PROJECT LOG Project Experimental Murmur

Name: my methods are somwhat experimental and don't always follow the established norm. Plus, this is my first real experience with case modding. The end goal is quiet, hence the second part.

History: This system was originally built in July 2008 with watercooling in mind. I had initally intended to mod the case and mount a 120.3 in the top panel. After building and installing the water bits (CPU only), I got lazy/cheap and just left the rad attached to a rad box on top. Then an o-ring failed, I didn't want to deal with it, so I replaced the CPU block with an air cooler.

Then I RMA'd the GTX570 I was using and it got replaced with a 660ti which has a blower fan with lousy acoustic properties. I decided that I needed a project for the summer and that water cooling the CPU and GPU would give me something to do AND solve my noise issue. Win win. I had wanted to get the GPU under water since I built this in 2008 anyway.

System specs: (strikeouts indicate changed parts, current part is listed first)

Case: Antec P182
CPU: 4670k @ 4.5 GHz
QX9650 @3.50GHz (it'll hit 4.0 GHz if I give it enough juice, but I definitely didn't get a "golden sample" in the silicon lottery)
MB: ASUS Z87 Pro (V Edition)
Gigabyte GA-P45-DS3R
RAM: 8GB DDR3-1866 (2x4GB)
8GB DDR2-1066 (4x2GB)
GPU: EVGA 660ti,
EVGA 750ti SC (miner and PhysX), GTX 570 SC, GTX 260-216 x2, GTX 260-216, GTX 260-192
Optical: Asus DVD-RW
SSD: OCZ Agility 3 128GB
HDD: WD 640GB Blue x2, WD 1 TB Black, Hitachi 40 GB (yes, from a dead PS3)
PS: Seasonic G-650,
PC Power and Cooling Silencer 750
Fan control: Sunbeam 6 channel "Rheosmart", Aquaero 5 LT

Water bits
Pump: DDC 3.2 with XSPC res-top XSPC acrylic top
Rad: Swiftech MCR320QP
Res: XSPC Res-top, Zalman Reserator 1 V2
CPU: XSPC RayStorm Acetal D-tek Fuzion v2 with quad nozzle insert
GPU: Swiftech MCW82 + Enzotech 14mm copper heat sinks for vRAM
Fans: Corsair SP120 x8. Push-pull on rad, 2 more in case Petra Yate Loons, Meds on mid/upper rad spots, lows on lower rad spot. Push-Pull
Tubing: 3/8 x 5/8 Clear Primochill LRT Adv Masterkleer
Fluid: Distilled/Filtered water, Copper Sulfate, Amsoil Coolant Boost Redline Water Wetter.

OK, let's get started.

This is the case. It looks good, doesn't it?


First build, Intel box cooler and all.


Then on to water cooling with awful tube routing but passable wire management.


That's the past. Moving on to current.

I decided I wanted positive airflow into the case for this build. The only way to achieve that would be to mount the rad in the front, blowing in. Eyeballing it revealed that it was most likely possible. To the lab! (garage)

Everything got dismantled except the front fascia. Eyeballed everything using the radiator in various mock fitments. This showed that the rad would definitely fit and I'd be able to keep access to the top two 5 1/4 drive bays for optical drive and fan controller.


Airflow with front mount would be a problem if I left this alone. The middle fan would wind up largely pushing against solid metal. Air powered die grinder and reinforced cutting wheel to the rescue, right?


Well, I didn't think this through terribly well. I should have gotten a stencil or something. Instead I just marked out some rough cuts and eyeballed everything. I wound up with this.


Finding material to put the fan screws through to attach the rad turned out to be more difficult than I thought. That took a few hours, sleeping on it, raiding the hardware drawers for some small washers to use as spacers, ordering some 5mm longer screws, and some time with a drill for some new holes to sort the whole thing out. In the end, I prevailed. It's held on by only 4-5 screws, but it's a solid mount so it'll do.


