[SaltwaterCooled]

I decided to take my 800D and fit as much cooling power inside as I possibly could. The end result is 2x360mm radiators and 1x240mm. It turns out that my HX850 is the perfect length to allow for a 320-MCR to be shoehorned in next to it which allows for a look similar to the Silverstone TJ-07. I've done all the (surprisingly few) modifications myself over the past few days, documenting as I've gone along. I'll get back to adding some pictures into the thread directly and adding some narration, but here is some linkage to get everyone started.

Mods:
-Removed bottom HDD cage
-Cut vent hole in bottom of case for lower rads
-Drilled two pass-throughs for tubing allowing for hidden line under hot-swap bay cover
-Added quick disconnects to loop to allow for easy swapping/testing of graphics cards.

Links:

Re-Build

Thanks for looking! I'm happy to help anyone with questions about measurements or fit and finish of the build.

Note: This build is similar to the CoolBreeze 800D here on OCN, though I maintain that we thought of it at the same time, he just beat me too it... Not to be outdone, I added a bit of OCN excess to the mix

Before shot. That's Tygon R3603 1/2x5/8 with BP Silver compressions.


Shot of the 140s in the bottom for intake.


Hard drives hot-swapped to the desk, time to start the deconstruction.


3 revisions of the loop and I still haven't made it easy to drain, so I just cut some pieces here and there.


Checking for clearance.




Rivets from the HDD cage and the midplate.


What a mess!


There's a shot of the piece of foam I use to seal the PSU fan from the airflow into the case. It works really well to allow the case fans to draw in air unaffected.


More shavings, HDD cage removed...


Wear your safety glasses kids! Yes, I have 'real' lenses for those too, they make an appearance later.


Midplate freed. I had to bend up the slide-lock tabs that tie into the mobo tray. I didn't cut them off and when I finished the build I bent them back to lock everything together.


Midplate and hot-swap rack removed.


Here's a shot of the giant rubber pad that supports and dampens the hotswap rack.


Mockup of the rad. Look at the clearance!


Paper-thin gap... Note the PSU rail sitting under the rad.


So I had to trim it down.




And drill a new mounting hole.


Riveted in, and Sharpie'd on the end.


Mocked up with the PSU.


Shot of the garage worksite, and my shoe.


When I was mocking up the midplate I realized that I had to remove the lip under the hotswap rack so that the midplate could slide down from the top with the rads in place.


Too many cutting wheels later, the lip is gone...


Test fitting the rad and midplate together, note the notch in the edge of the midplate for the rad.


Another angle. Also note the 120 brackets on the midplate are still in place. For now.




Teaser shot of the big rad on the side.


Imagine the 240 on this side...


Leatherman + Maglite, what else do you need?


Here's the other rad test-fitted. LTR: MCR320-push fans-space-MCR220-pull fans. This arrangement draws in cool air from the bottom and exhausts it out the sides.


One of my favorite features... This sneaky cut allows for the line running from the pump to the bottom rads to be stealthed behind the hotswap rack coverplate.


C-channel around the edge.


Test fit.


The bulge is because the tubing is cut to length, but not pressed onto the barb yet.


Here I've removed the 120 mount from the midplate and lined the edge with C-channel. The stuff is amazing for modders!


Removed the mockup, time to cut that intake slot.

 

[Exarphcoman antabitom]

How did you remove the bottom HDD cage? Ive been trying to remove mine since i got the 800D!

EDIT: Just checked it out, looking good. Is it difficult to remove the cage with the drill or is it a two second job?

 

[SaltwaterCooled]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Exarphcomanantabitom;11714015
How did you remove the bottom HDD cage? Ive been trying to remove mine since i got the 800D!

EDIT: Just checked it out, looking good. Is it difficult to remove the cage with the drill or is it a two second job?

It's not too bad, but not a two second job. There are the six rivets to take off in the front and then there are two more that tie the lower cage to the midplate that are located inside the cage on it's roof. Those last two are the trickiest, but a little patience and a dremel or pliers or file etc will remove them. After that you just slide the cage back and wriggle it out, it's actually just two side plates instead of a full cage so it's not too hard to pop them off the retaining tabs. Remember that the top two rivets that you remove from the front will need to be replaced, you remove them to allow some flexibility in the midplate, but you'll want to anchor it back in once the cage is out.

 

[FannBlade]

Rebuild looks really good. Nice job

 

[SaltwaterCooled]

Here are more pics, I have a few more to add from the past week with it all put together and running to follow shortly. Since I haven't recieved the side panel I need yet I haven't gotten around to modding the side vents, so I've been running it without the doors- I'll add the pictures of them when I finish the mods.

Intake marked off and corners punched.


Corners drilled.


C-channel'd.


Here's the lip I removed earlier.


Another pass-through; This one allows the line from the bottom rads to come up and feed the GPUs.


Test fit with the 360 and the door. All the fan spaces will have grills eventually.


Starting to add tubing, it's getting exciting!


