Water Cooled HTPC

[ccokeman]

That should work but are you going to be using the HTPC for any storage or will that be on a remote computer?

[firky]

All my media is on my iMac I can stream it via itunes home share. All I plan to put on the HTPC is windows 7 and Games.

[firky]

Right the full specs are now confirmed and are as follows.

 

Case: Lian LI pc-c39

Psu: Corsair TX 950W ATX SLI Compliant Power Supply

Motherboard: Asus Rampage III GENE Socket 1366 mATX Motherboard

Cpu: Intel Core i7 950 3.06GHz 8Mb Cache LGA1366

Cpu Cooler: Corsair H70 + lack ice GT stealth 240mm + 3/8 + bitspower fittings + 2 x Scythe Slip stream 120MM 2000rpm Slim Case Fan.

Memory: Corsair 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz XMS3 Triple Channel i7 Memory Kit CL8

Graphics: Palit 1024MB GDDR5 GeForce GTS 450 Low Profile DVI / HDMI PCI-E X2

Hard drive: 80GB Corsair Force Series, 2.5" SSD, SandForce controller , Read 285MB/s, Write 275MB/s

Dvd drive: Samsung SH-S223L/RSMS 22x DVD±R, 8x DVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, x12 RAM SATA L/scribe

[firky]

Right Its time for an update. So obviously I have to fill the loop some how so today I am going to fit a fill port. The plan is to fit a fill port flush with the centre beam that runs across this case. Mounting the fill port flush is important as the cover will no longer fit.

 

 

I drilled some 3.5mm hose in these washers they will be slid on to the blots and held in to position with the nuts.

 

 

Next I put the fittings together that I would need for this fill port. This has to be one of the shortest "T" lines in the world. I did plan on using the Danger den fill port I posted about previously but sadly it is just to big for what I need so I just used the hex head blanking cap from it. Then is placed it on top of the centre beam and marked the centre of the fill port.

 

 

From the centre mark I positioned the washer and marked up the holes for drilling.

 

 

Next I counter sunk the holes. How ever this did not turn out as well as expected. Then is cut the hold for the fill port. An 18mm hold punching device was used.

 

 

Next the first washer was bolted in to position here you can see that the counter sunk screws fit flush altho they do not look very pleasing.

[firky]

 

Next the fill port was set in position one washer was used to space the "T" piece so the cap is flush with the centre beam.

 

 

The washer was held in place with nuts either side. Next the fittings are sandwiched between the washer and then tightened up.

 

 

Here you can see that the fittings clear the bottom of the centre beam. allowing plenty of room for tubing. This also shows how the fill port sits just below the surface of the centre beam.

 

 

Here you can see that the cap sits flush with the surface of the centre beam.

[firky]

 

The fill port fits snugly in side the case and gives plenty of clearance for the sata cables and motherboard power cable.

 

 

The barb on the side of the fill port lines up nicely with the rad.

 

 

The tubing between the fill port and the rad looked plain with out the blue anti kink so I felt the need to add some. Also this shows the layout so far.

[firky]

 

I used the hard drive bracket that came with the case and trimmed it a little and bent it 90deg. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures. I then yellow tacked some 90deg fittings on to the bracket to show the how they will sit.

 

 

male koolance QDC fittings will be attached to the 90deg fittings on the centre beam. You may or may not be wondering why I have so far attached all the water cooling bits to the centre beam that runs across the centre of the case. This is because I want quick access to the motherboard incase I wish to changed RAM plus change the cpu or gpu's or just have a look. In the picture you can see how the centre beam lifts up. The rad will also be mounted to this beam but I have yet to decide on a final design.

[firky]

Here is a quick update to show how things are looking at the moment.

 

 

One of the 90deg fittings is now mounted in position using my washer clamp technic. Also you can see just how tight I am for space in this case.

[robAP]

it's always great to see exercises in packaging. putting everything inside a case including the rad and pump and tubing is always a challenge and watching some of the HTPC or SFF sized stuff get water-cooled is always fun. very good layout and thought in this one. keep goin!

Edited December 3, 2010 by robAP

[wevsspot]

Firky,

 

All constructive criticism and worries about leaks aside, I personally think this is an outstanding project. You've obviously put a lot of thought, planning and execution into this project. Nice work!

[firky]

Thanks very much for your kind comments.

 

 

Here you can see that the space for the second 90deg bend is right above the onboard audio and to allow me to fit my second bend I have to change the orientation to which its facing to allow me to use my washer clamp method with out being fouled by the audio block. This just shows how little space I have to play with. Using the longer face of the 90 deg block it sits just about flush with the audio block.

 

 

 

Here is a yellow tac mock up of how this bend will fit in place. I may trim the right side of the washer to increases space between the fittings but I will also have to drill a hole through the first set of washer clamps to allow me to attach the second set.

[firky]

Hi Guys,

 

It's time for an update and a very big one.

 

So after getting this rig up and running first on air then water the heat kicked out from both the GPU's and the CPU is unreal. I totally underestimated how loud the GPU fans would be and just how hot they would get during gaming. After running on air for two days the noise was just to much even with headphones on it was like having a Jet engine in my living room. So this gave me a perfect reason to finish off my CPU water cooling loop. While this reduced the noise from the Stock Intel heat-sink there was still the GPU's kicking up a storm. It did make a difference but not as much as I wanted it to. Also having the 240mm rad mounted in the case the two 120mm fans just sucked all the heat from the GPU's (as there exhaust system is rubbish) the rad had no chance to cool the CPU temps soon became in excess of 70C This was obviously not good.

 

At this point I had decided Three things.

 

One the GPU's must be water cooled to make them silent.

 

Two the H70 would have to go as this would restrict the loop when adding extra water blocks.

 

Three the rad would not benefit from being mounted in side the case other comments would heat the air prior to cooling the rad.

 

 

My main goal is still a small and quiet HTPC. So I plan to stick with the case as its a good size stylish and fits nicely in my TV stand. But because the rad I have is not very effective in side the case I plan to mount it on the out side. But because this would increase the size of the case I plan to mount the rad away from the case on its own with an independent stand this way I can hide the Rad and its stand behind my TV and still enjoy the aesthetics of my HTPC case. The advantages of having the rad out side of the case is that there is not limit to size so I can now use a bigger rad and reduce the RPM of the fans as there is a bigger cooling surface area.

 

While designing the stand for the rad I have decided to incorporate a fan controller as well as two pumps. The fan controller will be linked to two temp senors one on the flow and one on the return. This will allow the me to increases the fan speed when the flow becomes to hot or reduce the fan speed when the flow is around room temp. I am going to use two pumps for this rad stand which Im going to call the "Cooling Tower" will be attached to the rig by an umbilical cored witch will contain tubes for flow and return as well as wires for +12v +5v Ground and a USB connection between the fan controller and motherboard. This umbilical will be between 1.5 meter and 2 meters long this already adds 4 meters of tubing to the water cooling loop if you then account for about 1 meter in the case and 1 meter in the cooling tower including the distance though the rad. One pump is not going to cope with a 6 meter loop and 4water blocks. But with my planned set up one pump will be pushing water though up to 2 meters of tube a CPU block, motherboard block and two GPU blocks then back though up to 2 meters of tubing to the second pump which will then pump the water through the rad and back to the first pump. The pumps will have a push pull effect on each other and most probably equal out the load between them.

 

 

After some amount of googleing I found some water blocks that would fit my low profile graphics cards. I've never seen a water block on one before maybe Im the first?

 

I will also add my design for the Cooling tower later.