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Project Stackers - High End Builds, Comparative Testing & First Mod! (56k Warning)
- Thread starter SelRahc
- Start date
Ok its finally over... for the most part.
I am happy to say the system came right back up with no major hic-ups. First, lets get to the pics:
Bye bye OCZ warranty. Moving the psu to the bottom mount left me with a little problem. My 4 pin mobo connector was way to short. Solution: open, cut and rewire. I added alittle length to the mobo 4pin so it would reach
Here is the switch mounted onto the back panel I cut. Having moved the psu, I needed to make a new back pannel to cover that spot. What better place to put the neon power switch too. This was a lit up switch, but I couldnt stand how bright it was. I disabled the light-up part hehe.
The back side of the pannel. Im no electrician, but it all worked nice enough
Light control. The front covers have holes in them. This would have uv streaming out the front of the case, and we can't have that. Solution: black construction paper. Works like a champ
CPU block with water running through it. Without the uv light on you can't even tell ya?
With the cover off you can see where I hid the inverters for the neons. When the cover is in place, you cant see this at all.
Here is the psu mounted on the bottom with all the needed connectors attached.
Pics of the back pannel wireing. Out of sight, out of mind.
Back pannel mounted. Not bad. (sorry for blurry pic... ill upload another soon.)
Front with everything installed and running
Now we get to a side shot. Ill comment on this more after the pics.
2 UV shots. Dont know how to photograph this very well.....
There you have it. Finally completed. Overall I guess I am pleased. My system came up the first time.... and that was my biggest concern. I was worried my system would beep at me with an error or 10... thats usually my luck.
No leaks. Another plus. The plug and cool fittings are very nice. I hafta say im not to happy with how the tubes and wires look overall..... its kinda cluttered looking to me. Theres alot more in there then if i was just using air cooling.... but I guess thats a price you pay. And it could have been alot worse. This was my first water cooling experiance and I learned a hella lot from it. The silver blocks look hella cool. woot woot.
Here is the final routing for my tubes:
PUMP > RAD > CPU > GPU > HD1 (Raptor) > FLOW SENSOR > HD2 > NB > RES.
My primary heat sources in this system are the CPU, GPU and that cooking raptor. You can fry an egg on them I swear. So I ran the tubing accordingly.
CCT's used are all UV ones. No colored cct's. There are 5 total. 3 x 12" (left, top and bottom) and 2x 6" (inside drive cage and front bottom right in front of cage) The 6" cct in front of the drive cage is only to provide alittle ambiant light for the far right of the windowed area. If I didnt put one there, the drive cage would block the light and I would have a large black area in the window. I didnt want that.
The light things up nicely. Im happy the wire job worked. Next time Ill do things alittle different but I learned alot so i cant argue much.
Problems encountered:
Aquaero does not seem to be responding to the software. I double checked my wiring and downloaded the latest version of the software, but the software isnt seeing the aquaero. The computer itself knows a usb device is present, but not the software. I'll get with dan on this one.
Error light on the pump is staying on. The pump is working though. Last time I spoke with dan he told me this would be fixed once I got the software working.
Custom wireing the neons.... try to keep the wires as short as you can. You also want to keep the wire from the neon to the inverters at their original length. I made the mistake of trying to extend the length from the inverter out.... this led to dim and 1/2 working cct's. You want to run your wire to the inverter, not from it.
So... was it all worth it? I dont really know. You tell me:
I ran setu for 2 hours, and played UT2K4 at the same time at full resolution and graphics. After 2 hours I closed UT and immediately took this pic (you can see i forgot to close seti too hehe):
Sensor 1: Water Temp
Sensor 2: Internal Air Temp (sensor located right below rad in airflow)
Next I hope to OC alittle.... but I need to know if these temps are good to start with or what. I don't know what I SHOULD be getting.
I also need to get the aquaert talking to the system. Once those bugs are ironed out we'll go from there.
Flow rate is slow in this loop. The water coming through the aquajet is a good pace, but I expected alot more. Dan said once I get the aquaero and pc talking I can OC the pump some though. That should speed things up.
Comments? Suggestions? Anyone tell me if these temps are even good? Is the placement of the air temp sensor near the rad intake a good place or a bad place.
I am happy to say the system came right back up with no major hic-ups. First, lets get to the pics:
Bye bye OCZ warranty. Moving the psu to the bottom mount left me with a little problem. My 4 pin mobo connector was way to short. Solution: open, cut and rewire. I added alittle length to the mobo 4pin so it would reach
Here is the switch mounted onto the back panel I cut. Having moved the psu, I needed to make a new back pannel to cover that spot. What better place to put the neon power switch too. This was a lit up switch, but I couldnt stand how bright it was. I disabled the light-up part hehe.
The back side of the pannel. Im no electrician, but it all worked nice enough
Light control. The front covers have holes in them. This would have uv streaming out the front of the case, and we can't have that. Solution: black construction paper. Works like a champ
CPU block with water running through it. Without the uv light on you can't even tell ya?
With the cover off you can see where I hid the inverters for the neons. When the cover is in place, you cant see this at all.
Here is the psu mounted on the bottom with all the needed connectors attached.
Pics of the back pannel wireing. Out of sight, out of mind.
Back pannel mounted. Not bad. (sorry for blurry pic... ill upload another soon.)
Front with everything installed and running
Now we get to a side shot. Ill comment on this more after the pics.
2 UV shots. Dont know how to photograph this very well.....
There you have it. Finally completed. Overall I guess I am pleased. My system came up the first time.... and that was my biggest concern. I was worried my system would beep at me with an error or 10... thats usually my luck.
