Herc130
09-21-2008, 11:37 PM
Not sure about starting the build log now. Really wanted to get to a point where I thought I wasn't going to fall flat on my face with the build and not finish it, but some feedback as I go along building it could be beneficial, so I decided what the heck. I am not a metal smith, I do not normally use the shop and tools you will see here. I have little experience shaping wood or metals and am learning as I go on this. I do know how to make..or actually, fumble my way through making a scab patch for airplanes.
I started this project two weeks ago and I only work on it durring the weekend because the shop is somewhat busy durring weekdays from morning till 11pm.
I am making this case 24" wide x24" deep x 30" tall . Originally, I was going with a smaller case, but decided to try adding on a TEC chiller, so I added on another radiator level and went from 6x MCR320's to also include 1 PA120.3 and 2 PA120.2's (which I will probably replace with MCR320's just to keep it all the same)...so, yah..9 radiators. 3 loops for sure. CPU, VGA and NB/SB/whatever. If I go TEC chiller, then a 4th loop for the chiller as well . 6, maybe 8 pumps ( each loop gets 2), lots of fittings, tons of fans and so on.
I realize this is very much overkill. That the same performance can be had for less. That I am exceeding the point of what I get in return for the cooling set-up I am using. I don't care. I am pretty sure that years down the road when we are all running 8 core CPU's, 4 VGA cards with two GPU's each in SLI, 32GB's of ram and whatever else, that I am not gonna wish I had made this case big enough to hold more rads lol . And I do plan on keeping this case for years....if it turns out ok.
There is actually moar then this and still buying
http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/5364/img0475ry6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
I originally wanted to bend edges onto the sheet itself to form the angles I would use to make the box, but I could not do that without using more then one 4'x8' sheet. So I will be riviting on some angles instead.
http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/3405/img0481he9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/4332/img0483wh1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/6438/img0484tw3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
That was all I did. Stuff happened at work that I don't want to get into, but I will say I ended up working through the weekend on some very long hours, which is fine, just wish things could have turned out better.
The next weekend I ended up working on saturday and was too tired come sunday and because of what happened the week before, so I just relaxed. On the bright side, got some nice sight seeing in durring our training flight
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/4025/img0502hv6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/2665/img0509tm5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
I am in the military and aircrew on C130's btw.
This weekend I got a little more done
Cut up some angles
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/2183/img0520eu7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Layed it out on a front/back panel
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/9865/img0523yz5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/7974/img0524xw0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
I left overhang on the angles of the front/back panels so that the sides, top and bottem panels can be made flush to the front and back.
Then I drilled some holes.
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/6825/img0547ey0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/828/img0527ej2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/5025/img0529sh5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Spacing is 1" between fans horizontally. I will make shrouds to funnel down to the rads.
Measured up where my sections will be and cut the side panels
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/1248/img0535my3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The very bottem set of rads will be just for the TEC's and two 350W meanwell psu's and the hot side of the chiller block if I do it. The middle section will be rads for the 3 loops, a 1600W Ultra X3 PSU (also 1 350W meanwell if I can't fit two on the bottem) and the cold side of the TEC chiller. 3 rads for the VGA, 2 for the CPU and 1 for NB, SB, whatever. If I don't do TEC, there will be 3 additional rads to disperse into the 3 loops. The top section was actually supposed to be 2 more sections, but I did not plan properly and ended up using more space then I thought I would need for the rad sections, so the top section ended up being 13" when I was thinking I'd have 14" . I still may be able to do it, but it's not that big of a deal. Anyway, top section is the mobo area.
Got lazy and instead of drawing, I just used the already cut out front as a template
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/3366/img0544cw7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/881/img0545za9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
All rad holes cut
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/5089/img0548op9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/7572/img0549kc7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Layed out angles again and drilled some more
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/3186/img0551lz7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
That's as far as I got before I decided I better stop before I make huge mistakes from being too tired
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/226/img0552mu5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Next weekend I'll drill out the holes for the side panels and countersink all the holes for the angles, front and back. Pound in some flush type rivits and shave off any of the tail that sticks out beyond the back countersink hole. Might make the countersink deeper then normal so I can use bondo to hide the rivit heads completely. JB weld the joints of the angles and file for aesthetics. Maybe even make the panels to seperate the sections.
If I do a TEC chiller, I will try milling my own blocks with this
http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/6903/img0487yd7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/5501/img0486fc4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Will try making some full cover heatsinks for my vid card out of aluminum blocks for practice. Copper blocks are kinda expensive. If I do the TEC chiller, I am thinking I will get as many 437w pelts undervolted to 8v as 2 350w meanwells can handle. All fans for regular water cooling rads will be controlled with a fan controller and will be turned off if the chiller is on. The pumps will also be on a controller and I will see if turning the flow on the regular water loops real low will improve anything when using a TEC chiller.
