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yes i realize that this is late. i actually did the work on christmas eve as i had to go to work christmas day for night shifts....joy to the world! with an 8 month old baby in the home, i haven't been able to get the photos onto my desktop until now.
yeah the pics aren't the greatest. low lighting, didn't have room for my tripod, blah blah blah. live with it
so first thing to know about me: i'm both cheap and lazy. but i will go to great lengths to be cheap, usually overrides the lazy.
my system is getting a little old now, i5 6600k skylake, asus gtx 970, etc. it's also watercooled with my custom build. keep in mind that these parts are over 10 years old and have been adapted to fit new hardware. works well, just not pretty. the problem has been that all this has been jammed into an old Antec 900 case. great case back in the day. now it sucks, my GTX 970 actually wouldn't fit length wise without removing the HSF and putting it on water. usually i like to test them before voiding the warranty!
here's the old POS:
not sure why it got rotated, its fine on my desktop....strange. oh well, you get the idea. its cramped for all this equipment and my wiring job is terrible.
to replace this i got a corsair 750D airflow edition. much bigger but strangely not as quiet. this was actually last year's christmas gift...i needed new tubing and it's not so easy to get here in canada. decent stuff at least. this year's gift was a wad of new tubing from DazMode now i can fit the rad into the case!!!!!! WOOO!!!!
and then there's the other side of this project: delid the skylake! i'll start with that one. here's the before temps:
ok so 44ºC, not bad. have yet to overclock (remember, lazy) but this is to prep for that. good friend of mine has access to a 3D printer...
not bad! didn't fit perfect, dimensions were a little tight due to the tolerancing of the machine. nothing a razor blade couldn't fix.
TO THE RACK WITH YE!
and then there was the blood curling pop of victory
for thermal paste, the cheap side of me took over. i have some old MX-4 sitting around for....oh hell i don't know, a long time. i used that trash. reattached the heatspreader with some RTV silicone i had in the garage. to clamp, i left it in a wood clamp (not too roughly) for a couple hours while i went out to get some nuts and bolts to upgrade my ghetto mounting for my CPU waterblock.
now onto the transplant! as mentioned, my water hardware is OLD! for the CPU i have a swiftech apogee GT and a swiftech MCW-60 for the video card. the apogee GT has no business fitting onto a modern CPU, but it's doable. you will see how further down believe it or not, the MCW-60 fits just fine. it came with a G80 adapter kit back in the day and that still fits! not sure on the newer 1070/1080 cards though. depends on if nvidia changed the mounting or not.
new mounting hardware straight from home depot for the cpu....yeah there's no backplate. i care not.
and now my ghetto apogee GT mounting system:
yep it's a steel ruler i found on my garage floor at 2 am and cannibalized. works well if you're careful. this was for the original build, i was silly enough to think that my water block would fit on a (then) brand new skylake. i wanted my computer back, i found a way
next up my 970 needs better cooling. namely, ramsinks! yes they're also old. zalman i think. but due to the height of the ramsinks vs. the profile of the waterblock, they don't fit on all of the ram chips. i found a way as usual. not ideal, but better than nothing....i think. you can see an upside down unmolested one on the right for comparison.
next to attach them with my super secret proprietary blend of thermal adhesive! i'm not a fan of the thermal tape (but then haven't used it in YEARS! might be better now?) but using a thermal adhesive makes it impossible to remove the ram sinks. remember, i'm cheap. the beauty of this blend is that it is completely removable. it will pretty much peel off. i'll take this secret to the grave with me, you fools will never get it!
there's the ramsinks attached under the water nipples. you can see the interference issue clearly in this shot.
my trusty old pump. was used when i got it, but just keeps going! it was actually busted when i got it off ebay. someone was trying to do the dump and run. got some money back and used it to buy a new impeller off a forumer here. can't remember who it was, long time ago. i still owe that guy one
getting some wires routed. properly this time. tubing layout is shaping up nicely. way more room than the old build! very nice. i love the drive bays in this thing too, super convenient.
if anyone is wondering, yes my GTX970 is warped a little....it's not just the image. that's because it was jammed into the old case without mercy. still works though, ugly or not.
ghetto coolant for a ghetto kinda guy like me. added some PTnuke that i've also had for too many years to count.
and....wait for it.....drumroll please.....
the final product
i'd say this is much better. wiring turned out to be a very clean job and so much more room for the WC gear. and LOOK!!!! THE RAD IS INSIDE THE CASE!!!!! i love it
this turned into an all day job. some fans needed some wiring work so that meant soldering, shrink wrapping, etc. the delid took a bit longer than expected due to the tool not sized right, but as mentioned easily fixed. so few snags along the way but it was well worth it.
have to say, this tubing from DazMode is amazing. wish i knew what it was, it was a gift like i said. you pretty much cannot kink this stuff. it's very soft and easy to work with. i was expecting to have to use wraps like my old case and old tubing, but didn't need that at all here.
and now the results. what did my delid efforts yield? full load 25ºC? maybe it'll run sub-ambient? oh the suspense is killing me!
yeah all that for a measly 2ºC. i'm rather unimpressed, but hey i'll take it. at least i didn't kill the thing...like an old ati card i forced the same MCW-60 onto and broke the solder joints on the core....hey big thanks to asus for RMA'ing that, you're swell guys! chumps.
