External WC setup using Acrylic Football Display

[MoreGooder]

Yep, you read that correctly. I used an Acrylic football display case to house an external water cooling system.

I've long debated what to do about my rediculously loud, frustratingly unstable computer. I tried using some of the best air cooling solutions out there, but the noise was driving me nuts. I discovered watercooling, and being the creative type, I decided to embark on my own design.

The basics of the system are not that unusual really: Pump, Radiator, CPU water block, GPU water block and Reservoir. However, I decided I wanted an external system that would hold large cooling components, such as a Chevy heater core, a MAG 3 pump, a large reservoir, with room for fans.

First, some initial info:

Intel P4 2.4C
Asus P4C800 Deluxe
Corsair PC3700 DDR memory
ATI All In Wonder 9800 Pro (and, yes, it's water cooled)
2 unremarkable IDE hard drives, CD roms and such.
All of this crammed into a Ahanix Platinum Pro ATX case.
Air cooling consisted of the two case fans that came with the case, a Zalman 7000A-ALCU CPU cooler, and dual fan generic power supply from CompUSA.

Well, there wasn't enough room in the Ahanix case for a "real" water cooling system. The tiny ones with 3/8" tubing seemed too whimpy for my taste, so I opted for an external 1/2" tubing solution.

After much searching, I happened across an ebay'er selling acrylic football display cases:

(continued on next post)

 

[9mmCensor]

Thats genious. Perfect size and shape. Nice find.

 

[Korndog]

yea, saw all shapes and sizes at a store call the container store if u've ever heard of it, check it out. wanted to do that, but dont' know how to make a good hole in acrylic

 

[MoreGooder]

OK, so for some reason I can't finish posting my pics. Gotta figure out how this whole forum posting thing works..

Shrug...

MoreGooder

 

[Korndog]

pics can't be over 640x480 i think maybe thats it?

 

[9mmCensor]

Post reply...

If you have them uploaded to a server (yours ISP... etc) then use the IMG button (above where you type ur post) or

you attach them at the bottom of the post (ATTACH FILE) click browse locate file then submit reply

 

[MoreGooder]

The concept I had was to put all of the external cooling components on the top of the computer case so that it can be easily maintained plus strike up conversations by looking outrageous. The dimensions of the case as described seemed perfect so I preceded with my plan.

I also purchased all of the various bits for the system from the lowest price etailers I could find. The whole shopping process took the better part of 2 months. Patience pays when shopping for this stuff. I picked up a used radiator from another ebayer, the water blocks from Swiftech, and the MAG3 pump from an aquarium/pet fish supply etailer.

I realized after I had everything in hand that it would not all fit easily into the football display case. So, I contacted the ebayer that sold me the case and upgraded to one that is intended to hold a football and a miniature helmet. (Sorry, no pic of it with a football and hemet, but you'll see it with my stuff inside).

Everything fits perfectly in the case. The most amazing thing about the display case was that the little shelf that is intended to elevate the mini-helmet is the exact same size as the flanges of 5-1/4" bay accessories! That meant that a Superflower fan controller would fit perfectly and look awesome!

I found a cool water reservoir manufactered by Senfu. Only problem with it was that it uses the metric tubing, but I found a way around that, albeit tricky.

Here's how the components look inside of the case:

 

[MoreGooder]

Next, I plumbed everything up with wire reinfored tubing from McMaster. The tubing looks great and will never colapse due to the wire located inside the tube wall.

 

[johan851]

That's some nice tubing...I should play with that myself. Nice job, your setup looks great!

 

[Spanko]

should you move the pump so its not right up agains the back of the heatercore? Would the fan suck warm air from the pump through? or no air at all?

 

[Korndog]

thats awsome man
*claps*

 

[MoreGooder]

I had to drill lots of holes in the base of the display case:

1. A hole for each of the runs of tubing.

2. A large 120mm case fan hole plus screw holes for it. (this was accomplished with a 4.5" bimetal hole saw from Home Depot)

3. Holes to support the base of the pump, which I later didn't use anyway.

4. Holes for super size zip ties for supporting the radiator.

5. A hole for passing wiring down into the case.

I had to drill matching holes into the top of the computer case.

