lupy h2o project

C

canislupy

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jan 31, 2003
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Okay, got's a lot's a pic's, so I figured I'd trow a project up and see where it takes me (hopefully to completion...).

Project goal: build and uber 1337 water cooled rig that'll likely never move anywhere after it's forklifted to the desk. (I'm used to small and light, relatively)

List of components so far:
Case: CM Stacker 810
Water Block: Swifty Storm / DD Maze4 SLI
Radiator: Thermochill PA120.2 x2 (originally planned for BIP3, but dropped due to size)
Fans: Pabst 4412 FGML x4
Pump: Swifty MCP655
Tubing: 7/16" ID / 5/8" OD
Misc: a lot o' crap :D

Note: clicking on a picture will enlarge to 2000 pixels image, approx. 600-800kb.

Here's a general pic of parts I took:


Here are a couple of pic's I took to illustrate one of my original ideas for radiator mounting.



Here is a picture of the Thermochill PA120.2:

If you'd like to see more pic's of this radiator, you can find them in my gallery here.

Here we have some 3/8" BSPT to 1/2" barbs, then installed:



Here we see my 1337 sleeving skillz in action!


Burn baby burn!
 
cont...

So, after burning some plastic, I decided to try my n00b hands with the dremel tool, good idea, no?

Since I want to mount one of the radiators up to two CM bay drive cages, I needed to make sure it would all fit and line up properly. After a little playing around, I found that the PA120.2 would line up to the cages almost perfectly. The only problem left was how to screw the two together. Since there was very little room to manuever on the drive cages around the fan mount holes, I decided it was finally dremel time baby.

Here is a series of my butcher, err... dremeling work:





First cage mounted to the radiator:




Both mounted up:
 
cont...

After this, I then put the supplied gasket and installed it to the front of the radiator to make a seal between the rad and fans.

Here we have fans and everything installed to the case!






As you will note, I left a space open at the bottom, which is because the PA120.2 extends beyond the 6-bay coverage of the two drive cages. Thankfully, the USB/PWR module relocates nicely into the lower bay, clearing the radiator and fan.

To do list (in no particular order):
> side window
> install 2nd radiator to top of case
> drive bay reservoir (might be some cutting involved here too)
> re-sleeve psu
> everything else!

The rate I'm going I'll be lucky to get one thing done per week... work, yay. :rolleyes: :(
 
man, your stacker doesnt have the hole in the mobo tray for the crossflow fan!

that makes me glad i didnt wait for the 810.

oh, and your rad placement w/ the drive bays is very nice.
 
looking good, man!

you know the performance tradeoffs that you are making by installing the front rad like that, but it's a pretty slick install all the same.

did you pick up the pretty thermochill fan grill for the top-mounted rad?
 
BioPort said:
man, your stacker doesnt have the hole in the mobo tray for the crossflow fan!

that makes me glad i didnt wait for the 810.

oh, and your rad placement w/ the drive bays is very nice.
Click to expand...

Hmm, hole in mobo tray for cross flow fan, first I've heard of it. What's this all about?

Thanks man. The idea actually came from my cousin originally (those first concept mount pictures). Worked out better than going with my original bottom mount I think.
 
DFI Daishi said:
looking good, man!

you know the performance tradeoffs that you are making by installing the front rad like that, but it's a pretty slick install all the same.

did you pick up the pretty thermochill fan grill for the top-mounted rad?
Click to expand...

Thanks man.

Err, performance tradeoffs? Whazzat? last I heard from Cathar was push > pull... IIRC. :confused:

Will the HE grill actually fit? I know the shroud is differrent, so I figured the grill would be too, no?
 
Wow, looking great! :D

Having the fans on the other side of the radiator and sucking air will give you better performance, not sure if you can due to the HDD cages though.
 
Actually I'm monitoring a thread at OCA where Marci (one of the big wigs at Thermochill) is doing some inprumpto testing with some Panaflo M1As and the PA series versus HE series. The performance difference between push or pull may even be smaller then what Cathar suggested, though Stew is in wait for production versions of the PA series for formal testing.

The amazing thing is that with the Panaflo M1As, the PA120.2 actually equals or even slightly out performs the HE120.3 with the same Panaflo's! The HE120.x's work best with fans of 90+cfm.

