4u Watercooled Rackmount Build Log

[Tmt97]

Ever since Linus released hims personal rig update I've wanted what he has: a watercooled rackmount PC. Unfortunately I don't have the kind of funds Linus has in order to go out and buy a custom made case, or dual 360 rads. So I had to get creative and make do with what I got and can afford. For the past few weeks I've been saving up to afford this build, and finally I can!

 

First to build a watercooled rackmount PC, you need a rackmount chassis that can accommodate your radiator. This is no easy thing to find. As you know, Linus solved this by having a completely unique case manufactured. I instead searched far and wide across the internet for the perfect case, that both fit my budget, and could fit a radiator: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811128064

 

With some light modding this chassis will be exactly what I need. If you look closely it has 1 120mm fan. Perfect for accommodating a 120mm AIO cooler, if only the drive cage wasn't in the way. Fortunately it comes out after removing a few screws I circled in red. But where will my hard drives go if I'm removing the drive cage you ask? Great question, which Is answered by this nice 2 5.25" to 3 3.5" trayless hotswapable drive bay, with a classy faux wood exterior: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816215383R

 

Now how am I going to make this a watercooling build? Well I won't be able to make a custom loop for now, since I lack funds(although I would like to make a custom brass tubing loop at some point.) so instead I'll be using this cheap AIO cooler: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/lepa-cpu-cooler-lpwac120hf

In addition I will be swapping out the fan with 1 Noctua NF-P12 and 1 special edition LTT edition noctua fan.

 

The rest of the parts are fairly mundane. I will be transferring the components of my old rig into this until I get the money for further upgrades.(fx-6300 I'm looking at you)

 

I should have pics from the new build in about a week or two, once my parts get in.

 

Future Plans:

 

Theres a lot of things I'd like to do to this in the future. I actually intend to style this after a sort of steampunk theme. At some point I'd like to make a custom loop with brass tubing, maybe add a leather vinyl pattern on the front, ect.. And obviously I will be upgrading the motherboard/cpu as soon as I can. Hopefully I can get something with brass heatsinks for the motherboard. Needless to say I'm very excited about this build, and I'm glad I could share it with this community.

[Jacktastic-Mofo]

@Tmt97 where is the ice?

 

Cause... FUCKING NOICE.

[Tmt97]

Just bought my my rackmount case and my AIO cooler:

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811128064

 

http://www.amazon.com/SilverStone-Technology-Liquid-Adjustable-TD03-LITE/dp/B011VCVZYU/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1456618856&sr=1-2&keywords=120mm+aio+cooler

 

I will be assembling it sometime next week.

[Tmt97]

Okay, I got a small update. While I was waiting for the parts to get here, I decided to mod my PSU by adding a noctua fan. It was not easy, but after many hours of blood sweat and tears(yes, all three bodily fluids were legit present, and maybe a bit of piss too...), I finally got it open, and the noctua installed. Although the metal may be a bit bent, and the paint a bit messed up, I'm going to try to fix it with a sharpie, and pressure. Still looks pretty badass with the noctua though:

 

[Tmt97]

I got my AIO cooler in today. Installed it on the motherboard, and attached two noctua NF-P12s to the radiator. Heres a progress pic.

 

The case should be coming in either wednesday or thursday. I'll make an update then with everything installed in the 4u rackmount chassis.

 

 

[Tmt97]

Ok, the 4u chassis came in today. I finished installing my components inside, but I still have a lot of cable management that I'll be doing tomorrow.(I'm to tired to deal with it tonight) Everything fit inside great, with the exception of my AIO cooler. As for the AIO cooler, I have good news and bad news. After I bought it and the chassis I did the math and realized the tubing wasn't long enough to reach where I planned to mount the radiator. It doesn't the way I have it mounted on the cpu, but the good news is its only off by about an inch. If I flip the cooler around on the cpu 180 degrees it should give me just enough length to mount the radiator! I will be doing that tomorrow as well. Heres some pics:

I know its a complete mess lol. Like I said, cable management is something I will be doing tomorrow. Besides, Luke told me its okay.

 

[Jacktastic-Mofo]

The AIO ALMOST fits.

[Tmt97]

Just now, Jacktastic-Mofo said:

The AIO ALMOST fits.

It will I think. Its mounted on the cpu so that the tubes are coming out the opposite direction of the radiator. I reckon if I flip it around, Itl reach. If not, I will be buying something like this to give myself another inch or so:

Bottom line, it WILL fit, wether it wants to or not XD. On a side note, now that I've replaced the PSU fan and replaced the stock cooler with the AIO cooler, its nearly dead silent. The loudest thing is the video card fan, but even with it, you can barely tell the PC is on.

