Overclockers

voigts · 07-24-05, 08:39 PM

(the images are all on photobucket, so please be patient!)

Well, I don't think I have enough time to detail all of the work that I went through in putting my current setup together. I thought a while back about going from a BIXIII rad to using a car rad (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=386054). Although I have been building systems for several years, I got into watercooling about 7 months ago when I was sitting at home for 3 weeks after having knee surgery. I can't stand sitting still doing nothing, so I finally started into getting rid of the computer noise.

I started with a Swiftech h20-120 kit. Over the course of six months, I changed the rad from a Swifty 676 that came with the kit to a dual heatercore to a BIXIII. I also ahanged from the annoying MCP650 to an Aquaextreme 50Z (much better- about two months before the MCP655 came out). I ditched the bayres for a t-line, and redid my tubing about 4 times.

A few weeks ago, a good friend of mine wanted me to build a new system for him for his business, so for payment to me and to make things a little easier, we decided to just swap motherboards, case, PS, RAM, and CPU. My parts were all less than a year old. I wanted a new case anyway that would work better with watercooling, so I ended up buying a new case and he bought all new parts and swapped. He got my AMD3200XP, Abit Nsf-7, Corsair RAM, Enermax 430w PSU, and Dynapower Spyden case. I then watercooled that computer and another computer of his together on a car rad-but that is for another thread. I got a new Asus A8V, AMD64 3200 Venice, RAM, Fortron 500w Blue Storm, Vantec case sleeving, blue power connectors, blue heatshrink, and a few other do-das, and I bought a Globalwin YCC61F1 case (they were out of black-figures), and found an excellent new copper core car rad on Ebay for an MG Metro for only $35 shipped. This rad was a God-send as it has no weird fittings, oil or trans cooler, or anything except an inlet, outlet, and one hole for a temp sensor that I was able to easily plug.

And so started this adventure.

I decided early on that I wanted to do this right. I wanted to sleeve everything and use a consistent color scheme. I however needed a case that is the height of mid-tower in order to fit inside of our oak roll-top desk computer compartment, but needed one to be deeper and wider. I searched far and wide and came across this case through a thread here on OC. I got the case from http://www.computernerd.com/catalog/...products_id=29 for $125 shipped. Like I said above, they of course are out of black.

Hating beige, I figured I would paint the thing black inside and metallic blue outside. It was a major pain in the neck, but with some walmart Rustoleum, I got it done in a couple of days. I can't say enough about how excellent this case is. Everything comes apart and it is very, very well designed down to about the last detail.

I found that the inside diameter of the hose fittings on the rad fit almost exactly 3/4" to 1/2" threaded male PVC elbows. I only had to slightly grind down one of them, and the only other thing I had to do with the rad was to cut off a plastic mount and plug a hole with a 3/4" PVC cap. I used 2 part epoxy to glue the fittings in. I then used a 1/2" to 1/2" PVC coupler from the PVC elbow and screwed in 5/8" barbs to connect it to the watercooling loop.

Wanting it mounted to the case, I was able to modify a couple of "L" brackets and 2 straight brackets to mount it to the side of the case.

voigts · 07-24-05, 08:40 PM

I really wanted to have good clean cable management, so I sleeved/heatshrinked EVERYTHING, and changed all of the connectors to blue. Using the Blue Storm was wonderful for this as it is all already sleeved in blue. The case made it very easy to run cables behind the MB tray.

Having used res, then t-line, I like the space saving of the t-line, but missed the easy filling/bleeding of a res. So I set out to make my own. I first made one out of a 3" PVC cap with a 3" to 2" adapter with a 2" drain plug for the top. Mind you I am working with a very limited space as I wanted it to be at the top of the loop. I added a small acrylic divider between the two barbs inside the res, and painted it black.

It worked OK, but it tended to suck air back into the loop. If it could have been taller it would have worked very well.

So I set about trying to build an acrylic res to my specs (4" wide by 2 7/8" tall by 4" deep. I have a sheet of 3/16" acrylic that I bought a while back. I tried using my table saw to cut the pieces I needed. No matter what I did, it just would not cut the small pieces straight. I had already bought some IPS Weld-On 4 for this. I got the first acrylic res watertight, but it looked lousy. I tried again, this time having bought some IPS Weld-on 16 (gel). I got it together, but the joints would not take pressure when I tested it in the sink as I messed up while building it and tried to take a couple of pieces apart and then glue them back together.

Finally on the third try I got a compound miter saw (needed one anyway, mine got stolen a while ago-long story). I was able to get the cuts nice and straight. I got a 1/2" NPT tap from ACE and drilled and tapped out the barb holes and cap hole. I learned to do this first before gluing so that the shavings from the tapping don't stick to the glue. Having learned how to work the glue on the second res that messed up, I used the #16 and some #4 to glue the joints.

Figuring out how to best work this glue took some getting used to. The #4 is very watery, and it great for injecting into gaps and the like, but I had a hard time using it as the initial bond between pieces. The problem is that if I tried to put on the side to be glued, it would run very easily, and anywhere it ran to it streaked the plastic. The #16 is easier to work with since it is thicker, but it tends to get glue strings easily (like little hair when you try to pull it away), and it tacks up rather quickly. So what I did was to use the #16 on the ends while putting the pieces together so I could squoosh them together a bit. I used a plastic square on the first joint to make sure I didn't glue it crooked. Then I took the #16 (before putting on the final top piece) and starting on one end of each seam would let the glue run down the joint on the inside to seal each joint from the inside. Then when I had run glue down each inside seam, I put the final end piece on. I then used the holes that I had tapped out for the barbs to stick the tube of #16 glue through and carefully ran the glue down into the seams on the end I had just glued on. This way every edge was glued on with #16, and all of the inside seams had a bead of #16 glue on them. I checked all of the seams to make sure they had made good contact, and then used a glue syringe to inject #4 by slightly letting it run down the outside seams to make sure the outside seams were sealed. I let it dry for 24 hours per the glue directions.

I then leak tested it under slight pressure in the sink. I put in the 5/8" barbs (I use 5/8" barbs everywhere with 1/2" ID hose), put some RTV silicone on them, and let them dry for an hour. I used the fitting from a waterbed drain kit and a female hose fitting to attach the res to the kitchen sink. I purposely wanted to test it under some pressure, so I put the 1/2" brass plug (with a 7/16"ID 1/16" wide washer) partially into the threads, and ran the sink with a light amount of flow into the res. This way it would build up pressure as the plug would prevent the water from just gushing out. I figured this would be a lot more pressure than my watercooling system would give it. I ran it for about an hour, and checked to see if there were any leaks. Everything was good to go.

voigts · 07-24-05, 08:41 PM

I connected it and let it leak test for about a day.

voigts · 07-24-05, 08:42 PM

I added some UV lights and UV blue dye to the Blue VW coolant I use (along with some iodine and algaecide). I also made a metal mount for a blue 80mm outlet fan in the 2 drive bays in front of my hard drives. I lapped the Swifty 6002 to 1500 grit to get good heat transfer, and painted it the same metallic blue as that copper color leaves something to be desired. I lapped the Swifty waterblock because I bought it from the classifieds slightly used (about 3 months old), and the mating surface looked a little rough for some reason. Normally I wouldn't mess with it, but the lapping turned out nice. I use a flat piece of glass on a flat table so it should be pretty flat. It took me about 1 1/2 hours to lap it as I was pretty methodical.

Here are a few more pics.

I am using no fans at all on the rad as you can see, and only have the front 80mm fan and two 120mm case fans, all at 7 volts, so it is VERY quiet. I get 34c web surfing, etc. with 38c running Prime 95 all night, room at about 23c. This is with it inside of an enclosed desk compartment with a side vent, rear vent, and 2-120mm deltas at 5 volts at the top of the compartment to draw air out. The GPU stays less than 50c no matter what I do, and the hard drives are both in the low 30c range.

I am VERY pleased with the final result. I am getting very good performance with almost no noise, and the system is not a huge unmanageable monster. With the aluminum case, it actually is not very heavy. Thanks to all of you OCers, especially those in the WC forum that have been such a source of information.

s random · 07-24-05, 09:08 PM

isnt that case big enough to mount the rad internally. that said good job

MVC · 07-24-05, 09:38 PM

Very Sweeeet!

What kind of temps are you getting without any fans on that radiator?

citronym · 07-24-05, 09:42 PM

Wow! Very nicely installed. Glad that worked out for you.

hainer36 · 07-24-05, 09:55 PM

dam sweet, good job on that, after how many tries did you finnnaly say, "screw it, its going on the outside?"

voigts · 07-24-05, 10:40 PM

Thanks for the comments.

Quote:

I get 34c web surfing, etc. with 38c running Prime 95 all night, room at about 23c

MVC: I mentioned in the last paragraph the temps I am getting. I did btw do a little experimenting with the flow meters and the results were mixed. I didn't post them because I think the flow meters were adding so much restriction as to not really accurately reflect the flow. I might go back and add some info regarding them.

hainer36: I never really tried to mount it inside the case- there is no way it would really fit due to its depth. THe rad measures 12" x 24" x 5/8" thick. With the hoses in the back it just wouldn't happen. I really would rather it be shedding the heat outside of the case anyway, especially given the no fans.

