P180 Watercooled Project Log (56k Beware!)

Bio-Hazard · Post by **Bio-Hazard** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 7:32 am

Well done, nice looking/performing rig...............

Post by **DMB2000uk** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 4:11 am

So prozac keeps getting comments on his build, but mine seems to have sunk below peoples viewing level

(probably because its in the modding section

)

So

Dan

kenc51 · Post by **kenc51** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 8:08 am

Dan,
I must have missed it, but what temps are you getting on the cpu and gfx???

Post by **DMB2000uk** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 2:01 pm

Well I havent monitored GFX temps much, but 2xFolding over the weekend has had my temps at around 50oC (CoreTemp), thats at 3.5GHz (1.57v), with 22oC ambient (when I got back in

) and my fans dialled back super low (8v I think).

I dont think my GFX has gone above 40oC tbh, but like I said, I havent watched it for long periods of gaming.

Dan

dgood · Post by **dgood** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 2:03 am

I'm impressed and it looks very nice. Feel free to do the same mod to my comp, lol but maybe I should do some upgrades to gfx and cpu first.

pas44141 · Post by **pas44141** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 3:11 pm

ah thats very impressive.

Post by **DMB2000uk** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 7:40 pm

Thanks guys, I must admit, I actually do love my computer, even if it is a PITA more than i want

Dan

odie2190 · Post by **odie2190** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 2:37 pm

nice looks very good.

you dont have a acrylic window for ur case?

all that work!

Post by **DMB2000uk** » Wed Feb 21, 2007 4:42 am

Yeah I know, crazy isnt it! Well I figure with the side of the desk I have to have my computer at, the window would just be aginst the desk and you wouldn't be able to see it anyway.

When I have some spare cash (that im not spending on wii games, I'll consider it as my next mod, although I found a company somewhere that would do it for you, and it did look a pretty nice job.

Dan

Kougar · Post by **Kougar** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 4:25 am

Wow, very nice work! Thanks for sharing your progress with everyone.

That's doing it the hard way... I sort of cheated and picked up a Koolance EHX-1050BK tri-rad that mounts onto the back end of most cases, so I'm at the point where I'm wondering where to stash the pump. I don't have the tools nor the experience/know-how (Or heart) to whip out a dremel and saw that pretty case up. I have the same case, and same pump!

Out of curiosity, what do you do with that T-line once you have the system complete? Just plug it and stash it?

Post by **DMB2000uk** » Thu Feb 22, 2007 6:11 am

I pretty much just shoved a dead LR6 (AA) battery into it and left it where it was at the top of the case! It raises eybrows whenever people see it. But I did consider a dangerden fillport but realised that I didnt have enough room left at the top of my case to stick it in next to my radiator cut out.

I did consider an external radbox too, but decided that it would look better internally mounted, plus it shortened the length of pipe a bit (which improves performance), so I went internal.

Look forward to hear about your watercooling adventure!

Dan

Kougar · Post by **Kougar** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 5:33 pm

DMB2000uk wrote:I did consider an external radbox too, but decided that it would look better internally mounted, plus it shortened the length of pipe a bit (which improves performance), so I went internal.

Look forward to hear about your watercooling adventure!

Dan

The EHX-1050BK oughta look faily good as it's a great match to the P180-B, it'll just make the system a bit bigger. With that pump I'm not that worried about hose length as I can increase the flow rate a bit to offset that I think.

Either way I simply have not had the time to start on my watercooling project at all. I have midterm exams Tuesday and then two review projects after that that must get priority... this might end up becoming my Spring Break project at this rate.

Bio-Hazard · Post by **Bio-Hazard** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 9:55 am

The few extra inches of tubing isn't going to effect the cooling performanse one bit..........

I ran that same pump with my custom built external unit with several feet of tubing and the differance in temps between the external unit and with all the parts installed internally wasn't even measurable by the system bios, so you've got nothig to worry about.

moon111 · Post by **moon111** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 12:40 pm

DMB2000uk wrote:Yeah I know, crazy isnt it! Well I figure with the side of the desk I have to have my computer at, the window would just be aginst the desk and you wouldn't be able to see it anyway.

When I have some spare cash (that im not spending on wii games, I'll consider it as my next mod, although I found a company somewhere that would do it for you, and it did look a pretty nice job.

Dan

Sounds like you need to window the case ... and the desk!

Seriously nice looking rig. Love that blue, very 'cool' color.

Antonik · Post by **Antonik** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 5:18 pm

Wow, great job

Watercooling is hot.

stopthekilling77 · Post by **stopthekilling77** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 9:03 am

Dan,
I've read through this thread a few times, and you've got me wanting to do the same to my antec p-180... SOME day.
about how many hours did it take to go from zero to hero with your mod?
and how much experience did you have before?
that dual-rad just looks sick, i'd love to put something like that in my case!

Post by **DMB2000uk** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 9:37 am

Hehe, This was my first ever PC build and case mod

Pretty nice for a noob eh!

Judging the hours that went into it is hard, erm, it would of helped if I had of had a dremel for cutting out the drivebay cages. But I'd guess that I spent around 12 hours tops and that's right up to filling and booting the computer. A lot of the time I was taking it slow so as I didn't make any major mistakes.

NB. If you are using a jigsaw to gut the top hole out of the case (recommended) go slow and use plenty of coolant (water will do).

And as for updates to the rig:

I also now have 320GB of RAID 0 goodness alongside my other 250GB HD.

Can't remember if I talked about it earlier but I put some tweakmonster RAM sinks on my VGA card, they look pretty swish too. (check how awesome the colour of the pipes have gone! I'm considering replacing them at some point, maybe with the special anti-something tygon that dicecca was going to use before he got fed up with WC'ing)

And because my RAM had to be RMA'd a while back I have the updated heatspreader on them now:

Dan

Post by **DMB2000uk** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 9:53 am

Forgot to mention, I've given up on OC'ing for a while, and am going for quietness, all my fans are set to 6v and with VMWare'd Linux SMP Folding maxing out both cores my temp hovers around 42oC (20oC ambient). Sweet.

And its so quiet

Dan

fatmcgav · Post by **fatmcgav** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 7:52 am

Hi there,

Quick question for you. I noticed you've put the rad towards the front of the case.
Whats to stop you putting the rad towards teh back, and just extending the existing fan cutout? Would there be enough clearance for the CPU waterblock?

Any info appreciated.

Cheers
Fatmcgav

Post by **DMB2000uk** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 8:43 am

Nothing stopping that, I've seen people with triple 120 rads starting from the back fan cut out, so there's definitely no clearance problems. I just happened to like the spoiler type thing so chose to keep it and make a completely new cut out. Not sure if it would have been any harder/easier doing it your way instead of mine.

Dan

**edit** Thinking about it now, there would still be the lack of clearance on my motherboard (ABIT AW9D-MAX) with the 8pin 12v connector at the top, so this would stop you from using the back fan cutout as that hole is centralised and I had to make mine offset, but on otherboards with nothing like that at the top of the board (or a thinner rad on mine) then its possible.