Project "Impossible Modding"

R

RigoRMorteM

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 21, 2007
Messages
148
Let's start a new project!
This is my very first time to keep a detailed worklog in english, so don't blame me if my english is poor...
For this project I've made a lot of research and planned a lot of things to do, let's begin!
The main concept is to DON'T mod the case itself :-]
Shocked?
Let me explain somethig, this project is a challenge between me and Antanio, the creator of this beatiful case called CABE. My main goal is to add a water cooling loop inside the case without modding it in the outside. He told me that nobody was able to do that, and I've decidet to try to fit a water loop inside this little case...
Let the picture talk for me : the victim is a Cabe with smoked plexy top from Modd.it :

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Rear view :

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Lateral drive access :

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The guideline of my project are described above :

- No external modding
No outside rad, no extra holes, nobody have to imagine that the case is water cooled!

- Keeping the original look
The Cabe is made from steel , plexy and black trim so I've decided to mantain the same material and colours for the inside.

- Using a lot of italian water cooling gear
Here in Italy we have some guys that produces wb, so I've decided to use the most "Made in Italy" gear as possibile.

Lots of people in all the italian forums helped me with photos, measure, ideas and a lot patience, tnx guys!
But the biggest thank fly out to my wife AralT3, she is the best to support me!

And now, let's take a closer look to the Cabe to see exactly the amount of free space to play with :-]
 
First of all, the overall dimension are really small, ony 30 cm each side, less than 12 inches...
Taking apart the top, I can see the fantastic mirror finish of the steel, do you agree?

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As you see, the fans and the motherboard tray are 45° rotated relatively to the base. This means more work to do, but let's take a look to the device tray :

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Even this tray is made from steel, Antanio planned to have the dvd drive accessible from the side of the case, but I need to have it in front, so a little bit of work in this area... As you can see, the two front bay are designed only for short device like fanbus or cardreader. Anyway,, the total number of drive bay is this : 1 floppy , two slot for 3and1/2 device, two for 5and1/2 device , one short 3and1/2 and one short 5and1/4. The other PITA will be the psu, I would like to use my Enermax Liberty but the modular connector don't allow me to use the dvd...

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Here is the motherboard tray (fully removable with yust two screw) and the control panel with two usb ports, reset and power button, led, and the mini speaker. I need to modify this piece, is too naked for me...
 
Let's begin removing the motherboard tray and taking some pics to see how it's polished :

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Dont'forget those sexy bay cover :

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Starting to remove the device tray to measure the free space for the psu :

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Considering the molex and the ide cable, considering that I want the drive stealth, the free space is about 11.5cm , 4,5 inches. Near to impossible to find a good PSU with this measure... The only psu that I found was a poor 180w, chinese brand, I'm considering to keep my Enermax and changing something for the dvd drive.
 
We will consider the psu issue later, now I want to speak about the fans :

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As you can see the locking mechanism is easy, just a laser cutted steel frame and I'll keep this piece.

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Here is the temporary fan with the rad, the trick part is to find a method to screw togheter this items :-] Due to the less free space, the rad will be mounted horizontal, but the fan remains at the default inclination , 45°.

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A little search point me to Bill, at MNPCTech where I found the template for the fan holes, after a few minutes playing with coreldraw I've print two of this to paper and glued to a piece of alluminium.
 
And now the cutting :

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I've made two of this, for two rad :-] Then I marked the spot for the holes :

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I've drilled all with a 4.15mm bit, then screwed together and marked the center for the cup bit :

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And now, a lot of patience, grease and vertical drill...
 
Here is the setup:

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The Alu goes hot really quickly, so I've used this piece of ice, is made with an Ikea mould, they sell this to put the ice on the bottles, but why don'te be creative?

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Here are the finished pieces, now I have to use a file to smooth all the side :

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Some comments about this work? :-]
 
After about an hour of work, I want to see how they work :

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This fan is not the one that I'll use in the mod, it's just a spare fan :-] :

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I want to use the silicon pad, so I'll mount it to see the effective dimension. But, a little surprise, the holes in the rad are not ready for the screw! I've made the correct hole, M4, and this is the result :

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A bit strange, but is exactly what I have in mind to have !
 
