DIY PC water cooling and Case build

[rakesh_sharma23]

Hi I am Rakesh Sharma from a small town in India.

I have seen many good WC builds on internet and dream to have one, but did't have much of $$ so i made one myself for me. This one is a transparent and Watercooled case and fully DIY type.

Below is the basic design I am starting from…

Starting with getting Acrylic sheets cut in basic shape,,,detail cutting will be done accordingly.

It’s 8mm thick and heat polishable.

Now let’s get started:-

Base ready.. with support ..

Got cuts for psu fan, power pin and mobo back panel.

Some item update.

1. Got front USB + Audio pcb..

2. Got a Nice heating coil from accidental car.. It is very goot quailty and have very fine fins... looks cool ..

Got my self a handy flame torch for welding copper tubes to the rad and heat polishing the acrylic sheet

Some copper tube and bends, Front panel wiring for a local computer shop.

 

[rakesh_sharma23]

I went shopping for Power Button, after 2 hours hunt I final got a nice blue color power switch.

Started moding the rad. Earlier rad was like this:

some cutting:

Now it’s time to join the jigsaw puzzle.

First made the tray for the MOBO.

Let it join and see what’s the outcome…

 

[rakesh_sharma23]

Now see how rad would look like..

Added a two pole relay switch PCB to the PSU for AC pump. Relay tested, works super..

Let’s see how PSU looks inside the case…

Finally in evening went to scrap yard for 120mm fan grills.. And got two grills for an old Xerox machine..

Little rusty…but no worry I will paint them black.

Installed the power button , power and HDD LEDs.

Also front USB & headphone jack socket. Don’t like microphone pin in front so removed it.

There is something missing..Yes “Restart button.” I also removed it.. cos my naught 3.5years old daughter loves to press it whenever I am working on the PC. So no more naught restarts.

Done all the cable works for the PSU.

i got the pump.. it is very small AC pump with head flow of 300L/h upto 1m height and silent too..

I have modded it for inlet and outlet.... bad it's too late in night and my camera's batteries are out of power.

So got only one pic.

 

[rakesh_sharma23]

Some CCFLs from a friend.

Made a filter and junction PCB to powering LCD post screen and CCFLs.

Overnight leak and pump working test ran smooth. No leak and pump is working fine, super quite… Touched and feel the pump temperature; it was cold considering that it was running for more that 11hours, water flow is also very good… I like the pump.

Got small piece of black 2mm Acrylic sheet for making a cover for the radiator

Bending the sheet for required shape.

Yes the flame torch dose the job quickly..

Let’s see how it will look

 

[rakesh_sharma23]

Finally done with the shape.

Cutting the hole for FAN

I am finish with the rad cover.. Only few holes for the fan and cover screw remains…

Removing the protective sheet from acrylic and assembling it again…

Yes Heat polishing in action..see the result..

Back panel have some manufacturing defect.. called my dealer he is ready to replace so no worry..

 

[rakesh_sharma23]

Power button and front USB

added copper “L” joints and installed the water loop with mobo.

Rad cover with fan ..

LCD post in action

 

[rakesh_sharma23]

That’s my setup… Homemade 12” sub a 7.1 speakers.

new CPU block.

This time I made it with 2mm thick copper base with 1mm deep round channel for some water resistance, top with 10mm thick acrylic sheet and added two UV LEDs.

As per working or so called temperature performance it is equal to my old block. Not even a single degree of difference . But looks now cool…, after all watercooling is also somewhat show off.

 

[rakesh_sharma23]

Hope you like my new build.

Thanking

Rakesh Sharma

 

[Junglerog]

That's an epic little build my friend. Well done.

 

[rakesh_sharma23]

Thank you Sir.

 

[hmmblah]

That's an epic little build my friend. Well done.

Seconded. Very DIY, excellent job! Reminds me of 10 years ago before everything was premade in the PC market and a modder really was a modder.

 

[tinytomlogan]

Aye got to respect the effort you put into it fella congrats.

 

[lasher]

Nice build.

Good to see you got the kink out of the tubing leading to the block.

How many man hours did you put into the build mate.... looks like a lot!

Next step get the GPU under water

 

[SiN]

I have seen many DiY loops, and this is definitely among the best!

You definitely know what you are doing, and this way you know EVERYTHING about your system, really neat!

 

[rakesh_sharma23]

Thank you all for your kind appreciations, it's feel very nice to read that you all like my build.

Will add up GPU block soon, just time problem. Also have to work for living...

Thanks.

 

[nepas]

Woah,that is a very nice build!I would not have the patience or the know how to build from scratch,so kudos to you.

 

[rakesh_sharma23]

Thanks Sir.

 

[Steve-O-]

Great job on this build!

 

[rakesh_sharma23]

Last week when i played Bioshock 2 for 1 hour or so, the temp of my HD4850 went up to 87c and the entire fan were making lot of noise (since they have to move lot of hot air from inside of the cabinet).

So i said to myself, "It's time to do something of the HD4850." VGA water block for HD4850 was in my mind for even before building the Clearity, and i searched a lot for stock heat sink of HD4850 to convert it into a Water block. But no success.

Many forum members have branded GFX block for HD4850 but they all are very costly. And even my current rad 1x120 is not enough to handle load of both CPU anf GPU.

Last week my friend came to me regarding up-gradation of his PC. He wanted i7. So i made him one. But he also had 1.5 yrs old CM Aquagate S1 cooler, which i have repaired 6 months ago. His original fan blads brooked so i replace it with new CM silent FAN. Now this cooler won’t fit on LCG1366 socket so he asked me to sale it.

After two days of zero response in sale posted on many forums, he gave me the S1 free for the cost.

So now I have an extra rad and a block. Only thing I have to figure out is how to use it with HD4850.

After thinking for whole day I came to this idea.

Now instead to two different loops I added both rads and both pumps in the same loop. This will work better since extra rad will add up more coolant and extra heat exchange, second two pumps will help in better flow and if in any case one pumps dies other will still server the cooling.

So this is the loop flow order.

OLD Rad -> AC pump -> CPU -> S1 Rad -> GPU block/pump -> OLD Rad

Now start moding.

First take apart of the Aquagate S1.

Now added rad to the Clearity. Two fans in push and pull format.

Now made some acrylic mountings to attach the S1 block on to HD4850. After two hours of cutting, filling, drilling and screwing the block finally mounted on the card and I think it looks cool.

It’s too late in night so I have close the work for now.

On Sunday I will make the heatsinks for memory and power mosfets on the card from few old aluminum sinks lying around.

Hope you like the modding.

Rakesh Sharma

 

[alienware]

I must have missed this. Man you are hard core eh?

Where do you come from mate? Your tiled floors suggest a warm climate.

BTW, don't work/mod wearing slippers. I learned that the hard way once when I broke my toe dropping a PC case on it

Good work man. Nice to see some one being truly creative without the need for off the shelf parts !