IC_11's facelift
Garg
Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
I've talked about watercooling IC_11 for awhile now, and while the watercooling was done a couple of weeks ago, the cosmetic enhancements to the case have only come together in the last couple of days. And luckily, from the distance of two feet away that these photos were taken, you can't see all the little mistakes I made 
. Emphasis on all... you can see some of them.
Anyway, I've used a Swiftech waterblock (bought from mtgoat at the dd&tp) on an unlocked AGOIA-core Palomino, a Danger Den 120mm radiator (also mtgoat), an Eheim 1048 pump, and a Sunon fan hooked up to a Tt Hardcano 10 fan controller. The reservoir is a bottle of the second-best vodka I've ever tasted - Ciroc. It's in a new Skyhawk case that's periodically on sale at Newegg. It was a great deal for $20 (aluminum, removeable mobo tray, thumb-screws galore). The old case had gotten pretty beat-up in shipping. Still using the Antec PSU that came with the old case. Strong rails all around
At full speed, the Sunon fan puts out 108 cfm, but I usually run it at about 70%. If it's a hot day, I'll crank it up when I leave for work. Right now, the Athlon XP 1600+ is running at 1600 Mhz. This chip has run 100mhz faster before on good air cooling, so now that the rig has proved to be stable, I'll try taking it up another notch or two. 1700 is really about the best to expect out of a Palomino, though.
This was my first experience putting together a WC system from scratch. I learned a lot from this process. For instance, putting the fill location under that cap on the top of the case was not a good idea. It means I can't take off the top lid anymore, and if I spill any water on the top, it seeps through instantly and gets way too close to the components inside. Which, incidentally, gave me the idea to mount the HD on brass motherboard standoffs. The Hardcano doesn't sit flush with the front bezel. Maybe I should have mounted it from the inside, but it didn't have that big gap on the last case I used it in. It would be a major pain to fix that with the top panel being fixed in place, but I'll probably do it sometime. I also goofed on my measurements for the hole I cut for the radiator exhaust, so I had to duct the air down to it with cardboard (covered with aluminum tape). I also neglected to incorporate any easy way of draining the water. In all likelihood, I'll need to rework the WC system in a few months, but I've had my fill of case-modding and frustration for the moment. Besides, it looks so sexy
Enough chit-chat. GENTLEMEN, (and ladies) BEHOLD!!!
. Emphasis on all... you can see some of them.Anyway, I've used a Swiftech waterblock (bought from mtgoat at the dd&tp) on an unlocked AGOIA-core Palomino, a Danger Den 120mm radiator (also mtgoat), an Eheim 1048 pump, and a Sunon fan hooked up to a Tt Hardcano 10 fan controller. The reservoir is a bottle of the second-best vodka I've ever tasted - Ciroc. It's in a new Skyhawk case that's periodically on sale at Newegg. It was a great deal for $20 (aluminum, removeable mobo tray, thumb-screws galore). The old case had gotten pretty beat-up in shipping. Still using the Antec PSU that came with the old case. Strong rails all around
At full speed, the Sunon fan puts out 108 cfm, but I usually run it at about 70%. If it's a hot day, I'll crank it up when I leave for work. Right now, the Athlon XP 1600+ is running at 1600 Mhz. This chip has run 100mhz faster before on good air cooling, so now that the rig has proved to be stable, I'll try taking it up another notch or two. 1700 is really about the best to expect out of a Palomino, though.
This was my first experience putting together a WC system from scratch. I learned a lot from this process. For instance, putting the fill location under that cap on the top of the case was not a good idea. It means I can't take off the top lid anymore, and if I spill any water on the top, it seeps through instantly and gets way too close to the components inside. Which, incidentally, gave me the idea to mount the HD on brass motherboard standoffs. The Hardcano doesn't sit flush with the front bezel. Maybe I should have mounted it from the inside, but it didn't have that big gap on the last case I used it in. It would be a major pain to fix that with the top panel being fixed in place, but I'll probably do it sometime. I also goofed on my measurements for the hole I cut for the radiator exhaust, so I had to duct the air down to it with cardboard (covered with aluminum tape). I also neglected to incorporate any easy way of draining the water. In all likelihood, I'll need to rework the WC system in a few months, but I've had my fill of case-modding and frustration for the moment. Besides, it looks so sexy
Enough chit-chat. GENTLEMEN, (and ladies) BEHOLD!!!
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Comments
With the flash off, my camera distorts colors pretty bad. It actually looks a lot more purple than blue, and it's not nearly that bright. I can leave it on at night and it doesn't bother me at all.
You can see the Swiftech Coolsleves wrapped around the 1/2" ID tubing in this pic. They're UV reactive, but only the parts closest to the bottle will illuminate. I've got 2 more LEDs, so I may make a second LED fixture mouned near the processor to light up more of the case. The second pic is the little LED array that's under the vodka bottle.
WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY BABY?
that is incredible work, man! awesome!
:smokin:
She's no baby no more.... she's a tweaked monster. Looks GREAT Gargoyle!!!
There are going to be a couple dozen jealous SMx Hosts once word of this gets around.
You might want to post a linky in this thread, too.
Nice work, man!
Gargoyle, you are a credit to the SMx hosts my friend!
Here's a better picture of the side panel off, so you all can see the layout inside. I think I need to work a little more on cable management.
Do you think it'd be better to have the rear fan acting as exhaust or intake? It's set for exhaust right now, but I was thinking that if I built up more pressure inside, there would be less of a restriction on the airflow to the radiator, and there would be more cool air to be circulated through the power supply. The rear fan is the only case fan at the moment, so all of the intake force is from vacuum created by the exhuasts of the PSU, case fan, and radiator fan.
The PSU exhaust is quite warm, and I think it's a heat-throttled fan, so I may be able to decrease PSU noise if making that rear fan an intake would make any difference in temperature. I might switch it sometime and see if it makes a difference.
Oh, I have a big passive Zalman northbridge heatsink I've been meaning to install, but forgot earlier. Northbridge temps on that tiny factory heatsink (removed dead fan) are still safe, but I could probably get a better OC with better northbridge cooling.