Project "Gettin' out of the Ghetto"

[tehgooch]

Wow, nice job. I'll be watching this thread to see how this turns out. Those pumps look like they'll be tough to keep in place. I'm not handy with, well, anything so I'd probably resort to some sort of zip-tie monstrosity :P. Interested to see how that goes. Good luck!

[jdrom17]

That looks amazing.

As for the pump mounting, what if you make some kind of upside down U shape piece of metal which could rest on the edges of the fans. Then use like some double-sided foam tape or something to attach the pumps to the metal plate. Of course, this metal plate would be drilled out to allow the barbs/tubes to pass through it.

Just wondering though, why are your radiator fans blowing into the case? Wouldn't it be better to push the air through and out the bottom of the case? I surely wouldn't want to be pumping heat into the case...

[biff]

jdrom17, there is no win/win in this case. Either the rads get pre-warmed case air or the case gets pre-warmed rad air. Mounting them this way assures that the rads get the coolest air possible, therefore the CPU and GPU have the chance to run their coolest. The only things left to suffer are the air cooled stuff still left like NB, SB, and RAM which don't require anything too extravagant anyway. Besides almost every air cooling solution dumps it's heat inside the case too so I fail to see how it's different.

[biff]

Just few more progress pics. Got the pumps mounted and I'm pretty happy with it. I'm liking how this is going together, I might look into doing a window... hmmmm...

Another curiosity pic. The rad's intakes.



And a few of the Pumps mounted.





I like how this comes out as a unit. Wasn't a design goal nor does it really mean or help anything, I just like it.




Still undecided if I'm going to paint the interior. I'd like to but some more disassembly will be needed and I'd need some countersunk rivets to put it back together, That and I'd have to wait for a week+ to do any more to it while the paint cures. I'll have to do some digging to see if I can even find any, it may make my mind up for me.

Any encouragement either way? Or other suggestions?

Thanks.
Ryan

[jdrom17]

Looks good the way it is I think. I hate that grey painted steel colour though, but yours look like its just pure aluminum.

[1Tanker]

Looks good Biff..but on the subject of airflow direction through the HC's, you're either gonna need some good filters, or the HC's are gonna get plugged with dust and hair... very quickly... am i right?

[biff]

Well I can't see them getting clogged that quickly but it's not an issue to take it out to the garage and blow it out with a shop-vac when ever it needs it.

[biff]

After a long search I finally found a place that can get their hands on aluminum countersunk rivets. I'm going to wait until I have them in hand but it looks like this case is goin' for paint. Also I've done a few test samples to make sure metal prep isn't going to be an issue. Using Tremclad all is well even on the sample that I didn't even clean, Rustoleum = crap. I didn't try the Krylon but given how the Tremclad looks I don't think I'll need to try anything else. I only put the last coat on 48hours ago so it's still curing, probably a few more days yet before I can test it for wear to make sure it's bonded well. It will take about that long for my rivets to come in anyway.

One question, I'm having a hard time being able to tell from the pics on websites but it appears most/all WC rads are painted gloss black, is that true? I may at some point add a separate loop for the gravy stuff like NB, PWM, RAM and would just buy a rad for it and would like to have it match so I'd appreciate if someone could confirm that for me.

Thanks,
Ryan

[jdrom17]

Yeah all rads do seem to come in gloss black, though I think its more like an enamel or something, but I don't know.

[3.0charlie]

If you don't receive those countersunk Al rivets, drop me a PM. We use at work thousands per day, all sizes. I'll ship you some. Do you have a bucking bar and a pneumatic rivet gun though?