chillin like villians: rev n roli's water cooling craze

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OMG - cool.. I weas just going here to post this:

http://www.crazypc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=93318

heh! nice eh? .... man, sorry been laggin on anything for our watercooling craze.... I have been helping lee63 try and get his FX-60 prime stable at 3ghz on air.. It's stepping CCB2E 0548RPMW but does not seem to want to go past 2.9ghz on air prime stable.. Because it's fully unlocked, I had him bump the multiplier, as an alternative to the FSB, (we tried both, amny times) and it still didn't want to stablize... even with lot's o vcore.. and a remount of the heat sink... he's using an XP90c.. and his temps might be the issue.. we can't seem to get any motherboard monitoring software working well on his XP64 install... man... I am thinking it could be a fussy DFI expert issue, with the ddr drive data strength... but not sure... anyways, it's taken a long time, and nothing has improved. frustrating. whew

ok - time for work here... more later mang..

EDIT: going to work in the rain and wind on a ferry is quite the experience... I don't think I did as much commuting last year, in the rain and such.. wow..
 
Dang nice thread. I'm building a pc3-725 shortly and I'm learning a ton from you guys. Thanks for posting such details. I'm only at page 5 of the thread tho... dang loooong thread!

Excuse me if I missed it, but I'm wondering about the default coolant supplied with the 725? I love the blue color of what you guys are doing and I'm thinking about imitiating the audi coolant. If they supply green I'll definately do it, if its blue I'll probably just use what they provide.
 
CLEAR!!!!!!

bump.jpg


Bump... Bump... we have rhymth!! w00t.

Someone brought the thread back to life.. :D

Yes - we're using a mixture of Pentosin (VW/Audi coolant) and distilled water, which is the same color as the koolance coolant, roughly.. I still have my metalic bag of koolance coolant.. the kit comes with one puch of the stuff... enough to fill the loop with some to spare. :) I am really happy with this kit.. the fact that the pumps/rad/res are all self contained really makes for a clean build.. and the performance has been great. for me at least.. Anyways.. I know it's a long thread, and not all is OT, lol. so feel free to ask anything.. :)
 
Well, I look forward to reading the rest of it. Once I've got some more spare time. :)

Thanks for the info on the coolant, I'll just stick with the default stuff for now. Since you've had your 725 up and running for a while now, what would you say are your impressions of the case \ cooling system? Have you found the need to upgrade any of the cooling components for better performance? What do you think about the performance of the fan controller, do you leave it on auto or manual... Any other thoughts?

Lol, maybe I should just read the rest of the thread, probably all in there somewhere.
 
heh.. yeah - it all in there... I did add an additional 120mm DD black ice pro rad between the SLI'd GTXs and the cpu, which really works well for bringing the coolant back down several degrees after hitting those gpus.. especially at load... but I was running cpu --> gpu --> gpu for a while with just the koolance and it worked fine.. I have left the fans on manual, and they range from completely silent with moderate flow (0 . . . 5) to very quiet with good flow (6 and 7) to sounding windy with lots of flow (8 . . . 10)... I leave it on 6 typically and really don't need to touch it.. when it's like 90 in my house in the dead of summer I put it on 8 sometimes.. it really moves some good air through the rad... that v1000 is sooooo nice for breathing.. with all of the perforated surfaces... it's the perfect combo...

the one big draw-back of this setup imo is the fact you loose the last pci slot on the mobo at the top (BTX config, the top is furthest from the pci-e/agp slots) because the koolance rad sticks down a little... it's a big cramped up there.. I would like to try a mobo with different slot spacing, but then my 2nd rad won't fit... I have everything "just so" atm.. very low space tollerances now.. so no sound card will fit with SLI... I could go with an Extigy, but the realtek ACL850 sounds pretty good.. so I am ok with that. :)

I have to run to the office now.. more later...
 
Oh for shizzle... what did I do????????


