Project: The Chrome Goat... total system mod

Project: The Chrome Goat... total system mod (1-14-04 update)

Hi everyone! I've been wanting to post this for at least 2 months, but I had to wait on my camera's USB cable to return from Mongolia. It's back and I can finally start posting pictures and my little stories.

The Chrome Goat! (AKA The Goat of Paradise)

Goals: Fully encased plexi full-tower with chrome skeleton interior.
---1---> Lots of folded acrylic for rounded corners.
-------------> I'm going for an I-Pod look. Glossy white paint underneath soft edged plexi. Clear line-breaks for chic lighting.
-------------> Enough visibility underneath the plexi to see the beautiful chrome work.
---2---> Thermo-Electric water-chiller.
-------------> Separate, selectable water-loop with Iwaki MD10 pump.
-------------> Powered by a pair of Lambda LRS-55-12 15vdc power supplies.
-------------> Chromed valves for integration into standard CPU loop.
---3---> Completely integrated water-cooling setup.
-------------> Iwaki MD20RZT, D-Tek NB cooler, 3-prong Cascade-SS, Innovatek GPU block converted to 1/2", Tygon tubing.
-------------> Hopefully I'll be able to come up with some sort of shroud for the pump and have it chromed. Iwaki Green SO doesn't match my Martha Stewart meets Mad Max blue on chrome motif.
---4---> Painted and chromed blower over dual heater-core assembly with plexi shroud.
-------------> EBM model D1G133. Powered by a chromed Power-One 48vdc PSU.
---5---> Lots of lights, but tastefully arranged.
-------------> No visible CCFLs or LEDs. The goal is to provide ample lighting but keep the sources hidden.
-------------> All of the lighting should be controlled by the famous Macroman CCFL throbber circuit©. I'm not going for any of the fancy lightsabre effects. A simple fade on, fade off 'breathing' effect will look great.
---6---> LCD Winamp display.
---7---> Nixie tube CPU / Case thermometer.
---8---> Fun HDD activity meter.
-------------> Same effect I used in my red EL-wire HDD mod, this time with blue EL-wire and more accurate HDD activity.
---9---> This spot reserved for whatever else my kooky brain comes up with ^_^.


Part 1: Planning.
I made my shopping list, and acquired the following parts:
2x 88 Chevy Caprice heatercores.
Iwaki MD20RZT pump (I had a 30rzt but it actually raised my water temperatures by about 1.7° in a closed loop, no-heatsource system)

Iwaki MD10RT pump
Bender Chiller (Overclockers.com TEC-Chiller guru)

EBM D1G133 blower. ($10 on Ebay) 700CFM 48vdc blower from hell. 700cfm is a lot... enough that you would think that it would be noisy as can be... it's not. If I run it at 40vdc, it's almost silent. It's rated down to 30v... I may 'pot' it to control noise. However, even at 48v it's quieter than most of the 120mm axial fans I've used.

Dtek northbridge block
Innovatek GPU block
Little River Waterblocks - Cascade SS (special silver edition) with 2 outlets instead of the normal one.

A bunch of Burroughs 8422(B-5991) nixies. (Pictures will be up tonight)
A bunch of misc electronics parts like the nixie controller chip, a couple basic stamps and a programmer.
Oh... and all the components in the 'CCFL Throbber' shopping list.

Part 2: What have I been up to since I started this project?

The first thing I did was experiment with a few ideas. I knew I wanted 'bended' acrylic instead of a 'joined' pair for my corners. I had to figure out if I had the knowledge and tools to accomplish this. There were enough online resources on bending acrylic that this wasn't hard to test out. I simply broke off a small piece of plexi, clamped it down against a straight-edge table and started heating the 'bend' portion. Eventually it started to 'fall' on its own, so I grabbed a flat block and bent it over. It got fairly warped because of the clamp and the uneven surface of the 'flat block', but the experiment was a success. After it dried, it retained the optical clarity and was just as strong as before. This was a 1/4" chunk of acrylic... I couldn't break the bend with my hands; that was good enough for me.

