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KuniD · 12-10-2004, 03:56 PM

Evenin' all

First post after 3.5yrs of lurking in the shadows!

Its been a while since I built a system completely from scratch, so I thought I'd have a bit of fun this time

I started to collect parts/components for the system about six weeks ago, when I've collected them all (probably end of Jan) the specs'll look something like this:

Iwill DK8ES EATX Motherboard (Dual Opteron, nForce4) ~ Jan (edit // between DK8EW & Tyan K8WE, will buy after Cebit.)
2x AMD Opteron 250 (2.4Ghz) ~ Arrived (edit// Sold on, need to replace)
4x 512Mb PC3200 ECC/Registered ~ Buy with mobo
Promice SATAII150 SX8 (8-port SATAII controller) ~ Jan (edit// scrapped for LSI Logic SATA300-8x)
4x WD Raptor 74Gb ~ Jan
8x Maxtor DM+10 300Gb SATA ~ Arrived
NEC 3500A DVD DL RW ~ Arrived
Lian Li PC-V2000 ~ Arrived
Antec TruePower 550w ESP12V ~ Arrived

I'm not worrying about the GFX card for now, can deal with that once I worked out the cooling issues.

As you can tell by the specs, its going to be a pretty crowded system with 12 hard drives and an E-ATX motherboard, here's a pic of the layout:

As I'm sure you've noticed, there's still quite a bit of realestate left in this case; hmmm what shall we fill it up with

Here's Project Densities specification:

1. Watercooling for both CPU's.
2. Watercooling infrastructure able to handle upto two graphics cards.(Motherboard is SLI capable)
3. Watercooling for hard drives.
4. All cooling parts must be inside or attached to case.

Ambitious? Maybe

I don't expect this to happen over night, so I plan to do it in stages (CPU cooling being ready for use as soon as I recieve the remaining components.) I run my own hardware/machinery business, so I have access to pretty much any tool, and the companies got good relationships with quite a few local engineering firms, so if I need anything specific made up it shouldn't be a problem.

What I'd like to do upto the end of this year, is meticulously plan out the cooling system, with a little help from the most experienced cooling-addicts - you lot!

Now I've been looking over the case, and here are ALL the locations that I think radiators, pumps and reservoirs could be kept:

Now bear in mind I've noted all the spots, doesn't mean we have to use them all

Only if we want to

Apart from one optical drive, all the 5.25" bays will be clear - I'll even remove the floppy from the bottom; 150 x 200 x 250 empty space.

I got donated a Black Ice Pro II (dual 120) radiator, which should be here on Mon/Tues; there should be enough space for it and a pump as well. Along with the perspex reservoir (which should be able to hold 4litre's) this should do the trick for the CPU's.

Now onto the hard drives; as all the drives are SATA, cabling won't get in the way, and with the way that Lian Li have designed the case, there's about 15mm gap between all the drives.

Enough space for some slimline drive blocks?

There's a 120mm fan mounted at the front of the hard drive compartment:

There's 1" clearance infront and behind the fan, so a possible location for a single 120 rad.

There's also quite a bit of space in the PSU section:

Space here for a dual 80 rad, and pump, like Club OC showed in their article on this case:

Then again there's a good chance I'll need to squeeze another small PSU in there as well just for some more ampage on the 12v line. (12x drives, dual opties and SLI gfx is gonna require soooooo much juice)

If all this isn't enough, there is one last option; I could attach a reservoir to the back of the case, like the one that WetAndChillyChips have developed. 550mm one.

Would dual graphics cards need their own radiator, or could I run that loop through the dual 120 / perspex res?

With the hard drives, I'm not too sure how to go about in terms of tube ordering. Three loops, each handling four drives in parallel? Should I use the WACC's external res for the drive cooling?

The dual 80 rad and the single 120 rads at the bottom of the case - what should they be used for? Both for drives, or would one be enough? If one is enough I could use the other for the graphics cards. Shame I can't use the heatercore I used on my TEC'd XP1900's; its far too big at 360x120.

Am I mad? Yep! Lets make this work people!