AMD Opteron 175 Denmark 1GHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model OSA175DAA6CD - OEM
Item #: N82E16819103583 $496.00
Subtotal: $496.00
Tax: $35.96 (next day)
Shipping: $24.74

order status = shipped!

my finger slipped and hit the order button! ;)

I should prolly have bid on an opty 170 ccb1e 0550vmpw on eBay... there hittin 3ghz no sweat.. . . . but I like to live on the dangerous edge of suspense.. plus the denmark core is a low voltage version of the toledo, so hopefully I'll have some additional OC headroom as a result.. not sure yet tho..

more news to follow. :)


EDIT: rolio oh rolio, where art thou? howze your new opty d00d?
 
hahah so funny. ive had our thread open all morning cuz i meant to make a revival post. was discussing the sinks i wanted to put on my mosfets (back on page 33) with eclipse a bunch this morning.

well, i have a super 148 sittin in its box beside my tv.
i have a nice cool 146 in my machine now running at 3ghz with my ram at 250mhz / 2-2-2-7
i have my beloved CABNE chillin
i have a thermochill PA 120.3 on its way here to arrive today or tomorrow (got it used over at XS)
and i just got back from the hardware store where i got 3x 1/2" t-lines.

this weekend i shall attempt to cut up the 3 black NB sized heatsinks into lil chunks to be attached to various spots on my mobo + fets. if that doesnt work out i buy soem silver ramsinks on monday from ma boy on ebay

also rev: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1031490
im still trying to find a way to make hte water orange.

so thts where i am, only a matter of time before i can buy the rest of the bits to make the big upgrade. then i can finally choose which of hte 3 opterowns i shall keep!
 
heh... hillarious.. We'll be getting our goods around the same time. :) I also pulled the trigger on this bad boy

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=177&products_id=3818

after reading more and more about how these new video cards draw so much power, and the dual rail systems, let along quad rail (like mine) have issues getting enough juice out.. so the single rail psus are working better... I know my psu is known to not work well in high power demand situations unless perfectly balanced with 5v draw to compliment the 12v draw...

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1932947,00.asp

it's really funky.. plus it's SOOOOO freakin' loud.. man.. it's like a hair drier... and it gets really hot when I play games.. I think it's stressing.. so I am going to slap this newbie in, put it on single rail mode (hardware switch in the back) and i'll be set... I'd rather have my gaming power draw not stress my psu too much.. I searched long and hard for a PSU with the split/single rail capability like this one and could not really find another one in it's class/power/price.. TopPower is very good stuff, from all the reading I have done.. plus I do not have a spare PSU at current, and I like having one on hand.. now I will. :)

ok - so I'm litterally on pins waiting to see the stepping of my Opty.. whew...
 
revenant said:
ok - so I'm litterally on pins waiting to see the stepping of my Opty.. whew...
Click to expand...

uh. WOW?!?!?! 750 W! :eek:

anyhoo im eager to see what steppin you get too homie! yay!
 
freakin hell... me also.. lol.

Yeah - my +12v has been running low as of late.. down around 11.67 and such... not too great... I know I am pushing this quad rail SS hard... the topower has 600W with over 40amps dedicated to the 12v rail alone... lol.

Better info link for this beast.. http://store.ekm.com/epxs75atposu.html
 
el rolio said:
onboard4_big.jpg


see those lil black sinks? well i like the concept so im gonna try it. and prolly sink 1 or 2 other random things.
Click to expand...

remember this guys? how long i've been searching? well guess what! a lovely company by the name of Microcool are the makers of my dream-sinks. during my current "inspiration research" going on over at XS, i found one of them british chaps using the tiny ones on his gfx card mosfets... after a few posts and website links, i found that sidewinder, frozencpu and jab-tech(no stock) are all resellers here in the US:

http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/mimi.html
http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/mimoch.html
http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/mipllch.html

:D:D safe to say im super duper excited :D:D

the search is over. my fets, ic's, and pwm shall ALL be sinked shortly! yay! hooray!
 
Nice... NICE... really cool looking (no pun) and looking forward to see the new loop. :)

in other news... rig v 2.0

Rigv2.JPG


more news to follow..
 
GAH!!!!! I had to do a massive re-wire today... took all day but I like the outcome... took even more pics.. but I have to go to dinner and see V for Vandetta now... it's gonna rawk.. :D I am going crazy cuz I don't have enough time to format and post the images... fooooo!!!!! I will after the movie... sorry to be such a tease..
 
the chip.. an Opty 175 (yeah, I wanted the 11x multi so I sprung for the 175 rather than 170) which I had high hopes would hit 2.8ghz... it does not look like it will now.. the jury is still out.. 2.75ghz is looking good though.. which is ok.. but I am a little bummed.. I guess I should just be glad it went above 2.7... ho-hum... some of the 0550upmw chips were real winners... I will fill all the details in in the chip tomorrow..

