Modding Xaser III

[mtb856]

I'm on a diet, I'll just stick with the main course

 

[Vortexkrow]

i'll have the dessert

 

[archilochus]

Nice pic MTB, whats for dessert?

I'm on a diet, I'll just stick with the main course

Excellent responce.

i'll have the dessert

Tastes great/ Less filling

 

[archilochus]

Clocker, whats the update on the side panel fans..Did the 120mm's work out?

 

[NovaShine]

Darn link leads to a blank page. I wanted to see the twinhotties.

Do you have a balance control for those speakers? I mean fans. Custom idea, Clocker. tia chi, isn't that some kind of beer, or is that ching dauw?

Actually arch, the name is Tsing Tao, the official name, but the way you pronounce the Chinese name (it's a chinese beer, it's got a chinese name) in cantonese is almost exactly the same as what u said, maybe the Chinatown ppl mislead you a bit.

Anyway, i finally have something to show on the Xaser III modding section.

This is a more recent mod that were, though i did a few very minor ones earlier. Here are the back fan guards. Quite restrictive, so they had to go:

And with the internals installed:


Before, Ive also taken out the front fan guards with tin snips and then i took out the plastic spiral thing in the plastic piece that holds the filter to the fan. Later, im going to be replacing those org crappy fans with Panaflo H1A 80mms:



Side fan door bullseyes are also gone **hugs tin snips**

Anyway, going to be doing a bit more work on this case soon. Gonna have to make 2 big 120mm fan holes on the top to fit my dual JR-120 radiators and 120mm fans. Then to counter the negative air flow, im going to be installing a floor 120mm intake with a dust filter. Some nice aluminium frame Evercools. They've already arrived. Any tips on how to cut this hole? I think there were templates somewhere to cut to, but im not too sure where they are.

Then later, im thinking of mounting my Swiftech MCP600 pump on the mobo tray on the same level as the CPU block, as putting it on the floor would be annoying. It's an idea, but im not sure if it will work or not. I know it will fit, but im not sure if the mobo tray can take the weight. The water intake will be comming from the res, right at the top of the case while the next thing directly after the pump will be the CPU block, then GPU block, then NB block, then rad, then reservoir again.

Anyway, whilst im doing so much modding, im thinking of a way to cool my ram actively, just a slight breeze will do the trick. My ram's running really hot, the stick on the right side, which gets basically no air, gets up to 50 degrees on the heatspreader whilst the stick on the left gets a bit of air from the side intake and the backwash from the SP-94 runs in the mid 30's on the heatspreader. Any ideas about that? Not sure if the 120mm floor intake can reach that far anyway.

 

[clocker2]

I don't think you need to worry about adding a floor fan to counter "negative air flow".
Xasers are riddled with holes and are hardly airtight so those exhaust fans will find all the air they need without any help from you.

 

[archilochus]

Thanks for the heads up on the beer..I just spelt it the best I could remember how the name sounds..I remember its name from the spanish word..chingala..

Looking good on your case mods.. The templet for a 120mm fan is a CD...
Clocker is better versed on the H2O cooling scene.. See how your ram temp runs after the 120mm floor fan..I would turn the case upside down to cut the floor hole, from the outside of the case..The floor fan should pull the heat off of the ram as it goes to the rad. fans..Only testing will give the answer..

 

[NovaShine]

k, that would be great, thx

Clocker: Im not worried about the fans not being able to find air as such, it's that im worried about dust. I want all the air in my case, filtered.

 

[clocker2]

Clocker: Im not worried about the fans not being able to find air as such, it's that im worried about dust. I want all the air in my case, filtered.

If you've had problems with dust in the past then I gues that's understandable.
Before you cut the hole for the floor fan perhaps you might try just covering the the case interior (especially the gridded areas like the back wall) with a filter material...right now I'm trying the filters that Home Depot sells for floor registers, but Arch might have a better suggestion.
These areas will always be an entry point for dust anyway, so you'll have to deal with them at some point whether you do the floor fan or not.

 

[mtb856]

If you place the filter far enough away from the fans, their performance won't be degraded. I have the filter in front of my intakes several inches away and I can't notice any difference in the amount of air they move... and my temps didn't change.

If you're planning on a floor intake it's a little more difficult, but if you have the clearance you could screw on the shell of another fan of the same size that you're not using ( don't use a nice fan, b/c you can't put it back together after your break the fan off) and screw it on so that the shell is closest to the floor. Put the filter on that shell, so you have an inch or two of clearance between the fan and the filter. If you don't have a shell to use, you could easily make your own out of anything that you have laying around.

Anyway, hopes this helps or at least gets an idea brewing

 

[archilochus]

NovaShine, I see you still have the hdd cages installed..

 

[NovaShine]

To control dust, im thinking of having a good amount more in intake than exhaust so basically air would probobly be gushing out of the holes in the Xaser III instead of air + dust rushing in through those holes.

Basically, it will be 2 filtered Panaflo H1A 80mm fans in the front (39.6cfm x 2 under optimal conditions) with meshmod where TT logo is, 2 80mm "Clear Fans" bought at FrozenCPU for the side intakes (29.51cfm x 2 under optimal conditions). The only restriction for the sides would be a Blade Laser cut Fan guard from FrozenCPU as a windowmod is in the works right now. Found a sheet of scratchproof Lexan about 50% larger than my Xaser's side door for about US$7.50. Some pretty thick stuff too, would probobly stop a bullet.
Then there's the floor intake, which will do 80cfm under optimal conditions.

