Worklog: Northern Lights

[ABXG]

This is my first PC that I have built myself, and it is also my first Water Cooled PC. I have named it "Northern Lights" because of the way the RAM glows, the name of the case, and because I live up north in Canada. I used the Gigabyte Aurora 570 case to house my hardware. Right now it is to large to fit on my desk where I want it, so I will likely make myself a new desk designed to hold large cases. Because of this my workstation is a mess and I can't use my 7.1 speaker system, I am stuck with a Dell 2.0 system until I can get my workstation built and cleaned up.

Now for the actual worklog!

Here is my new case, fresh out of the packaging:
http://www.guildcafe.com/gallery/data/695/Case1.jpg
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http://www.guildcafe.com/gallery/data/695/Case2.jpg
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http://www.guildcafe.com/gallery/data/695/Case3.jpg

I changed the side panel from the pre-installed mesh to the included acrylic:
http://www.guildcafe.com/gallery/data/695/SidePanel1.jpg

Here is some of my stuff that is related to my computer:
http://www.guildcafe.com/gallery/data/695/CompStuff1.jpg

Here is most of the hardware that will go into my computer:
http://www.guildcafe.com/gallery/data/695/Hardware1.jpg

Here are my HDD's, they are in RAID0:
http://www.guildcafe.com/gallery/data/695/HDDRAID0.jpg

Here is the first look at my motherboard:
http://www.guildcafe.com/gallery/data/695/MOBO1.jpg

Here is a look at my motherboard with the CPU, waterblock, and RAM set up:
http://www.guildcafe.com/gallery/data/695/MOBO2.jpg

Here is my motherboard after being placed in the case, the D-Tek logo is glowing brightly due to the flash of my camera:
http://www.guildcafe.com/gallery/data/695/Shiney1.jpg

I had to RMA my 8800GTX because I had some how damaged it while setting it up for water cooling, here is the first shot with the stick heatsink removed:
http://www.guildcafe.com/gallery/data/695/OpenGTXb4RMA1.jpg

Here is my 8800GTX after installing the waterblock, please note that I have the 8800GTX UNI-SINK to go with this, I don't have a picture of the card with the sink installed:
http://www.guildcafe.com/gallery/data/695/WCGTXb4RMA1.jpg

I actually ran out of Tygon during the build, I was about 15cm short of placing the reservoir where I wanted. I had to place it here until I could go to a local hardware store and buy some generic tubing. I also had my 8800GTX in while taking these because I didn't know it was broken yet:
http://www.guildcafe.com/gallery/data/695/OutOfTygon1.jpg
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http://www.guildcafe.com/gallery/data/695/OutOfTygon2.jpg

After getting more tubing and filling my loop, this is the final positioning of the reservoir:
http://www.guildcafe.com/gallery/data/695/FinalResMount1.jpg

I am not happy about having to use 2 L bends to be able to hook up my radiator, my only other option was to dremel out the "bars" in the rear expension slots to get the tubing to fit through. I did not feel comfortable doing this with a new case, so I used the L bends. When I drain my system in ~6 moths I will likely go ahead and dremel out the expansion slots and make a few other improvements to the system.
http://www.guildcafe.com/gallery/data/695/2LBends.jpg

Here is a shot of my computer up and running with the side panel on. I had RMA'd my 8800GTX at this point and have a Radeon x300 sitting in until I get my 8800GTX back. Also, the hoseclamp I used on the L bend does not contact the fan while spinning (like it is in that photo). It is close though:
http://www.guildcafe.com/gallery/data/695/InsideShot1.jpg

Here is that same photo with the side panel removed:
http://www.guildcafe.com/gallery/data/695/InsideShot2.jpg

And here is that messy workstation of mine that I mentioned in the beginning of this post. If you are wondering what that website is, it is GuildCafe.com, I uploaded all of my images through that site:
http://www.guildcafe.com/gallery/data/695/MessyWorkstation.jpg

That is it for now. I still have to:
*Do a better job with cable management
*Buy LED lights for the system, I am looking at mostly blue and green with some red
*Get a UV lamp of some kind to show off the UV reactive dyes in the water cooling loop
*Build/buy a desk and clean up my workstation!

[ABXG]

Reserved 1

[ABXG]

Reserved 2

[ls206]

Nice. ouch at that "Z" angle though. Can't you loosen and twist the hose clamp so it's a safer distance from the fan blades?

looks good :)

[ABXG]

Nice. ouch at that "Z" angle though. Can't you loosen and twist the hose clamp so it's a safer distance from the fan blades?

looks good :)

The "screw" on the clamp is .5cm from the blades. It looks closer in the photo because of the angle

[nikhsub1]

Umm, your tubing layout is wrong man... you want to go RES > Pump > then rest of loop. You are going GPU > Pump > Rad > Res > CPU. Not good my friend. Ideally you would do RES > Pump > Rad > CPU > GPU > RES

[Grinch]

Umm, your tubing layout is wrong man... you want to go RES > Pump > then rest of loop. You are going GPU > Pump > Rad > Res > CPU. Not good my friend. Ideally you would do RES > Pump > Rad > CPU > GPU > RES

:up:

[ABXG]

Umm, your tubing layout is wrong man... you want to go RES > Pump > then rest of loop. You are going GPU > Pump > Rad > Res > CPU. Not good my friend. Ideally you would do RES > Pump > Rad > CPU > GPU > RES

It is actually Reservoir->CPU->GPU->Pump->Radiator->Reservoir.

[SparkyJJO]

Umm, your tubing layout is wrong man... you want to go RES > Pump > then rest of loop. You are going GPU > Pump > Rad > Res > CPU. Not good my friend. Ideally you would do RES > Pump > Rad > CPU > GPU > RES

It is actually Reservoir->CPU->GPU->Pump->Radiator->Reservoir.

Same thing, just a different starting point in the list. Still, you typically want the res right before the pump. The rest doesn't matter much.

[nikhsub1]

It is actually Reservoir->CPU->GPU->Pump->Radiator->Reservoir.
:rofl:

[Xavior]

Shouldn't be a problem as the reservoir should be able to prime the pump easily due to its high position?

[ABXG]

:rofl:

Fah, I am tired, I haven't had much sleep over the last few days (work stuff) and am a bit slow today. Boy do I feel foolish. anyway, I though that as long as the reservoir was above the pump everything was fine? it is higher than any of my blocks and the system has been running for a few weaks now with no problems.

[disruptfam]

no go. the pump has to be after the res.To make sure the pump has a constant supply of coolant.

[Section8]

no go. the pump has to be after the res.To make sure the pump has a constant supply of coolant.
Exactly!!!!!! The way you route the rest is a mute point but you must have the Reservoir directly before the inlet of the pump.

[ABXG]

I wont be changing the order of the tubing or anything like that for a few months. I have been running this exactly like this for 3 weaks now and the water level in reservoir has stayed at the exact level you saw in the close of up of the reservoir. The pump has been completetly quiet. If I wanted to change anything around now I would have to replace most of the tygon with the stuff I bought from the hardware store (which was a pain in the ass to work with). I can appreciate the concern but I wont be changing this order unless it starts causing me problems.