Project: Storm

[bennywidag]

This is kind of a modlog so here we are.
My computer is based around a 3.4 ghz pentium 4, which isnt the most heat effiecient processor known to man Twisted, and currently have it at a high state of clock with a very poor heatsink, cost me £5, and got me over 4 ghz so wont complain.

However that is with the core at 50 degrees idle and no idea what under load. I wanted to pump some more volts through the baby, and to do that, i need more extreme cooling.

I had saved for a while for the computer, so i wanted the best cooling i could lay my hands on, while not going over the top. Phase change was too much for what i needed and not necessary, and high performance air would not cool enough, so i wanted custom watercooling.

I had decided on most of the components because they are the best around, and other because they look good and are cost effective. These are them.

Swiftech storm G4
Polarflo TT vga block
PolarFlo Chrome MCP650 Pump
Thermochill HE120.3 rev 2
Danger den bayres

Other parts
Tygon (10ft)
Water wetter
Uv die
coolsleves
2x barbs
ptfe tape
3xXirulian fans
10 jubilee clips.

[bennywidag]

This is the kit i will be using, neatly laid out on my bed :)
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/bgarlick/Watercool/IMAG12312.jpg
there you have, roughly from top to bottom

the radiator, its screws and barbs, ptfe'ed
fans, shroud, filter and grill
Tygon tube, Polarflo pump and more filters
danger den bayres and its barbs fitted
adjustable spanner, coolsleves and uv die
swiftec storm, its mounting kit, arctic silver 5
polarflo tt vga block, ocz ramsinks, cable tidying stuff, water wetter, ptfe tape and jubilee clips.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/bgarlick/Watercool/IMAG0001.jpg
the swiftec storm, and its mounting kits, and the instructions, which were very clear, and used diagrams instead of words, which makes it better in my view.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/bgarlick/Watercool/3eb1b245.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/bgarlick/Watercool/IMAG0dsf8.jpg
Danger den bayres and its two high flo barbs, which are the best around i found, easy to take hose back off, but secure once clipped. Also in the pic i s the wrench i used to tighten the barbs, but i found the adjustable spanner to be better at this, due to the extra leverage.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/bgarlick/Watercool/IMAG00sda10.jpg
this is my thermochill 120.3, along with the wrench, and the screws included. The screw pack includes one bleeding screw and washer, and 10 fan mounting screws. However, you need 12 to fully mount 3 fans on the radiator, so i presume that either there was a mix up with my set, or the screws are intended for the shroud. I managed to use 3 on both of the outer fans and two on the inner, which is oay but not ideal. Not shown there is the neoprene layer which sticks to the radiator itself, and prevents any fan vibrations making noise on the radiator. However this was too large, and caused my fans to stick, so i had to cut some off.


I had a problem with the radiator, as i decided to fit it in the bottom of the case, a normal shroud was out of the question as it is 6.5 cm highincluding the fans, and i did not have that space between my radiator and the motherboard. I decided to improvise by using the fans that came with the case, dremeling the actual fan away, and leaving the outer. I can then screw this to the rad, and the real fans to the outers using normal fan screws. Unfortunatly i cant use any type of shroud for the central fan as the coolermaster cross flow fan gets in the way. So for this i am just mounting the fan directly to the rad.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/bgarlick/Watercool/IMAG0016.jpg
Improvised fan shroud
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/bgarlick/Watercool/IMAG0001a.jpg
Fan with screws in place

[bennywidag]

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/bgarlick/Watercool/IMAG0019.jpg this is the radiator with the neoprene cover on the top
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/bgarlick/Watercool/IMAG0018.jpg
this is me screwing in the "shroud. I had to dremel away a section of the fan, around where the screw is as it covered up where i needed to put the screw. No problem, i dremeled out the area, and it is fine.

Installing the cpu block

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/bgarlick/Watercool/IMAG0022.jpg
This is my stock hsf, as i said pants, but let me get over 4 gig, so i wont complain.

