WTF: Part 3 - Blue Dragon Water Cooling Build Log

Project Blue Dragon – Water-cooling and Case Mod Build Log Update

This is a bit of an update on modding the top of my Obsidian 800D case to take the Hardware Labs Black Ice GT Xtreme 360mm radiator and a couple of other bits relating to the positioning of the Koolance reservoir. I'll have a further update to follow in a couple of days as this is getting a bit involved.

I don’t really like the recessed fan grills on the top of the case so I’ve decided to fit a Black Phobya 360mm Radiator Bricky Grill. To improve the flow of air I'm going to have cut out the existing grill using a Dremel.

Top of Obsidian 800D Case

Looks better with a fan grill

Top cut out

Finished off with some blow hole edging

As I mentioned in Part 1 I discovered that the Koolance RP-452X2 reservoir can be a bit difficult to bleed so I’ve decided to install a remote fill port, this is going on the top of the case, I think this will make my life much easier when filling, bleeding and maintaining the system (I like things to be simple).

Fan grill and Danger Den Foll-Port

With the top of the case masked up and a center punch point I'm ready to drill a 25mm hole to take the danger Den fill port.

Ready for drilling 25mm hole

Danger Den fill port in place

Another thing I don’t like about the case is the tool-less method of securing parts into the 5.25 drive bays, I think this could cause some vibration, so I'll have removed the plastic slidy things and I’ll be using screws on both sides to secure my reservoir, BluRay and fan controller.

Tool-less drive bay

To remove the plastic slidy things I had to push down on the tabs (marked with an arrow) until almost flat before being able to remove them. I’ll have to do a bit of spraying to tidy this area up a bit as removing the plastic parts exposes some bare metal. While I’m spraying this area I will also be spraying a couple of single slot PCI brackets for the graphics cards and a bracket I have made to support the bottom tray inside the case that is now sagging since the lower drive cage was removed.

This need a bit of spraying

With the reservoir in position and the pumps mounted in place I can’t access the pump speed control dials so I will need a couple of 25mm holes either side, once again this makes life easier as I don’t want to be sliding the reservoir in and out just to adjust the pumps; at a later date I will probably install a couple of pump controllers, but for now I’m just using the built in adjusters.

Pump adjuster obscured

Notice 25mm hole both sides to access pump adjuster

In Part 1 I also mentioned that I’d swapped the positioning of the BlueRay drive and fan controller, in fact I've now moved everything down leaving a blank between the power button/USB bay and the reservoir. This should allow me some space to get a short length of tube from a barb on the reservoir top fill port up to a fill port positioned on the top of the case. I’m also hoping that by creating some extra space at the top of the drive bays I will be able to position the radiator so that the inlet and outlet ports are towards the front of the case, this should simplify and tidy up the tubing route.

Hopefully, final positioning in front bay

Positioning the radiator ports towards the back of the case means I will have a long piece of tubing running across the front of the motherboard, this might look untidy

Rad facing rear of case

However, by fitting a remote fill port and moving everything down I should be able to re-position the radiator making tubing routes tidier and shorter.