12-10-2004, 03:56 PM	#1
KuniD Cooling Neophyte Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: London Posts: 41	Project Density Evenin' all First post after 3.5yrs of lurking in the shadows! Its been a while since I built a system completely from scratch, so I thought I'd have a bit of fun this time I started to collect parts/components for the system about six weeks ago, when I've collected them all (probably end of Jan) the specs'll look something like this: Iwill DK8ES EATX Motherboard (Dual Opteron, nForce4) ~ Jan (edit // between DK8EW & Tyan K8WE, will buy after Cebit.) 2x AMD Opteron 250 (2.4Ghz) ~ Arrived (edit// Sold on, need to replace) 4x 512Mb PC3200 ECC/Registered ~ Buy with mobo Promice SATAII150 SX8 (8-port SATAII controller) ~ Jan (edit// scrapped for LSI Logic SATA300-8x) 4x WD Raptor 74Gb ~ Jan 8x Maxtor DM+10 300Gb SATA ~ Arrived NEC 3500A DVD DL RW ~ Arrived Lian Li PC-V2000 ~ Arrived Antec TruePower 550w ESP12V ~ Arrived I'm not worrying about the GFX card for now, can deal with that once I worked out the cooling issues. As you can tell by the specs, its going to be a pretty crowded system with 12 hard drives and an E-ATX motherboard, here's a pic of the layout: As I'm sure you've noticed, there's still quite a bit of realestate left in this case; hmmm what shall we fill it up with Here's Project Densities specification: 1. Watercooling for both CPU's. 2. Watercooling infrastructure able to handle upto two graphics cards.(Motherboard is SLI capable) 3. Watercooling for hard drives. 4. All cooling parts must be inside or attached to case. Ambitious? Maybe I don't expect this to happen over night, so I plan to do it in stages (CPU cooling being ready for use as soon as I recieve the remaining components.) I run my own hardware/machinery business, so I have access to pretty much any tool, and the companies got good relationships with quite a few local engineering firms, so if I need anything specific made up it shouldn't be a problem. What I'd like to do upto the end of this year, is meticulously plan out the cooling system, with a little help from the most experienced cooling-addicts - you lot! Now I've been looking over the case, and here are ALL the locations that I think radiators, pumps and reservoirs could be kept: Now bear in mind I've noted all the spots, doesn't mean we have to use them all Only if we want to Apart from one optical drive, all the 5.25" bays will be clear - I'll even remove the floppy from the bottom; 150 x 200 x 250 empty space. I got donated a Black Ice Pro II (dual 120) radiator, which should be here on Mon/Tues; there should be enough space for it and a pump as well. Along with the perspex reservoir (which should be able to hold 4litre's) this should do the trick for the CPU's. Now onto the hard drives; as all the drives are SATA, cabling won't get in the way, and with the way that Lian Li have designed the case, there's about 15mm gap between all the drives. Enough space for some slimline drive blocks? There's a 120mm fan mounted at the front of the hard drive compartment: There's 1" clearance infront and behind the fan, so a possible location for a single 120 rad. There's also quite a bit of space in the PSU section: Space here for a dual 80 rad, and pump, like Club OC showed in their article on this case: Then again there's a good chance I'll need to squeeze another small PSU in there as well just for some more ampage on the 12v line. (12x drives, dual opties and SLI gfx is gonna require soooooo much juice) If all this isn't enough, there is one last option; I could attach a reservoir to the back of the case, like the one that WetAndChillyChips have developed. 550mm one. Would dual graphics cards need their own radiator, or could I run that loop through the dual 120 / perspex res? With the hard drives, I'm not too sure how to go about in terms of tube ordering. Three loops, each handling four drives in parallel? Should I use the WACC's external res for the drive cooling? The dual 80 rad and the single 120 rads at the bottom of the case - what should they be used for? Both for drives, or would one be enough? If one is enough I could use the other for the graphics cards. Shame I can't use the heatercore I used on my TEC'd XP1900's; its far too big at 360x120. Am I mad? Yep! Lets make this work people! Last edited by KuniD; 02-14-2005 at 04:43 PM.