Need help w/ watercooling an Inwin Q500 tower

[ECUPirate]

I'm at a loss. I've got a monster Inwin Q500 case, and I don't seem to have enough space.
I wanted to use a $25 heater core from the autoparts store, and I wanted to mount it in the back over the PSU. I also want to get an eheim 1250. I started to a little measuring, and I realize that that pump is quiet large, and so are the radiators.
I found that a black ice or a DDen cube will fit over the PSU, but I don't want to spent that much. I considered moving the PSU, but to where?

Plan B: mount to the top of case ( on inside). If I place a 120mm fan directly against the top, w/ the rad just under that, I can fit a heater core in there, but a 4.75" fan would look a bit silly tacked to the side of a 6.2" square radiator. hmmm. I wanted to use a rotron patriot 24v @ 12v, but it won't fit against the top of the case because of the case's frame (rails, or whatever).

Plan C: put my 2 hd's on adapter rails and stick them in the cdrom drive bays, and remove the 3.5" HD cage. that would give me a 13 x 7" space to work w/ in the front of my case. I think I could get a rad and a pump down there, but I'd rather not lose the use of my hd bays. (i guess i could mount them over the PSU... hmmm. Noise is a big consideration... so having the fan/radiator in the front would probably be noisier.

this project is turning into a pain in the ass.. My processor (Athlon 1333 @ 1466) idles at 49C w/ all the panels removed from my case. If anyone has any ideas or experience modding q500's, please let me know. Thx....

[Brad]

why not move the psu to over the waterblock, like where the 80mm exhaust is, and then you have a heap of room up top

[ECUPirate]

I'm not quite sure that we're on the same page... If I turn the PSU sideways and sort of lined up the PSU w/ the 80mm exhaust, it seems like it would block my view of the WB in action (big deal), but would definitely hinder the operation of the slide out motherboard tray. Oh, and the only way I could get it to fit would be to cut away the support bar that runs across the case. (the Q500 is narrower than I'd like) I'm really starting to not like this case... pity, I have two of them.

[pHaestus]

If noise is a big factor then I actually would suggest the radiator up front with really low CFM (or undervolted) 120mm fans. Put a nice intake hole in the bezel and the front frame, attach the heatercore, then make a duct for the fans to pull air through. Make sure to secure everything from vibrations (grommets to isolate the things you are mounting. Once that is done, your HDDs will probaby be noisier than your cooling. At that point it makes sense to move them back and above the PSU. Cut a custom plate for the back to mount a 120mm to cool the HDDs if you possibly can. You can undervolt it too and keep everything cool without much noise. If you bury your HDDs and fans inside the case or in the back then the steel will muffle them a good bit.

[Brad]

yeah, it would hinder the operation of the slide out tray, and you couldn't see the water block, but it would give you a huge area at the back of the case to mount the radiator and fan.

You could mount the power supply at the front of the case, have the psu inlet at the front of the case, and the exhaust fan and power cable at the back of the power supply.

[Cyco-Dude]

well, ive got an AOpen case (very similar to yours), except it has a hdd cage above the PSU as well as below the 5 1/4" bays. id try moving your hdds above your PSU. it would be an ideal spot, since theres a spot for an exhaust fan above the PSU (which would draw air over your hdds, cooling them off). then mount the rad and pump at the lower front of your case. if you are using a 7 by 6 inch heatercore, you'll have plenty of room up front.
if you have enough 5 1/4" drive bays open, you could mount your hdds there like you've said befor.

[Kevin]

check out www.heatercore4u.com . Maybe there's a heatercore there that fits your budget and space limitations..
-Kev

[ECUPirate]

thx guys.. I've been away for a couple of days... I'll look into these ideas and post back later.

Keep 'em coming..


(I bought neon zip ties yesterday, so I'm well on my way to water cooling... !!!?? )

[ambient]

i've been working with a case that is similar to yours. Had the same problems pretty much. Mine is an AT case though (got it for free in the trash). See pic.... its almost done. like my design skills

[Cyco-Dude]

thats a poor layout; your radiator is at the top of the system, so any air in the lines will go to your rad. and air inside your rad is bad, mmkay? put the rad lower where the res is, and move the res to the top of the system.

[ambient]

no the layout will be fine. I just need to tip the system on its back to fill and bleed then its all good cause the res is then the highest point in the system.

[Cyco-Dude]

yeah, but will you keep it on its back? once you put the case right-side up, the rad will be the highest point, and any air you dont bleed out will go there...

[Mr. Thompson]

Ambient - Consider ditching the fan above the PSU (you won't need it with a top mounted radiator) and placing a small reservoir at the top of the case above the PSU. This will solve the bleeding problems. For convenience, my Q500 has fill spout from the reservoir that protrudes out of the top of the case.

