spent the past 1 and a bit days making this window! :





for anyone interested in cutting sheet metal (e.g. for making a case window) then u really should read crisspy's thread here which has plenty of useful information. i wouldn't even have attempted this without crisspy's advice.

to cut a long story short, i bought crappy tin snips which jammed in literally 2 minutes, and exchanged them for a pair of wiss tin snips which have not only finished that job easily but another job as well, and they're still as good as new. after i cut out the hole (measuring and stuff first, of course) i got some perspex and cut it to be slightly larger than the hole, clamped it to the side panel and drilled 9 holes for screws/bolts.

i had to remove the acoustic dampening material from the side panel obviously - although it is still there on the front part so it can still dampen hdd noise/vibration. good thing about watercooling is that i don't need the acoustic foam covering the entire panel anymore - especially since i'll be moving the rad out of the case soon.

thoughts?

Wow!!!! Now that's cool!! Does make any difference to the sound coming out of the case though? Also, I wonder how much of a difference it makes to the structural strength of the side panel.

Gotta admit it looks cool though!!!

Nice window, I like the shape its even and well thought out. Need some cablegami a la ralf. What is that SoundGuard sound dampening material you use? Ive never heard of it before. Also why are u moving your rad, and is your system louder now?

Im not a big fan of case + cooling device. As an aside, how much maintenance does a watercooling rig take? How afraid are u to move it etc.

zuperdee: with regard to sound levels, the hdd's are only barely audible now (they were quite loud before) and other noise has pretty much not changed at all. there's enough acoustic material on the side panel left to prevent the pump from vibrating it to oblivion and the only other noise making component is the rear case/radiator fan which is definitely not any noisier.

structurally, the side panel is pretty much as before. there are folded bits on all 4 sides so there isn't much flex, however the steel alone (without the window) wobbles quite a lot

tay: thanks, i spent a long time planning the window i'm glad someone appreciates its form the power cables are too stiff to be manouevred (sp?) any more, and due to the acoustic material there isn't any room behind the motherboard backplate or above the psu etc.

the material is "SoundSorber Barrier" material made by a company in Australia called SoundGuard. it's an 18mm thick composite material consisting of 5 mm foam, 3 mm barrier mass and another 10mm foam.

i'm going to get a bigger rad (a "big arse" heatercore) which won't fit nicely inside the case except for at the top front, but that would hinder airflow to my already-very-low-airflow PSU. so i'm mounting it outside. also the air is much cooler outside the case so performance will be better.

the system isn't louder now. it's quieter.

watercooling can be almost totally maintenance free if you know what you're doing. if you don't, then it's a very very expensive nightmare. basically, if nothing horrible goes wrong, then the only maintenance you need to do (if at all) is a complete flush of the system every year or so, and that's about it. i wouldn't hesitate to move this case anywhere - in fact, just as a test, i turned the case totally upside-down and everything was fine (pump on and everything)

wow! great job chylld!!! ive always wanted a window in my case to show off my watercooled setup but i kinda accepted the fact that i'd never get it with my BQE.

You guys have got to remember that watercooling means alot less fans and no noisy cpu fan so not having a little foam where the window was will not make a significant difference.

How are your temps these days chylld? How loud is your setup?

Yeah maintainence wise its quite time consuming to setup at first but once thats done well you can leave it and forget it for ages with a top up occasionally.

Ive also transported my watercooled rig to lans and things with no problems - in transportation my case fell on its side but i didnt get any leaks or anything. Just gotta make sure all your caps are screwed on tightly!

Chylld you just gotta get a few cathodes now! I used to have a uv cathode and uv reactive watercooling dye which kinda glowed, it was really cool - apart from the blue uv isnt that reactive compaired to the green.

thanks seal if you have a free day and the right tools, then a window is quite simple, and for us WC'ers, definitely worth it.

my temps are actually quite horrible now. going to get a bigger radiator (ba heatercore) and have it externally in its own box, along with a better cpu waterblock (already ordered) so performance should improve drastically.

noise-wise, the system is actually back to a relatively quiet level, i.e. quieter than my monitor's buzz. hdd noise has been almost completely eliminated, which isn't bad for a raid1 system. when i move the rad to it's own box, this thing should be near silent again.

hehe i was going to get a cold cathode but couldn't find a nice place to put it. so instead i'm getting a UV 3-LED cluster which i can mount anywhere in the case. the radiator coolant i use is called "Nulon Ultra Cool" which is actually UV reactive by default so my case should be quite pretty by next week

I am not a big fan of the 3 led clusters as the angles of the leds suck (I have a blue 3 led cluster which I bought cuz it was cheap). I think individual leds would be better if you can find a way of mounting them cleanly with resistors/diodes etc since you can point them in any direction. Anyway the UV is better than a light because of how you can emphasize certain components and there isnt too much spill out light. More screenies!! (I like to live vicariously)

heheh ok.



a pic of the acoustic foam that i have on the front part of the side panel. the foam, being 18mm thick, actually serves to 'close off' the hdd cage so it does an excellent job in dampening hdd sounds.



wider shot. the window is held in place with nuts + bolts, the bolts were too long so i had to cut them in half with a coping saw so they didn't protrude too far into the case.



my absolutely awesome pair of wiss tin snips (m2) sitting on a piece of perspex exactly like the one the window started as. i got 3 of these sheets for AUD4 (USD3) - not a bad deal

as a point of interest, i did a flex test of the side panel and it's surprisingly stiff - i think even stiffer than just the normal steel would have been. i was going to take a photo to show the flex of the side panel but i needed to use two hands to flex it, leaving none for holding the camera. enough said, i think