Project Stackers - High End Builds, Comparative Testing & First Mod! (56k Warning)

It was the standard shipping when i ordered it.... 4 months ago :p It wouldn't have been a real big deal. However, thanks to dan it was updated to 2-3 days now. Should have it by the end of the week i hope :)
 
now try to intergrate 2 prom mach2s in the stackers, + H2O for the other components :p
 
I cants wait for this to get done, Its going to be one of the sweetest hardware setups around here with Bling to boot. Im not going to be able to say it enough but thanks for your patience but at the least you can say you are the first with the Silver. Take care until we chat again. :D

-Dan
 
yeah, my friend is comming back from uni during christmas. He's going to RPI, and is majoring as a materials engineer. He said he has access to laser cutting, electro erosion.... and that he has this FUCKING SWEET waterblock design that is actually limited by the conductivity of copper itself...

now add a 300w pelt, a mach2 GT hanging around, some LN2, a phew spare processors, mobos, and high current PSUs (im talking 700-850 w enermax PSUs :D ), and we've got ourselves an overclocking christmas.

We are also planning on building a 3 phase cascade phase change cooler for this summer :eek:
 
seriously, lets cut the thread crapping and let good ol SelRahc do what he wants to do. Atotech is teh RoXXoRzzz joo!! Swiftech suXXorZZZ teh B1G on3!!! Who cares? Last time I checked this was a thread about his build, not yours. SelRahc, love what you're doing, its great to see a review/build from a "real" person! :D Keep up the good work!
 
yeah sersiouly.

im pretty excited, almot x-mas vacation, i just have to endure 5 exams and im done :D
 
This thread hasn't been mine since about page 6. >.< In that respect, please let me make a few comments:

1. Everyone, please stop the arguements.
2. Target, please don't post my news before I do. You are taking away what little fun I get here... and it's few and far between lol ;)
3. There are more pics of other complete rigs than mine in this worklog lol >.<
4. I'm sorry.

There hasn't been any progress on this thread since roughly September. The water cooling order took much much much longer to get in than i expected because of the custom blocks. If I had known it was going to take this long, I would not have started a log in the first place. No fault of Dan's at all.... it just took alot longer for AC to mill the blocks after our constant begging.

Anyways, I am very sorry about that and I apologise to the one or 2 readers I have left of this log. My next work log will not be like that.....

Ok I feel better now.
 
All right! I know some of the readers are probably dead from old age by now, but they are finally here!

On with business:

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My pile of goodies. Whats here? 3 silver blocks (CPU, NB and GPU), 2 Hard Drive coolers, pump, res, rad, grill, aquabay, aquaero and alota extras. ;)

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The silver Cuplex Pro

Ok so now down to the serious side of things..... Lapping

Some of you may have seen my other post about lapping blocks. I want to lap these silver blocks. The finnish is good on the bottom.... but could be better. I have never lapped a block before, but have read a couple good guides. The thing is, these guides are for copper not silver. Would using these guides be bad?

Mil marks are clearly visible when you look at the block. A little harder to see in the images though. The block feels smooth, but I know there are imperfections.

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Had to throw a little spree in there ;)

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Should I lap these? I'm thinking so, but how? Use the guides ment for copper? Will I ruin my new blocks? Help!

Also, I think I want to get a new PSU. This NeoPower will probably go into my other system cause it needs a new PSU. Can anyone recomend another good PSU to buy? Should I just get another NeoPower? Or get something like a 600w PCP&C? Or maybe an OCZ?
 
my bad. i figured you would be upset, so yeah, sorry bro, wont happen again :-x


as for the p/s... pcp&c!!!!!!!


oh btw... DONT APOLOGIZE
 
I took a shot at my first lapping attempt on my precious CPU block....
I was very uneasy lol.... here is teh result:

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Woot! Not bad at all :) The notebook itself is messed up. The block is perfectly smooth. Not a perfect mirror job, but for my first ever lapping job..... I can't really say anything bad :) Lapping is a total pain in the butt... >.<; It was very tedious... but it gave my arms a workout hehe. I almost cried when I took it to the 600 grit sandpaper..... ;; I plan on doing the other blocks tomorrow, but this was the one I was primarily concerned with.

Tomorrow, I'll be looking at how the heck I will be mounting this stuff in the case as well.
 
the lapping looks real good. i should have done that to my Cuplex Evo. which aquaero did u get lcd or vfd? im thinking about getting one soon. most likely the lcd ver.
 
vfd. I just like them better than LCD. Much brighter. Only downside is the lines, but I don't care :)
 
Unfortunately for me, real life and a packed school schedule all but pushed this project into the closet. I has a working system and was just unable to take it down to complete the work I had intended. And there was no WAY the missess would let me confiscate hers lol.

