Worklog: External Watercooling Enclosure

Unoid

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Feb 4, 2003
Messages
1,049
Scope: To created an external enclosure for my watercooling parts.

Design: A square base made of aluminum angles, with an aluminum plate for the floor.
Use clear acrylic for the walls and Lid (fasten lif with hinges).

Parts: Voyeurmods quad 120mm heatercore
Swiftech MCP-655 Pump (liang brand)
Typhoon 120mm Reservoir in UV blue
Fortron Mini PSU 200watt (to power fans lights and pump)
Sleeving in UV blue
Hydrx UV green coolant
Misc Hardware from MCMaster-carr (edge molding, Rubber foam padding, clamps etc...)
4x Evercool Aluminum 120mmx25mm Fans 79CFM, 12V @ 31dB.

On to the pics:

Heres my fortron PSU:
psu.jpg


The fan Controller that will power 4 fans and the UV lamps:
fancontroller.jpg


Sleeving some wires in the kitchen:
sleeving1.jpg


Quick Mockup:
mockup1.jpg


Mockup with the UV lamps going ,tad blurry...:
mockupdark.jpg


To the garage! Space heater to keep em warm in the 20 degrees, right next to my 2004 Lightning:
garage.jpg


Get another mockup going after I get my aluminum plate cut:
mockup2.jpg


Drilling the Angles in prep for secureing the base together:
drilling.jpg


Got the base completed with the first bolts holding it together:
baseside.jpg


Radiator and shroud out! the thing is huge! but lighter than I thought. Voyuermods.com had sucked packaging, they

didn't even tape off the barbs on the pump and rad!
radshroud.jpg


Got the shroud and fans mounted with some of that rubber foam to provide more of a height to the shroud and air

insulation:
fansmounted.jpg


Got the parts in the base in another mockup of their placement:
mockup3.jpg


Starting to drill and cutout the damned 1/8" plate with a drill and jigsaw. Let me tell you it is a pain i nthe ass

with a hand held jigsaw cutting through 1/8" alunum plate, go 1/16" if you want to acomplish the same thing:
basecutout.jpg


Thats all for now. I'll be getting my acrylic in on monday (todays sat). Sunday I'll finnish cutting the base plate and drilling the holes necessary for the pump mounting and psu mounting! Maybe think of how I'll make some feet on this thing.
I'm not sure how I'll make vents for the air to come in/out through the inside/top of the enclosure yet... but the fans wil lbe sucking air in through the bottom.

Questions, comments? log into my forums and ask away, no email authorization registration required: http://forums.unoid.net/
 
So far, this is sex.

I like the quad fan heatercore. I want to see your results with this thing =O

b0h!
 
Couple additions, Couldn't sleep, so I decided to waste 1.5ft of tubing and some 70% isopropyl alcohol and distilled water to flush the rad and pump out and test the res for leaks.

Here ya go:
cleaning1.jpg


cleaning2.jpg


Those fans sure do pull some nice air through the bottom of the radiator.

They're also kinda loud at 12V. but near silent when the fan contorller pus them all the way to low, 5-7V.
 
Aye the fans are a little on the loud side, I have my 2 running at around 5V and it's the happy medium :)

Keep up the great work, I like where this is going! :D
 
Looking very nice. Be sure to post some temperatures when you are done...I am curious as to how well the quad core works in comparison to a dual 120 heatercore in most cases.
 
I pretty much got the entire base and mounting done for my project. All that really is left is working with the

acrylic and mounting the reservoir and fan contorller and power switch.
I should get the acrylic work done by tuesday or wednesday.

On to the pics!

I got the plate cutout done and mounted the rad up to check bolt alignment:
radmountedhole.jpg


I used a steel wire attachment on my dremel to get a brushed aluminum look:
platebrushed.jpg


A finished brushed look with some SVt logo for fun :)
platebrushed2.jpg


Got the whole base bolted together and brushed the visible sides of the angle aluminum:
basebrushed.jpg


I had to come up wit some way to mount the psu so the fan can have a vent hole in the acrylic and a hole for the

power cable:
psumount.jpg


Now I have everything mounted!
allmounted.jpg


Heres a quick mockup with proper fan controller and res placement:
mockup4.jpg


Another but with dark shot to show the UV fun!
mockup5.jpg


I'll post again in a couple days when I get to working with my acrylic!
 
