Project: Lian Li PC-A70 Core i7 SLI (lots of pictures)

Hello and welcome! :welcome:

My first water-cooled build, and my first post at XS. This will be a dual-loop Core i7 SLI rig. I like silver, so I went with the plain aluminum case. Lighting will be green and UV. The CPU loop will be blue, and the GPU loop will be green. Thankfully I don't have to put a M$ logo on the machine, even though they paid for nearly 30% of it :D

Hardware:

- Lian Li PC-A70 (with side window)
- Thermaltake W0133RU 1200W
- GA-EX58-UD5P
- Core i7 920
- 2 x EVGA GTX 260 Core 216 SC
- Mushkin 6GB XP3-12800 7-8-7-20
- 300GB WD Velociraptor
- Asus DVD-RW
- Logitech G15v2 and G9
- Toshiba 32RV530 1080p HDTV

Watercooling:

- 2 x MCP-355 with XSPC res top
- D-Tek Fuzion v2 (zip-tie mount, still no 1366 kit)
- 2 x D-Tek Fuzion GFX v2
- Swiftech MCR-220 and MCR-320
- Tygon 7/16" ID tubing
- Hydrix, Pentosin

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http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...CA/Alien/1.jpg

Stripped case after some dremeling... The drive bay looked nice, but there was no place to keep it.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...CA/Alien/2.jpg

Cleaning the water blocks. Cleaning the radiators was a mess and I did not take pictures...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...CA/Alien/3.jpg

MCR-220 in place after some dremeling.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...CA/Alien/4.jpg

MCP-355s with XSPC res top installed after some drilling. I've used some spacers to lift them up a bit. This way the fans from the front cool the pumps enough so that the bottom is lukewarm instead of the crazy hot default. What's better, the spacer is UV reactive and glows real nice :up:

I've moved the hard drive bay from the (now removed) placeholder in the back to front. Only had to drill 4 holes. Fan blows air from the front.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...CA/Alien/5.jpg

MCR-320 installed on the top.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...CA/Alien/6.jpg

Replacing thermal paste on motherboard.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...CA/Alien/7.jpg

CPU loop assembled, and on the Pentek filter for leak testing.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...CA/Alien/8.jpg

Had to mount the Fuzion V2 with zip ties as there is no official 1366 mount yet :shakes:

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...CA/Alien/9.jpg

Looks to nice to disassemble...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...A/Alien/10.jpg

...but that didn't stop me :rofl:

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...A/Alien/11.jpg

Fuzion GFX installed. I've removed it once the tubing was cut, and then reassembled again when the water blocks were already on the GPU loop.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...A/Alien/12.jpg

GPU loop on the filter. Will stay there for the next few days... I've used 2 90 degree turns to connect the video cards, as the tubing developed kinks when I tried to bend it in that tight space. Much neater this way...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...A/Alien/13.jpg

Green glow.

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This is where I stand now. I did fire up the machine when the CPU loop was on the filter, and it worked OK. I hope that will be the case when I eventually start it again. My plans for now are:

- remove the Pentek filter on the weekend, and fill up the GPU loop with Hydrix-added water.
- cut a hole with my Dremel in the motherboard mounting plate, and hide cables from the PSU completely behind it. Cut another hole in front of the power supply connection on the motherboard. I have not decided yet whether I'll do this, but it's probable.
- Once D-Tek get off their lazy butt and make the 1366 mount, I'll reassemble the water block again, and fill it up with Pentosin-added water.
- Finally, install UV lighting.

One thing that I'm debating is whether I should add an MCR-120 on the fan in the back, and then drive the CPU loop through the MCR-220 and MCR-120. I could also fit another MCR-220 under the MCR-320, but I'm not sure whether that will be necessary in the end. So far I get around 40 degree idle + 80 degree on 100% load on my CPU when overclocked to 3.5GHz + turbo mode + hyperthreading. From what I see my water is quite cold, and does not warm up significantly when the CPU is under stress, so I tend to believe that the zip tie mount is the weak link :down: Once I get the final 1366 mount, I will evaluate my CPU temps again.

:toast:

wont removing pentek requires a bleeding?

Zip ties aren't going to provide anyway near enough pressure for decent cooling. I hope D-Tek hurry the hell up.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Serpentarius

wont removing pentek requires a bleeding?

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It sure will. So will changing the CPU water block mount. That is the reason why I run on plain distilled water in both loops for now.

Fired up the machine today, and ran some tests. Overclocked my video cards using EVGA precision tool. It reports core clock and memory 741/1215 :shocked: Max I could run it was 756/1296 but small white dot artifacts started showing up, so I scaled back a bit. With this overclock, I get 46 and 48 degrees C on the two GPUs after 20 minutes of Furmark in 1080p/16x AA/Xtreme burning mode. Idle temps are 32 C. This with the filter in the line. I think it's safe to say that heat will not be an issue on the video cards :up:

awesome build! welcome to XS!!

