Project Problems & Pretty Pictures!

[broooooooce]

Okay, I promised pretty pictures, so lets start off with two:

 

 

 

Okay, now that we've got the pictures out of the way, lets move on to the project problems. This is/was the plan:

 

 

You can see how it's comming along by clicking the project pics link in my signature, or to save you the trouble, this pretty much sums it up:

 

 

As you can see from the plan part, I wanted to use a dual radiator in the front that would have cool air passing over it. I would have preferred a heatercore, but they don't make em in the dual 80 size (they probably do SOMEWHERE, but I looked high and low and couldn't find one that would fit nicely--besides, I like that the blue matches the top rad and the pump that I intend to use).

 

(Which reminds me--I may go athlon 64 instead of the p4 3.0c like it says in the diagram)

 

Well, I've heard arguements that this won't help much at all, that what I will give up in flow by adding the restriction of a second radiator will screw up things.

 

(Which reminds me--I've decided to NOT cool the northbridge, that should get rid of some of the restriction, you only need to cool the northbridge if you are going obscenely high on the FSB, and I will be, but a simple little fan will do the trick just as well--or a zalman passive thing)

 

Well, I went ahead and ordered the radiator and this is what they sent me:

 

 

I was dissappointed to see the paint all not so nice on one side of the thing, I mean, these things already cost way too much considering they are just a prettied up heatercore--hell, people on forums like procooling will make fun of you for using these things, but they are just purist and great modders--I personally like the blue and I've already explained how I couldn't track down a heatercore.

 

Thankfully, if I were to put the radiator in like in the picture below, the flawed paint doesn't show up because it faces the bottom of the case:

 

 

 

But, this presents a problem. There is the little thing that contains the filter on a Lian Li PC65 (and yes, I love my premod window, so stfu). It has these little hooks (they are circled in the picture below):

 

 

See? Well, they stick out to far for the radiator to be flush with the front of the case--but just by not even 1/16th of an inch, so I was gonna just sand em down a little bit and then they should fit well.

 

That's a tiny little issue compared the the headache of just how much space the radiator adds... but more on that in a sec.

 

Another problem I have is fan shrouds. I REFUSE to not have a shroud, but they don't make any shrouds for 80x2 rads. I've posted about this on procooling.com. I got a range of responses (some suggestions: panty hose and resin, balsa wood, papermachete, tuppaware, bolts/duct tape, sheet metal and aluminum tape). I got to thinking tho, what is the width of a fan that would fit securely and that would be easy to mount? What I came up with was using another fan, and cutting the fan part out of the center with a dremel or a saw or something. I thought this was pretty brilliant and wondered why noone else had suggested it.

 

Also, they have these cigarette tins that look like they could work too... something I am considering.

 

Here is what it would look like with fan shrouds, in one pic I used a clear fan, and in another a light blue... Which do you like?

 

 

 

Oh, and see? They didn't even drill the holes in the shroud right... they are too close to the barb things and I'll have to mod the danged fans to fit them right.

 

I wrote danger den about the crappiness of their radiator and they said I could return it for instore credit (I'mma order waterblocks from them later, so this is cool with me), but I may just hang onto it?

 

I have bad luck with radiators, I ordered the first one (The BIX mounted to the top) from frozencpu.com and they sent me a used one! I had to send it back and the 2nd one still doesn't have a perfect finish *sigh*.

 

 

(CONTINUED NEXT POST)

[hardnrg]

i'm a little scared by the first pic of bruce's world!

 

waidaminute... is that LEGO in all those boxes???

[broooooooce]

See, here is the problem. It's the drive cage. I am going to have to move it back quite a bit to accomodate this assembly.

 

 

I was thinking of drilling out the rivets (circled below) and moving the thing that the drive cage mounts to outward toward the back.

