I bought an Antec PERFORMANCE TX TX1050B case & power supply. you can see it here:
http://tinyurl.com/7q7yc

I like the way the bays are set up and they are modular & come out easily, couldn't be much better. There is a filter material so the air coming into the case comes through the front grill and it is removed from the bottom, cleaned & put back in. The fresh air being sucked in by the case fan cools the hard drives in the lower bays. It's pretty slick.

I am transferring my waterblock to this computer. My existing radiator is external to the computer & is quite large and is remote for silence. I use an Iwaki MD20RZ to pump all this distance and all has been well with my old XP2600 system. In this computer I want to mount a smaller radiator inside and have purchased the coolrad 12T 120MM radiator. In the past I have seen people put this kind of radiator where the lower bay is in my case. What I am thinking of doing is leaving the bay alone and attaching the radiator to the case fan on the back wall, exausting through the holes for the 120MM case fan..

This radiator It will fit inside and the fan will be sucking through the radiator with the air entering the case being filtered by that built in filter Antec includes., I will be using a 12V pump (DD-D5). and a bay resevoir. If I were to have the radiator air exaust out the front as everyone I've seen so far has done, the filter would be of no use.

So I've looked to see if someone else has done what I'm suggesting (Radiator attached to the exhaust fan on the back wall) but I haven't seen a photo or description of it. Does anyone personally know if this idea I have works well? I'll be using a Cascade WB & using an Opteron clocked around 2.9Ghz

An answer asap would be appreciated, If there's a problem with my idea I'd like to know before I assemble it & ruing the tubing...

Thanks!

MM

Of course it "can be done"
I have 0 experience with you setup, but you are only limited by your mod skills.
It all depend on what you want to go through.
you also have to consider that you may pick up excess heat by using the case exaust ,but I've seen it done succesfully many times.
(I'll try and find some pics for you)

Hey there Rbieze,

Thanks for replying!

Heh, I know it can be done because I see it completed in my head but perhaps there's a reason it's not done this way by most people. What I'm thinking of will make no changes to the case and that idea sounds great to me but maybe there's a hit in efficiency I don't forsee or something of the like. I like being creative & doing things differently than most but only if "my way" is as good. I don't want to assemble a cooling system that wiill take a real performance hit in the name of creativity.

Like 1-2C of cooling loss isn't to me a big deal. 4C or more of loss because of inefficiency would be an issue.

I'm running this Opteron 165 at 2.75Ghz on the stock cooling but the core is at 47C and I'd like to see that dropped by 10C. Heat's expensive so I leave the house around 68 in the winter & wear sweaters all the time so that helps keep the temperature low right now but when summer comes, I'm sure the core will be too hot for my comfort.

That's why I'm wondering if the way I want to place/run the radiator assembly is a good idea & I haven't yet read about this from someone who has done it.

Parts are on the truck for delivery. CrazyPC got my order up & out right away.

Sounds like a good place to mount the rad. As for how much of a cooling loss you will see, think of it like this. If your rad is dissipating all the heat from the CPU then your water will be right there around room temp since the air from the room would be blowing straight into your rad if it was mounted in the bottom front of your case (most common spot). Now if your block had a delta of 10c and room temp was 25c your cpu would be at 35c. Now if your running the rad in the back of the case (where you are going to mount it) the air will be a little warmer but I doubt more then 2c (maybe some one can chime in with a more specific test backed answer). So now the air going into the rad will be 27c (the 2c it picked up off the other components going through the case) and add it to the ambient 25c + 2c = 27c for the air going through the rad, so after the 10c delta your cpu would be 37c. Not much of a difference and you will be fine with your choice. Good luck with the project!

I've had my Tt Bigwater water cooling system setup both ways, and there is hardly any noticable difference.

Well hi,

Thank you both for the quick replies, it means a lot as I'm going to put this together today.

I'ver discovered a problem I didn't expect; I'm using the DFI UT Lanparty nF4 SLI-DR and it has a sound card chip which can be added to the board as optional. I installed it & the drivers to make things easy. I've discovered the sound card module abuts the fan & I can't install the radiator on the inside of the back as I planned. Even the manifold is too big for what is and it's not going to fit..

Cause of this I have two choices: one is to remove the sound card chip & get rid of the 5:1 sound option and the I/O options from the front of the case, The other is to install the radiator on the outside on the back panel

Since I don't have but two sound monitors and I do have a high end sound card which was in another computer, the" Lynx Two" from here http://lynxstudio.com/lynxtwo.html
I will remove the DFI module & stick it back in the box and I'll run my Mackie Monitors instead from the LynxTwo and this will give me the room I need.

It'd be nice to not have to remove the DFI's native sound module but I see this as being the easiest for me. Otherwise I'd have to drill a couple holes in the back of the case for the hoses to exit.and the fan would be outside sucking & that would add to the dB level. Since I'm a musician & use this for recording, I need things quiet as can be.

I was thinking of what to use for liquid for the system but everything non-conductive was so D#$%^d expensive like $35 for 32 ounces of non-conductive stuff that I decided to use Everclear which is 95% ethyl alcohol & won't ruin anything if it leaks. For $12 I can buy a quart of the stuff....

It'll be together tomorrow, I'll let you all know how well it did. and the change in temp (O'course it takes several days for AS5 to seat in for the best temps with a waterblock) but I'll let you know.


MM

leaks leaks leaks...

I would have this installed by now but the connection to the bay-res keeps leaking. It would have been fine as it was (threaded) but the attachments were 90 degree nipples. Not wanting any sharp 90 degree bends I went to the hardware store & bought some copper plumbing 90 degree nipples the right size & pushed them in & then epoxied these in. So ya, it's still 90 degrees but it's just like a bend in the tubing and won't be an inpingement.

So far it seems like the water finds a way to escape between the epoxy & the plastic. I just tried some different epoxy & this will probably be OK.

Ya gots to test all the fittings before putting water in your computer...

Back to check on the progress...