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View Full Version : Another Silent, Watercooled TJ-06


Maestro
11-30-2005, 10:30 PM
Here we go with Slightly-Spammy Post #2, 'cause hey, the subforum has to continue somewhere, even if it's just pdf27 and myself carrying it along.

Here I've got some pics of my PC. I've been doing random work on it for a while, and I think it's current form is pretty much how it's going to stay for a while. Sorry if the pics take a while to load...

So we start with the front. Totally stock so far...
https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/bmeador/shared/Front2.jpg

Then open the door...
https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/bmeador/shared/dooropen.jpg

Here's the workhorse that lets this whole thing not turn into a cloud of smoke: Black Ice Extreme II doing its thing. The 3.5" front bay has been removed entirely to make room for this monster.
https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/bmeador/shared/reservior.jpg

Then we step over to the side panel to see my favorite Mod of all...
https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/bmeador/shared/sidepanel.jpg

The side panel goes on straight, then when it's slid forward to lock onto the body, the duct edges slide right up against the outside edges of the radiator fans. That's right, the Radiator's taking in ambient air and NOT reintroducing it into the case. Whoohoo! The black duct tape doesn't look so good here, but when it's on the case it's too dark to see anything other than black. I could have painted it (it's just made of sheetmetal from the local hardware store) but I wanted the extra rubbery mass of the duct tape to cut down on any vibration and "tinny" noise.
https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/bmeador/shared/duct.jpg

With the side panel off you can see the (rather messy) interior. It used to be neat, but moving things out of the way of the humongo duct caused some noticeable re-routing issues. The return to the reservior coming from the GPU routes through a rubber grommet in a hole made in the hard-drive bay and makes a nice direct return route. All the tubing you can see here is 3/8"
https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/bmeador/shared/interior.jpg

Here's a shot from the other side; Reservior outlet (1/2", not 3/8") running through another hole and Huge rubber grommet, back into that mystical foam mystery box.
https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/bmeador/shared/holefront.jpg

Peeling back some of the foam box pieces, we find a moddified MCP-350 pump, completely enclosed and suspended in Sonex acoustic foam, with the outlet running straight down through yet another hole.
https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/bmeador/shared/pumpshown.JPG


Most specs are in the Sig. Additionally, the Raptors are enclosed in Cooldrive 6's, there's a seagate 200g backup drive hiding behind the pump, and an Audigy 2Z Platinum topping it all off.
Altogether, the thing is pretty darn quiet. The pump is nearly inaudible with an open case, and once those heavy steel sidepanels are put on it's completely inaudible. All three 120mm fans are running at only 660rpm (max2400), and the notoriously whiney IC7-G northbridge cooler has been replaced with a thermalright. Still, even with miserly fan speeds, the big radiator and ambient-air ducting keep the temps pretty darn good (cpu @29c and GPU @33c idle, 34c and 42c load, W/ambient @21c). The PSU fan has also been replaced with a quieter one. The Raptors are inaudible while idle, and the Cooldrive 6's and Acoustic foam reduce their seek noise very nicely. I use this puppy for a lot of audio recording and editing, so the silence is an important part of the whole setup.

Brians256
12-01-2005, 11:53 AM
Do you have a pic of the radiator from the inside? I'd like to see how you mated your radiator to that outlet.

Maestro
12-01-2005, 02:52 PM
Do you mean to the duct or to the front of the case? The front is actually the exhaust end. To the front of the case the radiator is just attached with sheet metal screws. To the Duct, there is actually no physical attachment at all, since I wanted to be able to easily remove the sidepanel. The panels are of the usual attachment, so you put them on slightly back from their final position, then slide 'em forward to lock in place. So I just made the duct so that when it's put on in that initial position, it's sittining a couple millimeters behind the edges of the fan, that way I can get the sidepanel up against the case with no trouble, then when the panel is slid forward and locked in place the duct obviously moves forward with it, and slides up around and against the outside edges of the fans. Hopefully that makes it clear! It's hard to describe verbally.

