Project:- Liquid Skeleton

Tealc · 3 Oct 2010 at 11:23

I think it's NZXT who just came out with a desk mounted fan controller box, it's got a snazzy touch screen.

Mind you having contantly to lean, flip open my case door and twiddle with knobs on my fan controller does become tiresome and shows me the merits of an external solution that can sit on my desk.

G-Dubs · 3 Oct 2010 at 12:43

Cheers Tealc

Might have a look for it see if I can pick up a few pointers. I'm only doing it as the Skelly just has the 2 optical drive bays and thry're both taken so have no choice.

edit

Is this the controller you mean?

Mine's gonna be a bit more low tech than that....quite a lot more in fact.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BB-000-NX&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=189

Tealc · 3 Oct 2010 at 12:57

That's the one. Fancied one myself but don't fancy the price tag so much.

Was thinking of making a diode based fan controller (a standard 1p diode will drop voltage by 0.7v), just need the right type of switch and motivation.

I like the idea of looking at something and thinking 'I made that' and judging by your brilliant mods Dubs you do too.

You could mod that fan controller to have yellow LEDs to fit in with your build, judging from the pics it should be a breeze to change them.

domthecondom · 3 Oct 2010 at 13:25

Can't wait to see what you do with that CD drive and fan controller

G-Dubs · 3 Oct 2010 at 17:27

Spent the day extending all the wires on the fans so as to enable them to reach the extra distance to the fan controller.

Next job is braiding but have to wait for some dense weave braid as the stuff I have isn't up to the job.

Hard to keep the desk tidy when wiring!!!

G-Dubs · 6 Oct 2010 at 20:42

A mild evening + home a bit earlier from work = Dremel action in the garage.

Starting to turn the old ROM drive case into a bespoke standalone fan controller. I should point out that the magazines you see in the background are my wife's old Vogues which she binned but I use as a clean surface on the work bench

Flap has to go

So does part of the black aluminium of the controller fascia, as it sits about 3mm too proud.

Don't forget your goggles! I just put these down randomly after a cut with the dremel and for a few moments had the feeling I was being watched before I noticed what I'd done.

the fan controller NAKED.

All extraneous Knobs and excrescences removed

My braid arrived today, gone for the extra dense weave stuff. Also some modders mesh which unfortunately wasn't packaged very well and so was more than a bit mashed when it arrived :mad:

G-Dubs · 9 Oct 2010 at 13:01

Finally dry and warm enough in the garage to do some more painting.

Undercoat on. Should be able to get a few coats on today with an overnight dry and top coats tomorrow

Meanwhile, guess what i'm going to be doing with my day??? I actually find braiding really relaxing to be honest so after a stressful week i'm really looking forward to this.

benhomer737 · 9 Oct 2010 at 13:25

awesome build, i have the same case and am thinking about watercooling it!

G-Dubs · 9 Oct 2010 at 16:11

A busy day on the mod, and a few parts in the post also.

Braiding of the fans done. I braided each fan separately then loomed the lot together to make it a bit tidier. The ends will be tidied up and the plugs put back on later.

Treated myself to some decent paste

And a bit of bling for the loop to keep out the green stuff

Duesix · 9 Oct 2010 at 18:39

is that one of those silver coil jobs? by the way i am enjoying your project log.

G-Dubs · 10 Oct 2010 at 00:17

benhomer737 said:
awesome build, i have the same case and am thinking about watercooling it!

Go for it matey. This case is a pleasure to work with as you already know. Plus how many other cases can you continue to use whilst installing the water loop?

@Duesix. It is indeed a silver kill coil. I've thought long and hard about what fluids to use, and as you'll see earlier in the thread was going for Black primochill. However after reading up and researching countless threads i've decided that distilled water and a simple silver kill coil are the way to go.

G-Dubs · 10 Oct 2010 at 11:45

Really cracking on with things now.

managed to get hold of some purified water so have drained out my Halfords De-ionised that I was using for 1st out of case leak testing and have flushed through and re filled with the Purified.

I have also taken this opportunity to install the Kill coil and have commenced 3rd leak testing. So far so good. Wish me luck guys as this is it I hope.

Draining out the deionized

The 2 waters I have been using

Installation of Kill coil

Quite a few bubbles but these will disperse.

Still got the fan controller to finish, and a bit more braiding then it'll be time to put it all together and see if I can get my i7 920 any higher than the 4.2 on air i'm at at present.

Tealc · 10 Oct 2010 at 12:46

Looks good.

Funny to think that little twist of metal will keep the nasties at bay in the liquid.

benhomer737 · 10 Oct 2010 at 13:35

what does the coil thing do??

G-Dubs · 10 Oct 2010 at 14:02

benhomer737 said:
what does the coil thing do??

It keeps away algae. I did know how but I can't remember.

Anyone???

Jony27 · 10 Oct 2010 at 17:10

hey
may i ask what things are needed to start a "basic" custom watercooling? i kinda like the idea of watercooling

i cant find a thread satting the things needed for a custom watercooling setup

G-Dubs · 10 Oct 2010 at 19:37

Try this for starters

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17803239

In essence you need a pump a reservoir a radiator 9with fans to cool it) and a block to go over the CPU and/or GPU.

All that is connected together with tubing using either compression fittings as I have or barbs. There are a variety of different tube and barb sizes to choose from.

This is my first dip into the dark art of water-cooling, and I have to say at first the language used to describe the parts involved seemed very confusing, but then I guess learning any new language is difficult.

G-Dubs · 13 Oct 2010 at 18:34

I've been making reasonable progress with the fan controller over the last few days. it's really hard to get paint to dry now that the temps have dropped a bit, so have to wait longer between coats. Anyway the controller is now sprayed up, with a test fit of the fascia. I'm pretty happy with the fit so next job is to install the PCB and wiring for the fans to be linked into.

As a bit of a braiding freak I actually gave serious consideration to braiding the wires that would be inside the controller and never seen. Fortunately the wife asked me what I was thinking and when I told her she told me in that "special" way that only a woman can "don't be ridiculous"

Here's the work on the controller housing so far. having originally planned to keep it all black I couldn't resist a little yellow accenting to tie it in with the colouring of the build. All comments good or bad appreciated.

bash247 · 13 Oct 2010 at 18:58

Awesome work again G-Dubs. Always love how clean everything is.

Keep it up

G-Dubs · 15 Oct 2010 at 21:07

Hoping to get a bit of work done this weekend. I've been made aware that the box i'm using to house the fan controller may well cause over heating of the controller so will need to put a fan into it.

Boy am I glad I haven't painted it up already