Mod of the Month - August 2009

Isis Ascendant

by longwing
Worklog: Here

Longwing's idea for Project: Isis Ascendant can following an unsuccessful attempt at a previous project called Infohazard 3 which planned to be fully submerged in coolant. When leaks and like proved to be too much of a problem (we've seen this plenty of times over the years too) the project was shelved but longwing didn't give up.

Instead he found a kit from a company called Puget Systems which solved the initial problem of leaks but when longwing opened the box, it wasn't quite up to his needs. However, longwing proved to be up to the challenge of a little modding here and there and in his own words it was 'Time to break out the Dremel'. Oh yes.


With no room inside for drives, longwing set about contructing an extension to the case to hold them. Here's part of the drive bay cage he stripped from an old case. We can also see his paint booth. Looks more like a puppet theatre to us but it seems to do the job anyway!


Now things are getting interesting. This we think is the extention part to the kit longwing bought and we can already see the position of the cooling radiator and what appears to be an Eheim 1250 pump. If you're new to submersion cooling, it's not enough to simply dip your hardware in oil or water, you still need to move this through the heatsinks for things to work.


Here's the puppet theatre again this time with a cooling fan getting a fresh coat of paint. However longwing then proceeds to wipe the layer off delicately to produce some interesting patterns. We can see these on the right. Too much acetone with strip the paint completely so it seems longwing got it spot on.


The same process has been applied to the drive cage, as we can see above. The case should look great when it all comes together. Unlike modern pumps like the Laing D5 and DDC, the Eheim 1250 is powered directly from the mains rather than the PSU. To allow the pump and PC to be turned on at the same time you need a relay which is what longwing has started work on here. We wish longwing the best of luck and we're sure he can achieve his goal of a submerged PC this time!

If you'd like to vote for longwing's Project: Isis Ascendant please head over to our forum here.