Anyone Remember SLi Blocks??

[coolmiester]

I hate to have to justify myself.....but quite a big deal at the time 05-07-2005

This is going to be a bit of a trial and error project and not sure how its going to turn out so decided to make a bit of a log.

The plan is to adapt a couple of Danger Den NV-68 blocks to fit 2 Gainward 6600 GT's onto an MSI K8N SLi Platinum nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard.

The problem is that the Sli slots are only 40mm apart on the m/board which means the 2 upward facing barbs on the bottom block are able to be accessed once the top block is in place.

A couple of 90 elbow barbs would have done the trick but that's far to easy in my opinion.

So anyway, i started of with a couple of sketches which show the initial plans a bit better.

Not the best sketch up in the world but it give an idea......hopefully:)
http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/sli/nv-68_sli.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/sli/nv-68_sli_1.jpg

Anyway, enough of my poor drawing skills and on with trying to beat these two blocks into submission starting with dismantling them and marking where to start drilling.

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/sli/2.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/sli/3.jpg

The new Danger Den Hi-Flow Barbs have a 9/16" UNF thread but as drilling Lucite with that size drill would probably result in tears, i made a couple of pilot holes with a 3mm drill bit followed by a 7mm and then onto the big one!

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/sli/4.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/sli/5.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/sli/6.jpg

That seemed to go pretty well though i had to run the drill at quite a slow speed with the lager drill bit as it kept on catching and i think it was more good luck than good management that i didn't bust something...

/..... then it was just a case of running a 9/16" Tap through the holes and putting thread on them.........two turns in and one turn back and so on!

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/sli/7.jpg

And with the barb screwed in...
http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/sli/8.jpg

OK this is where it ends for today as i'm still waiting on a Tap to turn up so i can Tap the Plug holes properly as they are a different thread size to the Danger Den ones and i'm also waiting on the 2mm threaded bar to link the 2 blocks together so i'll leave with a couple of pictures of how they are starting to look.

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/sli/9.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/sli/10.jpg

Oh.......one last thing...........the space between the two Sli slots is a lot less than what i first thought so the link hose will be a lot shorter, in fact i'm going to have to shorten both the left hand side barbs and maybe even braze them together to make a kind of threaded on each end link pipe..........i'll see.

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/sli/11.jpg

By the way its all going into the shiny Wavemaster :cool:
http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/polished_11.jpg


Anyhoo, bit of an update today...

Managed to get my hands on the correct size Tap to thread the 2 little bits of Lucite for the plugs which incidentally are Polarflo ones as i couldn't get my hands on Danger Den ones.

Also got some 2.5mm threaded brass bars...........i'm using little black nuts for the mock-up as i'll also have to re-thread the DD brass knurled thumb screws to the same thread as the rods....more taps and dies:(

Anyway here's a few pictures of the whole thing starting to take shape. Adding the brass bars had made the 2 blocks really sturdy but i'm starting to get a bit concerned about the weight.

The two GFX cards have still not turned up so things will come to a bit of a standstill as i'll need them to mount the blocks plus cards into the m/board to get the final measurement between the two left hand side barbs as they are going to need cutting.

Oh well........here's a few pictures of how they are looking now!

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/sli/12.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/sli/14.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/sli/15.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/sli/16.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/sli/17.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/sli/18.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/sli/19.jpg


I've also had to scrap the MSI board as the slots are just to close together at 40mm and fallen in line with the Asus A8N which are a much more feasible 61mm.

I've had to cut off the / \ bits on the barbs which is going to leave enough room to add a very short piece of hose.

Apparently all eyes are on this and Gainward UK has sourced me 2x Sli 6800 Ultra Golden Samples from Germany to play with so a big thanks to them...just waiting for them to get here now :)

This is how the block looks with the barbs cut down and the blocks set at 61mm apart...

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/sli/35.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/sli/34.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/sli/36.jpg


Anyway.....got the cards fitted to the blocks (which is quite a job in itself) and then a dry run at seeing how the pipe work is going to fit best.

Think i've got it just about right as there is quite a bit of hose to get into a Wavemaster - the loop will go...

Pump>>>NV-68(1)>>>NV-68(2)>>>CPU>>>Chipset>>>Radiator>>>Res>>>Pump

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/sli/nv-68_sli_5.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/sli/nv-68_sli_2.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/sli/nv-68_sli_6.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/sli/nv-68_sli_4.jpg


I think green looks OK for the over all effect..........should it be a different colour you think??

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/sli/47.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/sli/48.jpg

[PrometheusCon]

Wow that is awesome! That green looks really spectacular. and the case... so shiny! :D

[ferrari_freak]

Wow hawtness nice job. Is that the old NF4 Asus mobo? Btw, is the Yamaha Stacker in your avatar yours?

[Nate P.]

Excellent job, as always!

[Asgard_thor]

beautiful!

[NaeKuh]

CM once again great mod.

You should just mod a copper tube with 2 g1/4 ends and screw the copper tube directly. Knowing your skill you couldy probably do it.

[Grafton]

so whats with bringing up your old mods? they still look great and have a higher quality than my build

[fepple]

Looks really nice.

How much weight is the bottom block transfering to the top block? Just worried it could put to much strain on the PCIE slot

[barfastic]

is that 1/2" tubing? primoflex?

[coolmiester]

is that 1/2" tubing? primoflex?

Danger Den Clearflex does have a blueish tinge to it compared to Tygon

[coolmiester]

Got to remember those SLi blocks were before Danger Den had introduced their blocks so at the time it was pretty cool :up:

Anyway, bling took over so came the Shinymaster....and grills to go with it

Eventually started marking out for a custom flame grill for this case.

