Project: Give my ears peace

[Allsorts]

I originally intended to watercool my current PC to make it as quiet as possible but I gave up because the case just isn't big enough. So I thought I'll buy a slightly bigger case, hence the Lian Li PC-G70B . At the moment G70 projects seem to be like buses, you wait ages and then two appear at the same time lol. Speaking of buses, this is one HUGE case. Anyway, my list of watercooling stuff is fairly typical but since I'll be doing some things differently I thought I would start a new project build thread.

So here's a list of the stuff that I have:

Current PC

Small useless case

DFI nF4 SLI-D

AMD X2 4200+ @stock

OCZ EL PC-4000 GX 2x1Gb @stock

eVGA 7800GT CO 256MB @stock

X-Fi XtremeMusic

WD2500KS

WD740GD

LG GSA-4167B

Viewsonic VX924

(I'm running everything on stock settings at the moment but will overclock-the-nuts-out-of-it later on)

Watercooling stuff

[CPU block]........Swiftech Storm

[GPU block]........Swiftech MCW60

[chipset block]...MIPS DFI Lanparty Freezer

[radiator]..........ThermoChill PA120.3

[pump]..............Laing DDC-1 Ultra with Petra's Top

[tubing].............7/16" ID (5/8" OD) Masterkleer

Noise-reducing stuff (at least compared to what I'm using at the moment)

[fans]................6 x Yate Loon D12SL-12

[fan controller]....2 x Akasa fan controller Jr

[soundproofing]...AcoustiPack Deluxe (v2) Acoustic Material Kit (I bought this stuff ages ago and then discovered there wasn't any room for it in my old case lol)

As you can see, nothing special so far. However, I plan to mount my rad externally on the top of my case which I suppose is a bit controversial. I originally considered mounting the rad inside on the bottom of the case, then I changed my mind to the inside of the top panel, then I changed my mind again. I know putting the rad externally doesn't look as 'clean' but this way you get the best of both worlds; the rad uses the cooler air from outside the case but doesn't exhaust the 'warm' air into the case and so you can run the case fans at much lower rpm (that's my strange reasoning anyway). I'm not so much bothered about how it looks compared to how it sounds.

I was talking to my dad the other day about how I was going to make my computer much more quiet and he just looked at me for a few seconds and said "Why don't you just buy a set of headphones?" Ah, priceless! :rollingla I guess you had to be there. Those of you who watch Top Gear will be familiar with 'Captain Slow'. That's me, that is. However, I'm aiming to finish this build over the next few weeks so I'll try to keep this thread updated regularly with new pics and so on.

Anyway, here's a pic of what I've done so far, got to start somewhere...

[Lian Li PC-G70B case disassembled. I've heatshrinked the front LED and switch wires together.]

Stay tuned...

 

[Ham]

Looking forward to updates mate.

Good too see you still rocking 939 too. Best.Socket.Yet.

 

[NickS]

stormizbad.

Get D-Tek Fuzion or Apogee GTX or GTFO

 

[Allsorts]

stormizbad.

Get D-Tek Fuzion or Apogee GTX or GTFO

I bought the Storm a little while before the Fusion and the GTX came out . I'll give it a try and see what my temps are like, my pump has a pretty high head anyway. I still think the Storm is king for de-lidded 939 chips even if it does kill your flow rate!

 

[NickS]

Read right by the 939 part heh, just assumed you were going C2D. You are correct though, Storm is better than the newer blocks for bare cored CPU's by a large margin.

 

[FarFarAway]

Nice mate looking forwqard to updates on this. Sexy Lian Li ftw

 

[Allsorts]

Since there needs to be a small uniform gap between the case top panel and the rad to allow air intake, I decided to make some stand-offs. I bought some M3 threaded rod since this width fits snugly through the pre-drilled fan holes on the PA120.3. I also bought some hollow 1cm long nylon spacers that had enough clearance for M3 rod. You can just use nuts to set the spacing but the nylon spacers will help hide the threaded rod. Finally, some M3 nuts and nylon washers too. I spray painted some of the the nylon spacers black which didn't go too well so I just coloured 'em in with a black Sharpie marker!

[Materials for rad stand-offs: M3 threaded rod, 1cm nylon spacers, M3 nuts and M3 nylon washers.]

Using a Dremel and the cutting disc attachment I cut the threaded rod into 10 pieces that were about 3cm long (turns out that my safety margin was far too safe and will need to trim them) and 2 pieces about 1cm long. The rear-most pair of fan holes on the rad will lie directly above the power supply so I didn't want to use full length stand-offs going through the case. Here's a pic with the stand-offs attached to the rad.

[PA120.3 with stand-offs attached.]

[Threaded rod is attached by nut->washer->radiator->washer->nut.]

Sorry for the poor quality picture from my mobile.

Stay tuned...

 

[Allsorts]

Now the tricky part...

I didn't feel confident taking a drill to my new case so I managed to get hold of a spare top panel. Just one problem, it's the wrong colour. Nothing a bit of spray paint can't fix, eh?

I drilled the 10 stand-off holes with a 3mm drill bit and the 2 holes for the tubing with a 3/4" hole-saw. I also cut a small square between two stand-off holes in order to route the fan cables into the case. I love that Dremel.

[Silver G70 top panel with holes for stand-offs and tubing drilled.]

The rad stand-offs go through their holes in the top panel no problem but the barbs + tubing take a bit of persuasion to go through since I've drilled their holes slightly too far forward. Only by 1mm or so, I can trim it back easily enough. Forgot to take a pic of this assembled but I might add one in later.

