D-Tek FuZion + PA 120.3 = SWEET!! *56K Killer* Monster Post - Overclock.net

AMD Dave · 04-30-07

Hi Guys,

I recently decided to take the plunge into water cooling to prepare for my up coming Core 2 Duo build. I did a lot of reading on the forum and elsewhere and decided that a custom set-up was the only way to go. Here is the parts list that I decided to go with:

D-Tek FuZion - Water Block
Thermochill PA 120.3 - Radiator
Swiftech MCP655 - Pump
1/2" ID Tygon Tubing (I got 12 feet, but could have done with 6)
3x SilenX 74 CFM /14 dBA Fans (these are very quiet for 74 CFM, but 14 dBA seem a bit low.)
Swiftech MCB-120 "RADBOX"
Danger Den Delrin Fillport
1/2" T Fitting
Swiftech 2oz HydrX Liquid Coolant + 1L Distilled Water
10x 1/2" Worm Drive Clamps
Can of Black Spray Paint (rock on!)

I have the Antec P180 case, which in stock configuration is rather limiting for water cooling. I was tempted to put the radiator in the case, but in the end decided that thermally isolating the two was the best way to go. The case still needed heavy modding in order to accommodate proper positioning of the pump and tube layout. I also wanted to move the lower chamber fan mount from between the PSU and hard drive cage, to in front of the hard drive cage (where Antec should have put it in the first place). And to top it all off, a nice coat of black spray paint. On a side note, I painted my P180 black before Antec came out with their new P182SE with a black interior and stainless outer panels. I have contacted my lawyers, and they will bring justice for Antec stealing my "design".

OK enough of my rambling lets ret on with the pics, there are lots of them be warned...

This is what my system looked like before all of this (notice my ghetto chipset cooler):

I never realized how small water blocks are, or how big the PA 120.3 is. It is almost 2.5" thick and weighs almost a kilogram empty, and this is supposed to hang off the back of my case?

They weren't lying, look at the beautiful hand polished finish on the base of these block, straight from the factory.

I cleaned out the water block and radiator with distilled water and vinegar (the rad holds about 500 ml). The tubing went on the barbs nice and snug, and the hose clamps ensures no slipping. The tubing is really flexible and doesn't kink when bent with a small radius. I cut them all long for ease of assembly , and will cut them to length when I put it all in the case. The pump is really small but very powerful and there's a 5-speed control at the back. It took me about an hour to fill (with distilled water) and bleed the loop, there was one point I had the "T" line and pump in one hand, the rad in the other, and the mobo on edge trying to get the air out. I did a pretty good job with there only being a few small bubbles remaining. The tiny bubbles going through the water block and pump sounded like I was frying bacon... mmmm bacon, but that went away once all of the air was bleed out with a little more shaking and tapping of lines and such. Damn it's quiet, a few times I wasn't sure if it was still on.

This is a shot during leak-testing, the pump is running off of another computer, NO LEAKS!!.

After plugging in the power to the rest of the system it was time for the moment of truth. She booted up at 22C and settled at 25C (A64 3700 @ 2.86 GHZ 1.63 Vcore, sweet!

This is a shot on air with my old set-up, a Big Typhoon and a FM121 at 110 CFM. 2.86 GHZ 1.63 Vcore (yes I ran 1.63 Vcore 24/7 on air

). It idled at 30C and would load at 46C, notice the core would peak at 50C.

Here is a shot with the same settings, but now water cooled. It idled at 24C-25C and under load peaked at 36C. Notice the core (red) and the socket (green) readings remain close throughout thermal loading, while when air cooled the core would peak much higher than the socket.

Lets try stock settings, I think this screenshot speaks for itself.

This was the best I could do (my board couldn't give any more voltage), loaded at 37C 1.65 Vcore.

Now it was time to get it all back into my case... but first a few mods. Those front grills have got to go!

Notice I left the tabs for the dust-filters to mount.

I drilled out the rivets for the lower CD drive cage to make more space for the pump and tubing.