This weekend I went ahead with my mod to hide cables behind the motherboard backplate. I have also removed the Pentek filter, and the GPU loop is now complete. :clap:

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...n/IMG_1859.jpg

Dremeling hard...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...n/IMG_1861.jpg

All the cables routed behind the backplate.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...n/IMG_1862.jpg

It's going to be a challenge to put the side panel back on the case... It's better to have all these cables hidden.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...n/IMG_1869.jpg

UV lights installed, GPU loop filled with Hydrx. :yepp:

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...n/IMG_1868.jpg

Glowing...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...n/IMG_1887.jpg

Need a reason to go HDTV instead of a monitor? 22" and 24" do not come close to the immersive awesomeness of a 32" HDTV, and it beats a 30"-er monitor in FPS and price. I'm really happy with my Toshiba. I get around 60fps on Far Cry 2 on average with everything maxed out. Sweet! :up:

I have also remounted the CPU, and I get much better temps this time. I've hit 4GHz+turbo on easily with hyper-threading disabled. I get around 60 C, and around 75 C on 4GHz with hyper-threading enabled. Will start to tune for stability in the coming days, and post settings. On the negative side, I had to scale back the video cards to 710MHz and the memory to 1116MHz because the nVidia driver kept crashing. It is now rock solid with these settings. Still waiting on D-Tek to finalize my CPU loop... :rolleyes: More to come...

Nice job! :clap:

Love the UV effects. May I have your 32" HDTV? :D

Man, that's a crazy setup! Great job!

This project is beautiful. =)

Love how neat and tidy everything is. The UV-effect, as mentioned before by others, is just great. Not two glowy or exaggerated. :)

Everything is as it's supposed to be. =)

welcome to XS! what an entrance :) ur build is fantastic, good job!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by shoota

welcome to XS! what an entrance :) ur build is fantastic, good job!

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Seriously! I think he must feel like he's come home to a place he's never been. :up:

Very nice build. It's nice to see some people using good ol' fashion worm drive clamps to protect their goodies instead of going clampless.

Thanks for the warm welcome. Worm drive clamps - I guess I'm a bit old-school when it comes to mechanics :) I've started working on my overclock. Not too bad for a zip tie mount:

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...ien/4_1GHz.png

Couldn't get 4.2GHz prime stable for more than 2.5 hours. Heat and voltages really jump at 200MHz, and I'm not sure it's worth it for 24/7 use. Will have to spend more time to get the settings right. Hyper-threading adds around 15 degrees more, so I've decided to disable it for now. This will have to do for now, as I plan to use the computer during the holidays instead of benching it :shoot::lsfight::frag::CTF:

i do like the lian li cases, just wish i had the funds to buy the i7 stuff :)

I like you lighting, created a very clean effect when viewed through the window.

impressive job. i love the simple layout.

the holes for the two front vents fit with the radiator mounting holes or you drill another set of holes?

great to see more builds using the A70. Definitely a case I am considering...

great build and good clocks, want to get i7 now :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ibm390s

impressive job. i love the simple layout.

the holes for the two front vents fit with the radiator mounting holes or you drill another set of holes?

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Thanks. Just got back from a trip, so not a lot of updates. Still no mounting kit from D-Tek :slapass: The last thing I need to complete the build...

The holes on the front do not align with the MCR-220. All I did was slightly enlarge the holes with the dremel, pull the ones on the top down, and the ones on the bottom up. We're talking a few millimeters here, so it's not a big modification. See the picture below:

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...n/IMG_1925.jpg

As you can tell I started dremeling before I had a plan, so some holes are bigger than necessary :) The top is stock modified by Lian Li, and is a perfect match for the MCR-320. It is worth to get it in my opinion unless you have a ton of experience working with aluminum. It saves a lot of time and looks better than what you could cut yourself (unless you have access to laser).

I've also painted the DVD burner front plate to silver with a paint spray from Loews:

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...n/IMG_1927.jpg

Not perfect, but better than the original black.

Here are some updates on my 24/7 overclock (as a reference for myself as well):

4011MHz (21x191)
Hyper-threading On (8 threads)
Turbo On
QPI 36x
Uncore 18x
LLC Enabled

Voltage settings in BIOS (stock value in brackets):
VCore 1.39375 (1.29375)
QPI/VTT 1.32 (1.15)
CPU PLL 1.88 (1.8)
PCIE 1.5 (1.5)
QPI PLL 1.14 (1.1)
IOH Core 1.14 (1.1)
ICH I/O 1.58 (1.5)
ICH Core 1.14 (1.1)
DRAM 1.64 (1.5)

With these settings I hit 4GHz effortlessly:

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...lien/test9.png

Temps stabilize around 70 degrees on Prime95. I've reached my max temp at 76-78 degrees when running Prime95 and the Intel burn test simultaneously (for 30 loops). Not bad considering the zip tie mount. My goal is to find the minimum voltages that still keep this overclock stable.

