Nice Lian Li PC-70 worklog - Picture heavy!

[jarman]

Hi, just a few pics really of my latest build (rebuild really :D)

External link to HQ pics (58mb):
http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/highqualitypics.rar

External link to normal quality pics (8mb)
http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/normal%20quality.rar

List of components:

CPU - Intel Q6600
Motherboard - Asus Maximus Formula, Special Edition
RAM - Crucial Ballistix 8500
Graphics card - Asus 8800GTX
Sound card - Creative X-FI, Xtreme Music
PSU - OCZ 850w
Hard disk rack - Icy Dock 3bay, 5 disk (SATA), filled with 5x500GB samsung disks.

Cooling

Most of the tube is 3/8" (1/2" is too bulky) but some is 1/2" too. Tube used is mainly DD clearflex for 3/8" and a piece of Tygon R-3603 between top rad and NB. Old system was done entirely in tygon R-3603 and must say i wasnt very impressed with it. Very expensive and imo the DD clearflex is far superior.

Blocks:

CPU - stock DTEK fuzion
NB - Swiftech MCW-30
SB - EK SB block
GPU - EK F/C 8800GTX block.
MOSFETS - Thermalright HR-09 air blocks (a nightmare to fit lol)

Pumps are dual 18w DDCs (3.2 version) on a Hardwareluxx Laing DDC Dual attachement block (very quiet and impressive).

Top radiator is a Black ice gts stealth 360. Quite restrictive but i still like it alot. Atop of this is a beautiful stainless steel radiator guard from Aqua Computer.

Bottom Rad is a Termochill PA120.2 with shroud (more like it eh?? :)). Fans are much quieter on this rad (when turned up) and the airflow through it is fantastic.

The fans on both rads are red evercool fans. Originally i had YL D12SL-12 fans on them. Was not very impressed with them though. Quiet, but airflow was pittiful.

Anyway...some pics :D

Picture of the Motherboard as it arrived:

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/IMG_0351.JPG

Some pics of the Mobo after id finished with it :D I used Arctic cooling MX-2 for thermal compound :)

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/IMG_0388.JPG

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/IMG_0389.JPG

on of my favs (notice the 1/2" and 3/8" barbs on the NB) :

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/IMG_0390.JPG

This is the reason for the 1/2" barb. On the top rad i have installed a small angled tube in the outlet barb of the radiator. This tube makes sure the liquid going to the rest of the system is from the top of the radiator. This is important because it makes sure there can be no air in the radiator (as the rad is at the top of the system, this is where most air would collect, reducing the rads performance). And here's a pic of it :D

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/IMG_0364.JPG

Here's a pic of the top radiator with fans on (all sleeved ;))

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/IMG_0366.JPG

To make the holes for the rad in the case i drew a template in autocad and carefully cut the holes using my trusty 18v dewalt grinder and dewalt drill (im a serious dewalt man :P). Here's the end result (there was no hardware in the case when i originally did this :P):

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/IMG_0368.JPG

Here's how it looks with the aquacomputer grill on:

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/IMG_0406.JPG

The bottom thermochill PA 120.2 is done in pretty much the same way:

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/IMG_0367.JPG

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/IMG_0369.JPG

Here's some pics of the pumps (can post pics of the dramas assemblind the block if anyone wants!), all cables sleeved again:

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/IMG_0372.JPG

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/IMG_0373.JPG

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/IMG_0374.JPG

Must say that im extremely impressed with the performance of the pumps. Even with so many blocks in 1 loop i need to have the 250ml reservoir completely free of air, or they will suck it round the system. Have mounted UV LED's on the back of the pump. Used to have alot of lights in the case (about 30 under the motherboard). Looked fantastic..but i got frustrated one day (in haste), blamed them for a problem i was having and ripped them all out :D.

Havent uploaded pics of the 8800gtx with waterblock on, uve all seen them before :) although i can if anyone wants.

Here's a pic of the hard disks in their rails, ready to go into the icy dock sata bay (un-used PA.160 in the background :)):

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/IMG_0378.JPG

I lapped my Q6600 to get the best temps possible..wasnt bothered about getting a shine, as long as its flat is all that really matters. Included a couple of pics so you can get an idea of the original shape of the heatspreader:

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/IMG_0380.JPG

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/IMG_0381.JPG

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/IMG_0385.JPG

I used engineers blue to check the contact with the heatspreader on the DTEK Fuzion. The areas where the heatspreader of the Q6600 is blue indicates better than 1 micron of contact with the Fuzion:

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/IMG_0382.JPG

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/IMG_0387.JPG

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/IMG_0386.JPG

A quick pic of the ram (cooled by one of those OCZ thingies :D):

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/IMG_0371.JPG

Pics of the loop in various stages of tubing:

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/IMG_0396.JPG

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/IMG_0397.JPG

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/IMG_0399.JPG

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/IMG_0400.JPG

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/IMG_0401.JPG

End result of tubing:

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/IMG_0398.JPG

The loop runs :

Res > Pumps > 8800GTX > Q6600 > Black ice 360 (exhausts out top of case) > Northbridge > Southbridge > PA120.2 (exhausts into case, very little heat) > res

Some people wont like that layout...but it works extremely well.