Otter · 07-25-05, 12:18 AM

What are the dimensions of that radiator?

voigts · 07-25-05, 12:28 AM

The rad measures about 12"h x 22"L x 5/8" thick, + a couple of inches for the inlet and outlet to stick out. It really worked out nice in a number of ways. It has no trans cooler, no extra fittings, no really weird shapes, the inlet and outlet were very easy to fit with PVC fittings due to their ID size and the fact that the tanks are plastic, and only one simple hole to plug. The pins on the top and bottom even made it pretty easy to mount.

JudgeDredd · 07-25-05, 01:43 AM

Very awsome indeed. When I first saw the rad mounted on the side it honestly didn't look that big, then after reading it was 24" x 12" I had to go look at it again! That thing is actually a monster, and you getting some great temps for a passive setup.

The black and blue theme is really cool as well.

rcillig · 07-25-05, 03:45 AM

that is a work of beauty... great job.

Diggrr · 07-25-05, 07:35 AM

Excellent job there bud! I like the darker bloo water...wish they had a cobalt bloo dye like that glassware all grandma's have.

Welcome to the dang big radiator club

Electron Chaser · 07-25-05, 08:31 AM

That does look awesome. Great Job!!!!!

voigts · 07-25-05, 09:48 AM

Thanks a lot folks. It is nice to get good comments after slaving away at something like this for too many hours!

Quote:

Welcome to the dang big radiator club

BIG and QUIET!

Actually compared to most car rads, this one is pretty small. There are not that many car rads that you can mount on the side of a case and it not swallow it whole or weigh it down. I wish I had bought this rad first. I only paid $35 shipped. I wouldn't have spent $100 on a BIXIII that is only a few months old that now I might get half as much for since DD dropped their prices

.

Bad ConNecTioN · 07-26-05, 09:16 AM

Wow, good project. I was really enjoying the read until I read the line where you said you lapped the swifty waterblock...then I cried. But when I looked at the pictures again I felt better.

flamerail · 07-26-05, 09:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bad ConNecTioN

Wow, good project. I was really enjoying the read until I read the line where you said you lapped the swifty waterblock...then I cried. But when I looked at the pictures again I felt better.

LOL!!

Nice job man!! That beast looks so nice!! I love how you made the custom Res!! Very slick!

voigts · 07-26-05, 11:17 AM

I lapped the Swifty waterblock because I bought it from the classifieds slightly used (about 3 months old), and the mating surface looked a little rough for some reason. Normally I wouldn't mess with it, but the lapping turned out nice. I use a flat piece of glass on a flat table so it should be pretty flat. It took me about 1 1/2 hours to lap it as I was pretty methodical.

I debated about going back to a res, or just sticking with a t-line, but I miss the fast bleeding that a res offers, and I just didn't want to clog up any bays with a res, and didn't really have another spot that i wanted to mount a cylindrical res at. i wanted the res to be at the highest point so that it would bleed quickly and be easy to fill. Getting the hang of the glue and making the res (or should I say three acrylic reservoirs before getting it right) really was a pain, but I am glad I did it as now I am confident that I can make any kind of acrylic res or acrylic anything that I want.

RMT99e · 07-31-05, 06:13 PM

Looks nice and clean, i love the work. that radiator looks gigantic but cool

voigts · 08-01-05, 04:06 PM

I've got some UV and blue leds coming from Greenman100 that I am going to use to light this thing up a lot better. I also am working on a way to better stealth the drives and the front fan mount so that it will have a continuous curve in front.

Flip-Mode · 08-01-05, 05:50 PM

Very nice! Makes me feel like setting up my WC again....

SniperXX · 08-02-05, 04:51 PM

Nice temps w/ the passively cooled rad!

voigts · 08-02-05, 11:06 PM

So far the highest I have made it go is 40c while converting a dvd to avi for like 2 1/2 hours and web surfing (here on OC) at the same time. The rad i got for $35 is sure a lot cheaper than those european passive radiators that cost 7+ times more!

