Vintage V - Internal Watercooled V1000B and 2005FPW Portrait Surround

[R-Type]

Intro

One of the most common rationale's I see used for buying high end hardware is that it will last you years into the future. However, because we as a forum population are much [H]arder than most users, we tend to get the upgrade itch and replace the expensive hardware anyway. I am as guilty of this as anyone, but for this build I decided to see just how relevant I could make some of the oldest parts of my build.

The V1000B here is circa 2004 and was the first rev of the case before they changed the exhaust ports and added video card cooling. To put that in perspective, I bought it from fellow [H] member Filter in 2005 to put my Athlon XP-M build in and pared it with a screaming fast 6800GT. Since then the case has held an Athlon 64 3000+, an Opteron 165, a Q6600, and Q9550. As the builds became bigger and more powerful however, the airflow limitations in the case really begin to make themselves apparent, particularly with regards to GPU cooling. When I decided to build a 2600k rig and watercool the system, I was told that it would be nearly impossible to get a decent all internal loop setup...

Challenge Accepted.

Planning
Planning the components for the build was critical, particuarly with regard to pci-e spacing on the motherboard as you will see below. The components I ended up with were:
Asus P8P67-M Pro
Intel 2600k
2x GTX 470
2x4gb GSkill DDR3 1600
Intel 120GB X25-M G2
XSPX Rasa 360 watercooling Kit (RS360)
2x Swiftech MCW80 water blocks and 2x 470-HS
Swiftech MCR120
Gentle Typhoon AP-15 1850RPM Fans
Bitspower BP-MRG360A-BK Rad Guard
Koolance V1000B Windowed Side panel (Yes, they still stock these!)

My loop layout is like this:


Hack and Slash
Before I could begin assembly, I needed to make several cuts on the case. These would remove the rear exhaust 'grill', make an opening for the top radiator, and provide access to the rear of the motherboard for heatsink installation. I used a dremel to start the cuts and knocked out the straight sections with a jigsaw.


Super restrictive stock exhaust grill


Restriction gone. I don't have a picture of them but I drilled new mounting holes in the tabs of metal you see remaining.


Template placed on top.


The cut came out pretty well. You can also see the hole I cut in the motherboard tray.


Radiator grill mounted to the case.

Other Prep Work


While I had the case torn apart, I sleeved every wire in the build (not all seen here).


I also discovered that the screws that came with the Bitspower rad grill were much larger than the standard radiator screws.


Because I liked the way the Bitspower screws looked I decided to tap the Radiator holes.


The Build


Top fans and radiator installed.


Really the only cheat of the build, I placed the pull fan for the rear radiator on the outside of the case to avoid blocking the VRM sinks.


Fans, Rads, Motherboard, and cpu block mounted.


Installing the waterblocks and heatsinks on the GTX 470's


Test fitting the GPU's, my measurements were spot on and I have about 3mm to spare


The only angled barbs in the build are required to plumb to two GPU's together.


Plumbing as seen from the front, again note how close the top 470 is to the fan.


Internal Plumbing


With the new side panel mounted, the bottom row of case stickers really dates the case. At first I didn't like that the window showed the 5.25 bay rails but then I had the idea to use the space for showing the SSD bling.


View of the finished machine up and running.

Results

This was my first watercooling build and first case modding project and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out. All of the fans in the case are exhausting air which creates a strong negative pressure inside and draws air in through the V1000B's perforations. With my 2600k at 4.8ghz and the 470's at 800 mhz, max temps under full folding load are 68C on the CPU and 47C on the GPU's.

Sure it would have been easier to buy a new case better suited for watercooling but this project felt alot like hot rodding an old car. The idea that this case could last me 10 years as my primary machine is pretty cool too. Please let me know what you guys think.

 

[R-Type]

Displays

Around the same time I bought the V1000B, I bought a brand new Dell 2005FPW. MSRP on this was over $800 and I was able to stack a bunch of coupons and sales to get it below $400. At the time this thing was huge for an LCD panel and one of the first widescreen IPS panels with quick response time and low input lag. About a year later I picked up another 2005FPW on the FS/FT section and ran them as winglets to a 28'' hanns-g display for years.

