Triple rad in a P180 - worklog

w3bbo

w3bbo

w3bbo

Man of Honour
Joined
14 Nov 2005
Posts
10,722
Location
Up North
Triple rad in a P180 - worklog **Window added**

Fed up with the summer temps and my 'Bigwater' watercooling kit I decided to get into 'proper' watercooling and bought the following kit:

Alphacool
Nexxos XP Solid CPU block
Nexxos Pro 120.3 Radiator
3 Mtr UV blue 10mm tube
Capecool Reservoir
AP700 Pump

**Edit**
AP700 replaced with DDC plexi top
NB & SB blocks added

All for under £100

Obviously I am doing this on a budget so I also had to use my current case, an Antec P180. Now the P180 is designed for Aircooling so adapting it to watercooling (especially a triple rad) was going to take some modding.
I had some concerns on how I was going to fit the rad to the P180 as it is cramped at the best of times and after a lot of thought and head scratching the only place it was going to fit and not be too obtrusive would be the top. With this in mind I grabbed my jigsaw and dremmel and stripped the case to the bare essentials.

My first job was to fit the rad which was made a hell of a lot easier thanks to the rad box as it has a handy template for such a task.

1-1.jpg


Cutting circles aint easy with a jigsaw and I wasn't gonna pay £30+ for a 120mm holesaw but I smoothed them out as best I could, taking off any rough edges with the dremmel. I wasn't too concerned as they would be covered up with the fans and rad anyway..function over form.

While I had the case stripped down I also decided to do the bottom fan mod, enabling me to fit a 120mm fan in the bottom section in front of the HD rack.

2.jpg


3.jpg
 
Last edited:
With the modding done for now (I intend on doing a window mod at a later date) I began to fit the goodies.

I won't bore you with the build as it was pretty straightforward but I gotta show you a pic of the finish on the XP block as it is the best I have seen..totally mirrored!

5.jpg


With all the build done here is the (almost) finished article.

6.jpg


7.jpg


With my X23800 @ 2600 - 1.57vcore I am getting 35c load temps! Where as with the bigwater/Bigtyphoon I was in the high 50's - massive improvement.

I know its a restrictive block and the pump aint the best in the world, that along with 10mm tubing I wasn't expecting such a great improvement in temps but I guess 'low-flow' really does work well :D
 
Last edited:
I've been emailed a few times recently asking how to remove the bottom bracket enabling fitment of a 120mm fan infront of the lower HD cage.

Its pretty easy to do. Simply drill out the rivets holding the bracket using a 4mm bit, the bracket will then fall away from the case, Then sand down any excess material.sharp edges. I fitted the fan by means of a glue gun as there are no specific drill points I could use as the grill is too big, if you don't have one handy then I wouldn't worry as the fan will sit flush against the HD cage anyway, just make sure its a tight fit otherwise you may get some vibration/noise. As said, its a tight fit once you come to fit the HD cage back in but it DOES fit. You may find you need to take a little off the fan as some come with 'ridges' around the screw holes that may need to be ground down enabling easier fitment.

Temps are now much lower and cabling is easier now the fan in the middle of the lower bay was removed and placed infornt of the HD cage. Can't understand why Antec didn't do this in the first place!

Hope this helps.
 
Did a little more modding to my rig. I've switched to conroe now so first off, I upgraded my pump to an DDC plexi top (bought from MM), the reason being that I also wanted to cool the NB & SB of the P5WDH. The NB gets extra toasty and while I was at it I thought I may aswell do the SB aswell.

13.jpg


I also sinked the mosfets as I had removed the crappy heatpipe on the mobo.

So with the rig installed and the new loop complete I set about o'clocking but my ram seemed to be holding me back, the only way I was gonna overcome this was to add more vdimm. More vdimm = more heat so I modded an old vantec cooler to run of 5v as its a noisy as hell on 12v and put that over the 2gb of corsair to cool them down.

14.jpg


With that complete I just needed to put a window on the side panel. I measured out my side panel and cut the required size I wanted. I had a spare sheet of blue UV reactive acrylic so I chopped that down to fit the hole in the antec panel then drilled and screwed it on.

Here are some pics of the finished rig:

11.jpg


9.jpg
 
Last edited:
For some reason my camera shows the window to be a lot brighter than it actually is. It still 'glows', but not as much as the picture shows.
 
w3bbo said:
I chopped up an old acrylic case I had.
Click to expand...
lol i hapen to have a acrylic case to mayb in for the chop, whats it like cutting the material on the p180?
 
Its fine cutting it tbh but the plastic internal panel melts if you go to fast, sealing the cut you have already made, so two sweeps with a jigsaw are required if that happens. I was expecting it to be more jagged than it was but a quick run round with a file was all that was needed to mooth it out.
The acylic was a little more difficult due to the thickness. I'm running out of things to do with the case now, I might spray the interior black or chrome effect but other than that it 'almost' done.

Thx for the comments so far guys :)
 
Nice :) Excllent work. I'm particularly liking that res hanging off the back and the VDIMM fan mod. When I had the watercooling in my last case I had to hang a 120mm over that area too.

Currently writing this on my wife's Powermac as my own machine is now in pieces so it's good to see other peoples work and get inspiration. Should have some pics of a completed ATC S4000 case with a 120.3 mounted entirely internally soon (and I mean internal - the rad isn't visible from the outside and sits next to the VDIMM where the three fans cool both the rad and mobo too :D).
 
Thx! :D

I'm gonna change the window as its blinding me tbh lol. I'm switching it to 'normal' perspex rather than UV reactive stuff. I will also be putting the vdimm mod over the GX2 as soon as the evercool crab coolers become available over here...hint hint OCUK!!!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom