Project AQUA Skeleton

[fireisdangerous]

This project is to water cool the mini antec skeleton!!. The use of this project will be a HTPC, wanted to do a small watercooled case after my last build which was a bitfenix collosus. I plan to do this project using the following parts:


Case: Antec mini skeleton
Psu: 150w pico
Motherbord: ZOTAC H55-ITX WiFi
Processor: I3 530 will also use as GPU
Resevoir: Alphacool Delrin 5.25" Single Drive Bay Reservoir Black
Pump: Laing DDC-1T Pro Pump 440 L/hr 10W
Pump Top: KTC Laing DDC Pump Top : Acetal

Rad: Hardware Labs Black Ice® GT Stealth Lite 120mm Single Radiator
CPU Block : xspc rasa
Tubing: XSPC 7/16" ID - 5/8" OD Blue / UV Blue
Coolant: Mayhems X1 Premix Fluid Blue / UV Blue

I have stripped the case of the 80mm fan and the pico psu that comes with the case as i will be replacing it with a 150w psu. I plan is to mount the 120 rad on the top 150mm fan then route the tubing onto the motherboard from their.

I hit my fist snag of the build when i went to attach the psu cable to the board and route it to the psu at that back. However because the front i/o sticks out it hits the psu cable and wont let the motherboard tray slide forward!!! dumb design!! The red cable psu cable was just to see it will fit, i will be getting an 24 pin extender with black and blu colours.

The only way to solve this was to route the cable out of the case and back in. I think it looks cool and only blocks the reset button!!. I will obviously make it tidier when i get the new cable.

Here a couple of shots of the space under the motherboard i have to play with. the cables will obviously been made much neater.

Here is the rear shot, the 4 pin extender colour will be the same as the 24pin.

I do like the black and blue braid, think it looks awsome together

 

[fireisdangerous]

Here are the latest pics, its going to be a tight fit for sure!!!:

Here is the back of the case with the res fitted, i have had to move the psu from being mounted on the underside of the motherboard to the left had side of the case to give me much more space to work with. As a test i routed the extended 24 connected to the new psu location and its a perfect fit. I cable tided the cable to the top of the case to get it out of the way. My new 24 pin ext cable came today so will fit that later.

This is where i will mount my pump, just need to work out what to put under it to stop any vibrations.

This is a side view of the pump and res, i can move the pump furthur back if it will make connecting the 2 easier

Pic of the tubing i have got, it is a little darker than i had hoped. I could use clear tubing but i dont want it to discolour at all which happend with my last clear tubing!

Here is the 24 pin extension

 

[fireisdangerous]

Here is a shot of all my kit that i will squeeze into the skeleton.

 

[fireisdangerous]

Man you have your work cut out for you there.

Where you putting the PSU by the way?[/QUOTE]

the pico psu is at the back on the side out of the way

Here are some updates!! damn this has been a mission!! i need more 90 deg fittings so cant finish it today meh!!

Rasa Block on my zotac board!!

Front shot with the rad on top

I had to chop a bit of the case out so i could poke the fitting come out of the inlet of the res at the front

Back shot of the tubes, im liking the black and blue tubes. I also braided the power switch etc.

And a shot of the back.

So to to finish I just need 3 more 90 deg fittings to go on the cpu block and one on the rad. Oh and yeah the rad is secured by vecro, the fan holes on the top of the case would fit so i didnt have much of an option!!!

 

[fireisdangerous]

Thats it for the updates today, here is the final pic with the hard drive installed and it sitting on my desk.

So what do you all think....should i have black and blue tubing or just blue?

 

[KiiYzOo]

looks good although I can't help but think it would look better with the rad mounted to the side of the case with an extra silent fan on it like an Akasa apache or a gentle typhoon?

I would quite like to watercool the larger version myself

 

[fireisdangerous]

Finally I have some updates. I have now connected all the tubing and pretty happy how it looks. Picture quality isnt the best, i will take some better shots tommorow with some natural light. Im going to try and fill it up later and do some leak testing.

What do you think?

 

[G-Dubs]

Very nice my friend, still can't believe you actually managed to do it. I mean get all that gear into that enclosure.

Kudos to you.

Be interresting to see what temps you get with just the top fan on pull and very little seal around rad. Might be worth having another fan on standby ready to put on top so you then have a push pull config.

 

[fireisdangerous]

Very nice my friend, still can't believe you actually managed to do it. I mean get all that gear into that enclosure.

Kudos to you.

Be interresting to see what temps you get with just the top fan on pull and very little seal around rad. Might be worth having another fan on standby ready to put on top so you then have a push pull config.

cheers mate im really pleased how it turned out.

got round to testing the rig, with the case fan on low the cpu is 20c @stock haven't tried to run any cpu tests yet but pretty happy with those temps. will do more tests tommorow