Mini-Itx Watercooling (pics!)

[theburan]

So, I just picked up another mini itx computer, something that I can run 24/7 and actually do more than be a vent server (although I've decided to keep that old vent server running too, lol). Wound up with an intel atom board, 2 gigs of wintec ram (it was cheap, lol), an apex mi008 case/psu combo, and then I went and pulled the 500gig samsung and asus dvd drive out of my main computer to use here.

It's surprisingly fast, I haven't had any trouble running vista on it, even with things like dreamscene and aero turned on. Not to mention that it's so small... but there was one small problem.

The heat! The northbridge on that board would routinely hit 62c or 63c, occasionally a little higher, it was just crazy. It was still really stable and such, but dang, it was just so hot.

So then I thought to my self, hey, I have a coolermaster aquagate duo viva that isn't getting any use, maybe I can use that!

Problem #1 with the original cooling.
[IMG ]http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t274/buran_2007/IMG00049.jpg[/IMG]

See that? The hard drive, ram, sata cable, and northbridge are all bumped up against each other. Definetly not ideal situation.

So, I started to take it apart.








Finally got pretty much everything out. It's sorta like a puzzle, really.

That smaller chip is the cpu, the little intel atom.

Here's the board with the loop installed. The aquagate was designed for crossfire/sli setups, but it works pretty well with this setup. Cramped, but it winds up being much nicer to work with, since things like the sata cable to the hard drive fit now.


Testing the setup.


I wound up having to cut a hole in the case so I could run the tubes out side. Just used some shears and a file, covered the edges with electrical tape just to be safe. Wound up working out perfectly.




It looks a litlte goofy, sure, but temps are a good 20c cooler, and it didn't cost me anything, since I had all the stuff lying around.

[stinger608]

Holy crap, that actually looks pretty cool man!!!!

[gvblake22]

HAHA That's crazy! Nicely done though, tiny mods like that take a lot of patience. You've got some serious guts using zip ties to hold those blocks on too!

[Dr. V]

Wicked man! Hmm...I may be completely missing it, but what are the new temps?

[polobunny]

Haha, I admire your patience. Tiny cases are a b**** to work with.

[theburan]

zip ties seemed like the best answer to be honest. They were holding the blocks on pretty well, too. Any tighter than that and i'd be worried...

and as far as temps go, at idle the northbridge is sitting in the low 40's, 42 or 43 normally, and the cpu at 40 or 41, and then under load the northbridge is going up to about 47-48c from the looks of it (just doing some heavy file transfers... about the most this is expected to do). Not great temps, by any means... think the cpu might actually be running a little hotter than before to be honest, but man... having that northbridge idle in the low 60's (with a noisy fan on the heatsink, to boot), made this worthwhile. It's a bit quieter now, too.

And, it's not like that aquagate was getting any use anyways. I also got bored and flashed my linksys router with tomato, and set it up as a wireless bridge, so I can have both of my computers hooked up to the internet, along with whatever else I might want. So now I'm all set to have this little guy running 24/7 with winamp remote going to stream all my videos and music to me, whereever.