It doesn't appear as though air flow obstruction will be an issue.


It could use some further dressing up. I might address that as I move forward with it, we'll see. Maybe some flat black spray paint so that the grey doesn't "pop" so much.


It's not the WORST rat's nest of wires ever, but it's far from pretty. I'll have to do something about this when the water blocks go in. I also decided that push/pull was the way to go, at the very least to protect the radiator fins for now. Demiciflex filter screen for a 120.3 rad is on order.


Up next:

Water block install and re-install, new tubing routing, and some cosmetic cleanup. I cleaned all the case parts and panels with dilute Simple Green after the cutting was done. It looks almost new now. Too bad it's all hacked up.

As far as I'm aware, this is one of very few instances where a 120.3 got mounted in the front panel of a P182. It's not pretty, but it definitely fits.

More on this as it progresses.

Reserved.

Awesome work duder!

Bit of an update, there's been slow progress on this. I discovered my Reserator had been stored with a small amount of water still in it, and the biologicals ate away at the painted finish inside. It's trash, and I had to change some things around.

I finished modifying and painting the case. The rad mounts a little better now and I painted the parts of the inner case that could be seen with matte black spray paint. I don't have pictures of that right now.

Customized Enzotech heatsinks (cause who doesn't love custom??) to clear the mounting plate on the Swiftech.



The CPU block and backpate have been mounted, the motherboard reinstalled, GPU block and RAMsinks done, video card installed, and the pump got its new res-top. Only problem is the tube routing I had in my head flat doesn't work in this place called "reality". I ordered some angle fittings tonight, so the project will finally get tubing, fluid, and leak tested by the beginning of next week.

I hope. This "little summer project" has taken on a life of its own.

More done. The system is back up and running. Hooray!

Video card all decked out and ready for re-install into the system. I researched and delayed putting this block on forever due to fear of cracking the exposed die. Finally I took a deep breath and just did it.



Once I started assembly, however, I realized that my planned tubing was no good. After soliciting input from the forum, I decided some rotary angle fittings were needed.



Leak testing. Only one leak found, and it was caused by me. For some reason I didn't put all the herbie clips on all the fittings before filling. One nudge of the line going into the reservoir was all it took to make a mess. Thankfully the only thing with power was the power supply, fan controller, and pump itself. Plus there were already paper towels everywhere, and there were 24 hours of leak testing to go before the system was getting powered back on fully anyway.



It's still a bit of a rat's nest in there unfortunately. The double molex connectors from six fans are tough to hide. Depth is hard to see, but they're mostly against the side panel and not obstructing airflow directly.



I have to remember to get a couple shots with the side panels on. It didn't come out half bad, even if I do say so myself.

It's not the best beauty shot ever, but I think you get the idea. I got so excited when it all came together that I forgot to get good shots of what it looked like. The only item left is getting some filter material on the fan inlets.

Most recent rebuild/upgrades. Full system history in first post.

System specs:

Case: Antec P182
CPU: 4670k @ 4.5 GHz
MB: ASUS Z87 Pro (V Edition)
RAM: 8GB DDR3-1866 (2x4GB)
GPU: EVGA 660ti,
Optical: Asus DVD-RW
SSD: OCZ Agility 3 128GB
HDD: WD 640GB Blue x2, WD 1 TB Black, Hitachi 40 GB (yes, from a dead PS3)
PS: Seasonic G-650,
Fan control: Sunbeam 6 channel "Rheosmart", Aquaero 5 LT

Water bits

Pump: DDC 3.2 with XSPC res-top XSPC acrylic top
Rad: Swiftech MCR320QP
Res: XSPC Res-top
CPU: XSPC RayStorm Acetal
GPU: Swiftech MCW82 + Enzotech 14mm copper heat sinks for vRAM
Fans: Corsair SP120 x8. Push-pull on rad, 2 more in case
Fluid: Distilled/Filtered water, Copper Sulfate, Amsoil Coolant Boost