If you have not already read the first article about this Fush Zero project please do so by clicking here. From this point on, planning has been completed and the parts have been ordered. So the fun part begins. What will follow in this article and others is a step by step account of the project mods, fabrication as well tips and tricks I have discovered along the way.
Pump Mount
The pump mounting was the first thing I tackled in the construction of Fush Zero. I wanted in this case to locate the pump where the 3 ½” drive cage normally rests, hanging just below the 5 ¼” bays. To make the pump fit I had to cut down the cage itself. For this job I used my Campbell Hausfeld compressor and CH rotary air tool (a big dremel). The cage was then dimensioned, marked and then cut to size.
Here you can see the finished cage, much shorter than previous, then with the pump held in place to show orientation. I picked this particular pump position because it gives quite a bit of flexibility when designing hose layouts, especially if components will be swapped out frequently (which they will).
Next thing I did was to prepare the pump mount. This particular Eheim pump comes with a slide on/off bracket. I used the bracket as a guide to measure and mark all of the hole positions, then carefully drill them with a small Wizard rotary tool. Needle files were then used to deburr the edges of the holes.
The final mounting of the pump (not pictured) included rubber bushings to help reduce vibrations. For now the pump comes off to continue modding.
Continuing with the Water cooler setup, I planned on placing the radiator in front of the two 80mm intake fans to get more cool air pumping through it. The problem was that this case had yet another Hard Drive cage right where I wanted the Radiator. So it had to go.
After sliding out the cage and exposing the bracket, I diagnosed the problem and drilled out the rivets holding it in. Then finally after some quick cleanup and the speaker removed, we have lots of room for the radiator.
Radiator Mount?
For the radiator mount I had an idea…
I wanted to place the radiator at a 45 degree angle to the bottom of the case. At this angle, the air flowing through the radiator would serve more than one purpose:
- Cool the liquid coolant in the water cooler.
- Help to cool the pump.
- Provide a large amount of turbulent air on a diagonal through the case.
The turbulent air being important in cooling all passively cooled components in a direct line with the exiting radiator air. Namely being the Video Card and Memory.
One thing you will see me stress throughout this case mod is the use of clean lines. I wanted to create a Radiator mount that was not distracting or looked thrown together. So I started off measuring any and all dimensions of the Radiator.
Then I took regular cardboard and created templates for the mounting brackets (the topmost template was for a shroud that was not used). These brackets were made of sheet aluminum and wrap around the Radiator to help stealth it to some degree.
I cut the aluminum with my classic Sears dremel tool using fiberglass reinforced cutting discs, as well as my CH air rotary tool when needed.
Once cut the sheet was bent using a clamping workbench and a rubber mallet.
TIP: One thing to note when bending this way is to avoid ripples in the metal by heating it with a torch or heat gun. This helps to make the metal more pliable.
During the bending process I left the bracket as a single piece to make it easier to handle. Later on I cut out the center section making the bracket two pieces and allowing room for airflow. Here is the final assembly fitted with a fan just to demonstrate how everything fits together.
Cutting a Blowhole
Next I moved on to cut the 120mm blowhole at the top of the case. This will allow a large volume of hot air to be expelled at relatively lower noise levels than a smaller 80 or 92mm blowhole would. To cut the blowhole a 120mm hole saw was used. A hole saw is basically a large metal circle with teeth. It can be used in a drill to cut diameters that most drill bits wont cut, but tend to be rather expensive. Some people prefer to use a dremel instead and with a steady hand as well as some practice, will achieve the same professional results.
TIP: One thing to note when cutting with a hole saw is to make sure and use a very powerful drill. Torque is key when using large surface area cutters like these. So run your drill at a lower speed and let the saw do the work. Try and force it and the hole saw will buck causing scratches or damage. Also try and use a piece of wood underneath of the area you will cut. This give the pilot drill (the center drill bit) something to drill into and stay on target.
Here is my case clamped down and sketched for the pilot hole and cut, then the final product, a clean 120mm hole.
Well… kind of clean, needs some dusting.
TIP: Although I did not do this when cutting into my case, it is generally a good idea to using masking tape over the surface of your case while cutting. The tape will provide a level of surface protection against scrapes and scratches while cutting. It also gives you a good surface to write, draw and leave notes on while working.
