The Z Build(s) 3.0 - Go Big and/or Go Home

[Zarathustra[H]]

So, it has been about 5 years and two moves since the Z Build 2.0 project kicked off. Time for yet another overkill build.

Note: All the pics in this thread will be uploaded at the max resolution the Hardforums allow, but for layout purposes, I will scale them down to where the largest dimension is 640px wide. If you need to see something closer, just click to "embiggen".


First, some background:

As some of you may recall, the last build involved customizing fan mounts to fit two 480 and one 420 radiator in a Corsair 1000D.

It was a pain in the ass, and a lot of stuff went wrong (only a minority of which were my fault).

In the end I wound up with this:

Five years later, I'm pretty much still running the same build, except, I had to make some minor modifications to fit two interim GPU upgrades in there (first 6900xt, then 4090)

Except even with the huge radiator capacity, and 22 radiator fans + 2 case fans, it was still too loud for my preferences at full gaming load (probably due to the combination of the Threadripper and the 4090 pulling like a kilowatt at the wall when at full load) so I decided to get some active fiber-optic display and USB cables and just move the whole thing across the house and stick it next to my server rack, to finally have some peace and quiet in my office. (documented here)

Which brings us to the starting point for this project.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

The reason for Build 3.0
This project kicks off for a few reasons:

1.) S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2

I have been waiting for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 for damn near 15 years, and I want to play it in all its glory, without "fake pixels" or "fake frames" at 4k Ultra.

The 4090 can almost pull this off, but really requires at least a little bit of DLSS scaling for it to be ideal. If this were the only problem I had, I would probably be playing STALKER2 right now instead of scheming this build.

Unfortunately, in STALKER2 the trusty old Threadripper 3960x has finally met its match. I don't know what the deal with this game is, if they really just messed up the code and it is horribly inefficient, or if they are mining Ethereum in the background during gameplay, but it is extremely hard on the CPU. I've been thinking about upgrading the Threadripper for some time now, but Ive been frustrated. New Threadrippers are very expensive and have moved away from HEDT and into real workstation territory, meaning they perform like shit in games. Consumer platforms - however - have way too few PCIe lanes for my desire. Hoping and searching for some compromise solution I was happy with has delayed the upgrade.

With the launch of STALKER2 - however - there is no more ignoring the fact that this system can no longer keep up. I tested the prologue of the game, and was limited to framerates in the 50's. Enabling frame generation made it look smooth, and gave me 100+fps framerates, but input lag was horrendous. The game was almost playable, but for a game I have waited this long for "almost playable" is not going to be good enough. It was time for an upgrade


2.) HEDT is dead. It's consumer vs workstation now.
My build philosophy (at least since 2011, if not before) has been to build a "no compromises" system that does everything well. As much per thread performance as possible. Extra RAM channels if possible, as many PCIe lanes as I can get my hands on, more than typical desktop cores if possible. The problem is that since there is no more HEDT, this is no longer possible.

If I go for more RAM channels, gobs of PCIe lanes, etc. this puts me in workstation territory, and the per core performance in games is atrocious on those boards.

Furthermore, keeping up with a system that can sort of handle the latest titles in a workstation board, gets expensive very fast due to frequent upgrades. My Threadripper is still fine for my workstation purposes. If it werent for games, there would be no need to upgrade it at all with new workstation parts.

I've always hated the concept of a "gaming PC" but I slowly came to the inevitable conclusion that I am probably going to need two builds. One workstation build that uses expensive enterprise-like parts, but is infrequently upgraded, and one dedicated PC for games that uses comparably cheap desktop parts, so if I need to upgrade frequently, the cost is not a big deal.

So I guess that is what I am doing. Two builds instead of one.


3.) The desktop is already on the floor next to the rack, and I have lots of free space in the rack. Why not - you know - rackmount it?
I don't really think I need to add more to this one. When this project is complete, I will have two builds, both in my rack.


4.) Watercool MORA radiators are awesome.

So, being a huge fan of I have been eying Watercool MORA radiators for years now, but never gotten around to actually buying one and doing anyhting with it.

Rackmountable cases are cool, but I am already frustrated with the cooling capacity of my "overkill" loop in my Corsair 1000D, and rackmountable cases generally have even less space in them for cooling, so cooling was going to have to be external.

