Nothing fancy

[gzipper]

Well as I found these worklogs very valuable for inspiration and ideas, plus just finished my first WC build I felt I wanted to contribute with my very simple build so perhaps someone oneday uses my feeble ideas :eek: and/or have suggestions. Where Im looking for performance at a resonable price and not much for bling so this is my contribution. Its nowhere near the masterpieces here but I think even simple ones inspire. I had alot of ideas, like a removable reservoir tray for easy draining and refill, full sleeving etc, but time and money is an issue so it stopped short of this. Next mod up is probably sound isolation of the case.

System:
CPU: QX9770
MB: Rampage Extreme X48
GPU: Asus 4870x2 (single)
PSU: Thermaltake 1200W
Chassi: Chiefec Mesh LCX Miditower
a bunch of hardrives

Cooling:
CPU: Swiftech GTZ
NB: Swiftech MCR-NBMAX
GPU: EK 4870x2 acetal
PUMP: DCC 3.2
TOP: XSPC Reservoir
RAD: 120.3
Fans: (5xugly colored) Noctua NF-P12

http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/1241/dsc00413aq7.th.jpg (http://img179.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00413aq7.jpg)
Building the RAD setup. Yes I did screwed up here and had to emergency fix that with those zipties. Well I learned something atleast :D My first intention were to use those metal sticks in the two fan mount holes on the top but couldnt drill holes in the chassi for it. Besides those four already there made a sturdy mount anyway so it was unnecessary.

http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/3591/dsc00414el7.th.jpg (http://img201.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00414el7.jpg)
The completed rad setup. Was trying to setup a shroud but couldnt find a suitable aluminium plate. Either it was a 30x30cm or like 4x4meters :(.

http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/5329/dsc00417xj6.th.jpg (http://img179.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00417xj6.jpg)
When unpacking the EK block I found that the thermal pad were sightly underdimensioned. Infact missing 8mm of thermal pad. Was a bit anxious about this and asked Eddy from EK about it and they confirmed I would be alright with this amount of thermal padding. It was a defective one but as I installed the padding it turned out to be more than enough! Thanks Eddy for helping me!

http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/3908/dsc00419on0.th.jpg (http://img372.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00419on0.jpg)
Case pre-setup. A mess and one of my goals were to get rid of some of those wirings. I had some ambitous idea of sleeving all of the wires but felt that in the end its only about performance for me plus on a low budget.

http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/843/dsc00420ja5.th.jpg (http://img372.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00420ja5.jpg)
Using a dremel seems easy but it turned out no to :ROTF:. Just more creds for those doing really advanced dremel stuff!

http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/7076/dsc00422wf7.th.jpg (http://img372.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00422wf7.jpg)
No warping. When I booted up the first time the card were all making wierd noises. I panicked and removed one screw that actually wasnt in the instructions and it booted fine. Afterwards I had some problems with powersupply because I overloaded the PSU with pump, fans and the 4870x2 so the system rendered unstable. Switched rails and now runs stable :D. Actually I didnt tighten the screws much at all. Those two on the far end Is hardly tightned. I was really anxious about this part of the build since that block had so many complaints about its installation process but I guess it worked out after all.

http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/5295/dsc00425ni9.th.jpg (http://img81.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00425ni9.jpg)
The tubing :D. My intention were to put a Y-barb at the bottom of the system for quick draining but it seems that I have misplaced the last fitting for this so I postponed that idea until I get my hands on one.

http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/1998/dsc00429hp0.th.jpg (http://img522.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00429hp0.jpg)http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/6007/dsc00432sk0.th.jpg (http://img78.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00432sk0.jpg)
Pump and reservoir setup. I have to admit, theres a blue diod in the reservoir :D. I hooked it up because when I was filling the system with water I think the PSU didnt like my quick on/off switching because suddenly it didnt start, so I stuck it in there to use it as an indicator to see if there were any power on the system.

http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/4443/dsc00426lc7.th.jpg (http://img81.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00426lc7.jpg)
Bleeding. This actually took awhile for me. To speed things up I used the bleed screw on the 120.3 (beware of water coming out :rofl:), with some minor water flooding :rolleyes:.

