Project Monolith case mod takes water cooling to unbelievable extremes

It's not often that pictures truly are worth a thousand words, but this is one of those rare exceptions. We won't even bother explaining what kind of hardware is packed within Project Monolith, but it's clear that its creator is at least partially off his rocker -- not that said condition is a bad one. Hit the read link for loads more images, but don't expect it to get any easier to comprehend.

[Ignatius @ Jan 11th 2009 7:38AM]

Just wait til it leaks.

[BB @ Jan 11th 2009 8:08AM]

Even you post shit on Engadget, there are audience, always awaiting for the next update.

[E71 @ Jan 11th 2009 7:42PM]

Must be fun checking that rig for algae.

[adam @ Jan 11th 2009 7:46AM]

That much water, tubes, and plumbing coupled with heat, electronics, condensation, and coupled with Murphy's Law makes this amazingly amazing amount of work and technology an accident waiting to happen. And as my mom would say, it's also a fire hazard.

[Ryan Trevisol @ Jan 11th 2009 8:36AM]

Hey, but it's letting him run his pentium 4 at 4GHz, so . . .

[munch @ Jan 11th 2009 2:48PM]

@Ryan: So ... so what?

[Andrew Lazetera @ Jan 11th 2009 5:47PM]

You have to remember, this doesn't even come close to a machine in a mineral oil fish tank. A friend of mine built one, liquid coating and cooling the entire computer/mobo/proc/vid card/etc except HDD/DVD. Haha when we built it though, we were lazy and just took a high power thermaltake fan and dunked it to circulate oil. We eventually built a passive radiator system, hot oil go up to radiator, cool oil go down to system. Now, working on said machine... Granted getting mineral oil on your hands is nowhere near as bad as water on your motherboard, but still...

[Steveorevo @ Jan 11th 2009 7:57AM]

For less then $90 bucks you can just put your overclocked tower in a standalone bar freezer, plug it in and forget about it.

Look alot nicer too.

[dc @ Jan 11th 2009 8:00AM]

no you really can't. fridges are designed to keep room temp things cold, not actively heated things sub zero. no commercial fridges could keep a normal computer cold, they'd break (underpowered normally passively cooled speciality computers aside)

trust me, people have tried ;)

[Nick Catalano @ Jan 11th 2009 8:03AM]

How many bar freezers can handle the amount of BTUs the average overclocked tower generates?

Putting it inside of any enclosed space would be a bad idea.

And this guy has WAY too much time on his hands. And it is almost guaranteed to leak at some point.

[Steveorevo @ Jan 11th 2009 8:12AM]

Anywhere from 1000 to 22,000 BTU. The later will obviously cost more then $200 bucks. How much BTU is needed for this rig?

[Trev @ Jan 11th 2009 8:03AM]

What will that thing actually do?

[Levi @ Jan 11th 2009 12:13PM]

it'll play System Shock 2 at incredible frame rates.

As long as he has hyperthreading turned off.

[Brian @ Jan 11th 2009 8:14AM]

Amazing work, all hand built, this guy is a craftsman of the highest order.

[Asha @ Jan 11th 2009 1:16PM]

But could he make it worth looking at. I'll totally grant that, after reading the forum, he put in a whole lot of effort and care into this, but it doesn't change the fact that it is hideous.

[Brian @ Jan 11th 2009 1:23PM]

Yes but if you read what he says he is going to enclose it and it isn't finished yet so he may tidy it up a bit. Anybody who makes there own aluminium brackets that look that good are craftsman to me...

[linuxamp @ Jan 12th 2009 3:41AM]

The tubes are run in parallel. It would be very difficult to tell if the flow on one of the paths gets clogged. Even if not, if one path has more bends it will be far less efficient than a straighter path.

[millibeans @ Jan 11th 2009 8:32AM]

Is it just me or did he forget to cool the RAM, but remembered to cool every other chip in the room?

[Epic @ Jan 11th 2009 3:51PM]

He's going to cut the heatpipes of the ram in half and use that as a channel for the water cooling.

Engadget failed to mention that this project wasn't finished yet, hence why the guy is getting some undeserved crap about this build.

You mod PCs for fun, for the achievement of having built something, this guy has done that pretty much from scratch. Sure it might leak eventually, i'm pretty sure he knows that too.

The guy is obviously very skilled at what he does, so I say to those that are here to pick flaws in his work - 'Don't bother. I'm sure he knows far more about the flaws in his work than you do'.

[Arkenklo @ Jan 11th 2009 8:44AM]

What. The. Fuck.

[Roofus @ Jan 12th 2009 2:18PM]

I second that.

[Samboini @ Jan 11th 2009 8:52AM]

It looks a fucking mess.

[strider_mt2k @ Jan 11th 2009 8:54AM]

That is...really something.
Heck of a lot of work too.

