I have been a pc gamer all my life but have always had machines that were mainstream. They were able to play new games, but often had low frame rates and reduced settings. This was never a problem for me as I was a hardcore Everquest (EQ) player. EQis not a demanding environment for pc hardware.
However, having given up the slog of Everquest for the fast action thrills of first person shooters (FPS), I have been desperate to build a machine capable of delivering the kind of performance needed to match fellow gamers without the need to sacrifice the developers latest eye candy.
This selfish desire coincided with my coming across a few spare quid and the seed of Bellisin II was planted.
History
This is Bellisin I, my only other modding project. I custom sprayed this budget case in metalic blue and added a home made "B" cut from Sheet brass to form the window.
The hardware inside got upgraded from time to time with cheap parts as prices came down but never moved outside the middle ground.
The machine always ran on stock air cooling and standard BIOS settings.
For a short period Bellisin I was replaced by a cheap custom case with a Dual Core 4600 so I could play CoD2 at full frames. However, with games like Medal of Honor: Airborne, Crysis and most inportantly Call of Duty 4 (CoD4) due for releasee I realised I needed (OK wanted) somehting special.
Specifications
I opted to move to Vista 64 so I could take advantage of DX10 as it develops into the market and decided to go for the following hardware:
The Antec 182 separates the PSU and HDD from the main system via compartments. This appealed to me for both cosmetics and heat management. The SE version proved that special edge I was looking for.
I also decided to go for water cooling . I wanted to be able to run a cool, quite overclocked system.
With Christmas approaching a made a list for Santa and he came up trumps. I did get some odd looks from members of my family though!
To mod the case I also purchased:
Radiator modification
I was keen to keep the machine tooking tidy. I also wanted it to be self contained.
The 182 SE case has 35 mm of clearance under the lid. This was not enough to fit a PA series radiator but a stealth GT will just squeeze in at 30mm. Furthermore, by running the radiator into the first drive bay the 360mm model could be fitted, leaving just enough room for a modded temp gauge/ fan controller in the top bay.
Cutting the hole for the radiator was easy. However, be warned. It turned out the holes on the AC Ryan grill did not quite match the holes in this rad. It was painful and time consuming putting this right, having used the grill as a template.
In addition to the three redwings on top cooling the radiator, I retained three very good Antec Tri-cool fans. Two move air accross the mobo whilst one cools the HDD and PSU compartment.
Fan Housing
The fans could not be mounted inside the case as they would not have cleared the mobo components. In any events testing has shown that fans drawing air through a radiator are more effective than those blowing air through the cooler..
I therefore decided to make my own housing to sit on top of the pc that would blend with the case style. The sides of the cowl were fabricated using 25mm x 10mm aluminium angle bead cut, filed and bent into shape.
This was fitted around the fans and sandwiched between the case top and the AC Ryan grill.
The black plastic case top supplied with the 182 was cut to fit, keeping things nice and tidy.
The CPU was lapped to make sure it had a perfectly flat surface. The advantage being that good contact can be made with the water block surface with the use of very little TIM (thermal insulating material). This can drop temps by 2-3 degrees.
Lapping involves carefully sanding down the surface of the CPUwith wet and dry paper supported by a sheet of smooth glass. The CPU seemed flat when checked with a metal rule. However, the middle picture above shows that this was not true. The copper coloured area was raised. Not a bad thing as it ensured the core was in contact with the cooler. However, such a profile makes the outher surfaces of the cooler surface redundant.
The final picture shows the lapped cpu, perfectly flat and ready to go. Note: Wet & Drying a £170 chip is not for the feint hearted!
Graphics Card Water Block
In order to fit the Fuzion water block to the graphics card one needs to first remove the stock cooler. My card was an XFX XXX with a fairly meaty cooler fitted.
Removing the screws was easy enough. However, it took some courage to prise the cooler and card apart due to the adhesive nature of the tthermal pads fitted to the chip set and memory. You could not help feeling that you had missed a screw or something important. With the stock cooler off, cleaning up the GPUand chip set was easy enough.
Fitting the new water block presented a bit of a puzzle. The Fuzions surface has a raised, lapped square at its centre. This is only two thirds the area of the GPU. D-Tek get round this by providing a thermal pad that fits around the lapped area, increasing its surface. Some experimentation confirmed my fears that the pad stopped the lapped surface from mating with the GPU. Hardly ideal!
Enqiries ended up with D-tek themselves who kindly confirmed my own opinion that the thermal pad served no purpose and was added as a comfort item for nervious consumers. The core areas contact and this is where the heat lies in the chip set.
Reviews suggest that memory cooling is not essential for these cards and that is just as well as stick on heat sinks are not going to clear the in/ out barbs on the waterblock.
This is something I would nevertheless like to address for peace of mind going forward.
Water Cooling
The water cooling is based upon a single loop using high grade half inch tubing.
Fitting the Fuzion waterblock to the motherboard was straight forward. Also the XSPC reservoir was a quality product and went into the second bay down, squeezing below the radiator.
Having assembled the Laing ulta punp and crystal top, I located this in the middle HDD caddy area, removing and discarding the caddy altogether. The plastic internals of the tray were then removed and addapted to accept the pump and a home made vibration dampening gasket.
Arranging and cutting the tubing took a little time but was not difficult. However, fitting the jubilee clips was a pain. Some of the barbs were too close together, making the fitting of two clips side by side impossible. Also there was restricted access to the turn screws. I did not have faith in other clip types available on the market that might have served me better. I would reconsider them in the future.
Filling the system was also straight forward. After checking and re-checking all the connections, I was able to simply fill the systen from the reservoir, topping it up a few times as air left the system on its first run.
The first water cooling run was done with the use of a spare PSU. This allowed me to not only avoid powering up the compentents, but the PSU too which was sitting vulnerably at the base of the case.
Thankfully there were no leaks!
Wiring and Firing
Now all that was left the get this ship launched was to wire her up and see how she runs.
This proved quite a task and took much longer than expected as I wanted to keep as many leads as possible hidden to aid airflow and improve its visual impact.
The Antec 182 ships with a number of thoughtful wiring advantages. These include several wiring holes around the mobo tray and built in ties. Unfortunately the rear space in this case is very limited. Additionally, the two compartments divide the case in two, forcing all the cables to run through a couple of gaps.
With thought these problems can be overcome. However, I would urge Antec to consider widening the back area by 3-4 mm.
Finally, two untra violet cathodes were added to bring the water cooling to life.
Amazingly she booted up first time to the post screen and within 2 hours Vista 64 was running.
Final pictures and throughts for additional work on Bellisin II.
So here are the final pictures of the PC as it stands now. The CPU has been overclocked by approximately 33%. The graphics card has been overclocked by about 10%. The Machine remains quiet and stable. However, the overclocking remains a work in progress and is a topic for another day.
Note that I have not yet used the AC Ryan Mirror 2 (one way glass) or the 5mm acrylic. I still intend to mode the side window and maybe the front door. However, this is a very stylish case and any work will need to enhance, rather than retract from it.
I hope you enjoyed reading about by first steps into water cooling. I have certainly enjoyed making Bellisin II and will move a stage further soon I am sure!