My175.JPG


Once I ran it a little and saw it was running a little warm, I decided to pop the top.. it went in like 30 seconds and was a nice clean cut.. yeah! box cutters rule for IHS removal because they only expose the tip/corner of the blade so they cant go deep enough to hit a resistor.

Poppedopty2.JPG

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the PSU - this SilverStone has been pretty good, but reports of them shutting down with two 7900GTX cards in SLI with a dual core... so as bummed as I was to swap it out, and because I thought by getting this one in the first place I would be good to go for a long time.. dual rail, 710W peak, etc... it ended up not being designed too well, and if out of the rails got overloaded, which was fairly easy to do with certain highly demanding configurations... it was really loud also.. anyways, so I decided to get a PSU which I could run two 7900GTX cards in confidence with my new dual core...

out with the old -

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and in with the new -

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the split/single rail tech gets me in the best of both worlds.. running it in single rail mode for the forseeable future.. weeeee! and it's sooooooo much more quiet than the Zeus.. whew.

So this was the perfect op to do a massive reconfig of wiring and some better placement of things.. also cover up the drive cage and tape off the DVD drives, making them black... I will go into detail on what I did, what I used, what is not done, and all of that tomorrow.. too tired ATM.. whew..

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OK - so that was the PSU install and re-wire.. It's a bloody mess "behind the curtain" but you can't see any of it with normal viewing, so it works.. I honestly tried to clean some of it up, but unless I move the switches for the ccfls to a light control panel in the front, which would be a nice idea and I am planning on that eventually, I have to keep a lot of that wiring.. but oh well.. something to do another day..

So the big whiteness of the DVD drives and the drive cage has been bothering me for a long time, so I decided to experiement with some foam (for noise dampening) and this carbon fiber vinyl tape covering I got on ebay.. I need more of that, because it looks really good.. but I need to do a couple of things... It's tape really, so I need to tape it to something hard and flat as it is now, on the foam, it's got ripples and such.. not the best, but this was the experimenttal run.. I need some plexi-glass cut to form that cage section.. which I am going to get at ther hardware store. No prob. What I also want to do is get another section to cover the inside of the drive cage, over the top of the DVD drives, mounting flush with that Vantec fan I have "hovering" (it's zip tied to the other side of the drive cage, btw) and with holes for the two LED cannons I have there.. basically covering the big gaping open area above the DVD drives with a couple of exceptions..


Rigv2-14.JPG


The electrical tape, while it's a little bit of a hack, it works.. it does a nice job of "blacking out" the silver areas of the drives and it's easy to cut + shape to fit corners and everything.. at night it looks awesome! but I accidentially cut my nice AC Ryan black IDE cable for the DVD drives.. so I need to order a new one, but with that the whole back-side of the DVD drives will be black, and with the plexi covers I am going to have cut, the areas above them will be blacked out also... So that's what I have done and what I have in the chamber for the 1st week of April.. next week I will be traveling, so no modding.. but I will have more time to think... . .


Rigv2-last.JPG


gah! these pics kind of suck... it looks better in real life..
 
hell yea you gotta explain some more! i wanna know about the taping off of the CD drives + the thing you did to the part of the drive cage you can see thru the window.

also wanna know about how you have that fan hanging there by the gfx cards and also WHAT A GREAT JOB! wow its pretty cool.
 
ok - edits done to the post above. whew...

Hey - I really like the looks of that ram cooler.. wow... bad-ass! when are you going to finish off your loop with it in?
 
this is what I mean by covering the "gaping hole" above the DVD drives... going to get a plexi section and black it out for this. you can also see how bad the vinyl tape if "poofing" out while not taped down for reals to anything flat. doh! ...and, one more tie down block to remove from the back of the lower DVD drive... that'll go when I get the new AC Ryan cable.
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You guys keep giving me more and more ideas for my pc3-725. I've got 40 inch sata cables and my next project (well, after installing my 7900 gt) is to switch all my drives to sata simply for the cleaner cable runs.
 
glad to be of help :D

i cant wait to make my next set of changes too. like CANT wait. and im so happy it will be a bunch of things i have been making notes about for sometime. just gotta get that money!
 
Oh crappy slappy.. I haven't run my UV lamps in a long while, but I happened to turn them on last night and noticed these rather sizable "globs" of what looks like coagulated UV dye in my tubing.. like barnacles on a ship hull! I can only imagine what the milled areas of my Apogee look like now.. /me cringes. Now I know why my cpu idle temps have been like 4c higher than normal.. and creeping up.. So, it's time for a big over-haul.. I was reluctant to put that crap in my lines, and now I know why.. never again! I am going to get UV reactive tubing , or sleaving, what-have-you..

