Project: Zero Eight

hemi

Gawd
Joined
Mar 9, 2000
Messages
685
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This worklog was originally started on XS a few weeks back, I thought my friends at the [H] would like to see it as well...I've edited out a few pieces that are no longer relevant

Each January for the past three years I've started a new mod project. The past two, I've hacked and chopped my trusty old Lian-Li PC-6000, and beefed up the liquid cooling loop. This year's cooling upgrades would have pushed the space in the Lian-Li to the limit, so I've decided to move on to something new. I've dubbed this one "Project Zero Eight" as in '08 (I know, it's not very creative).

The new victim is a Cooler Master Cosmos...here's the parts list:

abit IP35 Pro
E8400
8800GTS (G80)
2GB Patriot LL 6400
Corsair HX520

Cooled by:

Swiftech MCR320 + Coolingworks Coolrad 22T
Dtek Fuzion (washered and nozzled)
EK FC-8800
Swiftech MCW30
Laing D5


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So let's get started with the worklog...

First order of business was to strip the case down and remove all the fans:

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Lots of plastic crap on this case...

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First mods:

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Lower drive tray plate removed (drilled out rivets):

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First cuts complete:

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Radiator test installation...

I lined the vertical support panel I cut with door edge moulding, and re-riveted it down to the lower panel of the case towards the outside. Adding the rivets brought the rigidity of the case back to where it was before the panel was cut.

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Just enough space between the MCR320 and the power supply:

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The front most fan will blow air up into the upper hard drive bay, which is one flaw of this case in stock form. By the way, I run 1 drive right now, so three trays is plenty (will probably add another drive though).

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01/09/2008 - Minor Update

Tonight I made a mount for the upper radiator and fans. Initially I was going to go all out and fabricate a sheet metal plenum/adapter so that I could use the case's stock "spread bore" mounts for the fans and reduce it down for the radiator. However, due to height constraints inside the case, I didn't want to deal with potential clearance issues afterwards. So, I just did something simple instead...

The material is .22" (5.58mm) thick acrylic.

Here's the plate with the fan and case mounting holes drilled:

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Drawing intersecting lines to find the fan hole centers:

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First hole cut...

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Cuts complete and coating removed. Still need to sand all the edges smooth and grind out screw reliefs on the sides for two of the case's side bezel screws.

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Test placement on top. All the holes line up! :) The lines drawn on the case represent the area that will be removed so the fans will fit in. I might be able to get away with leaving it in, but I'll probably just cut it out...

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This is something I changed a bit later - the plate is mounted from underneath so I wouldn't have to cut open the top of the case. It also made for more clearance with the side and top bezels.


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01/23/2008 - Update

It has been a while since I've been able to make any real progress on the project. Work is kicking my butt.

Over the weekend I went out and picked up a new board and proc - a brand new E8400 and an abit IP35 Pro. You better believe I am itching to get this thing built and overclocked to see what she can do. :D

Also switched out the NB block for an MCW30, so a few pieces have changed.


Some pics of the CPU:

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That heatsink is wimpy...guess these are supposed to run cool... :D

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The first thing I did to the board was pull the stock cooling off...

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Prep for the NB block...

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NB block installed.

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I have a SB heatsink coming as well as another that I'll be carving up for use on the power regulation mosfets. ;)


Making a mounting bracket for the EK res...cut to length and marked the bend points.

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First bracket - came out perfect, but too deep by 1".

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Second try...just right - the res will be centered and in line with the fillport and pump...see below.

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Test placement...sweet.

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Top radiator plate has been clearanced for a couple panel screws and the fillport, all corners rounded and edges lightly chamfered with a Dremel.

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Pump placement, marked mounting location to drill holes for pump mount. This may eventually be soft mounted with Petra's gel stuff, but I'll save that for later.

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Fillport, Reservoir and Pump all centered and inline...

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Pump holes drilled, pump mounted. Upper rad mounted. Of course I broke the freaking upper res mounting bracket during this mock-up, so now I have to order a replacement. Yay. :mad:

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Fillport clearance. The fill tube to the reservoir clears the radiator to the left by about 1/4" or so, just right.

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01/27/2008 - Update

Made a good bit of progress today...

- Hacked and installed a heatsink for the mosfets
- Installed SB heatsink
- Installed a backplate for the CPU
- Mounted the FuZion
- Blended the pump outlet transition
- Sleeved three of the fans, the pump and the 8-pin extension
- Final mount of the radiators
- Mounted the prepped board in the chassis
- Installed PSU, optical drive and HDD
- Installed loop tubing



Enzotech copper SB heatsink. Attached with 4-40 screws with flat washers, rubber washers and Ceramique.

