Project Knex/Ghetto Watercooling: 56k Go Away

I

ikellensbro

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Feb 14, 2004
Messages
1,410
I have give the credit for the original idea of a Knex case (at least one that inspired me) to shadowbreaker513, and Ive expanded the Knex case idea into a full case. This is my first case mod, and so far Its going to be a simple enclosure that tries to copy an actual case, why giving the freedom of having a naked computer. So without further ado:


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The mobo tray, made in a really strong triangle design, and yes, its held to the mobo (ESC K7S5A) by orange zip ties. There are some gaps/differences in the design, so that I can use the Magic 4 Holes to secure my homemade waterblock.

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Those three pictures are of the hard drive/floppy enclosure that took about 2 solid hours of tinkering to get right. The hd & floppy dont vibrate at all, and I can safely hold the enclosure by the edge thing I added on the first picture there and not feel the drives moving around at all.

Now for the ghetto-watercooling part:



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The parts I have so far: 10' of Home Depot tubing, an Escort heater core (since cleaned heavily, damn that thing was dusty!), an Eheim 1048a, a bunch of nylon thumbscrews, nuts, & washers, hose clamps, barbs (since aquired more) and what the water is going to be held in: a (replaced after the picture was taken) 1.5" PVC cap!

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The current idea for the loop, with two outlets going into the reservoir (some container that I'll pick later) and the Escort HC with 4-80mm fans blowing on it.

My plans right now are to stick the floppy/hard drive enclosure, as well as another enclosure for a cd drive, the pump, and the reservoir under the mobo, with the HC to the side. Everything will have a Knex mount of some sort, so that it attaches the the bottom of the mobo, or with the HC, doesnt fall over.

More updates to come soon.
 
Did some more work last night/this morning, I finished the CD-RW mount, and silencing for my pump:


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Heres the front view, I had twist off the left side of that yellow piece to be able to reach the power button :p
(note: I resized all of the pictures to 320x240 to take less time to view, because theres going to be lots of pictures)


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Side view, the cross brace there is just sticking in the center hole of the yellow piece, but the tension is still plenty strong enough.


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Back view, you probably noticed that I used a lot of yellow pieces by now, I ran out of other pieces after making the HD/floppy mount.


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The pump, surrounded by some styrofoam I got yesterday from a free sample of body spray in the mail. Yes, the pieces are held together by toothpicks & rubberbands. Theres also a couple more little pieces inside of the grill thing on the front, LMK if they wont help with quieting anything.

I should mention now that all pictures are hosted courtesy of 1stclasspcs.com.

Feedback, my copper bar isnt going to come until Monday (damn you UPS), so I dont know yet if Im going to start working on putting in fittings for the heater core/barbs for the PVC cap of the waterblock (someone please tell me if I'll have an whirpool problems with two seperate outlets going into the reservoir, or if I should just have a single outlet).
 
interesting idea :D keep on working!
I remember I got some knex some (many) years ago on christmas and all those pieces ended up in the garbage...

like to see the result!

bye
 
Just a small update here, I think I might have decided what to make my reservoir out of, but I think I'll still need to do some modding for it to work:

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I would have used regular Dew, but I didnt have a 2 liter of it ATM. I think I'll make part of the top before it curves towards the opening flat, and stick both of the exit barbas there. Kinda like this:

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With pretty thick plexi holding things together. This should eliminate any possibility of a whirlpool effect happening with the flow from the waterblock outlets going straight down, to the bottom barb, and also giving the heat in the water from the block some time to dissipate before getting sucked to the pump, and back through the loop again. Tonight I might start on cutting up the bottle, because even if I screw up, I can just use another 2 liter bottle :p

I also have another item Im going to add to the res, whatever it ends up being, but I'll give you something to look forward to when everything's finished.
 
Is it me, or is there just something inherently wrong with "Diet" mountain Dew? I mean, it's like decaf coffee.... what's the point????

Anyways, love the rubber bands and toothpicks! Nice to see an "old-school" ghetto mod now and then to break up the 1.21 Jiggawatt modern "every-things lit up" mods. I say you need to paint the floppy, CD and PSU in colors to match the Knex colors. Make everything different colors of Krylon brite paint.
 