The next 'idea' to test was the chroming process. How well would a chromed piece look? I am lucky enough to work with the president of a local low-rider club. They are one of the premier Impala low-rider clubs in the country and his car is basically 'perfect'. -link- He hooked me up with the chrome shop and I had my first test piece plated. You can see the original anodized-aluminum shroud above... after the plating, it looked like this:


Happy day!

I then spent the next few months ordering all of the remaining pieces of the 'plan' in preparation for... this day ^_^. I can finally begin the modding. I'm sitting here at work typing this up and I'll finish the remaining posts with better pictures as soon as I get home. The reason I couldn't wait is... well...

continued...

Part 3: The present.

So, to start off, I needed to have a skeleton frame for the case. Like I said in my goals, I wanted a fully chromed skeleton surrounded by plexi. Since I'm integrating a fairly large water-cooling system AND a large 10-peltier TEC chiller, I needed a pretty hulkish case. I've seen a few of these in the past, but I'm not positive to who makes(made?) it... I believe Epox. Anyway, off with the sides! Off with the riveted joints!

Before:

Actually, that isn't exactly the same case I removed... I just forgot to take pictures of it before I started gutting it. However, it is basically the same thing... same panels and such... only the front is different.

Removing all the junk:


Removing the drive cage (not needed):


Removing all the blasted rivets and gutting the entire case:


What's next? Polishing and Chrome! That was finished at 8:00am this morning. Result?


The lighting in this closet is way nasty... I'll try and post better pictures tonight when I get home.

Details of the immaculate chrome job:


Hi there...

More to come!

Mmm, chromy.
See through and glistening, should be a real eye turner.

Are you also chroming all the water cooling components?

oooo cant wait to see it all put together!!

Bensa said:

Are you also chroming all the water cooling components?

Click to expand...

Like what? All of the barbs are nickle plated... the heatercores can't really be chromed and the pump was mentioned above. The problem with chroming a same-sized shroud for my main pump would be heat. The Iwaki motor gets a little hot and I'd really worry about trapping that inside a metal shroud. I'm thinking of a way to do it with a much larger (12cm or so) box, chroming that and hooking up a quiet 120mm fan to it.

I might get the sides and tops of the heatercores power-coated in silver... but... I'm trying to avoid having a 'real chrome' look mixed with 'fake chrome' look. More than likely, I'll have them painted metallic blue, keeping in line with the rest of the system. You'll see ^_^.

that looks great, i was thinking of havin some parts cromed, how much did it cost?

Mmmm sooky!

I love a good system mod! This is right up my alley.

holy crap that's awesome.

Ive always wondered what a case would look when chromed....beautiful. I can't wait to see this thing finished.

It's about time slacker! And no excuses about the USB cable.

I love chrome. If I could I'd chrome my cat.

If you were feeling especially ballsy, you could take the pump apart and get the housing chromed. It would be a shame to have all that beautiful chrome goodness detracted from by that awfull blue-green color Iwaki chose for their pumps.

I can't wait to see this finished.

skidooosl said:

that looks great, i was thinking of havin some parts cromed, how much did it cost?

Click to expand...

Hmmm... I honestly can't say how much this all would cost you. It completely depends on the parts involved. If the piece is really complex, like a drive cage or something similar, it would take a long time to polish. If it's flat and simple it would then depend on the type of metal. Steel would be cheap... copper would be cheap... brass... cheap. Aluminum is 'spensive... textured metals are the worst. Like, brushed aluminum or cast iron. I'd not even try with cast iron. I'd guess that a flat side-panel on a standard-sized mid-tower would be anywhere from $20-50, depending on the shop. My shop is pretty much as good as it gets, so that panel would probably be on the $50 end.

For an example... the chiller shroud was $50. That's sort of cheap considering the finish AND the fact that it was brushed anodized aluminum.

Ya'll are gonna love the nixie thermometer. AFAIK, it's never been done before.

vonkaar said:

Ya'll are gonna love the nixie thermometer. AFAIK, it's never been done before.

Click to expand...

Details? Links? Sounds interesting.

Like this, but in thermometer form?

Aye. My tubes are better though =p. I don't really like the side-viewing tubes. You'll see the tubes tonight. I should probably stop talking about the nixie thermometer, in case it falls flat on its face ^_^.

