Stealth Water Lian Li A05A

[yankee]

First off, I want to give a big thanks to you all, particularly in the liquid cooling section. These forums are unlike anything that exists, on the internet or elsewhere. The people here are very helpful, encouraging, and knowledgeable!

Show Me The Pics!!

Now, onto things...
I've been working on this for a long time, and am nearing the end.

I've always had a soft spot for Lian- Li. Clean lines, functional design, and always solidly constructed. In this build, my goal is to make a water cooled 'sleeper', that is appear totally unmodified to the casual observer.

It all started like this:


Though the measurements are in no way accurate, and i'm definitely not using that board, it helped me lay things out. The pump did not stay where it is, either.

Once I got the motherboard and rad, I was able to do some dremeling and dry fitting.




It was at that point I realized that i misread the width of the case (didn't account for the thickness of the mobo tray )and found that the shroud wasn't clearing the memory slots or the outlet for the waterblock or the bottom left mounting screw. That said, dremel to the rescue!
(Later on, I'd find out that i was mistaken about the wb outlet, but only after some damage had been done.)
Then more parts started to come in, and it's starting to look more PC like.

The Spread:


And some more dry fitting:








I got a large order from Newegg last week, the rest of the hardware- PSU, drives, etc. Yesterday, I picked up my shroud from the metal shop. I'm expecting (another) package from Petra's tomorrow. Hopefully it will be the last of the pieces I need for this. When this last package comes, it's on (literally).

Either way, I'm going to be working on it tomorrow, and will post more pics then or maybe friday.

[smee]

Very nice mate!
Looking good!

But maybe this should be in the Liquid Cooling section?

[Kosior]

I look the idea Since i remember i've liked the improvment in the performance as long as it was without the change in the exterior's look.

Will you only be cooling the cpu with this rad?

[lowfat]

If someone can watercool in such a small space they'll always get a from me. Watercooling in tight spaces is very hard. Even in a midtower it is hard, but something that small is incredible.

[brai]

very cool
;


good work

[CyberDruid]

I love it

[Bl4ck^!]

from what i see here it's a tight fit in there : ] , if if wouldn't bought V1000 then i would go for A05 : ]

[Power5]

If you are making your own shroud for that fan, why not offset it so that you don't have to worry about interfering with the CPU block? Other than that, nice work.

[Pete]

Get rid of the 120mm fan and shorud and get a 140mm fan fitted on there, it'll look so much better and also perform near a 120.2. Marci has even said so

[[XC] NetburstXE]

Looks good. Why do you have such a big shroud for the fan. You could probably make a smaller one, and then have more room around the CPU waterblock.

[yankee]

I now have 2 Pens from Petra's Tech Shop I almost forgot to thank these guys! They truly rock, Quoc answered all of my questions quickly.

Thanks all for your kind words!

I look the idea Since i remember i've liked the improvment in the performance as long as it was without the change in the exterior's look.

Will you only be cooling the cpu with this rad?

You'll see...

If you are making your own shroud for that fan, why not offset it so that you don't have to worry about interfering with the CPU block? Other than that, nice work.

The shroud isn't a problem anymore. It all fits.

I got quite a bit done yesterday. The loop is almost built, though the t-line has got me stumped.

Here's what the shroud looked like when i got it back from the fabricators'.


And after I cleaned it up:


This is my 512 MB HD3850:




And here's what I've got for the loop. I'd like to put the t-line between the GPU and the pump, but I'm still not sure how I'm going to make it work.


Some parts:



Old meets new. These tweakmonsters were left over from when I did my GF3 Ti200. I was thinking about cutting them in half and putting them on the vreg's on the motherboard. What do you guys use to get that adhesive stuff off of the enzotech's? I have AS thermal adhesive that I'd like to use.


And finally, an exterior shot. When I'm done, it will look exactly like this. Stealthed Optical drives FTW


Here's a Picasa Web Album with more and higher res photos.

[yankee]

I've figured out what I'll be doing for the tube run from the gpu to the pump.
MCW60> Nipple> Elbow> Barb> Tube> Tee> Tube> Pump.
Should I use teflon tape on the elbow?
Pics this weekend. The end is in sight!

[yankee]

It's together, powered her up tonight. The some minor wiring stuff left. Bigger update tomorrow.

[kuhla]

Awesome

Does that bottom intake get enough air?

I love my watercooled A05 too (see sig).

[Leeghoofd]

Cool project it is, I might do one with 2 bolted together, man these Lian li's are so light...

Any pics of temps ? really worried the rad doesn't get enough air to cool it all

[madfaze]

cool!

