Project: H2O Rocketfish

[Crispy002]

First worklog here, so please bear with me. Anyways, down to business.

Edit: 12/25/2010
Recent upgrades have occurred and are worth resurrecting the thread for, including MUCH better pictures with a much better camera.

Specs
i7 920
Coolermaster v8
EVGA X58 SLI
3x2gb OCZ Gold 1600
Sapphire 4870
Rocketfish Full Tower (Rebranded Lian Li case for those who don't know)

Beginning with this:

Ending with this:

Goals:
0. Mod side window into case panel
1. Remove and replace current air cooling with waterblocks
2. Mod radiator, pump, and reservoir into case
3. Add wire management options
4. Prime and paint

Parts:
Window Kit ala FrozenCPU
Swiftech MCR-320-QP Radiator
AC Ryan Radgrill
DD Fillport
EK Multioption Res 100 Reservoir
Jingway DP1200 CPX-Pro Pump
Enzotech Sapphire CPU Waterblock & 1366 bracket
EK Acrylic top Chipset/Vreg waterblocks
3x[Yate Loon 120mm fans]

Took care of the side window and didn't take any pictures, cut with a jigsaw. I will comment that the molding was very difficult to work with even with another person helping. Took about 3 hours start to finish.

On to the real stuff.

Several things done first:
1. Access hole cut so CPU heatsink can be removed while mobo is mounted
2. Wire management holes drilled near bottom of motherboard for those pesky on/off switch wires and USB cables
3. Mounting holes for reservoir drilled

Cut a piece out of the bottom 5.25 bay for the pump to fit, also made a slot for the wiring.

Pump in position. I have an acrylic T cube that has been converted into a temporary 90 degree fitting until I can find a real one (not pictured)

Measured and cut the rectangular hole for the radiator exhaust

With the grill sitting on top

Drilled the required holes to mount the radiator and fillport and bolted everything together.

Just going to take a moment and give a shout out to Petras Tech Shop, they were nice enough to supply some PT Nuke, spot me a few screws, and give me a shiny red pen. Good folks over there.

Waterblocks mounted

I was slightly humored by my camera focusing on the background.

Everything has been cut and drilled (including screw holes for pump, not shown), went ahead and primed the case for the upcoming paintjob.

That sums up everything done so far, unfortunately the rain is preventing the paint job which is preventing getting everything hooked up. Should only be a few days' delay.

Comments welcome!

 

[heatlesssun]

Beautiful workmanship! I'll be interested to see how much you can oc that 920. Keep us posted.

 

[nlancaster]

Looks like a nice clean build.

That mesh in the radiator grill is going to kill your airflow.

 

[Crispy002]

Looks like a nice clean build.

That mesh in the radiator grill is going to kill your airflow.

At the moment I'm planning to leave the mesh in place, but if the temps are unsatisfactory I do intend to remove it or replace it with a less restrictive mesh.

 

[DeFex]

Thats very nice except I would get some better bolts than those galvanized hardware store ones.

 

[PixelsGC]

Great Work so far loving the Craftsmenship. Keep up the good work, cant wait to see the paint job!
I agree with the others, I'd take out the mesh your air flow is going to suffer a lot.
Plus I think it would look alot better without it IMHO.

 

[Crispy002]

Mini-update

Case has been painted and I started re-assembly today.

I only worked on a little plumbing while I wait for the mail to arrive tomorrow.

Closeup shot

I had originally planned to go with compression fittings but the price seemed a little steep, might change later on if the need arises. On the bright side, with clamps, these hoses aren't going ANYWHERE.

And yes, the paint is supposed to look speckley and textured.
And no, the tubing is not actually vomit orange colored, it's just the camera lighting.

 

[Wahoomcdaniel]

Personally, I like the color of the tubing.

 

[Crispy002]

Personally, I like the color of the tubing.

It's Feser UV red tubing, shows orange with light on it, shows red with light behind it. Supposedly the UV color is on the orangeish side as well.

