Project: Quad Cooler

[nlancaster]

This is the first project I have ever posted as a work log, I hope that it is worthy of this forum .

Major Components List:

Stacker STC-T01
Evga 680i
Intel QX6700 @ 3.33ghz in current machine with Dangerden TDX waterblock
Geforce 8800GTX with Dangerden waterblock
4GBs Crucial Tracer PC2-8000
3 x 250gb WD or Seagate Sata drives in Raid5
2 x Dangerden CSP-Mag Pumps
Hardware labs GTX480 (I know overkill for what I have in the machine but more about the coolness of a quad 120mm fan radiator)
Customized Dangerden acrylic bayres (Thanks to Jermey@Dangerden)
Alphacool 240x128 LCD display

So here are the 3d sketches I have done of the mod. I will be doing some actual work on the case This coming weekend.

Overall view with Holes for radiator fans. If I can pull it off these will have flush fitting Modders mesh grills in them.

This is a closeup of the Top of the case with the Alphacool LCD display 2 bulgin blue ring light switches and the Dangerden fillport. I will be making a new top plate to hold all of these and get rid of the ugly plastic piece that comes with the case.

And here is something I have never seen done before. I am going to build a tray to hold the radiator up from below. This will allow stealth mounting of the radiator with no visible screws at all. These holes will have the same modders mesh grills in them as the top of the case. I am still debating if I will be puting fans on both sides of the radiator, this would make it hard to get to the fans on the lower side of the radiator.

There will be no visible screws anywhere holding the radiator into the machine. access to the radiator will be accomplished by removing the top of the case with 6-8 screws having to be removed. I think this is a really cool way to do it and will be tough to pull off well. The inside of the case will be powder coated with this same texturing as greensabbath's Project: Yuugou case mod. Greensabbath did a brilliant job on that one, like all his others. The outside of the case will be gloss black powder coating and the regular aluminum front rails.

Updates will be coming later this week, please let me know what you think of my ideas.

 

[JonCl]

I'm vaguely familiar with your design so I thought I'd make a comment or two.

I like your idea of having a tray to cradle the radiator at the top of the case so that no screws would be seen at the top. I also like your redesign of the top front without the stock plastic bezel. I think the bezel looks just fine, but with the 4 fan rad, I think it makes the most sense to have all four fans at the top if possible. Your placement of the fill port, power buttons, and display also looks very clean, like they're meant to go there.

One thing to keep in mind regarding the rad is there's about 2-1/16" gap left between the front of the rad and the edge of the front aluminum bezel. That's with the rad up against the rear fan flange. I mounted mine with about 1/16" gap at the back, leaving the 2" gap at the front. Also, with your mobo inverted, it looks like you may lose those last two mobo slots to the hoses coming in and out of the rad, but I can't tell exactly how much room there is there between the bottom of the rad and the mobo (or maybe you'll run them outside the case). Also, you may have a problem right there at the top front where the fill port, display, and rad come together depending on how deep that display is I'd guess.

 

[nlancaster]

JonCI I have been watching your modding and that front bezel you are building rocks. Infact finding your Mod is what told me that what I wanted to do was even possible.

I was concernded about the room and position of the parts up front. So i modeled all of them and placed them where i wanted them. As you can see below there is plenty of space behind the LCD. If I do end up losing a PCI slot or two it is ont the end of the world. I just really like the inverted motherboard layout. It also makes cabling for the Power to motherboard very short and neat. I am thinking of getting a spare set of cables for my Silverstone ST-75F and shortening everything to perfect length. The St-75F is a fully modular power supply so I can shorten cables to my hearts content without Voiding the warranty.

You can also see the Custom fill port attachment on the Dangerden Bayres that I got from Jeremy at Dangerden.

 

[JonCl]

JonCI I have been watching your modding and that front bezel you are building rocks. Infact finding your Mod is what told me that what I wanted to do was even possible.

Thanks! I'm glad you've found my project useful.Your design is already improving on the "Stacker/GTX480" mod by having all four fans exposed. It's definitely the way to go.