But wait! I can use a pic and photoshop...
Here's the only halfway decent internal pic I've got of the radiator (unfortunately, I don't have my own digital camera, or I'd get you a better one), but you can see there're no extra attachments to it anywhere. I tried to show here what happens with the duct. In red, you see where the forward edges of the sidepanel and the duct are when the panel is put up against the side into its slots, but not slide forward yet. In blue you see the locations when the panel it slid up and locked in. This way there is no obstruction to the panel being put straight on from the side.
https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/bmeador/shared/ductexplain.jpg

Brians256
12-01-2005, 06:56 PM
Interesting. Thanks! I didn't know if you used any foam for a compressable and more airtight fitting between the duct and the fans.

Maestro
12-02-2005, 03:12 AM
Naw, I didn't take it quite to that extreme. I figure the air's going to take the path of least resistance right? The duct sides are angled slightly to be slightly smaller towards the back, so as it is slid forward it also begins to fit more snuggly. Even at 660rpm on the fans it will still suck a peice of paper to the sidepanel pretty strongly, so I think it seals pretty good.

Cheers

pdf27
12-02-2005, 10:33 AM
Very nice. I suspect it will probably be a little loud for my taste (Raptors if enclosed ones, still got a fan on the NB, standard PSU, etc.) but it looks like it should still be very quiet indeed - and these things are largely a matter of taste. I'm quite willing to sacrifice performance for silence - the Raptors in RAID-0 indicate you aren't willing to sacrifice nearly as much, and that's purely down to personal taste.
The build quality on yours looks rather better than mine - to be honest mine feels a little bit bodged together at times. If I have the spare money in a few years time when it this comes up for replacement I may well sketch up a design and get a local toolmakers to do the work for me. Certainly I would have been happier if all the wooden parts had instead been made from 1mm steel riveted into the case - I only used wood because that was all I could chop up with the tools available.
Oh, and incidentally it's amazing quite how much cabling you can stuff between the back panel and the motherboard tray. I think I've got about half a mile of wire in there plus a layer of accoustipack!

Maestro
12-02-2005, 03:05 PM
I'm with you on that back panel! So handy. The first time a buddy of mine saw the inside of the case he asked "Is your cooling loop leaking? How come you don't have it all hooked up?" I was very unhappy when I realized the duct prevented me from running that big, ugly 24-pin power cable behind the board!
As for noise, you would be surprised (I was). The NB and PSU fans were both hand-picked by yours truly to be as quiet as possible and are running far under top speed. I may eventually see if I can maintain my overclock with a passive NB cooler. The raptors truly are silent at idle, and the cooldrives really do a remarkable job at killing the seek noise (which passes quickly enough, in any case;) ). Strangely, I find that hard drive seek noise does not bother me nearly as much as fan noise. Maybe sometimes I just like to hear that there is indeed something going on in there. Also, they're by far the handiest part of the PC, since when I'm putzing around with a bunch of big audio files, it nice for them not to take a couple years to load up into memory.

For your next build, you might consider just investing in a dremmel (and some good quality cut-off discs) and some sheet-metal from the local hardware shop if you haven't already. Really I don't see any reason any of the wood parts you've got in your case couldn't be done with a dremel and a vise or two.

pdf27
12-02-2005, 05:46 PM
Simple - I'm cack-handed when it comes to fabricating stuff. The simple bits (removing the HDD cage, cutting out the radiator inlet) I managed without too much hassle but anything else was beyond me getting right. Wood is a lot easier to work on.

Maestro
12-02-2005, 09:57 PM
Well that's certainly true. Wouldn't want to lose any fingers to a dremel. Wouldn't really want to lose any fingers to anything...

Brians256
12-05-2005, 09:03 PM
I'm a bit ham handed when it comes to manufacturing things myself. But, I did manage to put together a homemade aluminum case in spite of myself. It really is possible even for the ham-handed and a minimum of training and tools.

clocker
12-07-2005, 09:58 PM
This has got to be the weirdest thing I've seen in ages.
ProCooling opens a section for "Silent Computing" and the first two entries feature SS TJ06s?

I'd have bet on this area piling up with P-180s before a Silverstone appeared.

That said, a big Huzzah! to you both.
The TJ06 is a beautiful case and well worth the effort necessary to fully exploit.

Maestro, your intake duct is very clever, I'm surprised the lack of radiator exhaust circulating in the case didn't affect your component temps more.