Then it struck me, what if I mount one or two MORA radiators to the side panel of the rack?
In my head I had a theoretical build with two MORA 3 radiators, each with 9 140mm fans in them, hangoing on the side of the rack.

But then MORA 3 parts started going out of stock on the Watercool webpage, and I started getting worried. I had heard that the watercooling industry had been hit hard last year (just look at what EK is going through, though that is compounded by mismanagement). I was concerned the MORA line was disappearing on me. To my relief it turns out they were just moving to a new generation, the MORA 4. And with this generation they introduced a new larger size, the MORA IV 600, which is HUGE.

I didn't realize at first. I saw the mounts for 9 fans, and figured it was the same size as before.

Then I noticed that those 9 fans were all 200mm fans. They are huge.

Next up, some more detailed build plans.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

3.0 Build plans

So, the plan is for there to be a dedicated game system and a dedicated workstation, both in the rack, with external cooling in the form of two MORA IV 600 radiators hanging from the side of the rack.

The Workstation (Phase 1)

This system will take the motherboard, RAM and most of the drives from the current Desktop Threadripper build.

The 4090 GPU will be wasted in this workstation, so I will buy a lower end GPU and install it without watercooling. Maybe a Radeon RX 7600 (non-XT). Not sure yet.

In this build, only the CPU will be watercooled.

The current plan is for them to be built into a Sliger CX4150a 4U case:

Some holes will be cut in the back to allow the watercooling tubes to exit.

These will be connected using 3/4" OD, 1/2" ID soft tubing and Koolance's QD4 QDC's to allow for diconnecting reconnecting, and future upgrades, etc:

The Game System (Phase 2)

The game system will be all new parts. When I first started planning this build it was going to keep the 4090, and get a new consumer motherboard, CPU and RAM, but at this point, the 5xxx series is right around the corner, and the 4090 just isn't keeping up with S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 so I guess I will just go with a new GPU as well.

GPU Blocks usually have their ports raised up above the video card, which means a 4U case is probably not going to cut it. I may wind up going with one of Silverstone's 5U or 6U cases just to fit the GPU, but their pricing seems rather excessive for what you get. I am continuing to do research on what case to use here, and I am going to need to get some measurements to finalize my determination on just how tall of a case I need, or if I cam maybe use some sort of adapter to mount the GPU on its side.

Just as with the Workstation build however, it will be connected using 3/4" OD, 1/2" ID tubing running out to the MORA radiators on the outside, and will have Koolance QD4 QDC's. This system will have a water block on both the CPU and the GPU


The Plan

As is suggested above, this will go in phases. In part because I need some of the parts (pumps, reservoir, etc.) from the current build to make the full cooling system function, and in part because I need my workstation for work, and cannot accept much downtime.

I am going to start by installing half the radiator capacity (one MORA IV 600) and routing it up to just the workstation build. Once this is done, I am going to install the second MORA radiator, and only then build the game system.

The plan is for both radiators to cool both systems (shared radiator capacity FTW) so I will be utilizing QDC's in key places to be able to keep it modular and expand the loop once I am ready.

Bear with me on this build. I am going to do it little by little, so it may take some time. I will post updated posts as I go along.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Planned Loop Routing

I know this is still somewhat controversial in PC cooling circles, but I did it with my current build and it has worked really well, so I am going to do it again, just on steroids: The final loop will consist of 4 separate smaller loops that all mix in two reservoirs.

I really would have preferred doing this in only 3 loops, but I just could not fid a reservoir with enough inlets and outlets to handle this, so I will instead be using two reservoirs (EK-RES X4 250)

I chose this EK res, not because I have any love for EK, but because I already happen to have one in my system, and didn't want to buy more shit than necessary here. It also happens to have a large number of ports, which is what I need. This reservoir is now discontinued, but I was able to find a second one, so I have what I need.


Loop1:
This will be a simple loop just handling one of the two radiators, with a single D5 pump:

Reservoir1 --> Single D5 Pump --> MORA1 --> Reservoir2


Loop 2:
This loop will be very similar to the first one:

Reservoir2 --> Single D5 Pump --> MORA2 --> Reservoir1


Loop3:
This loop will cool the workstation:

Reservoir1 --> Single D5 Pump --> Workstation CPU block (Existing Heatkiller IV 4 block) --> Reservoir1.

