hyper stacker

hi guys, so i have planed for ages now to build my very first watercooling rig and this is going
to be my journey to that world. First off i'm a total newbie when it comes to modding when it comes down to actual fabrication, so this is going to be a quite a chalenge for me.

the plan:

well the plan is guite simple. install my very first watercooling kit. first off i'm going to mount two rads to my stacker, at the top of the case (thermochill pa 120.3) and the bottom (airplex evo 240). for my bottom rad i'm gonna widen the bottom ventilatin hole just a little bit and for the pa 120.3 i'm gonna do a "custom rad holder" from mesh and install two thermometers on it. then of course a paint jop for the case, and other cool things.

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the watercooling stuff:

-Swiftech apogee CPU block.

-Swiftech MCW30 northbridge block.

-Swiftech MCW60-B GPU block.

-Thermochill pa 120.3.

-Aircplex evo 240.

-Laing D5 vario.

-pvc hose and heap load of clamps....... yeah a know i should of gotten masketeer or tygon tubing.

-2x 120mm noiseblocker NB-BlackSilent XL2 fans and 3x 120mm Scythe S-FLEX SFF21F.

-revoltec gpu ram sinks.



the other stuff:

- two thermometers.

-two blue 30cm. cold cathode lights. for some bling bling....

-zalman speed controll divice.

-ac ryan mesh plate

Hardware on the sig!!!!!

the thing that i got to mention is that allmost all of my water cooling parts that i have are purchased from different web auctions from here Finland.... where i live.

ill keep you gues posted

Hey, can you tell me if the drive bay mesh blanks look like they are painted, powder coated, or anodized? Thanks.

good luck on your project!

uzor said:

Hey, can you tell me if the drive bay mesh blanks look like they are painted, powder coated, or anodized? Thanks.

good luck on your project!

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i'm pretty sure that they are painted

Ok today i started the project. i decided that that the first thing that i was going to do is the bottom ventilation hole widening


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here you can see how much i'm planing to cut, also see the evil sister of dremel "enheill"
i allso drilled holes to all the four corners to help my jop a little bit. also desided to remove those back wheels so i could get some space to my cutting



after about 30 minutes the dremel clone started to get in sanely hot, cos i really did'n want to brake my "tool". i decided to put it to my window ledge to cool down a bit.
i had to repeat this 3or 4 times, seems like i'm not the fast cutter

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after 7 disc's here it is my very first dremeling job. im very happy how it turned out, i rock
all so going to smooth those rough edges when i get some free time.......damn life interfering my modding.

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finally heres some sneak peak to something i'm planing to do. it's a rough model of that fan holder that i'm planing to make for my thermochill. it's not the final form, i'm still brainstorming.

allso i liked to hear your ideas too, feel free to post any crazy idea that you guys might fave
i'll keep you posted

looks like a great idea, keep the updates coming!

scrawnypaleguy said:

looks like a great idea, keep the updates coming!

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Sure thing, although seems like i have to buy some tools first, i don't thing i dare to take any from work......... well mayby i'm able to smugle some........ by the way, all the kids out there DON'T STEAL it's immoral and you will go hell for it.

Oh yeah take a look at these shrouds here for your thermochill rad. Saw them advertised on the site and thought of your mod

Solarfall said:

Sure thing, although seems like i have to buy some tools first, i don't thing i dare to take any from work......... well mayby i'm able to smugle some........ by the way, all the kids out there DON'T STEAL it's immoral and you will go hell for it.

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It's only stealing if you get caught!

scrawnypaleguy said:

Oh yeah take a look at these shrouds here for your thermochill rad. Saw them advertised on the site and thought of your mod

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thanks scrawnypaleguy. i did not realise that there were srouds pecificly made for thermochill rads.......... mmm. mayby i chould make something similar.

just came from the post office with thouse scythe fans that i mentioned on the first post.
i really have to say that, not in a million years i whould have beleaved that they chould be this
silent, at there max setting ( 63cfm) they were totaly silent. i really highly recommend these fans
for eny one that is looking for a good set "blowers"................ shameless Advertising i know, don't kill me for it

Solarfall said:

after about 30 minutes the dremel clone started to get in sanelly hot, cos i really did'n want to brake my "tool". i desided to put it to my window ledge to cool down a bit.
i had to repeate this 3or 4 times, seems like i'm not the fast cutter

after 7 disc's here it is my very first dremeling jop. im very happy how it turned out, i rock

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It doesn't look like you are using the fiberglass reinforced cutoff disks, but rather the thin brittle ones. Get some of those and it will happen quicker and with far fewer disks.

ShadowDragon said:

It doesn't look like you are using the fiberglass reinforced cutoff disks, but rather the thin brittle ones. Get some of those and it will happen quicker and with far fewer disks.

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thanks for the tip mate

A little update.
just got the bottom hole filed up. in a way that pleases me..... i'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to fabricating things maybe too much.
the mesh is not yet attached cos it would not be much of a point doing that just yet... still
have to paint the whole thing, and after that i will attach the mesh there.

view from the inside:

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view from the out side

This is going to be a sweet setup.