In other news, I have a DFI expert mobo on a truck for delivery today.. good timing.. I am just sold off my Opty 175, and have a few other items for sale in the FS/FT forum.. once I get those sold off, I'll be buying a pair of 7900GT cards (eVGA super clocked) and will pull the rig apart again! this time I am going to fully rinse the koolance rad to get those globs out, clean the Apogee, and I am not sure I will watercool the 7900GTs.. at least not right away.. these new 90nm gpus seem to be fine with air cooling.. plus installing new cards is a major PITA with WC.. so for now I will only cool the CPU, which I might add is the uber rare 170 ccb1e 0550vpmw and is a hot running chip. I really want a dedicated and isolated cooling loop for just that for now.. whew. it should go 3ghz.. so far this is what I have been able to get out of it,

2700 initial burn in dual prime stable 24hrs (default vcore)

2730 dual prime stable 16hrs (default vcore)


2750 default vcore still stable (default vcore)


then I had to bump vcore 0.025v to get 2800


another bump to get 2830.. and now a bump to 1.39v to get 2860 which is priming away at home now.. I hope it does not bomb out. doh!

so, I reckon something like 1.42 vcore for 2.9ghz and possibly as low as 1.5 vcore for 3ghz.. I HOPE!! :D

I am taking this one slow and low.. it's responding -well- to burn in.. as these ccb1e's tend to do. much better than my 175 did. but it's a hot little bastard. which is partially why I am not going to push it much further until I get the rad/block cleaned, then isolate the cpu in it's own loop, and get it on that eXpert board. I can live with a 2.85ghz dually for now. anyways.. I will post pics of the "globs" tonight.. I am still cringing at the thought of what is sitting at the bottom of my Apogee. yikes.
 
ok - on with the new mobo.. got the eXpert installed, and I must say, it's really nice.. not one problem so far.. booted the 1st time, after 5 mins of bios tweaks I was back to my old 24/7 running config.. decided to do some more priming at default to see if I gained any more stable OC and it looks like I might have gotten 10mhz.. but I did get a REALLY good mount this time.. finally.. my temps are insanely good now.. but I think some of that has to do with the thermal off-set I hear is an issue with the eXpert.. apparently some of them report low like 5c to 7c! Anyways.. My AS5 has not even set, and even adding 7c my temps are down like 5c! amazing. anyways. I got to 2.9ghz and hit a bit of a wall with this chip. still and all, 2.9ghz on a dual core is very good. but I wanted 3ghz!!!!!! damn it.. lol. don't we all?

ok, on with the pics..

the state of things as we knew it before the operation.
Xpert1.JPG


holy incredulous CRAP! that's dusty.. no wonder my temps were on the rise.. this + the globs of crap in my coolant lines = badness.
Xpert2.JPG


this is how we drain our loop, drain our loop, drain our loop..
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Starting a reconfig like this can be intimidating because of the time and hassles involved, but I started at 8:10am and was at this point by 9:03am! not too bad. w00t. The biggest PITA of this whole thing was putting the stock coolers back on the 7800GTXs. wow was that tedious.
Xpert4.JPG


ok, now at 9:11 got the eXpert mounted, and the NB fan chord sleaved. going with yellow this time around.
Xpert5.JPG


close up of the topless ccb1e 0550vpmw.. one HOT ass chip.. and my trusty old Corsair.. good for 255mhz as cas2.5-3-3-6 1t. not too shabby... I am wanting to find a 2gb capable of 290+ mhz so I can run my mem:fsb @ 1:1, but I guess even the TeamGroup Xtreme modules are not consistently that good.. maybe some Ballistix? hrm.. the jury is out on that one still.. talking to Eclipse about it.
Xpert6.JPG


ok, not going to WC my video cards for now.. had to sell them to get the XFX 7900GTs Xtreme (550/1630, black with pcb stiffner, heh.. I said "stiffner" cool, heh heh), which I found in stock at Tiger Direct and promptly bought two of.. they're in the mail and should be here on Tuesday... with a pair of Zalman VF700-Cu LED coolers.. Anyways, so here's how my machine looks at current sans video cards.. waaaaaa!! ;)
Xpert7.JPG