One thing I wanted to do was to minimize the amount of visible wiring down to almost nothing. On top of that I wanted all wires to be sleeved and of custom length to cleanly snake around the cases hidden crevices. This clean wiring all started with my Power Supply.
I chose an Antec True Power 550w that had been pre modified with removable Molex and Intel wires as well as sleeving. This gives me the ability to remove all of the wires I don’t use, helping to minimize clutter. You can find these at many mod shops (mine was from Performance-pcs.com), or you can also do it yourself but for the sake of saving time, I splurged.
I have future plans to do voltage mods on the +5, +3.3 and +12 volt lines later on in the project.
Case Wiring
Next thing I did was to remove all of the wired components from the case to be sleeved. The components were the fan speed selector, LED’s, switches and motherboard connectors. For sleeving I used Blue UV reactive Flexible mesh sleeving and blue/orange heat shrink tubing. The process of sleeving is simple:
- Remove connectors if possible.
- Slide sleeving over wires.
- Cut heat shrink tubing to length.
- Place heat shrink over the frayed ends of the sleeving.
- Use a heat gun to shrink the heat shrink.
- Presto! Pretty wires.
TIP: When using this style of sleeving, use a lighter to singe and melt the ends of the cut sleeving. This prevents fraying while you work. Also if you don’t own a heat gun, try a hairdryer set on high heat.
As you can see, the results of sleeving give a more finished look to any jumbled mess of case wires. You will find that a good wiring scheme will not only help to promote good airflow throughout your case, but also improve its overall look drastically.
The pump for the water cooler I wanted to turn on/off when the computer did. I also didn’t want to use any store bought solution to do it, I mean hey I’m an Electrical Engineer. So what I did was head to Radio Shack and bought a cheap relay from their parts department as well as a small PCB.
I then wired the relay up in an “always on” fashion. At the same time I added in a small on/off switch that could be used to turn the pump on/off independently of the PC power for filling/draining the system of liquid.
Then I cut the cord of the Eheim pump and wired it to the switch. The relay inductor was then wired to a 12 volt fan connector that I used to facilitate the interface with the PC. Finally I sleeved the entire job to follow suit with the rest of the wiring. Thus, we have a quick and easy solution for a pump switch, which cost me less than $5.
Cold Cathode Wiring
I plan on using A LOT of ultra violet cold cathodes in this case as well as the case for the Vapochill. Though, with more cathodes bring more ugly power inverters. So what I did was I found a spot in the case to hide all of those ugly little boxes. Fortunately for me, there was a small 1″ gap above the top of the highest 5 ¼” bay and the top of the case.
This was just tall enough to fit cold cathode inverters, 3 of them. So I Velcro them in place and then made a power connector to run all three of them in parallel. This allows me to use only one Molex connector for 3 switches as well as utilize one on/off switch for all of the lights in the upper Lian Li case. I also made it long enough to snake all the way around the outer edges of the case, minimizing visible wiring.
This is one part of the project that quite a few people have enjoyed. I had planned on eventually having windows on both sides of the case, but what is there to look at on the backside behind the motherboard? Nothing special really, so lets make something special.
I had an idea for cutouts that would expose as much of the motherboard as I could, while at the same time reducing the length of the tray to allow anyone to peer strait through the case. I was hoping to give it a similar effect much like you get with a totally acrylic case.
This shorter motherboard tray would hopefully give Fush Zero a much more open appearance. The exposed section of motherboard can also serve other purposes, such as to give access to motherboard mounting holes and maybe one day allow for effective backside motherboard cooling, who knows.
So I placed the tray on the chopping block and pulled out my CH air rotary tool again (you will see this tool a lot). I then started cutting, making sure to keep the lines strait and clean. With a modification like this you only get one shot. So you have to make it quality the first time.
I suggest reading up on any rotary tool guide you can get your hands on, and practice! After cutting I also took the time to cut out the stock fan grill and cut spaces for the pump power connector as well as for two toggle switches (for upper and lower case cold cathode lights). The final results I think were awesome.
Then I just cleaned the tray with soapy water and test mounted my motherboard onto it. Here you can see how much of the other board is actually exposed and then the degree of which the case has been opened up by the shorter tray giving an unobstructed view through the case.
