Mod of the Month - November 2008

H2O-C7

by jhanlon303
Worklog

I have to admit, I have a bit of a soft spot for small form factor case mods and jhanlon303's latest project is another that has grabbed our attention this month. jhanlon303 has been making some good progress and, unlike his fellow modder on the previous page, he prefers a more hands on approach to planning.

jhanlon303's latest project is based around a VIA C7 platform and, as I'm sure you've guessed from the name, he's planning to watercool it.

Excessive? Yes, but does that matter? Absolutely not - it's awesome!

In fact, it's adding an interesting dimension to the project because jhanlon303 chose such a small case as a starting point - but he's interestingly building his own shell from scratch merely using the chassis as a starting point. Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to seeing how he manages to squeeze all of the watercooling gear inside such a small space.

There is, after all, an underwritten rule for VIA C7-based SFF mods - it's that everything has to fit inside the case.


jhalnon303 has worked with fellow forum member Cheapskate to supply the waterblocks for his project and, boy, they're pretty awesome - great work, Cheapskate! They're custom designed especially for this project and evidence of that sprung to light as soon as jhanlon303 fitted the blocks to his C7 board - there was just enough room between the washers and the lone DIMM which sits right next to the CPU and chipset.


He has a few ideas for how he's going to overcome the problem of space given that all-important underwritten rule of C7 SFF modding. There has been a lot of discussion about how jhanlon303 is going to get the tubing attached to his reservoir/pump combination without kinks - the favoured choice at the moment appears to be a pair of right-angled fittings. While not ideal in a high-performance loop, it doesn't matter a great deal when you're only cooling a C7 and the chipset - in fact, it's the chipset that gives off the most heat.

With that in mind, there's no need for an elaborate radiator and that is, in fact, probably the coolest component used in this mod so far. jhanlon303 has managed to find a 40.2mm radiator (that's two 40mm fans), which will be more than enough to keep the components inside this little baby and it saves on space, too!


Another part of the planning process in jhanlon303's H2O-C7 project involves compartmentalising various parts of his scratch-built chassis - he built a detailed model out of card that basically fits over the existing shell he's using as a guideline. He's planning to show off the reservoir through a window in the front of the chassis - this will be in its own separate compartment and should make for an interesting centrepiece.


jhanlon303 is doing an excellent job of keeping the thread up to date with the latest progress and what's more, a jhanlon303 project isn't complete without some props to help him along the way - Cheapskate isn't the only help he has seeked to get this project well and truly rolling! A family of trolls turned up to help with some of the cutting - as always though, don't feed them because they might bite - and there was also an army of Jawa scavengers who turned up while jhanlon303 was taking a nap.

Thankfully, they didn't steal anything of anything of importance to the project and it's moving along at a decent rate of knots. You can read more about his progress - and the little helpers - in jhanlon303's worklog, which is well worth following if you have even just a passing interest in SFF modding.

If you think his work is worthy enough to be this November's Mod of the Month, head on over to vote for jhanlon303 in this thread after you've been through his entertaining worklog!