 

[DogsofJune]

Looks good so far.

 

[Crispy002]

Build finished....for now at least!'
Sorry for the blurry pictures, lighting wasn't too great so I tried long exposure with a tripod, still didn't turn out too well.

Received and installed an 850HX I bought here on the forums

All assembled. Stealthed the DVD drive in some spare time.

Turned on

The white fans are temporary, and some 5.25" bay items were moved around since the last picture.

Notice the ghetto accelero mod of the 120mm fan zip tied to the heatsink?

Closeup of the plumbing

Shot looking from the bottom towards the top

My efforts to get a 90 degree fitting to thread properly proved unfruitful, so I was forced to use a straight fitting and make the 90 degree turn with just the tubing. Luckily, the thick walls of the tubing is enough to prevent it from kinking (though some compression did occur at first). After running for a week with some decent overclocks, the tubing has since heated up enough to relax and not constrict as much in the turn.

 

[jvz555]

look nice but needs a better cable job

 

[Crispy002]

look nice but needs a better cable job

Heh, I'll admit it could be tidier.

In hindsight I realized I forgot to cut a 3/4" hole at the top of the mobo tray for the 8 pin mobo power connector. Most of the wires are neatly tucked, the ones you see are the 24pin, 8 pin, and 2 pci-e cables. The rest are -fairly- well routed, did some zip tieing after the photos, for some reason I get a little bit neater after I take pics.

Some notes:
1. The 8-pin mobo connector hole really burns my waffles. I dropped that idea 'cause the cable wouldn't be long enough on my 620HX, but the 850HX has more than enough length to make the extra travel. Shoulda known.
2. Something else I considered was to reverse the hard drive cage. While it looks good/better (the sata power/data cables get tucked out of sight), it's not in the windowed region of my case and thus more of an inconvenience if the need to swap a drive arises.
3. And lastly, next time I drain the loop I plan to run the pump --> cpu hose over the res hoses (instead of under) so I can move my graphics card to the top pci-e slot and drop the sound card down, allowing the front port audio and power cables to be better hidden. Unfortunately, it may be some time since draining is a lot of work

I'll probably add a UV cathode when I pick up the other fans, should have an update in ~2 weeks give or take.

 

[WorldExclusive]

I'm sure you can make this case look great.

Will this case allow for better cable management? From the looks of it, the case doesn't really allow cables to be tucked away.

I see a Corsair 800D in your future.

 

[Crispy002]

I'm sure you can make this case look great.

Will this case allow for better cable management? From the looks of it, the case doesn't really allow cables to be tucked away.

I see a Corsair 800D in your future.

The stock case isn't too great for cable management. I've seen quite a few mods that made it pretty good though. One limit on cutting the motherboard tray was the flexibility to aluminum. The tray was already a little shaky before I cut into it, now it's even worse. Adding a hole for the 24/8pins in addition to what's already done would make transporting the case a little risky.

I wouldn't mind an 800D though, they're roughly the same size

 

[96redformula]

Looks good, very similar to my case I chopped up as well.

http://hardforums.com/showpost.php?p=1032776072&postcount=617

 

[Coder]

Does the pump sitting right in the bay make any noise? I have mine wrapped on foam to keep it quiet.

 

[Crispy002]

It's not completely quiet, but it's tolerable. In terms of noise, the actual pump puts out a constant whirr from the motor inside turning. In terms of vibration, it's sandwiched fairly tight against the bay with rubber mounts on one side (came with the pump) and a grommet in the slot I cut for the wire. It does not directly vibrate, though occasionally the case door begins to make a little bit of noise. I've yet to determine if this is the result of the pump vibrating the entire case or if I just need to tighten a screw in the door assembly.

 

[MisterAutomatic]

look nice but needs a better cable job

I agree. Are you going to sleeve your cables?

 

[Crispy002]

I agree. Are you going to sleeve your cables?