Anyways, the fates have shined down upon me and game me several days off with which I intend to make full use of. I did alittle work and brought up my second older system to use while I finally complete this project. I just hope everything turns out ok. :)

I apologise again for the delay on this project. This time it's going to be completed... I can't NOT have my computer lol.

PROJECT STACKERS

Since im sure most people have forgotten, I'll bring everyone up to speed. I was able to get the systems up and operational for this project. However I did not have the water cooling equipment in at the time (when I had all this free time lol) so it was just a normal build. The equipment came in back in december, but by then I just had no time.

In a box sat 3 silver blocks, alota CCL's and wire sleeving.

Here is what's going in this system:

CPU, GPU and North Bridge Water Blocks
2 Hard Drive Water Blocks
a 120mm x 2 RAD (240mm) and Res
a few UV lights, front display and a few other goodies.

Anyway, it's time to get busy. I have the free time, my system is down and it's time to get this darn project done and over with lol.

Again please remember this is my first ever mod job. Don't judge me too harsh. I'll upload pics as fast as I get the stuff done.
 
I said a short prayer to the CPU gods, then gut my nice system out in order to prep the patient.

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Here we are outside on the porch, can air ready to clean the dust out. I removed the top fan and mesh, since it won't be there much longer anyways. First thing is first though. I need room to mount the 120mm X 240mm Rad on top of the case. In order to do this, I needed to cut the PSU cage located on top.

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The dremel made short work of that. I used the grinder to clean it up alittle. Then i positioned the RAD grill on top to where I wanted it, traced the lines i needed and started cutting. Again, the dremel cut the aluminum like warm butter.

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Here was the completed hole. Not too shabby :)
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Put the grill over.... looking good :)
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More pics soon.
 
I was thinking about placement of the pump. Instead of mounting it on the case itself I decided this may be a better option:

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This is the holder for the hard drives. The bottom is lined with holes, perfect for water cooling hoses to fit through. Since my hard drives will be placed in their own cooling blocks, this little box will have no purpose in life. The pump should fit with a little modification, and it already has vibration dampening gaskets. May work perfect :)

What do you think?
 
Great idea, should work very well. I love how this is turning out so far, wish I had this kind of cash to shell out on a system :D
 
Looking good so far! Keep us updated. FYI: If you pull the fan off the hard drive cage, you'll see a pice of perforated metal. This can be punched out easily..... if that would be of any use to you.... epsecially when trying to mount the pump.
 
I like how you actually made the grill cutout follow the lines of the grill, I dont even do that. :)

Good work and hurry up on the more pictures thing.

-Dan
 
Awesome, you're back! Nice work so far, I love the look of those aqua-computer grills. I vote for the pump in the HDD cage, that would be a nice way to get it out of sight so your vision isn't distracted from the purdy silver blocks. :D

 
Scroatdog said:
FYI: If you pull the fan off the hard drive cage, you'll see a pice of perforated metal. This can be punched out easily..... if that would be of any use to you.... epsecially when trying to mount the pump.

I actually took a closer look at the drive cage this morning. I took the fan by cutting the little plastic tabs. Looking at how I'll probably be mounting the setup, I think ill actually flip the cage over, and mount the pump vertically to the front grill. The front grills seem on there quite sturdy. I'll take another look when I get home, but I think it will work. I may hafta do alittle more cutting, but thats not a problem.

I also started sleeving my wires. In addition I put the water blocks on the MB and card. More pics later thisafternoon.
 
I pushed that grill out with a hammer, I think. I didn't have to cut at all. I don't understand what you are saying about the little plastic tabs that hold the fan on. You CUT them??? They could be pulled out fairly easily.
 
The plastic tabs that held my fan had a perma flare on it. Almost like a plastic pop rivit. I was unable to remove them without cutting or extending excessive force. . Maybe this was a complaint and they changed them? Not sure. I didn't want to risk damaging the fan, so I just cut the end off. Nothing lost. :)

I took a look again and I have a fairly good idea how I want to mount the pump. The drive cage will be perfect. Since it wont be used for the drives anymore, and it already has the little vibration gaskets, I think it will be a very god place for the mount. Im not worried about the front grill being the temporary popout kind. I took a look and it would take a great deal of force and twisting to get them to pop out. I think once the pump is mounted to them it shouldnt move at all. (Not that it does now.... cause it doesnt lol.)