Before I shipped the 7800GTXs, I took a few shots of my awesome temps..
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load temps, with fresh AS5! even with a full 7c off-set it's still amazing.
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Ohh kay.. this was my big dillema for even going with an eXpert board... the 120mm rad will hit the bottom of the bottom video card with it's default mounting holes... So, now that I am not going to WC the video cards, for now at least, I don't have to worry about that.. but I can easily fit the rad if I (A) drill new mounting holes, or (B) just use double sided sticky tape to hold it down to the bottom.. but that's alittle weak.. I think drilling holes is the way to go. :D
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there's plenty of room with the rad in the proposed new location.. actually, this is lower than it needs to go, but it shows the idea off. less than an inch down from the default mounting spot. should work fine for when I want to go back to WC for my 79GTs..
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So that's that for now.. I hear Roli has some big plans for a big reconfig coming to a project thread near you, **soon** ;)

EDIT: here are some shots of my soon to be video cards:

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I know, eh? almost perfect match for the LanParty mobo.. the yellows are a little off, but that's cool.. I have a pair of Zalman VF700-Cu with blue LED fans for these babies coming in on Weds. I think their gonna look slick. Got my conductive pen for the vmod to 1.4v today.. going to test them well before modding tho.. don't want to mod a marginally defective card.
 
yeaaaaaah!

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they run well... thank god.. after reading all those posts about issues with 7900GTs and GTXs.. anyways.. they even OC higher than they're already high fectory OC.. up to 562/1700 with no issues.. but I am going to break them in at default for a week.. and these factory fans are coming off ASAP.. wow are they loud. lol. I can't get over it.. like a car tire loosing air! heh.. anyways.. Zalman vf700cu-led's show up tomorrow.. yeaaaah.
 
So - my next dilemma is do I stay with air cooling on my 7900GTs or not.. ? I want to keep my cpu on it's own loop, so my options are:

(a) putting the 120mm rad back in and get a Swiftech MCRES-1000P - Bay Reservoir and Pump Combo to run a seperate loop, but I am not sure how well it will perform..

(b) or... and dare I even say this.. try the highly contravercial Coolit Freezone. I could be shot on sight for even saying this.. lol.

(c) or something else.. phase change on the cpu!!! w00t.. but my vpmw is horribly cold bugged. doh!

Hopefully DFI Dashi does not read this. ;) Anyways.. I want to see some real world results on the coolit before even thinking about that.. but if it does work well, wow, it could be pretty kick-ass.. who knows.. then I could keep the 7900GTs on the koolance loop..
 
rev option A looks mighty good man, i gotta tell ya homie. and it will be able to handle it, and at the very least keep em quieter and a buncha degrees cooler than the zalmans would.

ps check your email on a link to some mcw60's. too early for me to grab em. WAY too early me thinks.
 
the Zalman's are dead quiet and the cards are idling at 32c!!! crazy.. they look pretty nice also.. Anyways, something different to play around with.. for now..
 
revenant said:
the Zalman's are dead quiet and the cards are idling at 32c!!! crazy.. they look pretty nice also.. Anyways, something different to play around with.. for now..
Click to expand...

PICS! NOW! :)
 
wow, my image hosting service had a poo poo day.. anyways.. hellow photo-bucket! heh

desk lights on
7900GT10.jpg


desk lights off
7900GT9.jpg


I left the memory bare for now.. I reckon the little Zalman sinks work ok, or I can re-use my Swifties.. but they'll need to be peeled and cleaned 1st.. I also pulled off the pcb stiffner bar, so to get more air to the memory from the side fan.. that may or may not really make much of a difference.. especially when I get the sinks on the mems...
 
ok team!

today i got my packages so yay! first day back and i got all what i need!

• Swiftech micro res
• zerex
• BIG TUBE of artic silver 5
• black yate loon 120mm
• 2x Panaflo M1A 120mm (sleeved to boot!)
• 10x each of three sizes of the microcool heatsinks

so yay! i could rebuild tonight. but im seriously jet lagging right now. woke up this morn at like 5 am buggin. was at work by 8. even unpacked all my bags properly + installed and played some GRAW demo + checked all my mail n shit. crazy.

anyhoo im excited.

edit: the plan
so i have a few t lines. 2 of which i will plug 2 water temp sensors into and use sealant to shut and prolly put them at the in and out barbs of the rad. those will be hooked to the aquaero

also will rotate / move the hdd cage, and prolly get it permanently mounted right.

will put the swiftie micro res down by the hdds to feed the inlet of the pump almost directly.

