My first water cooled rig! (pics)

wow. hope to build a wc sys like you guys. same gfx block, res, pump but diff cpu block :O
 
officermartinez said:
OK.. Im finished with the install.. Here are some pics:


DSCN7948.jpg



DSCN7949.jpg



DSCN7951.jpg
Click to expand...


Exceptionally pretty and sleek. But with the radiator on the top and the reservoir on the bottom you'll have to turn the computer upside-down to get the air out - if you can at all. I prefer a T with a valve above the radiator; it looks like crap but it's the quickest way to fill to the top and bleed air that I've found.
 
AuroraProject said:
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?
Click to expand...

As a matter of fact, yes I did. The New In Box quad core is patiently standing by on my computer desk.. LOL.

NoEcho - it wasn't NEAR as bad as you might think.. The XSPC res is pretty darn big. Although not as fast as a T-Line I am sure, I had ALL of the bubbles out in only 15 minutes.. I am told some guys on here, with T Lines, can have their loops bubble free in 5 minutes.. True or not, I don't know.. But, I'm not sure which thread I read it in, but someone mentioned that they dislike reserviors because they can actually produce bubbles unless you "top the reservior off".. Well, that's exactly what I did. I topped it off.. not hard in the least. Bubble free in 15 minutes. Once I had my loop full of fluid, I simply "fine tuned" the pump by turning it all the way down. With my fluid slowly circulating through the loop, I slowly added my FLUID XP all the way to the top of the res. I left the top off for about 5 minutes. With a towel under my res, I then completely topped the res off (where fluid actually flowed a little over the rim of the res) and screwed my reservior lid back on, air tight. As for the mounting locations, I had NO WHERE to mount those things, internally.. Hahahahaha! When I bought my Thermaltake Shark case I thought, "damn this thing is pretty big" ..Now it's like, "damn, I ran out of space"!
 
Hmm, I'm not so sure on this EK block at the moment, it bends your card in all kinds of ways when installed. Hopefully it performs really well!
 
officermartinez said:
As a matter of fact, yes I did. The New In Box quad core is patiently standing by on my computer desk.. LOL.

NoEcho - it wasn't NEAR as bad as you might think.. The XSPC res is pretty darn big. Although not as fast as a T-Line I am sure, I had ALL of the bubbles out in only 15 minutes.. I am told some guys on here, with T Lines, can have their loops bubble free in 5 minutes.. True or not, I don't know.. But, I'm not sure which thread I read it in, but someone mentioned that they dislike reserviors because they can actually produce bubbles unless you "top the reservior off".. Well, that's exactly what I did. I topped it off.. not hard in the least. Bubble free in 15 minutes. Once I had my loop full of fluid, I simply "fine tuned" the pump by turning it all the way down. With my fluid slowly circulating through the loop, I slowly added my FLUID XP all the way to the top of the res. I left the top off for about 5 minutes. With a towel under my res, I then completely topped the res off (where fluid actually flowed a little over the rim of the res) and screwed my reservior lid back on, air tight. As for the mounting locations, I had NO WHERE to mount those things, internally.. Hahahahaha! When I bought my Thermaltake Shark case I thought, "damn this thing is pretty big" ..Now it's like, "damn, I ran out of space"!
Click to expand...

Lian-li v2000b Plus II heh. Have you seen the inside of that monster?
 
AuroraProject said:
Hmm, I'm not so sure on this EK block at the moment, it bends your card in all kinds of ways when installed. Hopefully it performs really well!
Click to expand...

Just don't overtighten. You can do the same with a DD 8800 GTX block if you overtighten. Doesn't have to be insanely tight anyway, not like it will fall off. =) :)
 
masaville said:
*Gives officer a tissue!!* haha
Click to expand...

I need more than one tissue.. It's like I am going through crack or heroin withdrawals.. lmao!


I keep telling myself, only a few more days until my new IN9 motherboard arrives.. It hasn't worked out too well for me though... haha. My laptop just isn't cutting it.
 
officermartinez said:
I need more than one tissue.. It's like I am going through crack or heroin withdrawals.. lmao!


I keep telling myself, only a few more days until my new IN9 motherboard arrives.. It hasn't worked out too well for me though... haha. My laptop just isn't cutting it.
Click to expand...

Only a few more days.....only a few more days........look away from the light........look away from the light............lol :D
 
Almost done! It's bleeding the air out, tomorrow I can play some games. By the way, vinegar did not work for removing the slight tarnish on the EK block, Brasso may, but for right now I said screw it and installed it. I also plan to put the smart coil things on the hose between the n/b and the gpu.

large.jpg
 
Wow, bleeding is taking forever! It's been going 24 hours now, and a small amount of the fine bubbles still remain. Odd, when it was just the cpu & chipset it would bleed out in just a few hours.

I want to use it dammit! :D
 
Ok, this whole @#%^&*% computer is going in the #$%^&*$% trash can. @%&* the EVGA 8800GTX card worked for about 10 minutes, then it let the magic smoke out and shot sparks everywhere. @$#!& arrgh. I'm so $%#^in mad right now. :mad:
 
serious? did u install the block wrong? did you use that dif thermal paste for ram etc?
 
calm down now. We have all seen sparks come out of a computer before........

Where did they come from and what caused it????

Waterblock or bad card?
 
ooh. did you use AS5 on the block. if you did you would fry the memory etc. only use AS5 on the core.
 
Sorry to hear about that Aurora. You've clearly invested a lot of time and money into your new rig.

