My Current External W/Cing Project

[Moony]

Here are some pics of my current project. The components are:

Iwaki Md-30RZ
2-342 Rad
Criticool Waterplant Res
4 120mm Panaflo M1A's
Tygon 1/2'' ID tubing
No Blocks yet (Waiting on Cathar's Storm)

I have some Cold Cathodes, UV blue dye and the plexiglass top with the dragon emblem is UV reactive also. Should look pretty cool when it's done.

Here are the pics:

[pHaestus]

You really should try it with just 2 120mm fans and not the 4 in push/pull. VERY little performance bost and LOTS of extra noise as you have it now.

Is that res now working to trap air, or is it still giving you problems?

[Moony]

Talked with Cathar. Basically, the pump just needs some restriction to function correctly or else it will be extremely loud. Air wise, I just had a small air leak at the input of the res (had to tighten the clamp), that's why the air wasn't bleeding. Yeah I figured I'd install the push/pull and just take it off and try temps without the 2nd set of fans after I have everything setup.

[scooterfl]

Moony, I like your setup so far. How is the res attached to the pump?

[Moony]

Well, originally I had a tube going from a barb on the res. But I realized that it was restricting the inlet so I dremeled out the hole where the barb was in the res to fit the pump inlet and put a ton of aquamarine epoxy on the area.

[Moony]

Taking your advice pH. Going to move one set of fans over to a second heatercore and run the 2 hc's in series. Same noise, better performance. Got the pump for it anyway.

[Senater_Cache]

have you run this thing yet (I asume you have...) how is the vortex situartion in that res?

SenC.

[nikhsub1]

Originally Posted by pHaestus

You really should try it with just 2 120mm fans and not the 4 in push/pull. VERY little performance bost and LOTS of extra noise as you have it now.

Haha! Then I guess you think this is totally rediculous;



But then again, I have these:

[BillA]

do the castors lock ?

[firtol88]

Originally Posted by unregistered

do the castors lock ?

You're thinking about it as a racing case aren't you?

[Moony]

Yeah I've run it, but the pump is cavitating due to lack of backpressure (no blocks/second rad yet), so I can't really tell. When I did get the res bubble free I didn't notice much of a vortexing problem, but I can't be certain yet. Nice case btw...push/pull isn't ridiculous if you don't have the space, it's just that in an external case if I have the room for a second HC why not just run 2 HC's pulling with the same noise as a single rad with push/pull.

[Moony]

Okay update on the project. I haven't had that much time to work on it but I've made some progress. Here's a couple pictures to give you guys an idea of where I'm going. I've added a second heatercore, moved fans around so that they are not in a push/pull anymore and just pulling, made a box around the pump which will have a 120mm fan on top, and added sound absorbant foam to the box. Tell me what you think, I haven't added water to the system yet.

[BillA]

for what is that canister off the end of the pump ?

[Moony]

It's a Criticool Waterplant res gooped onto the inlet of the pump.

[BillA]

have you fired this thing off ? (before building the boxes ?)

[Moony]

Yeah I've run it in a loop before adding the second HC. Now I'm just waiting on the 120mm fan for the pump enclosure and Cathar's new block to finish this project off.

[Hansfragger]

Looks great so far. You should get some serious temps out of that bad boy! Good move using the foam to dampen the sound. If you still get any noise from the large cabinet resonating, you can use what Audiophiles do for speakers. There is a thick, heavy, pliable putty called "Duct Seal" that HVAC people use to seal vent ducting. Take a golf ball size chunk and roll it in your hand to the shape of a cigar. Then press one diagonally against each side of the enclosure, or at least in the "pump room". You can squish it flat and it will adhere by itself. The best part is a 1 pound block is 2 or 3 bucks at the hardware store. You must be getting stoked as close as you are to completion! Thanks again for the help on my external kit.

[Moony]

Thanks for the tip. Should I use it instead of foam on the pump enclosure or? I know the noise reduction coefficient of the foam is 0.8, so apparently that's pretty good. Or should I use a layer of putty and then foam on top of that?

[Blackeagle]

Not sure where you are getting your noise foam, but www.mcmasters.com has a seleciton of noise foams at reasonable prices. A couple of them are pretty good for our use.

That is one powerfull pump. It will be interesting to see how see works for you with Cathar's new Storm CPU block. Is the Storm the only block you'll be running or will you have GPU & ???

With dual rads & 2 or more blocks it should be plenty of resistence for ya.

[Moony]

Yeah I got the absorbant foam from mcmaster-carr. It was only like 20 bucks for a 54x24'' sheet of the stuff.

Block wise, I'll be running a GPU block in the loop as well. I just installed the fan over the pump enclosure. It's a thermaltake 120mm with manual speed adjustment. I'm going to do a small experiment when I get the system up and running to see how much of an effect cooling the pump itself changes CPU temps.

[Hansfragger]

Originally Posted by Moony

Thanks for the tip. Should I use it instead of foam on the pump enclosure or? I know the noise reduction coefficient of the foam is 0.8, so apparently that's pretty good. Or should I use a layer of putty and then foam on top of that?

You should still use the foam, that is what will muffle the noise from the case. The purpose of the putty is to absorb the vibration(resonance) of the pump. When the pump operates, it vibrates. If the vibration is strong enough, it will cause the wood case to vibrate, the same way a string of a guitar works. On small pumps, mounting a small rubber pad between the pump and the mounting surface will stop the vibration from transferring to the case. As pump size (and usually vibration along with it)increases, vibration from the pump will overcome the ability of the pad to stop the vibration. Then the wood vibrating will add a different noise to the sound coming from the pump and fans, effectively increasing overall sound levels. And even though this resonance from the wood is quieter than the pump or fans, is usually is the part that is the most irritating. Kind of like when you add a high performance exhaust to a car and at a certain idle speed you notice a really irritating sound, but goes away as you increase the speed of the engine. That is the little Demon known as resonance.This is where the putty comes in to play. The putty does not reduce overall sound levels like the foam, but absorbs the vibration emanating from the pump. So you don't need to cover the pump box, just place a strip diagonally on each panel of wood. For example, if you measured one side of your box diagonally, the same way you would measure a monitor, and it was say 12", press a line of putty against the wood until after you have sguished it the final dimensions are 9"L x 1"W x 1/4"Thick. This should effectively dampen any resonance from a pump that size. Some people also use a product called Dynamat(expensive), which is like spreading out Duct Seal paper thin, applying a sheet of aluminum foil, and covering the whole surface. Different execution, similar results. Looks nicer, but a lot more dough. Hope this helps.