I dunno about painting everything, Ive never painted any drives before any part of my case period. AS for the 1.21 jigawatt comment, my 4-12" UV lights, UV rounded cables, UV blue sleeving molexes, and 5 UV/LED fans in the rig in my sig feel insulted now. Thats more of a lan party rig though, even though its in a heavy steel Raidmax POS case, but at least the case is red, and all the people at the lan parties I go to are my age & like premodded cases with as many lights as possible in them.

And if youre wondering, Im looking at Lian Li's or a P180 for my next normal case.

Back to what Ive made so far, I think I might have to remake the hd/floppy enclosure, it looks too clean for this setup. J/K, it does look really nice compared to the cd enclosure, which Ive added even more braces on the top to make things even stronger, and it looks even more ghetto than before now ;)

Im deeply sorry about the Dew bottle being diet, I will add that regular & diet Dew still have the same amount of caffeine, but diet dew doesnt make you so fat. I think the diet Dew bottle does kinda fit though, as Im cooling the XP1600+ with an $80 WC setup, which once done will be OCd as far as the K7S5A will take it, and folding for [H].

 
Greetings...

Glad to see you found a home for your ghetto project. I really didn't mind the posts in the A-C thread, but Dan is a little twiggy about things like that. Actually if you hadn't have found this place I was going to run a poll to see if we could adopt you as our mascot ;) I got a soft spot for young children with technological terror in their beady little eyes as they perform surgery on their latest techno toys. I've bookmarked this thread to see how it all comes out as no kidding I think that is the best AquaTube I've seen in a long time :D :cool: :D
 
to me it looks like your res is goign to have a bit of serious bubbling anyways... You're goign to need a baffle in there somewhere to prevent the bubbles from hitting the outlet (assuming the outlet is the bottom)
 
dude thats nuts

the floopy and hd cage looks great lmao, how much you spend on the k'nex? for the whole case i mean
 
Ive had the Knex since I was ~8, Im glad I havent thrown anything away yet :p
And diredesire, could you explain some more? I think youre saying that having the outlet of the res at the very bottom, pointing up, will have air bubble(?). If so, do you think I could just move the outlet to an inch or two above the bottm, perpendicular to the bottle, and then not worry about bubbles at all?

Heres an updated picture of the CD cage, it looks even worse than before, but with all the added cross baraces etc., the drive in there isnt falling out any time soon:

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Today I think I might be able to start cutting holes for the waterblock, and maybe also the for the res :cool:

Thanks for all the replies!
 
I got all 3 barbs in today, but Im still kinda high on 5 Minute Epoxy, so I wont go into detail too much:

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To get some copper pipe that my barbs woulod fit through, I had to get a piece of plumbing tubing, and then use a hacksaw to (badly) cut the right size piece off.

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Drilling a hole for the inlet, I had to use a widener & wiggle the 1/2" bit shown a lot to get the piece of copper through.

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The copper pipe through the hole in the PVC.

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The expander tip on a cordless drill, the barb & pipe through the hole, and the 1/2" bit with the huge drill I used.

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The barb sticking through the PVC, epoxied in very messily.

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The tube bent to make an accelerator nozzle, everything still fit :).

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The 2nd barb epoxied in even messier than the 1st, I made the hole way too close to the first barb to be able to fit tubing & a hose clamp on, so I had to expand the hole to the side & hold the barb to the side while the epoxy solidified.

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Nice pic of the accelerated inlet & second barb with all the epoxy I slopped in there :cool:

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The 3rd barb in, the ring I drew is around tubing put on the center barb. For the third barb I made sure to drill the hole at an angle & away from the center barbs to make things much easier when epoxying.

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Bottom view with all the barbs epoxied in, at least things are held pretty strong together :D

My copper bar is arriving on Monday still, and everything just might be done by Friday, when my schools next lan party is. Think I might win the case mod contect?
BTW, site for that is lan.hightechhigh.org for anyone who cares.
 