With no hyper-threading, I get the following overclock:

4158MHz (21x198)
Hyper-threading Off (4 threads)
Turbo On
QPI 36x
Uncore 18x
LLC Enabled

Voltage settings in BIOS (stock value in brackets):
VCore 1.4 (1.29375)
QPI/VTT 1.34 (1.15)
CPU PLL 1.88 (1.8)
PCIE 1.5 (1.5)
QPI PLL 1.14 (1.1)
IOH Core 1.14 (1.1)
ICH I/O 1.58 (1.5)
ICH Core 1.14 (1.1)
DRAM 1.64 (1.5)

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...en/4_16GHz.png

Overall, I decided to stick with hyper-threading on, as the extra 160MHz I gain by turning it off is really not that significant. Temps are only higher with hyper-threading when all 8 threads are used, so that's not a big factor either. For higher overclocks I need increasingly higher voltages for VCore, which is not worth it for me for 24/7 use.

Nice build, Gabe ... do you have any performance updates after getting a more secure block mount than the zip ties?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by shazza

Nice build, Gabe ... do you have any performance updates after getting a more secure block mount than the zip ties?

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Sure, I'll have some updates once D-Tek comes out with their mount. Still can't believe it takes them this long. However, I believe my main limitation is the VCore voltage, not heat. I'm quite happy with 4GHz, and will likely stick with it. Perhaps wait a few months to see whether the braver overclockers experience degradation, given that 1.55 VCore seems pretty commonly used in this forum.

rather than waiting for the mount, Duniek is selling dtek custom mount for 1366...you should get them, you can check them in sale section..:)

Hey one question - saw you moved the HD cage from the top rear to the 5.25 drive area. How are you securing it in the case?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by anubis_is_evil

rather than waiting for the mount, Duniek is selling dtek custom mount for 1366...you should get them, you can check them in sale section..:)

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Thanks for the suggestion, I'll check it out.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mav451

Hey one question - saw you moved the HD cage from the top rear to the 5.25 drive area. How are you securing it in the case?

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That is correct. I had to remove the rear bay completely as it blocked the radiator and the tubes.

For securing the HD bay, I've drilled 4 holes with the dremel, and then simply screwed it on with the screws that came with the case. I don't remove my HD, so this works for me. If you prefer to keep it removable, you could dremel the same shape that's on the bottom of the rear bay, but it would take more time.

The HD cage already has threaded holes on it. Flip the case on its head, then you get pretty good access to it. I did that step very early when the case was still naked. Also, don't forget to flip the fan to blow from the front to backwards. Simple, but works pretty good. :up:

Update!

After nearly two months, the D-Tek 1366 mount is ready. And here it is:

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...n/IMG_1978.jpg

Looks pretty awesome, and works well. I was not planning on running my water loop on plain distilled water for this long. Plants and fish started to take over my loop :shakes: My water block was dark green, but a few minutes in the vinegar turned it nice and shiny. Unfortunately, I took no pics of it.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...n/IMG_1979.jpg

My tubes were also turning a bit muddy, so I've soaked them in 50% vinegar + water... Cleaned it up real fast.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...n/IMG_1980.jpg

Likewise, I used a little vinegar for the radiator. And here's the deal:

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...n/IMG_1982.jpg

D-Tek Fuzion V2 with 1366 pro-mount. The backplate pretty much stays in place, so you can remove the block without removing the motherboard every time as well.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...n/IMG_1983.jpg

Pentosin in the CPU loop.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...n/IMG_1985.jpg

All the cables hidden behind the motherboard backplate. It was a challenge to squeeze them in there...

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...n/IMG_1995.jpg

Case assembled.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...n/IMG_1996.jpg

CPU cooler mounted.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...n/IMG_1991.jpg

Pumps & video cards.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...n/IMG_2000.jpg

View through the side window.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...n/IMG_2007.jpg

Glowing... I declare the project complete until the next upgrade :wiggle:

Wow, looks great! With regards to the shot of the green tubes going into your rad...is that what color they had gotten to? :eek:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by headala

Wow, looks great! With regards to the shot of the green tubes going into your rad...is that what color they had gotten to? :eek:

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No, my GPU loop has Hydrx in it :) The green glow is by design. It did not have the same issue as the plain water loop. All you could see was that the tube turned a bit more murky, but only if you looked close.

On another note, my temps dropped significantly. I can now hit 4.1GHz with HT on and 1.425 VCore and my temps are still lower than with the zip-tie mount.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/ww2...n/41_HT_On.png

4.2GHz with HT on takes 1.475 VCore in the bios. I could not get there with the zip ties, but the new mount keeps my temps better in control. Might try to go for that later. For now, I've decided to stick with 21x195 for 24/7 use.

I've found the final settings for my video cards as well, 756 core/1512 shader/1269 memory. I'm limited by the shader setting as once I increase that, Furmark crashes. I got 61 C max after 45 minutes Furmark, so no heat issues with the video cards either.