Watercooling a Dragon

Well, I have my current system in a CM Ammo that looks kind of like this.



Problem is, I'm setting up a water cooling system for my 9800GX2 and there just ain't any room in that thing for a Bonneville core. I really don't want to cut it up either. Soo, everyone remembers the Chieftec dragons from back in the day, right? I have one of those sitting on the floor unused and unloved. I figured I'd cut it up instead. Here is a pic I stole from Tom's Hardware to refresh your memory.

First off, I took everything out of it except the motherboard standoffs and the elastic I used to mount hard drives with.



Then I marked out the space I needed to open up to get airflow through the heater core.



Then it's out to the garage to do some cutting. Here are the tools of the trade. Remember kids, Safety First ! Always use hearing and eye protection when playing with power tools. Also, remember to check your hearing protectors for spiders that have built nests in the cups.



And here is a nice big hole ready for deburring.

Ahh, the b@stard file. It's God's gift to metal workers who enjoy keeping their digits intact and free of metallic splinters.



And finish up by blowing all of the metal dust and shavings out with a good blast of 130PSI air.



And that's where I'm at for the day. I'll work on it more tonight or in the morning. Thanks for looking.

Awesome. I love it when people restore old cases to be as good as modern-day ones. Shaping up to be a great mod!

subscribed, i love old case rebuilds

Sorry I didn't post an update today. I got a call to come in for an interview this morning. That took up most of the time I had planned to work on this.

Thanks for the kind words guys.

So, I put my radiator in for a test fit, and discovered that I had gotten a bit carried away with the metal removal. The hole is a bit too wide to keep the radiator from falling out the front, but the piece I left on the bottom is tall enough to hold the bottom of the radiator in.



The biggest problem is at the top. The hole is just a tad too big. (and no where close to being straight either, but this will be covered up by the front panel)



I went digging through the scrap metal box and found some small angle aluminum left over from some long forgotten project.



I little cutting, a little drilling, and a few pop rivets later, and the radiator now friction fits into the front of the case. With the rad in this position, I can set the case on its back and the radiator will not fall out.



So far, I have zero dollars invested in this build, and I plan on keeping it that way. Well, maybe some paint. Other than that, I'm trying to build this with as many leftovers and scrounged pieces as I can find.

Thanks for looking.

Coming along well with the modding , look forward to seeing more!

Thanks Jolly.

I had an hour or so to burn tonight, but I've been kind sickly. I really didn't feel up to heading out to the garage and firing up the power tools. Instead I decided to make a shroud for the heater core. In keeping with the goal mentioned at the end of my previous post. I went scrounging around the house to find something to build it from. I have some acrylic sheet in the garage, but I would rather stab myself with a rusty fork than work with that stuff. I used to have some thin sheet steel under the bed, but that has mysteriously disappeared. After a bit of digging (and measuring the missus' tupperware containers), I found this.



I have destroyed many of those over my long educational career. I remembered those covers being reinforced with thin stiff fiberboard.

Ahh, there it is.



Since most people over the age of six can take measurements and draw a line with a ruler, I'll skip ahead a bit. I cut out a piece the same size as the finned area with a razor knife.



Then I cut some sides two inches tall and glued them together with Testor's cement for metal and wood models. This height gives me enough space to mount the fans inside the shroud for a cleaner look in the front of the case.



I'll cut out the fan holes in the morning with a drywall bit I have for the Dremel. Then I'll use a sanding drum to clean up the edges a bit. I plan to paint it eventually, but I haven't decided on a color scheme for the case yet.

It's not much, but thanks for looking.

I can't wait to see where this will end up!

Here is the bit I used to cut this with. It's meant for drywall, but it works pretty well for fiberboard and plastic.



Ten minutes later it's all done. Needs a bit of smoothing, but that'll come when it's time for paint.

To everyone who is/was following this thread, I'm sorry I haven't posted updates in a while. I've been sick since Saturday. I didn't even bother getting out of bed Sunday or Monday. Today was the first day I've felt well enough to be out and about. Being cooped up has finally gotten to me, so I headed out to the garage to do a bit of cutting before bed.

Since there will be 2 120mm intakes and the only exhaust will be the PSU and a 92mm hole in the back, I decided to knock a 120mm blowhole in the top of the case. The only problem is there isn't 120mm of space between the back of the PSU and the back of the optical drive mounted in the top bay. Luckily, the PSU actually mounts about 1 3/4" from the top of the case. I marked the hole for the fan to where it should butt up directly against the back of the optical drive. Part of the fan will be over the PSU, but there's really nothing I can do about that.

First, I measured the position of the fan relative to the front edge of the top panel. There really wasn't a good way to get a pic of that though. It turned out to be close to 6". Then I masked off the panel to keep it from getting scuffed up by the jigsaw or drill.



Then I marked the position I wanted for the fan. The front of the top panel is to the left of this pic. The long line is six inches from the front edge of the panel. The numbers show the math I used to center the fan left and right. The panel is 18cm wide and the fan is 12cm. That should leave 3cm on each side to get it centered. To get my fan outline, I used an old gutted fan and trace around the inside with a pencil.



Then I drilled a hole close the edge and large enough to get the jigsaw blade through. When drilling holes this large in sheet metal, always start with small bits and work your way up. If you start off with a big bit, or move up to a bit that is significantly bigger than the hole your enlarging, the bits will often catch when they go through the panel and warp or tear the metal.



After some cutting and a few passes with a file, I laid the gutted fan back on the panel and used it as a guide to drill the mounting holes. Here is what it looks like now. It's not perfect, but it will work. Ignore that scratch, it was there when I started.

Great job so far

Thanks a lot.

Here is what the panel looks like from the inside now. Ignore the crappy PSU and old drive, they are just for mockup.

You still at $0 spent? I really like the cardboard shroud idea, ingenuity at its best.

Nice ATARI sticker

Yup, 0$ and counting. The sticker came in my UT2004 box, I think. I bought it a day or two after it came out. That's the PSU that was in my gaming rig then. Was that really six years ago? Ahh, memories.

The shroud isn't what I would call cardboard. It's a lot closer to low density fiberboard. Its quite a bit stiffer than a similar sheet of cardboard stock. I'm actually kinda proud of that thing. It's way lighter than the metal one I built for that rad a few years ago.

Excellent work and innovation of the Rad shroud looks great Sephis

My old dragon was a fantastic case. I remember putting water cooling into it. I found that for me the hardest part was cutting the aluminum as it was very thin so cutting it without having it vibrate all over the place was a gigantic pain. My lian-li was sooooooo much easier to cut.

Well, they made the dragons in both steel and aluminum versions. I have a steel one, so it's a lot easier to cut on. I never cared for aluminum cases. I use my computers as furniture sometimes. They end up with stuff stacked up on them, or I use them for stools or chairs when I have company over. Can't do that with a lot of aluminum cases.

And, thanks for the kind words Jolly.

So, I need help from the three people following this thread. How do I replicate the flush rivets on the back of the case? I need to drill out the rivets holding the mobo tray into the rest of the frame so I can paint all of the parts individually. However, the rivets on the back edge are actually under the rear lip of the side panel when it's screwed in place. They are countersunk and flush with rest of the case. How do they do this? Is there a way to do it with a hand riveter?