Whole enclosure body needs work to be done, but the gist of it's progressing nicely. I guess the final temp results will be the tell-all as compared to the more widely-avail dual 120's... ;)
 
man that's a huge rad! good idea, hopefully it works out for ya.
Are you gonna use QCs to hook it up? I don't think I'd ever want an external box without them, too much hassle to move them or take it apart...
 
I wasn't plnning on QC's but I've thought about them, they seem like trobule connecting and disconnecting... Either leaking some coolant, or getting air into hte loop when you connect/disconnect.
 
I've used QC's for the past year and a half or so and have yet to have a problem with them.................. :D
 
I got to working with the acrylic. I cut the acrylic with a skillsaw with a

plastic/metal blade with many many teeth. My cuts were perfect however... I

should ahve gone to lowes and paid them to laser cut everything for me.
If you are gonna work with acrylic make sure to have it laser cut, it'll

save you time and it'll look better!

Pics:

Got the acrylic panels mocked up on the box
w3-1.jpg


Getting ready to cut out the power supply hole for cable + fan exhaust:
w3-2.jpg


Here I'm mounting and cutting out the holes for my res:
w3-3.jpg


Dremel cutting (wasn't fun at all!)
w3-4.jpg


Drill bit to cut the hole which will house the on and off power sitch

(green and ground from motherboard 20pin connector:
w3-5.jpg


ANother mockup:
w3-6.jpg


Lid design for air exhaust: I was at a loss on how to do an exhaust for

this bad boy, thought about it for a good 30 minutes... So I said F-it and

did some crap design:
w3-7.jpg


Cutting out the design: As you can tell I got rid of the top and bottom

holes because when I was drilling with my wood bits(should bought acrylic

bits) I ended up making small cracks in the acrylic.. so quick fix, change

design:
w3-8.jpg


Finnished the lame ass design:
w3-9.jpg


Started acrylic cementing, but I screwed up plus the cement wasn't holding

good enough 3/16" acrylic is a tad thick to cement at its edges:
w3-10.jpg


Soo! I went to lowes and picked up some hardware for the feet (fat hexbolts

and capped nuts which will rest the base 1.5" off the ground. and I decided

I'd just bolts the acrylic walls together with angle pieces:
w3-11.jpg


One corner finnished:
w3-12.jpg


all 4 finnished: Doens't look as bad as I thought. I kinda like the bolty

look:
w3-13.jpg


Mocking the lid up top:
w3-14.jpg


so...

Now I'm cementing the 4 joints again while its all bolted up to make the

edges look a bit smoother and add more strength...

Next up I need to use my acrlic hinges and cemeent them to the lid and well

then add the feet and do some finnish sanding and I'll be done!

stay tuned...
 
Looking good. Do you plan on getting any appliques (sp?) or something of the like to spice up the plexi?

I would imagine that diffusing blue LED light through the sides would look good too.

Just a few suggestions :)

BTW, what power supply are you using? It looks like the type that I need for my external system (although something even smaller would be good).
 
PSU:
http://www.directron.com/fsp20050pla2.html

Everyones been asking about it.

Its a pretty good psu except it has 11.76V for the 12V line even w/o the pump running.

I don't wanna have to look for vsense lines on it to mod it with a resistor...

I'm in the process of cementing the hinges to the acrylic lid and body!
The hinges are hideous white, I asked for clear yet got white ones so I'm not happy. I'll prolly spraypaint or brushpaint them black.
 
Also I'm opting for real watercooling, none of that 1/4" or 3/8" ID tubing or any 90degree angles killing flow like most of these people who like to watercool with that european stuff :p

I looked on mc master carr and their double valve dquick disconnectes were like 35$ for a for a single set (I would need 2)
Thats in barbed for 1/2"ID tubing on both. 70$ for disconnects? hell naw.

