Finally sold the scooter today! $1600 cash in hand, plus some other money from another sale. I'm over $2100 cash. I'm also trading in some PTO at work, so that'll bring in another grand and a half! I'm working through the water cooling strategy right now before I start ordering up parts.
I got a case this weekend. Basic vanilla box case from Nspire. It's been gutted. Cheapo 400W PSU that came with it (Soly Tech) is out. I'll part that out and use it as a benchtop power supply/test rig power. Cheapo case fans are gone. Hard drive bays have had their rivets drilled out. "Fan Tube" thing is gone. Case feet gone. Front panel has been scrapped except for the USB connector board which I'll probably hack up and use somewhere. Even the paint... I ground it all off. Ready for more torture soon. Got some thick plexiglass for building up some parts of the base. Will be hitting up the local electronics warehouses for wire, LED's, molex connectors and other necessary wiring bits sometime soon.
I've finally come up with a setup and theme for this build. I'm going for a theme based on the "Fallout" games. Interestingly enough it appears Fallout 3 is currently in production. I'm building a base that the case will sit on. The hard drives will be isolated in the base and will have their own fans for cooling. Only thing in the main part of the case will be the MB, video cards and optical drive. On the top of the case, the PSU will be moved up and back out of the top of the case, isolating it's airflow. The remainder of the top of the case will be the radiator for the soon to be selected water cooling system. The rear area of the case between PSU and base will have a removable cover that will cover the cables. The base will be made to look like a rocky cliff. The case will look like a 1950's era power station/manufacturing building. I am currently considering using the last of my 4 video connections to operate a small LCD panel on the case side. The LCD will be displaying the application "SysMetrix" which will be skinned to match the theme. It will display system stats on analog looking gauges, and if I can figure out how, will slideshow images from the game series. If you've ever seen the Doom 3
roject Mars City case mod by Paul Capello, that's roughly the direction I'm headed, although the theme and scale of the case will be somewhat different. I'm looking into doing some animated door(s) as part of the design as well. Got a chance to meet the guy at the Maker Faire a couple weekends ago. Got a chance to fondle his case. What a beauty! Since I'm a model builder too, this type of heavy modding totally gets me going. I can't wait to get the sketches of the design sorted out and get this build underway!
If anybody has input on a good, solid setup for water cooling, shoot me the info. It would save me a headache looking through this stuff. I want to cool both video cards (8800GTS or 8800GTX), the CPU and North Bridge. I have sufficient space inside the case for a good size reservoir. Any thoughts on tubing size? I've seen 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2. I figure 1/4 or 3/8 to keep the flow rate up. The Koolance water blocks look to me to be really nicely made, with super smooth contact points. Danger Den appears to have a block for the 8800GTX's. Anybody use these? Do they have all the parts I'd need? I think I need something more than a simple DIY box kit.