Modding Xaser III

[archilochus]

Looking good there Baltoos.. Rose should be one happy camper. I like your figure 8 cut for the rear fans, looks sharp..

Vortexkrow, Welcome to the fun, I mean addiction.

Clocker, you still hanging out in water cooling? Defeating the laws of cooling. Have you found any body armor yet?

 

[clocker2]

Well, I was hanging out up there, but gee, I don't think I'm smart enough.

Those guys know SCIENCE.

 

[Reefa_Madness]

I just dropped in to see how everyone was doing. I see that the wit and humor is still out nforce (Clocker, that was for you and your Abit, you still do have it don't you?). Darn, aren't I punny??? Of course, there are those that would say that the right word in 'puny', but then they haven't seen my profile, either.

All kidding aside, do you guys realize just how close you are (this thred) to 60,000 views? That is truly amazing, and a testament to your committment. You've helped many people sort out their problems in these pages.


Man, how I hate it when I don't catch my typos.

 

[Vortexkrow]

Sorry Vortexkrow, this is not personal...

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS "THE BEST" WATERCOOLING!
Or anything else, for that matter.

Sorry, but this has become a personal crusade of late.
If all our PCs were identical, AND someone had tested EVERY SINGLE possible configuration, then you could say with confidence that "this is the best".

Obviously this is not the case.

Anytime someone asks about the "best this" or the "best that" responses flood in claiming "brand x" is the best in the whole world.
I always wonder if brand x is the ONLY type that the respondee has ever tried and it worked, so it became the "best".

The phrase "Your results may vary" should be automatically added by the board software every time it sees the phrase "this is the best".
It would save a lot of disappointment down the road.

Read up in the watercooling section and make an informed decision.
Then see if your expectations are met.
Keep modifying till they are.

Now you have "the best" for YOUR system.
Please refrain from then claiming that your system is the best for someone else though.

I sure learned something

 

[clocker2]

I just dropped in to see how everyone was doing. I see that the wit and humor is still out nforce (Clocker, that was for you and your Abit, you still do have it don't you?). Darn, aren't I punny??? Of course, there are those that would say that the right word in 'puny', but then they haven't seen my profile, either.

Nice to see you Reefa, consider your pun stolen.

I shall hoard it away and casually toss it out into the fray sometime.

If I have developed a sense of class by then, I may even give you credit.

 

[The Enforcer]

Has anyone heard from Vrykyl lately? I wonder how his rig TWISTER is doing..
KEEP YOUR FLOW UP & TEMPS DOWN

hes back home from uni atm, and i think hes heading south to his girlfriends to get a job(and some other things ) at the end of the week

 

[mtb856]

Hey guys

I just got my grill from arch this afternoon, and I wasted no time in removing the stock, incredibly restrictive front bezel on my case. Thanks, arch .

The plan was to do a mod like Moby's, cut out the plastic bezel and install the alum. grill in it's place. So, I went out to my dad's garage to do some modding.
Here's pic one... this is the bezel taped and ready to have surgery.

Pic two is of my dad's garage... and his baby, the Beemer R1150-GS ... along with my brother standing next to our Jeep

Pic 3 is the bezel already cut and ready for grinding... I used a jigsaw to cut out the bezel... and a high-speed metal file that goes in a drill to smooth out the plastic edges.

Pic 4 is the bezel is already fitted with the beautiful grill... I just bent it with my hands to shape it... and the tools of the trade used to keep dust out: one piece of stocking, and one bottle of Elmer's Glue.

Pic 5 is the grill with the filter glued on... I didn't go with a black pantyhose b/c it would turn white from the dust anyway... and white was available at the house ( my mom's, not mine )

Pics 6 & 7 are of the finished product... didn't lower my temps any, but the noise from my front fans dropped considerably, making it more than worth it.

Sorry if this post is huge, I'll make the pics links if it's any trouble later on. Thanks again arch for sending me the grill material

 

[clocker2]

Looks very nice.
Any reduction, temp OR noise, is worthwhile.

 

[Reefa_Madness]

Clocker,

I was kinda proud of myself on that one. And please don't consider it stolen, just borrowed, as you have my permission to use it at any time you deem appropriate. I trust your sense of timing.

Hope everyone has a great holiday and gets out and about.

 

[archilochus]

Custom, MTB... Very nice pic layout..I'm glad I was able to help you on the grill material.. Do you remove the frt. grill to clean the filter? Will your brother do the same to his case? He could make the diamonds point in a diff. direction if he needs it to be diff. from yours.

 

[clocker2]

A few days ago while practising Tai-chi and honing my miming skills* I espied a set of el-cheapo speakers by the roadside.
Strangely attracted, I picked one up to study and something clicked....I wasn't sure what, but I was compelled to rescue them.

They joined the rest of my study objects- things I gaze upon and dream up uses for, until today, when a combination of factors came together and they went from junk speakers to potential Sprocket parts.

My temporary fling with watercooling was about to come to an end ( for a variety of reasons not germaine to this topic) and Sprock was going to be breathing pure air again.
This time round I wanted to explore a slightly different airflow config and my eye happened upon the speakers and viola! it all came together.

But, would it work?

Here is the speaker in question....

And here it is with the front bezel removed...

Can you see what caught my attention yet?
Flipping the bezel over, I tried the proof of concept...

Man, don't you just love when a plan comes together?
A PERFECT fit for a 92mm fan.
Now, if I could manage to remove it, I would have a beautiful turbine intake-look bezel/duct for my fans....

Out comes the Dremel (one of the few times ever) and in a matter of minutes....

You gotta love working with plastic.
Well, most of the time anyway.
This next step was nerve-wracking....it's hard to securely chuck up a part like this cause it flexes.
Disaster waiting to happen...

It took a while, but I was finally able to true the edge and flatten the back of the rim.
Scary, but successful.

Now, a bit of nibbling on the sidepanel, some GOOP adhesive, a pair of trimmed down 120mm fingerguards and two 92mm fans later, we have this...

Sprocket's new side intakes/ducts.
The lower of the two bathes the video card and southbridge, the upper washes over the northbridge and the Zalman 7000 HS.
Initially I plan on trying her out with ONLY these two fans...no other intakes or exhausts.
We'll see how that goes and add as necessary.
The front of the case is already setup for a 120mm intake and the rear for twin 92mm exhausts so I have expandability well in hand, but the plan is to see just how minimum a setup I can get away with.
I'm figuring that with the current hot temps (no AC on though) that my room ambient is about 25c or so.
If I could get an idle temp of 40c, that would be pretty good assuming the noise level is as low as I expect.
I have to let the adhesive setup for a while longer, then we'll see.


*OK, I lied...I was taking out the trash and one of my neighbors was tossing these out.

I might TRY tai-chi someday though.


Oh hell, who am I kidding?

 

[mtb856]

I have the filter attached by glue, so I have to remove the bezel to clean it... what I usually do is just pull it off ( the glue isn't very strong, so it's easy to pull off) and then wash it under the sink and let it dry. Not as easy as some setups, but the pantyhose picks up a lot of dust and still lets a good amount of air through.

Zach's planning on doing the same thing as soon as he has some spare time, he liked how it dropped the noise from my intake fans. We both don't really care if our cases look the same from the outside (We're twins... we look the same on the outside, but we're totally different on the inside ).

 

[clocker2]

(We're twins... we look the same on the outside, but we're totally different on the inside ).

Really?

You don't do beer commercials by any chance do you?

 

[mtb856]

Really? You don't do beer commercials by any chance do you?

No, but our girlfriends do TwinHotties

 

[archilochus]

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?

 

[clocker2]

I believe you mean Tsing Tao, Arch.

Looking over my original post I realized that the pics do not give a good view of just how deep these ducts are.
This should help clarify...

Just getting ready to install the case skin now.
Running naked, Sprocket's temps are:

Case ( whatever that means): 16c

CPU: 36c

Video card:40c

Remember, this is with only the HSF and the southbridge fan running ( well, OK, the PSU also), so any changes with the skin installed will be due to the additional fans/ducts.

Here we go!

 

[archilochus]

Yes thats the one...Its been almost 18 years since my last drink of alchohol... Clocker is Sprocket holding back AIM? You best get some side panels on her, she's feeling vertiginous..

 

[mtb856]

okay, the pic is fixed... you guys can look at the twin hotties now

 

[clocker2]

Love your dress, Senator.

 

[archilochus]

Nice pic MTB, whats for dessert?