Yes the Thermochill grills fit both the PA and HE series, only the shrouds can't be swapped... Thermochill is in process of designing a PA series shroud, though testing has shown that a shroud is unnecesary with the PA series, with exception to the PA160 which needs the shroud for fan fitment.

On a side note, I am in the process of a CM Stacker (original) water cooled project myself. Hopefully I can get a few more parts onboard to get a serious start... we can compare notes! I am going to mount a PA120.3 on the roof... move the powersupply to the basement. Thinking of creating a contained air-box by extending and enclosing the current power supply housing, so that cool air will be pulled from the outside via the original powersupply outlet, with the dual 80mm fan cover plate.

Love your idea of mounting the PA120.2 to the hard drive cages! I'm losing mine and using a RAID 5-3 enclosure... just too much planned taking up space!
 
in short... i too have found that it really dosnt matter too much sucking or blowing.

lookin good so far!
 
"in short... i too have found that it really dosnt matter too much sucking or blowing."




HAHAHAHA.. talking about water cooling is so sexy :)
 
Reminded me of the line from spaceballs... "She's gone from suck to blow". :D

ProHandyman: Good to know about those grills, though I've actually got another idea about what I want to do... dunno how it'll work out but we'll see what happens when I come to it.

I hear you on taking up space... seems like a lot until you start putting all the parts in.
 
One of the reasons that open air flow radiators work as well, if not better without a shroud, pushing air is that when they are mounted in the pushing position the fans have a built in back spacing between the mounting surface and the fan blades. A good example is on the M1a there is a 0.4" on the back side (pushing) and only 0.1" on the front side (pulling). This acts as a small built in shroud that helps eliminate the dead space under the fans hub when the fan is in the pushing position. It also helps the fan run quieter due to less turbullance between the fan blads and the radiator cooling fins. It's all pretty simple to figure out really, just look at the back spacing on the front and back sides of your fans................. :D
 
Bio-Hazard said:
One of the reasons that open air flow radiators work as well, if not better without a shroud, pushing air is that when they are mounted in the pushing position the fans have a built in back spacing between the mounting surface and the fan blades. A good example is on the M1a there is a 0.4" on the back side (pushing) and only 0.1" on the front side (pulling). This acts as a small built in shroud that helps eliminate the dead space under the fans hub when the fan is in the pushing position. It also helps the fan run quieter due to less turbullance between the fan blads and the radiator cooling fins. It's all pretty simple to figure out really, just look at the back spacing on the front and back sides of your fans................. :D
Click to expand...

Yikes! Either you have too much time on your hands, great vision, or my bi-focals need adjusting again! :D
 
Lots of time..............I'm semi-retired............ :D And I just got my new bi-focals............ :eek:
 
Bio-Hazard said:
Lots of time..............I'm semi-retired............ :D And I just got my new bi-focals............ :eek:
Click to expand...

Oh my! We are TOO much alike! Disability Filed, and needing new bi-focals! Hopefully I'll get some picks of my build up soon... especially the one of how many small parts you DON'T want to know a CM Stacker has! :eek:
 
While I'm technically still on disability, I'm now working in the software biz (i.e. little time to actually work on my h2o project) and plan to keep myself from having to fall back on that for as long as I can... and thankfully, I don't "yet" need bi-focals. :)

I hear you on all the CM stacker parts ProHandyman, these things come with a whole box of them... most of which I'll probably never use. I've been tempted to rip the whole bay locking mechanism out... hmm.
 
Actually, I HAVE done that... and way more! Stripped all the way down to do a custom paint job inside and out. That means all brackets, etc are out (including the drive rail system). Rivets are drilled out from top so as to ease the radiator mounting. I'm thinking of sending the front trim columns and bottom screen out for anodizing to match the paint job... ambitious I know!

I have so many notes on the build it's insane, but watching closely as this build progresses. I have ditched the OEM power-I/O panel and modding a 19 in one media panel and bulgin switches into a CoolerMaster Areogate II in it's place.

You can find a thread on my build's specs here: Snappy's Newest Rig
 
cool mod. Kudos on the awsome pictures you took, very well done
 
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