Man that HAS to be the Coolest Case Ever. All plexi with no corners and chrome-blue interior . . . it's almost a shame to put anything in there, just put some blue stuff inside the empty plexi-chrome case, put it over the fireplace and call it abstract art . . .

On the down side, i hate those big cases. but, i guess you need the space.

How many HDDs are putting in there?

emilio

one word: sweet

cant wait to see the final product

i think thats actually an Aopen H700a case I might be wrong but i think thats what it is.

mmmmmmmmmmm...

SS special silver edition. 8)

: ) :

awe yeah, good work with everything else

no actually i believe that is the case that I currently have (very close, the outside looks that same as mine but the frame looks slightly different) for the longest time i had no clue who made the case... untill a few days ago when i was determined to find out! and i did!

http://www.in-win.com.tw/

it is the q500 case i believe

it has a removeable mobo tray right?

That is slick so far, but then I am a sucker for shinny stuff.

nice work.

Alright... so, we go with a minor update.

The thermo-electric chiller.

I've seen lots of modified Vapochills and Prometias. I've seen hundreds of water-cooled computers. The thing that I seem to see the least of is TEC water-chilling. Evidently this is because it's considered an ineffecient use of energy and ultimately money. While that is possibly true, you can't argue the 'pretty' factor. Bulky compressors look too 1997 Kevin Costner post-apocalyptic nightmare prop and the standard water-cooling setup too often looks like a hobby-kit. Thermoelectrics would be the queer-eye for the straight-modder answer to attractive cooling (if such a show ever came to light).

In short, I don't see too many TEC water-baths... it's compact and offers a lot of modding potential so I figured out justification as I went. Cong me!

Anyway...

Modifying the chiller.

The original chiller was designed to cool lasers or something else that's both above my head and gets really hot. The first problem I encountered was that it was designed to work with 120vdc . Oh, and it pulls 550watts. Providing enough power would be expensive, so I decided to convert it down to 12v. There are 10 peltiers in the system, wired in series. Easy enough conversion ^_^>

The unit works like...


10 Peltier's. 5 on each side. Big heatsinks cool the 'hot' side, open chamber chills the coolant on the 'cold' side. Metal shroud covers the whole shebang so the 120mm fans can cool the heatsinks. The TECs are only 55w so this big heatsink works quite well.

Unfortunately, all of this is buried underneath a few inches of hardened insulation.
Observe:


So... I chip it away with my trusty bat-insulation-chipper (You Brits call it a flat-head screwdriver).

Slowly but surely the core and TECs started to appear. I was mindful not to break any of the TECs and I definitely didn't need to call up Marlowe to order 2 'new' units. Definitely didn't happen.



After all the chippage was done, I was able to remove the heatsinks and view the TECs in all their glory.


In case you are wondering... the gray cable goes to a thermometer controller and the red/green/black set go to the PSU.

More chipping finally reveals the seperated TECs and the liberated water-block. The block was surrounded by some supposedly high-end thermal interface fabric, which I of course scrubbed free. (I picked up some replacement pads from Marlowe when I... visited their factory).


Stupid 6 image rule... breaking up my posts...

The block appeared to be a fairly low-flow maze / fin assembly. Lots of surface area.


Anyway... I soldered longer leads on the TECs, remounted the block, TECs and heatsinks and then reinsulated everything up with a can of the stickiest, hardest-to-get-out-of-forearm-hair insulation in the world: Great Stuff©. The downside to this obviously long step was that I didn't save the pictures I took, so you only get the final result =/.


Next, I will sleeve up the wires (chrome, of course), run them through the proper holes and come up with a nice outlet to couple the PSUs to. The Lambda LRS series weigh about 20lbs each. Even though I'll likely never really move the case around (unless I become a Bedouin, in which case I'm screwed =/), I'm not going to stick a pair of 20lb power supplies in my case. It's going to be heavy as hell as it is. I'll just have to have a second conduit, make it all fancy-like and power the TEC chiller from the outside. No problem!

Another fun touch: I picked up a pair of some car-audio fuse blocks with LED voltage display. I like the idea of some protection, since I'm pulling 600watts out of the wall... plus, chicks dig LED voltage displays. I win on both! More on that soonish.

Sleeving is in the mail, chiller-mod will continue when they arrive. More mods to do!