I have to say i havent seen anything more ghetto since my New Zelander Friend stuck a house fan to the top of his case to keep his 9800XT cool.:D

I like the k'nex idea is very creative
 
hmm... ghetto mods are always interesting. glad to see that i'm not the only one who has done cheap-ass watercooling here:p
 
Today I'll made the res, and I dunno if I should keep the Diet Dew bottle or not...I think I have some empty non-diet 2 liters around somewhere :rolleyes:. Think I need more 5 Minute Epoxy anywhere on the block from what you can see :p.

Once again the plan right now is for two seperate inlets on the res as shown before, with the bottom outlet about an inch or 2 above the bottom, going to the side and help together with about an ounce of epoxy :)
 
Damn man, this looks awesome! I'm looking forward to how this turns out--I'm thinking about doing some water-cooling myself soon, and I might just have to go ghetto.
 
ikellensbro said:
Today I'll made the res, and I dunno if I should keep the Diet Dew bottle or not...I think I have some empty non-diet 2 liters around somewhere :rolleyes:.
Click to expand...

You know hte BEST way to find en empty Mountain Dew bottle, right? Start with a FULL one! Come on, all this time modding, you gonna need 'yo caffine fix.

BTW, looking SWEET! Don't worry about the CD-ROM cage, the more Knex the better!
 
Got the Escort HC barbs epoxied in today:


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Popsicle stick for applying, yes the pick is crap, I was trying to do it quickly before my 5 minutes was up, and try to show that my hands didnt reek today so bad because I used latex for protection :cool: (not that way you pervs, you really think if I was posting here I actually did that?)

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Drying to make sure the epoxy wont trickle down inside, air blows smoothly out from either barb :)

I didnt make the res today, as my dad got me to realize that there wouldnt be a big enough area for the epoxy to attach to, the thin area would bend way to easily, and that I wouldnt be able to cut nice even slots for the acrylic pieces, of which I didnt have enough of that wasnt crap 2mm stuff that hasnt been used in 4 years as well. So, right now Im trying to think of some reservoir design that would let me use 2 inlets and not have a vortext form, and waiting for my copper bar & AS5 to arrive.

And as for the doing something properly comment, I am, as everything Im doing *should* cool very well, while still looking as fashionable as it does right now. I do realize now that I didnt mix the epoxy for the block evenly, as much of it is still a little sticky, partly from not being able to see if the 2 parts were squirted out evenly, since both parts are clear to give that pretty clear dried result.

Any suggestions on a design for a res that I could make out of tubberware/a couple small pieces of plexi with 2 inlets that wont have a vortex result? Also, for the shroud design on the HC, Ive seen someone use 4-80mm fans pushing air through the fins, should I make a shroud with a design like that or maybe 2 pushing/2 pulling?Im ok with using that many 80s, as I dont have any spare 120s, I have plenty 80s left over from the Newegg 15 for $15 deal earlier, and I can stand that many (quiet) fans.
 
Nice, I used to love knex and legos but now i play with my computer; way to combine both.

May i ask whay kind of epoxy you're using?
 
Devcon 5-minute clear drying, I think. I dont think thats the full name, I just looked at my last pictures, and added the 5-minute clear drying part. It works relly well.... as long as you make sure you get even amounts of both parts wixed together, as both parts are clear so the result becomes clear. My PVC cap is still sticky on the inside from one of the parts that hasnt dried yet. I might washi it out to be safe, there is still plenty of hardened epoxy in there.
 
I dont think Im going to paint it, because then everything wouldnt look quite so ghetto, which is part of the reason I made some a fugly waterblock. I still havent thought of a reservoir design, any ideas would really help.
 
i remember seeing someone make a res out of a plastic peanut butter jar. it looked like it would work very well. also, the plastic would be thicker than the plastic of a 2-liter bottle.
 
