*gulp* It's build time...

R

RickyJ

Gawd
Joined
Jun 9, 2004
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My MCP600 and coolsleeves arrived today, finishing off the major component list. Picking up my worm drive clamps tonight, since I wasn't expecting my shipment until tomorrow.

Listy:
brass top RBX (#5 installed now, and I radiused the holes on the intake side of the plate. Can this plate be recommended in this setup? Any better ones I should be using?)
Silverprop Fusion HL (sexy sexy block)
1/2" ID Clearflex
blue Coolsleeves for tubing above
2.5x4" round res from 2Fresh
Bonneville heater core from 2Fresh
MCP600 Rev2
Zerex additive
distilled water
2x 120mm Evercool aluminum fans
making a shroud from a cereal box and d.sided tape until I move back home, then it's metal time

Other parts for this week's built include:
OCZ flower sinks for my MOSFETs
OCZ BGA copper sinks for my 9800Pro
Cooler Master Aerogate 2 (thermal sensors: CPU, GPU, NB, H2O)
MCX159-A
"Universal" non-conductive cpu shim

I still have to measure my PSU to see if I'll be able to fit something new in there, if I ever need to. Hopefully a Fortron 530 is as big or smaller than the Super Flower 350W that came with my case. There's not too much extra room in the roof of my case when the rad's in there. :eek:

The only aluminum parts are in the pump, and I'm pretty sure that the housing isolates the aluminum from the water. I'm at work, and don't have a screwdriver here to pull the housing off to check. So I think I have the materials part covered as best as I can. :)

So does anybody have any last minute advice for me? I'll be pulling my whole box apart tonight to test fit all this stuff, so I can get lengths and stuff all measured up. I'd rather not leak-test the loop with the Zerex in there, to keep the bubble situation to a minimum. If I have to put a bit in to dye the water, so it shows up on paper towel better, that's an option.

So I'm building the loop tonight, so it can leaktest until the weekend. THEN it will start calling my case it's home. Is there anything I'm missing? When my last box of bits arrived today, the reality finally hit me that I was actually going through with this (been planning since I built the computer last September). I sure hope this goes well. I'm far from stupid/dumb, so it should go fairly smoothly, but it'd be nice to hear any concerns/suggestions before I start cutting tonight.

Thanks in advance! :D
 
Forgot about this:
My MCX159-A came with Arctic Alumina, and I have some AS5 at home. Since they gave me the AA, would it be better to use that rather than the AS5?

ps: I'm trying not to do this at work:
CaptainHappyPants.gif
 
Uh, anyone? :confused:

Did some reading and it looks like the #4 nozzle would be better...
 
Hey, nice setup there. I have an RBX too. I'm running the stock plain nozzle though, but my temps are still über awesome (see sig). However, I have heard that the #5 is best though. Post pics and stuff when you're done! And check those fittings good! You don't want to have a leak a week or 2 after it's all up and running like I did!

Have fun! :)
 
alphaone said:
And check those fittings good! You don't want to have a leak a week or 2 after it's all up and running like I did!
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's the main thing I would emphasize. I would recommend leak testing for at least an afternoon just to make sure there's no problems. 24 hours would be preferable.
 
Yeah, I modded the #5 to decrease head loss, and I would like to use it, but I kept reading that #4 and #5 are pretty equal in performance, while the #4 flows more. And seeing as this isn't a single block loop, I switched to the higher flow nozle.

Forgetting about the Y-adapter for the RBX, I figured I would need 22 clamps, so I picked up 25. I should pick up some more so I can have more than 1 clamp on each leg of the adapter, as I have 2 clamps (with the drives on opposite sides of the tube) for each fitting.

Putting the Coolsleeves on the tubing was pretty interesting. I didn't think it would be so tight. I guess that's a good thing, so it doesn't move around on me.

I was overly ambitious in thinking that I could do it all last night, and I had some last minute running around to do for missing parts (clamps, tape). Got the RBX tubing done, and the inlet for the Fusion done, all with Coolsleeves. Ran into a space issue on the floor of my case though. I'm running a SB Live card there, since the Linux distro I have on dual-boot was having issues with my onboard sound, and I think I was getting hissing over the onboard sound. Gotta fit the pump and res there too.

I'm hoping that with the Fusion on my GPU, it won't hang down enough to contact my sound card (it's got 1 PCI slot between them). I was thinking about using some non conductive foam (thin neoprene might do it) on the back of the sound card, just in case the block touches it. If I can do that, then I can just stick the res under the sound card without any worries, and the pump can hide in my HD cage.