My TJ06 (Sprocket) was not designed primarily for silence, although lining the case with 1/4" closed cell foam and aluminum diamondplate* did seal most of the superfluous openings, which helped.
My Raptor(s)(ultimately had three mounted) were moved to a suspension system in the front of the case, cooled by a 120mm fan. Yes, the seek is audible, but I did make the conscious decision to favor performance over quiet in this instance. Raptors are not nearly as obtrusive as some would have you believe anyway.

Now I'll make this even weirder and add a third TJ to the party...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v78/clocker/loop1.jpg

Where are you, Antec guys?

*Yeah, yeah, yeah...I know.
The diamondplate was a terrible idea from the silence standpoint.
Looked very cool though.

The only real consequence of adding it was the amplification of the whine from the PolarFlo pump. All that time I thought I was getting tinnitus and it turns out to be a damn waterloop part.

Maestro
12-08-2005, 05:44 AM
Whoohooo! Attack of the Temjins! I think the Antec guys saw that Silverstone was already here in force and ran for the hills.

Huzzah to you as well, Clocker. If I couldn't see the the side of the front door in that picture, I would dispute that that was even a TJ-06! What does the "(Sprocket)" mean? Is that just your name for the computer or was there some other version of the -06 that I don't know about? And what happened to the other raptors!? I only see two SATA coming from that motherboard, and one goes into the CDROM drive, so that leaves...carry the seven...Only one Raptor! Don't tell me you scrapped a 3+0 Raptor RAID array! Surely that would be too sweet to get rid of!

As for the duct not affecting component temps more, actually it affected them quite a bit, and I would definitely recommend this as a mod to anyone looking to lower temps without adding more noise.:nod: The temps may not seem super low, but remember that my fans are running at very low speeds, so the cooling really isn't as great as you'd inititially think just by looking at the WC components. Before I added the duct, I had the radiator drawing air from inside the case, and temps were CPU 41c and GPU 54c @ load, so the duct alone, with no other modifications (or re-seating any of the blocks, either) dropped the temps 7c CPU and 13c GPU @ load and allowed me another 170mhz rock-solid overclock:D . I'd say it was definitely worth it! In reality, I'm not sure if the additional overclock was due to reduced CPU temps, or if it was due to reduced temps of other, aircooled components (i.e, NB temps dropped 8c). Since the radiator was intitially hogging the air coming in through the rear intake, there's also more air circulating throughout the rest of the case too now. In any case, make a duct! If there's anything I've learned in my ventures into silent computing, it's that first you watercool it, then you duct it! I should go preach this over in the Mods forum...

clocker
12-08-2005, 07:13 AM
Whoohooo! Attack of the Temjins! I think the Antec guys saw that Silverstone was already here in force and ran for the hills.

Huzzah to you as well, Clocker. If I couldn't see the the side of the front door in that picture, I would dispute that that was even a TJ-06!(Yeah, I pretty much gutted the Temjin and only put in the minimum necessary to hold the parts) What does the "(Sprocket)" mean? Is that just your name for the computer (Yes, that's just her name.) or was there some other version of the -06 that I don't know about? And what happened to the other raptors!? I only see two SATA coming from that motherboard, and one goes into the CDROM drive, so that leaves...carry the seven...Only one Raptor!(Yes, I was still adding to my collection at that time...ultimately Sprocket had three Raptors when still housed in the Temjin) Don't tell me you scrapped a 3+0 Raptor RAID array! Surely that would be too sweet to get rid of!(In her new house she sports a 4x36GB Raptor array (RAID0) and yes, it is sweet...)
In any case, make a duct! If there's anything I've learned in my ventures into silent computing, it's that first you watercool it, then you duct it! I should go preach this over in the Mods forum...
Sprocket has since migrated into a CM Stacker case.
The gutted TJ06 sits next to a brand new Apple G5 case (also empty) and a growing pile of waterloop parts.
When the SS goes back together I'll definitely explore the duct setup...

Just to prove she really is a TJ06, here's a door open shot (you're right, the frontplane design really does cry out "Put radiator here!"...)...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v78/clocker/bezelopen.jpg
And with the door closed..
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v78/clocker/bezel.jpg
Note that the stock casefeet have been removed and the chassis sits on the base plate of an old Gateway server...seemed to fit the overall look better than the stubby, rounded feet that SS chose.