OK time to add some updates.

i think is time to little bit to clarify my plan about the radiator holder that i was planing to make
so i started the fabrication by sheathing the form on to the mesh witch i had masked by just ordinary tape. i used the paper thing to draw the form, witch i had made previously.


after that i started to cut the image from the mesh, i used my trusty tin snips it came out really nicely



After cutting i started to bend the mesh, i used some rulers and blocks on wood to aid my bending a little bit, i all so used some pliers to finish the job.



After the bending it was time to take out clone dremel and do the thermometer holes for the front rad holder. as usually i did some sketching before any cutting was made.



Here its how it came out, looks pretty nice doesn't it




Finally, look how is the thermochill going to look sitting above my stacker,
like Donald trump would probably say.....IT'S HUGE


stay tuned guess............

I love the look of the LED screen-mesh holders, nice work.

Really great ideas going into this mod, I can't wait to see more!

Wow! What a great idea for using mesh!

OK, how exactly did you come up with the schematic for the mesh rad mount? Did you use any software or are you just smart like that and could calculate all that in your head and just sketch it our???

willie92 said:

Wow! What a great idea for using mesh!

OK, how exactly did you come up with the schematic for the mesh rad mount? Did you use any software or are you just smart like that and could calculate all that in your head and just sketch it our???

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well i gues i'm smart that way. But seriously i started to draw into paper in 3d ( autocad whould have been more acuarate but i'm alot faster drawer so i did it like that ) and tryed to get the form that i wanted to make, as my "radholder", when i was satisfied at the drawing i took some measurement from the rad itself so i didn't make it too small or too big .skething the
holder was actually really basic dimensionsion calculation, you know measuring distance, thickness, measuring the right angle and all that. not all that hard really. The nude model skething courses that i took when i was still in school really payed off

ok some updates for you all

do you remember that thermochill rad that i have, well the last owner had mishandled it a bit
and it was all beat up. so i decided to repaint it and hers what i did:

here is the untouched here you can see how bad shape the paint job was



next step was to get all the paint off the rad, i used thinner for the job.



here's the finished paint job, i choosed to paint it glossy black so it would look more consistent with the rest of the case.



i'll post some more updates tomorrow

hawt.

Solarfall said:

[snip] The nude model skething courses that i took when i was still in school really payed off

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OK, I'll start there!

i'm currently prepping my gear for the upcoming case painting.
so here is the update that i promised
nothing too special, just did some lapping to my water blocks. the grids that i used were
400- 2000, i'm really happy how they turned out.



i'll have some more updates probably for ya all this Sunday

can you take some of those parts off the magazine, so i can have a better look lol! Very nice work! I love the idea.

Looks cool

/subscribe

some small updates for you all
propaply some of you might know that stacker is dual psu capable, cos the i'm not using two psu right now and probably never will, i decided that the leftover AC ryan mesh would look really nice on it....cos the plate that covers the bottom/upper hole.... well lets face it looks really ugly.

not really any effort were put in to this, just little pit of cutting and drilling was necessary to do all this.
from the back:


inside of the case:


a lot more on the way, stay tuned

massive mega gigantic, updating time!!!!!!!

ok i have to admit that i have been a bit lazy but here i have some new pics of my progress
so far, so decided that it would be good idea to finally start the case painting.
i chose to paint the motherboard trade and the pci expansion slot with yellow uv reactive paint and create something original, and not just paint the whole case black, like so many modders out there... don't get me wrong, in some cases that look is really sweet, like i said i wanted something different.

the naked case.



ok the first thing i did was the mobo priming with matt white spray paint. i painted only two layers of paint.



after priming the yellow uv paint was painted by an airbrush that i use in my other hobby
lure making ( in case you didn't know us Finns are the top lure makers in the world no other country comes even close ) again two layers was enough in my opinion.



the critical places were covered by tape and news paper to keep the my lovely uv paint safe



closer



i started to paint from the back, that is glossy black, lovely isn't it. the paint jop is drying in my sauna, witch is pretty much the only place that there is good air vetilation. i couldn't
left it out side cos it was snowing outside and it was pretty damn windy as well ( op 15 M per/ sec)



while i was waiting the paint on my case to dry i decided to go ahead and paint the pci expansion covers, again i used the uv reactive paint on them, the back of the slot covers were painted glossy black so they would match with the case




remember those mesh rad mounts that i made early on the this project. well they were a bit beat up after my manhandling. so you guessed it right the time was to paint again.



after the revitalizing



so you might wounder, what happened to my case. well i started to paint the interior
with matt black paint so the yellow uv paint would really stand out





and finally the night shot with the cold cathode lights. the blue light is making the yellow look green.



while i was in the business of painting i almost for got the PSU mounting plate, glossy black again to match the case again its drying off in my sauna. sorry for my stinking sock sticking in the pic



that is all for now. me next step will be leak testing my WC gear and drilling the fill port hole. that is all from me now.
i'll update again, maybe this weekend.

did you paint the I/O panel too?
looks pretty good.
i like the UV green, it's [H]ot

filthysanchez said:

did you paint the I/O panel too?