This whole build will take a while, especially since I am due to deploy soon. Hopefully I will figure out by next week if I will go TEC. Problem I have is I have yet to see a successful TEC chiller build and I do not want to go phase or do a direct TEC cooling set-up. If I don't do a TEC chiller then it's just going to be massively over radded watercooling :)
I started this project two weeks ago and I only work on it durring the weekend because the shop is somewhat busy durring weekdays from morning till 11pm.
I am making this case 24" wide x24" deep x 30" tall . Originally, I was going with a smaller case, but decided to try adding on a TEC chiller, so I added on another radiator level and went from 6x MCR320's to also include 1 PA120.3 and 2 PA120.2's (which I will probably replace with MCR320's just to keep it all the same)...so, yah..9 radiators. 3 loops for sure. CPU, VGA and NB/SB/whatever. If I go TEC chiller, then a 4th loop for the chiller as well . 6, maybe 8 pumps ( each loop gets 2), lots of fittings, tons of fans and so on.
I realize this is very much overkill. That the same performance can be had for less. That I am exceeding the point of what I get in return for the cooling set-up I am using. I don't care. I am pretty sure that years down the road when we are all running 8 core CPU's, 4 VGA cards with two GPU's each in SLI, 32GB's of ram and whatever else, that I am not gonna wish I had made this case big enough to hold more rads lol . And I do plan on keeping this case for years....if it turns out ok.
There is actually moar then this and still buying
http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/5364/img0475ry6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
I originally wanted to bend edges onto the sheet itself to form the angles I would use to make the box, but I could not do that without using more then one 4'x8' sheet. So I will be riviting on some angles instead.
http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/3405/img0481he9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/4332/img0483wh1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/6438/img0484tw3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
That was all I did. Stuff happened at work that I don't want to get into, but I will say I ended up working through the weekend on some very long hours, which is fine, just wish things could have turned out better.
The next weekend I ended up working on saturday and was too tired come sunday and because of what happened the week before, so I just relaxed. On the bright side, got some nice sight seeing in durring our training flight
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/4025/img0502hv6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/2665/img0509tm5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
I am in the military and aircrew on C130's btw.
This weekend I got a little more done
Cut up some angles
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/2183/img0520eu7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Layed it out on a front/back panel
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/9865/img0523yz5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/7974/img0524xw0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
I left overhang on the angles of the front/back panels so that the sides, top and bottem panels can be made flush to the front and back.
Then I drilled some holes.
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/6825/img0547ey0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/828/img0527ej2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/5025/img0529sh5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Spacing is 1" between fans horizontally. I will make shrouds to funnel down to the rads.
Measured up where my sections will be and cut the side panels
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/1248/img0535my3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The very bottem set of rads will be just for the TEC's and two 350W meanwell psu's and the hot side of the chiller block if I do it. The middle section will be rads for the 3 loops, a 1600W Ultra X3 PSU (also 1 350W meanwell if I can't fit two on the bottem) and the cold side of the TEC chiller. 3 rads for the VGA, 2 for the CPU and 1 for NB, SB, whatever. If I don't do TEC, there will be 3 additional rads to disperse into the 3 loops. The top section was actually supposed to be 2 more sections, but I did not plan properly and ended up using more space then I thought I would need for the rad sections, so the top section ended up being 13" when I was thinking I'd have 14" . I still may be able to do it, but it's not that big of a deal. Anyway, top section is the mobo area.
Got lazy and instead of drawing, I just used the already cut out front as a template
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/3366/img0544cw7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/881/img0545za9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
All rad holes cut
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/5089/img0548op9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/7572/img0549kc7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Layed out angles again and drilled some more
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/3186/img0551lz7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
That's as far as I got before I decided I better stop before I make huge mistakes from being too tired
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/226/img0552mu5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Next weekend I'll drill out the holes for the side panels and countersink all the holes for the angles, front and back. Pound in some flush type rivits and shave off any of the tail that sticks out beyond the back countersink hole. Might make the countersink deeper then normal so I can use bondo to hide the rivit heads completely. JB weld the joints of the angles and file for aesthetics. Maybe even make the panels to seperate the sections.
If I do a TEC chiller, I will try milling my own blocks with this
http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/6903/img0487yd7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/5501/img0486fc4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Will try making some full cover heatsinks for my vid card out of aluminum blocks for practice. Copper blocks are kinda expensive. If I do the TEC chiller, I am thinking I will get as many 437w pelts undervolted to 8v as 2 350w meanwells can handle. All fans for regular water cooling rads will be controlled with a fan controller and will be turned off if the chiller is on. The pumps will also be on a controller and I will see if turning the flow on the regular water loops real low will improve anything when using a TEC chiller.
This whole build will take a while, especially since I am due to deploy soon. Hopefully I will figure out by next week if I will go TEC. Problem I have is I have yet to see a successful TEC chiller build and I do not want to go phase or do a direct TEC cooling set-up. If I don't do a TEC chiller then it's just going to be massively over radded watercooling :)