To view this case mod, go here.
Specs:
Watercooled Enermax Galaxy 850 PSU
Mods:
Seated 2 lenghts of 15mm copper water pipe into modded heatsinks inside an Enermax Galaxy 850 watt PSU and connected it to my 1st loop.
Not really a case mod but still a mod, besides this is going into a nice new case that i am half way through modding
Nearly killed myself........ lol Below you see my much beloved and now totally trashed Enermax Galaxy 850. I recently upgraded, new CPU, more RAM, new GFX cards, more hard disks. But the extra load has made the PSU more noisy when the system is under full load and is annoying, nearly every other component in my system is water cooled so i had this bright idea of modding my PSU, water cooling it to be exact.
I opened it up, took a look in side and saw the heat sinks used to keep it cool. 2 long sinks, i thought - should be easy to run some 15mm copper pipe through them!!! So i started work, Grinding, dremmelling, sanding, and cutting a hole through the top of the heat sinks to seat the copper piping. Amazingly the heat sinks aren’t made from what you’d expect… aluminum or copper, but steel!!! not what youd expect from once what cost me near 200 squid. After a lot of hard work i finally ended up with 2 near perfect 15mm gaps in which to seat my copper piping. I used steel epoxy resin to attach the copper piping to the top of the heat sinks and left it to set overnight. Once set i fixed a 90 degree elbow compression fitting on each end of the pipe so that i can easily link the 2 pipes together with clear tubing to connect it all to my first water cooling loop.
FIRST TEST : Powered on my system, and the first thing i noticed —- NO NOISE!!! music to my ears my rig was perfectly silent!!! WOOHOO! However, there was no display. After what seemed hours of messing around i discovered that none of my 3 HD4870’s would display anything on either of their 2 DVI ports, I powered down and drained my system, then i came to disconnect the PSU and it was then i was shocked, yes shocked, electrocuted, and it FREAKIN HURT!!! id touched the copper piping as i had left the cover and insulation off the PSU due to testing so i could easily see leaks etc… then it dawned and my heart sank 
…. if the copper piping is live, the water passing through it would also be live, and that passes god knows how many copper water blocks. YUP, killed my 3, yes all 3, HD4870’s.
Luckily or not so luckily, all my other components survived, i tested the board, CPU, RAM with my old HD3870X2 and everything was fine. Ive since RMA’ed my 4870’s and had them replaced, lucky i know.
Im now in the process of further insulating the copper piping, i will try to remove the pipes, painting it, insulating the naked areas with something and attaching the pipe to the heatsinks with adhesive thermal tape and securing them with some Araldite. And next time i test i will test it on a less expensive rig lol got an old P3 system knocking about. I have also purchased a voltmeter too to test the water/pipe/casing properly without killing myself. Will post details of my second test soon, if im alive. Want to hear that music again SILENCE!!! ============== UPDATE =========== : I have sorted out the insulation problem, currently just cleaning up and just sorting out the outer-casing so it all fits together. Pictures to be added soon when completed fully
and yes..... im still alive, and so are my computer parts
Specs:
Watercooled Enermax Galaxy 850 PSU
Mods:
Seated 2 lenghts of 15mm copper water pipe into modded heatsinks inside an Enermax Galaxy 850 watt PSU and connected it to my 1st loop.
Not really a case mod but still a mod, besides this is going into a nice new case that i am half way through modding
Nearly killed myself........ lol Below you see my much beloved and now totally trashed Enermax Galaxy 850. I recently upgraded, new CPU, more RAM, new GFX cards, more hard disks. But the extra load has made the PSU more noisy when the system is under full load and is annoying, nearly every other component in my system is water cooled so i had this bright idea of modding my PSU, water cooling it to be exact.
I opened it up, took a look in side and saw the heat sinks used to keep it cool. 2 long sinks, i thought - should be easy to run some 15mm copper pipe through them!!! So i started work, Grinding, dremmelling, sanding, and cutting a hole through the top of the heat sinks to seat the copper piping. Amazingly the heat sinks aren’t made from what you’d expect… aluminum or copper, but steel!!! not what youd expect from once what cost me near 200 squid. After a lot of hard work i finally ended up with 2 near perfect 15mm gaps in which to seat my copper piping. I used steel epoxy resin to attach the copper piping to the top of the heat sinks and left it to set overnight. Once set i fixed a 90 degree elbow compression fitting on each end of the pipe so that i can easily link the 2 pipes together with clear tubing to connect it all to my first water cooling loop.
FIRST TEST : Powered on my system, and the first thing i noticed —- NO NOISE!!! music to my ears
my rig was perfectly silent!!! WOOHOO! However, there was no display. After what seemed hours of messing around i discovered that none of my 3 HD4870’s would display anything on either of their 2 DVI ports, I powered down and drained my system, then i came to disconnect the PSU and it was then i was shocked, yes shocked, electrocuted, and it FREAKIN HURT!!! id touched the copper piping as i had left the cover and insulation off the PSU due to testing so i could easily see leaks etc… then it dawned and my heart sank …. if the copper piping is live, the water passing through it would also be live, and that passes god knows how many copper water blocks. YUP, killed my 3, yes all 3, HD4870’s.Luckily or not so luckily, all my other components survived, i tested the board, CPU, RAM with my old HD3870X2 and everything was fine. Ive since RMA’ed my 4870’s and had them replaced, lucky i know.
Im now in the process of further insulating the copper piping, i will try to remove the pipes, painting it, insulating the naked areas with something and attaching the pipe to the heatsinks with adhesive thermal tape and securing them with some Araldite. And next time i test i will test it on a less expensive rig lol got an old P3 system knocking about. I have also purchased a voltmeter too to test the water/pipe/casing properly without killing myself. Will post details of my second test soon, if im alive. Want to hear that music again
SILENCE!!! ============== UPDATE =========== : I have sorted out the insulation problem, currently just cleaning up and just sorting out the outer-casing so it all fits together. Pictures to be added soon when completed fully and yes..... im still alive, and so are my computer parts
Last edited by a moderator:
New pics and more info added there..... Thanks all for yur comments and votes so far 