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RADIICAL SRX and Shuttle XPC Project

The Radiical SRX water KIt and the Shuttle XPC Project

Part One

Build Log Date Commenced February 15, 2005

Project "Barebones"

It is not often that you get the opportunity to demonstrate the wide range of usage that your water cooling kits can accomplish. In the last project we used our largest kit the ultra extreme in a CM Stacker to reach passive cooling.

In this particular project we will be building an AMD64 based barebones kit from a Shuttle XPC using the parts from our Radiical SRX kit and a DDC-12v (read Swiftech MCP350) pump. The object of this project is to develop a water cooled gaming computer portable enough to be used for Lan's. The CPU and GPU will be water cooled.The completed unit will be overclocked to establish the highest level of performance obtainable.

Shuttle XPC Case

Shuttle case

It is relevant to point out for those of you who are not familiar with the Shuttle case that it is tiny. Measuring 30cm front to back and with a width of 20cm this case can only accommodate a single hard drive, floppy and CD-Rom. The total height of the case is only 18cm making space a super premium commodity.

Opening up the case for the first time we find the following set up.

Shuttle Case in Stock Condition

To get at the elements we need to view it is necessary to dismantle the case. I might point out if you attempt something like this and you value your hands dismantle as much of the case as you safely can. The alternative is scratches and cuts a plenty if you do not.

First the "air breather" HSF being removed.

And outside the case.

I have to say here that this would have to be one of the fanciest HSF I have seen for some time. The quality of the work that has gone into this unit is remarkable.

Next the installation simulation of the water cooling system.

For those of you who are not sure of the meaning of installation simulation it refers to setting up "mock up" parts in place of the completed units so that clearances and such can be checked prior to committing to the completed parts placement. Before that stage can be completed the remaining "air breather" parts must be removed.

Figure One

Figure One shows the plastic retaining cradle that has to be removed before the water cooling mounting points can be fitted.

Figure Two

Figure Two illustrates the fitting of the four mounting screws through the motherboard.

Figure Three

Figure Three shows the installation of a mock up block using the mounting plate, clearances can be seen all the way round the SRX block. An offset has been built into the block placement on this mounting plate so that it can be reversed if the necessary clearance is not available in the socket area. At this point the clearances seem to be acceptable so the unit can be firmed up a bit more.

The SRX Water Block

We spent a lot of time designing, producing and testing this particular water block. It was tested as low as minus 45 degree Celsius in our water chiller project where it passed the testing with flying colors.

Radiical SRX at minus 45 degrees

We have chosen to use the Radiical SRX above the other blocks we manufacture because of its small overall size. The Radiical SRX water block measures in at 48 mm square. It is ,however,very efficient at cooling with its cross flow turbulence characteristics. The low profile of the water block permits its use in very confined spaces where other blocks of larger size would be inappropriate. At present the SRX block is constructed for socket A application however a universal mounting plate will be made available shortly to adapt the SRX for cross platform use. With the addition of a specially constructed mounting plate the SRX is the block of choice for this project.

Tubing

We have elected to use the copper tubing that we first used in the CM Stacker project. This project decisions, made at the planning stage, was to increase the cooling capacity of the system by integrating additional copper tubing into the construction. The additional tubing in the CM Stacker was found to act as radiator of heat during testing of the water temperatures as opposed to Clearflex which acted as an insulator in the circuit. In such a small system as this it is important to maximize every element possible. After all what we have here is the same heat values that are found in larger cases where CPU temperatures can reach figures of 60 degrees plus at load and case temperatures can reach 40 degrees or more.

The issue of tubing size was also resolved earlier when a decision to evaluate the DDC-12v pump was made. To this end all the water cooling components have been switched to 3/8" application. Where it is felt necessary the copper tubing will be replaced with 3/8" Clearflex where vibration or joint pressure on components is an issue. To assist with disassembly soft joints will be made with Clearflex so that the system can be broken down for parts checking or replacement.

Next ..................Tubing, Radiator and pump placement