Hey, sorry, i haven't been aat the computer very much lately... what i mean for your res is that if you have water shooting into still standing water there will be bubbles forming no matter what and a lot of turbulence. If you have a decent pump whatsoever, these bubbles will be immediately sucked right back into the rest of your loop, and bleeding will NEVER complete. It kinda sucks, i had to go through tons of revisions to my home made res, but if you put some sort of baffle or something for the water (incoming) to hit first and "de-bubblize" (some people use a sponge or something like that, depending on rad design) then your design could work. As far as ghetto Res's with good properties, try PVC. An entire res should cost about $10...
 
I thought of another idea for the res, with all of the barbs on the bottom held vertically, with the two outlets on the edge of the cylindar, and an outlet in the middle:

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Would this idea still vortex, or should I start looking for something I could use to make the reservoir? Otherwise, my stuff is coming on Monday, so I still might be able to finish everything in time for the lan party.

Also, should I keep the cd & hd/floppy enclosures held out to the side of the mobo tray, or should I mount everything under the mobo, I should be able to fit both enclosures & the psu Im using under there, and find some way to hold everything reasonably solid.

I still havent decided 2 have 2 push/pull or 4 pushing fans for the shroud on the HC, what would cool better? I can fit & make both pretty easily, but the single shroud would of course be a little smaller, although size isnt too great of a concern to me right now.
 
2 Fans pushing, and 2 pulling would be best with equal CFM's. I'm really considdering making a K'NEx case now on a rainy day ;)

EDIT: I AM NOW [H]ARD GAWD YAY!
 
Wow, I was never really creative at all with anything, that is a sweet colesium. I just picked Knex because someone else thought of that, I had a box just lying around, I was bored, and I want to do something with some old hardware. Tonight I might make the shroud, I'll give you a clue about the material: it starts with "c" and rhymes with "hardboard" ;)
 
Ooooo! K'nex!


Here's the rifle I made when I was 13.
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It was bolt action (sort of, you had to pull a rod back about 8 inches and the trigger would release it.) and had an 8 shot magazine. It could almost nail a target from up to 50 feet away, and from 10 feet away shooting someone resulted in a welt the size of a baseball. A lot of the parts have fallen off over the years of it sitting in my basement, but most of it is still intact.


Anyways, I love the case you're makin' dude, but you should add something extra special. Like a classic k'nex ferris wheel or something that turns on when you power up the system.
 
I have to go to bed soon (school tomorrow.....), so heres a couple pics of the res so far:

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Sick gun there DarkMonkey :)
 
Finished up the reservoir today, I used a ton of Goop because of the lack of anything else to hold the barb to (no other barb close by):


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Hole drilled, then sanded a little to get all the shreds out.

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Barb in with a little Goop, the tube shown for whoever cares.

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You can never have too much glue, can you? Yes, the glue does block the bottom edge, but with a hoseclamp, everything will still be held down really tightly.

My copper also came in today, the bar was pretty smooth, but did hav some edges from the cut sticking out a little that I lighty sanded off:

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The bar itself, not the smoothest thing Ive ever seen.

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The best reflection I could get of the bar, there are distinct sanding grooves going up & down, which didnt really turn out in this picture. There are also a couple thick grooves, but those arent anywhere close to the center where the core will be, so I shouldnt have to worry too much.

I still need to lap the bar (duh), give it a good cleaning, and of course drill some simple grooves a la WW where the accelerator pipe will splash down on. BTW, I washed out the PVC cap & the inside isnt so sticky now, it shouldnt really do anything bad in the water if any gets in the water. My AS5 still hasnt come yet (damn you SVC! First Class mail for a 1 ounce package should already be here for a Thursday order, when the shipping is only from San Jose to San Diego...), but I think I can still finish everything in time for the lan party on Friday. Later tonight I might start working on the shrouds, I got more duct tape to be ready :)
 
ikellensbro said:
The bar itself, not the smoothest thing Ive ever seen.
Click to expand...
that's what 1000 grit sandpaper is for:cool: you can read with the base of most of my heatsinks/waterblocks (at least before they cloud up from thermal paste) damned flat, too.

are you going to do anything to the bar? (grooves, etc.)
 
What are the dimensions of that heater core? And what year/trim escort was it from? It looks like the perfect size for the wood cube case I am planning.
 
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