Watercooled my Antec Aria: Pics inside

[Pwnisher]

I just got this finished this afternoon/morning. I picked up an Antec Aria case when they first came out to use for my HTPC. It's a great case, but like all SFF they tend to get a little warm, the top was always warm to the touch runing a Barton 2500+ and a 9800 AIW card. I found this water cooling rig from GlobalWin (http://www.axiontech.com/prdt.php?src=PW&item=58347) and thought I could figure out a way to get it in there, and an intake fan as well.

Picture of the radiator mounted on the left hand side panel (facing the front)
http://myweb.cableone.net/PAPAPUMP/htpc/radiator.jpg

I know the grill isn't needed, but wanted to match the other side.
http://myweb.cableone.net/PAPAPUMP/htpc/rad_mounted.jpg

Radiator and intake fan mounted looking from the top.
http://myweb.cableone.net/PAPAPUMP/htpc/fans_mounted.jpg

The case in my rack:
http://myweb.cableone.net/PAPAPUMP/htpc/case_closeup.jpg

I know the rig isn't as [H]ard as a home brewed setup, but the price was nice, it got great reviews and it worked very well in this situation.
With mods:
Idle Temps: Case 31c CPU 38c Load: Case 37c CPU 45c

Before Mods: With stock AMD HS/Fan
Idle Temps: Case 37c CPU 45c Load: Case 41c CPU 51c

My first forray into Watercooling and I had fun with it and I'm happy with the results.

[Alyosha]

Very nice. Clean and cool and a very happy computer I'm sure.

[Pwnisher]

Quiet too! It took me a while to get all the air out of the lines, once I did it just hums a little. My ReplayTV box makes more noise than the PC does.

[Kingofl337]

with some zip ties on some of those cables. You may be able even get it to run 1-2deg c cooler.

[compslckr]

drool over your home teater setup :)

nice watercooled ht/pc too

[Pwnisher]

Thanks for comments, I actually did get the wiring cleaned up a bit more before I threw the drive cage back in, I really wanted to run the ATX connector under the mobo, but there just wasn't any way of doing it without major reconstruction.

[SJetski71]

Thanks for comments, I actually did get the wiring cleaned up a bit more before I threw the drive cage back in, I really wanted to run the ATX connector under the mobo, but there just wasn't any way of doing it without major reconstruction.
Great job. You've almost convinced me to buy the Aria. I like the mini/inexpensive watercooling setup also.

Out of curiosity, what heatsink were you using before? I'm actually surprised such a diminuative WC setup can actually lower temps that much. Please give more details on before and after etc etc :) I wonder how that WC setup would work on a GPU.

[Pwnisher]

I was using the stock AMD cooler that came with the chip. The temperatures are also affected by the intake fan I added in the side, the only other exhaust fan on the case is on the back side of the Power Supply. It's a 120mm fan that tops out at 1500rpm and really didn't do that great of a job, however I have it connected to the "system fan" header on the mobo. The cross ventialtion provided by the 2 80mm is what made the difference IMO, it also whisks away alot of the heat generated by the video card I think. I'd test it a little more but I don't ant to take it all apart again LOL :p

[SJetski71]

I've never seen a side pic of that case, i didn't realize you added that nice side vent. Good idea a great job too.

[Finsta]

Where's the reservoir on it? What's the radiator and the temps? :D Very [H], watercooled HTPCs

[Pwnisher]

Finsta- It's all self contained, check out the link to the unit, the third tube I have my hand on in the picture is the resevoir, it's just a tube with a cap. Not much of a res, but the manual says to check it once a week, I'll report back on what I find. I think maybe I'll try to mod one of those Aqua resivoirs I saw in another thread, they look hella sweet.

[Kingofl337]

pump in the block or the radiator?

[Alyosha]

Why'd you have to show me this, I've got my shuttle running all nice and now I want to take it apart and start tinkering again. I really dig that little kit.

[Pwnisher]

King- The pump is built into the block, I know it's not the most upgradeable unit in the world, so here's hoping it will last. If it doesn't I'm only out 70 bucks and a lesson learned. Axiom has been pretty good to me so I think they'll cover it if it fails, we'll see.

