Lian Li A01 htpc - watercooled - 56k warning

Tremeloes

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 26, 2007
Messages
224
Hi, some of you might know my last build, a Lian Li v350 (watercooled) hit me
currently i´m building a little htpc which will replace several single components like music, tv, vcr...
basis for this build is the Lian Li A01. some people call it the ugliest Lian Li case ever but i like it:




Hardware:
MB: Asus P5E-VM hdmi
Cpu: e2180
Video Card: Onboard
TV card: ???
PSU: NesteQ 400W
HD: 2,5" with a Scythe Quiet Drive

cooling:
the important parts of this case will be watercooled
pump: Laing 12V
reservoir: OC Labs
radi: Cape Cora passive
tubing: feser 13/10 mm
cpu, nb, sb: AnFi Tec cooler

first of all i removed everything from the case i will not use later like hd and dvd cage. after that i painted the mb tray white (i want to have i nice black and whit contrast fpr the wohle case).




i thought this would be a nice idea ... but i changed it later again.


the water cooling parts arrived from AquaTuning:
my fittings:




pump Laing 12V:




OC Labs reservoir for Laing:




both together:




later more....
 
lets go on with the Cape Core 442:





i will only use two fans for venting the case. if i really need both i´ll see later.
Sharkoon Silent Eagle 80mm






at this point i sent my MB to AnFi Tec Germany. it is a little company which produces verry nice wattercooler and in my opinion the most beautyfull 775 cpu cooler which you can find at the moment. but you will see them later.
in the time i had no mb i was walking arround the case and after a few days i noticed that the white mb tray is not really beautyfull. so what could i do? exactly - i stripped down the case and painted it black.

stripped down


after 4 layers of black paint


i´m so glad i did it. it looks so much better in black (in my opinion)

still waiting for my mb i had time for other things. first i sleeved the laing and the case

wasn´t easy to find a good white sleeve....

next i painted the front connectors:



more to come...
 
after a few weeks i got my mb back - and the coolers for nb,sb and cpu. damn, they are looking hot. but decide for yourself.

the Cpu Cooler is delivered in a can. not a new but still a funny idea


and here it is




and that´s what it looks like on my mb:

i love it :D

first time all together in my case and a first test tubing:
 
next step was to mount the radi at the side panel.

it fits but it´s really heavy. i have a little problem with the balance of the case. i hope the psu will give the necessary counter balance.

now i had time for cable management and some sleeving....


it hurt but i had to make some holes into the case.


now you can see how the tubes will run


the case fans in their position:


the first problem appeared. i mounted the radi a little bit to low. the tube folded. so i had to attach the radi 2 cm higher. fortunately i stuck the radi with double sided tape. it was easily to remove. after mounting it 2cm higher i got a nive radius for the tubes.


i painted the slot covers black:


this is what i did so far. at the moment i´m waiting for same parts. stay tuned ;)
 
SICK........

That's about all I can say, definitely subbed on this one. I am diggin the black and white.
 
I think when I finally build my new stuff, I'm just going to send it to Tremeloes for photos. Nice work, bro. You have patience I can only dream about.
 
thanks. :)

at the moment i have same problems with the position of the pump. i wanted to put the Scythe Quiet Drive on the floor and the pump on top of it. but than the pump will be a little bit to high.
i think the final position will be: Scythe QD put on end behind the pump and the laibg directly on the floor...



edit:

painted some parts


and i sleeved the exteneion cable for the fans...
 
Haven't seen any radiator of that sort before.
It seems like it doesnt have enough fins to cool hot water.
But maybe the size of that monster will compensate for that :D
 
want to post a tutorial on taking pictures like that?

sorry, but i hate every single tutorial i have ever seen and i don´t think i could do it much better. all i can say is: know your equipment, know your light and parctise, practise, practise...
 
Dude that is sweet I WANT NOW :p

Where did you get your WC stuff because I REALLY want that Res ontop of your pump
 
Where did you end up getting the white sleeving kit Tremeloes? I was looking for one. Also do you know anywhere to buy "true, rich, deep white" connectors? The white ones that come on cheap PSUs aren't a very deep white if you understand what I am saying.
 
i bougth the white sleeving here: TechFlex
to be sure i taped thecables white and than sleeved than.
i have the same problems with the connectors. the ones i found are called "nature" and on the first view they look white but they aren´t "deep white".
 
I see from the pictures it appears you painted the case yourself. The high quality pictures show that it is an excellent paint job.

If you don't mind sharing, what sanding/painting methods do you use?

Also, I have been making some headway on finding "true white" power connectors. I will let you know what I find.
 
Scrap that on the connectors:

The floppy and sometimes a 20 or 24 pin are white but never the Molex or other connectors. Sorry

Best Regards,
PPCS Sales
 
@[H]utch

i found a shop for connectors . they call them "nature". on the pics they look like true white but pics can fool you. perhaps i will order them just to have a look.
http://cosh.ag/shop.php?dir=661&mucs=285#CO501R

paintjob: i start with wet sanding. i didn´t use a primer this time. after that i sprayed 4 or 5 layers color on it. that´s all. ;)
 
@[H]utch

i found a shop for connectors . they call them "nature". on the pics they look like true white but pics can fool you. perhaps i will order them just to have a look.
http://cosh.ag/shop.php?dir=661&mucs=285#CO501R

paintjob: i start with wet sanding. i didn´t use a primer this time. after that i sprayed 4 or 5 layers color on it. that´s all. ;)

Nice, let me know what they end up looking like.

Time between each coat?
 
Subbed, this look amazing, the pics are beautiful, teach me your ways....
 
[H]utch;1032911095 said:
Nice, let me know what they end up looking like.

Time between each coat?

3-4 hours. but it was verry hot as i did it (about 30°). normally i would wait 5 hours betwee each coat.


edit
tomorrow i will order the psu, scythe quiet drive, ram cooler and ram. so i hope you can see some progress this weekend...
 
just worked a little bit on my cablemanagement.

front:


back:

only the Atx cable is still missing. ;)

and i got news from my hardware dealer. psu, ram, sqd should arrive tomorrow.
 
thx, [H]utch


a little preview for the final tubing...

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Tubing looks sick. Is that solid white tubing or clear? Some pictures look clear some look solid white. Either way amazing quality.

I think I am going to try using some white spray paint designed for plastic on the connectors.
 
these are my test tubes and they are .... pink... :D but the final tubes will be white. 13/10 Feser tubes. unfortunately the quality of the Feser tubes is quite bad. but i haven´t found any other white tubes...
 
hmm, i´m using tygon in the other setup and i have much better experiences with it. especially the white feser tube snaps sooner than any other tube i worked with. i hope i don´t have to use smartcoiles in the inside...
 
I will agree that the Feser tubing tends to kink faster than Tygon, even when using thick walled stuff, but I still really like them.

I may have missed it but how many loops you plan on running in this? Also, you gonna leave that radiator 100% passive?
 
there will be only one loope and the radiator remains passive. it only has to cool down sb, nb and a e2180 and my home stays cool even in summer. so this should be no problem. if i add a videocard sometime i will have to ad two more cape coras.
 
next parts arrived:

Nesteq E2CS 400w

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Scythe Quiet Drive 2,5"

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edit2:

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that´s all i think. :D
 
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