No leaks. Another plus. The plug and cool fittings are very nice. I hafta say im not to happy with how the tubes and wires look overall..... its kinda cluttered looking to me. Theres alot more in there then if i was just using air cooling.... but I guess thats a price you pay. And it could have been alot worse. This was my first water cooling experiance and I learned a hella lot from it. The silver blocks look hella cool. woot woot.
Here is the final routing for my tubes:
PUMP > RAD > CPU > GPU > HD1 (Raptor) > FLOW SENSOR > HD2 > NB > RES.
My primary heat sources in this system are the CPU, GPU and that cooking raptor. You can fry an egg on them I swear. So I ran the tubing accordingly.
CCT's used are all UV ones. No colored cct's. There are 5 total. 3 x 12" (left, top and bottom) and 2x 6" (inside drive cage and front bottom right in front of cage) The 6" cct in front of the drive cage is only to provide alittle ambiant light for the far right of the windowed area. If I didnt put one there, the drive cage would block the light and I would have a large black area in the window. I didnt want that.
The light things up nicely. Im happy the wire job worked. Next time Ill do things alittle different but I learned alot so i cant argue much.
Problems encountered:
Aquaero does not seem to be responding to the software. I double checked my wiring and downloaded the latest version of the software, but the software isnt seeing the aquaero. The computer itself knows a usb device is present, but not the software. I'll get with dan on this one.
Error light on the pump is staying on. The pump is working though. Last time I spoke with dan he told me this would be fixed once I got the software working.
Custom wireing the neons.... try to keep the wires as short as you can. You also want to keep the wire from the neon to the inverters at their original length. I made the mistake of trying to extend the length from the inverter out.... this led to dim and 1/2 working cct's. You want to run your wire to the inverter, not from it.
So... was it all worth it? I dont really know. You tell me:
I ran setu for 2 hours, and played UT2K4 at the same time at full resolution and graphics. After 2 hours I closed UT and immediately took this pic (you can see i forgot to close seti too hehe):
Sensor 1: Water Temp
Sensor 2: Internal Air Temp (sensor located right below rad in airflow)
Next I hope to OC alittle.... but I need to know if these temps are good to start with or what. I don't know what I SHOULD be getting.
I also need to get the aquaert talking to the system. Once those bugs are ironed out we'll go from there.
Flow rate is slow in this loop. The water coming through the aquajet is a good pace, but I expected alot more. Dan said once I get the aquaero and pc talking I can OC the pump some though. That should speed things up.
Comments? Suggestions? Anyone tell me if these temps are even good? Is the placement of the air temp sensor near the rad intake a good place or a bad place.
zapperfish
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2004
- Messages
- 359
looks very nice, i wih i had some money to get a stacker for my server
dave_graham
n00b
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2004
- Messages
- 0
DaMiEn said:
no kidding...geez, that deserves the "Duh!" award of the day.
dave
Nice work Sel Rahc. Don't beat yourself up about the amount of tubes/wires all over the place. For a first watercooling setup, it is awesome, especially considering you used way more components than a 1st time watercooler would even attempt (HDD blocks, etc).
I remember how great it felt booting my first watercooled computer up and it WORKED. Be proud and savor the flavor. Trust me, a few months down the road you'll want to change things, move things around. In my opinion, nothing is EVER good enough for the enthusiast builder. I'm sure pretty soon I'll get tired of my setup and want to change things around. As a matter of fact, I'm just LOOKING for an excuse to ditch my 9800 Pro for an X800XT.
Again, great job Sel Rahc!
I remember how great it felt booting my first watercooled computer up and it WORKED. Be proud and savor the flavor. Trust me, a few months down the road you'll want to change things, move things around. In my opinion, nothing is EVER good enough for the enthusiast builder. I'm sure pretty soon I'll get tired of my setup and want to change things around. As a matter of fact, I'm just LOOKING for an excuse to ditch my 9800 Pro for an X800XT.
Again, great job Sel Rahc!
dave_graham
n00b
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2004
- Messages
- 0
DaMiEn said:...and yours deserves the 'ambiguous post of the day' award
which part of my post were you referring to?
well, the "why'd you put all the pictures back into your reply" part...
i agree with the sex on a stick comment.
sorry if that was confusing...next time, i'll edit..
dave
zapperfish
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2004
- Messages
- 359
Could you maby edit it, for maby someone might ask the gods (Mashie) to DELETe it
Erasmus354
[H]F Junkie
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2004
- Messages
- 9,450
Selrach those temps are great, go ahead and overclock. People who say they are "ok" dont know what they are talking about. Also, the routing isn't too shabby, if you wanted to, which I doubt it, you could move the NB in front of the HDs in the loop, that would eliminate some of the back and forth in the loop, and the NB puts off shit all for heat so it wouldn't change temps anywhere in the loop.
Another suggestion, if once you get the aquaero to work, and OCing the pump a bit doesn't help flow to your satisfaction, you could try to add a mcp350, those babies have great head pressure and are tiny. It would certainly help pumping through such a long loop. Again, I wouldn't want to take apart the system I just put together for at least a few months Your setup is great, your temps are great...enjoy it for a bit before you decide to change anything...just wanted to give you a few suggestions for when you do
Another suggestion, if once you get the aquaero to work, and OCing the pump a bit doesn't help flow to your satisfaction, you could try to add a mcp350, those babies have great head pressure and are tiny. It would certainly help pumping through such a long loop. Again, I wouldn't want to take apart the system I just put together for at least a few months
Your setup is great, your temps are great...enjoy it for a bit before you decide to change anything...just wanted to give you a few suggestions for when you do Why didnt you just go to BTX mode? Thats what im planning when i finally get round to watercooling mine, that way i dont need to run my 24 pin connector over the rest of the board. As an aside, what do you think my chances of getting a 3x120 in there are? I measure 37 Centimeters to the big bulgey top bit, but i suppose mounting the end with the fittings on under there is feasible.
