© 2007-2008 Collin Jordan
 

Projected date of project completion: Summer 08
 

Liquid cooled, Ocean Theme

March 6, 2008

Here we have the magnificent Lian-Li PC-A71B Case.
The great thing that I love about this case, is that practically everything
is removable, which makes it alot easier to mod.
 

I also got in a bunch of modding supplies today. Here is some
Techflex UV Blue cable sleeving kits.

4X Low RPM Panaflo 120mm fans

Dual UV Cathode kit w/ UV Blue sleeving
 

PC ICE UV Blue non-conductive coolant

Swiftech Apogee GT Universal CPU water block

Here, I have started working on the front panel. On the front door
of the case, there are three aluminum panels that are removable. I took
the largest of the three off, and I am planning on cutting out the lettering
and then backlighting it with some Plexiglas.

My workspace.

I also got in my Zalman Reserator 1, which I am planning on using
for the CPU/Northbridge loop.

It is quite a beast.

March 24, 2008

Sorry there has been a lot of setbacks here. This project is
slowly chugging along, and I have been really busy with work.
But lately I've been getting a lot done in my free time, trying to
shift my attentions over back to the project. Here's what I've been
working on:

I finished cutting the letters out of the front panel, however
I messed up a bit and scratched it in a few places. I'm hoping the
primer will make it not so noticeable..

I stripped the case down to the bare bones. Here's what it looks like
with almost everything removed except for the top panel.

I took  the front panel outside and painted it today. It looks
much better. I buffed out some of the scratches before I primed it
and just as I thought, the primer did a nice job of covering up my mistakes.

Here is the frame of the case primed and ready for paint after about
an hour or so.

Both the case frame and the front panel after paint.

Here, I attached the front panel back on temporarily
so I could measure out where I needed to cut.

The front door after a little bit of cutting for the Plexiglas.

Now its ready for some Plexiglas and a backplate.

I cut out a piece of Plexiglas for behind the letter and set some LEDS
in place.

A little test...

Before..

And after. Looks great!

Next, I'm going to cut out a side window on the side panel, and
cut out a little dolphin that I will back light with Plexiglas similar to
the front lettering. Here's a quick outline I did before I cut it out.

And here's the end result! Ready for some Plexiglas and a back plate
now!

March 27, 2008

Now that I've cut the dolphin out, I lit it up and worked on a few
other things. Here's whats new:

I drilled two holes in the side panel for some nice chrome
cockpit style switches I got. One switch will control the UV lights
while the other switch will control the specialty lights like the dolphin
and the front door letters.

Here's a photo of both switches temp installed. Note that
those marks behind them aren't scratches, just a bunch of dust that
kind of stuck to the metal in a weird way.

Now I'm prepping to cut out the side window.

Here's the side panel with the window cut out. Now for the trim...

Some nice chrome trim and a wipe down with some Windex to
smooth it out.

Another shot of the side panel.

Here I weighted the Plexiglas down with some books and
used epoxy to glue it into place.

Now for some fun stuff. Here, I'm working on the lighting for
behind the dolphin cutout. I already cut the slots for the LEDs and
I glued them into place. Now I'm wiring them all together...

The wiring is complete! I temp installed with some scotch tape
to test out the look. Lets see how it turned out...

I temp installed the metal backing so you can get the full effect.
Here's before...

And after.. it came out great!

June 4, 2008

Its been a while since I have updated the site. I have just undergone
a move and have been without the internet for sometime, not to mention
I have been procrastinating working on this project due to lack of
parts and time. So without further a due here is the latest:

I got a nice custom mouse pad from Func.net

On the rear of the front door, I mounted some velcro pads to make
the glass more accessible incase there is ever a problem with it. I also
sleeved and routed the wiring to the inside of the case.

Here, on the back of the side door, I also routed and sleeved
the wiring and firmly mounted the glass into place.

The four wires from the front door lights and the side panel were
wired together and then I spliced some 2 pin plugs onto the ends
to allow them to be plugged into this handy floppy power splitter
which can be found HERE

A shot of the case after I connected some of the liquid cooling hoses.
I decided it would be easier to have it all pre-connected.

Here is the pass through adapters for the liquid cooling hoses. I
modified one of the pci slot covers so the pass throughs would
not detract from the look.