Late last year I became really interested in surround gaming and was able to snag a 3rd monitor on Craigslist. Running the displays in Portrait mode was much better than landscape but suffered due to the relatively large bezel's on the displays. Fortunately I stumbled across a thread by Vega where he had removed the bezel's from his 30'' displays and I decided to give it a shot.




The bezel blindspots were pretty painful in game...


The actual image starts another 1/8th of an inch in from the bezel.


Relocated the OSD buttons to the bottom backside of the monitor.


Thin Bezels, I'm in Heaven!





Results
In the end, a small purchase on top of monitors I already had gave me a 38'' IPS display with 3150x1680 resolution and very low input lag. The monitors are so old they don't have HDCP but otherwise don't feel dated at all!

 

[jngo]

mighty fine craftsmanship. This is definitely one of my favorite cases. I always wondered, though...how come more people don't mod mac pro desktop cases for pc use?

 

[450]

mighty fine craftsmanship. This is definitely one of my favorite cases. I always wondered, though...how come more people don't mod mac pro desktop cases for pc use?

1. Mac Pro cases aren't super cheap
2. It's not plug and play like a standard ATX case

 

[thinkdiesel]

thats pretty sweet

 

[Cabbs]

Awesome work. Now all you need to do is lose the stickers.

 

[R-Type]

Awesome work. Now all you need to do is lose the stickers.

Yeah I think they're on the chopping block, I always had a solid side panel on so you couldn't see them and I just kept adding with every build. Of course if I remove them I am going to need to get a second SSD to fill the void...

mighty fine craftsmanship. This is definitely one of my favorite cases. I always wondered, though...how come more people don't mod mac pro desktop cases for pc use?

You mean like this?

Another craigslist buy, I figured I would get my feet wet with the Lian Li before slicing into this thing. I'm planning on putting a dual socket 2011 board in there eventually.

Thanks for all the feedback on the build!

 

[The1stCAV]

Nice build. One area I seriously lack is in the case mod department, though more posts like yours may push me in that direction as the next challenge. Well done on the build.

 

[Tullphan]

As an owner of a V1000B I must say you've done a fantastic job!

 

[Zoson]

That's some mighty fine work with those extenders and 90 degree barbs on your gpus. I wonder who helped you with that?

 

[R-Type]

That's some mighty fine work with those extenders and 90 degree barbs on your gpus. I wonder who helped you with that?

Credit where credit's due, thread roaming advice givers like yourself are what make the [H] great.

 

[master noran]

Cool idea with the black tape, might have to try that on mine.

 

[R-Type]

Cool idea with the black tape, might have to try that on mine.

You mean on the monitors? Thats the temporary fix, as the weather improves I am going to take the display cage apart and use some self etching primer and matter black spray paint to get a decent black finish on the entire monitor metal surface. The tape makes a good surface for the time being but it has shrunk a bit from the heat and I can see hints of silver in a couple of spots.

I used a ton of electrical tape in the build, it's to computer builds what duct tape is to everything else.

 

[Zoson]

Another pro tip: Gaffer's tape.

 

[kevinpet]

Displays
Running the displays in Portrait mode was much better but suffered due to the relatively large bezel's on the displays. Fortunately I stumbled across a thread by Vega where he had removed the bezel's from his 30'' displays and I decided to give it a shot.

To me the monitors are the most impressive part of what you've done. I think due to how easily they could have broken. Fantastic job. I'm curious how you took off the bezels and how you knew there was nothing structural in they way.

 

[R-Type]

To me the monitors are the most impressive part of what you've done. I think due to how easily they could have broken. Fantastic job. I'm curious how you took off the bezels and how you knew there was nothing structural in they way.

Thanks, I got the idea on the forums and used some 2005fpw repair instructions I found online for removing the bezels. I've repaired several other brand monitors in the past and they have all been similar, the actual display needs a metal cage around it to hold the backlighting. The only structural aspect of the casing on these was in regard to spacing on the monitor mounts, they currently sit kind of sloppy on their stands but nothing that would risk them falling off.

