CCBox Water Cooling Project

CCBox

Self-Contained Fan/Radiator/Pump
for Water Cooling my XP1800+/DDRram System

Project Started: 4/17/02
Finished: 5/02/02

This was my first foray into water cooling, finally driven to it by the endless whining of 12 [yes, twelve] fans in my computer. I've spent countless hours reading how-to's, comparing reviews on kits, blocks, pumps, hoses, fittings, complete barebone case setups, and figured this ain't exactly brain surgery, so maybe I could make at least part of what I need, and buy what I don't have, saving money, and getting that cool feeling of doing something a little differently that might work. Time will tell.

What I'm trying to do here is to make a remote self-contained pump/radiator/fan house for water cooling my main computer. This way, the only two places I have to worry about leaks are at the water block itself. I have a paranoia of mixing water and electronics, even though to the uninitiated, the whole concept of a water cooled computer is 'out there'. I've received a comment that this entire thing is a bit overkill, and how the whole kit should fit in my box. One: I live in the West. We do things big out here. Adding another case close to the main one is not crowding my real estate. And, Two: The whole idea was to have an external setup to reduce the possible weak points. Not to mention, if I ever wanted to use this setup on another box, all I have to do is install the nylon mounting bolts on the new mobo, and it's a done deal. And, it's cheap; the fan only cost about $6.00 and is AC, as will be the pump. Besides, as we all do things a bit differently than each other, this is my rendition.

I present to you Alpha Model: CCBox A.1
Yeah, so it's a hokey name

A brief update: 05/26/03, over a year later: Somewhere between there and here, I installed a 120mm fan as a 'push' fan (hooked into my Fan Control) on the intake side of the radiator (the original WallyWorld Jet gave out after about 6 months), and upgraded my CPU to an XP2000, mildly overclocked to 142 fsb to run at: 1781MHz. The System temp is 32 C and the CPU temp is 37 C as I write, with all fans on medium to slow.

Click on a little image for a bigger image

ATX mini tower case that I gutted long ago. Always figured it would be useful for something. My place sometimes looks like a small Digital Sanford and Sons. I still have an old working 400 meg drive that I probably wouldn't put in anything, but you never know.

Almost made a cat house out of it once, by stacking it sideways on a full tower I have lying around, but there were too many sharp edges for the wussy animal.

Heater core from a '93 Chevy P/U for radiator that my friend and mechanic, Mike Forgue, gave me. Yeah, Mike.... This was the first acquisition of the project. If you're ever broke down here, give him a call...unless you're in a '93 Chev with a leaky heater.

Top view of radiator just sitting in the case sideways, with the intake/outlets at the top, rear of the case, to get an idea of where to go from here..

Side view / rad in case. The Eheim 1048 pump should fit in the ex drive bay area nicely. There shouldn't be any kinks in the hoses. I've already cut the fittings shorter to facilitate a gentle curve. I know, that almost sounds feminine...but ya know? I like gentle curves.

Rear view / rad in case. I figure to run the hoses out the power supply hole, maybe gussy it up a bit in the end by covering all excess holes if this works.

Fan, with 1st idea for shroud & rad. Well, at least I have a neat tub now. The fan cost $6.00 at Wally World, and it's AC. I figure to connect it to the Eheim power, for one cord, and have maybe a power light in the front bay cover. Still working on a relay idea from the main box psu so I wouldn't have to power on separately. Any ideas? ** Have had a suggestion on how to make one, and have found a premade setup for the Swiftech Q-Power case.

Top view of fan / rad sitting in case. You can see why the 1st shroud idea wasn't going to work. Not a lot of room in there.

Rear view of fan / rad in case

[nothing to see here, let's move along]

Side view of fan / rad in case. Awesome looking grill, I think, sort of like a turbine. I plan on cutting openings on each side of the cover the shape of the item, put some moulding around the edges. The fan isn't loud, it just looks that way. It also has a 2-speed control switch that is the cone nose, accessible if needed. You can hear the fan on High, but barely, and it's nothing like what's going on now.

All Pictures, Ideas, [ and all Your Money ]: Property of CrowDesigns. All Jams Preserverd under 1/4" Pure Parafin.
CD/LSP 2003


ATX mini tower case that I gutted long ago. Always figured it would be useful for something. My place sometimes looks like a small Digital Sanford and Sons. I still have an old working 400 meg drive that I probably wouldn't put in anything, but you never know.		Rear view of empty case. Almost made a cat house out of it once, by stacking it sideways on a full tower I have lying around, but there were too many sharp edges for the wussy animal.


Heater core from a '93 Chevy P/U for radiator that my friend and mechanic, Mike Forgue, gave me. Yeah, Mike.... This was the first acquisition of the project. If you're ever broke down here, give him a call...unless you're in a '93 Chev with a leaky heater.		Top view of radiator just sitting in the case sideways, with the intake/outlets at the top, rear of the case, to get an idea of where to go from here..


Side view / rad in case. The Eheim 1048 pump should fit in the ex drive bay area nicely. There shouldn't be any kinks in the hoses. I've already cut the fittings shorter to facilitate a gentle curve. I know, that almost sounds feminine...but ya know? I like gentle curves.		Rear view / rad in case. I figure to run the hoses out the power supply hole, maybe gussy it up a bit in the end by covering all excess holes if this works.


Fan, with 1st idea for shroud & rad. Well, at least I have a neat tub now. The fan cost $6.00 at Wally World, and it's AC. I figure to connect it to the Eheim power, for one cord, and have maybe a power light in the front bay cover. Still working on a relay idea from the main box psu so I wouldn't have to power on separately. Any ideas? ** Have had a suggestion on how to make one, and have found a premade setup for the Swiftech Q-Power case.		Top view of fan / rad sitting in case. You can see why the 1st shroud idea wasn't going to work. Not a lot of room in there.


Rear view of fan / rad in case [nothing to see here, let's move along]		Side view of fan / rad in case. Awesome looking grill, I think, sort of like a turbine. I plan on cutting openings on each side of the cover the shape of the item, put some moulding around the edges. The fan isn't loud, it just looks that way. It also has a 2-speed control switch that is the cone nose, accessible if needed. You can hear the fan on High, but barely, and it's nothing like what's going on now.
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