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no atleast not at this point, i desided to leave it alone was..... do you think that i should paint it ?

might as well : )

filthysanchez said:

might as well : )

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well the thing is that i might sell my DFI expert in the near future and people usually want all the gear that they are buying to be in good shape, so thats why i'm not too keen on paiting the I/O shield panel. then again it whould not be too hard to clean it with some acetone or thinner.

Excellent work man. I can see you are working hard and taking your time.

This is a bit off topic, but where do you live? Russia or a former USSR nation? Perhaps Germany? I ask because I saw a newspaper that was not in english, and because you said you have your own sauna (which is awesome!). Not many people around here have their own saunas, but then I live in Florida .

Anyway, keep up the excellent work.

DarkenReaper57 said:

Excellent work man. I can see you are working hard and taking your time.

This is a bit off topic, but where do you live? Russia or a former USSR nation? Perhaps Germany? I ask because I saw a newspaper that was not in English, and because you said you have your own sauna (which is awesome!). Not many people around here have their own saunas, but then I live in Florida .

Anyway, keep up the excellent work.

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thats pretty close DarkenReaper57. i live freezing Finland, and pretty much every one here has a sauna in there home.... jealous

-->in here to be exact

time to update !!!!!!!

right from the start i have to apologize the poor quality of some pictures, there was some sort of problem with my camera's flash and a few pics came really dark.
the mod is almost done just few things are left. here take a look at what i have done this time.

here is the danger den fill port attached, unfortunately i forgot to took some drilling pics.



next thing that i did was the bottom mesh attaching.



i used some araldite, this thing can glue any thing and is incredibly strong stuff.



here are some improvised weights..... two packs of suger that i had left from last time that me and my brother made wine.....killer stuff btw..... 17%.
sorry for the darkness in the pic.



then it was time to install the "rad holder" to the case. I really have to say that it was the most frustrating install that i have ever made..... seriously it was totally from the arse.



I really had to do something about this. since i yanked the original ornament from the top of the case to make some room for the rad i decided that i had to make some kind of replacement that would cover the steel tubes and the same time look that it had always been there.



so it was time to fabricate some kind of cover for the steel tubes. i decided from the start that i was going to make it from wood and acrylic.



here is the acrylic covered by painters tape and you can all so see the wood part in there a swell.




here is the cover plate primed. again sorry for the quality of the pic.



here it is finished. looks pretty good doesn't it.



a little bit closer.



ok thats all from me now. still have a ton of stuff to do. painting hard drive cage and DVD drives etc.
see ya

Looks cool, the only thing I would do differently had it been me was make those angled mesh pieces go on the ends of the rad rather than under it, or I would have molded the mesh pieces differently so they would somehow still raise up the rad but still give it space underneath to breathe.

Still, it looks great and even though I dont know why in God's name you need water cooling in Finland (it's freezing there, ecspecially this time of the year) it still looks great and I will keep checking back for updates.

The painting looks great, I can't wait to see how this turns out with everything installed. Make sure you do a good job with wiring and tubing!

kill4killin said:

Looks cool, the only thing I would do differently had it been me was make those angled mesh pieces go on the ends of the rad rather than under it, or I would have molded the mesh pieces differently so they would somehow still raise up the rad but still give it space underneath to breathe.

Still, it looks great and even though I dont know why in God's name you need water cooling in Finland (it's freezing there, ecspecially this time of the year) it still looks great and I will keep checking back for updates.

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thanks for the costructive criticism kill4killin
well i was planing to do the rad mounts like the way you suggested and did some skething of them, to me they just did not look right.
and the other thing that was a limiting factor, the amount of mesh i mean they whould have taken two times more mesh than the rad mounts that i now have.
what comes to me needing watercooling setup, i guess it's just natural evolution of my hobby or mayby it's just envy towards all those cool looking water cooling rigs you all have ,
and in my opinnion there can never be enough cooling....EVER .......mua ahhhahhahah.

time to update

so the project is almost done only few minor things have to be done until I'll start to ensemble the water cooling stuff.

so only things pretty much left are to paint the HDD cage and I'll have to paint my dvd drives ( they are not done yet). i those to paint stacker's hdd cage.... yes you guessed right with that yellow uv paint
here enjoy the pics

after i took the fan off from the cage i was greeted by huge a mouth of dust



as usual i primed the cage with white paint and then took out my trusty airbrush and started painting
heres the results.


here it's installed inside of the case



i decided to paint the inside of the cage black like you can see here






thats all from me now.
I'm guessing next time you will hear from me you can feast your eyes on the finished project.

Nice work mate, like how your mod is progressing

Can't wait to see it fishished!