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build progress on custom overkill water cooling case

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sethleigh
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2016/08/24 11:32:30 (permalink)
Hi. In a previous thread I mentioned my custom wood water-cooling monster case project. It's coming along. I thought I'd attach some photos.
 
One shows the current state of the case, with the front panel glued in and the fan mounting plate sitting in its recess but not screwed down. I need to go buy some appropriate screws for this.
 
One shows the front panel before I glued it in, with the fan plate sitting on it. You can see how the fan mounting plate will sit in a recess in the case front panel. I cut the recess out with a jigsaw, then cleaned it up with a router and a straight edge, then cut the ledges (rabbets) using the router, finishing up the corners by hand with a chisel. The fan plate has matching rabbets cut into its sides so it sits in the recess and there's enough wood there to screw it down.
 
The last shows the fan mounting plate when I attached the three Corsair AF 140 fans to it to test airflow using an old power supply. I didn't measure airflow or anything, since I don't have any gear. This was more of a plug it in, wave my hand through the airstream, and nod my head approvingly sort of thing. It also shows the (unattached) the laser-cut acrylic fan grill that will cover these three fans on the front of the case. I got the grill from a guy on Etsy, who cut in total six matching grills for me for a really good price.
 
The reason for using a mounting plate for the fans is that they will be on the inside of the case in a sealed chamber, so I needed a way to install or remove them easily. The mounting plate makes this easy.
 
The 2x180mm radiators will be mounted on the inside of the case in those cut-outs you see, one per side. I'll glue in some 1/4" ply behind them to seal them off from the rest of the case. My Swiftech H220-x will be centrally mounted to the top of the case, pulling air in that will be vented out of the back of the case with a single 140mm high airflow fan. I'm using the Swiftech's integrated pump for the whole system. Water will flow from the Swiftech into the cpu block, then the gpu block, then into the sealed radiator chamber where it will split and go into the two 2x180mm radiators, then recombine the flow and go back to the Swiftech radiator. In total this will be the equivalent radiator area of an 11x120mm radiator - a true overkill design.
 
Edit: trying again, using Image Shack

 

 

post edited by sethleigh - 2016/08/24 11:53:24

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    sethleigh
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    Re: build progress on custom overkill water cooling case 2016/08/24 11:36:26 (permalink)
    edit
    post edited by sethleigh - 2016/08/24 11:51:43
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    owcraftsman
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    Re: build progress on custom overkill water cooling case 2016/08/24 15:54:00 (permalink)
    subbed looks like fun keep us posted

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    sethleigh
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    Re: build progress on custom overkill water cooling case 2016/08/24 17:27:36 (permalink)
    Will do. I'm glad someone's interested. I've got to go to the hardware store and see if I can find some screws, since the ones that came with my radiators are either too long (and would dmg the fins) or else to short (they are meant to attach to the radiator through a sheet metal case housing, not 3/8" plywood).

    Expect to see this thing come together very soon, because otherwise all I'm missing for my rebuild is the cpu, and as soon as I have that I'll be anxious to get the rebuild done and start using it.
     
    Also, the photo shows what I am calling the case frame. All of the components will be attached to this frame. I will be using 1/4" ply to make an outer casing that will seal it all up, have the corners rounded over, and present the outer look of the case. The outer casing will have the fan and radiator grills mounted to it in removable panels. The outer casing will also have the red tolex covering, the metal corner pieces, the case handles, the rubber feet, etc. The inner frame is made from 3/8" ply, which may be strong enough by itself, but I'm not counting on it. The 3/8" inner frame plus the 1/4" outer skin (which will be glued together where appropriate) will certainly be strong enough.

    The overall look that I'm going for is copied directly from a guitar amplifier cabinet I built several years ago. It will have the same red covering, the same screws/washers attaching the removable hatches, very similar black metal corner reinforcements, etc. The handles will be a little different, but this computer case will have black spring-loaded handles countersunk into the top to make moving the computer around easier.

    Here's a shot of the guitar amp:

