Building an external Box

I love my watercooling to death, its quite and cool, but it clutters my case a whole lot, i bought a huge full tower for it and still theres clutter since the rad doesnt fit on the top. Anyways im going to go about building an external box very soon, as soon as i can find a place that sells Lian-Li sheet metal since that will be my next case.
Im going for something that is the same size as the Lian-Li in width and length so I can bolt it onto the bottom.
Here are some questions I have:
Should I get a second Radiator? Right now I have a Dtek ProCore but i feel confident with my skills to go to autozone and just get a chevette core.
Should I sell my MCP-600 and get something with more Oomph, iwaki or something.
Would sound deadening the box completely destroy my temps?

This project is gonna be fun I hope and when i get started, once I get the sheet metal and my work room back, I will take lots of pictures.

You gonna try and make a set up like a Promethia except for your WC gear? It sounds cool. There is a knockoff Lian Li by Kingwin (its all Aluminum and available in all colours) not sure how available it is in your area. A Lian Li sells for about $150 around me (thats the Candian Pesso folks) and there was a shop selling the Kingwin for $85. So for $20 bucks more you could get 2 cases Dremel the hell out of one case and have a front to match as well!

U Should see my "external setup" I've just chucked it all into an old rockport shoebox i had laying around Works great suprisingly.

I just built this for another member here at OCforums.com

Keep in mind that it will be crystal clear once he removes the protective film, which was left on for shipment.

This box fits under a case, and has weatherstriping to make it air tight. This way, THROUGH the rads is the only way the fan can pull air into the box.

Sound deadining wont destroy your temps, as long as you built the box so that the only way air can travel is through the rads. This is why correctly built external boxes can sometimes out perform in-the-case mounts.

I am in the process of making an external setup using a second duplicate case hacked in half. I'll ready to post a few pics soon. It's turning out to be a really simple mod. Anyone could do this.

Stay tuned!

Ok heres My plans for this so far.
Somehow I want to have a Lian Li like front with those nice holes.
I want to have quick disconnects between the box and the case, since one will sit on the other.
Im definitely shooting for dual Heatercores and dual t-lines, these are gonna cause a problem because i have no idea how to place them.
Im going to start building probably this weekend and im going to use Steel or aluminum corner pieces just like DOHC did.
I was wondering if i should make a door or just leave the top empty. I was also wondering how I would go about attaching the two parts together.

madcow235 said:

Ok heres My plans for this so far.
Somehow I want to have a Lian Li like front with those nice holes.
I want to have quick disconnects between the box and the case, since one will sit on the other.
Im definitely shooting for dual Heatercores and dual t-lines, these are gonna cause a problem because i have no idea how to place them.
Im going to start building probably this weekend and im going to use Steel or aluminum corner pieces just like DOHC did.
I was wondering if i should make a door or just leave the top empty. I was also wondering how I would go about attaching the two parts together.

Click to expand...

Madcow, I am going to be doing pretty much the same thing here myself. I am thinking about leaving the top empty as the 2 pieces will be attached together, (I am going to do that too) and since the bottom of your comp case is not empty. You are going to have to drill holes for the tubes to go into your case but where you do that depends on the position of your rads.

I am also shooting for dual cores like you here so might I make a suggestion regarding placement?





Here, the idea is to have blowholes at the side of the external box and have the fans on the cores pull air from one side and push it to the other side. You don't have to have the cores in series like I did here but I was suggested by UberBlue that this might be a good idea. In addition, you don't have to have the pump hose coming out of the back of the case and you could try to have it come out of the top like the hose coming out of the rad BUT then you might have some trouble getting the pump hose out of the top of the box without kinks and lots of bending. It's always better to avoid bends as much as possible. The less restriction there is in the system, the better the flow is.

It's because of this fact I wonder why UberBlue suggested me to go rads in series but there must be a good reason behind that.

One more thing: I am thinking about keeping my bayres in my case, at least for now but if you want to have your res in your external box as well, you could put in right next to the pump.

One thing I am curious about is how wide your case is. Since you are going to attach the external box to your comp case and want it the same width and length, how long and how wide is your comp case?

Finally, adding some windows and a cold cathode might be a really nice touch to the external box, eh?

EDIT: I forgot to say how I was thinking about attaching the external box to the case. My initial thought was to use rivets all over the place and securely attach the external box to the comp case permanently.

I then thought about using some nuts, washers and thumb screws. That way, you could remove the external box from the comp case if needed.