Background:
I have a watercooled computer in a custom diamond plate case. I call it The DiamondBox. I originally made it in 2004, and you can find the original writeup here. I wanted to provide an update to the project to show you all how it’s evolved in these past two or three years.
Inspirations:
The mentality of this project strays pretty far away from your typical Dell, where you have a pretty plain case that’s cooled by air. Watercooling is more efficient and allows me to cool the CPU better. This lets me crank the speed up to about 40% faster than stock while still maintaining stability. Basically, it saves me money. Sort of. In truth, I save money by not buying a more expensive processor, but I spend more money on the specialized equipment. But what the hell…it’s fun.
The concept of a diamond plate PC comes from the Waterbox incident of 2006 where my acrylic PC had an unfortunate encounter with gravity, and lost. I wanted a PC that was tough as hell and looked like it, but still looked cool and industrial. Aluminum diamond plate FTW!
So, a few days ago, I noticed that there was some cavitation at the outlet of the waterblock (an air pocket, essentially). Water was still getting through, but it seemed like the rate was a lot lower than it should have been. I had noticed some particulate in the loop in the month prior to that, too, so it was time for a coolant flush.
Current Specs:
Motherboard: Asus P5E motherboard
CPU: Intel Q6600 Quad-Core (2.4GHz stock), overclocked to 3.4GHz on water
RAM: 8GB G.Skill DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000)
Video: MSI GeForce 8800GT
Storage: 2x Seagate 1.5TB in RAID0 (backed up nightly)
Power Supply: OCZ GameXStream 600W
Pump: Eheim 1048
Radiator: Black Ice Xtreme Chrome
Waterblock: Swiftech Apogee GTX
Fans: 3x 120x38mm, 1x 80x25mm
Photos:
| Here’s what I found when I opened up the waterblock. That gunk just isn’t good, and is the source of the restriction I was seeing. |  |
| Here’s the other side of the waterblock, where that black layer had chipped off and seems to be the source of the gunk. Apparently the waterblock is aluminum, and the underside here is plated in nickel, then zinc cobolt, and then the black dye is applied.
I’m not sure I trust this whole approach. Rule #1 of watercooling is Don’t Mix Metals, plus aluminum and zinc are toward the top of the scale, while copper is near the bottom. This means putting them together means it’s increasingly likely to have galvanic corrosion. |
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| Here’s a side-shot of the PC sans the case sides, power supply, radiator, and tubing. |  |
| The knobs on the front go to a Sunbeam fanbus in the bottom 5.25″ bay. The knobs fit my design scheme well, and it was a good quality unit, so I added it. I desperately needed a fan controller since these 120x38mm fans are extremely loud at full speed. I typically turn the fan control up just enough that the fans start and that’s enough air at a low noise level. |
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| Here’s the top with the radiator removed. The hole was cut to the exact size of the radiator opening, plus two holes for the barbs to pass through into the case. These proved to be difficult because I lose about 1/4″ of the barbs since the hose can only go as far as the top of the case. This made it a lot harder to get a solid connection.
A couple years ago, while I was leak testing, the hose actually came off of the barb, dousing all of my components in coolant. That was a huge mess to clean up, and trust me…it SUCKED. Since then, I only use metal hose clamps on these connections, which poses another problem: there’s so little room in there that it’s very, very difficult to tighten the screws on the hose clamps. But such is life, particularly with this case. My tolerances are pretty tight in some places. Another example of this is the radiator fan. I have to use a shorter-than-standard optical drive in the top bay in order to leave room for the radiator fan. The PSU, on the other side, also has to be under a certain size. The current PSU fits well, but the 520W I had before it was so close I literally had to remove the fan grill to make it fit. |
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| Here’s the Eheim 1048 pump. The inlet is on the side, and outlet is on the top. Originally I had an Eheim 1250, but it was larger and didn’t leave me room to put any vibration dampening material. This meant it caused a vibration throughout the case, as well as some rattling. The 1048 is a lot better, still providing enough flow and hardly any vibration or noise. Unless you touch it, you’d never know it was running.
