Project: Cosmos S WC; Quadfire - 56k Puke

[Captain Zero]

Continued from here. This is long-overdue and after a *pile* of delays with work, family, etc., I'm on a marathon to get this beast assembled. One of the HD4870x2's is still out on RMA but, otherwise, I should have it all ready to go. 9PM here in Los Angeles and I want this done by tomorrow night. Not going to be a lot of 'modding', in the traditional sense but I will certainly be tweaking a few things, like reversing the flow for fans, moving a few things around and experimenting a little with the WC setup. Here's the gear and a few photos of some of what's been done.

Did a lot of research to put this together, thanks to all here and EXT who shared their input on this. Been quite a process.

Ok what's this?



Anyway, onto the gear list:

Case:
COOLER MASTER cosmos S RC-1100-KKN1-GP Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail

Panel:
COOLER MASTER RA-1100-KWN1-GP Transparent Acrylic Side Window Panel - Retail

Mobo:
ASUS Rampage Extreme LGA 775 Intel X48 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

CPU:
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 Yorkfield 3.0GHz LGA 775 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80569QX9650 - Retail

GPU: 2X
SAPPHIRE 100251SR Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB 512-bit (256-bit x 2) GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail[/B]

RAM: 2x (8GB)
CORSAIR XMS3 DHX 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TW3X4G1600C9DHX - Retail

Display: 1X
DELL UltraSharp 2408WFP

PSU:
KINGWIN Mach 1 ABT-1000MA1S 1000W ATX / BTX Power Supply - Retail[/B]

SSD:
RiDATA NSSD-S25-32-C04MPN 2.5" 32GB SATA II 3.0Gb Internal Solid state disk (SSD) - Retail

HDD: 4X
Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000GLFS 300GB 10000 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

HDD Cooling 4X:
MASSCOOL SYTRIN Kuformula SHF1 Ultra HDD Cooler – BK - Retail

Optical One:
LG Super Multi Blu-ray Disc Burner & HD DVD-ROM Drive Black SATA Model GGW-H20L - Retail

Optical Two:
SAMSUNG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model SH-S223Q/BEBN - OEM

Water Cooling: 1x (I'm new to WC, this is a good, safe start.)
Swiftech H20-220-APEX-GT CPU Liquid Cooling Kits - Retail

OS:
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 64-bit English 1pk DSP OEI DVD for System Builders - OEM

A few pictures...

The Gear - ($5k goes really fast)


The Extras - $300 @ Frys is easy. Some tools; cable stripper, solder, hot gun, soldering iron, lots of sleeving and heat shrink, spare 120's, UV cathodes, tape, xacto knife, a useless ram cooler (Patriot Vortex), loads of molex clips, cleaner, other odds and ends:



My Workspace - It's going to be a long weekend.



The Beast - Got a lot of grief over this choice for a PSU. More details on that in another thread where I will review it:



Here's some shots of work already done and I want to point out that I've never done any sleeving or modding of any kind before, it's all new. Good times.

So... Here's my FIRST sleeve/shrink!!! On the HD cage for the Cosmos:



Some more work on fan cables...



The next thing will be do clean/prep the loop tonight. I have 4 gallons of distilled water, 1 gallon of 99% Isopropyl and a spare PSU to run it through the sink (or something). WC is totally new to me, it should be fun.

May try to use this for a res.



Or not lol

Stay tuned, it's gonna be a long, busy weekend but I'll post updates..

[zlojack]

That's going to be a monster rig...

[fatman]

cant wait to see it done man

gl

[Captain Zero]

Minor Update: Molex pins suck. A lot.



My fans..:



Granny Approved!



De-greasing the boards and adding the Arctic Silver and the WC loop is next!

[RejZoR]

I bet those stickers improve airflow by 10 fold :P

[ferdz_33]

wow!! looney tunes' fans!! i wonder where i can get those locally. hehehe.

be monitoring this monster rig of yours

[Captain Zero]

Update:

The board's been prep'd by removing stock heating, re-greasing w/Artic Cool, and adding an additional fan:



Goo Gone:



Some Sleeving:



...and cufflinks!



I also modded the backside of the board to include the nylon washers trick for a 10c-15c boost in temps:



Close Up of nylon washer additions:



Fusion; noun - the state or fact of being so united.

Uh, you call this united..? ASUS, what's with the screwy barbs on this thing..?



Also measured the loop runs and will begin installing/prepping the WC, ready to install the board and backplate for the block:



Oh wait.. I need my Dremel to cut out the backplate. It's 5am, can't wake up the family with that right now...



Crap, I'm on a roll too. First thing will be to assemble the loop and get it running.

Back at it after some sleep.

[pcaddict]

This going to be insane! *subscribed*

[ShoNuff]

Looking forward to your progress.

