Armstrong57
10-10-2008, 08:27 PM
Well after a gruelling couple of days I have my first ever Liquid Cooled system up and running. I ran into a few hitches which were entirely my fault and had nothing to do with poor/missing parts.
I ordered all of my hardware and LC parts from NCIX. I've used them before and I will continue to use them.... <3 those guys!
I don't want to babble on too much, so here's the hardware parts list:
Antec 1200 Tower
Antec Truepower Quattro 850W
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500
ASUS Striker II Formula 780i
8GB OCZ Platinum XTC DDR2-800 Dual Channel
BFG Geforce GTX260 Maxcore OCX
Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
I had also purchased a Thermalright Ultra120 for the CPU before I decided to go with watercooling. I also chose the Antec 1200 when I was planning on using air cooling, which turned out to be a hassle because of the way I wanted to do things. Had I known I was going to watercool I would have chose a different case with more room (although an external rad mount would have solved that problem as well).
Moving on... Watercooling parts:
Swiftech MCP655 Pump
Feser One X-360 Rad
Swiftech Apogee GTZ CPU Block
MIPS MCH1038 Striker II Formula NB block
EK Multioption Reservoir Rev.2 + Anti-cyclone insert
Koolance VID-428 Full Cover GTX260/280 Block
3x - Scythe Ultra Kaze 1000RPM
Swiftech Radbox
Koolance Universal Nozzle (hasn't arrived yet)
Swiftech 7/16 ID Tubing
Swiftech 1/2" Chrome Plated Barbs
PT Nuke
I'm going to apologize in advance for the terrible quality pics. The digital camera I have is ancient!
NCIX Shipment:
http://home.cogeco.ca/~armstrong57/xaedius64/shipment.jpg
Swiftech Apogee GTZ:
http://home.cogeco.ca/~armstrong57/xaedius64/apogee_gtz.jpg
MIPS NB Block:
http://home.cogeco.ca/~armstrong57/xaedius64/mips_nb_top.jpg
http://home.cogeco.ca/~armstrong57/xaedius64/mips_nb_bottom.jpg
GTZ installed
http://home.cogeco.ca/~armstrong57/xaedius64/apogee_gtz_installed.jpg
Time to create the rad mount. I was determined to have an internally mounted rad, which turned out to be the biggest hassle. This case is great for air cooling, and great if you mount your rad externally, but I wouldn't recommend the way I did things here. There simply isn't enough room once the front of the case is taken up by this monster.
http://home.cogeco.ca/~armstrong57/xaedius64/radbox1.jpg
http://home.cogeco.ca/~armstrong57/xaedius64/radbox2.jpg
http://home.cogeco.ca/~armstrong57/xaedius64/radbox3.jpg
http://home.cogeco.ca/~armstrong57/xaedius64/rad_installed.jpg
Continuing the work. Extremely tight spaces eventually led to me mounting the reservoir on the back of the case. I don't mind it, but now I know to get a different case for my next build, or just do an external rad mount.
http://home.cogeco.ca/~armstrong57/xaedius64/wip1.jpg
http://home.cogeco.ca/~armstrong57/xaedius64/wip2.jpg
http://home.cogeco.ca/~armstrong57/xaedius64/wip3.jpg
As it sits now. I have UV cathodes ready to go in, but I may hold off on that and get something better. I also have a Koolance universal nozzle on the way so I can run a decent drain line. I'm also considering installing a 90 on the back of the reservoir to get rid of that loop.
This build wasn't planned out very well. I knew where I wanted the rad, and worked so hard on making it work that once it was in I wasn't going to change it, which dictated how the rest of the setup had to go. Eventually it came together and I'm still pretty happy with the result.
http://home.cogeco.ca/~armstrong57/xaedius64/complete1.jpg
http://home.cogeco.ca/~armstrong57/xaedius64/complete2.jpg
http://home.cogeco.ca/~armstrong57/xaedius64/complete3.jpg
http://home.cogeco.ca/~armstrong57/xaedius64/complete4.jpg
http://home.cogeco.ca/~armstrong57/xaedius64/complete_front.jpg
I didn't end up using the MIPS NB block because the heatsink/heatpipe setup for the NB, SB, and MOSFETS on this board all come out as one piece, and I wasn't prepared to start chopping them up. I decided to stick with the stock coolers there. I added the two fans on the MOSFETs and will also be adding a fan to the NB heatsink.
