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illiterate
Weaksauce
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2004
- Messages
- 70
I actually finished this a long time ago. It's a proof-of-concept more than anything else, since I had never seen it done. There are problems with it, it's not nearly as clean as it could be, and if I had another shot at it I'm confident I could do much better.
The idea is a custom-made acrylic case where the case itself is the reservoir. I used 2" CPVC piping to make a frame for the case, and 1" acrylic that I cut into angle pieces to mount the edges. The top and bottom, as well as the 5.25" bays and the motherboard tray are permanently glued in, but all 4 sides are removable via 4 countersunk screws. Before I get ahead of myself:
see what I mean now? It's a bit dusty since it's been our media box for a while, but you get the idea. It's got a heatercore from a 1970 Buick LeSabre for a radiator, and an Eheim 1250 for a pump. I needed a big pump because it had to hit CPU, GPU and chipset and then be split with two Ts to go to the uprights. In each upright it has a copper fitting that I made with a couple holes in the sides. They distribute the water for a waterfall effect in the uprights. It works pretty well.
here's some more:
Front. The fan grill is actually painted just like the pump and heatercore.
Back. Unfortunately I didn't totally think through this. Know how your cards are recessed in the back panel of your case? That's kind of hard to do with acrylic. I should've looked at how other Acrylic cases do this before I had the design basically finished.
Behind the Mobo tray, this is kind of a cool view
Closeup of one of the fittings. You can see how much caulk I had to use. This is because I tried to put them in at an angle and didn't have the right size bit. Doing it again I could eliminate the caulking at this step if I were smart enough to have just gone straight for an ultra snug fit for the fittings.
With some lights on:
Like I said, it's a proof of concept, my first attempt at something like this. It's really rough, and I would love a chance to start from scratch to make it more professional. It was horridly expensive to do, the case parts alone cost upwards of $200, and that's without the cost of the water cooling gear. Still - it cools very well and the fittings are all snug. Nothing leaks at all, though I'm a bit worried about it in our living room under all the abuse of my roommates.
No wiring comments please, by the time I was getting a computer in this case I was just making it work, not worrying about how it all looks.
more pictures here
The idea is a custom-made acrylic case where the case itself is the reservoir. I used 2" CPVC piping to make a frame for the case, and 1" acrylic that I cut into angle pieces to mount the edges. The top and bottom, as well as the 5.25" bays and the motherboard tray are permanently glued in, but all 4 sides are removable via 4 countersunk screws. Before I get ahead of myself:
see what I mean now? It's a bit dusty since it's been our media box for a while, but you get the idea. It's got a heatercore from a 1970 Buick LeSabre for a radiator, and an Eheim 1250 for a pump. I needed a big pump because it had to hit CPU, GPU and chipset and then be split with two Ts to go to the uprights. In each upright it has a copper fitting that I made with a couple holes in the sides. They distribute the water for a waterfall effect in the uprights. It works pretty well.
here's some more:
Front. The fan grill is actually painted just like the pump and heatercore.
Back. Unfortunately I didn't totally think through this. Know how your cards are recessed in the back panel of your case? That's kind of hard to do with acrylic. I should've looked at how other Acrylic cases do this before I had the design basically finished.
Behind the Mobo tray, this is kind of a cool view
Closeup of one of the fittings. You can see how much caulk I had to use. This is because I tried to put them in at an angle and didn't have the right size bit. Doing it again I could eliminate the caulking at this step if I were smart enough to have just gone straight for an ultra snug fit for the fittings.
With some lights on:
Like I said, it's a proof of concept, my first attempt at something like this. It's really rough, and I would love a chance to start from scratch to make it more professional. It was horridly expensive to do, the case parts alone cost upwards of $200, and that's without the cost of the water cooling gear. Still - it cools very well and the fittings are all snug. Nothing leaks at all, though I'm a bit worried about it in our living room under all the abuse of my roommates.
No wiring comments please, by the time I was getting a computer in this case I was just making it work, not worrying about how it all looks.
more pictures here