PoX Freak · 08-19-05, 06:45 AM

Ok, now why didnt i see this before? Get a rad big enough to cool passive and mount it outside the case. I've got a rad, but I dont think it would be too good for passive with all three blocks in place (its only 12" x 8" x 1" thick).
Where did that rad come from? An MG? Must be a really small car.

voigts · 08-19-05, 08:05 AM

It is a small car. That rad you have is REALLY small! That is about the size of some heatercores. You might be able to cool passively with it, or mount it with like just a fan or two undervolted to give it a little airflow.

I love this setup. It is sooooo quiet.

Voodoo Rufus · 08-24-05, 11:33 PM

Dang, now I'm thinking of this for my own case. Was thinking of getting an MCR220QP Swiftech rad, but now......

Are you OCing the CPU?

voigts · 08-25-05, 01:31 AM

No, I am running at stock speeds. I usually don't crank anything up much. I haven't really messed with the finer points of overclocking enough to get the art of it yet.

I am very pleased with this setup so far. It is so wonderfully quiet, and I find that without fans on the rad, I don't have the vacuum cleaner dust effect to deal with. I am also glad that I found this rad as it really works well given how it mounts and how the inlet and outlet are positioned.

I ordered some more lighting and a top acrylic window kit, so I am going to be messing with it some more in the near future to make it look better. I would also like to add a larger or second pump at some point. I feel like the 50z is doing its job, but would like to see the result of some more head/flow.

Voodoo Rufus · 08-25-05, 01:49 AM

I searched a good hour looking for a suitable copper core radiator of any make in the US and it was impossible. Would you have any hints for finding one?

voigts · 08-25-05, 07:13 AM

I spent hours the first time looking for a suitable car rad. I found mine on Ebay, but I looked last night and didn't see one like mine for auction. Had I not found mine, I was looking at using the rad from a 1990 Geo Metro 1.0 Manual Trans no/ac. I think I was able to find it for about $110 online somewhere with copper core.

...Here is the link to where I found it http://www.radiatorworld.com/radiato...no=26640&cat=1
It has no trans cooler or other weird fittings, is a decent size, and is copper core with brass tanks.

07-24-05, 08:40 PM	#2
voigts Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Tennessee	I really wanted to have good clean cable management, so I sleeved/heatshrinked EVERYTHING, and changed all of the connectors to blue. Using the Blue Storm was wonderful for this as it is all already sleeved in blue. The case made it very easy to run cables behind the MB tray. Having used res, then t-line, I like the space saving of the t-line, but missed the easy filling/bleeding of a res. So I set out to make my own. I first made one out of a 3" PVC cap with a 3" to 2" adapter with a 2" drain plug for the top. Mind you I am working with a very limited space as I wanted it to be at the top of the loop. I added a small acrylic divider between the two barbs inside the res, and painted it black. It worked OK, but it tended to suck air back into the loop. If it could have been taller it would have worked very well. So I set about trying to build an acrylic res to my specs (4" wide by 2 7/8" tall by 4" deep. I have a sheet of 3/16" acrylic that I bought a while back. I tried using my table saw to cut the pieces I needed. No matter what I did, it just would not cut the small pieces straight. I had already bought some IPS Weld-On 4 for this. I got the first acrylic res watertight, but it looked lousy. I tried again, this time having bought some IPS Weld-on 16 (gel). I got it together, but the joints would not take pressure when I tested it in the sink as I messed up while building it and tried to take a couple of pieces apart and then glue them back together. Finally on the third try I got a compound miter saw (needed one anyway, mine got stolen a while ago-long story). I was able to get the cuts nice and straight. I got a 1/2" NPT tap from ACE and drilled and tapped out the barb holes and cap hole. I learned to do this first before gluing so that the shavings from the tapping don't stick to the glue. Having learned how to work the glue on the second res that messed up, I used the #16 and some #4 to glue the joints. Figuring out how to best work this glue took some getting used to. The #4 is very watery, and it great for injecting into gaps and the like, but I had a hard time using it as the initial bond between pieces. The problem is that if I tried to put on the side to be glued, it would run very easily, and anywhere it ran to it streaked the plastic. The #16 is easier to work with since it is thicker, but it tends to get glue strings easily (like little hair when you try to pull it away), and it tacks up rather quickly. So what I did was to use the #16 on the ends while putting the pieces together so I could squoosh them together a bit. I used a plastic square on the first joint to make sure I didn't glue it crooked. Then I took the #16 (before putting on the final top piece) and starting on one end of each seam would let the glue run down the joint on the inside to seal each joint from the inside. Then when I had run glue down each inside seam, I put the final end piece on. I then used the holes that I had tapped out for the barbs to stick the tube of #16 glue through and carefully ran the glue down into the seams on the end I had just glued on. This way every edge was glued on with #16, and all of the inside seams had a bead of #16 glue on them. I checked all of the seams to make sure they had made good contact, and then used a glue syringe to inject #4 by slightly letting it run down the outside seams to make sure the outside seams were sealed. I let it dry for 24 hours per the glue directions. I then leak tested it under slight pressure in the sink. I put in the 5/8" barbs (I use 5/8" barbs everywhere with 1/2" ID hose), put some RTV silicone on them, and let them dry for an hour. I used the fitting from a waterbed drain kit and a female hose fitting to attach the res to the kitchen sink. I purposely wanted to test it under some pressure, so I put the 1/2" brass plug (with a 7/16"ID 1/16" wide washer) partially into the threads, and ran the sink with a light amount of flow into the res. This way it would build up pressure as the plug would prevent the water from just gushing out. I figured this would be a lot more pressure than my watercooling system would give it. I ran it for about an hour, and checked to see if there were any leaks. Everything was good to go. Last edited by voigts; 07-25-05 at 11:23 AM.

