[WIP] Painted, Watercooled QPack

M

M4rk

Gawd
Joined
Nov 30, 2005
Messages
1,000
I'm bad at making threads in general, and when it came time to start a worklog on my first mod, I spazzed. So, no worklog for you! Just three sad pictures that tell a sad, sad story. Hopefully the [H]ware will make me a happy, happy man.

A little treat for the gentlemen...a completely nekkid X-QPack, including sister's Teddybear!
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Now look what I did to that pretty case. Horrific, ain't it?
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An even more gruesome bodyshot of my bloodied QPack. I know what you're thinking...
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Teabag! ;)

Stay tuned for updates. Planned hardware includes a Foxconn 6150/430 mobo, Opteron 165, 2gb DDR400 (maybe 500), and a dual-core 7800 GTX (whenever those go retail), not to mention another rad (80mm x2). Opinions?
 
Smoove910 said:
I love the Rad location. What size and brand is that rad?
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It's not a regulation size, I took it out of a Evercool watercooling kit 202: http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=202&products_id=2569

It's pretty easy to open up the main drive bay rez and pull out the rad. For mounting I bought some aluminum strips from Lowe's, measured, bent, and drilled them to fit the rad and 120mm fan. I flipped around my fan so I don't have to fabricate any shroud.

EDIT: Oops, I forgot to mention that I plan on adding a dual 80mm rad to the loop. It'll rest under the drivebays facing the front. It should fit perfectly.
 
MassiveOverkill said:
Just remember who originated this idea :p ;)
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Yeah, Massive came up with that idea first, I think Dillusion was the second to use it. Brilliant idea anyway. Btw Massive, I'm buying a 3/8" rad anyhow. I'll tell you how it fits. ;)
 
M4rk said:
Yeah, Massive came up with that idea first, I think Dillusion was the second to use it. Brilliant idea anyway. Btw Massive, I'm buying a 3/8" rad anyhow. I'll tell you how it fits. ;)
Click to expand...

:D

Theres allot of space between you rad and 120mm fan, and your only pulling hot air through the rad to boot. Either have the rear 120 blowing cold air into the case/rad, or put the rad outside and have the fan pulling in. With the rear fan blowing out, all you can do is blow hot air....and you want cold air ;) And try to lessen the gap between the rad and the fan, because all your doing is sucking up air around the rad, not from behind it and through it (what youw ant)
 
Dillusion said:
:D

Theres allot of space between you rad and 120mm fan, and your only pulling hot air through the rad to boot. Either have the rear 120 blowing cold air into the case/rad, or put the rad outside and have the fan pulling in. With the rear fan blowing out, all you can do is blow hot air....and you want cold air ;) And try to lessen the gap between the rad and the fan, because all your doing is sucking up air around the rad, not from behind it and through it (what youw ant)
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I know that Dillusion, I spent a whole day trying to cut sheet metal for the gaps, then I figured out that it would be much easier for the 120mm fan to blow into the case. Look closer and you'll see that the fan has been flipped already. I plan on buying a PSU that also blow air in from the back (or I'll just mod one) and I'm waiting on Paypal for a dual 80mm rad + fans to blow air out the front (there's factory-cut vents above the handle). Hopefully the tubes are 3/8" and not 3/16" like Massive insits... :rolleyes:
 
so i assume you've reversed the fan to blow in now? have you tried that without the RAD? does reversing the fan really help?
 
chambersc said:
so i assume you've reversed the fan to blow in now? have you tried that without the RAD? does reversing the fan really help?
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UCF!!!!!!!!!!!1111

And yes, reversing the fan on my Qpack helped, but thats cause i had a rad on there...
 
chambersc said:
so i assume you've reversed the fan to blow in now? have you tried that without the RAD? does reversing the fan really help?
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Yeah, I reversed mine. It should do wonders for the rad, blowing cooler air from outside the case over it instead of warm air from inside.

EDIT: Two more pieces of [H]ware that I'm going to use for this baby is a dual-slimdrive 5.25" bay mount and eVGA's mATX SLI mobo (whenever that comes out). Screw Foxconn, lol!
 
hmmm.. looks interesting... /subscribed


(im looking for idea for a SFF my self... and i like the looks of the case so far, (never really payed attention to any in the past)... wait and see


thore
 
Lol, thore, you might be waiting a while. An mATX SLi mobo just came out and I want to get my hands on it. I think my next purchase is the dual 80mm rad. Does anybody know of a place with one that is good with returns?

EDIT: Whoohoo! Just found an answer to my prayers! Reducing unions! Yes! Lowes should have them in stock.

