Project: Iridium V3.0

[Antioch]

Hi guys, I'm excited to start my first ever build log! It's my first log, my umpteenth general build, and my 3rd watercooled rig - hence the v3.0 moniker.

My first WC setup was a single loop cooling my old Thunderbird. It was pretty much all external. I had an old heater-core, a fish tank pump, and a make-shift res in a plastic box I got from the container store. It worked well for a year or so until the plastic rims of the pump cracked.

v2 is by current build, a single loop, internal build. I've got a Liang-DDC pump, a BlackIce 3x120 rad, an Apogee on the C2D, and a DangerDen full-top block on the GeForce 8800GTX. It's all tucked away inside a LianLi V1200 case. I'll be working on v2.0 in this log a bit as I have some minor plans for it.

V3, my newest build will be a dual-loop monstrosity all housed in a TJ-07. Here's what I'm looking at right now:

Hardware:
ASUS P7P55D Deluxe
Intel Core i7-860 (Lynnfield)
Corsair DDR3 4GB
Intel 160GB G2 SSD
Western Digital 1.5TB Caviar Green HDD
SeaSonic X-750 Gold Sweet'n'Sexy PSU

Watercooling Gear:
Black TJ-07
Swiftech Apogee XT
EK ASUS P7P55D Full-board Block
Feser 2x120 Rad
Feser 3x120 Rad
2x EK 100/150 Cylinder Res
2x Swiftech MCP350
Scythe S-FLEX 120mm and 80mm fans

I haven't decided 100% if I should go with PrimoFlex blue tubing with silver and distilled water, or clear tygon with feser one additive. Also not completely decided on diameters yet. Probably going to go with 3/8" ID, 7/16" OD - what do you think? Trying to get small, but big.

As for fittings, I'll probably be going with matte black BitsPower Compression, unless EK finally gets theirs out.

You may have noticed that I didn't list any graphics card! Well, I'm planning on keeping my 8800GTX for a few more months. I'll be upgrading to whatever nVidia announces at CES in January. I had a Radeon 5870 but promptly sold it. I'm sticking with nVidia because of superior Linux driver support and CUDA - both are things I need.

Cheers!

[Antioch]

Bad news. Funding for my parts has fallen through. As such I'll be going the budget route.

Take a look at the new parts...


Creative SoundBlaster CT4810. Mm mm good.


ASUS nVidia Riva TNT!


2x 3DFX Voodoo3's. Can't top that!


Intel Pentium 2. Nehale-what? Good old slot-loading sweetness.


The original Athlon. Oh yeah.


And when you thought it couldn't get any worse: 2x SocketA Athlons, 2x AMD K6-2s, and an Intel 486.

Just kidding about the funds, though. I was digging though some piles and turned up some of my old parts. I've got plenty more. Some oooollddd 386's, 286's, and 8086s as well. There was a GeForce 2 GTS I was trying to dig up but couldn't find. Oh well.

And would you look at the nasty white goo on those Athlons? Terrible, but I assure you the bottom of the heatsync was much worse. I didn't have time to make them look pretty for the camera and thought it would add a touch of personality to them if I left them as-was.

Boy is it great to get some blasts from the past. I really miss the bad-old-days. Hope you enjoyed! I know I did when I found em.

(Standard disclaimer applies: sorry for the terrible photos. It was overcast and snowing outside and the lights in the room were quite dim!)

[Antioch]

Alright. Here's the first batch of parts. Again, picture quality not so good. Used a 5 year old point-n-shoot. I'll have to dust off the old DSLR for the more serious pictures, heh.



As you can see, I got the nasty pre-cut "new" TJ-07 variant. Yick. I'm already in communication with SilverStone to get it replaced for the old style tray. So drilling and powder coating will have to wait for that.

Still need to order all the WC parts, and pick up a new mouse (Logitech G500) as well.

There probably won't be much action for a few days. I'm headed up to Lake Tahoe to get some skiing in! Been looking forward to this trip for a while. It'll be my first time up there, should be some good fun.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Kwanza, and whatever else you may celebrate.

[charles_h]

hehe, those old parts were quite the "trip" down memory lane...

I can't believe you still have the old voodoo box!

Looking forward to following M8.

[Antioch]

hehe, those old parts were quite the "trip" down memory lane...

I can't believe you still have the old voodoo box!

