Apologenetic
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2004
- Messages
- 224
I started out with this case and to tell you the truth I don't think it's that ugly but I know all you elitist nerds do but I still think it could use a little pazazz.
I started out ordering the Arictic WaterChill full kit with TRIPLE radiator. This is what it looked like
This first thing I noticed was that it was it smelt really bad and I soon found out why. The anti-alge fluid leaked somehow. I don't know how because it wouldn't leak on me when I tried to get it to. Here's a picture of some of the leakage
The mess didn't bother me as much as being stuck with 1/6 of a bottle of fluid.
I'm going to e-mail them about this and some of the other problems I ran into while installing, I'll address them later.
Here's a before picture including what looks like God's northbridge fan...
I'd already done a little modification before I installed this water kit. This is where I got rid of a useless second fan grill to increase air flow for my air cooled setup.
After some forum questionaire I decided that the best and pretty much only place to put m y HUGE triple radiator was on the bottom of the case so I get out my weapon of choice.
First I needed to get my extra HDD cages out of the way. I drilled fresh holes in my CD cages to hang both of my HDD's Verticaly to save space.
Another way to tell a Good qualitly case from bad is the use of rivits, they're a cheap easy way out for manufacters... I chose one of those manufacturers so I had to slice those off
Big pain in the butt
Then i was able to chop at the cages, here's the first cut
and the second
Then I cut out the bottom of the case. After a ton of measuring I cut the bad boy out
but every battle has it's casualties, @ 30,000RPM I didn't even notice untill the blood started dripping in my case
No picture but I also cut a small hole out in the back tray in front of the PSU to hide unused cables.
Then I got to spray painting. Sorry no pictures before I finished.
I also cut off the normal PCI slot part of the power in wire that connects to the pump control because the radiator's tubes take up most of the PCI slots and they it's another unsightly wire running infront of my pretty motherboard so i cut it off and made a hole in my PSU grill and put it through there, ran it under the PSU, and unseen to the control unit.
Then I went to install my CPU block when I descovered that the 4 screw attatchments that hole in the screws that tighten the block to the board were totally missing from the kit. Problem #2. So I used the Northbridge install kit which I had already decided I was going to leave out and it worked well. And it's a good thing I left it out also because I later discovered that with the video card being where it is I couldn't fit it if I wanted to.
Then I install the GPU block and then connect up all the hoses and then test for leaks and sure enough there is one. And this one is also totaly WaterChill's fault. As you can see in the picture there is a HOLE in the block. You'd thinks someone pays $360+ for a setup and they're test it before they ship it but you can see this in a pre-purchase error.
I ended up filling it with plastic modeling glue
Problem #3... Not happy but I have to assume it's a total freak fluke because non of the half a dozen reviews that I read before purchasing had any of these problems. And I improvised in all these situations because I'll do anything to avoid a lengthy RMA.
Here's a piture of all the water connected minus the power connections. Looks a lot cleaner than before. The pump is acctualy the part I kinda skimped as it is held in place by a ROMEX ground wire I wrapped all around it and tied it down with because I need to saw out more HDD cage and that's for another week. This is a quick fix
And here's what it looks like from the outside
Well I'd say it looks pretty cool now and if you don't think so I can at least say I made it ugly myself.
I started out ordering the Arictic WaterChill full kit with TRIPLE radiator. This is what it looked like
This first thing I noticed was that it was it smelt really bad and I soon found out why. The anti-alge fluid leaked somehow. I don't know how because it wouldn't leak on me when I tried to get it to. Here's a picture of some of the leakage
The mess didn't bother me as much as being stuck with 1/6 of a bottle of fluid.
I'm going to e-mail them about this and some of the other problems I ran into while installing, I'll address them later.
Here's a before picture including what looks like God's northbridge fan...
I'd already done a little modification before I installed this water kit. This is where I got rid of a useless second fan grill to increase air flow for my air cooled setup.
After some forum questionaire I decided that the best and pretty much only place to put m y HUGE triple radiator was on the bottom of the case so I get out my weapon of choice.
First I needed to get my extra HDD cages out of the way. I drilled fresh holes in my CD cages to hang both of my HDD's Verticaly to save space.
Another way to tell a Good qualitly case from bad is the use of rivits, they're a cheap easy way out for manufacters... I chose one of those manufacturers so I had to slice those off
Big pain in the butt
Then i was able to chop at the cages, here's the first cut
and the second
Then I cut out the bottom of the case. After a ton of measuring I cut the bad boy out
but every battle has it's casualties, @ 30,000RPM I didn't even notice untill the blood started dripping in my case
No picture but I also cut a small hole out in the back tray in front of the PSU to hide unused cables.
Then I got to spray painting. Sorry no pictures before I finished.
I also cut off the normal PCI slot part of the power in wire that connects to the pump control because the radiator's tubes take up most of the PCI slots and they it's another unsightly wire running infront of my pretty motherboard so i cut it off and made a hole in my PSU grill and put it through there, ran it under the PSU, and unseen to the control unit.
Then I went to install my CPU block when I descovered that the 4 screw attatchments that hole in the screws that tighten the block to the board were totally missing from the kit. Problem #2. So I used the Northbridge install kit which I had already decided I was going to leave out and it worked well. And it's a good thing I left it out also because I later discovered that with the video card being where it is I couldn't fit it if I wanted to.
Then I install the GPU block and then connect up all the hoses and then test for leaks and sure enough there is one. And this one is also totaly WaterChill's fault. As you can see in the picture there is a HOLE in the block. You'd thinks someone pays $360+ for a setup and they're test it before they ship it but you can see this in a pre-purchase error.
I ended up filling it with plastic modeling glue
Problem #3... Not happy but I have to assume it's a total freak fluke because non of the half a dozen reviews that I read before purchasing had any of these problems. And I improvised in all these situations because I'll do anything to avoid a lengthy RMA.
Here's a piture of all the water connected minus the power connections. Looks a lot cleaner than before. The pump is acctualy the part I kinda skimped as it is held in place by a ROMEX ground wire I wrapped all around it and tied it down with because I need to saw out more HDD cage and that's for another week. This is a quick fix
And here's what it looks like from the outside
Well I'd say it looks pretty cool now and if you don't think so I can at least say I made it ugly myself.
