Diy Acrylic Shrouds in 15 minutes - Overclock.net

Eddie3dfx · 08-05-08

Step 1.

Depending on your radiator, download the template for the rad grill.
This will give you the actual cutout for your acrylic grill.

(ac ryan is a good website for templates that have swiftech and those that have the same hole alignment as swiftech radiators)

For the mcr320 print out
http://www1.acryan.com/Download/RadG...e-3x120_A4.pdf
For the mcr220 print out
http://www1.acryan.com/Download/RadG...e-2x120_A4.pdf
For the Mcr120 Print out
http://www1.acryan.com/Download/RadG...e-1x120_A4.pdf

Cut out the template and tape it on the on the corner edge of the acrylic. For the shroud cutout, you need to to cut 1/2" more on each side from the fan holes, not radiator grill holes (ignore those holes) 1/2" sticks out, but is almost flush with the radiator and looks nice.
So tape it properly.

Step 2.

Tape template on acrylic, using the corner edge. This way you only need to cut 2 sides and the edge gives you a clean look.

Step 3. Drill out all the radiator fan holes.

Step 4. Get a fan girll as so, Put in between fan holes and mark the middle for the cutout if your using a saw hole.
The saw hole you will need is from any menards, home depot, lowes, and comes in 4 1/2" size which gives a nice 120mm hole.

Another way to get around this is to using a dremel and dremel out the hole. Then use a file and clean it off, as well as a blow torch to polish the edges.

Step 5. Cutout the rest of the grill using either a miter saw or table saw with a laminate blade or use a dremel (which is what I did.. Dremel leaves nasty burrs.. so use a file and a torch)

(other option take a acrylic knife ($3 at home depot)
and score the grill. With thicker acrylic, you will have to do this for a minute or two. Get it nice and deep, and then snap the excess off. I recommend a table and some clamps.)

You can purchase plexiglass/lexan/acrylic at any hardware store like home depot or lowes for $7-20 depending on the sizes.

In the end, pickup some foam as well and this will give you a nice seal for the fans.

Happy Watercooling

Heres one on the bottom on the Mcr320 with planaflos and foam

leptonsoup337 · 08-05-08

I tried to open the pdf files but they seem to be corrupt.

dr4gon · 08-05-08

wow you did those circles with a dremel? very nice!

I guess it's a shroud, but I was hoping for something thicker like 1.5", maybe building something a step further would be better.

ILOVEPOTtery · 08-05-08

Ditto dr4gon, it wouldn't be hard to cut some walls & have a shroud with depth. Nonetheless Eddie3dfx, good work! Thanks for contributing +

Eddie3dfx · 08-05-08

Nope, didn't use a dremel on this one. I used a porter cable hole saw I picked up for $23 at home depot.
The edges come out so nice.
Yes, thicker would be better and around 30mm would be optimal (according to martins watercooling)
This is I believe is 3/8", but lowered temps 1-2c

I updated the pdf links, as I had this on xtremeforums a while back and I guess they changed the links on me.
Updated with mcr120 as well

**ira-k** · 08-05-08

30mm is 1.18"...But thats only on thin low fin per inch rads he's tested on to, and he hasn't tried thicker shrouds yet, its still a work in progress..Push worked better with skinny rads then pull on them also....

On thicker rads I get better temp's with pull, and push-pull is the best...Part-1-480 GTX-Temps W & W/O Shrouds

Transonic had better temp's pulling on a Bonnie core to..Poll: Push or pull configuration for Radiators

Still nice easy to make shrouds you did there..Thanks for the pic's...

These are how most of us here make shrouds..

..How To: Make any Sized shroud in 2 minutes

..How To: Build A Performance Shroud

Eddie3dfx · 08-05-08

To be fair, the 30mm shroud makes no sense on a single fan setup.
According to the data, a 30mm shroud with a 38mm fan in pull or push, performs worse than 25mm fans in push and pull.
Given the space thats allotted, 50mm is less than 68mm, so 50mm of space would be more optimized in terms of space to heat disspiation in comparison to 68mm
So only on space restrictions themselves, a 30mm shroud, though optimized, is just not logically convenient if only given a certain amount of space to work in.

The ultimate setup would be 2 30mm shrouds with push and pull fans in 38mm, but thats 136mm of additional space, not including the radiator
Then again, we don't have those type of cases :P

Given the graph, you still do see improvement with 5+mm shrouds, so if space is an issue, you can go with a thinner mm acrylic and still see some improvement (not sure if .10c is noticeable though

If 30mm is too big, go 15mm (.59")
Mine is approximately only 10mm. I will try 1" next.

**ira-k** · 08-05-08

But 38mm fans in a push-pull is still better the 25mm fans in push-pull..

If your looking for max performance you'll keep the rad out of the case to start with,keeping them out in the cooler room ambients will give you a little better temp's, so not really any space considerations there..

Like I said he hasn't done any testing with thicker shrouds yet, he only used those because they were donated to him...

The TFC is optimized for lower to medium cfm fans...Higher fin per inch rad's will behave differently, you cant use results from one rad to the next really, unless they have a FPI that is close...

But your right any shroud is better then none..I used to make mine out of 1/2"-3/4" aluminum channel till I found how much of a difference they really do make, now I go at least 1.5"...