This is the correct position :

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Wow, it fits perfectly! Now let's go on with something different, the paint process of this little part is not so interesting ... Stay tuned for the next update, and please give some comments , but don't blame me for my poor english :-]
 
My god, its gorgeous! Are those available for sale in Italy? I really appreciate your mod idea, it seems that most people want to cut their case to pieces to house their watercooling loops and very few try to work with what they have, I'm looking forward to its finished product. ***where can i get one of those in the US?:cool: **
 
taht looks REALLY, REALLY nice.

Kudos for trying to keep it in the case, I think it looks tacky when the rad is outside the case.

Link us up with the Italian WC site!
 
Ok, here are the links :
for the case itself, you can see www.modd.it and the price is 180 euros, but the new release will cost a little bit less, because will be in alu and not in steel.

For the WB , I use two kind of wb...
For the cpu and GPU I'll use the B3 and G3 by http://www.oclabs.com/
for the chipset I'll use the Keops K5 by http://www.ybris-cooling.it//url] f...Ma.Er. by [url]http://www.lunasio-cooling.com

Hope this can help to find a retailer near you, but I suppose they will be able to ship worldwide :-] Bye, and tnx a lot for the comments,
 
Now it's the time to speak about the hard disk cooling method. Lot of Cabe user have reported the hight temperature of the disk, so I've decided to water cool them :-]

DSC05565.JPG


This wb is called Ma.Er. and is produced by an italian company. The system is pretty easy, two copper bars , two fittings, a piece of tube to connect the two parts and that's all! The funny part is bring the fittings out and the four alu spacers :

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After a quick mail with Lunasio, I've bring out all with the help of a bench vise, the glue that he use is strong! Finally, the result :

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And now, to the chrome guy!
 
A quick shot :

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Now it's time to do some extra work, then polish :

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This is the way that I want the final result, the O-ring is 10mm but is only for estetic...

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Here you can see the four Ma.Er. coming back from the chrome guy, now I can begin to play!
 
First of all, a quick tapping (is the correct word?) to 1/4 GAS ,

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Then, 8 tube fittings, O-ring and Loctite 55, here is the partial result :

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Now I have to remount the spacer and the caps :

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Luckily, Lunasio sent me 4 new end caps, mine was damaged by the vise...
 
With a n°14 key and some Loctite 55 I've replaced the end caps :

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Here you see the near ready pieces :

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With an hammer I've put the spacer and now I've to measure the tubing to link the two part...

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It seem so good!
 
Family shot :

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End result :

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From the front :

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The final look is fantastic for me, and for you?
 
Some extra shot :

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Ma.Er without disk

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Both Ma.Er. , now I'm ready to do a leak test...
Some comments? Questions?
 
Very cool project. *subscribed

zv

ps: "tapping" is the right word. your english is very good, did you go to an american school?
 
Keep up the awesome work dude, this is rocken :)
 
I like the concept of the radiator/fan mounting, i would of never thought of that.
 
Impossible sounds about right. I'm super interested in this one!
 
Some little reply :

@zero vertical : I'm only a poor italian with only 6 years of english lesson at school...

@FrEaKy , Optional87 and boomheadshot45 : tnz a lot guy!

@Darkmp40 : tnx for your appreciation!

And now, prepare yourself for a new update ASAP :-]
 
Now let's talk about the first ideas for the wc setup ...
I would like to add to the loop this passive dissipator like that :

DSC05594.JPG


I'm in love with this , but I'm in doubt if and where place this item.. This is just a try, remember...
Now I'm working with this :

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It's the setup for the distribution of the fluid in the passive dissipator, but it's too close to the hard disk, sorry for the odd tap, but I've only this one at home :-]

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This is one more idea to use the dissipator, assuming that the pump position is under the psu, but I'm not convinced...
 