Now, let me tell you, drilling a 120mm hole with a bimetal hole saw into a steel case is not even remotely easy. The saw popped up and jumped all over the top of the case just as it started to make it through the opposite side of the metal, scarring it terribly. Luckily, I had already planned to use a white shelf between the Ahanix case and the water cooling system anyway because the display case was a bit too long to sit securely on top.

(Sorry for the horrible picture. Black holes through black acrylic are hard to show)

 

[9mmCensor]

Commendations are in order for some great work and great THINKING.

 

[MoreGooder]

Here's the water cooling system during its 24 hour test run for leaks.




Look Ma! No leaks!

 

[MoreGooder]

Here's my puter when it was still air cooled, thus this is the "Before" picture. Notice the proponderance of ugly wires and general sloppiness.

 

[MoreGooder]

And here it is water cooled. Lots betta!

Some features to point out:

The fan attached to the tubing above the video card cools the NB and the back of the vid card simultaneously. It is plugged into the motherboard's CPU fan connection.

The water travels in series from the CPU to the GPU. And yes, those are 90 degree elbows extending out from the GPU water block. I discovered that if I tried to bend the tubing around from the CPU block to the GPU block I would run the risk of cracking my brand new AIW 9800 pro.

I read that 90 degree elbows are bad news, but I don't buy into that. I have fantastic flow despite having SIX elbows in the system. I think the reason my flow is still great is because I have a high head height pump and I'm using 1/2" ID tubing throughout.

 

[MoreGooder]

Idle temp:

27 C during idle, just about same as ambient and I wonder if it's truly accurate. According to the Asus motherboard, this is the temp of the CPU. It also reports the motherboard temperature itself at 32C. Humm... Curious, no? Motherboard higher than CPU? I suppose it's possible with a water cooled CPU. If only we could water cool the entire back of the motherboard!

Fully Loaded temp:

A comfy 38 C when fully loaded, overclocked to 2.89Ghz, and the AF and AA on my 9800 pro turned up all the way while playing BF1942 for hours on end. And, it's SO QUIET!

Things left to do:

1. Install my case window.
2. Install my UV LED case lights
3. Change out the Water Wetter with some blue antifreeze, if I can find it. (See my other post from this evening)
4. Drill a hole in the display case cover behind the radiator fan. I'm nervous about this one, because the ebayer that sold me the case is not ebaying anymore, so if I ruin it I'll never have a proper dust cover for the system.


And, with regards to the pump being close to the radiator: Yes, it is close, but there's actually more than 1/2 inch of space between the back of the pump and the surface of the radiator. I did an experiment by placing the fan and pump in various locations and discovered that so long as I had a little distance I could not tell any flow difference coming out of the radiator. As you can see, there's really no room left for the pump to be relocated. Ideally, this reservoir is too large. It's actually intended to be used with a small submersed pump, but I decided I wanted to use the MAG3 and purchased the res alone.

And here is my machine tonight, with a nifty cold cathode tube eluminating the water res:

 

[kusojiji]

Do you have any pictures of the unit with the acrylic cover on? How is it drawing fresh air through the radiator?

Good idea. I am thinking of using your idea.

 

[MoreGooder]

OK, here's a pic with the Acrylic case cover on long enough to take the pic. I can't leave it on it until I cut the hole in it behind the radiator.

I have a piece of "practice" acrylic I bought today at Home Depot. I"ll refine my skills more. If you look closely, you can see that there's a 120mm case fan positioned under the res and just in front of the pump. I had to drill that hole, and it wasn't easy. The acrylic chips like Lays. I might try to grind down the sides of the cutty parts of the hole saw to prevent chipping.

 

[penquissciguy]

Very impressive. I have been looking for an external enclosure for my new wc setup and display cases had never crossed my mind.

Slinking off to eBay....

Ken