Another line added, this is from the pump to the motherboard.


T-line and fillport added. starting to add drives back in...


Now for a science lesson.


Fittings with aluminum scale from a previously corroded loop. I needed the fittings so I pulled them out of the toolbox to see if I could clean them up. White vinegar worked wonders.


Very gunked up CPU block. I had no idea that it had gotten this bad, there was literally no gunk anywhere else in the loop! Apparently the GTZ makes a great filter...


More...

Vinegar + boiling water + toothbrush + time...





Bare CPU.


Brand new MX-4, I wanted to try the newest generation and compare it unscientifically to AS-5. I was concerned that with my desire to fold 24/7, that AS-5 wouldn't properly burn-in and MX-4 is supposed to not have a burn-in period, AND perform better anyway. Ahh progress.


SLI 8800 GTS 512's, covered in some EK goodness. You can see the great Koolance VL3N quick disconnects, they're great! And as promised, the real lenses for my glasses. And my phone, Go Blue!


Starting to fit the tubing on, I'm using 7/16x5/8 for a clampless look, and it's worked wonderfully, I highly recommend it. The Campbell's thermos has the hot water I used to soften the tubing to allow it to fit over the 1/2" barbs.


Motherboard and top rad conected. You can see the UV cathode attached to the fans. All that shiny silver and sleek clampless blue tubing...


One of my favorite shots, the lighting really captures the dark blue of the tubing and the brilliance of the silver fittings.




More of the board and rad.




Board and rad installed; I decided it was easier to plumb them out of the case together, which was a smart decision, but it made it tricky mounting them, I had to enlist some help to screw them in while I held them in place.




All plumbed and installed, ready for some Ice Mountain! Note that with the location of the QDCs I can isolate the GPUs for testing and swapping without the need to drain the whole loop. It really was an aspect of the loop that paid dividends when my 8800's started acting up.


I love that clampless look. The board and the case looks so good in this shot, a little empty though...


Since my stop-fitting is threaded, I added a scrap piece of tube to the funnel and a barb on the other end, so that I can easily fill and then just have the stop-fitting to hide away instead of a big fillport. The ziptie made a great temporary attachment for the fill so I could switch the pump and pour as needed. Drives that are easily removed are taken out for the filling.


Another shot of the fill setup, time to add water to my 'small appliance' as listed on the bottle.

 

[SaltwaterCooled]

Bump for a thread that I would've thought would get more attention, I'm pretty sure no one else has done something like this before...

 

[Xraven771]

Looking good

, need to redo mine soon as the pump is at RMA

what tubing is that ?

 

[SaltwaterCooled]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xraven771 Looking good , need to redo mine soon as the pump is at RMA what tubing is that ?

Primochill 7/16 x 5/8" UV blue, it's great- I have it on 1/2" barbs and it seals really nicely. I had to use hot water to expand the tubing to install it and it's running perfectly without clamps. I'll add some UV shots later, I'm really happy with the look. I used to run Tygon with Feser Clear/UV Blue dye, but after seeing the tubing get cloudy and the gunk in the CPU block I'm sticking to straight distilled and colored tubing from now on. Thanks for looking, let me know if you have other questions!

 

[SaltwaterCooled]

Bump - I really can't believe there's no interest in this build, where are you guys?! I'm pretty sure that this is an OCN innovation right here, I'd hoped for a bit more interest...

 

[SaltwaterCooled]

Bueller? Bueller..? Anyone, this is a little disappointing for the case mod section and formerly the WC section...Any tips on what I should do to make the log more popular/easy to follow?

 

[FannBlade]

Probably the holidays. I've been beating through all my subed e-mails for days.

Upgrades look good.

How did your leak test go? That's alot of fittings...I LIKE it!

 

[goodtobeking]

Only thing I can thick of is adding text at the bottom of each pic of the modding process, describing what you are looking at when. A lot of pictures, amazed my crappy connection got them all, and they all look great.

I have the same tubing, just 1/2x3/4, and I dig it. If you like UV light, you should check out the Liquid Fusion (T-Virus) Reservoir by Frozen-Q. I have one right over the closest grommets by the HDD are, and it lights up all my tubing. Plus it will replace the vertical piece of tubing(thats how I have it, inlet at the top output at bottom) and add crazy look to it.

Very nice build though, should get great temps with low speed fans. Clean look for all that is in it, not much space left when you add the rest. Looks like a thing of beauty, besides those dam neon green PCIe lanes lol

EDIT: now just have FannBlade paint the case for you and it would be a master piece. (Still kinda dissapointed that I didnt buy the Blue Skull case)

 

[FannBlade]

LOL. "Blue Skulls" back up and running,folding 24/7

 

[CH4PZ]

very nice, your the first i've seen put a triple down there, but i always though why dont ppl? like the tj07?? subbed for sure

 

[kpnamja]

Great job! I wish i had your case with the mods! I tried to mod my Antec 300 messed up bad now its the ugliest case ive seen.

