[l3ored]

I've ordered some watercooling parts, but before I can install them, some modifications must be made to my case. I personally wouldnt call these mods "alternative" hovever, there is no place in the forums for "normal mods." The targets of my mods are:
1. Silence
2. Aestetics
3. Performance
4. Cheap

Here is what I'm working with:
Antec SLK3700BQE
Albatron K8X800 Pro II
Athlon 64 3000+ Clawhammer 512 cache
Mushkin LVL 1 1gb dual pack
Sapphire 9800 Pro
Hitatchi 7K250 160GB 8mb cache
Pioneer DVR-108
Generic floppy drive
Thermaltake Silent Boost
NEC FE991SB (black)
Logitech Z-640 5.1 speakers
Logitech Cordless MX Duo
'77 Bonneville heatercore w/AC (found in a dumped car )

Parts en route:
Maze 4 (used)
D-Tek Whitewater (used)
Eheim 1048
Clearflex 60

Plans:
1. 2 120mm blowholes at the top of the case. I will mount my heatercore in the top 5.25" bay, it happened to be a perfect fit between my psu and the back of the front bezel. Anyway, in order for air to pass through, the holes need to be cut.

2. *DONE* A fan shroud needs to be made for the heatercore, which will take up the second 5.25" bay. Since it will be the perfect width for it, i can mount drive rails to its side, making it easily removable... should I ever have to. I have access to a weilder in my high school auto tech class that should work for me nicely.


3. The side pannel. I cut a 120mm hole right in front of my video card and CPU. Now that its not used, it's gotta go. If any of you are thinking about a side panel fan, I highly recomed it. It dropped my CPU temp about 8 degrees celcius (load) (that number seems a bit off... but it is several C). I'm either going to put a window in the side, or a metal screen. I may even decide to do something fancy, like cut "l3ored" into it.

4. *DONE* In the name of silence, I've assembled a switch that sets my two 120mm fans to 12v, 7v, or off.

5. Relay for the pump. This shouldnt be any harder than the fan switch. All thats required is a 12v line and ground soldered to the relay, then a 120v AC wire and ground, and also the pump. Fear not, I shall use heatshrink vigorously and all will be good.
6. *DONE* Replace LED's. I want to replace the power led in my case (which has been replaced with a blue one) with a nicer green one. I also want to swap the blaringly bright led in my center speaker, with a more subtle green one pulled from a floppy drive.


7. Possible voltmod on the video card. Since its watercooled, why not?

Thats all for now, I'll be back with blowhole pics whenever it happens.

[Brundle Fly]

Buying a pre-modded case is "normal", modding it yourself is the "alternative" way. Sounds cool so far. Just so I get it right, you're going to make a shroud that directs air from the front bezel up through the rad, then out the top blowholes, correct?

Looking forward to more pics.

[l3ored]

Not exactly. the shroud will just be 1" thick and will direct all airflow from 2 120mm fans through the heatercore, this is a common thing to do with watercooling. I have yet to decide wether I will be blowing air out the top, or sucking it in, most likely, I'll try both and see which gives me better temps. Hopefully I'll be able to decide what i want to cut out of the top today and take it up to my friend's house and use his jigsaw.

[l3ored]

Top pannel de-riveted and masked. Theres a gasket on the heatercore that I just made that will seal the heatercore to the top of the case, meaning all air that goes through the blowhole will have to come through the heatercore as well. I think I'll be going with wire screen for the holes, as I don't like the grill look.

[DeViL_909]

How are you planning on mounting the HC up there? I am about to do something similar and so far I have not found a good way to mount it up there without having some kinda screw showing on top. Keep us posted with how things are coming

[l3ored]

I'm going to weild drive rails onto the side of the shroud, and then the heatercore will rest in it.

For today's update, my pump and tubing came in. Eheim 1048 (I hope this isnt too weak) and 5' of clearflex 60.

[l3ored]

I found an LED for my case, that was an easy replacement. Then I tackled my speaker. I'd guess it took me about half an hour, but that blue LED is out and a nice green one is in that I took out of an old floppy drive. In my opinion, my speaker looks awesome, and its no longer blindingly bright. I also cut a fan shroud out of cardboard (honey nut cheerios box). This was much easier than weilding, I don't know what I was thinking. Another alternative to weilding that I'm taking is to have my heatercore rest on the metal housing of an old cd drive, which will have holes cut in the top to allow air to flow through.

[DeViL_909]

any updates?

[l3ored]

Ok, heres some updates: I recieved my White Water, t and y fittings from dicecca112. I've also acquired a dremel from my friend's dad. I used it to cut up the cd-rom drive that will go into my top drive bay, with my heatercore held into it with some steel wire.