[P]roject: Sink or Swim

Alright, finally got all the painting done but not without a bit of drama. Weather was a good 70 degrees out but gusting winds of like 30-40mph. Managed to find a decently shielded spot from the wind and finished off painting the mobo tray and decided to go ahead and add a clear coat as I imagined a lot of stuff was gonna be banging into the motherboard tray more then the other areas.

After putting the last layer of clear coat on, I set the part on the top of my back stoop to let those winds and direct sunlight speed up dry time. Twenty minutes later, I come back out to find it had been knocked over and feel down a couple steps...resulting in this bs:

mobodamage.jpg

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Luckily, the worst of the damage will be covered up by the motherboard itself or behind the motherboard tray guiderails. There is that right most edge though that will be completely visible that im hoping is either covered by components or a nice sharpie will blend away. I am really not interested in sanding 4 coats of paint off and starting all over again.

So here's what she looks like in her final form. Looks just like I like my women, dark and just a little roughed up (thats a lie but I like the enuendos :D )
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That little bit of silver in there is the fan controller I mounted, starting to look at how im gonna make all the parts fit and tubing runs.

While in the process of doing this, I realized that my long lost BD player sticks out past the 5.25 bay mounting slots...and I didn't want its beige disrupting my chi...
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Even took the time to mask off the factory sticka...huzzah for me....I guess.
 
So, for those of you that have stuck around reading through all the boring crap, here's the list of toys that should be here by the end of the week as long as tornadoes dont blow the Fedex truck off the road.

x2 EK EN plated 6970 waterblocks
x1 EK EN V2 non-reference 6970 waterblock
Swiftech Apogee HD 4 port cpu block
Koolance RP-452X2 Dual bay resevoir with dual MCP655 Variable Speed pumps
Black Ice GT Stealth X-Flow 240 AND 360 radiators
Logisys white 12" LED sunlight sticks

All interconnected with 1/2" x 5/8" Tygon tubing and Bitspower compression fittings. Also filling her full of that milky white (but not so sticky icky) Ice Dragon Nanofluid and of course a couple killcoils to keep her from growing a mind of her own.

Feel free to comment or criticize...though the constructive kind is more welcome.

Edit: Just an FYI, I managed to get everything but the non-reference GPU waterblock from FrozenCPU.com (they were out of stock of the GPU block at the time). Also got a 5% discount using discount code 'xtreme', not a lot but it was like getting free shipping and then some...or a free cpu block.
 
which version of the koolance res did you go with? Is it the older version like

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/12480/ex-res-254/Koolance_RP-452X2_Dual_525_Reservoir_Rev_13_Serial_or_Parallel_for_1_or_2_Pumps_RP-450_Laing_D5_MCP655-B_MCP655.html?tl=g30c97s152#blank

Or

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_318_660&products_id=33234

I'd think either would work well, just curious to which you went with :)

I've been looking for some of the monsoon basic's to be in stock but if i'm spending ~130 bucks i'll probly go with the koolance V2 from performance-pc's over one of the monsoon single pump setups.
 
Imitation said:
which version of the koolance res did you go with? Is it the older version like

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/12480/ex-res-254/Koolance_RP-452X2_Dual_525_Reservoir_Rev_13_Serial_or_Parallel_for_1_or_2_Pumps_RP-450_Laing_D5_MCP655-B_MCP655.html?tl=g30c97s152#blank

Or

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_318_660&products_id=33234

I'd think either would work well, just curious to which you went with :)

I've been looking for some of the monsoon basic's to be in stock but if i'm spending ~130 bucks i'll probly go with the koolance V2 from performance-pc's over one of the monsoon single pump setups.
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Apparently I got the v1.3 as thats the only one FrozenCPU carries, didn't know there was a newer revision. Other than the addition of a 180 degree pump connector, is there any other difference between the two in terms of functionality? I do however like the look of the 1.3 revision over the v2.
 
The 452x2 is a horrible experience to bleed, it doesn't matter what revision. I was an early adopter, even tried that gimmicky pipe insert, and it never did bleed correctly. It kind of killed any wish to use a pump-housed bayres in the future.
 
