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WCing a Stacker

Ety

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 18, 2004
Messages
499
I am going to be ordering parts for a new PC and I was thinking in the CM Stacker there is enogh room for multiple radiations and I was wondering if a dual 80mm rad and then a 80mm rad would be noticably diffrent from the dual 80mm only. Thanks
 
yea, definitely dont use ANY 80mm rads. 80mm fans for one thing have a much worse cfm to dBA ratio, AND teh stacker can put up to 3 120mm fans in the front.

Get a double 120mm rad, the Black Ice Pro II or a double heatercore preferably (www.dangerdenstore.com).

a 80.2 rad has less front/back surface area than a 120.1 rad. They are basically useless.
(160x80 < 120x120)
 
DO NOT use 80mm radiators. Double, single, whatever. DON'T DO IT!!! If you do, I will find you and take your Stacker case from you because it doesn't deserve that kind of treatment!! LOL.

Here is a pic of when I moved from a Coolermaster mid-tower (ATC-201) to the Stacker. I think this pic speaks for itself.......

stacker0227mb.jpg


That dual 80mm is sitting in a box somewhere now. I bought it because it's all I could get into my old case without cutting it up.

Temps went WAY down.
 
I am not totaly sure on the hardware yet. But wow thats a diffrence if I do WC I'll go 120mm.
 
BioPort said:
why on earth would you want to use 80mm rads in that huge case?
Why would I own a stacker and built my WC unit into a external case?

Because I decided to do so :p

For real though, I did it to keep as much heat at possible out of my stacker ;)

PS. Looks great Scroatdog! I am surprised how well that fits in there!
 
DaRkF0g said:
PS. Looks great Scroatdog! I am surprised how well that fits in there!


Hehehe. Tell that to the 7 bays I can't use anymore. :p
If I had to do it again, maybe I would have put the rad on the bottom, cut the bottom open some more for it. But on the other hand, I'm getting nice cool air coming in.
 
Too late to mounit it in the bottom where that metal mesh is?

Although dust would be a bad issue.
 
*blows dust off month-old thread*

Sooo...I'm planning to WC at some point in the near future (couple weeks). I have a Stacker, fully loaded with hard drives though so the front mount option is out for me. I want to go with a double heatercore, but the best I can think to mount it involves cutting that bottom mesh thing big enough to accomidate it and have it suck air through the core and out (TMK radiator fans should suck through the rad, and always be an exaust). Alternately I could fall back to a single size heatercore and stick it on the back spot, or even get a 2x80mm rad and stick it on the bracket for the unused power supply spot. How large a difference will there be between a dual heatercore, single heatercore, and 2x80mm rad?

Alternately I might just convert my Stacker into my secondary computer / file / media server that I've been wanting to throw together, and put it in a completely new case. In which case, any significant recommendations for cases that would be easy for an apartment dweller to install a dual heatercore in?
 
can you sacrifice two of the bays? Top mounting the radiator with a smallish shroud takes up two 5.25" bays (roughly).
 
Yeah, one's empty and another just has the floppy in it, the others are taken up by the drive modules and the power & I/O block. There's that humpy thing at the top front though? Maybe I'm misunderstanding your suggestion but it sounds like it would involve a good deal more modding than just enlarging the bottom grill.
 
ashmedai said:
Yeah, one's empty and another just has the floppy in it, the others are taken up by the drive modules and the power & I/O block. There's that humpy thing at the top front though? Maybe I'm misunderstanding your suggestion but it sounds like it would involve a good deal more modding than just enlarging the bottom grill.

The only modding is cutting a 12cm by 24 cm (roughly) hole in the top and putting a AquaComputer 240 grill on top to cover up the messy cuts :D
 
The Stacker has a plastic hump thing on the top front, and a steel PSU cage in the back...there's maybe a space big enough for a single 120mm hole between the two, otherwise one would have to get hacked out. I poked around inside a bit...I'm not so sure there's enough length available anyway without some serious moddage so my main thought now is just to get a second case. Maybe another one with casters, I'm kinda liking the bottom-mount radiator idea.
 
ashmedai said:
The Stacker has a plastic hump thing on the top front, and a steel PSU cage in the back...there's maybe a space big enough for a single 120mm hole between the two, otherwise one would have to get hacked out. I poked around inside a bit...I'm not so sure there's enough length available anyway without some serious moddage so my main thought now is just to get a second case. Maybe another one with casters, I'm kinda liking the bottom-mount radiator idea.

Yes I know about the hump, there is definitely room for a 2x120mm radiator there even with the hump and the psu cage. If you cut out the PSU cage there is even room for a 3x120mm. It has been done many times, if you do a little looking around you will probably find quite a few stacker cases that have done this.
 