07-24-05, 08:41 PM	#3
voigts Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Tennessee	I connected it and let it leak test for about a day. Last edited by voigts; 07-25-05 at 11:24 AM.

07-24-05, 09:42 PM	#7
citronym Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: Atlanta	Wow! Very nicely installed. Glad that worked out for you. __________________ E8400 (SLAPL) 3.6ghz 1.3v \| Gigabyte P35-DS3R \| 8gb (4x2gb) g.skill F2-8500CL5D BFG 8800 GTX 768mb \| 4x 36gb Raptors (WD360GD-00FNA0) RAID0 (15gb slice) \| 2x 1tb Green (WD10EADS) RAID1 Cooler Master CM-690 \| Corsair 620HX heat

07-24-05, 09:55 PM	#8
hainer36 Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: St. Catharines, ON	dam sweet, good job on that, after how many tries did you finnnaly say, "screw it, its going on the outside?" __________________ `_```` _`` \|`\|```\|`\|`` CaseLIAN LI PC-75______________Custom Desk \|`\|```\|`\|`` CPU AMD X2 7750+ BE @ 3GHz \|`\|_`_\|`\|_` Cooling Coolermaster GeminII \|`\|`\|___ ` \|'Power PCP&C Silencer 610W \|`\|_\|_\|`\|` \|'Mobo ASUS M3N-HT Deluxe/HDMI_________GO STEELERS! '\``'`````_/ Ram Corsair DDR2-800 Tracers `\|``````\|``'Video Card EVGA 9800GTX+ and Palit 9800GTX+________________________________Heat _______________________Shipping to Canada? READ THIS!

07-25-05, 01:43 AM	#12
JudgeDredd Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Austin, Texas	Very awsome indeed. When I first saw the rad mounted on the side it honestly didn't look that big, then after reading it was 24" x 12" I had to go look at it again! That thing is actually a monster, and you getting some great temps for a passive setup. The black and blue theme is really cool as well. __________________ Intel Core i7-930 @ 3.8 GHz (19x200 @ 1.275 vCore) \| Gigabyte X58A-UD5 Mobo \| G.Skill 3x2GB DDR3-1600 RAM EVGA GTX 470 HydroCopper FTW (750core/1705mem) \| LG W3000H 30" Widescreen LCD \| bluegears bEnspirer Intel 80GB X25-M G2 SSD \| WD Caviar Black 1TB x 3 \| Samsung Ecogreen 1.5TB x 3 \| Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Antec Signature 850Watt PSU \| Lian Li X1000 Aluminum Case (w/ 5x140mm Fans) \| Custom Watercooling CPU Loop: XSPC Dual DDC BayRes \| Swiftech MCP355 \| Black Ice SRT 140.2 Radiator \| Swiftech Apogee XT Waterblock GPU Loop: XSPC Dual DDC BayRes \| Swiftech MCP355 \| Black Ice SRT 140.1 Radiator \| Swiftech Full Cover Waterblock for EVGA