will rotate one of the maze4 waterblocks to help with the tube runs. also gonna try a much leaner mix but now with zerex instead.

gonna mount the rad and fans up top after i drill 3 holes for the fans to blow thru.

will put a lotta heatsinks on the mobo where its needed

and some other stuff maybe
 
w00t. go team. soooooooo tired... but wanted to cheer you on none the less. I am once again traveling and my machine very far away... waaaaaaa!! lol. ok, sleeep now.
 
ok so far i disassembled the entire machine. boy was it dirty. took my time to drain all the water of course and jsut discard old tubing and get everything separated. began to clean up some parts and made a run to the hardware store to get a wrench and some canned air for the radiator.

i didnt have any masking tape and was pretty tired so didnt start cutting the case yet. will prolly do that one today. i hope my drill is powerful enough!

put the new sinks on my mobo, that was fun + rotated the maze block, but the problem is one of hte swiftie sinks will block one of the tubes from going on the barbs... hmm.. i dunnu if i should forgo the whole rotation of the block thing but i really wanted to do it hmmz.... Also not sure if the swiftie sink will come off easy :confused:

aiit thats it for now.
 
Nice!!!! too tired again to say much, but you can bend or trim those swiftie sink pins down.. those little pins snip with tiny wire clippers easy!
 
revenant said:
Nice!!!! too tired again to say much, but you can bend or trim those swiftie sink pins down.. those little pins snip with tiny wire clippers easy!
Click to expand...

hmm, thanks for the tip. i dont have any wire snips that are tiny.... i'll try bending perhaps.


ok for the next step: i unbolted the hdd rack. rotated and placed and tested stability, spacing and wire-abilty of a few positions. after being satisfied i would indeed be able to have a final placement of the rack rotated 90º, i then checked the res.
took the res in to see where it would fit, if it had to be suspended, how i would possible anchor/mount it etc. the spacing seems find to be right in front of the pump. but what about the return line? i figure i could run it down the back side like where all the other powercables are.

ok time to cut, assemble my 2 hole saw bits. masking tape up the top of the case, put the fans down, mark and measure a couple times. seem to have it in the center so make my X MARKS THE SPOT markings for where the fan hole should be cut. also marked the holes for screws.
begin to cut, get the tube holes done. try for the fan holes, and the drill aint got the juice. so run out to hardware store (its 9pm at that point) and rent a corded power drill. with hammer action. it gets the job done and sprays my entire porch and clothing with metal shavings and dust puffs. a bitch to clean up. then i look at the tape and see its shredded and foolishly remove it. BEFORE drilling the screw holes!!!
so yea, do my best to line up with a fan hole and carpenters square. drill 4 mini holes to each fan hole. clean it up then take it inside. then realise i need a hole for the fan cables. go back out, drill a regular sized hole and widen it with a file. it ends up being about 3/8". just big enough to fit the 3-pin headers thru.

thats about it. mounted the fans to the rad, with an ingenious "phillips bit moored by holes in fan frame rotated with fingers to tighten screws" yah, i'll take a pic to show ya.

the main hubub right now is tryin to figure out what to do with the return line and the fact that the burner WILL block its hidden direct path back to the res. i thought i could run it down the side corner f the face of hte machine, but then realized one faceplate could not go on. thinking of ways to mod it. ------------ the other option i decided on which is less elegant but the seemingly only way, is to run the tube down to the burner, anchor it to the top, have it loop out at the back of the burner into visibility then back around the underside of the burner, but on the backside of the drive bays so it goes hidden, then down to the lower section and into the res. with smaller ID tubing like the ones AC uses it could work and look good. but with my size it will just pop out and block view of that whole mosfet area etc.
i think i will take a faceplace and drill a tube size hole in a strategic spot and see if i can use the original elegant run. we'll see.

ok for the weekend, it will be time to clean and build again. i will prolly have to tear off the orignal layer of matting on the midfloor cuz its just too hard to get all the shavings out hte corners etc. plus since everything is outta the case i could prolly run it neater. after that i gotta get some new screws to mount the fans to the top of the case. maybe a screw and bold setup. i will need these from the hardware store. also need to setup the new mounting mechanism for the storm block and get the mobo in and wired. along with exhaust fan first. after that i start to run tubing etc etc to the leak test stage.
 
how well did those stock 7900gt coolers work? i'm planning on getting one and im wondering wether or not to get an aftermarket cooler or not..
 
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