Loop4:
This loop will cool the game system:

Reservoir2 --> Dual D5 Pumps --> Game system GPU block --> Game System CPU block --> Reservoir2


The thought process here is that since the coolant mixes in the reservoirs, and continuously moves back and forth between the two reservoirs, both systems can take advantage of the outrageously massive radiator capacity of both MORA radiators, when the other system is idle or off.

The Game system will be at the very bottom of the rack. IN case it leaks, I don't want coolant running down on anything else more important than games, and destroying it. The workstation system will be right above the Game system, followed by a couple of U's "safety gap" after which the UPS:es will go on top of that, and finally the more important network hardware and NAS upstream from them, so that no water ever gets on those no matter what happens (unless I have some sort of freaking fountain)

Fan and pump control will happen using 2 Aquaero 6 LT's.

One Aquaero will be dedicated to controlling the speed of the two pumps cycling the radiators and their 18 200mm fans.

The other Aquaero will handle the speed of the dual pumps of the game system.

The workstation pump - since it only has one block - is a bit simpler, and will be controlled by the motherboard fan header based on CPU temp. (if this doesn't work well, I do have a third Aquaero kicking around here I can use, but I am trying to minimize complexity in an already very complex system.

The Aquaero's, pumps and radiator fans will have their own PSU. I will use some sort of relay rigged up such that it is on, whenever either of the systems are powered on. I was going to use one of those mining rig PSU controllers you see around, but I have been unable to find any designed to take input from more than one master system. I did buy one of those Arduino/Raspberry Pi oriented wall outlet relays a few years back for another project that never happened, so I might just use that instead.

Either way, I am going to ahve to do some custom wiring to make sure I don't have backflow from one system to the other. It will include joining 12v power and ground from both systems, but through a diode so nothing flows the wrong way.

A company named Roadmaster makes a diode called the 790 Hy-Power that has two inputs and one output, and is thus perfect for what I am trying to do. It is intended for towing cars behind an RV, while linking their lighting systems, but without having power from one going to the other.

I think I can just put one of these on a 12V wire from a 4-pin "molex" (not really a molex connector, but everyone calls them that, so whatever) from each system, and then just tie their grounds together, as those are supposed to be at the same (0) voltage anyway. The combined 12v signal can then be used to control the relay that turns the cooling loop on and off.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Arrival of the Radiators:

These came on December 23rd. I originally ordered them in early November, but the wall mounts were back-ordered (and there was no mention of this on the Watercool store page). Eventually they transited the Atlantic and arrived at my house.

The holidays being a busy season, I didn't really have time to open them until today.

I knew they were huge, but DAMN, reading dimensions does not prepare you for seeing them in person:

16oz "tallboy" and 12oz Diet Coke (sorry no banana) for scale.

These things pretty much take over my office...

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Some Prepwork

I spent some time looking at the rack a few days ago, and noticed that the side panel I was planning on hanging everything from is really only held on by some plastic latch handles:

Those two little black handles, and a wimpy lock (for which I do not have the key) are what secure the whole thing in place.

I put some test weight on it (me, hanging from the side of the thing), and damn, the panel started to pull away from the rest of the rack. So I needed to reinforce that puppy before I start hanging heavy water filled radiators and reservoirs from it.

Looking at the rack from the inside I noticed that the back of the main rails (where you screw in the sliding rackount kits) has 1/4" screw holes about every half inch running top to bottom on both the front and rear of the unit.

I decided to drill matching holes on the panel itself, and install some machine screws through the holes with bolts on the back. I figured that should secure it up nicely.

I figured I'd pout one hole front and back up top, in the middle and down at the bottom, 6 bolts in total. That ought to do it.

I noticed the rack shelves were in the way up top and on the bottom, so they would need to come out for me to gain access.

These things are heavier than they look:

They are made of 1/8" thick sheet metal, with reinforcement in many places. Real heavy.


They came in the rack, and probably date back to the 90's. I haven't seen modern rack shelves (this is the one and only rack I've had the pleasure of working with) but I am going to go out on a limb and suggest "they probably don't make them like this anymore".

After a quick trip to home depot to buy the fasteners, bolts (and some lock washers for good measure) I started the drilling. I bought a new kit of drill bits when I was there as I did a massive home improvement project this summer, and have either lost or burnt out most of my previous drill bits.

