Fountain Watercooling Project

Let me start out by saying this isn't built for any performance gaming or anything like that. I wanted to build a home server and have it be more than just a computer in the a room somewhere I keep all my files. So I got to thinking of an interesting way I could hide the computer. I found all kinds of examples of people making custom cases out of household items to hide things. But I didn't want any loud fans so I thought of another thing, which was to cool the whole computer with water no fans at all. This is what was created. Computer actually runs pretty cool as the results show, it is also whisper quite no matter how far I push it. With no fans ramping up when it gets hot it stays nice and quite. I'm curious what temps others are getting with their water cooling.

First things Specs:

ASUS P8Z68-V LX LGA
Intel Core i5-2310 Sandy Bridge 2.9GHz (3.2GHz Turbo Boost)
8Gb PC17000
2 1Tb WD Black in raid 1
Swiftech 3x120mm Rad
Swiftech Apogee HD
Swiftech MCP35B
Swiftech MCRES Micro Rev2 Reservoir

Step one was to find the fountain:


As you can see the Rad just barley fits into the water basin in the fountain:



Next I built and enclosure for the case and fountain water basin:





Added some esthetic's to the enclosure.






Because of the vibration and noise the fountain's pump created when I turned it on for a test in the enclosure I decided to add sound dampening to make it whisper quiet. I added to the water basin and the enclosure top and bottom:










Next I wired the new "case" Blue to indicate power and red to indicate Hard drive activity. I got waterproof led's and and used water proof connections plus shrink wrap, as well as silicone between the joints. From there I drilled the holes ans mounted the leds under the fountain:











Next I had to gut a case and make some modifications because the back was now the front:






I took an old Dell Optiplex and hacked out the double 5.25" bay and made it a single:








Motherboard and waterblock:




I then painted the back with epoxy appliance paint to match the rest of the case:



Next I wired and mounted new switches, power is illuminated, and reset:





For the speaker I drilled a small hole and glued it to the case:




Then I wired everything up, and cleaned it:





Pump and Reservoir



Next Plumbed everything up and loaded Home server:



Notice that it is now a legit computer with the Proc badge:



After Home server was loaded moved to its location in my front room, ran and HDMI cable under the house from there to my AV receiver and voilia, a home server that can be used on the tv.




After all said and done I ran some test, here is the idle temp:


This is the Prime95 Test I ran:


Here are the results after about 25 mins of Prime95 running, since nothing was changing I figured I could stop it:


So there you have it, pretty happy with the way it turned out, no one can really tell it is a computer, no fans, and runs pretty cool with just water running through the fountain. Doesn't really peak in temp that much under load.

Thanks, it makes noise, just very little. The computer pump itself it very hard to hear, it is the one in the fountain that I had to get quite. Which is why I used all the sound deadening material. I thought of the algea, I am using a real slight bleach, Like capful for 6 gallons, with an anti algea pond agent to help combat that. During the build I had the fountain running to test this for about 2 months, and didn't really have an issue with the algea. Only time will tell on that.

Thanks for the suggestion I will have to look into that. This is really this first computer I have done anything with and first watercooling. (I have built a few others but it consited of basic pick out parts and plug them all in kind of cable manage it). I am just now (after everything is said and done) looking at these beatiful builds that others are doing. Probably should have done that first. But I can go back and add some things. Just curious, when you say blue white and grey for the colors how are you envisioning appling them to the PSU? Blue for what, grey for what, white for what?