DeProfessional's Watercooled system

Here's my system. It's a Athlon 1333 OC'd to 1584 (11 x 144 1.91 volts.) The case is a Fong Kai 603 Mid-tower (17") that has plastic sides. The Motherboard is a Epox 8k7a+. 512K Crucial DDR Ram. 18 gig Quantum 10K U2W-160 Hard Drive, Hercules Geforce 2 GTS w/ 32 megs DDR, and a Santa Cruz soundcard (My Game Theater XP was too unstable due to the 512 Megs Ram). Sparkle 300W PS (5v line tweaked to 4.85 stressed) with a Panaflow L1A1 Mod. (My Enermax 365 was too loud!) 3Com Nic, SCSI CD-Rom, Digital Doc 5, and Panaflow L1A1 fans. The system runs very quiet (My Main goal!)

When running the 120MM fan at 7 volts, MBM reports the CPU at 45 Degrees Celsius

To color the case I used Plasti-Kote Ultra brand Vinyl Dye - Flame Red. I originally was thinking about a silver or a metallic blue, but I couldn't find a good shade in a vinyl dye. SEM has some nice blue colors, but I thought the red stood out better.

The watercool aspect of my rig is as follows:

1/2" Hose barbs and fittings used thoughout the system.

Eheim 1250 pump mounted vertically on the case wall with load-rated rubber grommets to reduce vibration noise. I chose a vertical mount to keep the front fan clear and allow space for an airtrap placed off the pump's discharge.

McMaster 1/2" (ID) Silicon tubing

D-Tek Cooler Core Rad placed 1" under the case.

JMC 120MM Fan with 7 volt mod

King Instruments 0.2-2.0 Gal/Min Flowmeter

Danger Den Maze 2 (latest revision w/ 45 degree turns)

D-Tek inline Thermal Probe.

The water flows from pump -> Airtrap -> rad -> flowmeter -> block -> pump.

The Mix is 90% Water 10% radiator Fluid, with some Water Wetter and 1 ml green flourescent dye

Here's the flow-meter from King Instruments ($45 at McMaster). It measures from 0.2 to 2 Gal / Min. I chose this model over Trilobyte's spinning flowmeter idea mainly due to the ability to get a actual flow reading.

The current system in place moves 1.5 Gal / Min. Not Bad...

Here's my Danger Den Maze 2 copper waterblock with 1/2" Barbs. The barbs are inserting into the block with 1/4" NPT fittings. It already needs a shine...

Here's the Fan running at 7 volts. Its virtually silent at this speed. I cut a Hole in the case bottum using a dremel. and used some 4 inch machine screws mounted to zinc bars for the radiator mount. (I shrouded it after the pics). The holes are protected by rubber window molding.

Yes, I ripped-off anouther Tril0byte idea. Here is my airtrap variant (2nd revision, the 1st one leaked) It's made from A 1" x 1" x 1/2" (threaded) PVC T , 2 90 degree 1/2" threaded elbows, and a 1.25 OD acrylic tube. I cut 1/2" off one end of both an elbow and the T so I can see more fluid. The fittings were joined with Marine Goop as there was too much space for a good seal using PVC cement. (That was done in the 1st revision... :)

Here is where the airtrap will be placed. Notice how nice my pump was before I cracked its housing. (I read a [H]ardcore thread warning about this to no avail...)

Here is the airtrap installed and filled to the rim. A nice water vortex swirls all along its length and the air bubbles quickly (IMHO) dissipate up to the top capped area. I thought an airtrap placement off the discharge side would be more effective than one placed just before the suction side.

... Actually I had nowhere else to place it in this case!

Here is the Airtrap in place and running. The flowmeter didn't change that much - It still hits 1.5 Gal/ min. Not bad considering I added three 90 degree turns to the system. The White putty is marine epoxy (It can be applied to leaks directly). It's what doh-heads use to fix cracked pump housings caused by overtightening a fitting with too much teflon tape on the threads. In the future I'm using TFE paste. The epoxy had a 30 minute work time and can be sanded and painted once it's dry. (it's dremel time...) In the future, I'll remember to mount the 3/8 to 1/2" adapter to the pump first and then attach the airtrap to the adapter.

I also use the airtrap to fill the system. To add water, all I have to do is attach a hose to the free barb on the left and open the 1/4" NPT ballvalve.

For an initial water fill., It's not easy to prime the pump without pulling a tube from the Heatsink. I need to lift the case and place it on its side and upside down to get enough water in all the areas for that initial prime. Hopefully I won't be doing to many full refills of the system.

Another T-barb with ballvalve would make this prime process easier, but I want to keep the system as unclutter as possible for a case this small.

This was a bit hard to install. The Window Gasket is designed for a 1/8" metal case. My Case is 3/16" Plastic. I had to sand down the inner edges of the case about 1/16" in order to get it to fit.

The forums at [H]ardocp (www.hardocp.com) and procooling (www.procooling.org) were a huge source of good information on how to setup watercooling systems.

Here's the front of the system. Plasti-Kote Flat black on the face plate. I still need to paint the Bezel's red, but I ran out of vinyl dye working on the sides... I'll do that soon. I also have to swap out the floppy for one with a black faceplate.

It's pretty good... Could be better I'm sure, but I'm not that experienced with painting yet.

Here's the Rad. with a duck-tape shroud over it. I'll try to make an aluminum one later when all the cuts heal...

I covered the SCSI, Floppy and IDE cables in chromed loom I saw at Pep Boys. It was cheap, and (IMHO) looks better then the plastic rounded stuff. Of course metal braided cable would be nice, but it's way too expensive...

Looking at the 120MM fan and relay switch.

Here's the Maze2 Copper Waterblock again.

The black 'T' in the waterline is the thermal probe.

Here's a shot from the side

This pic has better focus then the webcam one... Notice the flowmeter has lost about 1/2" of water in the past two weeks. Some of this is due to air in the system, but I suspect some evaporation is occuring. Any actual leaks in the system should be very easy to spot with the flourescent dye in the cooling water.

The little black box on the lower left is a relay-switch mod with an overide option. The switch shuts the pump off when there is no 12V power (IE, when the computer is turned off) The red overide switch can turn the pump on without computer power, which is helpfull when I'm filling the system.

Here's a closeup of the pump mounting. Washer, 1/2" SM Screw and a blue load-rated grommet. I drilled the hole 5/16" to accomodate the grommit size. The back side also has a washer and a hex nut.

Mash it in a bird's nest up top of course... There's no other place in the case to put it! I placed a small HD cooling fan running at 7V on the scsi hard drive to try and keep in cool.

hmm, somethin' funny going on in the building...