I got this worklog going on a Norwegian forum (Diskusjon.no), and i thought I could share with you guys at OCN. This will be my first post at OCN so go easy on me!
My plan is to install a single watercooling loop with a 240rad at the top of the case. In addition I will also to some case modding.
I'm only going to watercool the CPU for starters. I only have a GTX560ti, and I really don't see the point in watercooling it. I dont think I can fit more rads into the case either!
I'm going to have the project finished before TG12 (2nd largest LAN in the world) which is in April, so i have about two months to go on!
Here is a list of what I'm planning to get done:
- Cut out the window.
- Sleeveing.
- Spraypaint drivebays.
- Spraypain or cover the DVD-rom with vinyl film.
- Install custom watercooling loop.
- Spraypaint fans if necessary.
- Find the best way to mount my SSD.
- Cover psu with vinyl.
- Spraypaint parts of the GPU.
- Mount the acrylic window in the side panel.
I won't change much of the hardware, except maybe adding 4GB of RAM and a 2TB harddrive (which is damn expensive due to flood somewhere in Asia..).
This is what the case looks like at the beginning of the project:
Update 1:
The first day of the project was dedicated to order tons of stuff i need for the project online.
I ordered a 500x500x3mm acrylic window from ChilledPC, some carbon vinyl film from eBay, lots of paracord from eBay (mostly black, some red) and some sleeve and tools from MDPC-X. I think I ordered around 300feet of paracord! It was SO cheap, I couldn't resist!
I have also started to plan my water cooling loop, and this is what it looks like now:
I don't really have any experience with custom water cooling loops, so I would really appreciate if anyone could comment on how this would work!
I won't really get much done before i recieve the packages, so I guess this update became kinda short.
Update 2:
Sorry that this update took so long, but it's here now!
Here in Norway, we had a winterbreak this week, so I have done quite a lot, and I will propably divide it into two updates.This first one will be mostly about the packages that I got in the mail and about the sleeving.
Here is a picture of all the packages I recieved:
A pretty cool drawing on the MDPC-X package!
MDPC-X sleeves and heatshrink:
MDPC-X tools:
Lots of paracord:
Acrylic window from Chilled-PC. It's clear, but has a blue protective film.
Carbonfiber vinyl film:
I'm really surprised by the paracord (the 2nd and the 3rd, the 1st was a little thin and shiny), it looks a lot better than the MDPC-X paracord, and with the Heat-shrink Free Paracord Sleeving Tutorial the sleeving job is a lot easier then MDPC-X sleeving with heatshrink. Paracord is also a lot cheaper then MDPC-X sleeves.
I am really satisfied with the acrylic window as well, it's the perfect thickness (3mm) and it's without any scratches. It was pretty cheap as well.
And ofcourse I have to give some creds to the guys at MDPC-X. They wrote my last name on my tools and the package, and it's so clear that they really love the modding community and try to make it bigger. I talked a little with Nils at MDPC-X by emails, and he is so nice!
So that was it for this update which was dedicated to all the packages I got in the mail. Stay tuned for the next one where I will cover the sleeving process!
Update 3:
So this will be the sleeving update!
The only problem was that I did not have a camera aviable during the process, so I can only give you pictures of the finished results. The process wasn't really that interesting anyways! I started with taking out all my componets out of my case, and as you can see it was pretty dirty!
The case took a quick wash in the shower so I could get all the dust out. I really reccomend cleaning your case in the shower, just remember to take out the components first!
After the case was clean, I decided to start the sleeving process. I quickly decided to go for paracord sleeving as it is much easier. I followed this tutorial, and I really reccomend that you guys try this when you are going to sleeve something!
I really reccomend that you do this next time you are going to sleeve something. It's goes so fast (around 3 hours on a full PSU), and you don't need a heatpistol or heatshrink! The resoult is really pretty as well!
I also got the PSU and the CD/DVD-rom covered with the vinyl film. The PSU was a ***** to cover, but I managed to do it after a couple of tries
Sorry that I didn't get any pictures during the process, but here you can see some pics of the finished product. Let me know what you think!
Sorry that the whitebalance is so off, I'm gonna have to remember to set it before the next photoshoot!
What do you think!
Update4 - Part 1: Window time!
Sorry for not updating this worklog for a long time, but I can happily anounce that this will be the final update, even though I will split it into two parts, the window part and the watercooling part!
So before I was going to cut the hole for the window, I covered the side panel with papertape so that I could draw the lines for the windwow.
I used my trusty Dremel 300 with some glassfiber reinforced cutting disks to cut the hole.
Since I really don't have a workshop to mod in, I just picked the smallest room in our apartment that I found easiest to vacum after cutting. Check out the result:
To mount the acrylic sheet to the sidepanel, I used some 3M doublesided tape as reccomended by MonsterMawd over at Youtube.
This 3M tape is some strong ****! I tried to remove the acrylic window, and to get it to move I had to use a lot of force! I really reccomend this if you are planning to do a window mod!
So then I was basically done with the window mod. The only thing I needed was some rubber u-chanel thingy to cover the edges (they weren't sharp, just not that good looking), but I can't seem to figure out where to get that stuff here in Norway, so I will porobably have to order it on eBay or something. Check out the pic of the (almost)finished window:
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Stay tuned for the part about watercooling! (I promise it will arrive before monday!
) Oh and btw, I came up with a tacky name for my project: Project Piranha! -
Please leave a comment if you find this worklog interesting. I would really appriciate questions and tips, but remember, first post on OCN, go easy on me!
Btw, my first language is not english, so there might be some mistakes in my grammar and writing!Edited by N1ko - 4/21/12 at 9:05am
