Watercooling in PC-60 / 6070

C

condac

Weaksauce
Joined
Jun 29, 2005
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I have a Lian li pc-6070 and I don't know where to put my radiator (16.5 cm x 13.8 cm x 6 cm) + Fan
I don't wan't to put any visible holes in my nice black brushed aluminium. I have 3 HD so removing the hd-rack at the bottom isn't a very good option. I want everything inside the case.

Ideas and pictures of you sulotion is very welcome!!

EDIT: I can remove the bottom hdrack I think. I was planing on hanging one of my drives in rubberband in the 5" slot so i can move the other two to the 3" rack. Can someone please show some photos how you have put your stuff inside the case.
__
Sorry for bad english
 
You do not leave yourself many options.

Consider cutting a hole in the bottom of the case where it would not be seen and suck air up and into the case then through the radiator where the warmed air would be vented out of the case by the rest of the fans. I have no idea if there is room for this but with your other design constraints I am hard pressed to offer any alternatives.
 
You could try to hook it up to the exaust fan with an adapter. Personally I'd toss it in the top drive bay, cut a hole on top for the fan, and cover it in some sexy wire mesh.
 
Well another solution is to put the radiator on top of the case or on the back of it. If you get some bulkhead fittings like these in the size tube you need it would facillitate getting it in and out of your case.
 
You can cut into your Lian-Li. They're not made of gold. Hehe I tried like hell to figure a way to get my Pump and Blackice Extreme 2x120 in my PC-65B. I was petrified to cut into such an expensive case. Once I had a few drinks, the Dremel came out, and there was no looking back. I got it all in there, but I had to cut the top and flush mount the raditaor to it.
 
I will cry for a week before I cut the first hole, and 3 weeks after, and my mother will kill me about 5 times for cuting my birthday present to pieces.
 
condac said:
I will cry for a week before I cut the first hole, and 3 weeks after, and my mother will kill me about 5 times for cuting my birthday present to pieces.
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Well do yourself a favor and don't use a dremel till you get to the detail work in the corners. A jig saw with a metal cutting blade works very well. If your concerned about looks afterward the I might suggest an Aqua Computer Evo Grill as it will actually make your case look even nicer. The Evo grill comes with a template printed on the outside of the package it comes in with all the right places to cut and drill. :D
 
If you do end up cutting, I would suggest a holesaw. Cleanest way to make fan holes, period.
 
I'm with TN on this. I bought an Airplex vo 240 cover for mine, and it cleans up the lines wonderfully. Of course, I wish it was black, but I'll live.
 
condac said:
I will cry for a week before I cut the first hole, and 3 weeks after, and my mother will kill me about 5 times for cuting my birthday present to pieces.
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Awww.... its only first time thats hard... I've cut about $1200 worth of lian-li cases by now... :) (latest one V2000+ black) It does give you some lesson on refraining and measuring and thinking few times before cutting though... :p
 
If you do use a jigsaw place blue painters tape (like masking tape but doesnt leave as much sticky mess behind) around where you are cutting the hole. This will keep the metal shoe of the jigsaw from getting a piece of metal under it and scratching the case. Measure 3 times and cut once. clear shavings away often. Dont lay the case down on a surface unless its absolutely clean. One metal shaving on a table top will scratch the crap out of a side panel etc.
 
typhoon43 said:
I'm with TN on this. I bought an Airplex vo 240 cover for mine, and it cleans up the lines wonderfully. Of course, I wish it was black, but I'll live.
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Well you could send it out and have it black chromed :D

Agree with all the previous posters about preparation for cutting and protecting the case while you are doing it. Just remember the old carpenters adage of "measure twice and cut once." ;)
 
I'm with parish on the jigsaw .in addtion painter tape the shoe of the saw and high quality blade in the saw .lowest speed setting, let the saw do the work .I do architectural sheet metal for a living and custom copper work in kitchens .if you practice first and go slow you might have aline smooth enough after dressing up to not use any trim .And give mom serious bragging rights first time or no. :D
 
I will place the radiator in the front and if it is not good enough I will buy a 2fan rad and place it at the bottom of the case. Is there anyone that actualy have /had a lian li pc-60 that can post some pictures so I can get some visual ideas??
 
condac said:
I will place the radiator in the front and if it is not good enough I will buy a 2fan rad and place it at the bottom of the case. Is there anyone that actualy have /had a lian li pc-60 that can post some pictures so I can get some visual ideas??
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are the 60's and 65's the same size?
 
Damn, I got here late... as for cutting holes in your case... find some machinist that will do it for you for free.. should only take him a few minutes to cut some sexy holes, or at least thats how I did it:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=879134

But... this is of course a 6077... however my cd drives are in the same place they would be in a pc-60 if you had the two top bays taken by a rad anyways.