 

[SaltwaterCooled]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FannBlade Probably the holidays. I've been beating through all my subed e-mails for days. Upgrades look good. How did your leak test go? That's alot of fittings...I LIKE it!

Leak test was flawless, the 7/16" over 1/2" fittings is awesome, I'm never going back to clamps.

Quote:

Originally Posted by goodtobeking Only thing I can thick of is adding text at the bottom of each pic of the modding process, describing what you are looking at when. A lot of pictures, amazed my crappy connection got them all, and they all look great. I'm planning to do that, 80+ captions is alot though so I've been lazy Thanks, the camera does a great job, I tried to do the best I could with lighting and angles. I have the same tubing, just 1/2x3/4, and I dig it. If you like UV light, you should check out the Liquid Fusion (T-Virus) Reservoir by Frozen-Q. I have one right over the closest grommets by the HDD are, and it lights up all my tubing. Plus it will replace the vertical piece of tubing(thats how I have it, inlet at the top output at bottom) and add crazy look to it. I love those T-Virus res' I just don't see myself having a good place for it now. At one point I thought about putting it in the mobo tray between the edge of the mobo and the drive bays, but it was always so expensive. I opted for the T-line and more miscellaneous parts... Very nice build though, should get great temps with low speed fans. Clean look for all that is in it, not much space left when you add the rest. Looks like a thing of beauty, besides those dam neon green PCIe lanes lol Thanks very much, it performs well with the Yate 120HS turned all the way down via my fan controller, and I'm hoping for even better performance once I add the doors back on so that I don't get recirculated air in the top rad. I certainly think she's a looker, and I don't mind the green slots, but they're covered by graphics cards and copper blocks anyway

Quote:

Originally Posted by kpnamja Great job! I wish i had your case with the mods! I tried to mod my Antec 300 messed up bad now its the ugliest case ive seen.

Don't feel too badly, you've got to start somewhere! This is my first real foray into actual modding, but I've had experience with tools and hands-on projects for a long time so it came pretty naturally to me. Plan thoroughly, budget both time and cash to learn with, and you'll be fine. I'm just glad it worked out here, it's an expensive case, but I love the looks and now it's got top notch performance for any future WC setup I would want to drop in. I'm plannning to hang onto this case for a long time... Plus it's finally 'just the way I want it', with my own personal touches.

Thanks for all the comments guys and please keep them coming, I'm happy to answer any questions I can!

 

[v1ral]

Subbed..
Very interesting build you got there..
v1ral

 

[alancsalt]

You've got a few pics without info there, if I could ask a few questions...

What is the gunk in the cooling block? Lint, gal leftovers, i can't tell.
The blue box hanging off the 5.25" bays, what is that?

I don't really know, but I suspect only other modders/craftsmen can follow. The other thing is that it's mostly practical and not just artwork, like with hotrod "trailer queens" - they're built more for looks rather than real world use. Anyway I'm no style guru myself, but really like what you've done. To me it's "full house" watercooled.

Very busy with the hoses prob because of mobo waterblox. Maybe black hoses, but don't know how many would agree with me....

Take rep.

 

[SaltwaterCooled]

Quote:

Originally Posted by alancsalt;11905626
You've got a few pics without info there, if I could ask a few questions...
Sorry, I've been meaning to add captions

What is the gunk in the cooling block? Lint, gal leftovers, i can't tell.
FeserUV Dye, left when I drained the loop. It shocked me actually, how much there was. The unusual deposit pattern is due to the shape of the GTZ's impingement nozzle being elongated and offset.

The blue box hanging off the 5.25" bays, what is that?
The blue box is the inverter for the UV cathodes I have next to the motherboard and attached to the top radiator.

I don't really know, but I suspect only other modders/craftsmen can follow. The other thing is that it's mostly practical and not just artwork, like with hotrod "trailer queens" - they're built more for looks rather than real world use. Anyway I'm no style guru myself, but really like what you've done. To me it's "full house" watercooled.
I decided that I'd bought a big/expensive case that I really liked, and with some careful measuring I realized I could fit those rads in the bottom, so I decided to go for a full-on investment-level cooling loop, in a unique setup, that would handle anything I could throw at it for the life of the case (which I envision to be a good long time, at least until ATX is no longer a usable standard!)

Very busy with the hoses prob because of mobo waterblox. Maybe black hoses, but don't know how many would agree with me....
Yes it is, but I think in person it has a nice sleek look, certainly it's about as good as I could imagine with all the blocks I have in there. The tubing is blue and UV reactive, so it has a nice blue glow with the lights on, and if I leave them off it's understated and refined, in my very subjective opinion

Take rep.
Thanks, I appreciate the rep and the interest! Be sure to check back in the next few days, I'm finishing up the doors and getting a 570 + EK block and will add those final (for now) pics.

..

 

[FannBlade]

When are we going to see pics of the 570 and the NEW EK blocks?