Project: LEXA

[TEAMIKKE]

Although airflow matters, it isn't vital. Especially not with watercooling. Everyone with a good 240. rad of even more can cool his rig. What really matters is, that you have enough outtakes.

My case has 7 fans and the are all outtake. Here's a little sketch of it.

Green = radiator
Blue = fans
red = HD's

It hasn't any intake! Still I can run passive with my watercool setup. My E6300 never runs hotter than 33 gr. Celcious (?). Only with gaming I'll turn the fans on (Noctua's: Quiet and little airflow) and still then it won't run hot. And they suck up ''hot'' air from the mainboard area!

If I were you, I woulnd't be so worried Same for the flow. If you have a good pump it can handle the resistance. That's were they are made for! You woulnd't buy a 8800ultra to play Age Of empires, right

Good job on detail btw

[The boy 4rm oz]

Thanks for the input. This is my first water cooled rig and I want to get it right the first time to save me trouble later. You and Xperiment both have valid points about fan placement but now after thinking about it I am leaning towards Xperiments rad set up. This also allows me to more effectively cool my RAM and Mosphet sinks on my 8800GTX.

[The boy 4rm oz]

Well guys I have decided to go for the Black Ice Stealth 240mm radiator with or without a sponsor, at only $95.00AUD it is cheaper than my 120mm Black Ice Xtreme.

Today I wanted to see if the radiator would actually fit in my case but first I had to re-attach the case feet back onto the case.
Pic of the re-attached case feet:

Next I drew up the exact measurements of the radiator on a sheet of paper and cut it out so I can use it as a template.
Pic of the template:

I know the template looks a bit big but this is the exact dimensions, the fans I drew on are a bit small and throws you off a bit.
Fitting the template on the floor of the case:

As you can see the template fits with about a 1cm gap at the PCI slits which needs to stay there due to the way the case feet are mounted.
The template with a fan on it:

Two fans fit comfortably in this space but this may lead to another problem that I will elaborate a bit more on in a minute.

The only downside of mounting the fans like this is as follows:

The pump doesn't fit where I intended to mount it. Damn you say? I say challenge .

Here is my solution.
I will make a small platform out of the plexi that the pump will sit on, this elevates it off the case floor and above those fans.
Here is a mock up I did quickly with some scrap plexi I had:

That's not all of my problems though lol.
Take a look at this pic:

This is a pic of the rear case feet. See the curve of the plastic? This may make mounting the radiator a bit more difficult. It actually won't fit unless I cut part of the feet away. This will also mean strengthening what is left of the plastic case feet because this computer will be heavy once the water loop is filled and the hardware is installed. That's all for now guys, I have to work tomorrow after school and Friday I have a driving lesson (woohoo almost have my license) so probably no update until Saturday night or Sunday. Until then...

Happy Modding.

[TEAMIKKE]

Make new custom feets! Stronger and they will fit the case even better then. I like it how you put everything in such a little space.

[The boy 4rm oz]

I want to keep the feet because it keeps with the contour of the original design. If you have a look at a LEXA side on the front and rear molding curves so it is "perfectly symmetrical", this includes the case feet. If I remove or destroy the original feet the case just wouldn't look right.
here is a pic of what I mean:
http://images.google.com.au/imgres?i...3Doff%26sa%3DG
This makes it easier to understand what I am saying lol.

[Xperiment]

I can sympathise with the problems you are having. I had to cross the exact same obsicle fitting mine. In the end I made my own feet for the case.

Here is how my rad fitted in, and Here is how the feet ended up.

EDIT: Posted at the same time! - Ahh I see what you mean with the feet and how they fit in with the case shape. Hmm not really an option to remove then. Is there no room to move the rad away from them by a few mm?

[The boy 4rm oz]

I would mount my rad the same way but it means I will lose access to 2 PCI slots which I don't want to do. I don't mind losing access to one (3rd PCI-E slot) but the slot above that is a standard PCI slot (I only have 2which I can really use due to water cooling). Those case feet look awesome mate, haven't seen them yet lol.

[Xperiment]

Thats the main problem, loosing expansion slots. I have had to loose 1 x PCI-E and 2 x PCI slots in order to get the rad in.

Would it be possible to mount the rad underneath the case with only the fans inside so you only loose 1 (if that) expansion slot. Then make a kind of stand to hide the rad and raise it off the ground. Could look kinda cool.

[The boy 4rm oz]

Would it be possible to mount the rad underneath the case with only the fans inside so you only loose 1 (if that) expansion slot.

I always intended to mount the radiator on the underside of the case with the fans inside (minimal loss of expansion slots).

As for moving the res forward, that's impossible. If I move it forward I will be going under the HDD bays with the barbs and I don't want to hack that up nor do I want the barbs coming up right in front of the expansion slots. I will have to take about a half inch of plastic away from the rear case feet so the radiator will slip in between them rather than the feet needing to be replaced. The only down side to this is the lack of strength in the case feet but that's nothing some metal strip can't take care of.

[The boy 4rm oz]

Well guys I hopefully intend to order my radiator over the weekend so I can hopefully have it installed by next weekend. I also need to buy two more fans and fan grills plus dust traps and more cable sleeving.