As you can see below there is plenty of space behind the LCD.

Yep, looks good. That's a sweet spot for the fillport too.

I am thinking of getting a spare set of cables for my Silverstone ST-75F and shortening everything to perfect length.

Ha! That's exactly what I did with my Enermax Inifiniti cables, except they weren't the spare ones .

You can also see the Custom fill port attachment on the Dangerden Bayres that I got from Jeremy at Dangerden.

Got a photo of the bayres? I don't think I see the custom part in the screeny.

Keep going with it. It'll be fun to watch.

SUBSCRIBED!

 

[nlancaster]

Here you go JonCI, customized bayres with an additional tubing fitting in the left side so that I can clear the USB connector for the LCD.

 

[JonCl]

Oh, I see. I didn't realize that fitting wasn't original in the sketch. Wow, that's some thick plastic they put in that res, looks beefy. Btw, did you decide on two rows of fans or just one row at the top?

 

[nlancaster]

Oh, I see. I didn't realize that fitting wasn't original in the sketch. Wow, that's some thick plastic they put in that res, looks beefy. Btw, did you decide on two rows of fans or just one row at the top?

Yeah that is some real thick acrylic on the sides. They are hard to see but it has Brass thread inserts for the screws.

I think I am just going to go with 4 fans for now. If you can give me some good input on why I should go with 8 please let me know. I just dont see needing all that cooling. I have no intention of ever going to SLI so I wont have to worry about cooling another 8800GTX.

Went to Harbor freight and bought one of these. Seems to be a nice peice of gear to make the bends I need for the tray and some mesh material to cover up cables and other things.

After that I drilled out alot of rivets, to remove the top and the top power supply cage, and took pictures along the way. Only to find out when I put the SD card in my PC that there is nothing on it!!!! Card is unreadable and now the camera will not read it either. I will try to get some of the same pics up tomarrow after work.

If anyone has any ideas why this may be happening let me know. The camera is a Konica Minolta Z6 and the card is an Adata 2gb SD card 150x. Camera tells me "unable to use card", computer says there is no media in the drive. Sometimes the computer can see that the media is there but there is still nothing on the card. Any input would be helpfull.

 

[nlancaster]

Here are the promised pictures, Had to buy a new SD card to get my camera working. weird.

Here us the case with all parts that can be removed removed, accept for that exhaust fan for some reason. :shrug: You can see the junk optical drive I installed to keep the drive mounting plates from getting bent out of shape with the top removed.

Removed the Upper Power supply cage. On the motherboard tray you can see labeling for wire routing holes to be drilled. You can also see the blow hole for the 80mm fan in the top. I will have to fill this hole to get the look I am going for.

Here is the top removed with the radiator sitting on it. I had already checked the available space with the top on the chassis and the PSU cage removed. Looks like it will fit perfectly.

And another update. I have been convinced to go for 8 cooling fans on the radiator total. Just will be that much cooler I guess. And I have some Ideas on how to make working on the lower fans a little bit easier.

 

[JonCl]

Looking good so far nlancaster! Sorry to learn about your sd card. Lost pics are a bummer. I've used the free PC Inspector File Recovery to recover pics off flash media before. Works well. Except it sounds like your camera may not have taken any at all, but it may be worth a try anyway.

If you can give me some good input on why I should go with 8 please let me know.

Well, I went with 8 (er, I mean 7 ) basically because they flow significantly more air through the rad with only slightly more noise. The GTX480 has tight fins compared to the 120.3 for example, so the more air flowing over them, the better the performance. With my Yate Loons, the extra 4 fans makes almost no difference in noise, so I figured why not.

Went to Harbor freight and bought one of these.

I was looking at those. Looks very useful. I'd be interested in hearing how it works.

 

[nlancaster]

I have tried out the bender on some scrap and it works pretty well. there is a limit on how small of a distance you can have between 2 bends in oposite directions on the order of 3 inches. I have been messing around with some scrap steel, old computer case, and it makes good tight bends when you get it adjusted right. and it was a very good price. When I make some parts for my case I will get some pics of the bender in action.

