click photo to enlarge

click photo to enlarge

This is my latest water cooled custom computer which took me most of 2004 to build.

No power tools were used, except for a cordless hand drill, in any of the fabrication. This was a challenge I set for myself to prove that I could hand-fabricate all the detailed work.

Overview of unique features

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Two 120mm fans push cool air
down through the radiator

• Over 350 separate parts, including 77 custom hand-fabricated pieces (most acrylic or aluminum) and even 120 screws.
• Watercooled, in a mid-tower ATX case without sacrificing drive bays or PCI slots (except for one 5¼ bay for the reservoir).
• Custom electronic opto-mechanical flow meter.
• Custom water reservoir.
• Temperature monitoring and automatic fan control.
• Blue EL and LED lighting effects.

Specification (highlights)

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Top window view of LCD
status and CD drive cutout

• Standard annodized-aluminium mid-tower ATX case with 6-inch extension underneath for pump and radiator plenum.
• Side and top acrylic windows, as well as acrylic windows around base plenum.
• The CD-RW drive has a window which allows the spinning CD to be seen (through the water reservoir),

Water cooling

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The pump and flow meter

• Water cooled CPU, GPU, and northbridge chips.
• ¾-inch I.D. hose (Tygon® R-3603) and fittings,
• Hand-built reservoir of acrylic with angled barbs and built-in temperature probe.
• Hand-built flow meter of acrylic and copper with opto-electic monitoring.
• Swiftech MCP600 12VDC magnetic-bearing high presure continuous duty pump, in a custom double-rubber vibration abosrbing mount.
• Black Ice Extreme II radiator (2×120mm) with two push fans and three pull fans and with a modified outlet barb,

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Angled reservoir outlets
provide an unobstructed
view of the LCD monitor

Fans (8 total)

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Three 90mm exhaust fans

• 2×120mm (large): radiator push fans,
• 5×90mm: three radiator pull, one rear case exhaust, one for power supply inlet,
• 1×80mm: temperature controlled power supply exhaust.
• all fans are undervolted for slow quiet operation,
• all fans are speed monitored and have independent automatic on/off via 8 programmable temperature sensors,
• all fans are rubber isolated for vibration dampening.

More to come... (here's a few loose pictures for now)