1st H20 ProjeKt - Antec P180 -

[DoggRoger]

I decided to move to water cooling after deciding to WC a couple GTX 480's. So I have little modding experience, and no WCing experiencing, but I think I did my homework well enough to piece together a decent couple of loops.

Im going to let the pictures do most of the talking on this one, but I felt that my Antec P180 was ready for a makeover.. There is a certain satisfaction you get when an outdated case becomes viable again.

So the challenge I had was to not use any rotary fittings and planning how was I going to fit 2x120.3 rads, and 1 120.2 rads in this case and still have effective airflow.. It only took me a couple of minutes to decide that I had no problem looking at the rad's outside the case.. and thus the work had begun.

I will be updating the original post with pictures on a regular basis until all is completed.

In The Beginning...




Jigsaw + Dremel + Dreaming










Have not put rubber in for the grill yet, just getting a feel.







Some of the guts, and overall theme





So do you notice I had to mounted the LC horizontally as I found the block to be resting on the caps which EVGA placed right next to the CPU socket when mounted vertically. If this creates a temperature problem I will be switching out the block.






So during the dissembling of the reference cooler on 1 of the GTX480's a screw got stripped so bad I had to revert to a dremel and eventually a drill to get the screw out of the card and heat sink.. "No GTX 480's, or heatsinks were harmed in this process." ".



Pump used for CPU/NB/SB/Vreg loop

Pump for the GPU's





First flush of the MCR320

First flush of the TFC X360

First flush of the MCR220

Odd Modz


This will make more sense later into the build - basically it's my my MCP355 will rest in the drive bay.



The paint is safe for Arcrylics, I just could not justify the extra cash for the Black/Metal BP T's, I think these will work fine, 4 were painted, only 3 shown, these are the T's I will convert to elbows and will be using for my GPU blocks.

They came out perfect... Except I wont be using them and I have some BP Black metal T's on the way as I did not want to stand the risk of the Acrylics cracking over time which I have seen they can

The Metal T's came in today, I was stoked when I saw the package.





The start of some custom air boxes/shrouds











And.. They're Done!! - Finally I can start system assembly!








CPU Loop is finished - the rest coming soon.















Received the rest of my parts today 5/4/10














Added my T line.. I might change this around depending on how well it functions



Never mind the dust, I still have to blow this system out



Thanks again for the comments guys, next is cable management



So I have been holding out on this idea until I had it almost finish. Basically I am using removable plates so I can make any logo I want. I designed this H2O plate and had a friend laser cut the plate for me. I plan to make a [H] one, and may get more creative.. So I am holding it on with velcro. The images are an idea of how it will look. I got some plexi which I painted white on one side and left clear on the other. I plan to have 4 green LED's shining into it to create a green glow. The resivoirs are also going to be glowing green. The images here are only a piece of white film with some gren LED's behind it to give it the effect I wanted. Also, no cable management has been performed yet.













Almost finished but still have to make it more tidy.

Sorry no temps yet, still havn't powered the board up yet.. currently waiting on Performance PC's to send me my res for the GPU loop. I have about an hour a day to spend on this due to the "not spending enough time" with the girl.. (grrr) I did manage to get some of the cable management done though.

[Ogge_swe]

whoa! , the HX1000w nearly doesn´t fit in the p180

but you said no rotary fittings? but you are using rotary on the cpu block? :S

[makavelijm]

hell yea! im actually curious as to how well the two GTX480's work with a water cooling loop keep us posted!

[DoggRoger]

but you said no rotary fittings? but you are using rotary on the cpu block? :S

I had original purchased a few rotary fittings, but after reading about the leaking potential I decided to ditch the idea. What you are seeing on my cpu block is a combination of 45/angle, and 3/4OD compression fittings.

[masik]

Did you spray paint the case or was it powder coated?

[DoggRoger]

It was spray painted, and came out pretty crappy up close, all the parts you will actually be looking at came out fine though. The first can of spray paint went on terribly and left a lot of powder/type particles, so I sanded it quickly and applied another coat with a different brand, then used an acrylic/clear coat.

