I've bin having this vapochill XE unit for 2 years now, only using it on OC-contests and so on. Its the XE edition with some powerfuller gas then the Vapochill edition. (I dont know the type, maybe r404?) The unit has some true experience with ocíng a Sempron LE 1640 all the way up to 3.85GHz (2.6GHz original), a 8500GT from MSI and a x1650Pro from Ati/Peak. Only the CPU made a remarkable world record, with temps of -37 celcius.
Anyway... Since the case has bin rustying out in my barn, and the vapochill itself is doing nothing, i've bin thinking to mobilize the unit into a sweet case with hand-grips. A unit that could be powered up by itself with just one power cable, and a on / off button for usage. Pop on the head and cool its way down to exotic temps
The case with the unit inside.
Another closeup of the case and the unit naked. The basic idea is to have a case with handhelds, to just drop it anywhere, attach, and go. The Asetek case will be sawed apart and end up like a true spartan in hardware-land.
So, i've started off with sawing off the both top parts that hold the unit. No pics of that avaible, my phone was'nt in reach.
After that, i popped on the vapochill unit on both ledges to see if we have a fit:
Yessir... Since i'm planning to supply its own PSU with a connector to the back i ripped out an old 250W power supply with more then 15A on the 12V+ line, that should be for this device more then enough. The older XE could only be powered up by its computer motherboard/PSU and not standalone (unless you program it to, but it still needs a motherboard-connector)
I'm planning to strip it down to only the amount of wires i really need.
What i need would be the yellow (1x) 12V, green, purple, and one time black. Those are needed for powering up the device, and keeping it powered up for the PSU.
And a few minutes later finished... Now i have the connector i need for my vapo. Later on i'm stripping the same wires starting from the PSU all the way up to that 20pins connector. I only need a few and since there's limited space i can make benefit from stripping them down. The vapochill can be powered by the P4 12V 4 pins plug. No need to have extra 12V lines on that connector.
The unit as i'm getting along. In the front the print-panel of asetek, with the programmable interface (about cooling temps and so on) Since i need a motherboard with floppydrive + serial port, there was'nt any chance at all to update the damn thing. Its set at 100% cooling with max fanspeed. I'd like to adjust that later on.
I'm planning to put the print of the PSU in the casing straight up, so basicly i need some good coverage from preventing it to go other ways then just standing up. For this i took the old casing of the PSU and planning it to saw pieces of for a decent stand. Later more on this one.
A perfect blue led that will light on when the system is powered on.
With just the gray look only i painted this part black. Giving it some time to dry up and....
Taddaaaaaa....
Immediatly planning to put in a CCFL, blue color. But thats later.
As you can see the side-caps of the unit dont match. They are a little longer then the casing is. I'm planning to cut the unwanted off tomorrow, and drill a few holes here and there for a perfect fit with screws. Here's another pic to illustrate what i mean:
The head of the vapo. I'm planning to lap this thing all the way up after its long time use.
At last, here's where the 'output' is going to be for the vapo-head. A small hole isolated with 30 ~ 35cm of tubing. There's still alot todo and i'm planning to solder off all the wires i dont need off the PSU. There's only one problem, with using the vapochill and the fans, i'm only loading the 12V rail, not the 5/3.3V. Using a Harddrive is not a sollution. A ccfl would only offload the 12V and the light also 12V. Anyone has a idea for loading off the 5V and 3.3V rail off the PSU?
PSU might get damaged if not loaded both lines. More on later.
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