I have a CM Stacker as well and I'm just planning to enlarge the hole in the bottom and mount a 2x120mm rad there. I was planning to push the air out the bottom of the case rather than sucking it in. I figured it would be okay as long as I make sure I have lots of cool air coming into the case.
 
ashmedai said:
Which is basically my point. ^_^

That was for a 3x120, you can always mount the rad on the bottom, but make sure you have your case raised at least .5" off the ground to allow for sufficient air flow.
 
Erasmus354 said:
That was for a 3x120, you can always mount the rad on the bottom, but make sure you have your case raised at least .5" off the ground to allow for sufficient air flow.
Yeah make sure to get some custom footies or you wont have enough air circulation going to your rads.
 
Don't know if you mounted the wheels on your case...the wheels should give you more than 0.5" at the bottom of the case.
 
Well seeing as a radiator collects the heat from various places, you're going to want it as an exaust rather than blowing that heat all over the inside of your case. So I doubt it will matter, if anything it might be slightly better on the bottom as the air you're sucking through it may be marginally cooler.
 
Dust isn't to much of a problem for me. I put two dryer sheets to catch the dust. Just remember to change or clean them once a month.

2005_0906image0010.jpg


2005_0906image0012.jpg
 
ashmedai said:
Well seeing as a radiator collects the heat from various places, you're going to want it as an exaust rather than blowing that heat all over the inside of your case. So I doubt it will matter, if anything it might be slightly better on the bottom as the air you're sucking through it may be marginally cooler.

It doesn't really matter whether the radiator is exhausting the air out of the case or using it as intake. If you are watercooling then all of the really temperature dependent items are being cooled by the water loop (usually). And in the worst case scenario you have the same case ambient as you would have if you were air cooling. Yes there are things like the nb and PWM that still would benefit from lower temps, but the few C that using the radiator as an intake would add to the case ambient will not make that big of a difference.


@ The_Reaper.... wth did you do to your water?!? Almost makes me want to throw up..that is the ugliest color of water ever. :p
 
If at all possible, I want to mount a heatercore in the front of my CM-Stacker. (like the picture from the first page). However, I have several harddrives already in there so I only have a verticle clearance of about 9 and a half inches. Does anyone know what heatercore model I can use?
 
Do what I did. Put your hard drives in the 3 to 4 cage, then place the cage behind the heatercore, with the fan facing toward the rear of the case. You'll end up with a push/pull flow of air across your hard drives.
 
Thanks for the tip Scroatdog. I am guessing that is a 77 bonneville core, but I am not sure. Can you tell me:

1) the dimentions of your heatercore

and

2) what make/model car did it come from so i can order it from autozone?
 
Uhh.................. dimensions??? Too lazy to pull every one of those dust bay covers off. sorry. I can tell you that there was at least 1/4 inch of space on either side with the Bonneville core in there. (It's a 77). I made my own shroud out of a cardboard box (A Dell box lol :p ) and that made it a snug fit in the front bays. Worked perfectly. I got my rad already painted blue from 2Fresh. Go to this link:

Link

2Fresh sells them here. He's a reliable seller, and will paint it any way you want, or not if you don't want paint. He'll put 3/8 or 1/2 inch barbs in there for you. I had mine painted blue around the sides, but had the fins unpainted because I thought it might affect temps.
He sells fans, mounting screws, and shrouds too. I didn't get his shroud because there is a 1/4 inch lip that goes around it and I was afriad it wouldn't fit.

Anyhow, here is a pic of what I did with my drives. It actually makes the Stacker look like there's not much room in there!!! When I re-do my water I may put the rad on the bottom with dryer sheets. Don't know yet. If I did that, I'd have to get another 3 to 4 cage, or rig up something to get another 120mm fan working as intake.

Anyways, here you go:


Stacker037.jpg
 
I could have sworn I already posted this:

Thank you very much scroatdog. That is exactly the information I was looking for.

My setup will be slightly different from yours; I will post pictures when I have it completed.
 
Now just to paint the rest of the inside of your rig with that pretty blue, scroatdog. :)
 
DaRkF0g said:
Now just to paint the rest of the inside of your rig with that pretty blue, scroatdog. :)


Nah, I've got most of the inside of the case covered in black Paxmate noise insulation. Maybe I'll paint the remaining exposed grey areas with black paint. It'll be tough to do and not get any on the PaxMate. :D
 
The Reaper said:

Just a quick question. What kind of coolant is that? It looks like chocolate milk from the images. :eek:

Using dryer sheets is an interesting idea. Bet it makes your room smell laundry day fresh. ;)
 
AACDIRECT said:
Just a quick question. What kind of coolant is that? It looks like chocolate milk from the images. :eek:

Using dryer sheets is an interesting idea. Bet it makes your room smell laundry day fresh. ;)

his tubes look like they started that color. To me it looks like he just used tubing that wasnt clear to start with. There would be some kind of a blend if it was the water itself. It's too uniform to be inside the tubing.
 
Here is a basic watercooling setup in the stacker. Dual 120 on the bottom and a single 120 on the back.

cmstacker4nj.jpg
 
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