Anyone got any links to double valve disconnects for 1/2" ID tubing lemme know. I'll check lowes as well.
 
Unoid said:
Also I'm opting for real watercooling, none of that 1/4" or 3/8" ID tubing or any 90degree angles killing flow like most of these people who like to watercool with that european stuff :p

I looked on mc master carr and their double valve dquick disconnectes were like 35$ for a for a single set (I would need 2)
Thats in barbed for 1/2"ID tubing on both. 70$ for disconnects? hell naw.

Anyone got any links to double valve disconnects for 1/2" ID tubing lemme know. I'll check lowes as well.

I forget the link but you definetly need to check out the "colder" high flow quick disconects. I will never go back. They are a bit pricey, though, as it will cost around $45 for a pair. They are, however, worth it.

They can be found at McMasterCarr and USplatics IIRC.
 
thanks for the links, usplastics dind't have 1/2" ID colder QD's

DOn't you think that QD's will kill flow a little bit? like equiv to having it go through a cpu block? they're obviously not just striaght through 1/2" ID couplings..

http://www.omega.com/pdf/tubing/couplings/ft-hfc-12series/ft-hfc12series.asp

those 1/2" double shutoff's look like, 14$ for a the coupling and plug.
35$ shipped isn't to bad.

Ill hav eot consider doing that , but I doubt I'll ever often have to disconenct or reconnect my waterbox, because the only times i will is to flush the coolant and do a cleaning then refill the system once a year... and having QD's dones't aid in flushing the entire loop...

I looked and they're all 3/8" flow through, so essentially I'm turning my 1/2"ID system bottlenecked to 3/8" ID throug hteh couplings.. I wonder how bad that'll hurt flow, obviously going to waterblocks they restrict flow quick well too..
 
Unoid said:
thanks for the links, usplastics dind't have 1/2" ID colder QD's

DOn't you think that QD's will kill flow a little bit? like equiv to having it go through a cpu block? they're obviously not just striaght through 1/2" ID couplings..

http://www.omega.com/pdf/tubing/couplings/ft-hfc-12series/ft-hfc12series.asp

those 1/2" double shutoff's look like, 14$ for a the coupling and plug.
35$ shipped isn't to bad.

Ill hav eot consider doing that , but I doubt I'll ever often have to disconenct or reconnect my waterbox, because the only times i will is to flush the coolant and do a cleaning then refill the system once a year... and having QD's dones't aid in flushing the entire loop...

I looked and they're all 3/8" flow through, so essentially I'm turning my 1/2"ID system bottlenecked to 3/8" ID throug hteh couplings.. I wonder how bad that'll hurt flow, obviously going to waterblocks they restrict flow quick well too..

It actually isn't as bad as you think. You aren't using all 3/8 ID tubing, so it isn't as though you are bringing your system down to 3/8 overall.

Sure, it would work better without them, but I would think the resistance is rather small, nowhere near that of a modern cpu block (or even gpu, for that matter). You aren't even changing direction of flow in quick disconnects.

I would seriously think that if you tested your system with and without the quick disconnects your flow difference would be next to negligible, much less your temperatures (which is what really matters).
 
Finally got all the acrylic and mounting finnished! Lets see the pics!

Here are my feet for this box of lubbin, 5/16 2" bolts with 4 nuts and 4 endcap nuts:
w4-1.jpg


Top view of the feet:
w4-2.jpg


Peeling off the protectant film!
w4-3.jpg


Wow it looks a lot better and my cuts don't look as horrible anymore:
w4-5.jpg


Get some rubber molding put on:
w4-6.jpg


Start to mount the tubing!
w4-7.jpg


Finnished with the tubing and not I can mount the res, power switch, fanbus:
w4-8.jpg


All done! Night shot with UV turned on: One note: the coolant will be UV green so imagine UV

green inside the tubing and res:
w4-9.jpg


Different flash:
w4-10.jpg


Got it cleaned up and inside for some final shots:
w4-11.jpg

w4-12.jpg

w4-13.jpg

w4-14.jpg


I haven't done anything that secures the acrylic to the base yet, I don't think i'll really

have to either.