To go along with UV cold cathodes you need something UV reactive. I chose UV lighting scheme because I find traditional cold cathode lights a little obnoxiously bright. I find they take away from a case unless hidden effectively. With UV reactive lighting, it’s much more subtle and you can leave the lights on at night without blinding those that pass by your lit case. The idea was to coat the entire interior of the case with a blue UV paint and then to utilize passively lit components and fans to provide a contrasting color. Shortly you will pick up on my overall color scheme.
For the coating I used washable UV neon paint. You can pick this stuff up at a variety of modding stores online. To make the coating un-washable, I went to a craft store and picked up clear acrylic coating. This will be put over the UV to make it abrasive, wear and scratch resistant.
First thing before coating was to wash down all parts with alcohol wipes and get all the dirt and grime off. I then masked off the frame of the case to expose only areas I wanted to coat. I used about 3 coats of the UV neon and about 6 light coats of the acrylic coating.
TIP: For all of those that want to use this paint or put a coating over it. First off try and use the UV paint in a very dark room with a suspended Black light or UV cold cathode. This will allow you to see how even your coatings are. Then when you use to acrylic, try and spray a surface that is parallel to the ground with VERY light coats. The acrylic is much heavier than the UV paint and will drip and streak your UV coating. I found this out very quick and had to strip an entire section with gasoline, and then start over.
The final results were spectacular, just what I wanted. The UV coating even left an eerie blue opal look to the surface of the aluminum in ambient lighting, and then after the cathodes were turned on, the aluminum surfaces of the case lit up giving off a light sky blue that looked very natural. It almost seemed as if the aluminum was radiated.
Adding Fans
Like I said before I wanted to use passively lit components to provide a contrasting color to the overall scheme of the case. I chose UV Orange Antec 80mm fans as well as non-Antec 120mm UV Orange exhaust fans. All of the fans were rewired to reduce wiring clutter and sleeved in the same UV Blue sleeving and orange heat shrink. The non-Antec 120mm fans tended to be a bit noisy so I soldered in line a 10ohm 2 watt resistor to knock down the voltage a little. It dropped to noise drastically without sacrificing too much airflow.
You can also see how I tidied up the wiring some and hooked the fans up to the Lian Li’s fan speed selector. The selector was split to control the 120mm blowhole fan, the two 80mm intakes and the 80mm on the motherboard tray.
At this point I had decided to hook up the water cooler and leak test it. First thing I did was to choose a position for the Reservoir. I chose right in front of the Radiator then drilled mounting holes (eventually the holes were abandoned for white Velcro for easier filling).
Also while test fitting all of the water blocks I found that the Danger Den GeForce4 block had an issue with the Tweakmonster ram sinks I had installed. One of the 45 degree hose barbs came into contact with the sinks and prevented strait mounting. So I got out my pliers and a hammer and bent the mounting screws. This then made the block about1/8″ offset from the center of the GPU core, but it still covered the entire core. It fit so I was happy.
For tubing I used Tygon Formula R-3603 with 1/2″ inner diameter and 1/8″ thick walls. This is some heavy duty tubing. You can find this and hundreds of other kinds of tubing at McMaster.com (an engineering supply company).
TIP: With very thick, tough tubing try boiling the ends in water. They then just slip over barbs easily. Then instead of using hose clamps, which tend to tear up your expensive tubing, use heavy duty zip ties around the barbs(orange in the picture). Put one zip tie behind each hump in the barb for maximum leak protection. Then take pliers and pull on the loose end for a couple extra clicks and a very tight fit. Zip ties are much cheaper and provide the same level of leak proof operation when installed correctly.
Next I test fit all blocks and attached proper lengths of tubing. Then for leak testing I suspended the blocks with wires to reduce the risk of any expensive hardware being damaged. The system was filled with distilled water, a capful of water wetter (a wetting agent) and a drop of green UV dye.
More to come
Look forward to the rest of the Fush Zero articles. In Fush Zero – Part 3 you can expect to see,
- Vapochill modifications.
- Vapo case fabrication.
- Water cut side panels.
- Fan grill designs
…and many, many more pictures. Here are a few for the road. Mod On.