[Buckus]

That's an awesome setup. I'd love to build one myself, but unfortunately the bank account balance says otherwise :(

[daba]

Nice place you got there! :)

[Pwnisher]

Thanks, the joys of being single and having no kids I suppose. Now all I have to do is get the chicks see how cool Water Cooling is and I'm in! LMAO!

[Rikimaru]

Here is my air cooled ARIA
AMD 64 3200+
giga byte K8VT800M
1gb Samsung DDR333
ATi Radeon x800xt PE
1 wd raptor 36.0 gb 10k 8mb (no Raid)
1 wd 200 gb 7200 8mb
turtle beach santa cruz 5.1
NEC 8x dvd RW
zalman cnps7000a
2 zaman slims (on the way 70x70x15) at 2500rpm
2 slabs noise conductant celluar foam
1 antec 80x80x25 3200rpm case fan (already moded)
waiting for 2 filters and need an idea on what kind of fan grill i should intall.
I have pics but no way to attach them it seems any help would be great

running temps at idle 35c /nominal 38c /load 40c not bad for a sff

[paulmofyourhand]

get some PC3200 to top it off

great rig btw

[Rikimaru]

the only problem with the 3200 is that I cant run it in both slots (gigabyte w/ 64 chip) I want to buy another 1gb of 333 and change the latency of both sticks and make them extremely aggressive. With my system I can air cool it and have the power to run the sickest video card on the planet / and the ultra extreme rocks but 600 sux0rs, 2 molex sux0rs, 2 slots sux0rs, 480watt sux0rs. So my sff will kick bootie.I checked the avalible wattage and the stats of the Cpu, Mem, Hd's, DvdRW, Video, and fans, and with my window on the side and sound mufflers on the other you CANNOT make a sicker Sff with out having wattage problems. I have seen a buddy try to power rig his shuttle / what a joke.
they are good systems but ONLY with a moblie chip. good to Oc with 3200 btw :-). I saw him try to pop an x800 pro in it, no luck. Then as IF LUCK would have it he poped out his card and popped his 5700ultra. The sucker rebooted more times than we dropped bombs in Iraq. so he opted on buying a 9600xt 256, that FInally ran. Rather funny though. I like the Aria modded it looks better, (4 SHur) and with uv lights and a nice cold cathode and window .This case smokes. And I CAN PULL THE MOTHERBOARD. uprgade later and forget it. I have fun watching my buddy try to run his shuttle. you need water cooling to run a shuttle well, and an external optical drive. But I LOVE my ARIA.

[Sepal]

omg dude ... can you repeat that ? your all over the place in that post :confused:

... so your saying when you use two sticks of ram, it has issues ? and is the '480watt suXors ' suck because of the ' 600 suXors' ? few too many suXors in the kitchen if you ask me :)

[MrE]

Sepal,

I'm not too clear on where he was going either, but it sounded as if he's $h1tting on Shuttle in favor of his Aria setup. Also, I like the fact that this thread was started in order to show a nice watercool setup on an Aria and he hijacks the thread for his own soapbox on how cool he is for his box, and how everything else sux0rs. Wow, lets try to get this thread back on topic, shall we? ;)

Nice box you've got there. I had a question as to how you measured for clearance on the fan/res. on the PCI side of the case. It looks very clean. Also, what type of tool did you use for your blowhole? The plastic rib sides would be shredded if you used a dremel. I'm guessing a holesaw?

Regards,

-E

[Rikimaru]

sorry for the Hijacks, new to the forums. And the sux0rz are for the fact that you cannot run the newest Video cards, (ie 6800 ultra, x800) on a 250 watt power supply. This thread is based on the water cooled Aira, and I wanted to show my Air cooled with a much bigger setup an air, I used a dremel and 8 diffrent tips to cut a window in my Aria, I dont know what Pwnisher used as it looks like he cracked his resivor side, as the case if really tempermental with its ABS plastic. Sorry I HIJACKED the thread I was just posting a powerfull Sff and get jargged, the earlier post // had missing things from it that would have made it complete , but the keyboard I have is one of those flexed foldable keyboards (green- whois is manuf? ) and it can be quite fun to type on, Any way back to Watercooled Aria pics
(take it easy in the future, I dont like jarggers and jarggers get FRAGGED meet you in a Death Match,any UT2K4, anyone)

[Kingofl337]

And the sux0rz are for the fact that you cannot run the newest Video cards, (ie 6800 ultra, x800) on a 250 watt power supply

You car run an X800 on a 250watt powersupply.