I'm unsure as to when i'll hook this bad boy up to my current rig to get some cooling results.

But I will soon and update this log with the results.

Doesn't look half bad for a 350$ box? :)
 
All of the cables from the fans look nice sleeved, but i would still try to hide that nest of wires from the fans. since its a plexi case you have to make the wiring look good. Otherwise nice job so far. Im anxious to see how the green coolant looks in combination with all those blue cathodes and leds
 
Got it hooked up to the rig in my sig (hoping to upgrade in spring for M2 and maybe r600?)

Heres the pics:

Attached to my old maze4, I didn't wanna take my mobo off its tray to take the waterblock off

and reapply as3 (got tons left still) so I just tightened it a couple turns more and attached

the new tubes.
w5-1.jpg


Pic of my desk that will soon break , I'm gonna build myself a new desk with my fathers help

soon, very soon:
w5-2.jpg


Filling up the system slowly:
w5-4.jpg


Pretty UV green!
w5-5.jpg


As far as cooling results:

WIth my origanal setup of maze4, eheim 1250, and a black ice pro single 120mm:

Idle:
fan(12v) 39CPU,31case,26.8 Temp Probe (in case)
Fan(5V) 43cpu, 32case, 28.5probe

Load:
Fan 12V: 44cpu, 33case, 28probe
Fan 5V: 47cpu, 33case, 28.5probe

WIth my new setup:

Idle:
fan 12V: 31Cpu, 28case, 23 probe
Fan 5V: 32cpu, 27case, 23probe

Load:
Fan 12V: 36Cpu, 28case, 24probe
Fan 5v: 37cpu, 28case, 23probe

Rundown: so having the fans at low compared to high doens't really affect my cooling performance. It would seem this radiator, no matter the fannage is overkill for one mobile barton running at 1.95V vcore LOL.

Apparently to take advantage of this beast I'll need to go TEC when i upgrade.

I still got air bubbles in the radiator to get rid of.
 
Wow, your enclosure looks great. It looks like you got a nice reduction in temperatures as well.

If you get some quick disconnects, please post the results of your temperature differences, as I haven't seen any actual proof of what I said above.
 
I'll get those disconnects when I eventually upgrade my rig with a new lian li v1xxx case with goodies to go inside that can come close to taxing this water setup 420watt TEC anyone? :)
 
Really sweet case...I was wondering how exactly did you mount the sides of the acrilic? I know your second choice was the cement because it didnt hold in the first place.

You used L-shaped brackets? I'm confused...

TIA for the clarification.

Can't wait to do something like that myself :)
 
IAmSpoli said:
Really sweet case...I was wondering how exactly did you mount the sides of the acrilic? I know your second choice was the cement because it didnt hold in the first place.

You used L-shaped brackets? I'm confused...

TIA for the clarification.

Can't wait to do something like that myself :)

Hmm, Not sure what you're asking, but I ended up using steel angle brackets with the bolts obviously. the angles are inside the case, not o nthe outside. I also cemented the joints after it was bolted tight., I was hoping to cement the whole thing w/o bolts but I don't seemed to be skilled enough.
 
I can be so complex with my words.

You answered my question perfectly.

Thanks!
 
Man,

I love this external water box. I REALLY wanted to use acrylic like you did, but I just couldn't figure out a good way to connect the sides, and I had never really worked with it before, except for a sheet here and there, I never tried to create anything with it. I love your solution. I never thought of L brackets. Awesome man. Im going to be building a custom system for my wife next year, and i will be stealing some of your ideas... just so you know :)

I also use the quick connects, and as Bio will tell you, after testing, they dont restrict flow at all. My temps, and flow tests, have produced the same results. Have no fear in using them.

heres a link to my worklog.

my external box

keep up the great work!
 
Final touch on it: Applique!, I shoulda went with a UV reactive one, but these things are expensive!

applique.jpg
 
bump because topnurse loves my high flow 1/2"ID tubing and massive rad.
 
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