Best of luck and no leaks!

[MarbleMind @ Jan 11th 2009 8:59AM]

Default gear of any 21st century cyber plumber.

[Will H. @ Jan 11th 2009 9:45AM]

My favorite part was the "The pump got hot, so I fuckin' slapped a cooler on that too" LOL.

[Decoy @ Jan 11th 2009 4:11PM]

I heard he likes cooling, so he put a cooler on his cooler so his cooler can cool while it cools.

[vvnraman @ Jan 11th 2009 10:14AM]

That is the most awesome custom cooled CUP i've ever seen. Follow the read link dudes, it totally amazing. Worth a glimpse (which will take more than 2 mins minimum)




*******Warning for apple fans******
*****Might get a cardiac arrest****

[csmity @ Jan 11th 2009 10:22AM]

Its a pretty neat idea but with all those push on hoses its def. going to leak at some point. If i had that much time and more importantly desire I would have put it all into a CAD program and designed to have all hard copper lines. It would help prevent leaks and look a heck of alot better. It seems the hose routing wasn't thought of for aesthetics, but who can blame someone for that that isn't getting paid to do it. But if works it works

Could have just used potting material. as long as you didn't want to replace anything.

[Edinator @ Jan 11th 2009 11:29AM]

I saw this a while back... I don't think that system is for extreme cooling. It's just for bragging rights. Why would he use that tubing... It's also so thin and with that long of tubing, any benefit of water over air is negated.

[Levi @ Jan 11th 2009 12:14PM]

What happens when he wants to upgrade? I predict it'll take a good day just to undo all of that...

...but I see the awesomeness, and the fact that it's just there because.

[Paul @ Jan 11th 2009 12:27PM]

So next year when an upgrade is wanted it will take how long to install?

Nice idea but far too limiting for my liking.

[mike @ Jan 11th 2009 12:42PM]

"but don't expect it to get any easier to comprehend."

Really, engadget? Really? This shit is not hard to comprehend. PC modders have always been an innovative bunch who have been willing to get their hands dirty.

That CPU is a 140w part AND he wanted to OC it to nearly double its native speed. Again, this is not complicated.

[Goatee Man @ Jan 11th 2009 3:06PM]

Well you don't have to be such a prick about it.

[Agent .25i @ Jan 11th 2009 12:49PM]

*I feel like Chicken Tonight*.

[Wishmaster @ Jan 11th 2009 1:14PM]

Wow it is impressive and totally insane but still I like it :)

[bogaty @ Jan 11th 2009 1:44PM]

Makes me want to reach down, grab a bone from the pile around this thing, and pummel a monkey to death.

(Hope you all got the 2001 Space Odessey metaphor)

[Agent .25i @ Jan 11th 2009 3:04PM]

It would have been tits... had you not have to say what it was from. Although, in the past, movie/show metaphors/quotes have been completely lost on some.

[DrzKing @ Jan 11th 2009 5:56PM]

This is pretty awesome

[Decoy @ Jan 11th 2009 6:47PM]

I expect it to spawn necron soldiers and shoot green lightning.

[h00chi3 @ Jan 11th 2009 7:32PM]

RESTRICTION

[unicode787plus @ Jan 15th 2009 11:19PM]

I don't think Yoshitoshi ABe ever considered using that title for any of the 13 layers (episodes) that comprise his currently most compelling work of psychological cyberpunk called Serial Experiments Lain.

[Oz @ Jan 11th 2009 11:34PM]

Struth - there seem to be a few people who have forgotten that this type of mod is for the fun & not the hardware safety. So what if it leaks - it's still cool!

[444turbodiesel @ Jan 12th 2009 3:20AM]

"Steve Jobs, Jack Kilby and Joe the Plumber walk into a bar..."

[gar @ Jan 12th 2009 3:58AM]

Why not just run a complete A/C system into the case, using proper refrigerant?

Would be much more effiecient, plus any leaks wouldn't damage the Mobo.

[cc @ Jan 12th 2009 9:27AM]

is that a fleshlight on the floor?

[aznxk3vi17 @ Jan 12th 2009 10:40AM]

If your Johnson is the size of a 3.5" hard drive... well, I guess there are some out there less fortunate than others.

[unicode787plus @ Jan 15th 2009 11:12PM]

PRESENT DAY. PRESENT TIME. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA........!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think I have watched too much Lain.
But this Project Monolith looks like a very serious Serial Experiment in the works. Now it just needs to connect to the Wired. And lure the Knights. And blur the boundary between the Real World and the Wired World...

"I am falling, I am fading, I am drowning, help me please..."

[unicode787plus @ Jan 15th 2009 11:20PM]

Sorry, it was supposed to be:

"I am falling, I am fading, I am drowning, help me breathe..."