I wound up with some Milwaukee "Shockwave Titanium" bits, because they were on sale. (I have no tool brand loyalties). They claim they stay sharper longer, and I was actually pretty impressed with the first hole. I applied a little cutting lubricant to the bit and started drilling, and it went through the sheet metal like butter.

I'm not sure about the "stays sharper longer" claim though, as already by the second hole it took some more force. By the last, I had to put some muscle into it.

But all the holes are drilled, and bolts installed, and the panel is now very secure.

Because I was worried about the bolts interfering with the shelves (or other things) when I put them back in, I flush cut the back of the screws with the tightened down nut using my oscillating tool and an "extreme titanium metal/whatever" blade.

In this process I learned that oscillating tools can loosen tightened bolts (even with a lock-washer in place) so once done, I re-tightened them all.


Here are the top four screws in place. (the bottom two are hiding behind the Corsair 1000D)

That's all I got to today.

I am going to leave the shelves out for now, as if I put them back in, they are probably going to get in the way, when I go to mount the radiator wall mount brackets.

Unfortunately, in one of my many trips behind the rack, I must have tripped over and broken one of my 65ft display port cables connected to the back of the Corsair 1000D :/

Now I am going to be without one of my side screens until I can get and route a replacement.

That's a bummer, especially since they are like $90 each, and a pain in the ass to route across the house to my office... Oh well. Shit happens. I'm sure this won't be the last mishap before this project is done, and if it is the worst, then I will have been pretty damn lucky!

 

[toast0]

The one thing that came to my mind is a (big) leak in the gaming pc could result in all the coolant coming out. As a non-water cooling person, my dumb question is ... Would that ruin your workstation, or will it just throttle when the cpu cooling disappears?

 

[Tsumi]

Rather than cutting into the case, why not get these adapters? Even if you decide you need the PCI slots and cut through the case anyways, it looks like they can be disconnected from the bracket and attached anywhere, giving you the ability to connect QDCs directly to the exterior of the case.

https://modmymods.com/fittings/pci-slot-fittings.html

Otherwise, looks like an awesome project. Good luck, have you made a blood sacrifice yet?

 

[Tsumi]

The one thing that came to my mind is a (big) leak in the gaming pc could result in all the coolant coming out. As a non-water cooling person, my dumb question is ... Would that ruin your workstation, or will it just throttle when the cpu cooling disappears?

If water doesn't get onto the components, the thermal protections usually kick in and prevent serious damage from occurring. If water does get on it, all bets are off on how much damage can occur.

One measure for preventing water spillage onto components is with the vacuum system one of the companies make, probably EK? Basically, by maintaining a constant negative pressure in the reservoir, water cannot leak out because air would be trying to leak in. This of course does have limitations in that it can only stop a small leak and not a large one, but it is a useful peace of mind assuming the vacuum is maintained. It also helps with finding the leak because you only need to trace where the air bubbles are coming from.

 

[Nobu]

Rather than cutting into the case, why not get these adapters? Even if you decide you need the PCI slots and cut through the case anyways, it looks like they can be disconnected from the bracket and attached anywhere, giving you the ability to connect QDCs directly to the exterior of the case.

https://modmymods.com/fittings/pci-slot-fittings.html

Otherwise, looks like an awesome project. Good luck, have you made a blood sacrifice yet?

They make QDC bulkheads, so those aren't needed for panel mounting, but they would be useful if you are trying not to modify your case. My main problem with them is they add about an inch to both sides of the slot, and another place to leak.

 

[Tsumi]

They make QDC bulkheads, so those aren't needed for panel mounting, but they would be useful if you are trying not to modify your case. My main problem with them is they add about an inch to both sides of the slot, and another place to leak.

True, Z would have to get QD3s for those (not sure what other brands have them), and they either connect by threaded shaft or barb, no compression fitting style available. Not sure how much of a difference there is between QD3s and QD4s either.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

The one thing that came to my mind is a (big) leak in the gaming pc could result in all the coolant coming out. As a non-water cooling person, my dumb question is ... Would that ruin your workstation, or will it just throttle when the cpu cooling disappears?

The real risk with leaks is that it gets on stuff and shorts it. For this reason I am going to keep the two water cooled systems at the bottom of the rack in order to avoid any leak getting on anything else I value more.