For filling the res, I have to find a 90 degree fitting for one end, so I can run a line up (kinda like a t-line...) about 6" and plug it. That should make filling this thing really easy. Also means I have to find a hardware store that would have such a beast for me. I suppose a regular barb would work for that, as long as I had enough of a radius on the line (hello Coolsleeves).

So at the moment, my case is fairly empty. Drives are there, mobo, and vid card, and my PSU so I can line up my rad correctly. Picked up a house fan a few days ago since it was unbearably hot here, and the box had the perfect length to fit my rad. I bent the sides so it would fit the sides of the rad, now I just have to make endplates for it and cut the fan holes. House fan box = fan shroud. :D

Took the MCP600 impeller housing off, and it's 100% isolated from the aluminum body. There's not even any moving parts connecting the housing and body. So I'm thinking that maybe I should just use some isopropanol to keep the veggies out, instead of the Zerex. Still not sure about that yet. Not sure if the isopropanol will damage anything, when it's only mixed ~10% with ~90% water.

So if I get things fitted tonight, I'll be back on schedule. Leaktest until weekend, then install. Any opinions on AA vs AS5 for my MCX159-A? Gonna go with the AS5 unless someone gives me a good enough reason not to.

I'll try and get some pics up when I can find someone with a digicam (a friend in town has one, but he's away for a couple weeks).
 
alphaone said:
So did you finish it yet?
Click to expand...

Yes, right on schedule. I was too busy with work this morning to post.

Flipped my HD around so the cables are now in the front bezel, which let me move the HD farther into the front of the case. This left me with more than enough room to mount my res on the back of the floppy/HD rack. Pump clears the sound card nicely, so I don't have to put up with static from the onboard.

My plumbing from the GPU to the res is pretty cool, as it kinda wraps around the impeller housing on the pump.

Filled the system, primed the pump, got the big bubbles out, and topped up the res. Got that done at about 12:45am this morning. Spent barely 15 minutes reinstalling the stuff in my computer, and I'm using my new CPU shim now. I rushed the whole thing, since I still had to get some sleep before work (strange how that works).

When I got up this morning, I turned the computer on, and my temps were 32C for the CPU, so at least I put the AS5 on correctly in my rush. I had the pump plugged in before I started the machine, so it's currently pumping away. I laid out some paper towels on my carpet, and put all my WC stuff on that. It sat all night with water in it (not pumping), and no messes this morning, so at least it passes the standing water test.

When I started the machine, the pressure from the pump makes the res inlet shoot water up to the roof of the res. It's not a gentle slow stream. I am VERY impressed with the MCP600. It's got tiny bubbles right now, but I still had to touch it to make sure it was actually on. :eek:

A couple hours after I started work, I got an email from the nice chicks at the front desk, saying that I had a package waiting for me. My Aerogate2 and OCZ BGA sinks had finally arrived, as well as my buddy's new Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu and ZM80D-HP coolers. So everything is on schedule, and I now have all the parts I'll need to get this beast fully installed this weekend.

The Aerogate2 is a very nice unit, as far as I can tell. 4 thermal diodes and 4 fan controls. It should work very well in my computer. Also low profile, so it won't disturb the airflow from my rad fans! :D

Still not sure what I should add to my water. I've got plenty of isopropanol and a new bottle of Zerex. Zero aluminum in the loop, so I just want to keep the veggies down. Will isopropanol damage tubing or anything? It'd be nice to get an answer to this one. ;)
 
Just figured I should add this:

I was test-fitting the Fusion on my 9800Pro with the pins, so it would be easier to testfit. It seems that the pins are meant for cards where the GPU chip is soldered right to the PCB (ie: GF4). Thus, they were not long enough for my card. When I tried pushing them down, they went in a tiny bit, and then shot across the room. It's a good thing I also got the bolt kit for it! :D

RBX base was damn smooth, so I never touched it up. Fusion base was too rough for my tastes, so I did the usual 600/800 with 2000 afterwards. Didn't have any polish, but it's smooth enough as it is now. :D
 
Had a couple drops fall out when I was moving my res. I guess I didn't put enough Teflon tape on the barb threads. Busted out my clear silicone and went at it. No more leaky.

Used some zip-ties to go between the RBX inlet and the Y-adapter, to bend it without torquing the block on the socket. The tubing hides the ties, so it's perfect.

Oh yeah, just remembered that my roommate has a digicam. He owes me BIG for stealing our only laundry-room key and then promptly losing it. Thus, I'm going to try and steal his digicam tonight and take some pics before I get this beast installed. Stealey again after it's installed.
 