Looking forward to following M8.

Thanks, Charles. I'm glad someone appreciated them - they're probably a bit too old for most of the crowd here to remember Back when they weren't simply "Graphics cards" but "3d accelerators" that were specifically different than 2D video cards.

[RHKCommander959]

Awesome old stuff! I need to find a photo of my old 386 laptop-printer monster

Looks like a promising build!

[Antioch]

So, now that I'm back I have some minor updates.

The last 2 pieces of the computer hardware puzzle arrived today - a GeForce 220GT (nVidia's first 40nm part! Oooh ahh) and a Logitech G500 mouse.



(I really like the look of this card, it reminds me of the older days when graphics cards were small!)


I got the machine up and running, using air, to test the components and make sure it all works. So far I've run Memtest and the RAM passes! Phew. I'll have to make sure the SSD and 1.5TB Caviar Green are ok - those will take a little more effort to check, I think.




Yes, the graphics card won't be used for Iridium 3.0, but it was easier to grab for testing purposes as the 8800GTX is still tied into the old machine's water-loop.

Here's a quick snapshot from the top of one of the trails at Lake Tahoe. What a great view. It was really fun to hit the slopes.



Oh, and on another note:
I *highly* recommend you watch Avatar in 3D at the theaters! It was quite fun. It's the first 3D movie I've watched since the old red and blue movies at Disneyland, and I must say it is a million times better! (A different technology, of course). Even if you aren't a fan of Sci-Fi/Action movies, it's worth it simply to enjoy the experience of the 3D. Go watch it

[Antioch]

Awesome old stuff! I need to find a photo of my old 386 laptop-printer monster

Looks like a promising build!

Heh, tell me about it. I think there should be one of these luggables hanging around somewhere in the basement. Can't really beat that in terms of portability! (It's quite heavy, actually, hehe) And yes - the keyboard does fold-out and detach from the case.

[Antioch]

Small update and treat for SilverStone lovers.

So, as I said, I have been working with SilverStone to get the old version of the motherboard tray (no-holes) to replace the new (holey) version my TJ-07 came with. The guys on the phone understood the problem and said I could switch the tray no problem. I had to jump through the RMA paperwork hoops, of course.

However, after several days of waiting I still had not received an RMA number that I could use to ship the damn thing. So I called them up and asked if I could simply drive over to the warehouse and swap parts in person. They said I could - so I did. It was a 50 mile drive over to Chino but it wasn't too bad.

I wanted to swap the whole case which they would have let me do, but they didn't have any window-less blacks in stock at the time so I did the simple tray-swap.

New tray!


And here's the treat. A shot of inside the warehouse. They had a lot of cases, as you would image. This picture doesn't capture it all. Unfortunately I didn't think ahead enough to bring my camera so I had to make due with my cellphone. This was the best shot I got - the others were quite blurry due to crappy CMOS sensors and very low-lighting conditions. Anyways, it's clear enough to get the idea. Heh.

The ones in the far back row are TJ-07/09/10's.

Anyways, after having spent some time with my TJ-07 I have to admit that I probably would not buy one every again. The workmanship is *far* too shoddy for a $350 piece of metal.

-The holes for the screws by which the side panels attach to the frame do not line up (I'll have to file them a bit wider thereby ruining the anodized finish).

-The motherboard tray (both new and old) has a hell of a time sliding back into the case (although sliding out is no problem oddly enough). This will most likely result in nasty scratches in the final powder coating finish.

-The screw holes for the motherboard tray to attach to the frame aren't lined up well at all - I had to massage it quite a bit to get the screws in, resulting in a terrible fit (see image blow). I could likely fix this by enlarging the holes, but I'll be swaping the back panel out for a custom one so I'll deal with that when the new one arrives.

-Finally, the mesh on the side panels just doesn't sit right at all. They weren't trimmed properly so some corners stick too far out of the case than others - it is not a flush fit at all. I'll likely have to take a dremel to it and trim the excess material off.



Oh well. Not a terribly big deal, but a sore enough disappointment for a case with a $350 price tag. I had a much better experience with my two old Lian Li's.

On the watercooling front, I should be placing my various orders this evening and they should get here sometime next week.

The biggest snag in my plans is a lack of tools. I do not have a dremel or a drill. I was going to buy the drill and bits today but the one I wanted was sold out - go figure. My friend says he'll let me borrow his so that's not too bad. Need to work on that dremel though.

