Project "Y" Worklog (56k beware)

[sevisehda]

For the past 6 months all my system required was a bi-weekly vacuum of the dust filter. No refilling coolant, not a thing. Then my Johnson pump started to die. So I had to replace it. Like all projects a quick pump replacement soon became a little upgrade and a new home for my system.

The cooling system will be comprised of 2 Mag3 Pumps, 2 Heatercores, 1 huge blower, 1/2 tubing all around. I'll continue to use my current WBs until the computer intself is upgraded sometime this fall. I settle on using MDF as the base material for the case, mainly due to its ease to machine and sound dampening abilities.

This is a quick rendering of what I 'plan' it to come out like.


The basic plan is to have all teh cooling in the rear. The MB will be mounted in front with the IO panel facing up. The slot at the bottom is to allow some air to enter the front to cool anything not cooled by water. The air will then exit through the io plate and along with the wires head into the back, where the air will exit by 2 radiators.

The parts...



The final shot is just to show relative size. The powersupplys will be stripped of there cases and placed in the rear of the case.

This final shot is of the first piece I finished cutting, it will be the base. On top is an NF7-S(correct orientation) and next to it my Antec Sonata.

[jaydee]

Looks like a good project! Keep us informed.

[pelle76]

Where does the blower come from? Is it silent?

[sevisehda]

This will be my first use of a blower, I'd direct any questions to BigBen since hes been using them for quite a while. Then main benefits of a blower are they're quiter than fans, this blower moves more air than the 3 deltas I currently use, while the Deltas produce a hum like most fans the only sound from the blower is rushing air. It is also much more efficent, my 3 fans run at 7V @ 2.5A a piece. While this blower runs at 5V and pulls only 4.5A. The BIG disadvantage is size. In the photo below I placed the fan blades from a 120mm fan next to the blower.



I added the sides, MB panel and IO panel. Its actually smaller than I thought it would be compared to the Sonata. It will gain some height once I add the casters.

I'm still trying to figure out how I should do the exterior.

[AntiBling]

I like the idea of forming the case around known components, instead of taking a case and trying to figure out how to fit it all in there. More pictures please.

[Boli]

How are you going to work the leads that come out of the back of the mobo? (extentions to a side panel perhaps)?

[sevisehda]

The top and front of the case will be 1 piece and hinged in the rear. There will be an inch gap between the raditors, most likely I'll cut a hole in between them to allow the wires to enter the computer.

Although I tried different layouts for the larger parts for weeks and designed the case around them I did still leave somethings to see how the case was developing. Right now in kinda scared. While I was deisgning this I did everything to make it small. Now that I have it built it seems like it will be too small to get everything to fit, I guess I'll have to trust the plans.

Not sure I'll get much done today, but I'm hoping to cut the piece that the blower and pumps will be mounted on. That will allow me to get a good idea on how everything will fit in the rear.

[sevisehda]

Yesterday was pretty busy and I didn't get much done. Today I've had some minor problems with splitting and changed a few minor things.




I fiinished the piece that will hold the pumps and blower. So far this has been the only piece that has required any kind attention to detail. Its only shown with 1 pump and 1 rad for mockup purposes, when finished there will be 2 of each. I cut the hole(6" diameter) in the bottom of the case for the intake. This was the first change I made. Originally it was going to be 5 1/4" with the blower mounted inside the case. I made the hole bigger so the blower fan sit inside the hole. This will give me a 1/2 inch more clearence somewhere down the road. I still need to find a filter for it, as you can see my sonatas filter gets pretty dirty. When I tried to mount the radiators the beams that hold them in place kept splitting, I tried a few tricks but the MDF just wasn't able to take 2 screws in such a small cross section. So I used some pine stock instead.




Just a comparison between the rendering and the actual so far.

[bigben2k]

Nice work.

The MDF would need to be pre-drilled, to accept a screw. I know...

Do you have any idea of what kind of noise level you can expect, from the blower? I like your implementation: nice, simple and clean!

[sevisehda]

I've predrilled from the start. I used non-tapered screws, I even tried clamping the piece with a wooden vice to prevent splitting. Except fro the 2 'beams' nothing has split. The problem with the beams is they are only 1/2 by 1 1/4 profile. Theres just not enough material to hold.

When I run the blower(at 5V) in the open I can only here the sound of air rushing around, there isn't the hum like normal fans. The rear section will be covered in some sound dampening material(most likely carpet). There shouldn't be much noise coming from the front but I may do the black felt thing again since I like the way it looks in my old case. Overall I'm hoping for near silence, if possible I may try to lower the voltage on the blower below 5V.


Well I'm done for the day. I finished the MB and IO panel.



I used an older MB this time. The IO panel and MB went together alot easier than I expected. I still have to connect the MB tray to the case. Most likely I'll glue it when everything else has been completed. I tossed in a few wires to show how they will run out of the back of the case.

[bigben2k]

You can also use rubber grommets, to further isolate vibrations from the blower. Felt will work too.

[AntiBling]

Why did you choose that orientation for the MB? Just from looking at your pics, it seems like if it was on the other side of that wood piece so the slot side of the MB was facing the rads, it would get a lot more cooling air. Wont most if not all of the blower air be exiting through the rads? If so there will be more airflow on that side than the side of the case the MB slots are facing now.

Also think about how you are going to do the filter now before you continue, so you can build ease of cleaning and (even better!) a large surface area filter into the design if you can. One of the filters on my PC is on the bottom and its a bitch to clean. Plus its small which means it needs attention on a monthly basis. I regret that now. Maybe you could design a small airbox under the blower with a disposable house filter that slides in at the bottom. That size filter could go for 3-4 months without being cleaned or replaced.