[smee]

Wow!! This is really cool man! Great job!
But is the pump supposed to be mounted like that? with the outlet down?

[yankee]

But is the pump supposed to be mounted like that? with the outlet down?

I was concerned about that also, so I asked.
See here:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=146540

Any pics of temps ? really worried the rad doesn't get enough air to cool it all

Not yet, I've only had it powered up for about a minute so far. It should be noted that I don't game, so if I do OC it, it will be only modestly, if at all. Hell I might run it underclocked and undervolted!

Does that bottom intake get enough air?

I love my watercooled A05 too (see sig).

The bottom isn't intake, it's exhaust. I've got feet I'm going to attach, it will have at least an 1 1/2 inches clearance.

Nice rig, man. As a PC-30 owner, when i saw the A05 I just HAD to have it.
---------------------------
When I got in sunday, the first thing i did was put the loop together. I scrapped the idea of building any bronze fittings into the loop, it would have made things harder, not easier.
One more dry fit of the loop.


Then it was time for leak testing. That power supply is a 250w Austin. Don't ask me where I got it.


It ran for a few hours while I 'sinked my P5K and Radeon. Behold:






Do I get an award (or at least a cookie) for most blinged out P5K SE? /me hopes so.


Then it was time for the final assembly. I'm quite glad I had my father helping, it would have been a nightmare installing the loop by myself. Specifically, the Waterblocks. I couldn't attach them until the absolute last second. I can just imagine myself trying to balance the Video card on something while I tried to attach the MCW60. Also, in trying to keep things neat, I the cables for the rear fan and pump under the board. That made installing things really interesting.

So here you are, the rig is now about 95% done. I need to hook up the front panel, clean up some wires, and stealth the optical drives. Hopefully tomorrow it'll be done. Then comes software. YAY!








I think I'm going to add a card reader to it, too. That way I'll have every single drive bay populated.

[Jamesrt2004]

may i ask how your going to do stealth drives btw?

apart from that everything looks awesome

[yankee]

Thanks, I'm going to use the bay covers to stealth them. I know it's going to be tricky to get the alignment right and I've been thinking a lot about the best way to do.

I think the best way to go would be to glue the bay cover to the tray cover with the bezel attached, and use the bezel to align it. Once the glue dries, eject the drive, and then pop the bezel out and cut it off. Also, to replace the eject button, I'll glue a small dowel to the inside of the plate. Stealth

[yankee]

Alright, I couldn't wait to start playing with her, so i haven't stealthed the drives. I do have an OC result, though!
The Picture gallery has been updated, too.

This was at 1.225v and SPi 1m @ ~12 sec.


http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=331065



I'm going on vacation, but when i get back. I'll be benching!

[Polizei]

Bleeding that loop must've been hell.

Nice work though.

[=ACID RAIN=]

Nice work on the cooling system yankee

Looks like you can fill with rad on bottom, then turn it on end with pump on bottom and keep filling, just as long as the T line stays the highest point. Shouldn't be too bad. Check mine if you want to see a pain in the ass bleeding job.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/....php?p=2848473
My T line is actually curled under the heatercore on the pump outlet side

[yankee]

Well, I did the last mod I wanted to do here, and that was stealth the drive. I also added the card reader as I hinted at before. All of the bays are now populated.
I also added a shelf which pulls out for the pc to sit on. In it I cut a hole for the radiator exhaust. There's now about 4 inches clearance for the rad.
Overall, I'm extremely happy with the way it came out. She even posted on the first try! There was a minor issue with a leak, but it happened right in front of me, and it just turned out to be a loose barb.
Let there be no doubt. Despite its size, you can fit a lot of crap into this case.
Inside is:
HX620
Asus p5k se
E8200
2gb Ballistix 8500
3850 512m
highpoint sata raid card
Happauge HVR-1800
2x pioneer dvr-212d's
2x seagate 7200.11 500gb raid 1
1x 150 gb raptor
FuZion, PA160, MCW60, DDC3.2/petra's, 2x yateloon sl's and a yate sm on the rad.

PICS!!

[Chewbenator]

Nice to see another watercooled A05, when I started down the thread I was like, "no way is that rad going to fit." Good to see you found a solution though. For my build I originally was going to put the pump you have in the same spot but lower for a real compact loop, but ended up going with the D5. Also, nice custom stand you go there for the intake on bottom. I have a triple rad on the bottom of my system so I made some ghetto case feet out of some rubber... table leg bottoms? with bolts going through them replacing the plastic feet. Puts it about an inch and half above the shelf I have it on.

I should really put up a final thread for my build seeing as I have finally put the whole thing together.

Great Job!