My first water cooled rig! (pics)

I installed the reservoir in the rear of the case after dremeling out a hole to route the tubing..


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Now I am back online but just letting everything run for a few days before I get down to the nitty gritty... LOL!
 
Looks good, that sharp bend right at the pump outlet is worrying though, any other way to route that?

Some new parts arrived today, guess what I'll be doing this weekend! I think I'm getting OCD on my w/c setup!

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Its just the angle of the picture.. its not a sharp bend at all.. I triple checked all of the routing of the cables for ANY bends in the tubing. I can try to re snap the picture to show you that its just the weird angle of my camera lense.

Thanks for the compliment. I tried to take my time and not hurry through the installation. My radiator is made by CoolingWorks (model: Coolrad-32T) http://www.frozencpu.com/products/2...-32T_Triple_120mm_Radiator.html?tl=g30c95s161

masaville - how do u like the reservoir?

AuroraProject - Can't wait to see your install !!!!!

BTW... I used clear Fluid XP and the tubing that I purchased was blue tinted (and its UV reactive although I have no blacklight)..
 
officermartinez said:
masaville - how do u like the reservoir?

BTW... I used clear Fluid XP and the tubing that I purchased was blue tinted (and its UV reactive although I have no blacklight)..
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Hey officermartinez,

Res is great. Easy to mount and even easier to fill/bleed. I put together my system last weekend and have been waiting for some miscellaneous parts to finish it off (gromets, grills for rads, etc.). I originally had the Swiftech Microres in there and filling/bleeding was a pain. I can't believe how fast and easy it is with the XSPC reservoir.

Temps are very good, but when I switched to Fluid XP high performance last night from a distilled water/Zalman 200 fluid mix I noticed that they were a few degrees higher on the GPUs, but the CPU dropped. Might be some bubbles in the tube so I'll have to check it out tonight.

I'm going to post photos and temps tonight as I couldn't get to it last night as I was drilling holes in my CM Stacker. My res is mounted in the same spot as yours and I mounted a GTX 480 rad on top of the stacker. Check it out later and let me know what you think. :)

Btw, when you cut out the back bottom of your case to run those tubes through, what is that black material you use to cover the sharp edges of the case? I need to get my hands on something like that as I run my tubes underneath the back and then up through the bottom grill. Thanks!
 
AuroraProject said:
Looks good, that sharp bend right at the pump outlet is worrying though, any other way to route that?

Some new parts arrived today, guess what I'll be doing this weekend! I think I'm getting OCD on my w/c setup!

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Great block. I have the same one - keeps the CPU super cool.
 
masaville said:
Hey officermartinez,

Res is great. Easy to mount and even easier to fill/bleed. I put together my system last weekend and have been waiting for some miscellaneous parts to finish it off (gromets, grills for rads, etc.). I originally had the Swiftech Microres in there and filling/bleeding was a pain. I can't believe how fast and easy it is with the XSPC reservoir.

Temps are very good, but when I switched to Fluid XP high performance last night from a distilled water/Zalman 200 fluid mix I noticed that they were a few degrees higher on the GPUs, but the CPU dropped. Might be some bubbles in the tube so I'll have to check it out tonight.

I'm going to post photos and temps tonight as I couldn't get to it last night as I was drilling holes in my CM Stacker. My res is mounted in the same spot as yours and I mounted a GTX 480 rad on top of the stacker. Check it out later and let me know what you think. :)

Btw, when you cut out the back bottom of your case to run those tubes through, what is that black material you use to cover the sharp edges of the case? I need to get my hands on something like that as I run my tubes underneath the back and then up through the bottom grill. Thanks!
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Very cool deal! The black trim was purchased for only a couple of dollars at Auto Zone. It's automotive trim. It already has glue inside the trim and all I did to keep the trim from falling off was heat the trim up with a hair dryer (once I had it cut and set in the position that I wanted). Here is a picture of the actual trim that I used..


Water&



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BTW, Now that I have my water setup in place, do you know anyone that's interested in a Vigor Gaming Monsoon II Thermal Electric CPU Cooler ..LOL. I have no need for that now.. Looks like [H] For Sale or Ebay time..
 
Heh...I hear ya. I have all kinds of air cooling parts lying around, including a Zalman 9700 LED and about 10 or so 120mm fans.

That rubber seal is perfect. Thanks for the photo and tip!! I'm going to pick some up today along with a blue LED so I can actually see how much coolant is in that res without shining a light on it. Thought it was supposed to come with one, but it didn't. Last thing I have to do is put a grill on my rad and some heatshrink on the fan wires and I'm 100% finished.