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07-24-05, 08:39 PM	#1
voigts Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Tennessee	Project Car Rad: Black and Blue (the images are all on photobucket, so please be patient!) Well, I don't think I have enough time to detail all of the work that I went through in putting my current setup together. I thought a while back about going from a BIXIII rad to using a car rad (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=386054). Although I have been building systems for several years, I got into watercooling about 7 months ago when I was sitting at home for 3 weeks after having knee surgery. I can't stand sitting still doing nothing, so I finally started into getting rid of the computer noise. I started with a Swiftech h20-120 kit. Over the course of six months, I changed the rad from a Swifty 676 that came with the kit to a dual heatercore to a BIXIII. I also ahanged from the annoying MCP650 to an Aquaextreme 50Z (much better- about two months before the MCP655 came out). I ditched the bayres for a t-line, and redid my tubing about 4 times. A few weeks ago, a good friend of mine wanted me to build a new system for him for his business, so for payment to me and to make things a little easier, we decided to just swap motherboards, case, PS, RAM, and CPU. My parts were all less than a year old. I wanted a new case anyway that would work better with watercooling, so I ended up buying a new case and he bought all new parts and swapped. He got my AMD3200XP, Abit Nsf-7, Corsair RAM, Enermax 430w PSU, and Dynapower Spyden case. I then watercooled that computer and another computer of his together on a car rad-but that is for another thread. I got a new Asus A8V, AMD64 3200 Venice, RAM, Fortron 500w Blue Storm, Vantec case sleeving, blue power connectors, blue heatshrink, and a few other do-das, and I bought a Globalwin YCC61F1 case (they were out of black-figures), and found an excellent new copper core car rad on Ebay for an MG Metro for only $35 shipped. This rad was a God-send as it has no weird fittings, oil or trans cooler, or anything except an inlet, outlet, and one hole for a temp sensor that I was able to easily plug. And so started this adventure. I decided early on that I wanted to do this right. I wanted to sleeve everything and use a consistent color scheme. I however needed a case that is the height of mid-tower in order to fit inside of our oak roll-top desk computer compartment, but needed one to be deeper and wider. I searched far and wide and came across this case through a thread here on OC. I got the case from http://www.computernerd.com/catalog/...products_id=29 for $125 shipped. Like I said above, they of course are out of black. Hating beige, I figured I would paint the thing black inside and metallic blue outside. It was a major pain in the neck, but with some walmart Rustoleum, I got it done in a couple of days. I can't say enough about how excellent this case is. Everything comes apart and it is very, very well designed down to about the last detail. I found that the inside diameter of the hose fittings on the rad fit almost exactly 3/4" to 1/2" threaded male PVC elbows. I only had to slightly grind down one of them, and the only other thing I had to do with the rad was to cut off a plastic mount and plug a hole with a 3/4" PVC cap. I used 2 part epoxy to glue the fittings in. I then used a 1/2" to 1/2" PVC coupler from the PVC elbow and screwed in 5/8" barbs to connect it to the watercooling loop. Wanting it mounted to the case, I was able to modify a couple of "L" brackets and 2 straight brackets to mount it to the side of the case. Last edited by voigts; 07-24-05 at 08:44 PM.

07-24-05, 08:42 PM	#4
voigts Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Tennessee	I added some UV lights and UV blue dye to the Blue VW coolant I use (along with some iodine and algaecide). I also made a metal mount for a blue 80mm outlet fan in the 2 drive bays in front of my hard drives. I lapped the Swifty 6002 to 1500 grit to get good heat transfer, and painted it the same metallic blue as that copper color leaves something to be desired. I lapped the Swifty waterblock because I bought it from the classifieds slightly used (about 3 months old), and the mating surface looked a little rough for some reason. Normally I wouldn't mess with it, but the lapping turned out nice. I use a flat piece of glass on a flat table so it should be pretty flat. It took me about 1 1/2 hours to lap it as I was pretty methodical. Here are a few more pics. I am using no fans at all on the rad as you can see, and only have the front 80mm fan and two 120mm case fans, all at 7 volts, so it is VERY quiet. I get 34c web surfing, etc. with 38c running Prime 95 all night, room at about 23c. This is with it inside of an enclosed desk compartment with a side vent, rear vent, and 2-120mm deltas at 5 volts at the top of the compartment to draw air out. The GPU stays less than 50c no matter what I do, and the hard drives are both in the low 30c range. I am VERY pleased with the final result. I am getting very good performance with almost no noise, and the system is not a huge unmanageable monster. With the aluminum case, it actually is not very heavy. Thanks to all of you OCers, especially those in the WC forum that have been such a source of information. Last edited by voigts; 07-26-05 at 11:32 AM.

07-24-05, 09:08 PM	#5
s random Member Join Date: May 2005	isnt that case big enough to mount the rad internally. that said good job

07-24-05, 09:38 PM	#6
MVC Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Hell's Kitchen, NYC	Very Sweeeet! What kind of temps are you getting without any fans on that radiator?

07-25-05, 12:18 AM	#10
Otter Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2004	What are the dimensions of that radiator?

