Dan's "Purple Phase"

[DanPhillips]

A small tale of building, modding, tweaking, modding
It all started mid July when a few blue screens on my old rig led me down the upgrade path…

Original components for what was to be a nice sorted air cooled rig:
TJ07
Asus P5Q3
E8400
4GB Patriot DDR3 1333
ATI HD4870
4 * WD640GB (Raid 10)
Samsung SATA DVDRW
TRUE
2 * Noctua NF-P12-1300 setup in push pull
Tagan 700W modular led PSU (I’d used a 520W version in my previous rig)
Spare copy of 64bit Vista Home Premium

And initially everything was as I had hoped, easily OC’d the CPU to 4Ghz at reasonable temperatures.
Then the summer arrived in Vancouver, CPU temps were reaching 60 (Coretemp) degrees with all the fans on full. The 4870 was reaching 90 degrees and making an awful noise under load. It was louder and warmer than the rig it was replacing

So, after looking through the Silverstone case thread and drooling over the cases at www.murderBox.com, water was selected to bring the temps and noise down and maybe make it look ok. (My first of hopefully many WC builds...)

WC components ordered mid August:

Swiftech MCP655 12V Industrial Water Cooling Pump 1/2IN Barbs
Danger Den MC-TDX CPU Water Block LGA775 G1/4 1/2IN Barbs
Swiftech MCR320 Quiet Power Triple 120MM Water Cooling Radiator Black G1/4 Threaded
Danger Den Single Bay Reservoir 5.25IN 1/2IN Barbs (probably won’t bother with a bay res again)
20 * Primochill Stainless Steel Worm Drive Hose Clamps for 1/2IN OD Tubing (only got 2 of them, rest on back order!)
Masterkleer Pvc Tubing 7/16IN ID 5/9IN OD 10 Feet
Feser One Fluid UV Purple NON-CONDUCTIVE Water Replacement for Liquid Cooling
Noctua NF-P12-1300 120MM Ultra Quiet Cooling Fan 1100-1300RPM 63-92M3/H 12.6-19.8DBA Molex (Adding this to the 2 from the TRUE)
Silverstone CFP51-B Black Aluminum 3X5.25IN to 4X3.5IN Bay Converter with 120MM Fan And Blue LED (Probably wouldn’t get this again either!)
2* Bitspower G1/4 High Flow 1/2IN Barb Fittings for 1/2IN ID Tubing (Pair)
Sunbeam 12 inches UV Dual Cold Cathode Kit W/ PCI Backplate Switch
Sunbeam Rheobus Extreme Black 5.25IN 6 Fan Controller Blue LED Up to 30W Per Channel
Danger Den Delrin Fillport W/ Wrench (Just in case the bay res didn’t work out)
Primochill Black Nylon Tee Fitting for Water Cooling T Line 1/2 Inch Barbs (again back up)
And a few days later
EK-FC 4870 CF Nickel Plated Full Cover

While waiting for them to arrive I stripped the case, prepped the 4870 and bought a Dremmel/drill/1”hole saw/cable ties/cable tidy all in preparation for some modding
Drilled 3 holes in the mobo tray, 2 for the 24 pin mobo connector (dremmeled to make it square after trying to line it with 2 1” round grommets which looked rubbish) and 1 for the 8 pin mobo connector which is in the top left.
(Charles from www.muderMod.com pointed me back at Home Depot on my quest for some big rubber grommets and generally gave me some good advice and is a genuine star!)

I picked it all up from NCIX Vancouver at the beginning of September, and set about putting it together about 5 days later it had gone through some serious leak testing (well it had sat there running the pump while I looked at it wondering how I was going to get it to all fit together in a way I was happy with!).
So it was ready and I started putting the rest of the components back in. All went well until I screwed in the grounding cable from the PSU onto the drive bay housing towards the front of the case). While screwing it in I noticed a small puddle under the radiator!!! The barb had sheared completely!



So I drained it all and went to bed in a bit of a mood

I contacted NCIX and they contacted BP, replacement barbs were offered but after looking at the broken barb I decided I’d like something a bit more substantial with a fair bit more thread

After the broken barb I needed to buy some replacement bits (I could have waited for some replacements to arrive by themselves, but I’d have still been waiting now)

Feser One Fluid UV Purple
Danger Den G1/4 to 1/2IN Perfect Seal Barb Chrome Fittings (2 Pack) (I like the extra long threads these have compared to the BP fittings)
3 * Logisys 5 LED Laser Light UV 12V 4 Pin (they were cheap and I wanted to add a bit more drama, although only 1 was in stock)

Oh and some bits from ww.petrastech.com
2*24” black braided fan power extension
3*36” black braided fan power extension
3 feet of U-Channel (I ended up not using a single grommet)

A few days after delivery and we were back ready to fire it up
Now under load I’m getting a very weird shrieking noise coming from the PSU.
Squeeling capacitor? New PSU bought and collected


Silverstone Strider 750W (Recommended by Charles “murderMod”)

And we are back in business, and the PSU is better for cable management and doesn't have a bunch of multi coloured LED's to distract you from the lovely purpleness.


And it was good, just a few more tweaks, a turn of the retaining screw on the CPU block and oh, what’s that fallen behind the mobo tray, ah the bolt holding the CPU block is very loose, oh dear.
Take off the cpu block, rip out the 4870. Mobo tray removed, problem identified and locking nuts bought from Home Depot

Cut out a bigger hole for access to the back of the mobo tray just in case I need to change the CPU block/tighten the bolts, now I can do it without taking the whole thing apart and ruining the cable management again

And there you have it, full purplified, well probably.
Currently running at 4Ghz, 50 degrees, almost silently (difference between fans/pump on full and silent is 2 degrees…) The 4870 is clocked at 790/1100 and doesn’t go above 35 degrees



Mmm, those hanging down wires at the top have been removed from view.



Bathe in the magnificent purple.

Cheers

Dan

ps. Too much tubing used, when it needs to be drained (upgraded) I'll change the routing so it goes rad->pump->res->cpu->gpu

[MomijiTMO]

1. Great parts and a lovely case.
2. Dye is so horrible so think about an alternative solution [uv tubing]
3. LMAO, I've never seen a barb snap. Are you sure you didn't hit it on something? LOLOLOL

[cloned]

Trippy colors, I like it.

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

1. Great parts and a lovely case.
2. Dye is so horrible so think about an alternative solution [uv tubing]
3. LMAO, I've never seen a barb snap. Are you sure you didn't hit it on something? LOLOLOL

happens a lot when you stress the BP fittings, they are very thin threaded

[MomijiTMO]

Still, I don't remember seeing any threads before that had one. How many have you heard of Sniipe?

[sniperbob]

wow, thats the first broken barb i've ever seen! thats unfortunate!

[SNiiPE_DoGG]

my buddy zanzabar busted a few of the BP barbs with very little force (he took pictures but they were too blurry to make out the damage)

it certainly seems like a common defect possibility when BP uses the minimum OD for g1/4"s spec on the threads and yet still they bore their ID to the absolute maximum.

[Quest_7F]

Can you codename this "Windu" pllzzzzzzzz