Also, if you decide to go this route (machinist) I can get you a nice scan of the CAD drawing I made for mine.. I had the place it like it is so I coudl eliminate teh top fan hole that may or may not be on your case, but I also wouldn't mind re-drawing the diagram if you didn't have the fan mount in top.

Edit: if you want to mount it in the front, you could aso rig up some erector set parts instead of spening a bit of cash on some imported brackets.
 
Punx_Clever said:
Edit: if you want to mount it in the front, you could aso rig up some erector set parts instead of spening a bit of cash on some imported brackets.
Click to expand...

Well if you got Erector toys around I'm sure that would work fine, otherwise they are a whopping $15 for a pair ;)
 
I havn't cut any holes yet Punx_Clever so your not to late.
Some cad drawings would be very nice! The rad I'm planing to mount on the top is the black ice pro 2 the 2 fan rad but I will probably only mount one fan on it so it will only take up one 5" drive if it is posible. And I don't have a fan mount in the top.

What are "erectors" can you translate into Swedish or pictures. I havn't heard that word before. I'm not good at English at all so..
ps. The system can be ghetto as long as it looks nice on the outside.
"ghetto but nice"
 
For a single fan 120mm heatercore, what I did was cut a 120mm fan hole in the top of the case, inside/above the 5.25" bays...had to move my cdrw to the bottom bay, but it worked. Depending on your PSU and/or how many 5.25" drives/devices you're using, this may not work...but it turned out very clean for me and I'm pleased.

Whatever you do, if you have the option, always have a radiator fan sucking air OFF OF the rad and expelling it elsewhere. Setting it up with the fan(s) blowing air on the rad (from the inside or outside of the case) won't yield as nice results...and you can better things by having a push/pull setup going, one fan blowing on the rad from inside the case, and a second fan pull air through/off of the rad and out of the case from the other side.
 
condac said:
I havn't cut any holes yet Punx_Clever so your not to late.
Some cad drawings would be very nice! The rad I'm planing to mount on the top is the black ice pro 2 the 2 fan rad but I will probably only mount one fan on it so it will only take up one 5" drive if it is posible. And I don't have a fan mount in the top.

What are "erectors" can you translate into Swedish or pictures. I havn't heard that word before. I'm not good at English at all so..
ps. The system can be ghetto as long as it looks nice on the outside.
"ghetto but nice"
Click to expand...

Sorry so late on the reply... two things:

1) Erector Sets are building toys for kids.... they consist of metal with holes in it such that many different things can be built very easily.... I'll ge tyou a picture of some soon.

2) My current drawings are in English Measure... machinists areound here deal in inches.
However, if needed I can re-draw them to metric.

Now... off to scan you some blueprints!

EDIT: I almost messed up... Before I can get you some correct plans, I need someone to get me the spacing between the screw-holes for the fans on a black ice pro radiator... that thought just barely crossed my mind as I was redrawing my holes (screwed up and didn't save the file...). But yeah, need meausements (metric please!)
 
I am curious -- I'm still a little unsure how a 2x120 radiator + fans would mount on the back of any case, not just the Lian-Li's?...I've seen plenty of mounting brackets and such for 1x120's but not much for 2x120s or 3x120s...?

cornelious0_0 said:
Whatever you do, if you have the option, always have a radiator fan sucking air OFF OF the rad and expelling it elsewhere. Setting it up with the fan(s) blowing air on the rad (from the inside or outside of the case) won't yield as nice results...
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So, I've heard a bit of debate on this subject....can anyone point me to a URL with test data?
 
I'm sure there is someplace around that has that info, but if you just hold a rad in one hand, a fan in the other hand against the rad, and point it at your face you will notice the difference in airflow. Also when you suck air across the rad the airflow is not hitting any resistance like it does when you try and blow though it.
 
At the moment I dont have the black ice pro 2 rad. Only the cheap single fan rad I got with the cooling kit I ordered But that is going to be mounted at the front. But the BIP2 radiator it self is 133 x 277 x 25 (mm) from the spec I found on the net.

Xylo I don't plan to mount any rad at the back of the case. The plans I have are at the top or on the floor of the case. And a single 120mm rad at the front.

Edit: the screw holes for the fans on the BIP2 rad is just normal 120mm fans. Or is it the space between the too fans you want?
I was thinking on having the rad directly on to the case and one fan hanging under blowing air up on the rad. Just to save the space for my two 5" drives and a fan controller: some ascii drawing
_________ case
psu|##### | rad
___|fan||dvd|
 
yeah, I needed the spacing between the two fans... and untill monday I wont be able to draw on this, my laptop has cad, but without my case there for to meausre, I got nothin.
 
Yea, I'm too worried about messing up to cut holes in an expensive computer case. That's why I'm getting the Cooler Master Stacker. It's got a billion drive bays in the front and they advertise that you can fit three 120mm fans in the front. So I figure my 120.2 rad will have plenty of room.

