Wahoooooooooo! The parts have arrived!

diredesire said:
I see. I didn't think the sinks were veyr useful. I dont know about you, but mine were all oriented so air would be blocked by the fins (as far as flow towards the fan). Kind of a PITA, if you ask me. The fan would probably be a good candidate to remove/change out. The idea itself is pretty great, i'll admit, but i wish it could be implemented differently.
Click to expand...

As far as the heat sink orientation, I was that too and was like WTF mate? Then I realized something... The OTES plastic cover is open towards the outside of the sinks. It forces air right over them when it draws. Plus the opening towards the end of the cover draws enough air in to help cool the CAP's. It really is a good design and does what it is supposed to do. Take a good hard look at it next time you have your case open. And with a WC block on the CPU, the MOSFET sinks aren't drawing hot air in from the CPU.

An update on the system... I had yet another leak, this time at the intake fitting for the pump. I removed it this morning, slapped an O ring on it, and used pipe thread compound instead of teflon tape, and the leak appears to be taken care of. Luckily it wasn't major. Oh, and I did have a leak in the top of the pump as well. I put the origional Eheim fitting in there and that is taken care of too.
 
Those leaks suck. I have not had any yet (knock,knock) but we shall see. Maybe I will post some pics here in the next couple of days.

What size tubing did you go with?
 
Yeah, leaks suck. But at least they weren't inside the case, and with the quick disconnects, not a real hastle to fix either. Next time I will inclyde some shutoff valves as well so I can take different components out without having to do a lot of emptying and refilling. ;)

I went with 3/8". Temps are stable and actually went down with a cleaner run and the new blocks. Cpu idle is around 40c, GPU idle is about 42c, and under load (read: BFV for 2+ hours) they both hang around 47c max. The guys here were right... inline and clean runs do more for you than you think. Simple and flowing great.

Thanks again guys.

I'm gonna post a final pic or two later, now that it is pretty much finished. I would still like to do a new external box with a 3 fan radiator, and push/pull config. To keep the noise down on that beast I plan on using SilentX fans.

-edit- Oh yeah, post those pics!
 
Here are the final pictures. The system is running. On Friday night I discovered that I was still leaking at the pump. The intake was cracked where the fitting screwed into it. I had to glue on a PVC elbow to solve the problem. You can see it in the last pic. No more leaks.

Final layout, all blocks are in place:

layout.jpg



The Two Towers:

twotowers.jpg



Cooling tower and fixed pump:

coolingtower2.jpg



I also had another scare on Friday night. About midnight the system just shut off. Then I got a wiff if this smell... a BAD electronics burning smell. I thought "AHHHHHHH! MOTHERLAND!" and pulled the cord and opened her up for a look at what I thought was going to be smoking components. Luckily it wasn't any of the boards, no leaks, etc... It was the power supply. I thought, oh great... there goes my $175 power supply. But it was just a thermal shut down. The fan was stopped and had been rubbing against the PCB inside the PS. A little bit of work moving the board and retightening it, and everything was OK. Nothing burned out. Thank God for thermal shutdown protection!
 
Tunnie said:
:eek:

I thought PCP&C were the kings of quality?
Click to expand...

They are in my book. That's why the PS did a thermal shut down instead of just cooking itself. I was, however, dissapointed at the fan rubbing the PCB. But it turned out to be only a slight misalignment. Still, the guts of the beast are solid. And it IS a beast when compared to all other power supplies out there. I was actually scared when I opened it up because of the monsterous capacators in there.

-EDIT- And yeah everyone, I know the white floppy has to get changed. Didn't have time with everything happening this weekend and last week, but I needed it to do the BIOS flashing on the vid card. That reminds me, my Ultra will be here on Tuesday at the latest. Now that it has shipped I can let the cat out of the bag. It was a Step-Up from eVga. :D
 
One question about the colder couplings. How did you mount the bodies on that metalling plate? what's the procedure? and what's the diameter of ur mounting hole in that plate for the coupling bodies? I am thinking about gettin those...
 
