My New Build Lian-Li v1200

[malkiewicz]

My old case



This build is replacing my 6 month old Antec 900 w/ the Thermaltake Big Water Cooling System... I'm not a photographer so my pictures will be limited..



As you can see my window broke I guess something heavy was placed on it while it was being shipped..



This shows you how lazy I am... When I printed out the template it scaled down, and I used those measurements for my initial markings... Instead of replacing the tape I re-measured, and marked over my old lines... Worked for me... Wow took 6 dremel disk to cut that hole - Took about 2 hours to cut & smooth all of the edges...



As you can see I installed a Koolance heat exchanger on the top of my case… I like the way it looks and I would have had a few issues if both the fans / rads were on the inside of the case (I’m going to replace the radiator later)… I also installed an additional radiator beside the hard drive tray… OOoo and it takes a very long time to polish aluminum – It took about 4 hrs to hand polish it... That dull finish looked terrible IMO… Well that’s about it for now… I’m waiting for all of my other parts to arrive… (Extra barbs, fans/controller, thermal paste, EK CPU back plate, ECT…) Damn I spent $1200 on this upgrade which included my Case, DDR3 Ram kit, pump, res, and so on…

I guess I’ll spend a few days trying to decide where to place my tubing…

[varrius]

It looks really good so far, man.

[malkiewicz]

Thanks... I think I'm really going to like this one... I might even reuse my antec 900 for something...

[mpilchfamily]

A jig saw would have mad those cuts allot easier. Do you have any pictures of the final cut?

[malkiewicz]

Yeah I know, but I really didn’t want to buy any more tools considering how much I’ve spent already... I'll take some pictures of the final cut when I remove the heat exchanger again... The fans currently blow inward, and I've heard it’s better to pull air through the radiator from inside the case... It sounds logical to me…

[mpilchfamily]

Remember that heat rises. Also most top mounted fans are set as exhaust fans. no point in pulling the hot air from the Rad and blowing it down onto everything in the system.

[malkiewicz]

Yeah that’s what I thought.... Not sure why Koolance pre-mounted the fans to blow down into the case? I’ve also been thinking about replacing the original fans with quieter LED fans… The fans on high make so much noise… The one thing I really miss is a quiet case… My old Antec 900 made so much noise… I sounded like an industrial fan on high…

[mpilchfamily]

Just one of many problems the 900 has.

Are you sure they are blowing down? Shouldn't be difficult to flip them but then your replacing them anyway.

[malkiewicz]

Yeah they blown down and it seems like it would be easy to flip them... I think the hardest parts going to be rearranging the wires… (Koolance defiantly didn’t send allot of time on the wiring - kind of sloppy)

[disruptfam]

Remember that heat rises. Also most top mounted fans are set as exhaust fans. no point in pulling the hot air from the Rad and blowing it down onto everything in the system.

why would you want to pull hot case air through the rads.The best way imo is to have the the fans intaking cool air from the outside.

[mpilchfamily]

I rather not have all that hot air from the Rad getting stuck inside the case. With that case you are left with only a single 120mm fan in the rear of the case. Its located to wards the bottom of the case. With 3 fan pulling hot air in and only 1 to exhaust it the internal temp of the case will rise fairly quickly. Now you could flip the side fan to be an exhaust to help a little. But in the end i think its better to have the little bit of warm air in the case being pulled out threw the Rad then having the hot air from the rad building inside the case. If it was a different case it wouldn't be so bad. Since you could easily flip the front intake as well. In which case you would have much better airflow threw the rad and better overall cooling. But the front intake on that case is in the lower chamber and will do little to effect the upper section.

[malkiewicz]

I guess I'll try both methods

[Swatrecon_]

This is why I don't like top mounted rads. It seems no matter how you set it up, it doesn't feel right. It's not such a big deal with the bottom, or the front/back because you can just continue the flow.

[malkiewicz]

More Photos - I'm finished with the 1st loop... I'm going to add additional water blocks later (NB, SB, Mosfets, & GPU)... I can't seem to find the right NB & SB water blocks for the P5E3 - If anyone has pictures of them on the board I'd love to see it!!!... Still waiting on my GPU, Fans, Additional Wires, Fan Controls, ECT... I probably won’t see my Video Card for another month - It was shipped snail mail (However long it takes for the ship to cross the ocean)... I purchased a PNY 8500 GT for now so that I can test few components before its too late for an RMA (LOL… 3DMark06 Sore ***2986*** had to check)...






Temps w/ Fans on High ---- 32C Idle / 54C Full Load / Room Temp 25C
Temps w/ Fans on Low ---- 36C Idle / 58C Full Load / Room Temp 25C

Other Problem Noted: I can't seem to compress the springs enough to mount the EK Supreme water block so it’s mounted without them... Took a few minutes to even out the core temps considering the CPU block is bowed and my CPU is lapped... Any suggestions????

[ultimeus]

great case and WC

[rioja]

yes, i like it too
classic serious system, no toys

[FlimFlam00]

great case and WC

Yes, a great case, and nicely implemented malkiewicz.

[Marco André]

Sweet case! Great work in the wc system

[nibble]

Wait, so that Supreme isn't being held on by anything. You really, really need to try and get those springs/nuts on or at least the nuts alone..
I mean the block could come loose a bit and stop making contact with the cpu and then poof! Dead chip.

[malkiewicz]

Thanks Everyone...

Wait, so that Supreme isn't being held on by anything. You really, really need to try and get those springs/nuts on or at least the nuts alone..
I mean the block could come loose a bit and stop making contact with the cpu and then poof! Dead chip.

Yeah... I took that picture before placing the nuts on... It’s secure... Thinking about cutting the springs, and its possible the back plate caused my shortfall...

[malkiewicz]

A jig saw would have mad those cuts allot easier. Do you have any pictures of the final cut?

The Final Cut Not bad for my first time IMO....


By malkiewicz, shot with EX-Z1000 at 2008-04-27

Edit: Add Pictures

Cut 3.5" Drive tray so that it would fit around the pump





Wiring

[mpilchfamily]

Looks good and clean. Some touch up pain on the cut and it would look like the case came that way.

[Atal]

wow I really like your setup, very clean and tidy , I am currrently deciding between the V1200 black or the V2000 Silver, the v2000 is just 7 dlls more expensive but its SILVER, I like the black one better

[malkiewicz]

wow I really like your setup, very clean and tidy , I am currrently deciding between the V1200 black or the V2000 Silver, the v2000 is just 7 dlls more expensive but its SILVER, I like the black one better

Thanks.... Personally I like the V1200, but the V2000's nice too... The V2000 seems like a waste of space unless you have lots of hard drives or your going to install a very large radiator... Either way I think your going to be happy...

[Dark Prodigy]

Its hard to get any better than the v1200b. Nice build.