[ambient]

its to late to change holes have already been cut. There was no way a res and rad was going to fit up there. This case is an old old AT server case that I modded to fit an ATX board. When I say old it had a 5 1/4" floppy drive in it when i found it. It isn't very deep at all. I will post pics in like a month when it's finished. Also Mr.Thompson how often do you fill your system? If I only have to fill it when coolant needs to be changed I don't really care if the fill spout is on the top for the front. And Cyco-Dude, what if I get all the air out when bleeding? wouldn't the setup work just fine ;p. The fan above the psu is an extra I had layin around and it fits there so it now has a home its a Adda 120 69cfm @ 22dba very quite. the rest of the fans 80mm fans are panflows and the rad fan is a sunon 107cfm 120mm 38mm thick. the rad is blx and pump is danner 5 no block yet. All is 1/2's cept for the pipe which is 3/4".

[Mr. Thompson]

Ambient - Already cut the holes eh? Every computer show I visit I'm tempeted to pick up another Q500 for spare parts, just in in case I want to change my configuration. Any way, good luck with your system.

To answer your question, the Q500 is my mule. It went through five different waterblocks and multiple plumbing changes last year. The coolant gets a frequent vacation. With the fill spout and the bleed & drain valve, filling & bleeding takes about ten minutes and draining the system takes under a minute.

[Brad]

if the air is already at the top of the res, can anyone explain to me how the air will magically go down the res, out the outlet, then up to the rad?

[ambient]

Yeah I didn't understand that either brad. I figure once the air is out it's out.

[brenthamm]

I too have the same case, and am about to water cool for the first time. I am thinking of putting the HD on top, in the area behind the floppy bay. There are rails there for mounting HD.

Then i can take out the HD drive cage. Should give me lots of room up front on the bottom.

The Enermax has two fans on it, and am thinking of leaving it in the normal position.

Do you think i need a fan at the top, between the power supply and the HD? IF so, blowing which way? The hd would not get much flow from that fan, as the case has a divider right below that HD spot, though i could cut part of it out. Right below the HD maybe.

Please keep me posted on what you have done, and how it worked. Or, if i beat you too it, i will post some pics here.

CYA

HEY, just found this pic:
http://www.in-win.com/icon/q500mec.jpg

My q500 has a piece of metal, from front to back where the floppy sits, and the extra spot to mount the HD is. This diagram does not have that. Does yours? Or is mine some older varity of Q500 that was different?

[ECUPirate]

I've had a couple of Q500, both of them are as pictured in that diagram... no piece of metal, etc. I have two HDs in RAID 0, + I'm going to have 4 of the 5 - 5 1/4" bays occupied, so I have to move the whole HD cage. As it is, the cage won't fit over the PSU, so I'll hack some of it off. It'll hold 6 drives, I only have two. If I cut one or two slots off, it'll fit nicely.
The whole point of all this, for me, is to reduce noise. I may put an exhaust 80mm Panaflo L1A behind the HD's, because the 60GXPs get HOT! I'm going to mod my enermax PSU so I can control the fans. In fact, I may replace the 80mm fan w/ an L1A...

The CPU will be watercooled, the HSF on my northbridge will be replaced by one bigass heatsink , and the 120mm fan in the side of the case will be run at 7v most of the time, along w/ the fan on the radiator.
Speaking of which, the rad is from a ford econoline van & measures 11x6x2" It fits nicely in the front where the HDs were. http://forums.procooling.com/vbb/sho...&threadid=2663

note: sadly, my Giga-byte 7DXR mobo doesn't have holes around the chipset for mounting a waterblock.. I don't think... hmmm.

[Wiss]

I plan on water cooling my In-Win 500 soon as well and it looks like I'll be going with a layout similar to ECU Pirate's with either a homemade or modified 3.5" enclosure above the PSU with a 120 pulling air through them. With all that space in the front cleared up it should be pretty easy to fit in a decent sized radiator. For a resevoir I'm going to be using a 2.5" acrylic cylinder capped off on top that goes through the top of the case to allow for easy filling. Not sure where to mount the pump as I haven't decided what I want to go with yet but I figure there should be enough room in front to mount it on the bottom of the case.

[ECUPirate]

RE: pumps... the choice is easy... Eheim 1048 or Eheim 1250. I ordered the 1250... hope it will fit. (ask anyone here, they'll all say the same thing.)

[ECUPirate]

P.S. where do you get acrylic tube?!!! I want to use that for my Res. instead of PVC.

[brenthamm]

My case is for sure an Inwin Q500. Everything matches that pic, except for the top 2 or so inches, where i have a layer that goes all the way from front to back. Has a spot to mount floppy, and a similer spot in the back about the PSU for mounting a HD. There is a good deal of space between the PSU and that read HD spot. ANd it is grilled to fit a fan.

Here is a really crappy pic of my case but it gives you an idea of what i am talking about.

http://www3.mb.sympatico.ca/~brentha...r/InwinTop.jpg

[ECUPirate]

That's different alright.

[Wiss]

http://www.ridoutplastics.com/20to275tube.html

They have both cast and extruded... I'm a cheap bastard and that link refers to the extruded. I've never ordered from them and currently I'm in the pricing out portion of watercooling... I have a wife and while understanding is not that understanding about dropping more money on my computer.

Here's the URL for the choice on extruded or cast if you want to get more pricing:

http://www.ridoutplastics.com/actubexcas.html


Pheaton's forums have a FAQ that they started on plexi that might be handy too as they reference a few more online stores in addition to some info on working with it:

http://www.pheatonforums.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=53