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The main point of this post is to hopefully get some constructive feedback on what I could have done or tried that might have worked better. And yes I know my skills with a cutter need more work. A couple of unwanted scratches on the case only gives it more character.

This is where I want to mount my rad, as you can see I have placed it upside down on top of the case. Since I can’t mark the wholes easily I need to make a template


Here is the basic template


With all the cut points for in-out waterholes, fans and screws




Ta-da case with holes


Praise be to the inventor of black insulation tape


Here’s the rad in place as see inside the case


More black insulation tape to remove the site of Red, White & Black wire that just gets in the way. I also had to route the other fan’s wires under the fan in picture to try and hide as much wiring as possible


Here’s everything setup and doing the leak test


Same again but this time in blue


Here’s everything setup and running… anybody spot the problem here???


Finally it’s all finished… and time to play F.E.A.R


After all this work I’m pissed that my SLI setup gets in the way of the waterblock for the chipset. The waterblock is just 3cm too high for bottom card it can rest on the PCI-Express slot but it just can’t be pushed in. While the top card is ok if I bend a couple of those fins on the Zalman VF700-cl. A flatter waterblock and all would have been perfect. You can see that I’ve had to go with a CoolMaster HSF, which mind you is a hell of a lot better then the one Asus gives on this “Deluxe” model.

To the good stuff, my AMD64x2 3800 is now running at 2560Mhz with 1.5v MoBo Limit, temps 29 Ideal 42 Load. Previously it 2.4Ghz Zalman 7700-cl with 1.47v 39 Ideal 55 Load. I would be able to hit the 2.6Ghz if I could only give it more juice! It ran for 2 hours before throwing up an error in Prime95! But it’s solid at 2560Mhz. The RAM is now at 412Mhz 2.5-3-3-5-T2, with the hyperlink at x4.

All in all this took me about 3 days to complete and worth all the time and effort. Only complaint is that almost all MoBos place the nForce4 chip between the two GFX PCI-Express slots. Also with the water setup, the reservoir and pump are in the one unit which can make it harder to get out the air bubbles, I had this case completely upside-down at one point to get all the air out of the rad.

why don't you water cool your graphics cards also?

Not yet, I have one waterblock for the GFX and other is on order. I'll install them as soon as the other waterblock arrives.

Nice work!!!

Having to mount the thing externally would be a deal-breaker for me.

Edit: it's really fun and refreshing to see this kind of stuff in the TR forums. Don't see it here too often.

Having to mount the thing externally would be a deal-breaker for me.

could probably get a 120mm radiator that would mount internally in place of the 120mm fan mount on the back, or a dual 80mm radiator depending on the rear fan setup on your box

2560 is nice.....I had my 3800 running at 2650 last night after putting it together on the stock cooler for about 4 hours, then started getting lockups and ended up dropping it down to 2.3 before it was stable again ....what's with that, my AXP did the same, I had a nice overclock on it for a few weeks, then ended up getting to the point where it would only run stable underclocked....hopefully the X2 doesn't end up that way

You need a couple of fan grills on top. Wouldn't it wreck your day if something fell on the fan and stopped it?
http://www.directron.com/120mmfangrill.html

These are simple, inexpensive, and create very little turbulence:
http://www.directron.com/blackguard12.html

HEY!!! Those fans look like they're blowing INTO the case. Don't you want to get hot air out of the case? Please tell me I'm mistaken.

@flip-mode
Yeah, the original plan was to have the rad inside and the fans outside. And yes they are blowing into the case, I'm trying to defy the laws of convection. At the moment the only things generating any real heat are the 2 GFX cards which will be getting watercooled once my second GFX block arrives. Then it will just be my PSU & Raptor throwing out heat. So I don’t think it will be a big problem once the water loop is finished with the 2 GFX cards.

@jss21382
This was the first water build I’ve done. The idea was to make it simple and learn the do's and don’ts. So I went with a kit WaterChill CPU/VGA/CHIP Kit KT12A/T-12VX not much choice in parts. I’m happy enough with how it turned out and what questions I’ll need to get answered before the next lot of parts buying begins, as the next one won’t be a kit.

For stability I always do a 24 hour burn in with Prime95 + some XviD encodes on. I find that has a great way of crashing my PC normally very quickly if the clock is unstable. I ran my 3800 at stock for the first week I had it to get it burned in normally. Once that was done I started the OC trail & error part. I read that it was better to do it that way, I have no way to back that up with facts. But its worked out ok for me…so far…

@JustAnEngineer
Thanks for the links. Though I’ve been looking around Ireland for a supper that sells them as to get them shipped its like €6 for the 2 and €10 shipping! That’s just crazy money.

Pax-UX wrote:

@flip-mode
Yeah, the original plan was to have the rad inside and the fans outside. And yes they are blowing into the case, I'm trying to defy the laws of convection. At the moment the only things generating any real heat are the 2 GFX cards which will be getting watercooled once my second GFX block arrives. Then it will just be my PSU & Raptor throwing out heat. So I don’t think it will be a big problem once the water loop is finished with the 2 GFX cards.

Well, I doubt they will cuase any trouble what so ever pointed in, but I'd still point them out -- that way all of the rest of the components in the case will be cooler (Mobo, RAM, HDD!) But maybe it's just a nit-pick.

The general rule is you always push air, so it would mean moving the fans to the inside and finding some new screws a little longer then the ones I have to mount it in place. That said it would a bit quietter and I wouldn't need to get grills for the fans. When I'm mounting the GFX waterblocks I'll have a look to see if it can be done.

for automotive use pulling air through the radiator works better than pushing it, not sure how it works in this case though

You ought to flip them around on top of the radiator and see if it works better or worse that way with regard to the CPU case and chipset temperatures. There'd be no harm in trying as it seems that you enjoy to tinker around with your computer anyways and could report back with your findings.

OK, I'll give it a go this weekend and see what happends. The stuff I had read said I should have the fans blowing onto the rad... But if it works better the other way great means I can move the fans into the case.

Looks cool, but external mounting would be a deal-breaker for me, too.

IMO, Channel or "C" molding looks better than the black tape.

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/ ... ts_id=1877

I have a case like it , I thought they were designed to put the water cool system in the back of the case , I know yours is custom built and all , i was wondering if you considered that
nice job by the way

@SpotTheCat
The original plan was to just cut two blowholes at the top for the fans and have everything inside, but since this is a midi size case there wasn't room as the PSU got in the way. Next case will definitly be a tower.

@Looking for Knowledge
True, but I have LOTS of black tape lying around doing nothing. I'm currently looking at moving the fans into the case as there should be just enough room between the top and the PSU.

@tsoulier
There are about 6 knock out holes at the back I could have run the tubes through. The problem is I didn't want them going anywhere need the PSU exsust, as it will blow lots of hot air over them. There's just about enough space to mount a single fan rad on top of the rear 120 fan, but my rad is '2 fan' so there's no room, no room inside the case that left either at the bottom of the case, again no room cause of sound card. So it endup on top. This case probible wasn't the best to mod, but it was the only one I had that I didn't mind drilling holes in. There's now enough room for 1xHD and 3x5"1/4

Keep the airflow going into the case. The cooler air is better for the radiator. If every major heat generating part is watercooled, the extra couple degrees from the air coming in through the radiator isn't going to effect the major components anyway, they aren't using air as the cooling method. Not only that but there is also additional airflow exhausting it out anyway.