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I didn't take pictures of the process in making the mosfet 'sink, sorry. What I did was take a generic aluminum heatsink for a PIII and cut it to size, then drilled and tapped holes to bolt it to the board. The rough dimensions are 25mm X 60mm. I used a #43 drill bit and a 4-40 tap. It's attached to the board with 4-40 x 1/2" machine screws with a flat washer and rubber washer on the backside. Ceramique is the TIM.

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Test fit of the tube from the FuZion to the MCW30. Later in the build I ended up shortening it by 2" to reduce the flat spot in the bend a bit.

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Thermalright backplate from their 775 "bolt-through" kit. Mosfet heatsink bolts to the right.

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SB heatsink bolts...

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Stock D5 outlet transition as molded.

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Outlet transition blended with a little Dremel action. :D

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The rest of the shots from today's update are from the final build in the case. As you can see, the rads, motherboard (w/ CPU & RAM) and video card were installed at this point. The remaining pics show progress through to where I am now...

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Obviously, I have to finish wiring everything up, then I'll be reattaching all the plastic trim pieces, bezels, etc. Once all that's done, I'll fill the loop and leak test. Most likely I won't get to that until later in the week or next weekend, due to work and some other stuff. Let's hope I have enough pump for this loop. :D

Using Martin's (XS) Flow Rate Estimator, my D5 should flow 1.08GPM @ 4.50PSI. I think this will still work fine, and with the minor mod to the outlet, I should get a bit better flow out of the pump. Testing will determine if I need another pump in series or not...
 
This is looking awesome man!!!!!!!

Can't wait for more updates and temp results!
 
Very nice project, I love projects with tons of skill, cannot wait to follow your worklog!!!
 
Awesome job with the tubing, doesn't add much clutter at all. Nice heat sink modding as well, a PIII heat sink chopped up :D
 
Amazing. I really like how you placed each part and took your time. Looks extremely clean. A++
 
Looks great, very clean and efficient. Please telly me that your going to put clamps on those tubes.
 
Looks great, very clean and efficient. Please telly me that your going to put clamps on those tubes.

Yessir. I actually just finished zipping them all down tonight. I've used the zip clamps on my last couple builds, but zip ties are actually easier to work with and seem to hold just as tight...and I think they look better.

I've also finished up most of the wiring. The top ports/control panel needs to go in, which has a crapload of wiring itself. That'll probably slop up the nice wire management job I've done so far. Once that goes in, I have a couple pieces of bling to add, then it's time for all the plastic to go back on. Then the loop will be filled, bled and leak tested for 24 hrs. :D
 
Wow, sounds like you've done a lot!
But.... you can't tell us what you've done without posting pics?!?!?!?!??!!
That's just not acceptable hemi! Go to your romm!!! :D

Lol, please can you post a pic?
 
BTW, just a suggestion. You might cut a couple of holes next to the mobo on the right side so that you can hide those cables/wires better?
 
Wow, sounds like you've done a lot!
But.... you can't tell us what you've done without posting pics?!?!?!?!??!!
That's just not acceptable hemi! Go to your romm!!! :D

Lol, please can you post a pic?

Tomorrow morning I'll post more pics. I promise!


BTW, just a suggestion. You might cut a couple of holes next to the mobo on the right side so that you can hide those cables/wires better?

Geez, just tell me now. :p I'm using the stock cable management 'slots' that are further to the right, but I guess I could have added my own to hide the cabling better. Unfortunately I'm a bit too far along with the install to cut anything now. But hey, I gotta save something for my '09 project, right? :D
 
Tomorrow morning I'll post more pics. I promise!

Sounds good! Looking forward to them!

Geez, just tell me now. :p I'm using the stock cable management 'slots' that are further to the right, but I guess I could have added my own to hide the cabling better. Unfortunately I'm a bit too far along with the install to cut anything now. But hey, I gotta save something for my '09 project, right? :D

It was just a suggestion, but would definitely look really nice.
But it's fine how it is, lol looking forward to the '09 project your rumering about :D
 
02/01/2008 - Minor Update

At smee's request, here are some shots of the wiring work I did last night. You can also see that I did indeed cinch down the tubes with zip ties. ;)

A couple splitters I made for the radiator fans. Three-way for the lower, two-way for the upper. They wire up to the Sunbeam rheobus - 1 channel per set of fans.

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A shot of the wiring with the three-way splitter for the lower radiator fans. It gets uglier, don't worry...(and will get even worse later in the build :D)

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See - all the tubing is zipped now...

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Note the ancient, funky looking IDE cable. I split and flattened it like 6 years ago and it keeps moving with my systems. The slight yellowing shows its age (no smokers around). I'm pretty sure it's the oldest part I still use. :D

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Rheobus wiring. I soldered and sleeved the three extensions. They're zipped up to the side bracket to keep things tidy. Of course I have to add 1 more for the exhaust fan.