DarkStryke said:
The 452x2 is a horrible experience to bleed, it doesn't matter what revision. I was an early adopter, even tried that gimmicky pipe insert, and it never did bleed correctly. It kind of killed any wish to use a pump-housed bayres in the future.
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Yeah the couple reviews i've read said that v2 is easier but still not as easy as a normal bay res. I do like the looks of v1.3 as well. I look forward to hearing your experience with it grunt. If its an absolute bitch i might suck it up and get one of the few monsoon premiums left on the market.
 
Imitation said:
Yeah the couple reviews i've read said that v2 is easier but still not as easy as a normal bay res. I do like the looks of v1.3 as well. I look forward to hearing your experience with it grunt. If its an absolute bitch i might suck it up and get one of the few monsoon premiums left on the market.
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Ya, I will definately let you guys know how it goes. If the interior chamber follows the same lines as the faceplate then I can see how it could be a pain in the ass to bleed all the air out of it.
 
YAY!


goodies.jpg


Just waiting for the last GPU block to come in from Slovenia. Last I checked it was stuck in standby hell in Germany apparently.
 
Already hit a snag that I hadnt thought about....how do people mount a radiator to the top 120mm fans? I can't seem to figure something easy out...ive got a couple ideas but haven't managed to find anything specific online.
 
You put the screws through the top fan holes for one fan, probably the middle one, and then lift the radiator up with the fan pre-positioned on top, and guide it in to the screws. Then tighten down the screws (second person would be helpful here) just a bit, enough for it to catch and not let go. Do it for all four screws. Place your other fans in position, drop the screws through, then tighten them all up.

On a second note. EXTREME JEALOUSY.
 
Just a quick update, been hella busy with work and dont forsee a chance to make any major advancements on the build. Ive managed to put the water blocks on two of my graphics cards, reconfigure the route of the tubing (original turned out to be no good), but havent cut/mounted anything but the res/pump into the chassis.

And as a side note, because of my poor planning ive wasted quite a bit of money on fittings that I found out won't work for the GPUs. I originally ordered bitspower 1/2x5/8" compression fittings for the GPUs. Once I got the stuff laid out and started looking at where and how things were going to connect, I realized I need more fittings, so I ordered eight more. Finally, last night I threw the two cards with the blocks and fittings into the TJ07 only to realiz the fittings don't allow the cards to sit where they need to go (slots 1,3, and 5). So ive managed to waste about 150 bucks or so on fittings that arent gonna work...yay for me. Friday I should be getting the stubby ones with the crystal clear tube kits to go between the cards.

Anybody need some 1/2x5/8 fittings, lol?
 
Well, the build is complete...and I failed to properly document the rest of the build so....here we go with the image dump of my beast. With the exception of the mobo tray's finish not coming out as well as i'd have hoped, I think she turned out pretty damn good for being a first shot. Future change for this 52lbs metal/water beast is tinting the side panel (might get done tomorrow) and switching over to a Corsair PSU thats got better sleeved cables.

Top of the case:
topshotr.jpg



Inside shot of the pump looking towards the front of the case. The bit of white on the radiator is NOT leaking fluid, just a bit that escaped me when I was will the loop and dripped into the rad.
pumpshot.jpg


Tower of POWA!
gputower.jpg


Front panel arrangement, the original plan was BDROM, Fan Controller and then res but the fill ports on the top took up more space then a single and they would have run into fan controller parts.
frontpanel.jpg


Logisys Sunlight sticks...very bright, not a lot of heat put out by them and no inverters or anything, just two straight lines in a molex connector. They've also got reflectors on one side of them so you can direct the light/manage the intensity by turning them around.
frontangles.jpg


topfrontshot.jpg


overviewshotcomplete.jpg
 
Milk machiiiiine!

I like the way the milk looks! Looks very futuristic cyborg blood like! :D Reminds me of the cyborgs from alien/aliens. Hmm..may steal...
 
DeathPrincess said:
Milk machiiiiine!

I like the way the milk looks! Looks very futuristic cyborg blood like! :D Reminds me of the cyborgs from alien/aliens. Hmm..may steal...
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lol its cool, ive stolen most of my ideas from other machines.