Heheh, forgive my spasm, reducing unions will allow me to connect a 3/8" dual 80mm rad to my 3/16" loop. :D
 
M4rk said:
I know that Dillusion, I spent a whole day trying to cut sheet metal for the gaps, then I figured out that it would be much easier for the 120mm fan to blow into the case. Look closer and you'll see that the fan has been flipped already. I plan on buying a PSU that also blow air in from the back (or I'll just mod one) and I'm waiting on Paypal for a dual 80mm rad + fans to blow air out the front (there's factory-cut vents above the handle). Hopefully the tubes are 3/8" and not 3/16" like Massive insits... :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Something else you might consider is getting a bigger fan, the stock fan is only 25mm thick, they do make some 120mm fans that are 38mm thick, and they move more air too, thereby reducing your gap, and pulling more air thru your rad at the same time. Just trying to help :D
 
Thanks for the suggestion GameDad, but it's really hard to take off my custom brackets. I should be getting some reducing unions on Wednesday, or maybe today if it's biking weather. ;) I'm ordering my rad today from FrozenCPU (I think). I'm going to hold off on the mobo as long as possible, heheh.
 
Double post, hope no one minds. :rolleyes:

Cut to the chase; ordered one of those newfangled dual slimline bezels for $18, looks good!
f0851101.jpg

I don't plan on keeping it there though. The WCing controller is going in the top slot and the drives in the bottom. I just happened to have the top slot open already.
 
You reverse the fan tho suck the air in from the back, but how's the ventilation for the HDs?
I'm also wondering how's the noise level created by the drag around the rad?
Thanks.
 
The case will be closed and the fan is a 120mm, so it should be quiet. I'm not planning on buying 10,000 rpm drives, so the air that flows past the rad should cool the HDDs sufficiently. I can put a HDD in the floppy bay and the WCing drive will cool it via a cheap, factory installed fan that used to cool the rad, heheh. Most components in my system will be WCed, so warm air shouldn't matter.
 
Yes, it is very possible to make an internal or external shroud. I think Dillusion made an internal shroud with a hobbybox. Check this gallery, alot of us have mounted this very same rad. I'm just doing it a slightly different way.
 
Rust-Oleum metal primer and gloss black. I don't think I did a very good job, so I might take it back apart a few years from now and repaint or anondize it.
 
M4rk said:
Rust-Oleum metal primer and gloss black. I don't think I did a very good job, so I might take it back apart a few years from now and repaint or anondize it.
Click to expand...

Think the paint would affect performance?
 
I doubt the paint affects anything, performance-wise. It just looks cool when the lights are out to see things seemingly "floating" in your case. Then again, I have bad eyesight. ;)
 
Specifically, I'm a little worried about the effect the paint might have on grounding the motherboard - if a layer of paint gets between the motherboard and the case...

This is why I'd either (gently) sand off the paint on the chassis' motherboard mount tops or (better still) put little pieces of stickytape over them as you spray.

I'm probably being paranoid...

Have any problems with flaking or anything like that? The Qpack is aluminum and I've been told that you need a chemical treatment to paint aluminum, so it's kinda cool to see this paint job but I'd like to know more...

Oh, and I'd also like to know if you've got any problems with heat. Sure, you're not leaving this thing out in the sunlight, but black absorbs light/heat while reflective material reflects light/heat.

Or at least I think that's what they said in 7th grade...
 
So far, nothing's flaked. I used three coats of primer, so everything is staying in place very well (except where I tighten my screws, that scratches off the paint by nature). I plan on stripping the paint some day and getting it anondized/powder-coated (didn't I already post that? I'm getting senile)...

Black absorbs more light than any other color, since black is not a color. Think it over, there's no such thing as "black" light, just very deep purple. There is white light though, which is the preasence (sp?) of all colors of light, thus, by logic, black, which is the polar opposite of white, is the absence of all colors. Anyhow, this little baby won't be in direct contact with sunlight, so color (or lack thereof) shouldn't matter. One more thing:

light != heat;
if (lightBouncedOffSomething = true)
heatIsGenerated = true;

That's why the air shimmers above a car's hood or the asphault (sp?) in front of you: light from Sol (the Sun's real name) bounces off the car and generates excess energy we know as heat.

Now, back on Terra (Earth's real name), paint is non-conductive as far as I know. Besides, if you look closely at where your motherboard mounts to standoffs, the holes are surrounded by some ring of metal. I'm pretty sure it's non-conductive also.

P.S. The moon's real name is Luna, heheh. No, really.
 
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