As far as running out of coolant and overheating, this is just not a concern anymore. It hasn't been for a very long time. Modern chips (both CPU's and GPU's) have more transistors dedicated to power and thermal management than there were transistors in total in the Pentium PRO from the 90's.

Should there be a complete loss of coolant, the CPU's and GPU's will just throttle back. The systems might become unusably slow until cooling is fixed, but there shouldn't be any damage.

It reminds me of that old test Toms Hardware did in ~2005 (I think? my memory is hazy, but that's what the internet suggests) where they ran a game (looks like some version of Quake?) on various CPU's and just unceremoniously yanked the CPU cooler off mid game to see what would happen:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xf0VuRG7MN4

(I think the video was created by Toms Hardware slightly before YouTube existed, and was uploaded by others afterwards, so pay no attention to the upload date)

This was right about the time more advanced thermal management was being implemented. Intel was ahead at that time.

• The Pentium 4 2000 Mhz being the newest in their test, without a CPU cooler drastically loses framerate, but successfully throttles back. The game never crashes, and once the heatsink is replaced, performance recovers.

• The Pentium 3 1000 Mhz without a CPU cooler drastically loses framerate, and then the game crashes but the thermal management is able to reduce power output to the point where after a reboot, the system is just fine. No hardware damage. To be fair to this CPU, by 2005, it was already pretty old, so they were really testing previous gen here.

• The Socket 462 Athlon 1400C without a CPU cooler drastically loses framerate, followed by a game crash, and then self immolation. Both the CPU and motherboard are unrecoverable. Again, to be fair to this CPU, this was a 2001 model, not the most current in 2005 when they were testing.

The takeaway here is that even by 2005, most new CPU's behaved like the Pentium 4 in this video. Certainly today in 2025, 100% of new CPU's and GPU's on the consumer market will save themselves by throttling back like the Pentium 4 in this video.

In other words, I'm not concerned about a complete coolant loss damaging the CPU or GPU. At least not from overheating. Shorting is not out of the question though (though coolant when new is non-conductive, and even if you do have a short, if you have a good PSU, overcurrent protection typically cuts power near instantly, saving the hardware in many cases, and I only use the best Seasonic PSU's, in part for this reason.)

In addition to that, unless you really screw up with your build, leaks are rarely sudden and catastrophic. I've had a couple of leaks over the last several years, and in every single instance they were a very slow drip. In one case, a 45 degree rotary bend leading into my CPU had a seal failure and very slowly dripped coolant onto the backplate of the GPU. I only discovered this long after it happened, when I opened upt he case to clean it. Water levels didn't drop significantly, and I never even saw any wet fluid ontop of the GPU, just spots of dried coolant whenre a drop had fallen and dried in place, followed a long time later by another drop, etc. etc.

If something unexpected should happen, and coolant should drop too low - however - that doesn't mean there won'tbe damage. The real threat is to the pumps. If they run dry, it won't take long for them to be killed completely. They require fluid in them to lubricate the impeller, and if there is no fluid while it runs, it causes permanent damage.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Rather than cutting into the case, why not get these adapters? Even if you decide you need the PCI slots and cut through the case anyways, it looks like they can be disconnected from the bracket and attached anywhere, giving you the ability to connect QDCs directly to the exterior of the case.

https://modmymods.com/fittings/pci-slot-fittings.html

Interesting. I remember those from way back, EK made them, but when I did research a few years ago, no one had them in stock anymore, so I presumed they were off the market.

I'm not entirely opposed to using them, but I am a little bit concerned about the ID of the coolant line going through the PCI slot. PCI slot openings are only a half an inch wide, and that would be the OD. Subtract some wall thickness, and you have a rather small ID.

Fluids are generally not very compressible, so (chokepoint friction aside) you tend to have your flow limited by the narrowest ID of the loop, so I'd be concerned about these PCI slot adapter openings restricting flow.

Still, the standard water cooling fitting is G1/4" so maybe I am worrying about nothing here, though friction from these choke points still can have an effect.

I picture myself using a small hole saw in order to make a clean cut, and then shoving aftermarket rubber grommets in there for a passthrough. You know, something like this:

It should still look pretty clean, but that said, it will also be in the back of the rack. I'll never see it except during maintenance, so why do I care how it looks?
https://modmymods.com/fittings/pci-slot-fittings.html

Otherwise, looks like an awesome project. Good luck, have you made a blood sacrifice yet?