And I don't know any mechanics OR have any tools to do anything with, so it would probably be at least as expensive as buying what I am.
 
Ok due to some parts missing in my first order of parts I can't build a complete working system at the moment (some tube mounting parts missing). So I have been sitting and moving all the stuff around in the computer so I know where to put everything. But there are one big problem. My "small" one 120 fan rad was bigger than I tought, I must have messured wrong before. So now the rad don't fit in the front under the 3" floppy mount. It is 0.4cm to high. So I will mount it on the floor. I'm going to cut a circular hole for a 120 fan and haave the fan on the floor and the rad on the fan. Reason I'm not cuting a square hole for the rad is that I want to remove/or change the rad and have a nice fan hole left.
But now the question:
Blow in or suck out the air?? If it was about the fan in the top or back it will only have one answer: Out with the air. But blow out in the floor?? But if i blow in air the case will have the same temp as the water, and I will have a water heated case.

I have a passive GPU cooler so it must have air circulation on it.
 
It works best if you suck air THROUGH the rad (IE, the fan blowin gaway from the rad). However that has you set up... I would go with that.
 
That's not what he's asking. He is mounting the rad in the front and was wondering to suck air through out the front or suck air through into the case. (to use your terminology.)

I think that it will still cool your pc if you suck it in. Moving air, no matter what the temp, helps. However, other sides of the case would be desirable. If you can stand to wait a week or two, then maybe look at a different case. Myself I have switched to the new Gigabyte 3D Aurora case. See here:
http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=810&21558
http://tw.giga-byte.com/Peripherals/News/News_135.htm

It's not out yet, but it has some really good watercooling features. Although I realize you already have that PC-60, maybe you can sell it?

Of course, the best option would be to NOT put the rad in the front.
 
Please keep in mind that you can not watercool everything unless you stick the whole MB in some kind of non-conductive coolant. So you still have to have a way of bringing air into the case and exhaust it out at the top by either natural convection or active cooling fans. Thus putting a rad on the bottom or bottom front of the case makes perfect sense. The only down side to putting it on the bottom is that typically floors and carpets tend to be more dusty than other parts of the room and you might suck in a lot of dirt. Now if you have a Lian-Li V series case that gets more interesting as the usual source of sucking hot air out of the case is down in the bottom of the case. However, there are lots of open little holes in the grill structure to bring air in if you think about it so you just design things so that it takes advantage of that fact.
 
I agree with you on the dust thing TN, thast why I wouldn't usually consider putting the rad on the bottem. However, if it's on a desk I dont see it as being nearly as much of a problem.
 
Well the only place for the rad at the moment is the bottom. So I will have to test what's best. My room is far away from dust free so I will have to clean the air filters every week if I'm going to blow air into the case.
I'm thinking of turning the air movement around a bit. My powersupply is getting realy hot. So if i blow air out on the bottom, maybe I will blow air in under the powersupply and reverse the air and go against the air is going up theory. Well I can experiment on all that when the watercooling is in place.
As for now the rad will be on the bottom floor unless someone have a big no no on it.
 
I have that same case and I'm in the same situation as you. Right now I have my rad mounted on the rear of my case and I hate it because my fan is loud and it collects tons of dust. I was thinking about moving it where the two case fans are in the front, adding a micro 80mm rad where the rear case fan goes internally and having an external res or T-line w/fill port. I'm curious to see what configuration you go with. Good luck.
 
condac said:
Well the only place for the rad at the moment is the bottom. So I will have to test what's best. My room is far away from dust free so I will have to clean the air filters every week if I'm going to blow air into the case.
I'm thinking of turning the air movement around a bit. My powersupply is getting realy hot. So if i blow air out on the bottom, maybe I will blow air in under the powersupply and reverse the air and go against the air is going up theory. Well I can experiment on all that when the watercooling is in place.
As for now the rad will be on the bottom floor unless someone have a big no no on it.
Click to expand...

How about an intake fan at the top of the case sucking cool air in. This way you have air going from top to bottom.
 
I just got a PC-7. I'm mounting my rad/shroud/fan combo, all in the top 2 drive bays. The fans will blow out the top of the case, with pretty mesh covering them ;)
 
cnick79 said:
How about an intake fan at the top of the case sucking cool air in. This way you have air going from top to bottom.
Click to expand...

You better have a vacuum cleaner running at the bottom to keep hot air from doing what it naturally wants to do.
 
Top Nurse said:
You better have a vacuum cleaner running at the bottom to keep hot air from doing what it naturally wants to do.
Click to expand...

What? I know it's not the best setup but don't make it sound worse than it is. It's not like air is heavy to move. Very little to no air will rise back through a blowing fan. Take a spray bottle of water to act as your air and spray a blowing fan and see what happens.
 
Beasta.JPG
 
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