    post edited by sethleigh - 2016/08/24 17:35:26

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    owcraftsman
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    Re: build progress on custom overkill water cooling case 2016/08/24 19:33:33 (permalink)
    I've thought about doing this myself many times. Then I feel in love with Phanteks cases. Still I get the itch when things aren't right. Door swing the wrong way... need an extra inch here and there... A lot of us put our case on the desktop to show off right? I've always wanted external 5.25 bays on the side similar to EVGA's new case and who wants fancy lcd displys in the front of the case you rarely see put those on the side as well. Another thing What never makes sense to me is drawing air in through a rad, typically front of case, which is heating up the inside of the case and exhausting it out another radiator, typically in the top of case, which sucks in all that hot air. I don't know call it a pet peeve. Nowadays most of the new cases are going without external bays and I gots ta have my BluRay so my itch may get satisfied sooner rather than later. What I don't like is putting the case on the floor with all the great stuff out of sight sucking up dust. I would like having 3 monitors, for some EyeFinity or Surround, which I've had to forego to get the case on the desktop within view so I'm relegated to two monitors. So my ultimate idea involves making the desk the case similar to the Lian Li DK-04X only refined with my expectation. I've been thinking, like you, using 1/4 ply with 1x interior frame to support the weight of full side/desktop glass panel. Instead of tolex, If I do it, I'll go back to my RC Airplane routes and use Top Flight Monokote. In any case it looks like you have the skills and I'll be interested to see how it goes.
    post edited by owcraftsman - 2016/08/24 19:36:38

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    sethleigh
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    Re: build progress on custom overkill water cooling case 2016/08/24 23:20:57 (permalink)
    Owcraftsman, since you're interested, here are some photos that show better the radiator and main fan installation. I also placed the 2x120mm grill on the top of the case where the Swiftech H220-X will be installed. I haven't routed out the hole for the Swiftech yet.

    Right behind the two 2x180mm radiators will be a 1/4" ply bulkhead which will seal off the radiator chamber from the rest of the case. The three 140mm fans will blow air into the front of the chamber, and it will have nowhere to go except out the two sides. The airflow through the rads won't be as strong as it would be if I installed four 180mm fans directly onto the rads, but it should be enough for such a large radiator area for good cooling. Plus the Swiftech will add its own 2x120mm radiator to the cooling. If it turns out the three 140mm fans don't add enough airflow I can always add 180mm fans directly to the radiators in the future.
     
    I'm thinking of making an inverted V-shaped fin to mount opposite the three fans on the back wall of the radiator chamber to redirect the air to either side, toward the radiators.
     
    I hung the grills in front of the fans and radiators with tape just to see how it will look.
     
    ps: back in the early 90s I was into R/C planes and know what Monokote is, having applied it to several planes and gliders
     

     

     


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    stalinx20
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    Re: build progress on custom overkill water cooling case 2016/08/25 00:54:52 (permalink)
    I'm envying you right now because it's something I wish I had time for, being able to make my own case. Looks really really cool. Nice work. Too many people can't say they have made their own case; most people just buy them for multiple reasons, yet they have time to mod and make their own custom loop. No pun intended guys. I hope this turns out good. You're going to put a final finish on it when it's done, right?

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    owcraftsman
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    Re: build progress on custom overkill water cooling case 2016/08/25 03:40:27 (permalink)
    Looks like that puts the top vent very close to the bulk head right?. Roughly calculating here you have approx. 55% less intake area than exhaust  3x140 vs 4x180 which I think could be an issue for you. IMHO you'd be better off with 4x 180 fans and more intake area especially when you consider any type of filtering to minimize dust. I'm wondering how you plane to address access to internal parts for maintenance? If you plan on using a steel motherboard tray what one have you chosen to use?
     

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    sethleigh
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    Re: build progress on custom overkill water cooling case 2016/08/25 05:42:52 (permalink)
    stalinx20
    I'm envying you right now because it's something I wish I had time for, being able to make my own case. Looks really really cool. Nice work. Too many people can't say they have made their own case; most people just buy them for multiple reasons, yet they have time to mod and make their own custom loop. No pun intended guys. I hope this turns out good. You're going to put a final finish on it when it's done, right?

    stalinx20, the final finish on it is giong to be red tolex, which is a textured vinyl-like covering. It's the same red material I used to cover the guitar amp you see earlier in the thread, which is why I put that guitar amp photo in there.
     
    owcraftsman, yes I have less input fan area than surface area in the two 2x180 radiators. I think my original idea was to use these quiet edition 140mm fans running at 100% all the time, with the assumption that the 9x120mm radiator area of these two radiators will be so overkill for the purpose that even with reduced airflow as compared to four 180mm fans directly on the radiators, they would still provide more than enough cooling capacity. That's probably true, though now that I think about it again I probably should have just gone straight for the 180mm fans. 

    A radiator/fan combo with the "correct" number of fans has a 1:1 ratio between fan area and radiator that it must push the air through, and backpressure is significant, which is why people recommend static pressure fans for use on radiators rather than high airflow fans. Also, the area of the radiator outside of the fan circles doesn't get any cooling air at all unless you use some sort of shroud that pulls the fans back from the radiator. My setup will have about four times as much radiator area as fan area, so I'm assuming that backpressure will be dropped to about 1/4, allowing high airflow fans to achieve nearly their full throughput.
     