I forgot that someone asked earlier how difficult it was to bleed this pump/res combo. Being that this is the first system ive done, I really don't have anything to compare it to but I'd say it was pretty easy. I filled the resevoirs up until fluid was level with the fill port then tilted the case back or forth to work it through the rest of the loops as much as possible. The hardest part really was the CPU loop because the radiator sits above the pump. When the pump was turned on it wasn't getting a full load of fluid. Apparently, and this part I don't really get, the IN port on the resevoir block goes directly to the pump instead of the pump feeding off the fluid that is already in the resevoir...seems to make the resevoir pretty useless. So, because my cpu loop goes res->block->rad->pump with the rad higher than the pump, I ended up having to rotate the case a full 90 degrees forward and backwards to get all the air out. There are still some microbubbles on the face of the res but im expecting those to work their way out into the fillports.
 
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That's really odd that the res isn't feeding that pump directly, I thought that was like rule number 1 about WC was res before pump. Did you dbl check the setup? I'd maybe even check with koolance tho now you'd have to drain the system to change it, and that would be a bitch. Or maybe that was one of the fixes they made in the 2.0 revision?
 
Imitation said:
That's really odd that the res isn't feeding that pump directly, I thought that was like rule number 1 about WC was res before pump. Did you dbl check the setup? I'd maybe even check with koolance tho now you'd have to drain the system to change it, and that would be a bitch. Or maybe that was one of the fixes they made in the 2.0 revision?
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Well, I didn't install the pumps onto the res, it was done by the guys at FrozenCPU and then packaged up and shipped out as a single unit. I don't think there is a way to install it wrong though. From what I can tell though the fluid flows in the proper directions, when I was filling the loops up I could see that fluid was flowing out of the out ports and into the in ports.
 
Lookin good man...looks very similar to my color scheme other than the red fans...and 3x6970's :(

es828h.jpg


And for the record on the EK blocks...I've been runing my EK Supreme CPU block and GPU block for about 5 months now with no flaking.
 
computermod14 said:
Lookin good man...looks very similar to my color scheme other than the red fans...and 3x6970's :(

es828h.jpg


And for the record on the EK blocks...I've been runing my EK Supreme CPU block and GPU block for about 5 months now with no flaking.
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What model GPU block do you have?
 
computermod14 said:
EK GeFore 570 580

And wow...after going into my shopping history on there I've actually had it for 11 months!! So kudos to EK I guess after all? Also with my OC, I peak at about 48C in FurMark which is outstanding.
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Ya, im hitting similar numbers on GPU 1/2 but on my 3rd one temps are skyrocketing...at first they would jump to 100+ with one of the temp monitors in GPU-Z reporting something on the card hitting 150+c! I disassembled the loop and reseated the card and ran it again, that time temps dropped down and maxed around 80-90c. After disassembling the card again, I replaced the mosfet/vram thermal pads with thicker ones and am now hitting about 80C max with a nice even slope up to that temp. Still WAY too high for being on water, especially when the other two cards are performing around 55c but getting better...
 
USMCGrunt said:
Ya, im hitting similar numbers on GPU 1/2 but on my 3rd one temps are skyrocketing...at first they would jump to 100+ with one of the temp monitors in GPU-Z reporting something on the card hitting 150+c! I disassembled the loop and reseated the card and ran it again, that time temps dropped down and maxed around 80-90c. After disassembling the card again, I replaced the mosfet/vram thermal pads with thicker ones and am now hitting about 80C max with a nice even slope up to that temp. Still WAY too high for being on water, especially when the other two cards are performing around 55c but getting better...
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Did you run this card on air cooling at any point? were the temps ok then?
 
Imitation said:
Did you run this card on air cooling at any point? were the temps ok then?
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Ya, temps ran fine on air for the past year or so that ive had the cards going. Temps are fine and match the other two cards while idling, but when I put a heavy load on temps jump on that third card higher than the other two. It used to be like 1-2 seconds between idle temps of mid-30s to 100+ but now, after replacing some of the thermal pads with thicker ones, its a nice slow 60-90 second slope to get to its max temp of about 80c.
 
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