[Sepal]

Kingofl337 - contraction city ? or one needs a car to run a x800 ? :p

[MrE]

(take it easy in the future, I dont like jarggers and jarggers get FRAGGED meet you in a Death Match,any UT2K4, anyone)

WTF is a jargger? Your syntax and run on sentence structure is what started it for me. I know you don't come to a forum expecting the world, but my head hurt after trying to read your post.

You posted in this thread and another in which both times you made claims about Shuttles not working or cannot work with the latest video cards, etc. I happen to own two Shuttle boxes AND an Antec Aria w/ an Nforce2 setup. I also frequent SFFTECH forums. Most of the issues with Shuttles deal with memory issues and heat. Not how much wattage the PSU can handle. Now since I haven't stuck in a PE version of the X800 pro, I cannot claim first hand knowledge. But, I can tell you that both an X800 pro and a 6800GT work fine in a 240watt shuttle box based on recent posts of them working fine over at the same site I mentioned above.

Your friends having issues look like something else. Tell me, how does one stick three hard drives in a shuttle along with everything else? :rolleyes: Not possible, nor are there an appropriate number of Molex power connectors for that. I can go on but I am done beating this horse to death.

Regards,

-E

[Rikimaru]

you can get adaptors for a female head to two male molex connectors, and I also posted that his cd drive is external, so he has a drive bay changover (5.25/ 3.5 bracket) so you can fit 3 hds in a shuttle :) , sorry about the other post BTW, mIRC'ing and trying to talk to people at the same time while forum posting can be a little diff. And to boot that my key board is flex keyboard so things dont always get typed out well on this k-bd / Yes I was proved wron on the PE, we tried it in a sn45 it works b only with a moblie xp. even though the 64's are low wattage they kept freezing. oh well eh

Jargger - Sheet talking beeches who get FRagged* think gib meat

[Pwnisher]

I used a hole saw on a drill press to cut the panels, the lines you see aren't cracks just pencil marks and sharpie marks from my layout making sure everything would fit. When the case was empty I made an outline of the frame on the side panels and just kind of played with everything untill I was 99% sure it would fit (I never did feel 100%) then finally I said "F**k it lets just cut this dude open."

The plastic layer sandwhich between the aluminum is very soft, almost a material like dynamat just a little moe rigid. The hole saw went through it like butter.

I was gone all weekend otherwise I would have replied sooner, and thanks for the comments. I'm running an X800 in that machine now with an nForce2 board and it's a champ.

[CIWS]

Nice job on modifying the Aria and adding H20 cooling to it. It will be nice to see all of the ideas that come from this base case in the way of Mods and setups. Thank goodness someone made something in this size for MicroATX. :)

[Pwnisher]

Hopefully they next incarnation of the Aria will have some improvements made to it, I'd like to see some sort of front intake fan, maybe something like thos tube shaped fans in the other SFF cases.

[Sepal]

what temps do you get with taht again ? thx

[ALYNCH75]

Just added another hard drive to my setup and now its heating up which way should i have the fan pointed on the blowholes i cut on each side of the Antec Aria.

[IronChefMorimoto]

This might have been modded (for hijacking a thread, maybe?), but, earlier today, I posted a link in here to WC thread from a week or two ago regarding a Zalman Reserator in an Aria. Any idea if it was modded?

Anyway -- it was for comparitive purposes. As I mentioned, your setup is MUCH smaller and more portable than that damned reserator. I think the Reserator will get better temps overall, but it's also pricey and has to be transported along with the Aria.

IronChefMorimoto