old full tower server chassis (to mod)

benji182 · 7 Aug 2007 at 20:30

My first watercooling rig - Case to Mod

hey guys, followed a few threads where people have modded these old beige beasts into something truely worth owning and standing proud next to your desk

but i was just wondering if its worth paying money for one?

an acquaintance has one up in his attic he said he'd dig out for me but after i told him what i planned to do he now wants to charge me for it lol.

is it worth paying for see as i'd have to pay for a new case with my new build before uni anyway.

cheers for your time.

-Nick- · 7 Aug 2007 at 20:39

they are usually cheap anyway, how much he wanting for it?

benji182 · 7 Aug 2007 at 21:47

where would you find one cheap?

he wasn't thinking cheap unfortunately about £50.

i really want one like now so it can be a late summer project to stop me getting drunk every other evening as thats just burning money.

-Nick- · 7 Aug 2007 at 22:24

that's a rip off get them on well known action site, but can't see any on there atm, saw one or two last week

benji182 · 7 Aug 2007 at 22:42

thats what i thought. £50 is a lot cheaper than most cases now days despite it being older than me most likely LOL (ok not quite).

i'll keep my eyes open.

cheers

AthlonTom · 7 Aug 2007 at 23:42

Get an Enlight 1850 - about £13 quid

benji182 · 10 Aug 2007 at 22:50

got me one - woop!

a few ideas i wanted to get all of your opinions on.

first thing is its fully riveted so everything thats in the case now is in there and not moving. but then i noticed the 8cm space below where the motherboard would go and it got me thinking, if the case were upside down - would it be a better lay out to watercool?

excuse my paint skills but here is a rough idea.

let me know what you would change or if i should do something diff.

note: case is only has room for a radiator of 40.5cm inside the case as its not the greatest for depth but is 22cm wide so could easily fit a radiator (i think anyways).

ps. i've never water cooled anything so hoping this would go smoothly.

DampCat · 10 Aug 2007 at 23:23

You can pick up a rivet gun for cheap, and rivets re cheap too. I drilled out my rivets and took out the HDD bay. Gonna mount the HDD in the Drive bays instead, extra cooling etc.

And, nothign ever goes smoothly.

ever.

benji182 · 11 Aug 2007 at 14:22

DampCat said:
And, nothign ever goes smoothly.

ever.

awesome - i'm full of confidence lol

rivets sound hmmm.... i don't think its a bad lay out for its size so will prolly leave the case in tact apart from drilling holes for the fans.

benji182 · 12 Aug 2007 at 02:08

can anyone please advise me on a filler.

i need to fill in a whole that was left by the old power button on the fascia.

thanks.

DampCat · 12 Aug 2007 at 02:13

I found they sell "heavy duty rivet gun"'s in Wilkinsons today for £5. with bags of rivets too.

and Polyfiller? not sure what they use but that's what i'd use.

DaveMac · 12 Aug 2007 at 02:21

benji182 said:
first thing is its fully riveted so everything thats in the case now is in there and not moving. but then i noticed the 8cm space below where the motherboard would go and it got me thinking, if the case were upside down - would it be a better lay out to watercool?

I'd leave it right way up and mount the PSU on the bracket above the mobo, this will leave the bottom and the top surfaces free to cut out and mount rads on.

benji182 said:
can anyone please advise me on a filler.

Car body filler, Plastic Padding or Isopon P38.

benji182 · 12 Aug 2007 at 02:24

DaveMac said:
Car body filler, Plastic Padding or Isopon P38.

cheers for advise - i was thinking upside looked better but then there would be a massive area with just a psu in it and thats not why i got a massive case.

i know how to paint a computer case (never done it but read a few how to guides online and on here so going to practise on an old side panel on monday but is it easy enough to just sand the filler down so its flush/smooth with fascia and then paint over that or will it become flakey and dry out?

DaveMac · 12 Aug 2007 at 02:57

benji182 said:
cheers for advise - i was thinking upside looked better but then there would be a massive area with just a psu in it and thats not why i got a massive case.

i know how to paint a computer case (never done it but read a few how to guides online and on here so going to practise on an old side panel on monday but is it easy enough to just sand the filler down so its flush/smooth with fascia and then paint over that or will it become flakey and dry out?

Either overfill the front and feather the edge in over a larger surface or scratch the rear and create a blob on the back so it bonds and doesn't fall out.
It's designed to be easy to sand, you can do it by hand.

Pulse · 13 Aug 2007 at 08:32

to be honest, i wouldnt mount the rad on the top/bottom (cant tell cos your diagram is upside down to the pics :confused:

) but i would put 2 (maybe 3 :eek:

) Scythe Kama Bays in there and mount the radiator at the front in the drive bays behind the Kama's

plus you can obvious see holes for 3 80MM fans and 1 120MM fan, pop them out straight away and whack some silent cooling in there.

misterPK · 13 Aug 2007 at 09:15

Wow, there is a shed load of room in that case! :eek:

I like the idea of turning it upside down, looks like a good plan, bit with all that space above the PSU could you mount the pump there instead?

Also, unless you're planning to have a large raid array or something, you're never going to use all those bays on the front. Why not mount the rad on the front in the bottom? Or even on the side of the case above the PSU?

And if you fancy doing something quite a bit different, why not have a stupidly oversized resovoir (e.g. a small fish tank) infront of the psu at the bottom?

PK!

benji182 · 13 Aug 2007 at 14:50

you're ideas are very interesting and sound rather temping except i ordered my rad, res & fans on saturday day afternoon - D'OH!!

but i've got a new idea that incorporates both mine and yours.

Thermochill PA 120.3 Radiator = 430x128x61mm which is MASSIVE!!

the case looks big but its not as big as you think when you know the size of that radiator.

it would fit in the drive bays but it'd fill everyone one of them, so no hard drives or DVD drive as until you mentioned "having a large raid array" misterPK i had forgot about hard drives

me = noob!!

my new idea is as follows: (again ignore my paint skills)

if i were to go for the dual rad at top on the case roof and the uber radiator as well at the front in the drive bays like suggested there would be no room for a CD drive but can you mount a normal drive on its side like in pic below

or would i have to buy an slot loader or even a slim line lappy drive?

i've got a pinoneer 16x16x48 i think so i wasn't really wanting to get rid of it.

the white and grey are mesh - know i've ordered Hex or HEXX honeycomb i think it was not 100% but it looked cool in the pictures lol so was thinking mesh at top on both sides and then a window where the red is of course showing of my non~existant mobo and GFX card but when i get them it'll show them

misterPK · 13 Aug 2007 at 15:28

I know very little about water cooling, but to me a tripple and a double seems to be a bit of an overkill, unless your going for some insanely fast clocking once this is all done.

If you want to keep the .3 in the front and not have the one on the top, why not mount your drive back a bit and at an angle so it comes out of the top of the case? One day I'll do my own mod and use some of these bizare ideas I keep having!

If you've only got one or two hard drives I'm sure you'll be able to find space to put them somewhere, even if you end up making your own mounts.

PK!

Pulse · 13 Aug 2007 at 18:01

it would seem that the only place that you could mount the .3 is either in the front drivebays making all of them completely un-usable or mount it off the back some how, which to me would seem a better idea. you also need to take into consideration the positioning of the pumps and Res's.

what i would have had in mind -

benji182 · 13 Aug 2007 at 18:58

Pulse said:
it would seem that the only place that you could mount the .3 is either in the front drivebays making all of them completely un-usable or mount it off the back some how, which to me would seem a better idea. you also need to take into consideration the positioning of the pumps and Res's.

what i would have had in mind -

put my paint skills to shame

haha

i mainly bought the case as i wanted everything inside - i was planning on getting a TJ-07 with the rads and PSU at the bottom but though hell no! i want to build it all from scratch as this is my first water cooling and what i'd call a real case mod. as changing fans and adding some neons is a bit cheap lol.

could you recommend either a hard drive caddy like thing (where you screw some rubber thing in each side so its wide enough for a 5 1/4" drive bay or should i see if i could mount the hard drives in a cage like hanging from the top above the PSU.

misterPK said:
I know very little about water cooling, but to me a tripple and a double seems to be a bit of an overkill, unless your going for some insanely fast clocking once this is all done.

If you want to keep the .3 in the front and not have the one on the top, why not mount your drive back a bit and at an angle so it comes out of the top of the case? One day I'll do my own mod and use some of these bizare ideas I keep having!

If you've only got one or two hard drives I'm sure you'll be able to find space to put them somewhere, even if you end up making your own mounts.

PK!

the tipple and double does sound over kill to me also and would prolly get the bank knocking at my door as i don't have a job and i've just spent my amsterdam holiday money now but with my bday 2morra hopefully my old gran can keep this project of mine going

the drive bay idea coming out of the case sounds too rad to be true!! if i can figure an easy way to mount it i think i might just do that and mount my dual fan rad at the front lol.