Here's a pic of the very nifty Zalman Fan controller (an absolute god send!!):

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/IMG_0402.JPG

Getting wires to this neatly was a bit of a nightmare. As you can see from some pics, i have cut holes in the case (and used grommet strip to cover edges) to neaten the wiring as much as possible.

Here are some pics of the (almost) finished product:

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/IMG_0408.JPG

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/IMG_0412.JPG

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/IMG_0413.JPG

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/IMG_0414.JPG

I will get some pics of the machine at night (and with all sides on!!) during the coming days, as these final pics dont really do the case justice!

And thats it!! Hope it wasnt too boring!!!. Cant explain how much time and thought the build has taken so far. But the work never ends...overclocking is now in progress and ill post results on that too (currently at 3825MHz and struggling :P).

Thanks for your time

[jarman]

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/IMG_0416.jpg

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/IMG_0419.jpg

[Origin_Unknown]

nice pics and case but is your ram on a peice of carpet :eek:

[jarman]

haha, yer...not the birghtest idea ive ever had, ram still works fine though ;) was only on there for a sec to take a pic.

[[XC] NetburstXE]

Simply amazing :up:

[smee]

haha, yer...not the birghtest idea ive ever had, ram still works fine though ;) was only on there for a sec to take a pic.

It only takes a sec to zap it! :D

lol, but excellent job!!! Looks very very nice! :up:

[jarman]

thanks :)

[jarman]

some temperature readings:

Fans on minimum:

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/fans%20minimum.jpg

Fans on maximum:

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/fans%20max.jpg

Fairly high overclock on CPU/GPU. Pics are CPU under 100% load and GPU under 100% load.

[Nate P.]

Looks good, but I still don't understand why you have that one little run of 1/2in. tubing while the rest of your loop is 3/8in.

[jarman]

if you have a look at the black ice rad, there is a small tube in there to collect air from the top of the rad. The id of a G/14, 3/8" barb was too restrictive to fit the tube into, so i had to keep it 1/2".

[Waterlogged]

What barbs are those on the D-Tek? They look aluminum...and I see Teflon tape on them as well.:nono:

[Rob_B]

Great build, Jarman:up:


What barbs are those on the D-Tek? They look aluminum...and I see Teflon tape on them as well.:nono:

What's wrong with using teflon tape? I thought it was OK to use that.

[YugenM]

What barbs are those on the D-Tek? They look aluminum...and I see Teflon tape on them as well.:nono:

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=344&products_id=21355

What's wrong with Teflon :confused:

[Waterlogged]

What's wrong with using teflon tape? I thought it was OK to use that.

When the threads in the block are designed for BSPParallel (G), it's best to use those types of fittings. Using BSPTaper (R) or NPT fittings with Teflon tape is risking leaks as the thread designs for each type is vastly different. It's also pointless to put Teflon tape on BSPP (G) fittings because the threads weren't designed to seal, that's what the O-Ring is for.

[jarman]

The barbs are not aluminium. The tape was used because the barbs kept pushing the o-rings out. They are also sealed with a compound called hylomar. I guarantee they wont leak ;)

[coolmiester]

Yeah, looking great jarman :up:

[Waterlogged]

The barbs are not aluminium. The tape was used because the barbs kept pushing the o-rings out. They are also sealed with a compound called hylomar. I guarantee they wont leak ;)

Sounds like improper barb installation (over tightening) to me.

[earthwormjim]

How do you like that hard drive rack? I'm in need of a 5 drive one, and the one you have only takes up 3 5.25 slots.

[jarman]

The o-rings were knackered. Overtightened in the first place..so when i went to change the barbs to 3/8" instead of 1/2" the o-rings would not seat properly and i couldnt be bothered waiting to get more..hylomar will not leak.

The drive rack is excellent. Pretty quiet and temps are good:

http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC%20Pics/drive%20rack.jpg

The disks go to about 25 degrees once they have had a good chance to warm up