Readers Drives - Mini Marvel

Posted at: Thursday 3rd April 2008

Tom Didymus needed a portable PC that didn't constrict his plans, so he forgot about laptops and built a modded, overclocked and water-cooled micro-ATX system.

The next stage was to prepare the case for painting. First, I used curved masking tape to mark out my design for the flames, a process that took more than six hours to complete. I also decided to paint flames on the outside of the PSU so that it matched the rest of the case. I carefully dismantled the PSU and removed the outer casing before marking out the flames. Once the design was marked out, I used wet and dry glasspaper on the areas of the case that were to be painted - this helps the paint to adhere more strongly to the surface. I then gave the case a coat of primer, left it to dry and then applied three coats of green paint. I'd hoped to find a slightly brighter green, but due to the short amount of time I had left to finish the build before I started university, I opted for the first green I could find in Halfords. As my case has a side window, the interior is on display, so I sprayed the inside with gloss-black paint.

By this point, I had my water-cooling system and motherboard, but I hadn't ordered any of the other components. The advantage of this was that I had time to figure out exactly how to fit a complicated water loop in such a small case, which proved to be far more difficult than I'd anticipated. Once I'd set up the loop, I then tested for leaks by filling it with distilled water and running the pump. Almost immediately one of the radiators leaked, but I solved this by applying lots of PTFE tape to the thread of one of the radiator's barbs and it hasn't leaked since.

For the front intake fan, I used an 80mm model from Sharkoon, on which I mounted the nosecone from a model Spitfire. I then sprayed the fan and the nosecone gloss black, and attached a second 80mm fan with green LEDs directly behind the Sharkoon fan. The fans spin at different speeds, which creates a cool flashing effect. In the front of the case, I installed a Western Digital Raptor X protected by a clear acrylic window. This is one of my favourite parts of the mod, as I can see the hard drive spinning; it looks crazy at startup. Behind the hard drive, I installed a modified hard drive cooler, which I sprayed black, with luminous yellow fans that glow under the UV lights also fitted to the case.

Water cooling aside, one of the hardest parts of the build was trying to hide the cables, which was a challenge, considering that I'm using a full-sized PSU in a very compact case. It took a few days for me to work out exactly where I was going to hide them and involved cutting out holes on the inside of the case with my Dremel. Most of these are hidden behind the fan controller at the front of the case.

Once all the internal components were fitted, and the PC was up and running, I installed an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 and overclocked it to 3.4GHz; this is a great result for a micro-ATX-based PC. Due to the water-cooling system, the CPU temperature never goes above 60°C and the whole PC runs quietly. I couldn't use the GeForce 8800 GTX that I'd had my eye on, as my hard drive mod had reduced the amount of room left inside the case, so I settled for an 8800 GTS.