I'm thinking of picking up some of that black dye I've seen used a few times on here. It can turn the cables a solid black without the cost or effort of sleeving

 

[Coder]

It's not completely quiet, but it's tolerable. In terms of noise, the actual pump puts out a constant whirr from the motor inside turning. In terms of vibration, it's sandwiched fairly tight against the bay with rubber mounts on one side (came with the pump) and a grommet in the slot I cut for the wire. It does not directly vibrate, though occasionally the case door begins to make a little bit of noise. I've yet to determine if this is the result of the pump vibrating the entire case or if I just need to tighten a screw in the door assembly.

Thanks for the reply. I have the same pump in foam sitting on top of the left-most drive bay that runs my CPU loop and and an Eheim 1250 that runs my video card loop.

I get the same door vibration you talked about but I just have to touch the door to make it stop. I could probably prevent it but I am waiting until I re-do the loops this summer.

 

[Crispy002]

Update 12/25/2010:

I realize it has been a year since I began this mod, but Santa happened to bring some new toys to add to this. In reviewing my original log and pictures I'm rather disappointed at how poorly my pictures turned out. The original photos really don't do it justice. In light of this I decided to borrow a nicer camera and tripod so I may better display my work. Here's a teaser to hold you over until I can make a real update.

One of the toys I received that came a little early... by the way, compression fittings for 1/2 ID 3/4 OD are HEAVY.

And a picture to show everyone where this is going and some of where it has been:

 

[Crispy002]

More goodies, an EK nickel plated waterblock for my 5870.

 

[Crispy002]

After a good deal of poking around, I found why my pump was making so much noise. It seems the flexibility of the aluminum in the case allowed the drive bays to resonate with the vibrations of the pump, which in turn made a decently high pitched buzzing noise. To fix this, I tested out a new mounting system for the pump.

However, before I mounted the pump, I wanted to slap some shiny compression fittings on it

The 90 degree fitting removes the restriction of the previously slightly kinked tubing in the drive bay.

The straight compression fitting will provide a more reliable seal (not that I had any problems) than the previous barb and clamp. And it's shiny.

The new mounting test includes a foam pad and some nylon washers to keep the bracket at the appropriate height.

Pump reinstalled. This helped a little bit, but the foam pad is simply not squishy enough. I have another solution being shipped at the moment.

Naked 5870 for those interested. In my haste I did not take a picture of the card with the block installed before mounting in the case. However, I will say that putting all the thermal pads on the memory is perhaps the most tedious part of this entire mod.

In an attempt to further reduce noise and boost the cooling capacity of the radiator now that the 5870 is installed, I removed the mesh from the top grill.

 

[Crispy002]

The aforementioned pump vibration solution has arrived in the form of Petra's "gel stuff". Whoever cuts the stuff might want to get their eyes checked, it's supposed to be 3x3 but my piece is 2x3. Regardless, the pump is now COMPLETELY silent! As far as I can tell, the material is similar to the rubbery "sticky hand" toys. Here's a picture:

The plumbing has been finished for some time now...leak testing in this pic. Wiring not done yet.

Turned on with a UV LED strip lighting things up.

Lights out.

Planning to get a few more compression fittings to complete the look when I have to drain the loop next, otherwise this mod is done. While I'm happy with the end result, if a sufficiently cheap TJ07 shows up on craigslist I'd make the switch in a heartbeat. Simply put, the layout of the TJ07 is overall much more water friendly. I would consider a 700d, but the idea of having a steel case repulses me. If I redid the mod with the experience I have now, I would've paid the extra money to get the case powdercoated. The original paintjob has held up fairly well and still looks good, but a nice powder coat would be a much better solution.

At 3.4 Ghz:
Idle CPU temp: 40C
Load CPU temp: 55C
The load temps stay about the same regardless of the overclock. 4Ghz had me at 58 IIRC.

Idle GPU temp: 30C
Load GPU temp: 37C (Currently 900/1260)