Removed the hsf, after much struggling it came off and after scraping the tim off with a old swipe card, and removing the rest with Akasa tim cleaner. I then applyed a new blob of arctic silver 5, no lesser will do, maybe ceramique. using a bad TIM is like drinking moet chandon out of paper cups, but with worse performance.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/bgarlick/Watercool/IMAG0025.jpg

Then i used the storm to squish the TIM to the cpu, and make sure that it covers the necessary area
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/bgarlick/Watercool/IMAG0026.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/bgarlick/Watercool/IMAG0027.jpg
You mount the swiftec with four pins, and a spring on the top of each to ensure a good hold.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/bgarlick/Watercool/IMAG0029.jpg

this is the block installed on the motherboard, looks quite nice.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/bgarlick/Watercool/IMAG0030.jpg

[bennywidag]

now it was time to test fit the components, first thing is to figure out where to go, the resevoir went at the top so it bled itself, the pump on the rear floor for visibiltiy and the rad at the front floor, so it would fit around the components.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/bgarlick/Watercool/IMAG0035.jpg

then it is a matter of cutting the tubing into length, you can use special tools, but a sharp pair of scissors sufficed for me.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/bgarlick/Watercool/G0036.jpg

i then poured my deionised water into a jug, so it was easier to pour into the res, and added some water wetter, about 5 small squirts.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/bgarlick/Watercool/IMAG0004.jpg

then it is a matter of priming the system so the water is poured in until it reaches the pump, which was hard for me as i had my radiator between them. then you can turn on the pump to draw some water through. my pump is powered by inserting the red wire, with the supplied molex pin, into the yellow hole of a molex, as it needs 12volts, and the red signifies positive not 5v.

as i needed to run the psu without the motherboard to run the pump, you have to use a bit of wire to brigdge pin 3 and 4 on the atx plug, which powers it up, i just fed more water into my resevoir until there is no air left, and checked there is none in the radiator by moving it around on all axis. i then left it running, with the main water components in a bowl to catch leaks.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/bgarlick/Watercool/IMAG0003.jpg

While it was leak testing, i decided to create the necessary whole in the bottom of my case for the 120.3 and fans. This is the panel as it comes, with newspaper in place to prevent any filings ruining components.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/bgarlick/Watercool/IMAG0008.jpg

I then cut the necessary hole with a dremel, and got through 3 reinforced cutting discs. quite a bit of scortch as you see, where the paint has burnt, you should probably do it outside as there is filings everywhere and some nasty fumes.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/bgarlick/Watercool/IMAG0009.jpg

Here is the end result, i widened the gap from the standard case gap to give the radiator more air.
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/bgarlick/Watercool/IMAG0010.jpg

not bad, especially when it will be sanded down, although not advisable to do it in your room, with the psu going to power the water leak testing next to it. lol

[bennywidag]

then all i did was the same as the trial fit, but with it all connected and with AS5 on the block. i had to take the cooling in through the front panel as it wouldnt fit properly any other way.

Finished now, and i have temperatures of 30 idle and 36 load, and have already increased my clock by .1 gig

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/bgarlick/Case%20Gallery%20pics/IMAG0003a.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/bgarlick/Case%20Gallery%20pics/IMAG0004a.jpg

[sunnyg]

what do you use the two akasa fan pro's for? and also, do you know where i can get more thermal sensors?

[bennywidag]

right, i use the akasas for 8 of the 18 fans in the case, you get 4 thermal sensors with each, otherwise you can get them from here (http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/Kustom_PCs_Shop_Temp_Monitors_94.html) but it seems to be out of stock, and coolercases dont have any

[Sc0rian]

looks good mate

[coolmiester]

woohoo....now where talking :cool:

18 fans though :eek:

[sunnyg]

ye
i have an akasa in a stacker like yours as well. they look really good, but i'm sure you've seen my critisim about that alarm.

[bennywidag]

woohoo....now where talking :cool:

18 fans though :eek:

yeh, and the d4 is the loudest thing by miles. and sunny, i know what you mean now, my temp probe for psu is reading 99 deg for some reason, and it is doing a nut

[sunnyg]

ye
those temp sensors are really fragile. thats what happened to me as well, so i tryed taking them out to see if it would work outside the case. (i suspected the black power connectors to be the wrong way round) and broke two of them. your problem might be that the wire bits that connect to the actual sensor in that orange thing anr touching.