Stay tuned...

 

[FarFarAway]

Looking good so far mate. I'll stand by

 

[Allsorts]

Well, spray painting my top panel didn't exactly go to plan but I've sanded it down and will give it another coat soon.

The fan cables looked a bit untidy so I took off the power connectors and added some black 7mm heatshrink. Once shrunk with a hairdryer it makes a really nice fit. Quality, I think I'll heatshrink/sleeve my PSU cables black as well. Oh, and I coloured in the power connectors with a black Sharpie marker.

[Yate Loon D12SL-12 with the fan cables heatshrinked.]

Stay tuned...

 

[darkorb]

Thing i find wierd, most common reason's for WC are for silence, and really cool temps, but if u want a queit comp, your still gonna have fans for your rad, so, why bother?

Just a thought

 

[PV5150]

Low to medium cfm cooling fans on your rad and you hardly hear them. The 120mm fan that's cooling my HDD's is louder than the 6 x 120mm fans I have on my rad

 

[Allsorts]

Thing i find wierd, most common reason's for WC are for silence, and really cool temps, but if u want a queit comp, your still gonna have fans for your rad, so, why bother?

Just a thought

I agree, if you're after 'complete silence' then there are passive watercooling solutions out there.

However, the PA120.3 radiator with low cfm fans performs remarkably better than any similar-sized passive radiator, and those Yate Loons are amazingly quiet at low rpm (almost inaudible from a small distance away). Hence the fan controllers. I bought 3 Loonies for the case to replace the stock Lian Li fans but I might not use them all anyway.

I am expecting a big reduction in noise levels because at the moment I am running 40mm chipset and case exhaust fans and whatever small fan is on a 7800GT . 120mm fans at low rpm are just so much quieter than smaller fans when pushing the same amount of air.

 

[Allsorts]

I decided to fit castors to the case to make it easier to move around. Just hope it doesn't end up top-heavy . Luckily, the G70 comes with M3 threaded holes on the bottom for fitting four castors, so no drilling is needed. There are four threaded holes for attaching each castor which are arranged in a square of side 20mm, and the M3x10 button head allen bolts I used are an ideal length to secure the castor plate with an M3 washer and nut.

[Swivel castors attached using M3x10 bolts and M3 nuts and washers.]

[Original top panel was removed by drilling out four rivets.]

Three Yate Loons were attached to the radiator shroud using M3x35 button head allen bolts, which turned out to be the ideal length.

[M3x35 bolt -> fan grill -> fan -> neoprene gasket -> PS120B.3 shroud -> M3 nylon washer -> M3 nut.]

I've re-sprayed my spare top panel black and lacquered it too, so not much left to do now before I can start adding the watercooling stuff!

Stay tuned...

 

[Allsorts]

I've installed the soundproofing material to the sides, top and bottom of the case. It's fairly easy stuff to cut but once it's stuck in place you don't get a second chance!

[AcoustiPack soundproofing material applied to inside of case.]

I would like to monitor the water and air temperatures so I bought a digital thermometer which monitors inside/outside temperatures. I epoxied the external probe into the top port of a brass T-connector, I just hope it doesn't pop out when I start the pump .

[Digital thermometer to measure water temperature and ambient air temperature.]

I'll be offline for a while installing the watercooling stuff so I'll catch you on the flip side. :wavey:

Stay tuned...

 

[Doddsy]

Looking forward to some installed pics!

 

[FarFarAway]

Looking like you'll hardly be able to hear it

 

[Yeungster]

This thread couldn't have happened at a better time for me.

I've searched everywhere for a pa120.3 rad mount that doesn't sit as high as those I've seen. Using the items you've illustrated means I can customise the height of the rad off the top of the case

 

[Allsorts]

Thanks guys. Wow, I can't believe it's been almost two weeks already. It took me longer than I expected due to some things you just can't plan for (or rather plan badly for ). I had problems mounting the MCW60 because the four posts on the mounting bracket were bent - I ended up having to file them all down so they didn't touch the gfx card anymore. Oh, and bleeding the loop was lots of fun too - my back is still sore from tilting the case about!

Anyway, what a difference the watercooling makes! Temperatures are much lower and so are the noise levels, so much so that now the hard discs are driving me mad with their clicking (solid state drives please come down in price! ). I'll add some pics in a few days because I'm currently waiting on some sleeving to tidy up the cable spaghetti.

@Yeungster: I know how you feel, I couldn't find many examples of top mounted PA120.3's either when I was looking for inspiration. I definately recommend using threaded rod and nuts and bolts over self-tapping screws, while I was bleeding the loop I tilted the case way beyond 90° and everything stayed put, which was nice. Using the nylon spacers really helps to hide the rods and makes it much easier to get a uniform separation of the rad above the case. Good luck with your build!

 

[Allsorts]

Finally, some pictures...

Here is my nekkid CPU, it almost went Pete Tong when I bent a few of the pins .

Here's my nekkid chipset, I still can't believe how small it is compared to the MIPS waterblock.

I spent ages trying to tidy the wires with cable ties and sleaving. I guess you just can't beat entropy .

Tubing goes from the Storm CPU block...

...into the MCW60 GPU block then into the MIPS chipset block...

...through the T-Line and the DDC pump...

...and finally into the PA120.3 rad.

Outside with the case panels on...

I think I'll check the idle/load temperatures properly now and compare them to when I was on air. TBH I think that by replacing the dodgy TIM (as in Thermal Insulating Material) that they put on the chipset and GPU with some Arctic Silver 5 will give as much of an improvement as the watercooling will .