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NortHWizarD
Weaksauce
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2005
- Messages
- 109
I finally got the water cooling setup done exactly how i want it and then spent an hour or so on the wiring... it's tough trying to hide wires in this case (Nikao Dragonfire case) since it is small and there is no room behind the motherboard tray - everything i wanted hidden is behind the cd-rom drive cages... it's far from perfect, but it will have to do. I am currently building 2 new projects - a Chenming 601 case for this system... have the top cut out and replaced it with a full size window, with 2 120mm fan holes - will place my bonneville heater core in the top cd-rom bay and the dual fans on the outside of the case - all that needs to be done yet is a good paint job and a few minor little things, then I can move this system in to the case.
My othe project is on a Chenming901 case... a socket 939 (not sure what CPU yet... have the board but am waiting until the M2's come out so the prices go down on the 939 stuff), probably an X2 processor, that will be Peltier cooled. I will be running 2 550watt computer PSU's to power the system and all the fans and pump(s) and then a meanwell psu for the Peltiers. I will be using a dual fan heater core in the top and a BIX 120.2 rad out the back of the case for cooling.
Back to my current rig...
Here it is before I did the wiring, well... it is actually right as I am about to get working on the wiring... everything under the sun, just in case I need it or decide to use it LMAO _ You can also see in this picture and one below, that I have something over the back od my PSU - I made a custom 'scoop' to re-direct the hot air up and away from my rad... it is made of stainless steel and shaped sort of like a car hood scoop - this thing works great and looks excellent as well - I have also made some larger ones to cover the 120mm fans on the top of the new case I am building to direct the air towards the back of the case... they also help keep stuff out and work great as handles when used on the top of a case.
and here is a shot of the inside after the wiring is as complete as i can really get it... or had the patience to do (you may notice a tube going to the top of the case, this goes to a Polarflo Fillport, same as the Danger Den ones, just a little different styling - I hated having to pull the reservoir out from the case a couple inches to access the filling hole and also the extra tubing required to do that and I have never liked using a 'T' line either - although both setups have their own advantages... so I drilled a hole in the back of the reservoir, at the top, and threaded it and added a barbed fitting to it and run the tubing from there to the fillport... allowing me to fill the reservoir without the need to pull it out... i get the best of both worlds this way... I just siliconed up the fill hole screw in the reservoir and now at least it can and is always filled right to the very top):
This is showing how I mounted the BIX-120.2 rad out the back of the case... this case is fairly small and I really didn't want to cut open the top of it - you can also see, in this picture and the one above, that i placed heatsinks on all of the mosfets as well - they tend to get quite hot and I had some extra heatsinks kicking around so I pasted them on using Arctic Silver's Ceramique Thermal compound/adhesive - the stuff works great, and with a little patience, you can take the stuff back off if needed... the thermal tape that comes with heatsinks really sux:
The elbows I used are Stainless steel 90* elbows, but they have a nice gentle bend to them so are almost non-restrictive compared to the plastic elbows you can buy online... and they are 1/2" O.D. with barbed ends... for tighter bends, i just cut off the barbed area, plus a little more, and that shortened them up more than enough for a nice tight turn. I got them from McMaster-Carr... they are about 5$ each or so, but are a little cheaper when ordered in bulk - I ordered 20 i think... and have sent some out to have the ends on them threaded so they can be used directly with water blocks etc. I like the looks of them far better than the horribly restrictive plastic ones with their squared-off right-angle bends, or teh copper ones you can buy at a hardware store that, although work alright, end up looking crappy in a system.
And this is how it looks all buttoned up:
I know some people will make comments about the case... believe me, I am not a huge fan of the pre-mods either, but Nikao sent this to me to do a review on and it's not that bad of a case, it's actually quite a good case, construction wise etc. - and if you like the looks - it's one I would recommend... but it's the home to this system until my new case is finished and ready to be moved in to.
~NortH~
My othe project is on a Chenming901 case... a socket 939 (not sure what CPU yet... have the board but am waiting until the M2's come out so the prices go down on the 939 stuff), probably an X2 processor, that will be Peltier cooled. I will be running 2 550watt computer PSU's to power the system and all the fans and pump(s) and then a meanwell psu for the Peltiers. I will be using a dual fan heater core in the top and a BIX 120.2 rad out the back of the case for cooling.
Back to my current rig...
Here it is before I did the wiring, well... it is actually right as I am about to get working on the wiring... everything under the sun, just in case I need it or decide to use it LMAO _ You can also see in this picture and one below, that I have something over the back od my PSU - I made a custom 'scoop' to re-direct the hot air up and away from my rad... it is made of stainless steel and shaped sort of like a car hood scoop - this thing works great and looks excellent as well - I have also made some larger ones to cover the 120mm fans on the top of the new case I am building to direct the air towards the back of the case... they also help keep stuff out and work great as handles when used on the top of a case.
and here is a shot of the inside after the wiring is as complete as i can really get it... or had the patience to do (you may notice a tube going to the top of the case, this goes to a Polarflo Fillport, same as the Danger Den ones, just a little different styling - I hated having to pull the reservoir out from the case a couple inches to access the filling hole and also the extra tubing required to do that and I have never liked using a 'T' line either - although both setups have their own advantages... so I drilled a hole in the back of the reservoir, at the top, and threaded it and added a barbed fitting to it and run the tubing from there to the fillport... allowing me to fill the reservoir without the need to pull it out... i get the best of both worlds this way... I just siliconed up the fill hole screw in the reservoir and now at least it can and is always filled right to the very top):
This is showing how I mounted the BIX-120.2 rad out the back of the case... this case is fairly small and I really didn't want to cut open the top of it - you can also see, in this picture and the one above, that i placed heatsinks on all of the mosfets as well - they tend to get quite hot and I had some extra heatsinks kicking around so I pasted them on using Arctic Silver's Ceramique Thermal compound/adhesive - the stuff works great, and with a little patience, you can take the stuff back off if needed... the thermal tape that comes with heatsinks really sux:
The elbows I used are Stainless steel 90* elbows, but they have a nice gentle bend to them so are almost non-restrictive compared to the plastic elbows you can buy online... and they are 1/2" O.D. with barbed ends... for tighter bends, i just cut off the barbed area, plus a little more, and that shortened them up more than enough for a nice tight turn. I got them from McMaster-Carr... they are about 5$ each or so, but are a little cheaper when ordered in bulk - I ordered 20 i think... and have sent some out to have the ends on them threaded so they can be used directly with water blocks etc. I like the looks of them far better than the horribly restrictive plastic ones with their squared-off right-angle bends, or teh copper ones you can buy at a hardware store that, although work alright, end up looking crappy in a system.
And this is how it looks all buttoned up:
I know some people will make comments about the case... believe me, I am not a huge fan of the pre-mods either, but Nikao sent this to me to do a review on and it's not that bad of a case, it's actually quite a good case, construction wise etc. - and if you like the looks - it's one I would recommend... but it's the home to this system until my new case is finished and ready to be moved in to.
~NortH~
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I hope mine looks as clean when im done, hopfully this weekend i can put mine together. I have the Swiftech Apex and I like how you mounted the Rad, what size screws did you you use to hang the rad from ? I mite have to do something like this even though i do have the rad box with this kit, it looks like i mite have to move it out from the case a bit more like yours.Oh yea any problems mounting my Rad upsaid down like yours ? I did not know how it would work that way but was looking to do the same on mine.