I have a similar system I built a few months backthat I've now been thinking of WC'ing. I put the HK-sli on both my NB and SB of my 680i, and the NB one is still running very hot. I might just go for the CPU+NB and leave the video card alone.
 
Aurora: I know the feeling.

last year I went through THREE A8N-SLI motherboards... one destroyed my RAM and hurt my CPU too.

At least it's an eVGA card. I RMA'd my 7800 for bad Vram, and had a new one in 4 days (Note: I live in Canada... so that's amazing)
 
I will be so happy when this build is over. Normally I love building and tweaking my rigs, but this one has become more of a chore than something fun.

On a side note, my next build will be an A8N-SLI I have laying around with a 3500+ and a single 6800 Ultra, I want to put it in an Antec P180 and watercool the cpu and gpu. Do you think a Thermochill PA120.2 would be good for this, or would I need the 120.3?
 
Ok, received my rma 8800GTX today, I left the stock cooler on for now as I have no thermal pads for the vr. First 3dmark06 run on this rig, stock video card:

original.jpg


Decent? Once the water block is on I plan to overclock the video card slightly. Runs games just fine at 1920X1200, and it's a huge jump in image quality from my old 6800's!
 
that seeems quite low, my cpu at 3.4ghz with slower HDD's got almost exactly the same score.
 
masaville said:
Cheater!!!! hehe j/k

I have to get into some o/c to see what I can squeeze out of mine.
Click to expand...

LOL Masaville.. Yeah, I am sorta cheatin with the quad.. it really helps bring up the scores. It feels like now my SLi GTS's aren't CPU limited.. It's like they are finally getting a chance to stretch their legs, so to speak.. That was at 3.4ghz.. I wonder if I put some vcore to the quad, if I can squeeze 3.7ghz out of her.. I am at stock vcore right now but I was tinkering with the vcore a little at 3.6ghz and I had to crank that baby all the way up to 1.4850v.. Talk about shooting my temps up! The processor worked fine but I can see where a vapochill unit would come in handy!!!!!! These quad cores get super hot.. quick! Anyways, at 3.7ghz and tweaking my video cards a little more, I am sure I can get over 17,000.. The video cards are nice and cool!


AuroraProject said:
So 16700 from a Quad and SLI? My 11000 from a dual core and a single GTX doesn't seem that low.
Click to expand...

I would say that 11,000 is a SOLID score.. Some have achieved higher scores, some have gotten lower scores.. It all depends on your setup.. ArI have a buddy that has a AMD 5200+ overclocked at 3.0ghz and a 8800gts card O/C'd @ 600/1000 and his score is in the HIGH 9,000 range..
 
Very nice! Very nice!

My e6700 and 8800 gtx sli overclock isn't going so well......

overclock.jpg


hehe

I got 13900 with a measly cpu overclock (a weak one at that) and no gpu overclock. I should jump back in and see what I can get. Before I do, tips on how not to fry your components. Best o/c tools?
 
If you are using Windows XP, I use Riva Tuner for overclocking my 8800s.. As for O/Cing the processor, I do all of my O/Cing in the Bios.. I stay away from overclocking programs in Windows..
 
Today I'm reinstalling Windows as I have frequent bsod's since installing the 8800. I tried 97.92, and then went to 97.95 using driver cleaner and such. It wont even open most games before hard locking, forcing me to power down, or if I wait I get the NV4_disp.dll bsod. I doubt a clean install of XP will help, but hey, I had nothing better to do today!
 
i had that. re-install windows, install cd drivers, run for a while (3dmark etc) restart and install latest forceware.
 
Actually a clean install may help, I am on my 3rd mobo. Granted they are all the same mobo, but different revisions and such may effect it.

I just want to play some games, dammit! :D
 
Okay here's my first overclock. E6700 to 3.5 GHz, cpu overclock only.

Temps are 43 idle, 48 load.

cpuoverclock.jpg


Totally stable playing C&C Tiberium for 2 hours straight. Very nice.

Man, these E6700s are so overclockable. Not even a hiccup.

Is it safe to run this 24/7 on those temps with just a front side bus increase and no voltage change?
 
I can't get mine to run a game to save its life. Clean install of XP, load mobo drivers, then 97.95, install a game, reboot and start the game, hard lock. Nothing with this stupid computer works right, I can't decide whether I should try a different mobo (BX2) or just give up and sell it all and go back to my AMD/6800 rig. It's old but at least it works.
 
AuroraProject said:
I can't get mine to run a game to save its life. Clean install of XP, load mobo drivers, then 97.95, install a game, reboot and start the game, hard lock. Nothing with this stupid computer works right, I can't decide whether I should try a different mobo (BX2) or just give up and sell it all and go back to my AMD/6800 rig. It's old but at least it works.
Click to expand...

Problem with the board maybe? Boards that bite it can do some weird stuff. A clean install would fix it so it must be hardware. Only way to easily test that is component swap, but that's a pain if you don't have components to swap.

If you have a spare vid card, etc. start swapping out piece by piece. You'll figure it out pretty quick.
 
Unfortunately I don't have too many spares. I do have a spare ram stick and different video cards, but they are 6800 series, and require a different driver. I've flashed the mobo bios to p26, flashed the 8800 to the latest bios, tried 97.44, 97.92, and 97.95 forceware drivers. All with the same results, it's like they just aren't compatible. I'm running memtest right now, once it's done I plan to slow my ram down and link and sync at 1:1, maybe that'll help.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top