The Dust Box

The Dust Box - elevated rad enclosure

Disclaimer:
I'm an H20 newb and modding klutz so proceed at your own risk...
No measurements were made for this mod!
Pbffft... Did Michelangelo measure when he did the Sistine Chappel?!?
Ya he probably did - but I'm no Michelangelo so I didn't!

Having decided to go the route of H20 cooling for my PC I wanted to incorporate some sort of mod to "make it mine".
I decided to use an elevated rad rather than a Swiftech Radbox as the starting point for my mod so I made some inquiries on HardwareCanucks forums about implementing an elevated rad and so the modding wheels started turning.
I wanted something which still permitted allow lots of airflow, provided some measure of dust protection and most of all looked cool :)

The heart of the mod:
Superflower FanMaster Rheobus
EXTREME Overclocking - Super-Flower Fan Master (SF-609) Review - Page: 1 - Tweaking PC Hardware To The Max
Hardware labs Black Ice Xtreme II Rad (2x120mm)
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...ardware%20Labs
Logisys 63CFM fans with red LED's (4 x120mm fans in push/pull)
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...sys%20Computer
Steel mesh waste basket
STAPLES Business Depot | BUREAU EN GROS

The other equipment I used:
Black zip-ties that came with my Corsair 620 PSU
Door edge moulding from Canadian tire
Velcro
Tools:
SAFETY GLASSES
Tin snips
Dremel

I started by removing the top rim of the waste basket with the tin snips. I found cutting the steel mesh to be very difficult with any tool
due to it's flexible nature. I was holding it im my hands as I cut because I couldn't find a decent way to keep it stable and still be able to manoeuver
it into cutting positions. The imperfections I had from the initial rough cuts I tidied up later using a grinding bit mounted on the dremel. Also expect many little cuts from the sharp barbs of the cut mesh... but hey it wouldn't be a mod
without some bloodshed :)

Using the dremel with cut-off discs I cut down about 5 inches in each corner so I could fold the four resulting flaps inwards to create a "roof".

Using the dremel again I cut out a large rectangle in the bottom of the waste basket so I can fit it over the completed rad assembly. I also a made a cutout in the bottom/front which will be used to house the SuperFlower rheobus in.

For the next step I put car door edge molding on selected edges of the mesh "roof". The door molding looks great but I found it very difficult to slide it onto the steel mesh because it tends to catch on all the sharp barbs left from cutting the mesh. The red circles indicate how I used the Corsair zip-ties to reinforce the door molding and tie the roof securely together. Persistance and patience are your best allies here... and lots of BandAid fabric bandages.

I used the door edge molding again on the front opening for the SuperFlower rheobus to hold it secure and also provide a nice looking "frame" for it. I found it difficult to cut the door molding to fit nicely in the corners due to the curved angles of the waste basket but cutting the edges at 45 degee angles worked fairly well. I cut the opening so that with the molding the rheobus would fit in snug enough that no further means were necessary to secure the rheobus to the waste basket. This was done so that I can easily remove the rheobus to connect/disconnect the power leads from the fans once the Dust Box is placed over the installed rad. (I'll take pics of this when I complete the installation - hope it works)

To be continued when H20 installation is completed :)



Some teaser pics of what completed mod "should" look something like.
A test on the wiring hookup to SuperFlower rheobus mentioned above.

H20 cooled LED Goodness

reserved for project completion

[JD]

Looks like an interesting project. I assume the whole computer is going in here?
It might be a bit tight, but I guess you'll find out soon enough.

Originally Posted by jdrom17

Looks like an interesting project. I assume the whole computer is going in here?
It might be a bit tight, but I guess you'll find out soon enough.

It's the first post of this kind I've done and I should have explained the bigger picture in the first paragraph.
I have a Thermaltake Armor case for my PC and I'm going to use H20 on the CPU and GPU. I'm going to mount an elevated rad on the top of the Armor case and this enclosure will fit over the elevated rad (I hope).

Just a little ditty that I hope will look cool :)

[Corpus Masochist]

Looking forward to seeing your project completed. Might I ask where you picked up your Fan Master from?

Originally Posted by Corpus Masochist

Looking forward to seeing your project completed. Might I ask where you picked up your Fan Master from?

I actually bought it about 4 years ago and IIRC I got it from Directron.com

[sswilson]

Well... hasn't this project taken an interesting jog to the left..... :)

Looking forward to seeing the final project (and of course the journey there...).

[Somed00d]

ok so your putting a garbage can on top of your pc..
looks interesting..
interesting source for wire mesh.. good show..

[Patriote]

Interesting project! Looking forward for more pics!

More pics shortly... I hope :)

I thought I was going to take it up the rear enterance on the H20 build (more delay) as I had problems with the Swiftech BGA sinks and MOSFET sinks = the sticky tape weren't so sticky.

So I did a search and some guy on ExtremeSystems forum was having the same problem the day before. It seems adding a drop of superglue will fix the problem... I don't like to use that route but I did it (just finished) and I'm letting the glue sit for a few hours to bind.

I also had to dremel down a four of the RAM sinks as they touch the barbs on the D-Tek GPU block. I hope there is enough space for the Tygon to fit over the barbs and still clear the RAMsinks or more dremel work will be needed and I already took them down to half... :/