I have yet to overclock my CPU so that comes next.
 
I hope to have mine back up and running tomorrow night, so far today I've: removed the motherboard and test fitted the Fuzion, modded the back plate to work with the Fuzion hardware, removed the Danger Den TDX from the loop and added the Fuzion in, refilled the system, it's leak testing as we uhh, type. I've lapped the 2 vreg heatsinks on the mobo (they were no where near flat) and replaced the gooey "bubblegum" with some Ceramique. I also applied Akasa Paxmate to the case (if you were considering it, don't bother, I'd recommend going the Dynamat route). Tomorrow morning I will lap the cpu and reinstall everything.

4ghz stable is just around the corner!
 
WOW! Sounds like you are on your way.. Before I re-did my block today, I tried 4ghz for sh*ts and grins, and it just wasn't in the cards.. The highest I could get was 3.8ghz. But even at 3.8ghz, my temps were crazy high.. I tested my settings on Everest to see my benchmarks and wrote those figures down.. I then bumped it down to 3.7ghz and well outperformed my 3.8ghz settings. I was very surprised. Since I just re-applied my AS5 about an hour and a half ago, I am not really pushing it now.. I have OC'd my E6600 to a "mild" 3ghz on "stock" voltage and my temps seem very acceptable.. IDLE TEMPS are roughly 32c at 3ghz and 43c at FULL LOAD (about 45 minutes on Orthos).

AuroraProject - I hope you can hit 4ghz.. I know I have the right parts in place but I think my E6600 might hit the 3.8ghz wall.. Still, not too shabby if the temps are manageable. I can't wait to see your's all finished up, with possibly some screen shots or pics!
 
It's going to be awhile for those screens. Something went wrong, I reassembled the rig this morning and now the board wont POST. I get "--" on the mobo lcd display. After doing some searching I've found it may be a grounding issue, corrupt BIOS, bad psu, or a dead cpu. I've yanked everything and set it all up outside the case. I've tested it with 2 known good psu's, no matter what is in the mobo it just shows the same "--" on the panel, apparently that means failure to initialize.

I have started an rma on the mobo, which I'm thinking is the culprit. I have also ordered a Celeron D 331 (a $39 cpu :eek: ) for testing, knowing my luck I probably somehow killed the X6800 by lapping it. :( If that is the case, I'll be replacing it with a quad and not lapping it. That will eat up my video card budget, but such is life.
 
AuroraProject said:
It's going to be awhile for those screens. Something went wrong, I reassembled the rig this morning and now the board wont POST. I get "--" on the mobo lcd display. After doing some searching I've found it may be a grounding issue, corrupt BIOS, bad psu, or a dead cpu. I've yanked everything and set it all up outside the case. I've tested it with 2 known good psu's, no matter what is in the mobo it just shows the same "--" on the panel, apparently that means failure to initialize.

I have started an rma on the mobo, which I'm thinking is the culprit. I have also ordered a Celeron D 331 (a $39 cpu :eek: ) for testing, knowing my luck I probably somehow killed the X6800 by lapping it. :( If that is the case, I'll be replacing it with a quad and not lapping it. That will eat up my video card budget, but such is life.
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Yikes. Hopefully it's something minor only. :(
 
Holy Bat Crap Batman.. That really sux ..Oh I know you are not a happy camper right now. Dude, I am completely sorry to hear this.. Maybe a few pins were bent on the motherboard? That happened to me a few days ago and with TONS of patience and a credit card, I FINALLY fixed it.. I was pretty upset.. My crap would not even get the "--" ..Mine wouldn't even turn on! Make sure you didn't crank down TOO hard on the motherboard when you were installing the water block.. That's exactly what I did and thank goodness I was able to fix it.. That is, unless, you already RMA'd the board and it's no longer in your possession.
 
No, I'm not happy right now. The Celeron arrives tomorrow, so I'll be able to determine which part is bad. I really, really hope it's the motherboard. EVGA is cross shipping me a new one, which should be here by the end of the week.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed on this one, but I'm 70% sure it's the mobo.

Oh, and I called a local shop to see if they could test a cpu, they said "sure, for $70".
 
AuroraProject said:
No, I'm not happy right now. The Celeron arrives tomorrow, so I'll be able to determine which part is bad. I really, really hope it's the motherboard. EVGA is cross shipping me a new one, which should be here by the end of the week.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed on this one, but I'm 70% sure it's the mobo.

Oh, and I called a local shop to see if they could test a cpu, they said "sure, for $70".
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$70 friggin bucks..? They are on crack..!
 
Not sure if anyone cares anymore, but here's an update.

The rma replacement board arrived today, I hooked it all up outside the case with the stock vacuum cleaner intel heatsink fan thing. I hit the power button and it fired right up! I jumped into BIOS and set the ram voltage and setup the RAID controller, booted into Windows just fine. I surfed the net for awhile and then I noticed the system clock was wrong, so I went into the clock properties and bam, it locks up. Power down and fire it back up, "--" appears on the lcd display, just like the dead one sitting next to it. The replacement lasted just over an hour. Now I have to rma the rma. I'm really considering a new motherboard.

Good news though, I have ordered an EVGA 8800GTX and managed to procure an EK waterblock for it! It'll sure look nice next to my expensive pile of parts waiting for a new home.

Why do we play with computers again?
 
WTF? Wow.. RMA'ing the rma.. Just when you thought it was safe to surf the web! POW!

I'm sorry to hear the bad news on your update. As for my update, I've pretty much talked myself into buying a QX6700 quad core.. I'm pretty curious to see what it will do on Abit's IN9 32x-max board. I'll probably sell my E6600 for about two fiddy.. LOL.
 
officermartinez said:
WTF? Wow.. RMA'ing the rma.. Just when you thought it was safe to surf the web! POW!

I'm sorry to hear the bad news on your update. As for my update, I've pretty much talked myself into buying a QX6700 quad core.. I'm pretty curious to see what it will do on Abit's IN9 32x-max board. I'll probably sell my E6600 for about two fiddy.. LOL.
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Here comes the big overclock 4tw!!!! lol.....looking forward to the results. :)
 
New piece arrived today, and it's really nice. The quality on this is fantastic.

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However, it came with these and I have no idea what they are for. The instructions don't mention these pieces at all. :confused:

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Any ideas?
 
they're spacers.

I've seen them on MIPS blocks.

basically, because the threaded portion of a barb is longer than the threaded hole of the MIPS block's top is tall, they are put between the barb and the block to raise it a bit so the bottom of the barb doesn't restrict flow by poking out beneath the top's bottom.

Whether that applies to you is up to your discretion. Maybe it's for when that happens with non-EK barbs? :confused:
 
Yeah, put the "spacers" between the barb and the plexi top... It allows for a higher flowrate.

Im getting my block on monday! I can't wait.

And as for the board.... I've RMA'd my Asus A8N-SLI board 4 times in the last 2 months now. Once it destroyed my entire system, and then they keep sending me "Refurb" boards with no post errors (and even a fucking MISSING BIOS CHIP ONCE!!!!)

:eek:
 
Nice work guys. Ill have my WC system in about 2 weeks or so. I hope it looks as good as all of yours!
 
Ok, so between UPS & EVGA screwing up the delivery address it took until today to get the replacement board. It works fine so far, it's the newer A1 revision with the fix for quad core fsb overclocking. It came with a free game (which I already have)! The D-Tek doesn't seem to have changed my delta temps much, idle is 28, load is 43, (stock settings) so still a 15 degree delta. Oh well.

I have not put the 8800GTX in yet, I want to be sure this board lasts longer than 1 hour!

So nice to be back on this rig, my little folding machine is slow and has a small monitor!
 
AuroraProject said:
Ok, so between UPS & EVGA screwing up the delivery address it took until today to get the replacement board. It works fine so far, it's the newer A1 revision with the fix for quad core fsb overclocking. It came with a free game (which I already have)! The D-Tek doesn't seem to have changed my delta temps much, idle is 28, load is 43, (stock settings) so still a 15 degree delta. Oh well.

I have not put the 8800GTX in yet, I want to be sure this board lasts longer than 1 hour!

So nice to be back on this rig, my little folding machine is slow and has a small monitor!
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What rad/pump are you using with that CPU and is your GPU on the same loop?
 
woohoo auroraproject! ..I will keep my fingers crossed for ya.. C'mon 24 hours of stableness.. lol! Seriously, hope it works out for ya man.. I know how depressing it can be without a motherboard.. LOL!
 
Tell me about it, I've been going nuts using the other rig, so nice to have a fast computer again!

I definitely have my fingers crossed, but something tells me this one will be ok.

Did you get your quad yet?
 
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