That's 39.6 x 2 + 29.51 x 2 + 80 = 218.22 cfm intake, under optimal conditions.

Then there's 2 80cfm 12cm fans pulling through the rads as exhaust and 2 stock TT fans that came with the Xaser III at the back of the case as exhaust. The two 80mms will amount to 160cfm exhaust and not quite sure about the specs on the stock TT fans. Restrictions on the 120mm Evercool aluminium exhaust would be a JR-120mm radiator at a distance of 3/4 of an inch (reservoir acts as a shroud) and a 12cm chrome fan guard. The back restriction as u may have seen is 1 80mm chrome fan guard.

Hopefully, that will come to positive pressure, but if not, i will probobly have to consider mtb's suggestion (i can probobly buy an el cheapo 12cm fan here, there are alot of crappy chinese fans out here, to use as the duct on the filter, though it may look like shiat cuz cheap fans are usually black and a ghetto cardboard mod may not look very good either)

 

[NovaShine]

NovaShine, I see you still have the hdd cages installed..

yea, actually i still do. I have 3 hard disks, 2 WD360 Raptors and 1 120GB seagate storage, it's gonna be a tough one just getting the hard drives to fit with the floor fan, the watercooling stuff and all, though i would list that as a future project after all the current mods are done.

 

[NovaShine]

damn you arch now im getting more and more ideas with that removing hard drive cage thing...

Maybe grab 3 zalman heatpipe coolers and mount the hard drives left and right on the front and one under the rear PCI slot... Awww man, why do i get this feeling that im going way over my head on this...

 

[archilochus]

Hmm, Just don't remove the platform from under the hdd cages,as this adds support to the case..Thick heavy duty double sided tape works wonders for mounting the hdd's .. I would also consider using larger fan in the front, to decrease noise and improve air flow...The stock TT case fans are rated at 27 or 32 cfm, if i remember correctly..Put those 2 Panaflos back there and get some larger fans for the intakes..I'm finished with 80mm fans..All of my case fans are 92mm now..




please don't quote my pic's.

 

[NovaShine]

damn... that's not a Xaser III no more.

Also, i dont think i will be using the tape, Raptors get HOT.

I can probobly mount a HDD like u mounted urs, maybe the seagate, but the raptors will probobly go round back under the PCI cards mounted left and right side by side (each drive is 3 inches or so wide and the case is 8 inches wide) with the power and SATA plugs facing towards the front, then have a PCI fan card, like the one from Vantec over the two HDDs, blowing air over them to keep them cool. mounting will probobly be 6 holes in the floor (12 in total for 2 drives), then putting screws through them and securing the HDDs.

This mod is probobly still a bit far fetched ATM, but i'll file that away for later use. I will do it sooner or later as the only tool needed for this is a power drill and maybe a few nuts to hold the HDDs above the screw that pokes out for the case feet.

thanks for sparking all the ideas arch.

 

[archilochus]

damn... that's not a Xaser III no more.

I call it a Xaser III 92mm Edition...THE FANMAN special.
Another way to mount those hdd's is have the center one in the center of the front intake fans..Put the others to each side of the fans..A simple bracket, from the mobo wall to the other side and down should secure them.. |-hd--hd--hd-L .The rake of the air will cool the hdd's as it passes them...I think there might be to much heat from the Vcard to put the hdd's back there..Just my nickles worth..

 

[NovaShine]

im not getting the picture for the HDD bracket.

If it's a diagonal bar that extends from the mobo tray to the floor with the HDDs screwed to it, it's going to be a tight fit, but it's going to waste alot of space.

There's 5" of space between my graphics card and the floor on my particular mobo. I think there may be enough room between for it, and anyway, im watercooling that card. The Silverprop FusionHL block should be arriving in HK this thursday.

One problem with the design may be that im probobly gonna be getting a TV capture card along with my Audigy 2 here in the PCI card slots. There may not be enough room for the Fancard to move much air across those HDDs. The Raptors are hot little drives. Idles along at 34 degrees on the spindle in my current stock config with the top and bottom bay free.

Im probobly thinking of putting other stuff in the area where the HDD cages may be, maybe a second pump under the floppy cage like Fushyguru's Ehiem so i can put the CPU on a separate loop alltogether and if i mod like crazy, maybe even fit a 2x 120mm heatercore, maybe a late model Toyota Camry's heatercore in the front intake to cool the NB + GPU loop.

Damn, even thinking about it is making me

CPU on it's own loop with probobly an Iwaki pump, nice cpu block, maybe my current RBX + 2 x JR-120 radiators (single 120mm fan rads) with a Swiftech MCP600 powering a daisy chained DangerDen Maze 4 Chipset block + Silverprop Cyclone FusionHL block on a BigArse radiator up the front...

Not that much money needed for that too... just a helluvalotta determination, a steady hand and a will to beg/borrow/steal a boatload of powertools.

 

[archilochus]

May as well water cool the 2 Raptors too. By the way there is a hole cut out of the mobo wall behind that hdd..There's also a 92mm fan on the rightside panel blowing into the mobo wall hole. Bluediamond made a nice "U" bracket to hang the hdd's under the floppy cage..He water cooled the hdd's also..There are some pics in this thread, around page 40 I think..

 

[clocker2]

NovaShine,
It occurs to me that you may be better off just making an external box for all of your watercooling parts.
That way your Raptors, which really can only be moved so far, can be dealt with in an effective manner without comprimise due to pumps, etc.

Also, all of that watercooling kit adds more heat into the case, not exactly what you want to do.