I have been convinced by some of the guys I work with to go for 8 fans. This will change the way the fans and radiator are mounted and make some things a little harder. But I am still going for the all stealth look on the entire radiator fan assemble.

I saw your thread update earlier and it sucks about the leaking brass fitting. Looking forward to seeing yours completed.

 

[oneil]

That's a huge rad... cant wait to see this go! I've recently assembled my new rig in a stacker and I must say, they're tons of fun!

 

[nlancaster]

Sorry about the lack of updates. been refiguring my design for 8 fans total and getting some new tools to make assembly a little easier. I will have an updated towards the end of the week as I work long hours until thursday.

 

[Darkmp40]

tahts one big ass rad..

 

[nlancaster]

Radiator mounts are in and working. Now I am contemplating redoing them. But they would work as is but now I see that I could have done something a little different that might have worked better.

So the radiator will sit directly on these support rails then the fans will screw on the bottom. This will allow me to mount all 8 fans on the radiator without having to remove the radiator to change fans on the bottom of the radiator. I have to tweak the setup a little bit to make everything line up with the top fo the case. To make this work I have to lower the power supply mount at the bottom by 1/4 of an inch and lower the motherboard about 1/2 of an inch to make everything fit. But I think it will look awesome when done.

 

[tylerdustin2008]

This looks promising, I'm tuned in for the build.

 

[silverphoenix]

Awesome build!!, I'm still amazed at what can be done in sketchup and all these 3d programs, I don't have anywhere near the patience and draw all that out... Also for quad core a TDX is not the best block, it is focused on the center for cooling single core and dual cores.

 

[feo]

Awesome build!!, I'm still amazed at what can be done in sketchup and all these 3d programs, I don't have anywhere near the patience and draw all that out... Also for quad core a TDX is not the best block, it is focused on the center for cooling single core and dual cores.

Agree the Sketchups look great. nlancaster, is there any way that n00b modders can design their stuff in Sketchup like you did? How long did it take to do those sketches? Got any modding-specific links to drawing in Sketchup for us?

 

[oneil]

I LOVE stacker mods <3<3

 

[nlancaster]

Awesome build!!, I'm still amazed at what can be done in sketchup and all these 3d programs, I don't have anywhere near the patience and draw all that out... Also for quad core a TDX is not the best block, it is focused on the center for cooling single core and dual cores.

The TDX is what I have. I having to do alot of dental work right now and I cannot afford anything better. It seems to be working really well and without any problems. It only hits about 54C under load at 3.33ghz. And that is on my current very limited WC loop with a koolance 3x120mm radiator.

Agree the Sketchups look great. nlancaster, is there any way that n00b modders can design their stuff in Sketchup like you did? How long did it take to do those sketches? Got any modding-specific links to drawing in Sketchup for us?

The 3d drawings above were not done with sketchup. They were done with a program called Solidworks. It is a high end 3d solids modeling/engineering software. Very kewl program and wish I could afford to stay up to date on it. It is the older 2003 version and they come out with a new version every year.

 

[nlancaster]

So here are some more updates.

I dismantled the motherboard tray to remove one of its parts. The stacker STC-01 is a ATX/BTX convertible case. To do this they have that big black aluminum bracket that you see above. I am going to rivet the motherboard tray into the case anyway so that means I do not need that piece.

(Sorry for the blurieness. I will update this pic later.)
Here you can see the motherboard tray reinstalled in its new position. I moved the tray down 1/4 of an inch to clear the lower fans on the radiator. Also without that black aluminum bracket I was able to do all this without having to move the Power supply down in the chassis saving alot of work.

Here you can see one of the rivets holding the motherboard tray into the chassis. This rivet is flush mounted by counter sinking around the rivet hole and apply alot of pressure on the rivet tool to keep it flush. I am able to put the side panel on the case and these rivets do not get in the way at all.