http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/877/dsc00428nz7.th.jpg (http://img81.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00428nz7.jpg)
Final setup.

http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/9813/tempswcwk4.th.jpg (http://img360.imageshack.us/my.php?image=tempswcwk4.jpg)
Some temps. Why I went watercooling were because the NB's temps. Now I did want to use the stock HS but didnt dare to use the fusion block so I got the NBMAX from swiftech. Temps are around 42C idle and 46C under load. Not great but about 10 degrees better than with air. I had a TRUE on the CPU and the temps idle were about 33degrees but under load it was about 55. Now it doesnt climb over 45 under load. WC does take the edge off the spikes.

Im going to do some more OCing now and hopefully Id get some nice results. Did a 3DMark06 test on air and got 16997 points. The best I got with a clean Vista install was 18004. I ran it with the WC now and got a score of 18430 (same hardware/settings on all scores but the cooling)! No its not OCd!

And I have to get a better camera...:ROTF:

[omaryunus]

nice build and great temps bro :D good job

[xTKxhom3r]

nice setup bro

that pic where you were talking about the dremel made me laugh...it looks like the rad is going to make the case tip over! that thing is huge!!

[gzipper]

Thanks guys. This is really a failiure because I had far more grander plans/materials for it. I cant have the computer sit around for months so I had prepared an intensive weekend to fix everything and so I prepared the stuff I needed. First setback were that all my dremel disks broke pretty fast so I couldnt cut more things I wanted so I had to improvise a bit. I had planned a fan intake at the top and make room for a possible 120.2 mounted there in the same fashion as the 120.3. The case is just nothing, so I had plans on a removable tray for the pump/reservoir, bought all the material for it but the dremel breakdown prevented that happening, also the interior was supposed to be black with soundisolation padding. All that plus Im a complete newb, plus some other unforeseen events, no big budget, broke it down to the mere basics. Maybe I should have aimed for less.

First I didnt even consider post any log but just the mounting of the EK 4870x2 block and how one could get good temps without tightning hell out of the card since it got some bashing in the past. This is nowhere extreme and came out halfway but atleast temps are ok and it works :D. A fun lesson learned and it will be continued in the future.

[Bun-Bun]

Thanks guys. This is really a failiure because I had far more grander plans/materials for it. I cant have the computer sit around for months so I had prepared an intensive weekend to fix everything and so I prepared the stuff I needed. First setback were that all my dremel disks broke pretty fast so I couldnt cut more things I wanted so I had to improvise a bit. I had planned a fan intake at the top and make room for a possible 120.2 mounted there in the same fashion as the 120.3. The case is just nothing, so I had plans on a removable tray for the pump/reservoir, bought all the material for it but the dremel breakdown prevented that happening, also the interior was supposed to be black with soundisolation padding. All that plus Im a complete newb, plus some other unforeseen events, no big budget, broke it down to the mere basics. Maybe I should have aimed for less.

First I didnt even consider post any log but just the mounting of the EK 4870x2 block and how one could get good temps without tightning hell out of the card since it got some bashing in the past. This is nowhere extreme and came out halfway but atleast temps are ok and it works :D. A fun lesson learned and it will be continued in the future.

Nonsense... it is not a failure. You have a rig that has good performance and accomplished what you set out to do. The rest of what you are thinking is for future work ;) Look what happens when you take too big a bite on a project and everything goes down hill...

From this:

http://pics.livejournal.com/bun_bun/pic/000k1z9q

to this:

http://pics.livejournal.com/bun_bun/pic/0013eh3x

All because I got fed up with working on it... lol

And now a year and a half later and I am finally getting back to the case and getting the water going again.

Point is... do it as you can and just have fun. Thats the whole point in all of this isn't it?

However mroe specific to your build... something that is just staring out at me and begging for attention...

Make custom HD power cables (so they are the exact length from drive to drive instead of all that extra hanging there) and sleeve them along with your SATA cables. IMO a must next in your build :D