:mad: :mad:

Res top cracked in a couple places. Covered the whole top, and everywhere that plexi meets plexi, with the clear silicone.

I don't like ghetto-fixing something like this. :(
 
How'd it crack/what kind of res is it?

My Frozencpu bay res is holding up perfectly so far.
 
alphaone said:
How'd it crack/what kind of res is it?

My Frozencpu bay res is holding up perfectly so far.
Click to expand...

It's one I got from 2Fresh. It broke because I'm n00 at PC watercooling and tightened the barbs too much. :eek:

Hell, the first time I even SAW a WC setup in real life was when I picked up my blocks from Sean Richards of CritiCool.

The silicone is pretty much dry right now, but I'll give it another hour before I test the loop again. I'd hate to have to pull the loop apart and figure out component placement again with a new res. :(
 
I was just wondering... How far do the plastic fittings on the res need to be screwed in? I screwed them in so the end of the threaded part is ~3mm inside the res. I didn't want to go any farther because it was getting very hard to screw in and the res was making weird sounds. So I left it like that and thought nothing more of it.

Because of my recent leak I've become a little paranoid :p Am I safe?
 
alphaone said:
I was just wondering... How far do the plastic fittings on the res need to be screwed in? I screwed them in so the end of the threaded part is ~3mm inside the res. I didn't want to go any farther because it was getting very hard to screw in and the res was making weird sounds. So I left it like that and thought nothing more of it.

Because of my recent leak I've become a little paranoid :p Am I safe?
Click to expand...

Mine are about that far in. You do NOT want to make plexi creak like that (that means it's try to crack to relieve stress). Get some clear silicone and keep it handy. Turn off the loop when you're trying to seal it, otherwise it might leak when the silicone is trying to dry (happened to me the first time).

Roommate lost the flash card for his big bad digicam, so we used the 2MP one in his Sony PDA. There's one benefit of having a Chinese roommate. ;) Pics are big, so I'll link them:

Pic 1
Pic 2

I left them big so you guys could see the 'cone on the res. Ghetto-madness. The res is sitting on my MCX159-A in those pics. And yes, my Coolsleeves aren't even, but I haven't had time to worry about that yet.
 
Well it leaked again. Time to add more 'cone.

As for the Teflon tape thing, it's apparently not even supposed to be used for sealing. My friend, who made his own WC gear back when the Athlon 700 came out, informed me that it is used only to allow something to be threaded in farther using the same amount of torque. Being Teflon, this makes perfect sense. One of our friends cracked an intake manifold using this stuff when trying to install a nitrous nozzle, since he couldn't tell how tight was too tight.

I don't have any nuts the same size as the barbs, so I'm a bit sketchy about using a pop bottle (or juice container, etc) with just silicone. If I have to, I'll take a 5 minute drive and pick up a res from CritiCool for $30CDN. This is getting annoying though.

You live, you learn. ;)
 
dont use silicone it takes way to long to get to its full hardness, get soem 5 minuter epoxy then get some jb weld to put over that then make a nice layer of silicone, if that leaks throw the damned res away!

and that looks really good, hope you get your leak problem fixed, when i first put my water coolign together i jsut threw t all in my case and tried it out (not the smartest thing to do but the only thing in my case with water running through it is my rbx)
 
RickyJ said:
As for the Teflon tape thing, it's apparently not even supposed to be used for sealing. My friend, who made his own WC gear back when the Athlon 700 came out, informed me that it is used only to allow something to be threaded in farther using the same amount of torque. Being Teflon, this makes perfect sense.
You live, you learn. ;)
Click to expand...

teflon is in fact a thread sealent... in the oilfield we use it to contain about 800psi of pressure coming off of natural gas well-heads.... yeah...
Also used it with great success in potato guns. Regardless, teflon tape = thread sealant
 
Wow, it HAS been 6 months! :eek:

I'm not sure why I didn't update this thread...maybe because I got too caught up in moving. Anyways, I visited Sean at CritiCool as soon as I could, and he hooked me up with a 4" Waterplant. I had some slight leakage on the threads, so I fixed that by supergluing all the connectors on the res. Filling is done through a tube on a third barb at the top of the res.

Just got a Zalman 400A psu all sleeved up and installed. It's a Fortron unit, and oh-so-hawt. Black PSU, black sleeving, black ez-connectors. The 40A 5V rail should be more stable when I'm pushing my CPU than the 35A of my old Super Flower PSU. I haven't had time to find a new max OC yet, but I think I've now been inspired to find it tonight.

Since I'm posting anyways, here's a pic of the setup 6 months ago (pic shrunk):
pcside2.JPG
 
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