None yet, but it is probably only a matter of time given the cold weather and how dry everything is. Skin is much less resistant to cuts when it is dry. Its 16% RH in my office right now.

When I was last in Sweden in 2019, I bought some of this stuff. The swedish defense forces standard issue skin salve for dry weather (also sold to the public at the pharmacy). The stuff works miracles, and I wish I could get it around here, as I will eventually run out, but at the same time I don't want it on my hands when I am working, as it leaves grease everywhere, and makes my grip slippery...

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

If water doesn't get onto the components, the thermal protections usually kick in and prevent serious damage from occurring. If water does get on it, all bets are off on how much damage can occur.

You got it. I'm not too concerned though.

This actually represents a reduction in risk for me, as many of the water components (pumps, radiators, reservoir) that used to be inside the case, are now outside away from any components.

That and the two systems that are getting water cooling will be on the bottom, so if they leak at most they harm themselves.

As far as shorting with coolant goes, I think people exaggerate the risk. The coolant isn't even conductive when new (but it does get so as it ages) In most cases as long as you have a good PSU, the short protection kicks in rather quickly and prevents damage.

The one time I actually got a minor drop on a component, the PSU cut power, and once everything was dried and cleaned, everything worked just fine.

One measure for preventing water spillage onto components is with the vacuum system one of the companies make, probably EK? Basically, by maintaining a constant negative pressure in the reservoir, water cannot leak out because air would be trying to leak in. This of course does have limitations in that it can only stop a small leak and not a large one, but it is a useful peace of mind assuming the vacuum is maintained. It also helps with finding the leak because you only need to trace where the air bubbles are coming from.

I think you are thinking of the Aquacomputer Leak Shield.

Its a really cool concept, but probably not effective for a large and complex loop like mine. Besides, I think the risk is pretty low anyway, as long as you leak test with the power to the system off before going live.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

They make QDC bulkheads, so those aren't needed for panel mounting, but they would be useful if you are trying not to modify your case. My main problem with them is they add about an inch to both sides of the slot, and another place to leak.

True, Z would have to get QD3s for those (not sure what other brands have them), and they either connect by threaded shaft or barb, no compression fitting style available. Not sure how much of a difference there is between QD3s and QD4s either.

Yeah, I was considering bulkhead QDC's when I started thinking about this project, but I'm intentionally going with QD4's to try to minimize flow restriction from the QDC's as much as possible, so I think I am just going to go with the passthrough.

Besides, if I get the QDC's on a tube a foot or two outside the case, mainetnance, draining and filling without splashing where it does not belong gets a lot easier.

I've been taking dremels and drills to my cases as long as I can remember.

Heck, I took a hack saw to the motehrboard tray of my old Silverstone RV03 back over a decade ago because I wanted to fit more fans and radiators in there. Was pretty badass while it lasted (though it did structurally weaken the case to where just threw it out when I upgraded a few years later.)

That was one of the very rare 180mm AIO's I convinced MainGear to sell me without a system, but then shortly after their changed their minds and refused to sell them to anyone else without a full prebuilt desktop. I never learned why (maybe their license from CoolIT didn't allow for it?) Anyway, back in 2011 that was the biggest AIO radiator you could get. (A single 180mm rad has more swept area than a 240mm dual fan rad.)

In my current build, I wanted more space in the Corsair 1000D for water cooling, and had no interest in 3.5" drive cages, so I drilled the rivets out to remove the cage.

Anyway, I'm starting to drag my own thread off topic! I'll have to stop myself from doing that.

The point here being, I am not afraid tot ake wahetever tool necessary to any case I have to make it work for me. I've learned over the years that if you want somethign to work for you, you often have to customize it.

Cases are temporary anyway. I'm not concerned about putting holes in them. Worse comes to worse, I could plug the holes later.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Interesting. I remember those from way back, EK made them, but when I did research a few years ago, no one had them in stock anymore, so I presumed they were off the market.

I'm not entirely opposed to using them, but I am a little bit concerned about the ID of the coolant line going through the PCI slot. PCI slot openings are only a half an inch wide, and that would be the OD. Subtract some wall thickness, and you have a rather small ID.

Fluids are generally not very compressible, so (chokepoint friction aside) you tend to have your flow limited by the narrowest ID of the loop, so I'd be concerned about these PCI slot adapter openings restricting flow.