 

 

This creates a problem though because it is too close to the back (I think it would be anyways) and might interfere should I want to add any longer PCI cards in the future. Also, the mb that I am tentatively going to use has it's SATA adaptors at the bottom and the drive cage would BLOCK these... so I could dremel the cage and make holes for where these are . . . or I could try something else:

 

After a few cups of coffee:

 

 

 

 

Legos! See, I made a lego drive cage. I could drill out the rivet frame, and then just bolt this thing to the bottom instead because it's slightly smaller in size, and because it's a frame, it'd accomodate room for the crap to connect to the motherboard.

 

But, does this screw up the theme? I was going for a silver/gray/aluminum, black, and blue kinda color scheme. Now I've added legos to the mix... should I maybe add a little lego man sitting on the video card under a little lego tree to balance things out? I don't know.

 

(oh, and btw-the drives have to be suspended... the stuff I am using is called magic stretch (or is it stretch magic?) and it's made out of magic rubber. You can get some at artbeads.com. I think it looks sooooo much cooler than elastic).

 

Just to get an idea how far back this thing is gonna be, check this pic (btw: the lego sticking off to the left is just there to prop up the cage, it isn't part of it)

 

 

1) should I just forget about this and send the radiator back to DangerDen?

2) If not, should I use the blue or clear fans for shrouds, or should I use something different, and what?

3) Should I mod the existing drive cage or go legoland on this beyotch?

 

I am looking for ideas, feedback, advice... anything ya got.

 

Here's one last pic for everyone:

[Dasterdly]

I saw the title, and then i saw the legos, and immediately i thought that he was building a case out of legos.

 

You are using legos!! The lego man with a tree is cool, maybe you can include a lego girl serving drinks to the lego man.

 

Anyways, i can see this project will take you awhile, but it looks like it will be worth the trouble.

 

The blue fans look cool. For the hd, can you mount it so it goes long ways up? That might solve the space issue.

[shervin2]

Yo, hook me up with some 80mm's

[hardnrg]

Now I've added legos to the mix... should I maybe add a little lego man sitting on the video card under a little lego tree to balance things out? I don't know.

i thought it was just some lego that happened to be in the same room... then i thought, after seeing a few more pics, "oh i see, lego for prototyping, very nice, very nice indeed" and then hahhahahahahaha, lego men and lego trees, all in your case! AHHAAHAHHAHAHAHA!

 

[Dasterdly]

that fire boat would go perfect with a watercooled AMD.

[cchalogamer]

wouldnt happen to have a blue LED 80mm would you? if so PM me.

 

Well, intereting mod, i must say though a lego fan myself, it dosent really fit yoru case lol. Might i suggest Plexi glass or even better the more expensive Lexane (about $100 for a 4' X 8' sheet lol, got 3 sheets for free and workign on a clear case cover) i think that kind of clear thing would look good and keep from movign to a lego theme. Then again what do i know im just a bored idiot hangin here at OCC

 

 

but one thing i do know

[FanATIc205]

wow another fine job from caxis0 personally i would scrap the 2nd rad and send it back to danger den. im using the swifty mcx-159 n/b cooler and it works wonders with and with out the fan! man i need to get my skills up to the level of yours maybe then i could punch out some killer how to articles. im finally getting the needed tools, but im married so the wife and bills come first hehe

 

 

great work man keeep it up and keep us informed

[r_target]

Yo, hook me up with some 80mm's

Yo, hook me up with some Lego's .

 

Nice work.

[broooooooce]

Thanks for the encouragement everyone. I decided that I am just going to suspend the hdd's from the top optical drive bays, drill out the riveted base that the stock hdd cage fits on, lose the legos (for now) and keep the sh!tty radiator. I'm going to redrill four holes and use the clear fans with the fan parts cut out as shrouds.

 

Bruce

Maybe a lego PC later... I think I have the parts to pull it off, and since they are technic legos, I could add all kindsa gears and stuff that actually have a purpose.

 

 

[hardnrg]

if you made a lego case with your whole setup in there like inside a massive version of one of them there cars you would be the lego uber-master of the world!

 

hope all your work finds it's way into some occ how-to articles...