Thanks for taking a look! I promise my next build will be better! :cool:
I ordered all of my hardware and LC parts from NCIX. I've used them before and I will continue to use them.... <3 those guys!
I don't want to babble on too much, so here's the hardware parts list:
Antec 1200 Tower
Antec Truepower Quattro 850W
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500
ASUS Striker II Formula 780i
8GB OCZ Platinum XTC DDR2-800 Dual Channel
BFG Geforce GTX260 Maxcore OCX
Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
I had also purchased a Thermalright Ultra120 for the CPU before I decided to go with watercooling. I also chose the Antec 1200 when I was planning on using air cooling, which turned out to be a hassle because of the way I wanted to do things. Had I known I was going to watercool I would have chose a different case with more room (although an external rad mount would have solved that problem as well).
Moving on... Watercooling parts:
Swiftech MCP655 Pump
Feser One X-360 Rad
Swiftech Apogee GTZ CPU Block
MIPS MCH1038 Striker II Formula NB block
EK Multioption Reservoir Rev.2 + Anti-cyclone insert
Koolance VID-428 Full Cover GTX260/280 Block
3x - Scythe Ultra Kaze 1000RPM
Swiftech Radbox
Koolance Universal Nozzle (hasn't arrived yet)
Swiftech 7/16 ID Tubing
Swiftech 1/2" Chrome Plated Barbs
PT Nuke
I'm going to apologize in advance for the terrible quality pics. The digital camera I have is ancient!
NCIX Shipment:
http://home.cogeco.ca/~armstrong57/xaedius64/shipment.jpg
Swiftech Apogee GTZ:
http://home.cogeco.ca/~armstrong57/xaedius64/apogee_gtz.jpg
MIPS NB Block:
http://home.cogeco.ca/~armstrong57/xaedius64/mips_nb_top.jpg
http://home.cogeco.ca/~armstrong57/xaedius64/mips_nb_bottom.jpg
GTZ installed
http://home.cogeco.ca/~armstrong57/xaedius64/apogee_gtz_installed.jpg
Time to create the rad mount. I was determined to have an internally mounted rad, which turned out to be the biggest hassle. This case is great for air cooling, and great if you mount your rad externally, but I wouldn't recommend the way I did things here. There simply isn't enough room once the front of the case is taken up by this monster.
http://home.cogeco.ca/~armstrong57/xaedius64/radbox1.jpg
http://home.cogeco.ca/~armstrong57/xaedius64/radbox2.jpg
http://home.cogeco.ca/~armstrong57/xaedius64/radbox3.jpg
http://home.cogeco.ca/~armstrong57/xaedius64/rad_installed.jpg
Continuing the work. Extremely tight spaces eventually led to me mounting the reservoir on the back of the case. I don't mind it, but now I know to get a different case for my next build, or just do an external rad mount.
http://home.cogeco.ca/~armstrong57/xaedius64/wip1.jpg
http://home.cogeco.ca/~armstrong57/xaedius64/wip2.jpg
http://home.cogeco.ca/~armstrong57/xaedius64/wip3.jpg
As it sits now. I have UV cathodes ready to go in, but I may hold off on that and get something better. I also have a Koolance universal nozzle on the way so I can run a decent drain line. I'm also considering installing a 90 on the back of the reservoir to get rid of that loop.
This build wasn't planned out very well. I knew where I wanted the rad, and worked so hard on making it work that once it was in I wasn't going to change it, which dictated how the rest of the setup had to go. Eventually it came together and I'm still pretty happy with the result.
http://home.cogeco.ca/~armstrong57/xaedius64/complete1.jpg
http://home.cogeco.ca/~armstrong57/xaedius64/complete2.jpg
http://home.cogeco.ca/~armstrong57/xaedius64/complete3.jpg
http://home.cogeco.ca/~armstrong57/xaedius64/complete4.jpg
http://home.cogeco.ca/~armstrong57/xaedius64/complete_front.jpg
I didn't end up using the MIPS NB block because the heatsink/heatpipe setup for the NB, SB, and MOSFETS on this board all come out as one piece, and I wasn't prepared to start chopping them up. I decided to stick with the stock coolers there. I added the two fans on the MOSFETs and will also be adding a fan to the NB heatsink.
Thanks for taking a look! I promise my next build will be better! :cool: