- Joined
- Jan 3, 2006
As the title said, you are about to be party to a great rebirth.
Approximately one month ago my life came to a horrendous screeching halt. An aire of dark had descended upon my room; unaware and naive, there I sat at my computer, minding my own business checking the daily Woot and my Ebay account. A near silent hum of case fans could be heard in the background, from the corner of my peripheral vision I could see the blood red glow of my motherboard LED spilling into my room.
ACDC "For those about to rock" is playing through on iTunes, a near boring evening is approaching once again in my room at El Cid. Like an assassin, sneaking carefully across the floor; a dust bunny makes it's way from it's spawn point under my bed towards me. My back turned, I am helpless to this oncoming behemoth. Silently it approaches, hiding briefly behind the leg of my chair as I get up to snag a drink of water. I return and again the coast is clear, the dust bunny approaches its target. A lumbering black machine towers from the floor. as the dust bunny draws near the black case remains stolid and unafraid. Never before has there been a successful infiltration, its superior construction and care ensure that it has been and will remain the most most powerful computing force in 4th Battalion at The Citadel. Sacrificing a piece of itself, the dust bunny creeps through the forward intake fan of the Dragon Full Tower case and proceeds with its dastardly ploy. Silently it creeps towards its target, a northbridge like any other.. humming away on an Abit IC7 motherboard .. watching over the trillions of processes taking place every second inside of this beastly machine. Doom looms in the air above; this noble component is about to inadvertently commit sepuku. The power controlled by this small device warrants its own small fan, gently circulating air across its copper heat spreaders. This instrument will become the death-bringer in a matter of moments.
The dust bunny waits in the air above for the opportune moment, Calculating the exact angle of attack. A slight power surge causes a momentary increase in the revolution of the fan. This is it; the dust bunny prepares to fulfill its destiny. A damning calm overcomes the dust bunny as it plunges itself into the northridge fan of my motherboard. Immediately it is ripped to shreds, its existence ended by 40mm of whirring plastic. A small piece of this intruder survives, and with its dying breath manages to secure a foothold between two capacitors in the general vicinity of my processor.
A flash of light fills my case, white energy pouring through the custom cut window of the case's left side. An audible “pop” follows immediately afterwards. Alarms begin to sound as temperature and fan speed probes are overwhelmed; a computer dies with blood-curdling, screeching death-throes.
The dust settles over the corpse of a once great machine. A small char mark just above the northbridge gives hint to the massive destruction that has taken place. The toll is heavy, there are no casualties, only fatalities. As the reports come in the tally grows hard to bear.
One Abit IC7,
One Intel P4 2.8Ghz CPU running at 3.1Ghz,
Two 1GB sticks of Corsair XMS-Extreme pc3200 RAM,
One Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum,
One Ati Radeon 9800 pro 128mb AGP GPU,
Two Maxtor 80GB 7200rpm 8mb cache HD's
One Antec Truepower 430W PSU
One Memorex internal DvD writer
One generic internal DvD player
One Aerogate II fan controller
Each of these components has met its end. Especially surprising is the PSU, which has somehow managed to MELT THROUGH THE CUSTOM ACRYLIC CASING THAT SURROUNDS IT. Each part has been bench tested and deemed inoperable. The destruction is extensive, but there is still hope.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I am writing to you now from a Dell Inspiron laptop. Having just completed the order for replacement parts and components. She will rise again. Reinforcements are on their way from headquarters to the front lines.
One DFI LanParty Ultra-D/Audio-G ATX-939 motherboard
One AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego socket 939 CPU
Two 1GB Corsair Twinx 2048-3200 pc3200 RAM sticks
Two 512mb Corsair Twinx 2048-3200 pc3200 RAM sticks
One PCI-E Sapphire x1800xt 512mb GPU
One Antec TruepowerII 480W PSU
One Lite-On 16xDvD 48xCD Rom
One WD 250GB 7200rpm 16mb cache HD
One Maxtor 120GB 7200rpm 8mb cache HD
One Chenming 601A Full Tower case (to be heavily modified)
This will be the platform upon which I will thrive. Parts will be waiting when I arrive home May 8th. Still, the issue which killed my computer in the first place remains. Dust. Even though I clean my computer thoroughly at regular intervals, my barracks are old. I sweep twice daily, dust daily, but alas the problem still remains. Waiting for me everyday when I return from class are the dust bunnies, which seem to have greater reproductive drives than their real-world counterparts.
Solution: Watercooling major PC components and passive, filtered air cooling throughout the rest of the case.
Justification: Let me first start off by saying that I am not looking for maximum cost/return ratios. Rather I am interested in preserving my computer. I attend military college and am a military contract. We don't get much leave, so I don;t have anything to spend my stipend on and my computer is really my only outlet from the daily grind. That in mind, I'm going all out.
Process: In high-school, my Senior Engineering Design Project was dubbed “C4: Cazenovia Custom Computer Cooling.” The project entailed building an external, ground-up water cooling system; and doing so effectively and at a reasonable price. I intend to expand upon that original idea and implement a completely internal cooling system. I plan to cool my CPU, Video Card, RAM, and chipset, (possibly HD's?) with water.
The radiator is pulled from an 87 Chevette I believe, and has two 120mm fans ducted one on either side. I plan to mount this in 3 5.25” bays with 120mm vents cut into either side of the top-front of my case. I have a MagDrive3 pump for the main loop, and will acquire a secondary pump sometime later for the other loop. The details of the loops are inconsequential as of yet, they'll be addressed later. Now, on to passive air cooling.
I plan to cut 3 120mm blow holes into my new case. 2 on the bottom of the case, under low power drawing air in, and 1 at the top of the case without a fan simply for convection ventilation. The only active air intake will take place through these 120mm fans, which I plan to mount over a filter tray. (I'm considering some sort of duct-filtering as it is cheap, efficient, and readily available.) I'll make sections of removable filter to mount between the outside of my case and the intake fans. Ideally, ill be able to change these out when they become dirty and maintain as sterile an environment inside my case as possible. The four 80mm fans that come pre-installed will be dealt with. Still debating whether to just make them all low power output, or remove them completely and allow the positive pressure within the case push air through them.
This is the plan so far. I have another month before I am on furlough and home to begin construction, so there's plenty of time for planning, schematics, and parts acquisition. I intend to start a work-log when I get home but for now I wanted to give everyone a heads up as to what I'm doing. I appreciate constructive criticism and idea proposal, but may not be readily available to check my post for updates. This won't be my first build, nor my first mod, nor my first water cooling experience. However, this will be the most extensive and involved project I've ever undertaken. Expect to see some tried and true ideas, as well as few that I call my own. Overall, I hope to keep you guys well abreast of where I am as I go through this build.
I have dubbed the project Phoenix for now, as I am still working on coming up with an original name.
Goodnight.
-Semper Fi
Approximately one month ago my life came to a horrendous screeching halt. An aire of dark had descended upon my room; unaware and naive, there I sat at my computer, minding my own business checking the daily Woot and my Ebay account. A near silent hum of case fans could be heard in the background, from the corner of my peripheral vision I could see the blood red glow of my motherboard LED spilling into my room.
ACDC "For those about to rock" is playing through on iTunes, a near boring evening is approaching once again in my room at El Cid. Like an assassin, sneaking carefully across the floor; a dust bunny makes it's way from it's spawn point under my bed towards me. My back turned, I am helpless to this oncoming behemoth. Silently it approaches, hiding briefly behind the leg of my chair as I get up to snag a drink of water. I return and again the coast is clear, the dust bunny approaches its target. A lumbering black machine towers from the floor. as the dust bunny draws near the black case remains stolid and unafraid. Never before has there been a successful infiltration, its superior construction and care ensure that it has been and will remain the most most powerful computing force in 4th Battalion at The Citadel. Sacrificing a piece of itself, the dust bunny creeps through the forward intake fan of the Dragon Full Tower case and proceeds with its dastardly ploy. Silently it creeps towards its target, a northbridge like any other.. humming away on an Abit IC7 motherboard .. watching over the trillions of processes taking place every second inside of this beastly machine. Doom looms in the air above; this noble component is about to inadvertently commit sepuku. The power controlled by this small device warrants its own small fan, gently circulating air across its copper heat spreaders. This instrument will become the death-bringer in a matter of moments.
The dust bunny waits in the air above for the opportune moment, Calculating the exact angle of attack. A slight power surge causes a momentary increase in the revolution of the fan. This is it; the dust bunny prepares to fulfill its destiny. A damning calm overcomes the dust bunny as it plunges itself into the northridge fan of my motherboard. Immediately it is ripped to shreds, its existence ended by 40mm of whirring plastic. A small piece of this intruder survives, and with its dying breath manages to secure a foothold between two capacitors in the general vicinity of my processor.
A flash of light fills my case, white energy pouring through the custom cut window of the case's left side. An audible “pop” follows immediately afterwards. Alarms begin to sound as temperature and fan speed probes are overwhelmed; a computer dies with blood-curdling, screeching death-throes.
The dust settles over the corpse of a once great machine. A small char mark just above the northbridge gives hint to the massive destruction that has taken place. The toll is heavy, there are no casualties, only fatalities. As the reports come in the tally grows hard to bear.
One Abit IC7,
One Intel P4 2.8Ghz CPU running at 3.1Ghz,
Two 1GB sticks of Corsair XMS-Extreme pc3200 RAM,
One Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum,
One Ati Radeon 9800 pro 128mb AGP GPU,
Two Maxtor 80GB 7200rpm 8mb cache HD's
One Antec Truepower 430W PSU
One Memorex internal DvD writer
One generic internal DvD player
One Aerogate II fan controller
Each of these components has met its end. Especially surprising is the PSU, which has somehow managed to MELT THROUGH THE CUSTOM ACRYLIC CASING THAT SURROUNDS IT. Each part has been bench tested and deemed inoperable. The destruction is extensive, but there is still hope.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I am writing to you now from a Dell Inspiron laptop. Having just completed the order for replacement parts and components. She will rise again. Reinforcements are on their way from headquarters to the front lines.
One DFI LanParty Ultra-D/Audio-G ATX-939 motherboard
One AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego socket 939 CPU
Two 1GB Corsair Twinx 2048-3200 pc3200 RAM sticks
Two 512mb Corsair Twinx 2048-3200 pc3200 RAM sticks
One PCI-E Sapphire x1800xt 512mb GPU
One Antec TruepowerII 480W PSU
One Lite-On 16xDvD 48xCD Rom
One WD 250GB 7200rpm 16mb cache HD
One Maxtor 120GB 7200rpm 8mb cache HD
One Chenming 601A Full Tower case (to be heavily modified)
This will be the platform upon which I will thrive. Parts will be waiting when I arrive home May 8th. Still, the issue which killed my computer in the first place remains. Dust. Even though I clean my computer thoroughly at regular intervals, my barracks are old. I sweep twice daily, dust daily, but alas the problem still remains. Waiting for me everyday when I return from class are the dust bunnies, which seem to have greater reproductive drives than their real-world counterparts.
Solution: Watercooling major PC components and passive, filtered air cooling throughout the rest of the case.
Justification: Let me first start off by saying that I am not looking for maximum cost/return ratios. Rather I am interested in preserving my computer. I attend military college and am a military contract. We don't get much leave, so I don;t have anything to spend my stipend on and my computer is really my only outlet from the daily grind. That in mind, I'm going all out.
Process: In high-school, my Senior Engineering Design Project was dubbed “C4: Cazenovia Custom Computer Cooling.” The project entailed building an external, ground-up water cooling system; and doing so effectively and at a reasonable price. I intend to expand upon that original idea and implement a completely internal cooling system. I plan to cool my CPU, Video Card, RAM, and chipset, (possibly HD's?) with water.
The radiator is pulled from an 87 Chevette I believe, and has two 120mm fans ducted one on either side. I plan to mount this in 3 5.25” bays with 120mm vents cut into either side of the top-front of my case. I have a MagDrive3 pump for the main loop, and will acquire a secondary pump sometime later for the other loop. The details of the loops are inconsequential as of yet, they'll be addressed later. Now, on to passive air cooling.
I plan to cut 3 120mm blow holes into my new case. 2 on the bottom of the case, under low power drawing air in, and 1 at the top of the case without a fan simply for convection ventilation. The only active air intake will take place through these 120mm fans, which I plan to mount over a filter tray. (I'm considering some sort of duct-filtering as it is cheap, efficient, and readily available.) I'll make sections of removable filter to mount between the outside of my case and the intake fans. Ideally, ill be able to change these out when they become dirty and maintain as sterile an environment inside my case as possible. The four 80mm fans that come pre-installed will be dealt with. Still debating whether to just make them all low power output, or remove them completely and allow the positive pressure within the case push air through them.
This is the plan so far. I have another month before I am on furlough and home to begin construction, so there's plenty of time for planning, schematics, and parts acquisition. I intend to start a work-log when I get home but for now I wanted to give everyone a heads up as to what I'm doing. I appreciate constructive criticism and idea proposal, but may not be readily available to check my post for updates. This won't be my first build, nor my first mod, nor my first water cooling experience. However, this will be the most extensive and involved project I've ever undertaken. Expect to see some tried and true ideas, as well as few that I call my own. Overall, I hope to keep you guys well abreast of where I am as I go through this build.
I have dubbed the project Phoenix for now, as I am still working on coming up with an original name.
Goodnight.
-Semper Fi