When you did the nylon washer trick did you just add the washers or did you completely remove the heatsink assembly reapply the thermal compound and reassemble? I ask b/c my NB temps are not bad at 1.48v. Temps top out at around 49-51c under load. I'm thinking about simply adding the washers to see if the additional pressure will provide better contact and temps without removing the whole assembly.

Oh...if you are in LA NewEgg shipping is just one day away. Have you thought about the Xigmatek backplate? It may be a simpler solution.

[DeathWalking]

As a replacement for that godawful fuzion block, might I suggest this? It's really a lot better.

[BNDMOD]

Suscribed!!! i wan to see this

[reberto]

Looks amazing so far

[Captain Zero]

Good suggestions on the replacement blocks, thanks.

[SoNiC21]

What size sleeving did you use on the fans? Also the size of the heatshrink.

[Captain Zero]

What size sleeving did you use on the fans? Also the size of the heatshrink.

1/4" for the sleeve, 9mm and 18mm cuffs for the heatshrink. Standard sizes really, and it's all UV-reactive.

[zanzabar]

u need to get this
http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/swmcnoco.html

dont run the fusion POS with its aluminum parts

[xMrBunglex]

your hands are small and soft. like a woman's.

[Captain Zero]

Update: Major

Quite a day. Blew the tips off of 5 fingers, no joke and not fun. Really slowed me down. Hot tubing and no fingertips really blows.



Eventually took a little break to hit some local pet stores, looking for a flow indicator, more on that later. Finding Nemo came to mind - you'll see.



Ran into other obstacles that were minor but time consuming. Lost a crucial screw down into my central air unit, ran out of tubing on my loop (I think Swiftech short-changed me on the length) and other hassles. Not as productive as I would have like but a lot of progress on this, nonetheless.

Work on the dreaded backplate and the fat Fujistu chip on the backside of the board. What a pain. The Dremel would take ages to blast through the backplate and I'm not ready to sacrifice the plate I do have so on to something else until I figure out another solution.



Dunno what to do next. Ok lunch! Baby makes a killer breakfast burrito.



While I'm eating I'm still working! Going over the room-full of parts I have, I see this thing:



The otherwise useless fan that came with the QX9650. Hey, what's this?



Hey, I have an idea!



Finally I can put the Dremel to good use!



I found the *perfect* backplate for my QX9650 and the Fujitsu chip. Intel makes a Crossbow and I bet they don't even know it!



Installing the block as soon as the loop's ready...



Now onto wet goodness! Measured all the loops with some twine inside the case and used that to pair the tube runs, seems to have worked out well. I absolutely wanted to fill the system with the res hung as high as possible before actually installing it. Once in the case, it'll sit above the HD cage, roughly halfway up the case, not ideal, but at least the pump is on the bottom. More on that, coming up next...

[Captain Zero]

Update Major:

Time to get loopy.

Ran into a problem with space - hard to imagine in the Cosmos S but I wanted the pump at the bottom and with the PSU and a full HD cage, my only option was to patch up one of the bottom blow holes and fan mounts - I didn't want to do that as that additional fan is needed to keep up with the CFM from the rads. So looking around for options - I came up with this:



That cool little RadBox that came from the Swiftech kit will come in handy after all. Since I'm mounting the rad on the inside of the case (along the top) I didn't need it - until now! It's a perfect 120 housing and the ideal mount for my pump.



So far so good!



And now this miserable thing.. Grr ASUS, what the hell were you thinking?



Filling this with Distilled and a little Isopropyl aftershave...



Into the sink just to be safe...



Disaster. I knew it. The weakest point in the loop is this ridiculous barb setup on the Fusion block. What a nightmare. It's not actually torn at the seal but directly in the middle of the 'tubing' ASUS provides. It's flimsy and cheap, a real weak spot on an otherwise solid board.



Water pouring out between the couplings!



Next will be to come up with another solution for looping in the Fusion block, those barbs are a joke but I have a few ideas. I'm happy with the backplate solution and the loop will be (otherwise) flawless. Once that kink is worked out I'll install in into the case and start with the cable management and components.

Stay tuned.

[Omastar]

your hands are small and soft. like a woman's.

Man, that was kind of wrong, but I lol'd.

Anyway, all kidding aside, this is a nice project. That burrito looks awesome.

[Captain Zero]

your hands are small and soft. like a woman's.

Thank you. Did you want to hold one?

[Chruschef]

lookn' great man

[zanzabar]

do u not look at links, this is a direct replacement bloack for the stock asus one
http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/swmcnoco.html

its got no aluminum and has real barbs

[p8ntslinger676]

ya, please dont use the stock block, it'll make an awful mess of that board (you should know you have already been messing with it, lol)

[nigelke]

looking great man