So now that the motherboard tray is in. I am going to redo the radiator mount, it will look alot better and be in proper alignment. I messed up the alignment and the radiator and fans do not rest against the top of the case. And after that I have to build the new switch plate, cut the holes for the fans on top of the case, build the plates to cover up the radiator from below, and get everything powdercoated. I need to pick it up alittle as I want to get this machine done before the end of august for PDXLan.

Updates coming later this week.

 

[nlancaster]

So looks like there was another forum crash so here are the lost posts that I have made.

8-11-07

Sorry about the lack of updates been busy at work and trying to get the top blow hole filled.

So last week I found a company that would weld in a patch to fill the top blowhole in the Case. I fabricated the patch and dropped the peices off at their office. I was quoted 2 days for the work and $35.00 for the actual time on the job. They never called me when it was supposed to be done and I called them. Apparently they messed up the top and were fixing their mistake. Took 2 extra days to accomplish this. I was stuck at a 6day work week and had a friend pick up the part. When he dropped it off I found this.

As you can see they replaced the entire top panel with one solid sheet. If done right this would have been awesome, they did it wrong. What appear to be very large spot welds are for the most part just surface welds and 2 of them have broke already.

Resulting in gaps at the top corner of the case.

Also because of the Size of the spot welds The case top no longer fits on the chassis at all.

It is impossible to see in the pictures but the top is now also tapered front to back. The front of the top is 1/16th of an inch wider then the back and so now the side panels dont fit properly.

So now I am going to be involed in getting my money back and getting them to pay for the repairs to the top of the case. I have a welder friend that lives in a different state that was visiting this weekend and he says he can fix it. I didnt have him do the work in the first place because he wasnt sure when he could get to it and how long it would take. He is going to do it on an emergency basis and submit a bill to me for an appropriate amount, ~$100. He hopes to have the case top repaired in about 1 week.

After the top is repaired I will have to cut the holes for the radiator fans and build one other peice and the case fabrication will be complete. I will have 1 week to get the parts powdercoated assembled and ready for PDXLan at the end of august. I hope to see some of you there. I will try to get one update before and after powder coating so that you can all see what I have done.

 

[nlancaster]

New post From PDXLan (www.pdxlan.com)

Got the case to the powdercoaters, for them to coat the case for free, on 8-24-07 5 days until PDXLan.

I picked up the case from the powdercoaters in the morning on Friday and did a little assembly before heading out for PDXLan.

The aluminum rails and assembled switchplate installed.

Here is a closer view of the switch plate. L-R - power switch/power led, Dangerden fillport, reset switch/HDD led.

Here I have installed the push/pull fans and radiator, Alphacool LCD, LED power switches, and Dangerden Resevoir.

Here is the first shot of the fully assembled case.

I think it has turned out very well. There are a few things I have to fix after I get home. I will also take some better pictures next week on my next day off. Let me know what you guys think.

 

[lillimon04]

Wow, great job man. The paint looks awesome. And everything looks sweet, congrats, hard work pays off!

 

[OofC_S7v7N]

looks really good man like to see the wiring a little more tidier but i could understand if your under time restraint. But congratulations looks pretty awesome

 

[-(Xyphox)-]

nice looking mod, great work

 

[unrealsword]

Looks awesome! I'm glad someone is still using the traditional stacker as well

 

[Arcygenical]

Looks awesome! I'm glad someone is still using the traditional stacker as well

They were 2 years ago

 

[nlancaster]

It is still sitting under my desk and has since been upgraded.

Asus P5Q
Q9550 @ 3.6ghz
Zotac GTX280
3x500gb WD RE2

and is still working great.

But.....

Its days are numbered I am working on a new case design using some Rocketfish side panels and top panel that will replace this chassis as my main machine.

 

[unrealsword]

It is still sitting under my desk and has since been upgraded.

Asus P5Q
Q9550 @ 3.6ghz
Zotac GTX280
3x500gb WD RE2

and is still working great.

But.....

Its days are numbered I am working on a new case design using some Rocketfish side panels and top panel that will replace this chassis as my main machine.

HISSSSSSSSS the stacker compels you to leave it alone!