And now here is the side panel attached. Nice eh?

The rear of the case.

A Little logo etching into the glass.

Now for this particular case, I had planned on painting in the
etchings with this UV Blue paint. I decided to not fill in the etchings
with the etcher but instead just paint it straight onto the smooth
glass. I thought there might be some problems with the paint's
adherence, but there turned out to be not any problems once
the paint dried.

After the first coat dried.

After 4 coats. Now I just have the H20 left.

June 13, 2008

I just received my second radiator today, and I also
got my Matrix Orbital GX Typhoon display. I also finished ordering
all the hardware. Specs are as follows:
 

As for the updates, heres what I did today:

Heres a shot of my new Black Ice GT Stealth Radiator.
I am planning on mounting this along with 2 fans just
as a fail safe for overclocking my cpu. I don't want any
heating issues. This radiator is available HERE.

My Matrix Orbital GX Typhoon came in the mail
and it is one badass LCD. I am planning on mounting
this using a "Mount Anywhere" bracket you can attach
to the PCI slots. If I can do it right, it should appear
suspended.

And here is the front bezel that came with the
lcd display. I definitely will not be using this, but
it looks real nice...

Just testing the display on my current computer.
I read that you are supposed to restart your pc
after installing all of the drivers, but I did not do this
I just plugged it in to make sure it at least turned on.

Here's the radiator mounted in between two fans.
This bracket attaches to the case right behind the
hard drive cage. I checked all the clearances, and
everything should be good. I would have mounted
it on the top fan, but the video card is 11 inches long!

I want to avoid having the plug in the display from
the rear of the case, so I got a special cable that will
covert a standard usb cable and allow you to plug it
directly into the usb header on the motherboard. This
is the cable that came with the display, resleeved because
you will be able to see part of it inside the case.

Heres the LCD display attached to the "mount anywhere"
bracket.

As you can see, I used some simple pull ties to secure
the display to the bracket. I had to use these ties for
the sole reason that the holes weren't spaced properly
for me to screw it directly to it, but it works just as well.

And success. The LCD display here is mounted to the
bracket and appears suspended. You should be able to
see it nicely through the Plexiglas window.

A photo of the overall setup without any hardware.

I also got some nice anti-kink coils for the liquid tubing.
these coils not only keep the tubing from bending too acutely
and keep the liquid flowing nice and smoothly, but they also
add a nice look.

Here's the basic layout that I will have for my
liquid cooling circuit. Reserator to radiator,
radiator to CPU, and then back the Reserator.
I feel that this should be adequate enough to cool
the CPU under load after overclocking.

And heres the progress so far, now just waiting on parts!

With the side panels on

June 14, 2008

Today I accomplished some much overdue etching in
on the side window. I decided to etch in some logos
of the companies whose parts will be inside including
Nvidia, and Intel, as well as Zalman.

First I printed out the logos backwards so they will come out
correctly when I etch on the back of the glass.

Here's the Zalman and Nvidia logos after I finished.

Etching the intel logo in progress.

After the intel logo was completed.

And here's what the case looks like in its current state.

Some detail of the logos.

June 24, 2008

All the of the parts arrived last saturday, and I spend most
of the day building the system. I ran into some big problems though.
For one, the Zalman Reserator I had, absolutely sucks. The pump
is so weak, that it could barely pump the fluid through the tubes. Also,
the Matrix Orbital display I had is broken. So now im waiting on a
better, more powerful pump and an RMA from Matrix Orbital for a
new screen. Other than that, the system runs great. I will be posting some
FPS stats for Crysis, UT3, and COD4 later on.

Here are all the parts that came. Mobo (Newegg sent me the wrong
model, but it will work anyway), 9800 GX2, E8400, Ram, Keyboard
and mouse.

Mounted the CPU in the socket.

And now for the water block.

(Click image to enlarge)

Heres a photo of the system after installation with
almost all of the wiring done, and before I repositioned
the lcd screen.

After I repositioned the LCD into a better, more viewable place,
and the wiring is complete.

Doesn't this look nice? Too bad I had to take out all the
liquid cooling for now..

(Click image to enlarge)

Here is the system in it's current state. Still
looking good, but would be so much better
liquid cooled.

(click image to enlarge)

And a little shot of the lighting.

Stay tuned for more updates on this project