Long story short, I removed one CD cage and the floppy cage to make space for the pump. I removed the entire lower hard drive cage and rails so I could move it back to make room for a 120mm fan. I also removed the lower chamber fan mount so I could move part of it up front and put the rest back to provide structural support for the case. With all of these parts remove the case was very "wobbly" and would twist from to to bottom.

I also had to cut off the upper rails for the lower hard drive cage (if you can figure that out

) because they were apart of the divider that separates the upper and lower chambers, and couldn't be moved back. I made new ones using the upper hard drive guides (the thin black pieces of plastic in the above photo).

I cut out the fan mount from the lower chamber divider.

I put it in my vise and took a hammer to it to put a nice bend in it.

A few holes and voila, a fan mount to go in front of the hard drive cage.

Here you can see I have cut the lower guides and moved them back 0.7" to make room for a 120mm fan. I also installed the new upper guides.

With the divider installed, there is a lot more room now for cables and more importantly airflow.

This is how the P180 should have originally been designed. Putting a fan in between the PSU and hard drives only makes for headaches for cable management.

I cut the holes for the in and out lines for the res, and cut the hole for the fillport.

I made a "C" washer and an normal washer for the fillport assembly, more on these later (they basically allow me to remove the T line from the case without having to undo a worm clamp) .

Time for paint!!

My photo limit has been reached for one post (big surprise

), I'll continue with paint and final assembly in anther post...

Hope you guys like this so far

Akhen · 04-30-07

man i love the PA120.3, its a beast can you even fit that anywhere outside the case without blocking something?

AMD Dave · 04-30-07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Akhen

man i love the PA120.3, its a beast can you even fit that anywhere outside the case without blocking something?

I thought about putting it on its side in the lower chamber. But I would have had to cut vents in the side panels, move the PSU up to the CD cages, and use the upper hard drive cage, making for very little room for anything else. It sounded like as much a headache as this decription

chuckcalo · 04-30-07

Keep us updated!

AMD Dave · 04-30-07

OK where was I, oh yes, on with paint...

A little weather-stripping.

A pipe insulator cut down the middle to dampen vibration coming from the pump.

Look what I forgot to paint

, it's holds down the PSU.

Time to start hooking it all up, the tubes are cloudy because they're still wet.

Did I mention the PA 120.3 is big?

The new fan mount, I have since replaced this fan with a Scythe S-Flex 33.5 CFM @ 8.7 dBA.

This is where that "C washer" comes into play. By loosening the nut a little I can slide out the C washer, because I drilled the hole in the top of my case bigger than the fillport diameter I can now pull the fillport out the bottom of the hole. This allows me to fill up my system flipped on its side while still using the T line, and not having to undo the hose clamp to get the T line out.

Filling it in the case was a lot harder than open bed. This thing must weigh close to 50lb an I must have had it in every orientation possible, T line in one hand case in the other. I sure worked up a sweat! I water tested it again without other components installed. Here it is a wired up, I like the green and black

This is one of my favorite pictures. All of the work I put into moving the hard drive cage back and installing the fan, and you can hardly notice it. Once again this is how Antec should have made this case in the first place.

Plugged in and running

That blue PSU has got to go, I've replaced it with a Silverstone Zeus 750W PSU which should be able to handle my upcoming Core 2 Duo and 2900XT build.

Well that is where it stands now. I plan on cutting a window in the side so I can see all of this, but that will have to wait. I also have an Asus Commando and some Team Xtreem PC2-6400 RAM sitting in the corner just itching for a processor to bring them to life. So there will be more pictures and benchmarks to come.

I had a lot of fun building this, and I am very happy with both performance and looks. If I went overboard with the pictures let me know, and I'll edit some out

That_guy3 · 04-30-07

nice! huge radiator!!

killnine · 04-30-07

AWESOME man, nice to see another P180B WC'er on the forum.

I am looking into a matte-black finish on my interior at some point. I will probably do it when I take the plunge to quad-core and R600 =D.

Nice job man, +rep.