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Unread 06-16-2004, 09:01 AM   #1
starbuck3733t
Cooling Savant
 
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Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: State College, PA
Posts: 338
Project Goliath - 70+ pounds of H2O goodness!

Note: the following is a log transfer. I thought you guys would enjoy it. there for there may be quotes in the updates that have no root references. don't worry about it. I probably also used emoticons there aren't versions for... so if you see :wacko: or something like it, disregard.

Goliath: 70+ pounds of computer
Project Goliath began in my head nearly a year ago. I'd been wanting to get into watercooling, because its quiet, and because it usually yields a fairly good OC. My current Tbird 850/256MB/40GB/Voodoo3 3500 was in desperate need of upgrading. I began browsing for the perfect case, I just was not up to constructing one from scratch. The case needed to be big, but I'm not really too fond of full towers. Using an SX1000 type chassis from antec wasn't an option as i didn't want to loose the HDD bays to the radiator. One of the servers at my workplace at the time seemed like it would work perfectly. It was a rackmount/pedestal mount case w\ a front door, but it was a gateway computer so the manufacturer of the case was a big question mark. I posted on Ars about the case, and one thing led to another and eventually i ended up finding the Intel SC5000 "hudson" chassis @ centronix ltd. I dont have a picture of it virgin, but the box it came in was HUGE! My friend kyle bought the case for me after I did some programming for his website (http://www.uncelebrity.com probably not safe for work) here's a premod picture.



Its an extremely well made case, and also very heavy. With just the sheet metal and the frame it weighs in at a whopping 40 pounds. Mine did not come with the dual redudant PSUs or the SCA hotswap bays. It came with 9 5.25" drive carriers and 4 sets of drive rails, and a 300W delta ATX12V PSU... A few days after I got the case, I got the heatercore. Redleader, $deity bless him, has been a HUGE help on IM in terms of consultation. Our WC loops are very similar. He recommended a 1985 ford econoline van heatercore, it has 5/8" inlets and outlets, and is roughly 25cm x 15cm active area, plus another 3cm or so for the where the fittings stick out.



The 5/8" fittings it came with were cut off, as I simply couldn't get my 1/2" ID Clearflex from DangerDen over the darned things. I'll address what the hell that black stuff is on the end later.

So with the heatercore, I was able to begin figuring out mounting schemes for the heatercore. First I tried zipties, but they didn't permit the system to be disassembled easily. I let my head percolate for a few days, and finally caught redleader on IM. He informed me that you can safely run screws through the HC and break up the small wires without breaking the waterjacket. I trip to lowes took care of the problem... 3" 5/32 screws, bolts, and washers to evenly distribute the pressure on the bottom of the core. I didn't have a digicam at this stage of the project.. so imagine screws and washers where you see the zip ties



Then a problem. A rather big problem. The heatercore placement came very, very, very close to not letting the PSU wires exit correctly. I decided to see if backing the PSU out the back of the case and fabricating a custom bracket would take care of the problem, it would have... But it just looked too ghetto. Some of you may remember the "Is this ghetto? is there a better way" post. Indeed, there was a better way. Sure, the delta 300W EPS12V psu would be plenty to power the guts of this machine, but where the wires came out just wouldnt' work. So I converted the ATX12V psu into a regular ATX PSU... by cutting the end of the 24Pin plug off.



Out came my Antec (Channel Well) 400W PSU from my Tbird 850 box. It had already been converted to use a panaflo L1A instead of the 80mm it came with. But it was a standard ugly PSU, so I ordered some sleeving from FrozenCPU (not the best prices, but thats where the how-to at VirtualHideout led me). 1/4" Black flexo with blue shrink loom, as well as 1/4" blue flexo. The blue flexo is a lot thinner, and I ended up only using it on the ATX12V cable. Also, as you can see below, the PSU's primary air intake (the PSU in the pic is the Delta, not the Antec) is severly choked off by the radiator. My solution to this was to add a panel of MNPCtech's modder's mesh on the side of the PSU. While I was at it, I painted the PSU mirror black, and added some interior ilumination.






(damn quick cam, still, that's just how shiny that thing is)




PSU lit up with 2 white LEDs from that guy who was selling them for $0.50 piece. Im glad I got 20 white, 20 blue, and 10 UV

There is also a blue behind the fan, but there's no good picture of that. The PSU runs cool as a cucumber now. And for those who remember the "I lost a piece of my PSU" thread, I put in an insulator piece :-D

With a heatercore, you need a shroud. If you put the fans directly on top of the HC, there are dead spots and more noise. So.. a shroud. easier said than done. I tried to make one out of fiber glass w\ a form made out of coke-box cardboard, duct tape, and modelling clay. Not a good idea:
__________________
Goliath: 3.4E@3.91/Abit IC7, Maze4 (temporarily) + custom splitter to crazy 4-way watercooling parallel loop: X800XT @ 520/1280 + AC Twinplex, AC Twinplex Northbridge, Silenstar Dual HDD Cooler, Eheim1250, '85 econoline van HC + 2x120, 1x120 exhaust - polished aluminum frame panaflo L1As, 2x18GB 10K RPM U160 SCSI, 4GB PC4000.

I wanna be BladeRunner when I grow up!

Project Goliath - nearing completion.
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