[DoggRoger]

Added some pictures of the window mod. Boy what a tough time I had putting that biatch in... I hadn't realized the hole was a tad to small and I tried for literally hours, eventual cut the whole bigger and with the aid of a bunch of Windex I managed to get er' done. Also added progress pictures of the fan shrouds taking shape.

[Antioch]

I had original purchased a few rotary fittings, but after reading about the leaking potential I decided to ditch the idea. What you are seeing on my cpu block is a combination of 45/angle, and 3/4OD compression fittings.

What leaking potential?

[makavelijm]

to help get a good finish on spray painting i heard it helps to put the cans in hot water for a few minutes as this thins out the paint molecules and produces and even fine spray. duno though its problaby to late now

[Anemic]

It's gonna be tight! Nice job so far =)

[DoggRoger]

to help get a good finish on spray painting i heard it helps to put the cans in hot water for a few minutes as this thins out the paint molecules and produces and even fine spray. duno though its problaby to late now

Good to know, I will try that in the future.

What leaking potential?

I know.. that's how I really want to feel, but after searching around the forums for "rotary leaking" I got an uneasy feeling about the whole thing..

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...hlight=leaking


Thanks for the comp, it's probably the most "Xtreme" PC build I'll ever do.

[DoggRoger]

Woot, finished the 6 airboxes, updated with pics. Will have a full day of assembly tomorrow.

[zanzabar]

watch out for the bitspower crystal T they crack, thats why they are so cheap compared to the metal ones. on my 1st build for myself (also in a p180) the crystal t i had for a T-line cracked affter 2 weeks with no signs on ill effects or cracks when i gave up on checking affter a week. then affter turning my pc off one day my floor and the bottom of my case was flooded were the computer was

[DoggRoger]

Damn, not good news but I believe you I was a bit shaky after handling them.. guess i'll put an order in for the metal ones, thanks for the heads up.

[zanzabar]

here is how it ended up

it cracked more when i took the barbs out but it leaked at hand tight so i did a little over an eighth of a turn and it didnt leak but then there is the result. it has a huge crack down the seam then as that split the other cracks came in.

[DoggRoger]

Yup, thanks again for the heads up, I have some all metal T's heading my way. Too bad I painted the crystals otherwise I would return them.

[recta]

Nice joob

[DoggRoger]

Thanks man. CPU/mobo loop is finished and pics updated, still have to tighten and leak test. Im waiting on a few more parts to arrive before I can finish the GPU loop. I should have named the thread title Behemoth because the this thing is huge, it reminds me of a transformer, but I'm liking it.

[DoggRoger]

So, just about done, I found that my rig draws 890watts from the wall without OC'ing the GPU's so I have a Silverstone ST1500 on the way, once it comes and I get it installed that will be the final straw.. This is the jist of the finished product.. the H2O is not finished yet.. I just put some UV Green up for the time being to demonstrate what I am trying to achieve.








Also I found 1 of my SlipStream is not spinning on my MCR320 so once I get my ST1500 I'l mess around with it.. but the GPU temps idle at around 38-39C,(ambient 26C) and hit 60C after an hour of furmark, I highly doubt that plugging in the Slipstream will drop the temps. My 920@4010mhz/1.39v idles at 42C/66-67C under load.

I have a lot more testing to do.. the temps above where like real quick pluggin it in and checking.. Im going to play with the fan settings and noise ratio to find a sweet spot.. I personally am pretty happy that my GPU's won't break 60C Curious to see how much higher it will go when I OC the GPU's.. will keep it updated.

[Alexandr0s]

The radiator on the back looks like it's defying gravity !

[V0id]

That is an insane amount of radiator for a P180!

[DoggRoger]

The radiator on the back looks like it's defying gravity !

It's leaning because I used rubber grommets for vibration noise reduction and I need to re-tighten the nuts within the case holding it on, but it's quite sturdy.

That is an insane amount of radiator for a P180!

I don't know if it is.. many other systems I see have more radiator surface area, but it has been serving my purpose well, we'll see what clocks I can run my cards at once my new PSU arrives.