[Tmt97]

Good news. I flipped the orientation of the cpu block and managed to gain another inch on my AIO coolers tubing. It was just enough! The radiator is now mounted to the front of the case. I also did some cable management. It's not easy in a 4u chassis since theres no space behind the motherboard tray, or hooks n stuff to connect zip ties to. I did the best I could though, and you can atleast see the motherboard now. I'm open to suggestions of how to hide it more. Heres some pics:

 

Good news is that with the noctua ultra low noise adapter, which I plugged into both my noctuas, and the two 60mm fans, its almost dead silent. Quietest 4u chassis ever. So there you have it! The budget version of Linus's watercooled 4u chassis. I'm not gonna call this finished since there's still stuff I'd like to do to this in the future such as replacing the two stock 60mm fans with noctuas, and doing a brown faux leather vinyl wrap on the front panel of the case, and I'm thinking of paying BS mods to make a window in the top panel. But it's done for now, at least until I save up enough money to do some of the things I'd like to.

[Tmt97]

Heres a small update of my plans for this. I've been thinking of what I wanna do next, and I have decided on modding my video card. I am going to replace the two fans that came with it with two 92mm noctuas. I don't really want to ghetto mount it so I did some research and found that video card fans actually have a standard form factor:

It may a bit peculiar looking being triangular, but what it means is that I can design a form factor between this and a 92mm fan. I've been working on it in google sketchup, and once I'm done I will be sending it to a friend to 3D print:

I've also done some napkin math and it looks like there's enough space under the video card shroud to accommodate the two fans. To connect everything I will connect the two fans to a 2 way fan splitter, and connect the splitter to a low noise adapter, and the low noise adapter to a 3pin to 2pin adapter. Should be a fun little mod if everything pans out.

[DemonWars]

How is this build going so far? :3

 

[Loleo]

Wow, this looks awesome! Hyped for next update.

[KSores]

i really like this

[KSores]

would be cool if you made a custom shroud to hide the cables by the psu (kinda like the h440 and then plasti dipped the cables black or just got extensions to make it look all pretty

[Tmt97]

On 4/7/2016 at 3:36 PM, KSores said:

would be cool if you made a custom shroud to hide the cables by the psu (kinda like the h440 and then plasti dipped the cables black or just got extensions to make it look all pretty

 

On 4/7/2016 at 3:34 PM, KSores said:

i really like this

 

On 4/7/2016 at 11:47 AM, Loleo said:

Wow, this looks awesome! Hyped for next update.

 

On 4/7/2016 at 11:34 AM, DemonWars said:

How is this build going so far? :3

 

Thanks for the interest guys! I haven't posted an update in a while mostly due to lack of funds, but I might be doing some more work on this. The video card fan replacement is on the backburner at the moment, since I haven't been able to find the right dimensions of certain things such as the diameter of the screws that hold in a video card fan, ect... in order to properly model the adapter I'd need to make.

 

I really like KScores idea of making a custom PSU shroud to help with cable management. I'm looking into how I could do this, so something like this. Before I do any of that though, I will be replacing the ram. The current 4x2GB dimms that I salvaged out of an old computer are having problems(my computer sees that 8GB are installed yet insists that only 4GB are available for use...) I really can't live with just 4GB in my system so I've decided that I'll be investing in an entirely new 2x8GB kit:

I know its not as exciting as seeing a custom window or PSU shroud, but I do actually need a PC that is functional as well. Also if anyone else has any other suggestions to help with cable management, feel free to post them here. The PSU shroud will definitely help with the cable nest but I'm at a loss for what to do with all the other ugly cables stretching around the case with no obvious way to hide them...

[KSores]

1 minute ago, Tmt97 said:

 

 

 

Thanks for the interest guys! I haven't posted an update in a while mostly due to lack of funds, but I might be doing some more work on this. The video card fan replacement is on the backburner at the moment, since I haven't been able to find the right dimensions of certain things such as the diameter of the screws that hold in a video card fan, ect... in order to properly model the adapter I'd need to make.

 

I really like KScores idea of making a custom PSU shroud to help with cable management. I'm looking into how I could do this, so something like this. Before I do any of that though, I will be replacing the ram. The current 4x2GB dimms that I salvaged out of an old computer are having problems(my computer sees that 8GB are installed yet insists that only 4GB are available for use...) I really can't live with just 4GB in my system so I've decided that I'll be investing in an entirely new 2x8GB kit:

I know its not as exciting as seeing a custom window or PSU shroud, but I do actually need a PC that is functional as well. Also if anyone else has any other suggestions to help with cable management, feel free to post them here. The PSU shroud will definitely help with the cable nest but I'm at a loss for what to do with all the other ugly cables stretching around the case with no obvious way to hide them...

This is going to be amazing 

[clarkmcc]

On 3/1/2016 at 7:45 PM, Tmt97 said:

The loudest thing is the video card fan, but even with it, you can barely tell the PC is on.

I have a hard time classifying something as a server if its quieter than my leaf blower