DIY PC water cooling and Case

[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

 

[EarthwormJim]

Cool build. I like how you made sure the PSU mounts were grounded.

One suggestion, you might try making the round fan cutouts using a router rather than a saw. Mount the router to a rectangular piece of wood with an opening for the bit, and screw the wood into the center of where you want the round cutout. The router should move in a nice perfect circle.

 

[rakesh_sharma23]

Thanks for your kind reply. But buying a cutter for just this is too expensive for me.

I will try to sand the circular hole a bit to make them smooth.

 

[balane]

Very good work, I'm impressed. Looking back over time my favorite and most memorable projects were the ones where I made a lot from a little. I'm sure this computer will always be special to you. I think you did great!

 

[EarthwormJim]

Thanks for your kind reply. But buying a cutter for just this is too expensive for me.

I will try to sand the circular hole a bit to make them smooth.

You have a scroll saw but no router? Regardless you did a pretty good job cutting it free hand.

 

[rakesh_sharma23]

Thank you very much Sir.

 

[WoodButcher]

You sir are very talented.

 

[muskie32]

Very nice Job

 

[bigsnyder]

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

Can you post a complete list of parts and components you used?

 

[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

 

[BTO]

Wow.... Awesome job!!

 

[muskie32]

Nice Work

 

[rakesh_sharma23]

Hi, Sunday Update.
Today I will make some heat sinks for HD4850 memory chips and power mosfets.
So first start with Memory chips. So here is the raw material.Heat sink from old PSU.

After few minutes of working it looks like this

Now for Mosfet cooler

After few hours.

Now let’s place them on card.

That done. Now install the card and connected the block to the loop and filled the coolant.
Now boot it.

GPU ideal temp is now 38c cool hey but memory seems to be hot at 77c on ideal. The small heat sinks are not sufficient for the memory chips.

 

[rakesh_sharma23]

So added 1.5mm thick copper plate, this done the trick.
Now at ideal system
GPU is 39c
Memory at 41c
CPU at 34c
After playing Bioshock 2 at 1920 x 1080 for two hours.
GPU is 47c
Memory at 49c
CPU at 41c
COOL…. I think I have a nice temperature for my rig. Will try to OC GPU now. Have a look at final mod.

Will keep you update.
Thanking
Rakesh Sharma

 

[muskie32]

Looks nice.

What is in the system?

 

[rakesh_sharma23]

Looks nice.

What is in the system?

Are you asking about OS or what..??

 

[Makaveli]

Very nicely done, impressive considering the budget.

I think he wants to know the specs of the components.

 

[rakesh_sharma23]

Transparent DIY CASE
AMD Phenom II 720(unlocked 4th core @3.7ghz)(Selfmade Water cooling)

Biostar TA790GX 128M

Kingston 2 x 2GB DDR2 800, WD Green 2 x 1TB Sata, Sapphire HD4850 512MB, Asus Xonar DX, AOC F22 LCD, DIY 7 channel Speaker with Mega 12" Subwoofer