[sevisehda]

Why did you choose that orientation for the MB? Just from looking at your pics, it seems like if it was on the other side of that wood piece so the slot side of the MB was facing the rads, it would get a lot more cooling air. Wont most if not all of the blower air be exiting through the rads? If so there will be more airflow on that side than the side of the case the MB slots are facing now.

The front will have a window to view the MB(so I can to see money put work). Had that not been part of the design I would of mounted the MB the other way. Since the majority of heatsources will be watercooled there doesn't need to be alot of airflow in the front. By positioning the MB the way I did air can pretty easily convect upwards especaily compared to a normal case.

Since the blower pushes air ******d in all directions the 2 inch slot will work. I did a test with the blower mounted. First I ran it as is with no rear panel. The air coming in the front was about equal to a generic 80mm fan. When I put a piece of cardboard over the back the air flow about doubled. One thing I noticed was the majority of air came from the left side(due to the radial nature of the blower). I put a small piece of card board(aka a duct) under the pump on the right, to force air into the front, that doubled the flow in the front again. Once the case has a front/back/top I'll probobly have to retest but at this point I think the blower by itself with no dcut will be enough however if its not I'll just add the duct.

For a filter I was thinking something from autozone. They have some 6-8" diameter, 2-3" tall pleated intake filters.

[sevisehda]

I was at work for far to long today so I didn't get as much done as I had hoped.

I finished half the back the top and front, and cut the openings for the window and rads.

The case closed, it kinda looks like a TV.


A quick shot of the case with the "hood" up. The copper bar will be replaced by something like whats in a car. Thats my dog in the far left, I have no clue why shes sticking her tounge out.


Both rads are now in place. The panel over the rads is connected to the case. The lower half will swing out as well so I can access the pumps/blower/ect.


The airtrap. Its all bonded together except for the fittings. The design is based on BigBen's modified for use in a dual loop system. This will be the only point in the system where the CPU loop and the NB/GPU/HD/... will meet. Its made from 1inch PVC, I'm hoping it will slow down the water enough to let the air escape within a minute. If not no biggie, I rarely if ever drain the system.

[HammerSandwich]

Originally Posted by sevisehda

Thats my dog in the far left, I have no clue why shes sticking her tounge out.

Because she's not plumbed into your loop.

[bigben2k]

Nice airtrap!

[Pureh20]

why are you taking two of those rads they are inefficent as they dont use flat pipes! they only have 6 or so pipes through the rad if it was a proper heatercore from a 1986 or later camry itd have 20 flat pipes if not more.
btw: you other work is very nice, keep it up! i wanna see results!

[AntiBling]

This is just like my job... one guy doing all the work and a whole group of others standing around talking about it.

Looking good so far!

[sevisehda]

I count 15 flats pipes in the rads. Since I haven't tested them yet I have no clue on performance, however even if there not top of the best, the enourmous amount of air I'll be moving through them should make up for it. Also the heat load on each rad won't be very high, 1 will service the CPU, the other everything else.

I haven't been able to get much done since Wednesday, we will be having a huge/important audit at work next neek and I've been spebding 10hours a day a work and another 2-3 at home making sure everything will go OK.

I hope to finish up the rough assembly of the case this weekend. I'm waiting for my Matrix Oribital MX 212 to arrive, once that gets here I can cut its opening then I can do the final assembly.

[Sc0rian]

Originally Posted by bigben2k

Nice airtrap!

haha. lol... to true.

[sevisehda]

Its been a long few weeks at work(important audit) so I haven't had much time to spend on the case, The time I have spent has been to try and find a way to work out the airflow.

The bad news is the blower will not work out. It needs some shrouding in order to direct it. The air did not like the lack of shroud and having to make a turn. I tried about 5 different ways of mounting it before I gave up.

Now that the audits done and I wont be spending 10-12 hours of work every day I'll have plenty of time to spend on the case. Right now I'm planning on substituting 5 120mm fans for the blower.

[Groth]

Do you have enough space under the case to for the blower to suck the air from? Cause I've done blowers unshrouded without problems. Though I did use an inlet funnel...

[sevisehda]

Originally Posted by Groth

Do you have enough space under the case to for the blower to suck the air from? Cause I've done blowers unshrouded without problems. Though I did use an inlet funnel...

There is plenty fo room for intake, I also tried using it to blow air out of the case, and to suck it in through the rear.

I have started up work again. Instead of the blower I'll be using 7 120mm fans. It may seem liek overkill but they'll all be PWM controlled. The design is similar to my fromer design with some minor revisions. The rear half will still be the cooling area, except the airflow is side to side instead of bottom to top. The MB is still mounted oddly excpet the IO panel is now facing down instead of up. Both of these changes allowed me to make the case about 4 inches shorter than before.



The new front. The top is hinged to allow access to the MB. The bottom will house the PSONE LCD, MX212, Optical drive and 5 buttoms for the MX212. In addition to the 5 buttons on the front there will be 2 "hidden" buttons for power and reset as well as 2 switches, 1 for the PSONE LCD the other for future use.



Here you can see 3 of the 6 rear fan openings. I'll be using a push pull setup with 3 for intakes and 3 for exaust, still not sure if the flow will be left to right or right to left.



There will be 1 additinal fan in the front to help pull air over the MB to cool the few parts that won't be watercooled. The HDDs will sit in a stack behind the PSONE LCD, the PSs will be stripped of there cases and mounted in the rear half.