The hole diameter I used was 1 1/8". I cut an Aluminum plate for the fittings, the stuff I have is about 7/32" thick. I cut the holes with a hole saw. If you do something similar, you will have to enlarge the holes slightly as the fittings are larger then 1 1/8", but a 1 1/4" hole saw cuts them too big and they slop around in there. You will also have to cut a notch for the fitting in the position you want it in because they have a notch on one side to keep them from turning. I simply used a metal file with teeth on the edge andfiles till it was wide and deep enough. To enlarge the 1 1/8" holes I used a dremel tool and a sanding drum (and a light touch so I would not remove too much Al). The plate is about 2" wide and 5 1/2" long, and is just barely big enough to fit both fittings. It is mounted inside the case (to remain removable without disconnecting hoses from water blocks) by 4 hex head machine screws. The plate is drilled and tapped for the screws.

You will have to measure for your plate to fit the case. I found a perfect spot for mine and just took the measurements for waht was there. I suggest picking a spot there the hose runs are easy to make to and from the water blocks, and in a convienent location for easy removal.

I am really glad I did it this way. My 6800U will be arriving tomorrow and when I swap them out it would be a real pain if I haden't done this. I can just remove the plate and bend it aside, then remove the video card from the slot, remove the NV68 block, attach the new card, and pop it all back together without having to remove the CPU or Northbridge blocks. :D
 
This is the specs that Colder give for the hole size.

Panel thickness .030" to .25", 1.20" diameter mounting hole 1.87" minimum coupling spacing Greenlee 730K--3/16 Keyway Punch Unit and 730S Hole Punch
 
New update on the system. Seems like I was hitting the wall of what the heater core could handle, so I went out and bought a Black Ice Pro 3.

BIP3.jpg


And I'm going to put it into this. I call it my "Tower of silence" The round circles that at the top are going to be PVC, will be covered in indoor/outdoor carpeting from Lowes, and are there to break up the sound waves. There will be other sound absorption material inside the case as well. The middle section that contains the pump, resivoir, fans, and core is removeable. There will also be a window in the back to check water levels. The core and fans will also be removeable from the assembly in their own sub-tray. I know that there is no indication of where the air will vent. I haven't decided that yet. The CD Storage area will have 3 plastic caddies mounted horozontally (CD's will stand upright), each holding 12 standard CD cases, or 24 slim cases (which are what I use anyway). All material is 1/2" MDF and 1/4" hardboard (or fiberglass panel).

CTLarge.jpg
 
That's so beautiful in so many ways. Nice work on that. Very inspiring to go towards water cooled.
 
Thanks for the comments guys. The tower will be cut and assembled this week. The hardest part will be the fan/core insert and the pump/res insert. Cutting begins tomorrow, hopefully assembly will be done before Friday, and paint will go on on Friday.
 
*Update... Most of the parts are cut, some of it is already assembled. I ran out of time tonight. I have to work outside with the saw and the sun was fading fast. Decided to call it quits before I made a serious mistake.

I made a few changes on the fly. It is shorter by 6" and will have slightly larger (maby) tubes in the top, and fewer of them. I also lost the top CD storage area, but the other two may be widened a bit to accomodate more. The core area is also a little different than what I planned.
 
i dont think your aquarium pump is going to have a good time pumping through all that restriction and tibing.
 
Senater_Cache said:
i dont think your aquarium pump is going to have a good time pumping through all that restriction and tibing.
Click to expand...

If you look at my current setup and compare it to the new tower, they are pratically the same, so I'm not quite sure what you are refering to. Presently the pump has no problem. It's an Eheim 1250. Let me explain a bit...

The pump is now closer to the radiator. The whole cooling loop in the new system will be within a narrow 12" to 14" window of placement, that is the whole cooling loop (pump, water blocks, radiator, all tubing, and bottom half of the resivor (which is the only part that counts since the pump draws water from the botton and the return is also in the bottom)) are at the same level, eliminating the need to pump water to a height greater than about 12", thus keeping flow as high as possible. The tubing going from the cooling tower to the PC is around 18" or less. I took a very long look at measurements before even planning the new box so that everything was as level as possible within the cooling loop.

Also, the new water blocks, specifically the Maze 4 chipset block and the NV68 block, are high flow and don't add an overbearing ammount of flow restriction. I also plan on changing the included jets in the RBX block to increase flow.
 
im not saying that your pump will create a zero flow scenario,
but considering its head height capability along with your tubing lenght and the tubing's pressure drop, as well as the pressure drop of your rad, your block(s) and any angular fittings, I will say that your pumps flowrate will be less than optimal.
thats all
 
Senater_Cache said:
im not saying that your pump will create a zero flow scenario,
but considering its head height capability along with your tubing lenght and the tubing's pressure drop, as well as the pressure drop of your rad, your block(s) and any angular fittings, I will say that your pumps flowrate will be less than optimal.
thats all
Click to expand...