Its going to be hand cut from 3mm aluminium plate which will obviously be polished once its all cut out so should look quite good providing all goes well.

I first marked out the edge using the BIX shroud for a guide and then added some flames using one of mnpctechs flame stencils (http://www.mnpctech.com/Paintingflames.html) for reference.

It'll do nothing for air flow but that was never the priority.......look good function second :)

It will take quite a while so don't expect it finished tonight :eek:

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/flames_1.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/flames_2.jpg



how are you goin to get the flame in the middle to stay there, becuase it isn't connected to any of the edges?

It's the black bits that get cut out :)



Managed to get all the cutting done using a fret saw with the tiniest little 18tpi blades which was good fun so its just a case of filing the corners round and polishing the whole thing to match the shiny case.

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/flames_3.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/flames_4.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/flames_5.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/flames_6.jpg


You guess correctly :)

Managed to get the grill polished using Peek and my trusty DA Polisher and then fitted so loads of pictures :cool:

All im waiting for now is the release of the NV-78 blocks to plumb in the GFX cards

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/flames_7.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/flames_8.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/flames_9.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/flames_10.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/flames_11.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/flames_12.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/flames_14.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/flames_15.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/flames_16.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/flames_17.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/flames_18.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/flames_19.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/flames_20.jpg

[coolmiester]

Making an NV-68 Bracket to fit 7800GTX Card

Strange, around the same time i remember fiddling around with 6800 and 7800 block

I couldn't wait any longer for the new Danger Den NV-78 blocks to arrive so took it upon myself to have a go at modding an NV-68 block and just thought i would share my new creation with everyone.

The main problem was the Lucite back plate on the NV-68 which covered some of the memory chips on the new 7800 cards and i've seen a few people hacking the Lucite to fit always looks a bit getto for my liking so decided to make one from scratch.

Got myself a bit of 6mm aluminium and using the original Lucite top marked out the four holes to get a reference then basically measured where the chips were and laid it all out on paper so i could sketch the basic shape.

Tried to keep all the lines nice and flowing so it looked nice......obviously:)

Once i was happy with the shape i cut it out so i had a template to lay on top of the card lining it up with the holes to make sure it all fitted nice, then stuck the template onto the aluminium.

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/78_bracket_1.jpg

Then out with trusty fret saw and cut round the paper template
http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/78_bracket_2.jpg

and ended up with this nice little object which when placed underneath the original Lucite plate you can see its basically the same but with the curves much more exaggerated.
http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/78_bracket_3.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/78_bracket_4.jpg

Quick bit of lapping to the top and sides
http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/78_bracket_5.jpg

and then onto the polishing wheel :cool:
http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/78_bracket_6.jpg

Then clamped the Lucite top to it to get the holes lined up and exactly and went ahead and drilled the 4 holes followed by cutting the neoprene to size
http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/78_bracket_7.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/78_bracket_8.jpg

The next bit has been seen a few times before but i may as well run through it incase anyone wants to see how its done.

On the 7800 cards there are also a few resistors that protrude higher than the actual memory preventing the block to come in contact with the bits its supposed to.

I've circled in red the ones on this particular card which is a Gainward 7800Ultra GTX Golden Sample but there may be variations between different cards so it may be worth checking.
http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/78_bracket_9.jpg

Basically what you need to do is identify the protruding resistors and put a small dab of Arctic Ceramique on each one then lay the block on its back and then carefully offer the card down into position. Take the card away and you will be left with a little blob of Arctic Ceramique on the block form the offending resistors..
http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/78_bracket_10.jpg

You will find you only need to dig out about 1mm of copper using a Dremmel with the small grinding bit so it looks something like this...
http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/78_bracket_11.jpg

Obviously brush away all the copper filings and offer the card to the block once more just to make sure you don't get any Arctic Ceramique which providing you ground out the correct area to the correct depth will indicate that the resistors no longer interfere and the card will lay flush onto the block.
You can then follow the NV-68 Mounting Instructions (http://www.coolercases.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=8)

Anyway, i'll leave you of a few pictures of the finished bracket which show the memory chips can now take ram sinks which in this case are shiny Tweakmonster ones.

I've now got to make another one for the other card and get them put back into the Shinymaster :cool:

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/78_bracket_12.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/78_bracket_14.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/78_bracket_16.jpg

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/78_bracket_18.jpg


And then there were two :)

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/78_bracket_20.jpg


Well i'm not to sure if anyone else has had a go at cooling Sli 7800's with NV-68 blocks so here you go :smile:

Took a bit longer than i would have liked but the polished aluminium brackets fit in good with the shiny case and at last its all back together and being leak tested so should get a comparison temp wise over the stock air cooled later.

Fingers X'd :eek:

http://www.coolercases.co.uk/images/prod_log/78_bracket_21.jpg

[silverphoenix]

I cannot for the life of me find a coping/fret saw with such a deep throat around here... Awesome clean work as always. I assume these were old mods but still great to look at especially with the detail in which you present them.

[coolmiester]

I cannot for the life of me find a coping/fret saw with such a deep throat around here... Awesome clean work as always. I assume these were old mods but still great to look at especially with the detail in which you present them.

Yeah Yeah, old mods and i apologise for that but thanks for the positive regardless

There is not a day goes by without plugging in some kind of power tool:D

[Jay78]

all i can say about your work is wow!!

[Yeknom]

We could all learn a thing or two from these beautiful builds :up:

[Nate P.]

Looks awesome! You'll have to share some of your secrets...