Specifications

R&D

JUL 2011 maximumpc.com

MAXIMUMPC

TIDY UP

I DECIDED to mount the reservoir right below the hard drive,

usin g a m echa ni sm that w ould a l low m e to r un th e r es er vo ir i ts elf

par al le l to the c ase. I sc rew ed a m ountin g b a r into a hol e pr ev io usly

designed for a hard dr ive, then screwed a mounting bar attached

to the reservoir into the ﬁrst mounting bar (image K). The way I

attached the reservoir meant that the tank could conceivably pivot

on an axis, so I made sure to tighten the screw and nut combina-

tion s a s m uch as p os s ib le to lock t he entir e c ontr apti o n i nto p lac e

(image L). Att a c hing the pump to th e case w as mu c h easier: I just

used velcro, adhered to the case itself (image M).

FOR ANY SMALLER cables that didn’t come presleeved, I used Flexo Pet

sleeving to wrap the cables in a colorful, UV-reactive exterior. Heat-shrinks

and—in some cases—velcro strips were used to hold the sleeving in place

(image P). I used these same velcro strips to bind all of the power supply’s

black-sleeved cables together, and then wove all UV cabling around the

exterior of this mass, akin to vines around a tree trunk (image Q). It might

not look that interesting with the lights on, but the UV-reactive cabling look s

striking in the dark—and with my UV spotlights on, of course.

I ﬁnished out the system build by connecting all the associated power and

dat a c o rds , i n clud i ng t he ti ny w ire s u sed b y m y thi r d- par t y, U V- g lo wi ng s y s tem

sw itch. T he l ast p ar t of t he puz zl e in vo lv ed ﬁndi n g t he p er fec t p lace to m ount

my three UV-LED spotlights, which deliver focused light over a good chunk

of the case’s now-glowing parts.

TO MINIMIZE cabling and maximize my ability to control light-

ing brightness and fan power, I connected all the case fans and

lighting equipment (including a 12-inch UV cathode) to a Sunbeam

Rheobus Extreme six-channel fan controller (image N). The

contro l le r pro v ide s up to 3 0 w at ts of pow er p er c ha n nel , meanin g

that no connected device would need a secondary connection to

the power supply.

I cut off these secondary connections and, if a device didn’t

come with a 3-pin connector, I split its cable and the cable of the

fan controller’s included 3-pin wire, then connected these two

halves by twisting the wiring and covering the connection with

electrical tape (image O).

After I plugged in all the cables to the controller, I installed the

system’s optical drive over the top of it—both to hide the cabling

conne c tions a nd b ecau s e it would h av e b een a real p ai n to tr y and

hook them up with a huge optical drive in the way.

6 7

INSTALL WATER COOLING CONNECT THE CABLES