Still, the standard water cooling fitting is G1/4" so maybe I am worrying about nothing here, though friction from these choke points still can have an effect.

I picture myself using a small hole saw in order to make a clean cut, and then shoving aftermarket rubber grommets in there for a passthrough. You know, something like this:

View attachment 702135

It should still look pretty clean, but that said, it will also be in the back of the rack. I'll never see it except during maintenance, so why do I care how it looks?
https://modmymods.com/fittings/pci-slot-fittings.html

Oh, interesting:

They actually make up for the slot width issue by using a transition to an oblong flow path as it goes through the slot.

Thats pretty nifty.

Mauybe I'll consider these after all. That said, they would make QDC and component management a little bit more tricky, so maybe not.

I'll have to think about it.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

So, I decided to take out one of the radiators and start to flush it today.

When I did? Bummer.

The first one I opened had quite a dent on it. Not quite sure how transatlantic RMA works, especially on something this big, but I guess I am about to find out.

I'm not sure how easily that cover might separate from the rest of the unit, but maybe if it is fine on the inside, they can just ship me that replacement piece, and I can install it.

The box was not terribly damaged, so I am not even sure how it happened. There were those nylon(I think) straps around it when it arrived, and I wonder if the straps maybe did that.

Otherwise if that was an inspection escape, that's a pretty bad one.

I'm going to reach out to their customer service and I will let you guys know what they say.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Meanwhile, I moved on to the next radiator. I took it out of the packaging and it looks fine.

In another thread cpufrost recommended a flushing method I had never thought of, that sure might save on water and effort.

Essentially, get a couple of household water filters, and barb tubing adapters for them, and put them in a loop and flush with distilled water.

First in line is a mesh 50 micron sediment filter. This ought to capture the big stuff.

Next in line is a 0.5 micron water quality filter. It does a lot of stuff I don't care about (active carbon taste improvement, etc.) but it should also filter down microbes and finer particulate.

Last, - for good measure - I attached a filter that claims to go down to 0.1 micron. I figured, why the hell not.

A previous owner of our house built this mother-in-law apartment in the basement where there is a spare (and probably illegal) kitchen. I set up my flush loop in this kitchen where I am just going to let it run for a while.

Filling this beast takes ~3L of water according to Watercool. So we are talking almost a gallon. Then add in the filter housings getting in the way, and the water they take to fill, and this was a tricky loop to get all the air out of. It was also a tricky loop to find good adapter fittings for that didn't leak.

Much cursing and sopping up distilled water with rags later, I was able to get it tight, and flushing the radiator.

I'm just going to let it run here for a while. I am going slow on this project, especially since next week is audit week at work (who doesn't love a good ISO notified body audit?) so that is the priority right now, but I figured it wouldn't take much time to hook up the flush loop and get it going (I was wrong) and then the radiator can flush while we are being audited.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

We had an audit at work this week, which pretty much sucked up all of my time, but having passed with with flying colors by midday Thursday, I decided to take Friday off, and while I mostly caught up on sleep, I had a little time to make progress on the project.

Having had to lift and move these radiators around when I discovered the dent, and started the flush of the un-dented one, I am once again concerned, that the little I did to secure the rack side panel may not be enough to hold the weight of these things, especially when full of coolant.

So, it is belt and suspenders time.

The wall mount brackets look like this.

One quarter inch sized hole at the top and bottom, intended to screw the bracket into the wall, and then some prongs that screw into the radiator hang from the tear-drop shaped openings.

My original intent was just to drill holes in the panel, and screw these brackets straight to the sheet metal, but I am thinking maybe I should reinforce it more.

This is what the back of that panel looks like. Note those holes that I used to secure the panel.

I was thinking if I got some metal flat stock, and I mount it across between the front and back through those holes, that will give me a solid frame to anchor the radiators to.

Anyone who notes that this would result in it being offset from the back of the panel, and who has taken an Engineering class in Statics will note the problem with that though.

Allow me to illustrate:

This is what my force components are going to look like if I bolt it directly to the sheet metal.

There is - of course - a downward force component at each hole, but the top hole has an outward force component, whereas the bottom hole has an inward force component.

This is not terrible, as long as the panel can carry the weight, which I am not sure it can.

If I instead install the two horizontal bars and bolt into those, I get the illustration below:

The positive part of this is that we mostly remove the F+x force component from the sheet metal up top, as it is pulling on the bar instead of the sheet metal.

