Initially, "Black Ice" was designed to be a sleek looking system, nearly hiding its water-based internals. It was to be quiet, yet still cool with power. After examining many different cases, I chose the YY cube case because its dual chamber design let me play with new types of cooling system designs. Furthermore, I found it much more stylish than a full tower.

I'm embarking on Part II of "Black Ice." However, the title has been changed because with so many things named "Black Ice" these days, I'd look downright silly coming out with an article sporting that name. Part I of this article had little to nothing about cooling written in it. It was simply a case modding article, describing how one could turn a standard looking YY cube case into a unique, flashy piece of work. It included the nitty gritty work of cutting holes for radiators, windows, and fans. If you haven't read it yet, I highly suggets taking a look before proceeding with this article to bring you up to speed. Relating to Part I, this article assumes the previously cut case and mainly details putting the actual cooling system into the case and setting it up.

As of now, this system lacks any sort of peltier device, but I designed it with peltiers in mind. The ultimate goal is a quiet PC with stellar cooling in a good-looking package. Before the actual watercooling part of the system is delved into, let's examine case cooling and ventilation. The YY cube, as a stock case, has horrendous cooling capabilities. Cutting it up, though, reveals many great ways to direct airflow. I chose a method of cooling that treats each chamber of the case (motherboard and component) as a separate entity. For example, the motherboard chamber has two 120mm fan intakes and one 120mm fan exhaust. The component chamber has four 80mm fans for intake and one 120mm fan for exhaust. Having a bit more intake than exhaust helps to keep dust out of the system, as there is more internal pressure.

Referring to the motherboard chamber, the two 120mm fans sit behind the fan grills on the front bezel. These two fans (and all 120mm fans in this project) are JMC 61 cfm fans that only put out 26db of noise. These two intake fans actually propel outside air through a heatercore (which I will speak about later). This air is then exhausted on the top of the case through another JMC 120mm fan, running at a mere 5v.

On the component side of the chamber, the fans are mounted externally to leave more room, and they are all 80mm Panaflo L1As. These fans each put out a measly 21db of noise and 24 cfm of airflow. When joined together in a square, the airflow is nearly 100 cfm. This 100 cfm goes through a heatercore and then is exhausted out the top by a JMC 120mm fan, once again running at 5v. Take a look at the picture to clarify what's going on.

In order to make filling the system easy, I added a fillpoint to the top of the motherboard chamber, squeezed in between the 120mm exhaust fan, the wiring for the neon light, and the heatecore. This isn't a reservoir like many systems have. Instead, it is just a tube leading to the pump. The fillpoint has a wide diameter to keep filling the system as spill-free as possible.

power both the computer and the pump, they entail the pump constanly shutting on and off. These pumps were designed for constant operation and switching them on and off may dent their longevity. Actually, wiring a pump to the power supply keeps the pump going constantly, even when the PC is turned off. Thus, I could have saved myself from plugging in two cables by doing that mod, but… I was too lazy. The component side of the motherboard has a total of 6 5 ¼" bays. I mounted the pump on the bottom bay and it takes up the lower 3 bays. I personally have no use for 6 bays. Just a DVD and CDRW drive for me. The pump was mounted on a piece of adhesive foam to quell any vibrations that may try and add noise to the system.

Now that I have gone through every component in this cooling system, let's see how it all works out together. Looking into my case may prove daunting due to the complexity of everything confined to such a small space, but this diagram breaks it down easily.

As you can see from this picture, the system is actually quite basic. The only things that mildly diverge from the normal ranks of watercooling would be the added fillpoint and the second heatercore.

I hit a mild snag toward the end of my endeavor. I had lost the Dangerden mounting hardware Dennis sent me a while back. At first I fretted. However, a quick late night trip to Home Depot brought upon me the following items:

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