 

[investinwaffles]

Thanks, I got the idea on the forums and used some 2005fpw repair instructions I found online for removing the bezels. I've repaired several other brand monitors in the past and they have all been similar, the actual display needs a metal cage around it to hold the backlighting. The only structural aspect of the casing on these was in regard to spacing on the monitor mounts, they currently sit kind of sloppy on their stands but nothing that would risk them falling off.

Do you mean the screws going into the VESA mount are missing a "spacer" (the original housing), so they are not tight enough and have a little play?
If so, my friend used some nylon washers to even his distance out and keep the screws nice and tight when he removed his bezels. Worked excellently.

Also, beautiful build on your V1k! Exactly what ive been wanting to do with my silver V1000 but have been waiting on new tech to release (6990). Unfortunately there is no way for me to fit a 3x120mm rad up top with dual GPU's because of my MOBO spacing (picture another PCI slot between your GPU).
I might be able to if use this Koolance shroud (pretty much designed for the V series), but Im not a huge fan of the looks. Gives me an extra 30mm of room though (if you ever want to upgrade, you could put in thicker rad and still run push-pull with one of these).
http://www.infotechnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=6019&s=froogle

Anyway, I have a few questions for you!

1. Does the swiftech 120mm rad clear the PCI mounting indent properly? I want as minimal spacing inside as possible and want to run it like:
---> [RAD] | [SHROUD][FAN] --->
My H50 wont let me mount it directly to the chassis because of clearance on the mounting area, does the swiftech have any problems? I was hoping to use a thicker 120mm rad there but I dont want to deal with any clearance issues.

2. And my last question is, are there any vibration issues with mounting the pump in the optical bays? My V1000 does have the traditional old school Li Li rattle sometimes, so im worried about this.

Also, have you considered switching to a positive pressure airflor config? I think in the V1000 it wold work much better because all the perforations will allow air to vent while still giving you the lowest intake temps for your radiators.
Also, you will eventually get the case super dusty pulling that much air into a case like the V series. Put some air filters on the intakes of the fans (if you switch to positive pressure), and you'll never need to dust your rads, or probably the inside of you PC.

V1000 with a negative pressure configuration is an absolute dust magnet because of all the beautiful perforations

Cheers, and damn good work!!! (from one Li Li fanatic to another )

 

[R-Type]

Do you mean the screws going into the VESA mount are missing a "spacer" (the original housing), so they are not tight enough and have a little play?
If so, my friend used some nylon washers to even his distance out and keep the screws nice and tight when he removed his bezels. Worked excellently.

The monitors have VESA mounts but the stock stands do not use them. Instead they attach with tabs that grip a bracket on each side. The tabs still reach the bracket and hold the monitor, but without the plastic the monitor can be shifted side to side on the tabs and potentially you could get it to come off without hitting the release. I applied some double sided tape with the backing left on one side to approximate the thickness of the plastic and it seems to be working well.

Also, beautiful build on your V1k! Exactly what ive been wanting to do with my silver V1000 but have been waiting on new tech to release (6990). Unfortunately there is no way for me to fit a 3x120mm rad up top with dual GPU's because of my MOBO spacing (picture another PCI slot between your GPU).
I might be able to if use this Koolance shroud (pretty much designed for the V series), but Im not a huge fan of the looks. Gives me an extra 30mm of room though (if you ever want to upgrade, you could put in thicker rad and still run push-pull with one of these).
http://www.infotechnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=6019&s=froogle

I looked at the koolance shrouds but absolutely hate how they look. I ended up buying my motherboard specifically because of the pci-e spacing in order to allow the internal rad. If you only put fans on one side of the radiator then you could use the first 5 expansion slots of an ATX mobo which would open up the range of acceptable motherboards quite a bit.

1. Does the swiftech 120mm rad clear the PCI mounting indent properly? I want as minimal spacing inside as possible and want to run it like:
---> [RAD] | [SHROUD][FAN] --->
My H50 wont let me mount it directly to the chassis because of clearance on the mounting area, does the swiftech have any problems? I was hoping to use a thicker 120mm rad there but I dont want to deal with any clearance issues.

