan i can hear the 2 60mm ys tech fans lower the rpms, which means the peltier may not be getting enough power.. I am looking at getting a 400w, and replacing the 300w, then getting a micro axt psu (100-150w) and running only the fans off it.
3 powersupplies;
400w+350w+145w unF

[Jeff Bolton]

its a shame you don't want to paint it, that'd be the icing on the cake if you ask me :D

jeff

[flounder43]

I looked at your website...

How do you get "-10° to -9° C at Idle, and always below 10° C at Full Load"?

It looks like you are only using air cooling.

[Jeff Bolton]

yeah i was wondering the same thing, it just slipped my mind to ask. i didn't see any thing that would take it down that cold. do you do all of your computing in a meat locker? :D

jeff

[3DMike]

Very Nice! But I think you have your MBM5 readings set wrong. Im sure you cant get a CPU temp below 10C with air cooling! Before I setup my MBM properly it said my CPu was at 87C! a probe on the core gave the correct temp at 38C. Check it.

[mark]

hey guys,
i have an 86w peltier, and an alphap3125 for the cooling, that is why the cpu temp is so low.

and for the case temp. i had all the fans running, and had my sliding glass door (computer is next to it) open so it was getting the air from the COLD Arizona night.

also my motherboard doen't have a probe, it get the temp directly from the cpu

wo0t,
mark

[Silver]

Thank you for this post as I just ordered the q4 and though I suspect many modders buy it I am unable to find any pics or articles on mods of this case.

[mark]

silver
it's a very nice case. when you mod, go slow, check the measurements, and be safe
good luck,
mark

[flounder43]

I knew there was something to those temps...Peltier! Ah-Ha!

Good job with that.

I didn't see that mentioned on your page, that is why I was wondering...

[Über~PhLuBB]

What, no paint? No NEONS? Whaaaaat?! NO COLORED FANS!?!?

[donny_paycheck]

Word up on the air cooled TEC....don't those things work awesome?!?! I get -15C idle and about -2 to 5C full load. My CPU runs at stock 1.75vcore so it stays COLD. Sweet setup.

I'm also curious though....what did you use for condensation proofing? Neoprene, conformal coating and silicone dielectric goop here.

[mark]

well i used silicone around the sides of the peltier (potting the peltier)
and i have neoprene around the peltier

[Silver]

I use no condensation protection as the absolute most I have gotten is 10.5c below ambient with the cooling tower. I do need to take the next step and go to a tec or tecs and was very curios when I saw the air cooling on the tec as this is contradictory to all that I have read on both low wattage tecs and t-birds. Now I realize that this is not a t-bird however my heat load is not that much more than yours. I found the other day after building a watersink (and it not fitting) that the top of the socket on both my epox and abit boards can be removed (carefully) and sanded allowing the use of a much larger heatsink. This has to be done carefully. BTW the slider on the epox board is constructed with much more integrity than the abit slider (read abit's is flimsy). This then allows usage of all of the space above the board as well as the usual 2x4 area. Heck, you could place 3 60watt tecs in the area no problem. Gives one ideas. Standard power supplies, air cooling on all tecs and even with the inefficiencies it would seem that cooling on say 130-135 watts ought to be achievable. Full size case, modified ps to fit in 5.25 drive bays, power fans by splitting off all power supplies, etc....seems possible. Present aluminum heatsink is pulling off 113watts (full load 52c) on 2.05volts. Yeah, pulled the water cooling as I am taking a new job in south georgia and need to take my baby (ah computer)with me.

[donny_paycheck]

Originally posted by mark
well i used silicone around the sides of the peltier (potting the peltier)
and i have neoprene around the peltier

Did you put silicone dielectric grease in the socket? How about silicone caulk around the socket to seal it against the mobo? Did you put any neoprene in the center of the socket? Sounds like I went way overboard on my insulating...

[Silver]

Donny, I am not running a tec. Strictly water cooling but am looking seriously at tecs. I need additional cooling to achieve 1800 Mhz. Bios recognizes this chip at 1820 and I have gotten it into windows safe mode at 1.78. With more cooling 1800 ought to be achievable.

[mark]

silly donny, i have a slot 1 cpu not a socket

this is where i got my peltier cooling kit;
http://www.peltec.f2s.com/slot.html
I have the 86w ver.

[donny_paycheck]

Originally posted by mark
silly donny, i have a slot 1 cpu not a socket

D'OH! WTF was I thinking...