Even speaking to the "test session" here is the setup that I would like to obtain for the GPU wb :

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The inlet and the outlet will be angled, to minimize the space. For the pump, here is what I have in mind to split the flow :

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But everything is in the "benefit pool" in my mind :-]
Let's talk about the B3 connector assembly , here is some of the connector that I've in house now...

DSC05639.JPG


The O-rings are here only for aesthetic reason, in future I'll need some... more... a lot!
 
The wb that I've choosen is this B3, bacause is chromed and I like the look, and even bacause a lot of friend told me that Oclabs do a good job and I want to give it a try :-]

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For the assembly , as usual, I've used some Loctite 55, it's a quick way to seal and the cost is ridicule!
Just to familiarize withi this product, I0ve started with the B3 connector, angled connector, but in future I'll see if the straight connector will work better...

DSC05735.JPG


The Loctite use is really easy, just cut a piece, roll up to the connector and screw :-]
A friend of mine, professional plumber, use only this, even in air tubing, with a 4 bar pressure .
Now I need to translate a little bit more my worklog, it's not easy for me, but if I can , tomorrow you'll have more things to read :-]
 
Now that I have the wb connector in place, I want to see it on motherboard!
First, bring out the plastic frame , then two M4x40 screw, inox , obviously.

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Not so bad, not so good... I can do it better, beginning with the polish work on the OCLabs clip, that is really strong! Important info : the center hole is threaded M5 (correct word? I hope so...)
I've planned to insulate the screw with this hard plastic rounders :

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Tapping to M4 :

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One rounder under the mb, one to the top, now haw can I proceed?
 
Here is the screw with his spacers installed :

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But I don't like to see the bare screw... Let's take a toru to my junk drawers searching for something... Here is the reasult :

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I like it, but I found even this two piece :

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Even chroming the brass piece, I don't like the final look... The first solution is ok for me, and for you?
 
I've decided to add a little "cabe look" using this gummy rings, they are originally panel led holder. The last adding is ... mmm, google don't help me... what is the correct word for the top fixing ?

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BTW, I love the final look! Now I've to work to the main screw that control the force applied to the wb...
The original screw look so odd, so I've decided to use this :

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Hex head screw ,inox , M5x50 , a led holder, a pipe from an old SMA connector and a SAT cable connector, from my fabulous drawers :-] After playing with some configuration, the final result is this :

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I like the final look, and you? Now that the wb is in place, I can cut the tubing in exact lenght, the Tygon is really expensive and I don't want to waste it...
 
Family shot :

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The next work to do is some filling work with the Ma.Er. connector, the nipples for the pump and all the connectors for the vid card wb...

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Now, to the chrome guy, 5 euros and a week to wait... I hate to wait...
Now, it's all, asap I'll do more! Stay tuned!
 
Beautiful work! That case is also really attractive, excellent choice! I look forwards to seeing how this comes out!
 
All I have to say is wow. I wish I had your talent. Good luck with the project...I cant wait to see how it turns out.

Also, your English is quite good. Keep it up sir :)
 
look good man...

I wonder how your flow will be with that double 90* T-line fitting at the end of the pump.
 
The flow with this T connector will be restricted, but it's only a solution, not THE solution, now i'm try to don't spit the exit of the pump, it's just a matter of making the good decision :-[
 
I've found!!!
Acorn nuts!!!
The correct words in italian is "dado cieco" and it means, literally, "blind dice" but make nonsense... LOL
 
Actually, blind dice is half right. It's a blind nut - acorn shaped though :)

Looking good so far, good work with the rad mounts. I'm not do sure I like the extras on the CPU block mounting, a nice piece of chromed/polished pipe would look better to me, but that's just my opinion...

Keep up the good work, and keep the updates coming.
 
I'll try with an alu pipe, some other friends suggest me this solution.. So, I'll try asap!
Talking about the pump, here is an idea for the placement:

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Nipples, T and compression fittings :

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It fits, but I have really less space to work... But if I change somethings...

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In this way is better, but, repeat, it's only a test!
 
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