antec p182 mod for watercooling

[Finch]

hi, i just wanted to show what i did this afternoon.

i was tired of my antec900 case. my 120mm rad couldnt fit inside and the cable management was a nightmare with this case, even tho i rooted the wires in the back. it looked like this:








So i stole my gf's antec p182.............. we made an exchange, lol. and modded it so that my watercooling could fit all inside. It was very hard to negociate with her to exchange my antec 900 vs her p182 because she liked hers very much. But to be honest it was useless to her and to much spare space for what it had inside (a normal pc). Anyways, i finally won and i was very happy. the first pic is what a normal p182 looks like inside and all the rest is what mine looks like after the mod.












i removed the stupid seperating metal plate that holds pretty much everything in the case and remanaged the hdd bays. I inverted both bays and attached them all togheter with simple brakets and screws, it is quite solide. the reason i inverted the bays is that the small one (originaly in the middle) only accept 2 hdd's and i need 3. so i took the big bay (originaly in the bottom) that is capable of 4 hdd's and i have put it in the middle and the small under it. then i used the small to fit the pump in. i found it was a good size bay for it, plus it is closer to the rad like this then if i would leave the small bay in the middle. By removing the seperating plate i was then able to mount the rad in the bottom. my goal was to get fresh outside air so that is why the fans are under the rad and they are sucking the air in from under the case. Some might say that the little gap between the floor and the case might be restrictive and give me bad temps, well you are maybe right because i didnt test yet. if it is the case i will enlarge the gap

so what do you guys think?

[Chilly]

except for the bottom it looks really clean and stock. I wish I had room in my case to do that, but... well you can see what I did in the post your case post

[Finch]

Originally Posted by Chilly

except for the bottom it looks really clean and stock. I wish I had room in my case to do that, but... well you can see what I did in the post your case post

thx chilly

you mean the bottom "under". Since it is under i didnt realy care because it is hidden. the other reason is that i was using my dremel first, but it made to much noise and i live in a appartment so i stoped and used metal sheet scisors to finish lol

[Finch]

a little update:

pics with my new mobo:

[Phobia]

cool, but how did you get water in your loop? was it hard to get the water to the pump?

[Finch]

Originally Posted by Phobia

cool, but how did you get water in your loop? was it hard to get the water to the pump?

i have a reservoir attached beside my gfx. you put the water in the res and you tilt once or twice de case to evacuate the air from the tube and you readd water. the res has a kind of plastic thing inside that creates turbulance to evacuate the remaining air from the loop by its own it takes few minutes and there is no more air left.

[Phobia]

Originally Posted by Finch

i have a reservoir attached beside my gfx. you put the water in the res and you tilt once or twice de case to evacuate the air from the tube and you readd water. the res has a kind of plastic thing inside that creates turbulance to evacuate the remaining air from the loop by its own it takes few minutes and there is no more air left.

rofl, i have the same res. It looks like your loop goes pump > rad > res > cpu > pump

So, you just tilt it until the water goes down into your rad, or up into your cpu, then back down into the pump?

[Finch]

Originally Posted by Phobia

rofl, i have the same res. It looks like your loop goes pump > rad > res > cpu > pump

So, you just tilt it until the water goes down into your rad, or up into your cpu, then back down into the pump?

yes, air gets stuck in my rad so by tilting the case it moves the air and naturally the air will rise. in my case it takes on average 2 tilts and the big bubbles are gone. But it is small 1 second tilts just so the air moves and i do that when systems is off even the pump is off. then after the tilts i add water in res and i fire the pump and all is good