Project Leviathan - Fully Immersed PC Build Project Log

[kindai]

PC building has gotten a bit boring recently hasnt it?

You buy some bits, slap some waterblocks on, try and do some fancy hardline shenanigans to make it stand out and call it a day.

Last year I was taking a tour of a data center who are experimenting with single-phase immersion cooling. And, being someone who has quite a lot of experience with building tanks, ponds, filters etc, decided that my next rig was going to done the same.

Why? Because why not. And its cool.

After hunting around for months, and looking at building my own case, I decided to cut out a lot of the donkey work I will modify an existing case on the market. It needed a few requirements.

• Mostly box shaped
• Separate chambers
• Rotated motherboard layout.
• Solid construction

Eventually, settled on a Tower 900.

The layout of this case is as close to perfect as you can get without a custom built solution.

So, case ordered. And wait for it to turn up.

 

[kindai]

So with the case here, first thing is to break it down to remove various obsticles and un-needed parts.

Fortunately it used easy to drill out rivets.

 

[kindai]

I could then start rapidly templating the parts I need using some 5mm foam board.

 

[kindai]

Which I could then transfer to some 5mm thick alooominum as the mericans call it.

So far only the base plate has been made, this is because it will be the main load bearing point for everything else, so I need to ensure that gets settled into place securely and strongly to take all my other measurements from.

 

[kindai]

What coolant will you be using?

Engineered fluids EC-110.

I assume it is only the front part of the case that will be submerged and the compartment behind the motherboard will be dry? If so, how are you planning on getting the power cables etc from the PSU to the mobo?

Fortunately, this case lends itself to that problem well, with a deceptively simple solution.

 

[kindai]

Up and over?

yup

 

[kindai]

With the placement of the motherboard tray different from stock, the existing layout of the top of the case will no longer work.

I was originally going to saw this in half and make my own "front section" but after consideration, decided to save myself a lot of aggro and just removed the unwanted material.

So, onto the wire cutter

Left to run over night so lets see what tomorrow brings

 

[kindai]

I take it that the machine is computer controlled, and it's going to make several cuts?

If all goes well its going to do the whole lot in a single cut.

 

[kindai]

You know what makes wire cutters amazing.

This.

Just this.

 

[kindai]

Electricity put through the wire does the cutting?

Correct

Curious how you cut something that's away/not connected
To the edge?
Again am assuming the wires connected at both ends
To the machine?
So does it drill/cut a "pilot hole"
Then the wires fed through the hole
Then reconnected to the machine?
Then it does the cut?

Yes you either drill a pilot hole or cut from the edge, the machine then self-threads the wire through.

 

[kindai]

so it's like a laser CNC but with the wire acting as the laser?? (as in, the medium for the enegy to travel through?)

Yea, its called Wire EDM.

 

[kindai]

Sorry for the slow updates! Lots of stuff going on. A few weeks back I got the bottom plate sorted design wise:

It was sent for manufacturing this week, and the first bottom plate turned up today.

A quick test fit, and looks perfect, this is just 5mm off its final possition, but I wanted to check for tollerances etc and everything is spot on.

 

[kindai]

This looks super interesting, get a move on

Haha, unfortunately takes quite a lot of prototyping and revisions to ensure everything comes together correctly with the right tollerances.

Today the radiators turned up from alphacool. Lovely things. 560 profile, multiple inlet and outlet options and a handy drain port in the opposite end.

I decided on the 45mm profile for a couple of reasons.

1) It allows for a larger working space in the back of the case.
2) Can use lower RPM fans.
3) 2x 560 radiators is going to be more than capable of disipating the heat of the system but at the same time allows good clearances if I decide or need to add more.

 

[kindai]

That's some serious throughput, will that be push pull? 16x140 fans?

I imagine I will go for 8 fans on push only (blowing in) and then have a large 200mm exhausting air at the top

 

[kindai]

The largest and most complex panel is all ready for machining now.

Hopefully it will be ready next week

 

[kindai]

So the front panel prototyping has come back all good, and sent off for machining of the acrylic panel. That should be here in a couple of weeks.

In the meantime, the fan brackets for the radiators simply had too much metal on them. While great for 120mm fans, a huge section was simply blocked up for 140mm ones.

So popped them onto the cutter and cleared off that excess material.

Before:

After:

 

[kindai]

Are you making any progress with this @kindai?

Hi!

Yes so the front pannel is all machined tested and ready to go. And the side and back ones are currently with the CNC company.

I am also trying to find some "space" to document the build a bit more nicely now stuff is coming together, which is why I havent put anything up at the moment.

 

[kindai]

So its been a while since an update.

How the day started:

All the Acrylic plates are now done and ready:

A quick.... cat to help....

Test fit, spot on....

The first 4 plates in and bonded.

While waiting for the glue to set, mounted up the radiators onto the cut down mounts:

And with that done, re-assemble the metal work.


The back can be bonded in later, but for now using that as my way in to take measurements etc more easily. Also have some polishing to do.

Yes that is blood on the dust sheet... acrylic can be sharp

 

[kindai]

If one was to crack or break
No way to replace individual panels easily?

Correct, that is why ive gone overkill with 15mm thick sheets, in theory could get away with as little as 6mm.

 

[kindai]

Have you made any progress @kindai

Yes and no, my initial plan for mounting the motherboard and GPU ended up as a bit of a squib, it worked but I wasnt happy with the appearance, so am trying a different approach.