Let me introduce you to the victim:

Firstly - that front panel has to go. Otherwise it’s a surprisingly nice case, a bit heavy but decent cable tidying options and no sharp edges to speak of, which is a miracle considering its age. It originally held a 300mhz pentium (in the background) so Im guessing it’s about 7 years old, but that’s a pretty random guess.

From the start I knew I wanted a black and red colour scheme, I think mainly because all other computers I’ve built so far have had bright green or blue lighting, so something different was required of this one.

So, where to start… what does every modded pc have?

A window. In the picture above you can see a vent running along the bottom edge of the side panel, i decided to cut that out, leaving a rectangular hole, hopefully to be filled with mesh, to aid airflow. To decide on a shape for the main window I pulled out a curve stencil and started experimenting. The result of which was 2 leaf shaped holes. I’ve managed to lose the pictures I took of cutting the window, so you’ll see in the pictures further down what I mean.

Second job was to make a new front panel. I wanted a brushed metal finish, possibly painted black. The metal of my choice is aluminium, as it’s so easy to work with. Those of you who read my plog on ‘making a cpu waterblock’ might remember my dads’ barn full junk, It didn’t take a lot of searching to gfnd a 4mm sheet of aluminium that would fit the purpose. All that remained was to cut it to shape and a bit of sanding.

Cutting the Aluminium with a jigsaw:

Using a belt sander with 100grit paper to remove the paint and give the panel a brushed finish:

Next i cut out a hole for the CD drive. After carefully marking out the position of the drive (using the case as my template) I cut out the rectangle for the drive.

At this point I had the idea that if I fitted a sheet of perspex behind the aluminium, and put red LEDs in the perspex, I would have a nice red glow all the way around the front panel. Worth a try at least, so I cut the perspex to shape too:

Cutting the perspex turned into a bit of a nightmare, after trying various power tools (including a dremel), and only managing to melt the plastic I resorted to scoring and snapping it to shape, on my second try this was successful. (on the first try I shattered my sheet) I used the jigsaw to cut out the hole for the cd drive.

I decided that the bottom of the aluminium looked a bit bare so I drilled 3 small holes in a vertical line in the middle bottom of the panel. If you look closely in the pic above you can see the pencil markings for the holes.

Next I painted the side and top panel (it’s one n shaped sheet of metal) black. I have read lots of guides for spray painting, to get a perfect gloss finish etc. but I feel that if its prefect it doesn’t have much character, and hence prefer brush painting. Recently I found a nice effect could be achieved using a fast drying matt black paint and continuously brushing it in one direction, with 5cm strokes, getting smaller as the paint gets tackier. This leaves you with an interesting, almost wood grain finish. Needless to say that is the technique I used on this case, with the following result:

While waiting for the paint to dry properly I soldered together a chain of LEDs to illuminate the perspex sheet, i covered some of the wiring with black braiding to suit the theme of the case:

Next I need to fit the windows and a power button, which I’ll update this blog with when I’ve done. In the meantime any comments/suggestions/crit is very welcome. Thanks.

Another order to WaterCooling UK (thanks for the 10% discound, CPC :P) and the next day ive got some proper tubing, coils and water additives. (in my ignorance i only added iodine to the last loop, to stop organic growth, not being aware of the corrosion hazards. (my thanks again cpc, this time for the article. although i should have looked on forums before i set up the loop really)

Unfortunatley the upgrade to 1/2″ piping (from 5mm ID) hardly made any change to the tempratures. sometimes i think theyve dropped a couple of degrees but i think thats just me being hopeful.

Anyway - here are pictures of the visually improved computer.

I know its not much compared to most loops but its definatley an improvement.

Thanks again for your feedback on the project.

After getting frustrated with my overclocked CPU (AMD x2 5200, don’t laugh) overheating I’ve been looking into getting water cooling sorted out, however on my budget I quickly gave up on even a basic system using retail components, so I decided to try to make my own thinking it would give me a nice challenge.

The obvious choice of metal is copper for its conductivity. Fortunately my dad has a large barn, full of junk – ‘that might come in useful someday’. Looking through his box of spare metal I came across a few plates of copper that would do the job.

First I chose a thick (about 5mm) copper plate for the base of the cooler that would contact the CPU. I cut it to size using a hacksaw, not the fastest of jobs, and it left my arms aching – guess I should spend less time in front of my computer and more time modding it.

To make the cavity for the water to flow through I decided to use a section of pipe as it would be far easier than cutting a hole in another copper plate. To cut the pipe so that the cut end was square I used my dad’s lathe, but could not find the blades for it, so used it with a hacksaw which did a decent job.

I then took a rough measurement of my mobos connections for the heat sync, from here I measured out another piece of copper plate (3mm thick) for the top of the cooler. This is also the plate that will be bolted to the mobo. I cut it to size, again using a hacksaw (ouch) and tidied up the edges of all my pieces using a grind wheel, electric sander and wire wool until they looked relatively tidy. It is now almost ready to be soldered together, the only thing left to do is decide what size piping I’m going to use and drill in the connections.

Here is what ive got so far:

Inside:

Upside down, as it would be soldered together:

And a side view:

I have got a suitable radiator – the cabin heating radiator from a car – and I have various bits of silicone piping, but I still need to decide on a pump and a reservoir. Any suggestions are very welcome.