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Wiring is getting nastier. Still under control, and the side panel does latch on without too much trouble. We'll see what happens when I get to the port/control panel wiring a bit later today. :(

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Angle shot. The wiring is hidden pretty well to this point...

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Power supply wiring kept to the absolute minimum, which I like. The 8-pin 12v+ wiring is hidden really well up top by the radiator and tubing, but it's attached (see other shots).

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Be back later with another update and more pics!
 
Yay another update!
Thanks hemi! It looks really good!

Are you going to fill the loop next?
 
02/01/2008 - Update #2

OK...finished the wiring. As I guessed, the top port/control panel wiring slopped it up a bit. There isn't enough slack in the panel wiring to tuck it away and hide it. abit's placement of the port headers doesn't help. The firewire header is way over up under the top PCI-e slot.

While I was at it, I added some bling in the form of UV CCFL's. I usually don't mess with that kind of stuff, but for once I thought I'd try it out. The liquid is Primochill UV blue...another thing I usually don't mess with. My loops in the past have been just a 90:10 distilled:AF mix (Dexcool, etc). I made an adapter so I could power the CCFL's from the rheobus. Of course, the rheobus is mounted facing the inside, and the UV crap isn't something I'll have on all the time - especially since this case isn't windowed...yet. ;)

I've also reinstalled all the panels and bars, so it's looking like a decent chassis again. The fill port sits under the top panel, so that'll remain off until the loop bleeding is complete. The loop is full and the pump is running now - so far, no leaks.



The view from the top...upper rad fans and fillport.

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The view from the rear...I have a thing for stainless hardware (see fan).

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The view from the bottom...power supply bay. The lower panel/plenum separates the power supply intake from the radiator intake nicely. Both ends are filtered.

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The view from the bottom...the other end. Radiator tucks back to the divider separating its intake flow from the PS. Filtered as mentioned above.

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Top panel wiring. What a mess. :D

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All tucked away and bundled. Not too bad...

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Finally...some liquid in the loop!

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Fans and CCFL's on.

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Lights out. Need a couple more CCFL's to fill it in...

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My 30A hobby PS I use to power the pump and rheobus for testing, bleeding, etc. This thing comes in handy. :)

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More pics later this weekend. I still have to mod my desk, and then I'm going to work on a couple aesthetic items. Think paint and acrylic. ;)
 
OK, finally getting around to posting some results. I really just finished it up and did some testing late last week.

Using the latest beta BIOS for the IP35 Pro, my Wolfdale is running 4GHz (8x500) pretty effortlessly. I think I could push for another 200MHz or so, but it just doesn't seem worth it. This chip isn't the best out there...it takes 1.37v loaded to keep it fully stable (Prime). I spent less than 20 minutes setting up this OC - seems too easy.



CPU: 4GHz @ 1.37v loaded
NB: 500MHz @ 1.41v
GPU: Stock clock G80 GTS, no volt mod

Pump: D5 vario, setting 5 (est. ~1.08GPM)
Ambient: 23C
Fans: ~7v, est. 1000RPM


Full load core temps with Prime small FFT: 58C
Full load PWM temp: 53C

(PWM idles around 43C - my homebrew heatsink seems to work well).


Not sure what to trust - Core Temp states the TjMax at 105C, but some testing results presented by unclewebb @ XS here and a follow up post here indicate the real number to be 95C. unlcewebb has commented that the DTS are only accurate in the 35C range running up to TjMax, so anything under 60C can be off... I suppose it's possible my peak load temp is closer to 50C, but I'm happy if Core Temp is accurate. The system is relatively quiet with the fans at 7V.


Screenshot at 8 hrs Prime stable:




I'll be overclocking the video card soon and will post temps with both the GPU and CPU loaded...
 
Very very nice mate!!

Could we get a pic of your workstation? (aka desk?)
 
What an excellent project, thanks for all the great pics. I have been looking for the best radiator placement for my new E8400 / 8800GTS rig using my current Lian Li V2000. Seeing your bottom case radiator placement made me realize I have to go that way! The fillport -> reservoir -> pump mounted on the side is a great idea too. I'm also going to steal your 3-way fan splitter cable idea as well ;)
 
What an excellent project, thanks for all the great pics. I have been looking for the best radiator placement for my new E8400 / 8800GTS rig using my current Lian Li V2000. Seeing your bottom case radiator placement made me realize I have to go that way! The fillport -> reservoir -> pump mounted on the side is a great idea too. I'm also going to steal your 3-way fan splitter cable idea as well ;)

Go for it...no theft needed. :cool:
 
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