BRISKbaby

Ok, I've been looking around the forum and at the university and I've come up with an idea. I need to toss it around with you guys and see if it'll sink or swim so to speak. If it's feasible I'll get crackin on it in a few weeks, if not I'll go back to the drawing board.

First I'd like to give some credit to Burn as I am "borrowing" ideas from some of the other people around here:

Burn, I saw your work station mod. One of my professors had a tech station and I thought it would be good if it were enclosed so he didn't have to keep a can of CO2 next to it to clean off the HS every other day.

So here's the basic idea. It took the pictures over 8000+ hours to render. So some of you may need to update your computers to view them.

The red bars are all threaded 3/8" rods using nuts and washers secure the bottom piece of wood. The wood will have a channel for the plexiglas to sit in so that it will form a "seal" around the inner workings of this. The next piece of wood will have the same channel so that the plexiglas will fit securely.

Same idea for the plexiglas on the next layer of the structure.

The heatsink for this thing will either have a fan that will blow toward the back or be "passive." The cooling for the bottom will be provided by two 120mm fans on the front (with filters of course) and 2 120mm fans on the back as well. This should create a "wind tunnel"ish effect.

I'm pretty sure that it will work. The only things I'm debating on is i know to feed the wires from the 2nd tier to the bottom teir will be a bit of a difficulty and definitely mess up the airflow. So if i can feed the wires down the side in between the two fans it shouldn't disrupt the air that much.

Ideas? Comments? Suggestions? Is it realistic that this will work?

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frosty15

If I understand you correctly, (with me being a Limey, heh), basically you are wanting to encase a framework in plexiglass?

If this is the case (pardon the pun), then I'd like to run a few suggestions over you, hopefully they'll help, if not then I apologise. lol

1) I believe plexiglass and polycarbonate have different thermal properties, you may want to check this out and use the most advisable of the two.
2) Rather than using the 3/8" threaded rods, which will naturally store heat, would it not be more advisable to attach the wood directly to the polycarb/plexi, or omit the threaded rods and wood completely?
3) A wind tunnel is a proven and very successful way of cooling components, using a seperate windtunnel for the cpu hsf would benefit the rest of the components immensly.
4) As regards cabling, your best option is to keep them at the interior sides of the case and cover then in a profiled shield, like streamlined trunking/conduit or gaffer tape.
5) A suggestion as regards design, please forgive my lack of CAD skills, heh

Attached Thumbnails

 

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250x10 @ 42°C
watercooling setup almost complete, just need tube, clips and coolant, oh and a little modding,

How to HotFlash

BRISKbaby

I think you have the jist of what I'm thinking of doing.
I didn't think of that, I'll be sure to look into it though. Too bad someone hasn't invented a membrane to allow heat to enter through one side and be "released" on the other. That could be pretty sick for this kind've application. Kind've like a "heat membrane."
The rods would be on the outside of the plexiglas/polycarbonate shell. I don't think the heat they absorb would matter too much. I could be wrong however.

The main reason for using the rods is because at some point the computer would break and I would need to get into the case. So if the case was glued or screwed together it would be harder to take apart. As it stands now I could remove either the top or the bottom part of the case without much hassle. (I'm thinking modular PSU so i could remove the cords on that end.)

This case is also for a friend, he's a petrolium engineer so at some point the case would not be on a level surface and the rods could be adjusted to compensate for that. Also since they're so much longer than the size of the case I gave above, additional storage (cd/ dvd/ mouse/ keyboard/etc.) could be placed in cubby holes that I havn't thought up yet. One last reason for the rods: at some point they could be secured to a roof to save on floorspace (just a thought, not going to implement this for some time if at all.)

So if I had a 120mm fan leading cool air in then used some kind of ducting to place it in front of a heat sink fan then a duct on the other side to pull of the hot air? Would that work the best? I would need another fan however.
I like the hole in between the HD's and the opticals, I'm going to use that way instead of mine!
I like the cabling hole. I was thinking instead of having ducting just using four 120mm fans on the bottom (2 intake 2 exaust) and only 2-3 on top (1-2 intake 1 exaust) This is because if I want to achieve "zero pressure" the PSU will have exaust fans that would need to be taken into consideration.

Also I think your CAD skills beat my MSPaint skills hands down. I'll redo those pictures of mine and see if I don't get rushed through them again.

Thanks for your help and ideas! REP+! I would welcome more ideas, from your or anybody, if you have them!

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frosty15

Hi again,

My thoughts on ventilating and exhausting your hsf came from a combination of 2 sources, The windtunnel in Aerocool's Spiral Galaxies case and the HR-01 fan duct kit from Thermalright.

http://tinyurl.com/zymr2 Aerocool
http://tinyurl.com/uedq Thermalright (click AMD Heatsink/HR-01/120mm Fan Duct/Check Installation.)

If you have 2 intake and 2 exhaust fans on the bottom, 1 of each could be connected either end to a flexible fan duct, whilst the other intake and exhaust would cool the mobo components ram/nb/mosfets etc. Obviously if you chose to use an HR-01, it would only cost $14 for 2 ducts and would be purpose built (not sure on the extended length though).

With regards to case access, I'd suggest small strips of plexi/polycarb epoxied to the inside of the case, this would form a tough framework as well as creating a rebate for the sidepanels to sit in. Using cured silicone on the strips would cussion the connection, give a reasonably airtight seal and elliminate vibrations. Silicone (when cured) is a great general idea for anti-vibration for all components, fans, hdd, opticals, psu, anywhere something with moving parts will come into contact with the chassis.

I have done another small sketch as pictures usually express what you mean better than words.

Attached Images

case2.bmp (154.4 KB, 5 views)

__________________
250x10 @ 42°C
watercooling setup almost complete, just need tube, clips and coolant, oh and a little modding,

How to HotFlash

H4mbon3

Hey, sorry i have nothin to add on the case.....but i have just spent the last few mins crumpled up in a ball on the floor lmao at the 8000+ hours for the pics......when i looked down i wasnt expectin to see that.......that is comedy genius my friend.

cheered me up no end

BRISKbaby

Thank you .

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