I plan to put the setup (assuming it is effective) inside a Coolermaster stacker 831 that I bought from ebuyer when it was on sale, not realising just how big it was (too big for my room), but I think it will be good for water cooling. It is the model with blue mesh and I find the blue colour looks very cheap. I want to repaint the mesh but am not quite sure how to go about it without totally ruining the looks… again, any advice appreciated.

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A short update – I’ve drilled and tapped (threaded) holes in the top plate for the tubing attachments, Pictures below. Ill be using 8mm ID tubing as that is the tubing ive got most of and luckily its also a standard in watercooling.

I’ve decided to use a small angle grinder disc connected to a drill (as I haven’t got a dremel/engraver) to cut grooves in the base of the cooler to direct waterflow and increase surface area. They should be sufficient. Hopefully I’ll get round to this tomorrow…

Tapping the holes:

The finished top plate:

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Reservoir and pump: I cancled the order for the XSPC dual 750 Pump/res in favor of getting a (much cheaper) fish tank pump from ebay and a resevoir. I was rather set on getting a drive bay reservior, but when i looked at them i can see no way of opening them to get the pump inside… As my computer is moved around a bit im wary of using a home made reservoir. Anyone know how these reservoirs are fixed together and how easy it is to take them appart?

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Back to the CPU block:

The next thing to do is increase the surface area… I used an angle grinder and a small (worn down) disc to cut grooves in the copper base, in the direction of flow. Hopefuly this will help direct the water aswell as increasing the surface area.

The Cut Grooves:

The only remaining thing to do is solder it all together. For this I first lapped all of the faces that were going to be soldered to ensure a good fit. I then smeared flux on the faces as an extra precaution (we used solder with flux in it). I then heated it up with a blow torch while my dad applied the solder. As the top plate was sightly warped we had to use a lot of solder in some places which didnt make it look very neat, but better a few lumps of solder than a leak.

I had to put in a few Pictures of the soldering: (they are a bit out of focus because if i used the flash the flame wasnt visible)

Here is a picture of the join:

Once it had cooled down a bit the metal was all oxidised and colourful (although the camera didnt pick it up with the flash, so no pics im afraid) so i polished it up with a bit of wire wool. I then put the pipe fittings on. Everythig went together and it looked like a waterblock (to my eyes at least, it doesnt realy resemble a retail waterblock).

Now for the tests… for leak testing i fitted some tubing to it, submersed it in a basin full of water, blocked one tube and blew through the other.

First Test:

Aargh, Leak!!!

Luckily this was just coming from the screw thread of one of the connectors. I wrapped a bit of PTFE tape around the thread and screwed it back in…

Fixed it, Panic over…

Now i just have to get the rest of the loop up and running. I havnt yet ordered a res/pump, and im still not quite sure whether im going to get the XSPC one or get a fish tank pump… And ill have to wait until i go back to school (easter holidays atm) to get the distilled water.

Ill update when i get it running. Fingers crossed it will be effective.

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The res/pump arrived and i managed to get my hands on some de-ionised water so i’ve put it all together and found that my waterblock leaked around both pipe connections. Good job it was a test outside the case. Ive put a load of mastic around the connections and am getting bored waiting for it to set. In the mean time i’ve sleeved all of my cables, and the case is looking very neat, well, relatively neat.

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Leaks fixed and the computers up and running, unfortunatley the scan order with my 2 fans for the rad hasnt arrived yet (city link - they’ve said that they would deliver twice but apparently ‘were not in’ - ive spent 95% of the day in the room next to the door with the doorbell beside me). At the moment the only airflow is coming from a fan a couple of inches from the radiator and the temps are higher than they were with the old artic freezer 64. ( Overclocked and overvolted it now peaks at 62* after 20min of full load, it used to max out at 57*)

According to my last irate phonecall with city link the package ‘will’ arrive tomorrow…

oh yeh - my cameras out of batteries at the moment so pics will come when theyr charged. never buy a kodak z721is, they eat batteries.

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Package arrived - I now have akasa amber fans and a zalman fan controller. Everythings fitted and the temps have gone down a bit:

Idle at startup: 33*c

After 10min stress test: 54*c

After 20min stress test: 56*c

5min after stress test (idle) 45*c

This is with a 0.1v overvolt and a 17% overclock (2.6ghz to 3.0ghz) wich isnt a bad overclock considering its an amd chip.

Im a bit dissapointed with the temps but im not sure if its the block or the rad.

And here are some pics…

The radiator. (a bit hidden)

And the whole thing:

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After reading about how inaccurate on die temprature sensors can be I borrowed a Calibrated temprature sensor (accurate to 0.2*c) to find out what tempratures my system realy was running at.

As i couldnt actually get the probe on to the cpu i measured the temp of the waterblock (there wasnt a way of measuring water temp until the after reservoir).

I was suprised by the results. when everest reported a 29*c core temp the sensor reported 22.4*c and when everest showed a 62*c core temp, the temprature sensor gave a reading of 35.6*c. Im not sure if this is the on die sensor or if the block isnt quite square on the cpu. i plan to re-fit it with some artic silver pretty soon so ill see if that makes a difference.

Here are the readings i took: (on die ~ calibrated sensor. not sure if ive used the right symbol there…)

29*c ~ 22.4*c
54*c ~ 31.6*c
59*c ~ 33.0*c
62*c ~ 35.6*c

The temprature sensor:

I hope to make a gpu block next (8800GT) and add another radiator but i have AS exams coming up in a few weeks so i guess it will have to wait a bit.