In short no it didn't, but I had already bought the radiator by the time I discovered this. The obstruction is a bit hard to describe and I don't have pictures but you will see what I mean if you look at your case. Where the pci retention bracket portion begins it juts into the case about a centimeter. At the bottom of this, the aluminum from the back of the case is bent in to cover the gap that this difference in depth would create. I had to cut this bent portion out and then dremel about 1mm off of the bottom of the PCI retention bracket to get the radiator to fit. You also can't center the radiator horizontally in this space because it will hit the reinforcement channel on the case's side panel when it is installed. I think the XSPC RS120 and RX120 are smaller in both heigh and width and would be a better choice for the case, although I would still recommend cutting out the rear grill if you have a version 1 case like mine. Mounting my rear fan externally had the added benefit of creating a shroud effect between the radiator and fan due to the case thickness and rivets that kept the radiator from being absolutely flush with the rear of the case.

2. And my last question is, are there any vibration issues with mounting the pump in the optical bays? My V1000 does have the traditional old school Li Li rattle sometimes, so im worried about this.

Surprisingly enough no rattling. I laughed reading your comment about old school Lian Li rattle, when I was aircooling I had a 120mm fan suspended in the optical bay slots to cool the gpu's and it would cause intermittent phantom rattles. Have you ever figured out what it is making that noise? I've thought it was the side panel locker bar but if you know exactly whats making the noise I'll insulate it as a preventative measure.

Also, have you considered switching to a positive pressure airflor config? I think in the V1000 it wold work much better because all the perforations will allow air to vent while still giving you the lowest intake temps for your radiators.
Also, you will eventually get the case super dusty pulling that much air into a case like the V series. Put some air filters on the intakes of the fans (if you switch to positive pressure), and you'll never need to dust your rads, or probably the inside of you PC.

V1000 with a negative pressure configuration is an absolute dust magnet because of all the beautiful perforations

Cheers, and damn good work!!! (from one Li Li fanatic to another

I went with negative pressure because components like my northbridge, vrm, and ram are still passively cooled and negative pressure does a better job preventing dead zones. Another concern was dumping that much heat into the case, as it stands the air blowing out from the rads while folding hits 35C measured with an IR thermometer. I would hate to have all that heat dumped into the case. You are of course right on the mark with the dust and it needs to be cleaned monthly to keep the window clean but on the plus side the perforations are enough to catch stray cat hair before it enters the case!

Thanks for the feedback, let me know if you tackle any mods on your case and I'll be glad to share any of my lessons learned.

 

[codegrinder]

Did you use a dremel to cut the top? I have a v1200b plus and want to to the same with the top rad

 

[Zoson]

Dremels cut through lian li aluminum like butter. you'll need 2-3 cutting disks to make a hole that big.
If you're not using stabilization on your dremel, cut from the inside out, so any slips are invisible.

 

[R-Type]

I used a Dremel to punch an entry point through on each side of the rectangle and then took the jigsaw to it. The rad grill I used came with a cardboard stencil you see in one of the pictures, leave this on while cutting to avoid marring the surface of the case up with the base of the jigsaw. This makes the cut into about a 5 minute job versus 15-20 and a huge mess with the dremel.

This is the rad grill I used, they go great with the case.
http://jab-tech.com/Bitspower-Rad-Guard-BP-MRG360A-BK-pr-4629.html

Let me know how it turns out!

 

[codegrinder]

I used a Dremel to punch an entry point through on each side of the rectangle and then took the jigsaw to it. The rad grill I used came with a cardboard stencil you see in one of the pictures, leave this on while cutting to avoid marring the surface of the case up with the base of the jigsaw. This makes the cut into about a 5 minute job versus 15-20 and a huge mess with the dremel.

This is the rad grill I used, they go great with the case.
http://jab-tech.com/Bitspower-Rad-Guard-BP-MRG360A-BK-pr-4629.html

Let me know how it turns out!

perfect, I was wondering how to keep the line strait