The small piece of padding the pump is sitting on is a chunk of what I suspect is silicone, from Petra’s Tech Shop. Supposedly it’s one of the best vibration dampening substances for this sort of application, and it does seem to do an excellent job. |
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| The motherboard, Quad-core Q6600, 4GB RAM, and 8800GT. It takes no prisoners. |  |
| Inside the right side. It gets a lot more messy once the power supply is in and all the cables are run. |  |
| The red button is the power button. I relocated it to keep the front clean and simple. |  |
| The Power Supply. OCZ GameXStream 600W. It’s been very solid from what I’ve seen. |  |
| The Apogee GTX waterblock. It looks a lot better from this angle. In order to clean off the corrosion/peeling black crud, I used distilled white vinegar (5% acetic acid) and let it sit for about 30 minutes at a time. Then I would take a toothbrush to it and clean off as much as I could. Repeat.
Yes, it was as much fun as it sounds like. Now that I think about it, I should probably throw away that toothbrush…. |
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| It’s like a field of diamond plate as far as the eye can see! |  |
| A lot of people like the shape of this case window. Of course, so do I. This is one of the areas I’ve kind of dropped the ball, though–there’s still no window in this case. Just an opening for one. I have the Plexiglas cut, and I’m still considering setting it in place and then using black caulk around the edge to seal it in place. I’ve also considered bending some small aluminum tabs and riveting them in place, with some small round-head bolts holding it on the window side of things. |  |
| The Black Ice Xtreme Chrome Radiator. Normally I avoid anything with the word “Xtreme” in the name, but this one has turned out to be pretty good. I cleaned it this time around using distilled white vinegar (5% acetic acid) and letting it sit for a few hours, then flushing with distilled water. I wanted to be sure there wasn’t more gunk trapped in the radiator where I couldn’t see it. |  |
Here’s the tubing as it’s installed. The white top of the fill-line, though ugly, will be hidden by the side of the case. I use metal hose clamps on the radiator and CPU block, and plastic clamps on the pump. I could use metal all the way around, but they aren’t necessary there, and I don’t have any more metal clamps.  |
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| Here’s how I fill the line. A funnel connected to the t-line, and typically jury rigged to stay upright. Then you add a couple ounces of coolant to fill up the T-line, turn on the pump for a second so it can circulate it, then cut the power and repeat. Eventually, there’s enough coolant to leave the pump on. You want to be sure not to run the pump dry, though; this can damage the impeller.
The small bottle of blue liquid behind the case is the antifreeze I use. Entirely because it’s blue. It’s just ethylene glycol, and I mix it with distilled water in a 5% ratio. |
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| Night shot. It’s like porn for ?ber-geeks. |  |
| Another shot from the side. The light is coming from two blue cold cathodes hidden behind the side on the bottom and left side. You can see them, and the inverter, in some of the more brightly lit shots. |  |
| Here’s the pump in the dark. |  |
| The three pieces of tube connecting to the T-line were interesting–you can see they don’t use any clamps to stay in place. The T is tight enough that if you get the tubing on well, it doesn’t need clamps. In order to do that, I boiled a pot of water, stuck the end of the tube in it for a minute, then pressed it on hot. This allows it to expand and flex much more easily. Once it cools, that sucker is staying in place. |  |
| Here’s the whole thing with a bit of light in the room. Still looks awesome. |
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Future Plans:
The main thing I still want to do is finally mount the window in place.
Conclusion:
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about this project as much as I’ve enjoyed making it and showing it off. I’ve gotten some great comments about it, and it’s definitely a good feeling to know I made something unique.
A huge thanks to my Dad and my friend Tom Nichol for helping me out with this project originally.
All content ?2008 Tony Magri
