Using MATX case for WC'ing

[Hatman]

I see all these projects going around, so I thought id like to do my own. I dont feel too happy about cutting visible holes in my super expensive Stacker 830, since the cost of that takes me weeks to save up, my whole computer took me forever, but its what I like doing.

I was thinking, since space is limited for things like rads, maybe its a good idea to purchase a small ATX or even MATX case, drill holes in the back, and install 2x 360mm rads in it? Aswell as a powerful pump and res, to store all my WC'ing gear.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/122774

Something like that should be able to house 2x 360mm rads on the base with a bit of drill and saw work. Could maybe put the res to the side of the rad's and the pump can go after the res, its small enough. With the res in there it would be 100x easier to get teh water in/out then using it in my actual case because if i spill some its not going to fall anywhere near my hardware.

So, I was just wondering, even if its not worth it performance wise, anyone think its worth a try? Could be a nice fun project hehe. Lots of ppl spend all their money on hardware but I think its when it comes to modding, you really make your rig your own.

With a bit of modding and blue coldcathodes it could look pretty sweet I think. Would prefer to use a black one for blue lights I could probably find one somewhere. Would need a powerful pump but say it moves 1500LPH it should be ok to pass from one machine thru all that right?

http://www.watercoolinguk.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=37_73&products_id=376

Would probably use 2 of those rads, I have 5x hiper 60cfm 20dba fans atm they are pretty silent, only one thats loud is stupid motherboard southbridge cooler which im replacing soon with passive cooling. I could jsut buy another hiper fan for the rads, bean meaning to replace my case ones with blue LED ones for some time.

http://www.watercoolinguk.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=77_74&products_id=387

And that pump looks best, on max it should be ok.

Waiting for input.. havent done any case modding before lols..

 

[PV5150]

Why 2 x 120.3 rads? What are you aiming to cool?

Personally, if I were to pick a great rad and save some money I'd be looking at these over the BI Stealth.

As for your pump get this. It should provide more than enough 'stick' for what you want and it does 1100 litres/hour...

 

[Hatman]

If I did this id be aiming to cool 2gpu's, the CPU, and PROBABLY the northbridge and southbridge, although im going to test some normal heatsinks on those and see how that goes. Might cool teh northbridge with water and leave the southbridge with the thermalright heatsink.

As Is aid tis not 100% meant to be for performance or extreme cooling, it just seems like a neat way to keep all the WC'ing gear into a seperate smaller case so i dont have all that messing around with the cases air flow its easier to drain it and all that.

Plus its something to do and I think it'd look pretty neat.

2x 120.3 rads would probably be there just for the fun of it, with the CPU and GPU's overclocked I cant see it doing much harm to have another.

Should also mean more direct flow from one thing to another inside the main case asfar as the water tubing goes.

Would be fun lol..

PS. I picked that rad because I want to get it all from one shop, its much easier for me then.

 

[Hatman]

One other thing, the stacker 830 has a removable backplate, so if I had all this rigged up to the case then i couldnt remove that, if I did it this way, it would be quite possible aslong as I put the tubes through the back, making it 110% easier to install/remove things.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=552937

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^v

Would be the case of choice, nice and neat, no stupid floppy drives standing out, nor disk drives actually. Although there are spaces for me to put something there.

 

[Marci]

Use 2x DangerDen Fillports mounted on the rear of the case somewhere. Replace the Fillport caps with G1/4" fittings that match your hose size. Voila. You now have an internal > external connection to get from your waterbox out to your PC.

 

[Ham]

Don't they make the brackets that let you house a rad in the front of the stacker anymore? Or was that just the original?

 

[Hatman]

Use 2x DangerDen Fillports mounted on the rear of the case somewhere. Replace the Fillport caps with G1/4" fittings that match your hose size. Voila. You now have an internal > external connection to get from your waterbox out to your PC.

Right, so I put 2 of those each on teh small matx case, and 2 on teh stacker, and then joined the tubes into them either side, right?

The stacker does indeed have enough room for even 360mm rads in it, but it would be so awcurd(idk how spell that) and cramped, and really difficult to move it all around and impossible to take out the mobo tray. Tray was one of the main reasons i bought it lol.

So using this I can isntlal all teh water things without even needing it in the stacker case.

 

[Marci]

Don't they make the brackets that let you house a rad in the front of the stacker anymore? Or was that just the original?

Folks use to use M4 Antivibration Pump mounts screwed into the shroud points on ThermoChill rads - this made them fit 5.25" bays perfectly... and was used frequently to mount them in the CD uprights of the original Stacker.

Right, so I put 2 of those each on teh small matx case, and 2 on teh stacker, and then joined the tubes into them either side, right?

Yup.

 

[Hatman]

Awesome, this is becoming more like a reality.

Now i just need to learn how to type "the" right everytime, ive been mistyping "teh" for over a year now I just cant get over it

Anyways, thanks guys

 

[nrage]

Now i just need to learn how to type "the" right everytime, ive been mistyping "teh" for over a year now I just cant get over it

And here I was thinking this was something the kool kids did

 

[Hatman]

I seriously cant help it it's jsut the way I type sometimes

(corrected that one btw, but I thought id leave the other word in there I continuously get wrong)

 

[sbrehm72255]

This is what I did several years ago for a external water cooling project, it worked out fairly well I think. There was enough room in there to mount just about any radiator combo you could want, I just used a heater core cause they were cheap and worked about the best at that time.

http://www.systemcooling.com/waterbox-01.html