07-25-05, 12:28 AM	#11
voigts Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Tennessee	The rad measures about 12"h x 22"L x 5/8" thick, + a couple of inches for the inlet and outlet to stick out. It really worked out nice in a number of ways. It has no trans cooler, no extra fittings, no really weird shapes, the inlet and outlet were very easy to fit with PVC fittings due to their ID size and the fact that the tanks are plastic, and only one simple hole to plug. The pins on the top and bottom even made it pretty easy to mount.

07-25-05, 03:45 AM	#13
rcillig Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Nebraska USA	that is a work of beauty... great job. __________________ Windows 7 X64 Ultimate, HAF 932 AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition ! DFI LP DK 790GX-M2RS, 4gig Mushkin Ascent 6400, 4gig Mushkin Redline 8000, Antec NEO Power 550 HE PCI'E BFG 9800GX2, Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum WD Raptor 150 (OS Installed) - 500gig WD - 500gig Seagate - 320gig WD - 250gig WD WC Loop (DD-CPX Pro - EK GVA Block - Swiftech Storm Rev2 - Black Ice Extreme 2 Radiator - EK Single Bay Reservoir - EK 250 Tube Reservoir) Heatware ID HAF 932 Build 2010

07-25-05, 07:35 AM	#14
Diggrr Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Gun Lake, MI. USA	Excellent job there bud! I like the darker bloo water...wish they had a cobalt bloo dye like that glassware all grandma's have. Welcome to the dang big radiator club __________________ Rig1: C2D E8400 A/E0, Stock Ф Intel DQ45EK mITX mobo Ф 4 Gigs Kingston HyperX LL dual channel Ф 150 watt Pico P4 PSU, using ~90 watts! Rig2: Via Esther C7 1.5 @ 1.65 Ф Jetway 7F2WE1G5D mITX mobo Ф 1 Gig Generic Ram (max) Ф 120 watt Pico PSU. Hey look Eddy!, I'm an Otter!!! Become a fan on Facebook! \| Help improve overclockers.com! Get involved! \| Follow us on Twitter!

07-25-05, 08:31 AM	#15
Electron Chaser Senior Delta Fanatic Join Date: May 2004 Location: I live by a Delta	That does look awesome. Great Job!!!!! __________________ I am the Senior Omega of the Delta ... Fan Users :burn: Custom 48" X 24" X 12" Case- Abit IC7-MAX3 - Pentium 4 3.4 EE @ 4.2 \|Mach II Phase Cooled BFG 6800 Ultra @ 470 \| NV-68 Water Cooled -1.5 GB PQI PC4400 -1 KW PCP&C - 2 X Raptor 150GB RAID 0 , 2 74GB Raptor RAID 1, 1 36GB Raptor, 1 250GB WD SATA BIX3 w/ 3 GFB1212VHW Fans (660 CFM Total) -Case Fans 5 EFB1212SHE (710 CFM Total) MB / RAM Cooler 2 TFB1212GHE (440 CFM Total) :cool: 1800+ CFM of Pure Delta Coolness :cool: Someone Help you out? Post a Thank you here. Project Denali Heat

07-26-05, 09:16 AM	#17
Bad ConNecTioN Member Join Date: Sep 2004	Wow, good project. I was really enjoying the read until I read the line where you said you lapped the swifty waterblock...then I cried. But when I looked at the pictures again I felt better.

07-26-05, 11:17 AM	#19
voigts Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Tennessee	I lapped the Swifty waterblock because I bought it from the classifieds slightly used (about 3 months old), and the mating surface looked a little rough for some reason. Normally I wouldn't mess with it, but the lapping turned out nice. I use a flat piece of glass on a flat table so it should be pretty flat. It took me about 1 1/2 hours to lap it as I was pretty methodical. I debated about going back to a res, or just sticking with a t-line, but I miss the fast bleeding that a res offers, and I just didn't want to clog up any bays with a res, and didn't really have another spot that i wanted to mount a cylindrical res at. i wanted the res to be at the highest point so that it would bleed quickly and be easy to fill. Getting the hang of the glue and making the res (or should I say three acrylic reservoirs before getting it right) really was a pain, but I am glad I did it as now I am confident that I can make any kind of acrylic res or acrylic anything that I want.