    I've never had any type of air filtering in my cases, and haven't designed any into this one, though perhaps I should. I just have used canned air once a year or so as necessary to blow out some dust. Yeah, I know, it's messy.
     
    The bulkhead behind the radiators won't actually go all the way up to the top of the case. It's going to go just over the top of the radiators and then up to the front of the case, and leave about a 2.5" space above the radiator chamber that I intend to use for a single 5 1/4" bay for my blu-ray drive. I haven't cut the hole in the top panel for the Swiftech yet, and will definitely examine the placement to make sure it makes sense. If i have to shift that back a little then so be it. 
     
    What I really wish is that I knew how to use CAD software so I could have knocked up everything virtually first, instead of just hasty pencil drawings on a piece of paper. When this is all said and done I'm sure the case will be a little larger than it needed to be for what's in it. I could correct that if I wanted to build a version 2, but if I ever do this again, I'll probably rethink the whole design based more on a "short and wide" concept like the Corsair Air 540.
    post edited by sethleigh - 2016/08/25 05:56:20

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    sethleigh
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    Re: build progress on custom overkill water cooling case 2016/08/25 06:30:03 (permalink)
    owcraftsmanLooks like that puts the top vent very close to the bulk head right?. Roughly calculating here you have approx. 55% less intake area than exhaust  3x140 vs 4x180 which I think could be an issue for you.

    It's actually worse than that. 2*(2*180*180) = 129600 mm^2 of radiator area, for only 3 * (pi * 70mm^2) = 46181 mm^2 for the fans. The radiators are 2.8 times the area of the fans.
     
    Here's what I am hoping mitigates this:
    1) 180mm fans don't have very high static pressure
    2) 180mm fans right up against radiators will see enough backpressure that they won't get anything like their normal uninhibited airflow throughput
    3) 140mm high airflow fans will see greatly reduced backpressure due to venting through 2.8 times the area that they would see if they were mounted directly to radiators, meaning they'll get much closer to their full throughput
    4) all of the 2x180mm radiator area will have cooling air flowing through it, whereas with 180mm fans all of the radiator outside of the fan circles would see no airflow. This is about 20% of the radiator area that's typically wasted by fan-on-radiator installations.
    5) all of this will mean that the airflow of 3x140mm high airflow fans will be closer to the 4x180mm fans than we would assume at first, and that finally, it won't matter even if the airflow isn't as high as it could be because it's simply so much radiator area that it will still effectively cool one overclocked 8-core Core i7 6900 and one Geforce 1080 SC, possibly two 1080s in the future.
    owcraftsmanI'm wondering how you plane to address access to internal parts for maintenance? If you plan on using a steel motherboard tray what one have you chosen to use?

    The front fan mounting plate, when removed, will give sufficient access to the interior of the radiator chamber for maintenance.
     
    I'm not going to use a steel mounting tray, though I suppose it's not too late to decide to use one if I saw one for sale that looked promising. I haven't actually looked. I've been planning on laying the motherboard onto a sheet of 1/4" ply and using a pencil to mark the holes where the mounting standoffs need to be. I'll drill into the 1/4" ply at each of those locations, put a dab of epoxy into the hole, and push a brass motherboard standoff's threads down into it. I picked up a bag off standoffs from Amazon. I don't know whether it's necessary for each of these standoffs to be grounded, but if it is, I can soldering some wire from each standoff to a single point on one standoff and then run a wire to the casing of the power supply. I'll leave a hole in the 1/4" ply mounting plate under the cpu socket so I have access to the water block's rear support plate. The motherboard mounting plate will then be screwed to some rails I'll attach to the case frame. Both sides of the case will have access panels that will be removable giving me easy access to both sides of the motherboard area. The motherboard will be raised up enough to give me space underneath it for cable management purposes.

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    #10
    Cool GTX
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    Re: build progress on custom overkill water cooling case 2016/08/25 07:27:30 (permalink)
    Nice project
     
    I'll have to follow this unique build  see how it ends up. 
     
    That looks like some serious woodworking skills you have and sanding must be your favorite past time.
     
    The reason you will probably need high pressure fans -- to avoid spillover at the fan.  When the fans volume of air generates enough pressure that the airflow basically stalls, excess flow bleeds back past the fan.
     
    I see your P delta logic, hope it works as intended.  The area of the rads that matters is the open space, not the surface area - also how thick the radiators are makes a big impact.
     
    I run dual 45mm thick - 120x360 in my signature 2-way EVGA Titan x SC build - folding 24 hours = full power GPUs @ 43 C, room 26 C, CPU 55 C - not Folding with it
     
     
    post edited by Cool GTX - 2016/08/25 07:40:46

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