all kidding aside, i'm very happy. i should have built this system with the new case...but yeah cheap. now i have plenty of room to play with and everything runs cooler. hope you guys enjoyed my stupidity.
yeah the pics aren't the greatest. low lighting, didn't have room for my tripod, blah blah blah. live with it
so first thing to know about me: i'm both cheap and lazy. but i will go to great lengths to be cheap, usually overrides the lazy.
my system is getting a little old now, i5 6600k skylake, asus gtx 970, etc. it's also watercooled with my custom build. keep in mind that these parts are over 10 years old and have been adapted to fit new hardware. works well, just not pretty. the problem has been that all this has been jammed into an old Antec 900 case. great case back in the day. now it sucks, my GTX 970 actually wouldn't fit length wise without removing the HSF and putting it on water. usually i like to test them before voiding the warranty!
here's the old POS:
not sure why it got rotated, its fine on my desktop....strange. oh well, you get the idea. its cramped for all this equipment and my wiring job is terrible.
to replace this i got a corsair 750D airflow edition. much bigger but strangely not as quiet. this was actually last year's christmas gift...i needed new tubing and it's not so easy to get here in canada. decent stuff at least. this year's gift was a wad of new tubing from DazMode
now i can fit the rad into the case!!!!!! WOOO!!!!and then there's the other side of this project: delid the skylake! i'll start with that one. here's the before temps:
ok so 44ºC, not bad. have yet to overclock (remember, lazy) but this is to prep for that. good friend of mine has access to a 3D printer...
not bad! didn't fit perfect, dimensions were a little tight due to the tolerancing of the machine. nothing a razor blade couldn't fix.
TO THE RACK WITH YE!
and then there was the blood curling pop of victory
for thermal paste, the cheap side of me took over. i have some old MX-4 sitting around for....oh hell i don't know, a long time. i used that trash. reattached the heatspreader with some RTV silicone i had in the garage. to clamp, i left it in a wood clamp (not too roughly) for a couple hours while i went out to get some nuts and bolts to upgrade my ghetto mounting for my CPU waterblock.
now onto the transplant! as mentioned, my water hardware is OLD! for the CPU i have a swiftech apogee GT and a swiftech MCW-60 for the video card. the apogee GT has no business fitting onto a modern CPU, but it's doable. you will see how further down
believe it or not, the MCW-60 fits just fine. it came with a G80 adapter kit back in the day and that still fits! not sure on the newer 1070/1080 cards though. depends on if nvidia changed the mounting or not.
new mounting hardware straight from home depot for the cpu....yeah there's no backplate. i care not.
and now my ghetto apogee GT mounting system:
yep it's a steel ruler i found on my garage floor at 2 am and cannibalized. works well if you're careful. this was for the original build, i was silly enough to think that my water block would fit on a (then) brand new skylake. i wanted my computer back, i found a way
next up my 970 needs better cooling. namely, ramsinks! yes they're also old. zalman i think. but due to the height of the ramsinks vs. the profile of the waterblock, they don't fit on all of the ram chips. i found a way as usual. not ideal, but better than nothing....i think. you can see an upside down unmolested one on the right for comparison.
next to attach them with my super secret proprietary blend of thermal adhesive! i'm not a fan of the thermal tape (but then haven't used it in YEARS! might be better now?) but using a thermal adhesive makes it impossible to remove the ram sinks. remember, i'm cheap. the beauty of this blend is that it is completely removable. it will pretty much peel off. i'll take this secret to the grave with me, you fools will never get it!
there's the ramsinks attached under the water nipples. you can see the interference issue clearly in this shot.
my trusty old pump. was used when i got it, but just keeps going! it was actually busted when i got it off ebay. someone was trying to do the dump and run. got some money back and used it to buy a new impeller off a forumer here. can't remember who it was, long time ago. i still owe that guy one
getting some wires routed. properly this time. tubing layout is shaping up nicely. way more room than the old build! very nice. i love the drive bays in this thing too, super convenient.
if anyone is wondering, yes my GTX970 is warped a little....it's not just the image. that's because it was jammed into the old case without mercy. still works though, ugly or not.
ghetto coolant for a ghetto kinda guy like me. added some PTnuke that i've also had for too many years to count.
and....wait for it.....drumroll please.....
the final product
i'd say this is much better. wiring turned out to be a very clean job and so much more room for the WC gear. and LOOK!!!! THE RAD IS INSIDE THE CASE!!!!! i love it
this turned into an all day job. some fans needed some wiring work so that meant soldering, shrink wrapping, etc. the delid took a bit longer than expected due to the tool not sized right, but as mentioned easily fixed. so few snags along the way but it was well worth it.
have to say, this tubing from DazMode is amazing. wish i knew what it was, it was a gift like i said. you pretty much cannot kink this stuff. it's very soft and easy to work with. i was expecting to have to use wraps like my old case and old tubing, but didn't need that at all here.
and now the results. what did my delid efforts yield? full load 25ºC? maybe it'll run sub-ambient? oh the suspense is killing me!
yeah all that for a measly 2ºC. i'm rather unimpressed, but hey i'll take it. at least i didn't kill the thing...like an old ati card i forced the same MCW-60 onto and broke the solder joints on the core....hey big thanks to asus for RMA'ing that, you're swell guys! chumps.
all kidding aside, i'm very happy. i should have built this system with the new case...but yeah cheap. now i have plenty of room to play with and everything runs cooler. hope you guys enjoyed my stupidity.