07-31-05, 06:13 PM	#20
RMT99e Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Connecticut	Looks nice and clean, i love the work. that radiator looks gigantic but cool __________________ Rig MBO Abit NF7-S V2 CPU AMD Athlon XP 2500+ RAM 2x512MB Corsair XL TCC5 (2-2-2-5) GFX ATI Radeon x850 Pro (540x590) successfully flashed to x850 XT PE w/ 16 pipes ATI Silencer 5 HDD 120GB (Western Digital 80gig+Seagate 40gig Combo) PWR Fortron 530w Heatware

08-01-05, 04:06 PM	#21
voigts Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Tennessee	I've got some UV and blue leds coming from Greenman100 that I am going to use to light this thing up a lot better. I also am working on a way to better stealth the drives and the front fan mount so that it will have a continuous curve in front.

08-01-05, 05:50 PM	#22
Flip-Mode Member Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Beer Sheva, Israel	Very nice! Makes me feel like setting up my WC again.... __________________ Asus P5Q mBIOSes 2002m BIOS OCZ Vendetta 2 Intel C2D E7200 2530MHz@3800MHz A-Data Vitesta Extreme DDR2 800+@1066MHz 5-5-5-18 PNY Nvidia GeForce 8800GT 512mb Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 Rev. 2 HEC WIN 580W PSU Heatware (Yes Israelis have it too!) PayPal Verified

08-02-05, 04:51 PM	#23
SniperXX Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Folding in Diamond Bar	Nice temps w/ the passively cooled rad! __________________ i7 920 @ 4.2Ghz Asus Rampage II GENE 2x BFG GTX285 6GB Crucial Dominator 1600 Crucial 750TX Help find cures for cancer by running Folding @ Home. HEATWARE

08-02-05, 11:06 PM	#24
voigts Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Tennessee	So far the highest I have made it go is 40c while converting a dvd to avi for like 2 1/2 hours and web surfing (here on OC) at the same time. The rad i got for $35 is sure a lot cheaper than those european passive radiators that cost 7+ times more!

08-19-05, 06:45 AM	#25
PoX Freak Member Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: North Carolina	Ok, now why didnt i see this before? Get a rad big enough to cool passive and mount it outside the case. I've got a rad, but I dont think it would be too good for passive with all three blocks in place (its only 12" x 8" x 1" thick). Where did that rad come from? An MG? Must be a really small car. __________________ Gigabyte GA-K8NS Ultra-939 Opty 165 @ 2.41 GHz Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 24ºc amb/34ºc idle/42ºc load each 2048MB crucial value PC3200 500G Seagate 7200 7800 GS OC Mobile: Toshiba M45-s269, Pent M 1.73, 120 Gig HD, 1Gig Ram, Vista Ultimate Fold for Team 32!

08-19-05, 08:05 AM	#26
voigts Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Tennessee	It is a small car. That rad you have is REALLY small! That is about the size of some heatercores. You might be able to cool passively with it, or mount it with like just a fan or two undervolted to give it a little airflow. I love this setup. It is sooooo quiet.

08-24-05, 11:33 PM	#27
Voodoo Rufus Browncoat Moderator Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Evanston, WY	Dang, now I'm thinking of this for my own case. Was thinking of getting an MCR220QP Swiftech rad, but now...... Are you OCing the CPU? __________________ "I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar!" Serious Gamers Halo Custom Edition Green Leaves!

08-25-05, 01:31 AM	#28
voigts Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Tennessee	No, I am running at stock speeds. I usually don't crank anything up much. I haven't really messed with the finer points of overclocking enough to get the art of it yet. I am very pleased with this setup so far. It is so wonderfully quiet, and I find that without fans on the rad, I don't have the vacuum cleaner dust effect to deal with. I am also glad that I found this rad as it really works well given how it mounts and how the inlet and outlet are positioned. I ordered some more lighting and a top acrylic window kit, so I am going to be messing with it some more in the near future to make it look better. I would also like to add a larger or second pump at some point. I feel like the 50z is doing its job, but would like to see the result of some more head/flow.

08-25-05, 01:49 AM	#29
Voodoo Rufus Browncoat Moderator Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Evanston, WY	I searched a good hour looking for a suitable copper core radiator of any make in the US and it was impossible. Would you have any hints for finding one? __________________ "I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar!" Serious Gamers Halo Custom Edition Green Leaves!

08-25-05, 07:13 AM	#30
voigts Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Tennessee	I spent hours the first time looking for a suitable car rad. I found mine on Ebay, but I looked last night and didn't see one like mine for auction. Had I not found mine, I was looking at using the rad from a 1990 Geo Metro 1.0 Manual Trans no/ac. I think I was able to find it for about $110 online somewhere with copper core. ...Here is the link to where I found it http://www.radiatorworld.com/radiato...no=26640&cat=1 It has no trans cooler or other weird fittings, is a decent size, and is copper core with brass tanks.