I'm not seeing the problem you are. Currently the flow rate is very good. I don't have an exact figure to give you as I haven't tested it, but according to what I see in the res, it's good. The only change is going to be the radiator, and I haven't heard anything bad about the BIP3 as far as adding a lot of flow restriction.

I'm not trying to blow you off or anything. I am interested in what you are saying, but I just don't seethe problem that you are. That could mean that I missed something though, and I'm glad someone brought this up before I connected everything.

Can someone else take a look at this and give an opinion please? If I have missed something and Senater_Cache has found it, please confirm it before I put the rad into service.
 
A quick update and teaser... The radiator box is nearly complete. Here is a pic of the fans and radiator in for a test fit...

radbox.jpg
 
restricting the outbound water flow is fine. Any pump 10GPM or lower will be fine at .1gpm flow. What you do not want to restrict is the inbound flow, ie from the resevoir to the pump. I recently changed out the piping from my radiator(car radiator no need for a resevoir) from 1/2"ID tubing to a 1"ID tubing. This has reduced negative head pressue on the pump. It also reduced some of the noise and cavitation. Further noise/caviatation was reduced from a loop-bypass I put in. I really dont think you need to worry about the bypass, but the increased size tube from your resevoir to your pump would deffinately help out your flow. Try to use the largest diameter and shortest distance tube, trying to avoid any type of harsh adapters (ie 90-degree bends on inbound side).

For your current setup you should be fine, the most restrictive will most likely be your waterblocks limiting flow to around 1-2GPM anyways. As long as your max head is above the resistance in your system and maintains that 1-2GPM flow you're golden.

Only suggestion i have is for you to change out your inbound tube from your resevoir to the pump if you're worried.


Cheers,
-Vi
 
A little update... the res and pump are together for testing... and hooked up to the system. Here are two shots of the "core" caddy box:

fans_and_power.jpg


res_and_pump.jpg


And yes, it is running in the pictures. Filling and bleeding the system was a breez with this setup. Temps don't seem to have dropped any yet, but I am about to change out my procesor. Seems I may have fried my 2.8C M0 stepping core with a bit too much voltage. Check this thread out to see what I'm putting in there next (read: tomorrow). I will also be changing the accelerator plate in the RBX to the No. 4 or No. 5 plate for higher flow.
 
Got the new processor in today. The "core caddy" has also been final fit into the tower hull. Here are two pictures of the nearly final product. I still have to do Aluminum trim around the openings and edges to protect them from damage, and add the filter assembly. Temps @ stock on the 3.0ghz Prescott are holding 38C completely idle, a full 3C lower than the dying 2.8C core @ stock speed. Pretty good so far...

towerfront.jpg


towerrear.jpg
 
Here are two more shots...

The res and pump mounted:

pumpres.jpg


The back of the tower with the panels mounted. Have to install filter material behind the holes yet.

tower_rear.jpg


Oh... and check out the SIG. The new radiator and 3 fans are paying off.
 
nice clean install psycho!

What is the default voltage of your cpu, and what are you running it at currently to attain your overclock.


-Vi
 
Thanks ViruX! The setup with the rad and pump turned out better than what I thought it would. There are also two verticle handles (4") on either side of the top panel to remove the core box. They are painted black so they are very hard to see in the picture. There is enough room inside to tuck in all of the extra power cords as well. And to keep the pump from getting too hot in the enclosure, a 50mm fan to move air through it. I have to finish it up with the Aluminum trim, filter for the pump chamber ait intakes, and a light behind the resivoir with a momentary switch (to see the coolant and check levels). Taking a break for a few days and working on something else... painting new mice and keyboards for the whole family.

Default is 1.3125, and currently I am at 1.4375. CPUz and MBM5 never show the voltage as being higher than 1.375 though. Seems stable... ran prime for 7 hours and temps never went above 48c. I was expecting 50 to 55 at least with the Prescott..
 
Very nice looking setup... Is that a Criticool reservoir? Looks clean, I might just have to pick one up.
 
Thanks for the reply. I think I might get mine from here. It's the 4 inch version but that's all I need.
 
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