I Mounted the fans to the SwiftTech 360 radiator using nylon standoffs with plexiglass to create a short duct and hopefully reduce dead spots in the air flow. The fans are from *cough*bestbuy*cough* ( and no, I didn't let Geek Squad install them :P ) but I didn't want to wait to try mounting some radiator fans and adjust the standoffs and plexi glass baffle / duct walls. The fans are are supposed to have OK airflow at 74CFM but unfortunately 38dB at high speed, they will no doubt be swapped out eventually with something much better. I am planning to replace the radiator as well after doing more research, this one was an impulse buy I kind of regret, but will use in the project as well! I'll let you know when I do.

One quarter inch is a bit thick and heavy, but being the top of the case, there is the risk that something may fall and land on it, and being so large it would go right into the cpu cooling system and motherboard. This thickness of Plexiglas can take a LOT more abuse than what I am using for the side windows.

The opening for the side window was cut.... with a manual nibbler, the results were pretty decent, but its quite a workout for the hands, with having some arthritis in my hands pretty bad lately, it was a difficult and long process over a few days, but I'm happy with how it turned out and will improve the appearance by showing off the water cooling system. It also gave me a break from typing, which was really driving my hands nuts.

03-27-2007

I originally cut the side window out of 1/4" Plexiglas as well, but this resulted in problems due to the thickness and close tolerances between the case edges and such, so i reduced it to the thinner Plexi I have, which is quite thin at around 3/16ths of an inch. I used the original piece i had cut as a drill template for the thinner material and it works out much better. Here's a photo of the side panel with the Plexiglas installed.

Next on the list is to cut out the other side panel, but i need to decide on how I am mounting the radiator before I do that. Additionally I need to drill out all the Rivets on the panels inside so I can remove them and paint them. they will be re-installed with hex head screws ( 3mm ), as I've been using all throughout the case so far, and when appropriate will be accompanied by some of these little socket head screw caps which add a nice touch. They can be found at Century Helicopters

As an additional note, I am going to be putting an adjustable flow sensor in the water loop, this device is from a 3 watt argon laser system, it originally had a 3/8" barb on it, this was part of a system that removed over 3000+ watts of waste heat from the ceramic bore of the laser tube using an open loop 'city water' type cooling system. I've mounted 1/2" barbs onto it and flushed it with CLR to scaley buildup inside. Good to go now!

The liquid flow sensor is adjustable from 1.2-8 Liters per minute, if the flow volume from the water pump falls below that, the float drops and triggers the sensor. This will connect into an alarm circuit with a Sonarlert module. Upon system power up, the alarm circuit will be disabled via a time delayed relay, and then after the amount of time specified(by resistor on the relay) it will be enabled. The time will be set for however long it takes the the water circuit to come up to speed, a few seconds at most, but will avoid an annoying beep at startup. (Sonarlert modules tend to be ear piercing). The circuit may also try to star an additional water pump, or two water pumps will run and it will monitor failure of both, still unsure. At any rate I plan on using a Swiftech 665 / Liang D5 / Danger Den D5 12 volt centrifugal water pump.

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