Watercool a P182 - It's begun (pics inside)

[simm]

Originally Posted by miicah

I'm a bit worried about painting my graphics/sound card as they are shiny stainless steel but we'll see.

Are you talking about the mounting bracket for the cards?

Just undo the screws where the monitor or whatever would screw in, then the bracket should come right off and you can paint it, paint the screws too while you're at it. I did mine as the steel stuck out like dogs balls in a black case.

[miicah]

Originally Posted by simm

Are you talking about the mounting bracket for the cards?

Just undo the screws where the monitor or whatever would screw in, then the bracket should come right off and you can paint it, paint the screws too while you're at it. I did mine as the steel stuck out like dogs balls in a black case.

Yeah, I meant worried about how well the paint would stick.

[simm]

Get it off, sand it with some 120 or 180 grit sandpaper. Just enough to roughen it up.
Clean it with some isopropyl alcohol.
Coat it with metal primer. Leave it 24 hrs.
Give it a very light rub with some very fine sandpaper, 1200 grit or similar. It's sometimes called emery paper.
Coat with your chosen colour.
Recoat after 24hrs as you like, light sand with fine paper between coats.

Mine seemed fairly robust, survived a couple of gentle knocks. I'm still pretty careful with it though.

[miicah]

Progress! Pics! Beer!





Getting ready to cut holes for my "super advanced fastener system"



Not very accurate without a brad awl :S



SUPER ADVANCED FASTENER SYSTEM IN ACTION!





That's all for today, even though I pulled my old system apart expecting the build to go smoothly

[miicah]

Due to my EK multioption res being completely fucked (top/bottom was crossthreaded, tried to fix it with silicone sealant and cracked the acrylic :S) I decided to go old school:



T-Line motherfucker!

Leak testing:



I also have a home made shoggy sandwich out of duct tape and bubble wrap. I'll try and get a few pics of it later after I finish leak testing.

[javascripterror]

Here is a quad radiator Antec P180 (older brother) case project. Might help if you expand the system or for more cooling in the summer months.
http://www.radiical.com.au/projects/...aseProject.asp
No problem mounting reservoirs on their side just ensure that they contain no air.

[miicah]

Yeah I'll probably add a 120mm rad on the back when the 7xxx series comes out and I get a FC block for that.

I think my CPU block mount is bad as when I run Linx my temps go from idle to 90 deg in about 15 seconds :S

Have to remount when I get home from work.

[heller44]

Originally Posted by javascripterror

Here is a quad radiator Antec P180 (older brother) case project. Might help if you expand the system or for more cooling in the summer months.
http://www.radiical.com.au/projects/...aseProject.asp
No problem mounting reservoirs on their side just ensure that they contain no air.

Only problem with that install is that you lose the bottom hdd bay. Fitting decent length vidcards you will have already lost the middle bays anyway, there really isn't that much room inside these old cases, compared to something much newer.

Hopefully I will have my p180 fitted out by the end of this weekend, if not today. Got a 420SR1, Rasa, 2x 5850's etc to fit..

[miicah]

Umm yeah so waterblocks don't do to well when they have a layer of plastic between them and the CPU...

Temps in the low 50's

[Creekin]

Originally Posted by miicah

Umm yeah so waterblocks don't do to well when they have a layer of plastic between them and the CPU...

Temps in the low 50's

bahaha
your not the first nor will you be the last
http://forums.overclockers.com.au/sh...d.php?t=947312

respect for fessing up and the leet T

[Kaine[zof]]

My recent effort, coming back into the fold after a long (noisy) time on air. Wanted something neat that wouldn't get in the way of the rest of my hardware. This is far from silent but it's a crap-ton better than the stock cooler on all fronts.


Click to view full size!

I keep meaning to upgrade to a P182 but I just can't justify the expense. One day...

[javascripterror]

Originally Posted by heller44

Only problem with that install is that you lose the bottom hdd bay. Fitting decent length vidcards you will have already lost the middle bays anyway, there really isn't that much room inside these old cases, compared to something much newer.

Hopefully I will have my p180 fitted out by the end of this weekend, if not today. Got a 420SR1, Rasa, 2x 5850's etc to fit..

I agree about the vid cards thats unavoidable anyway. The simple solution to the loss of the middle caddy I used was to install a tray with 2 SSD's.
In the one I have here I also have four 1Tb hard drives in the four empty ROM bays. So hard drive space can be solved.

[heller44]

This is it leak testing.. Original p180, silver/grey chassis originally.

From this - (example photo)


To this


Unfortunately the upper 5850 decided to expire when powered on, so am back to running just the lower card. Running an i7 870 at 4GHz so far, could only get to ~3.5 on air with a decent noctua cooler. Vid card is at ~36deg load, compared to ~75 before. And it is dead silent, 3x 140mm thermalright x-silent fans on the rad.

If anyone is looking to part with a reference 5850, I have a thread up in the WTB...

[miicah]

Missed this post dude, that looks really awesome!

Pity about your xfire setup, did you end up getting a new card?

[realms]

Looks good mate, how have you mounted the pump? is it just sitting on that foam block?