The screw that goes through the bar - however - is likely going to tilet downward with the weight, and then the downward force components (F-y) both top and bottom are still going to be pushing on the sheet metal.

So, it might help a little but probably not a whole lot.

Then I though, what if I add a second nut to the other side of the steel bars.

If it is tight, and the bars are rigid enough, it ought keep the screws mostly straight, and offload at least some of that that force on the sheet metal.

So I wandered the metal flat/bar stock aisle at the Home Depot and found some some 36" long 1/8" thick C-channel stock:

The C-channel gives it MUCH stronger torsional rigidity than the flat stock I had originally intended to use, so it winds up being pretty much perfect for my application.

(I had initially considered some rectangular tube-stock, but everything I could find was too thick, and wouldn't fit in the rack how I intended.)


36" is a little too long for me though.

I must have something like 15 measuring tapes at this point, but for whatever reason I couldn't find any of them, but I did find my laser measuring device:

From front to back I measured about 30"
Nut that is from where the sheet metal bends, not from where the holes are.

I figured I could take of ~2" on either side and still have them be long enough, but also short enough to make them easier to finagle into place.


This is where I miss having my nice large oversized two-car garage from my old house. I no longer have a garage. I have a shed, where I have set up a workbench with a grinding wheel, a drill press and a scroll saw, but I have no more space on it. So I was going to have to do this one outside in the cold.

But this is the warmest day in over a week, and the icy cold that is hitting further south is coming our way early next week, so it was pretty much now or never.

Besides, it wasn't that cold. Only ~34°F and sunny, so it wasn't even really jacket weather. The fleece sweatshirt did the trick.

I hadn't used the trusty Harbor Freight cut-off wheel in a while, so first, I decided to verify everything was straight.

Some very loud noises, and flying sparks later, the cuts were good and straight, but I wound up with some serious burrs.

I decided to take the burrs off, and dull off those sharp edges with my Dremel, as I know if I don't I am going to cut myself on them later...

They wound up maybe not super-clean, but certainly fit for purpose.

Next steps are going to be to drill mounting holes in them so I can mount them inside the rack.

I need to do some thinking about how I mitigate rust on them after that. I could clean them and blast them with some Rustoleum, or maybe rub them with some light oil. Or maybe clean them off and do a gun-style bluing operation, but then I am going to need to find something large enough to quench them in, that can handle hot steel...

I'd value any suggestions here.

Or maybe I am over-thinking it. They will be going indoors, so serious rusting will likely not be a problem, but it does get a bit humid in my basement...

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

So, I decided to take out one of the radiators and start to flush it today.

When I did? Bummer.

The first one I opened had quite a dent on it. Not quite sure how transatlantic RMA works, especially on something this big, but I guess I am about to find out.



View attachment 703189 View attachment 703190

I'm not sure how easily that cover might separate from the rest of the unit, but maybe if it is fine on the inside, they can just ship me that replacement piece, and I can install it.

The box was not terribly damaged, so I am not even sure how it happened. There were those nylon(I think) straps around it when it arrived, and I wonder if the straps maybe did that.

View attachment 703191

Otherwise if that was an inspection escape, that's a pretty bad one.

I'm going to reach out to their customer service and I will let you guys know what they say.

Oh, and to follow up on the dented radiator.

Watercool demonstrated some excellent customer service. They replied to my email as soon as it was business hours in Germany, and asked if it was OK if they shipped me a new cover for me to install myself. I said that would be ideal, as shipping large heavy things internationally is costly, as long as there is no internal damage that could cause a leak.

I also asked if there were any tricks to install it.

That was on Monday. Same day, they replied with a couple of videos with install instructions, and by Wednesday I received notification that it had shipped. It arrived today, two days later.

I haven't had a chance to open it yet, but the box for the replacement part has a huge gouge on it. I am hopeful that the content is not damaged.

It seems safe to say that DHL has some serious handling issues somewhere on route between Watercool in Germany and my house in the Northeast U.S, as of right now they are 0 for 2, at least from a box damage perspective.

I am way too tired to open and inspect it for damage right now, so I guess I'll do that in the next day or two.

I am totally thrilled with Watercool's customer service. They seem like a really standup company the way they handled this.

DHL? Not so much.