I'll hafta do alittle cutting but nothing major. I'll be flipping the drive cage over and inserting it holes up, and mounting the intake to the pump face up. With the res just above it, I should be able to run a short direct line from the res to the pump. That will be out of sight and will cut back on the tubing used.

I did a test fire of the pump and pump controller. The pump worked great, but I did notice the controller error light would come on after its initial cycle.

Dan or anyone using the aquacomputer pump, can you tell me why the error light would have come on? I was using just a psu hooked to the controller, and from controller to the pump. Pump ran fine, but red error light on controller did not go out. Since it was working, I'll press onward..... not like i have a choice anyways lol.

I mounted the RAM sinks with Arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive this morning as well. I put them on the front and back memory chips of the video card. Since I had a few left over I decided to put a few on the motherboard as well. ;) They went on easy enough and look good :).

I'll do the cutting for the pump mount in a little bit and post some more pics soon.
 
finally some progress :)

(looks like my account is verified again or else I wouldn't be posting!)
 
I decided to go with the drive cage mounting. I opted to flip the cage over to make cutting alittle cleaner. Because the pump would be mounted verticle I needed to make a hole for the inlet to stick out of. The existing holes made a perfect guideline.

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I made the cut and smoothed the edges. It turned out quite nice. Once the hole was made, I installed the pump. I removed the grey inlet cap to keep things cleaner looking. I also sleeved the power connector to the pump.

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Notice how I bolted the pump onto the removable grills that were behind the fan. It's not going anywhere :) You cant really see them, but I also placed clear rubber washers between the pump and the mounting surfice to help absorbe alittle more of the vibrations. With the additional gaskets in the drive cage itself, it shouldnt vibrate much at all ya?

Here is where it will go, and what it looks like in the system.

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The res will mount 2 spaces above it, and will have a short and direct path to the pump inlet. Less mess, less tubing. :) The pump isn't PERFECTLY stright due to the hole placement, but I don't think I'll loose too much sleep over it :)
 
Here are pics of the video card with Tweakmonster ramsinks and waterblock installed. Sorry I dont have pics of the install process... was just me to take the pics.

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And the motherboard. I put 4 ramsinks on the MB just cause I had some free... why not hehe. As long as they were put on right... cant hurt anything. Looks good anyways :)

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Also, got most of the sleeving done. Only the fans and CCT's left. Heres a few of them. Looking good :)

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Another day and more progress. I only had a little time to play today, but I got alot done. :) Take a looky....

Here I have mounted the motherboard into place and threw in the video card.
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Closeup of the lovely silver triplets. 2 silver Twinplex blocks, and my totally awsome silver cuplex pro. Beauties, even just standing there..... 3 lovelies at the same time. What more could a geek ask for?

Im pleased the twinplex block could be used on the north bridge. The clearance between the card and block leaves a slight gap, and theres just enough room to mount the tube. A close call, but im glad it will work.
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Here I placed the drive blocks in to see how they would sit. Haven't decided how I will do the routing exactly. The pump and res are mounted already.
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Here is a close up look at the pump and res connection. The sleeved wire coming from the res is the temp sensor. I mounted the hardware in place, took measurements, removed the hardware and cut my tube length. Wanted to make darn sure both ends would be secure. A perfect fit. The res will drain directly into the pump inlet. I had to shift the pump mount point alittle lower, but its still mounted verticle as I had intended, with the inlet facing up and the exhaust pointing into the case. Purrrrrrfect :)
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Here is a quick snap of the case front. What do you think so far? I'll allign things up alittle better once the drive blocks are done and remounted... but its looking darn good. Bad light so the pic isnt the greatest sorry. With the pumps placement, I have not 1 slot free. Not 1 lol.
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I would like to make 1 comment perfectly clear for the record:
OMFG this beast is HEAVY! >.< The PSU, 240 rad, water and other componants aren't even in the system yet..... My back is already crying. I almost broke it just moving it to take some pics.....

At least my system won't blow away in a hurricane right?

Im not sure if my desk will support the weight of my system now lol. You stacker owners out there that havent water cooled think the case is heavy now? Try adding a few more pounds of steal! I am NOT looking forward to this. I may hafta end up putting this on the floor, though I hope not. I looked around for my casters and couldnt find them >.> hope I didnt throw them out...............

More work and pics tomorrow. :)
 
That looks sexy. May I sex it?

Man, I can't wait to see some benchmarks on this baby, lol. Not to mention temperatures!
 
That looks AWESOME. I officially HATE you now :p :p

My stacker got REALLY heavy, real quick. Mine is on the floor with the casters secured to the bottom. My desk wouldn't accomodate the Stacker on top anyway. The casters make a world of difference, believe me.
 
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