[Antioch]

Happy New Year to all! I hope you didn't get too drunk...

I'm back with an update. My side-goal of this project is to retrofit my old machine (Iridium 2.0) into a working unit that I can take to school and put in my lab (I'm a grad student) because the one I've got there is a terribly old Pentium 4. The problem is that I modified the case for my watercooling setup, and now that I'll be running on air I want to patch it up.

The watercooling setup:



That top piece I grabbed on eBay from some guys Koolance parts. It housed the 120mm fans that were used in "suck mode" above the radiator. As you can see there's a petty big hole in the roof I'll have to deal with.

So I decided to get a cheap LianLi spare side-panel and bend it to my will. I had read on another forum that the AC Ryan black anodized aluminum's brush strokes were quite different than LianLi's stock look, hence the old side-panel instead of a fresh piece of aluminum (It was far cheaper than the AC Ryan junk too!).


This is what it looks like. I took the picture so you could see all the snow we were getting during the snow storm that hit the East Coast 2 weeks ago. All-in-all we got 20 inches at my house. It was great.


All masked up.


Cutting with the bandsaw.


Filing the edges.


Looks good!


Prepping to spray-paint the edges.


It fits! Great.

Next I drilled holes for the machine screws and countersunk them. I couldn't find any black ones at the hardware store (not a surprise) so I grabbed some brass ones instead. They look gold. I think it will contrast well. What do you think?




I know there are 2 empty drive bays and it looks bad exposed. I have replacement covers coming so it should look nice when it's all done. The GeForce 220's fan is pretty loud. Louder than most fans of that size - and it stays at a constant speed. I'll have to do a little voltage mod on it to make it quiet.

As for Iridium v3.0 - I've hit another bump. The motherboard is making these god-awful high-pitched screeching sounds pretty much all the time. It's really upsetting to me because I'm trying to make this machine relatively silent but I can really hear those noises. Other people may not because of hearing issues, or they just don't notice, but it really makes me angry. I have an old laptop I bought 2 years ago with the *same* issue. I had the whole laptop replaced once, nothing changed, and then I had the motherboard swapped, nothing changed. As such I'm thinking that even if I have the P7P55D replaced it will still shriek. However that's the only thing I can really do

Having that laptop for 2 years drove me insane so to have my desktop follow suit would really push me over the edge.

Has anyone else ever had these problems before?

My old 8800 GTX had a similar, but less pronounced, squeal. I believe that it was the fault of the engineering of that line of cards and has been fixed in subsequent models. However, I've tried running the P7P55D using the 220 as well and the noise is still present - it is coming from the motherboard.

I'll go to the store and have it exchanged today. Please keep your fingers crossed because Micro Center only does exchanges for motherboards - no returns - and I don't wanna be stuck with a jacked-up piece of electronics.

[callen_1]

Nice job on the cover. It's a shame the grain in the brushed aluminum doesn't match but it look much better without the holes

[Antioch]

Nice job on the cover. It's a shame the grain in the brushed aluminum doesn't match but it look much better without the holes

Yeah, I was a but upset that the grain in the brushing didn't match my case a little better since I went though all the "trouble" of getting a Lian Li part. That being said, the replacement side panel was really really cheap so I can't complain. In normal light, without a flash, the grain is much less pronounced and I think it looks pretty sharp. I'm not completely satisfied with the way the spray paint turned out around the edges, but there's not much I can do about it anyways.

I went to Micro Center today and they took my motherboard back! Full refund. I decided I'll try my luck with the P7P55D-E Deluxe (from a different store) - the one with the USB 3.0 and SATA3 support. The motherboard layout is different so I'm hoping that the "electric buzz" will be absent as it's been on every other Asus board I've owned.

Anyone have any input on that?

Thanks.

[callen_1]

Yeah, I was a but upset that the grain in the brushing didn't match my case a little better since I went though all the "trouble" of getting a Lian Li part. That being said, the replacement side panel was really really cheap so I can't complain. In normal light, without a flash, the grain is much less pronounced and I think it looks pretty sharp. I'm not completely satisfied with the way the spray paint turned out around the edges, but there's not much I can do about it anyways.

Sorry, i should have explained that better. What i meant was it's a shame you couldn't have the grain running in the same direction but it still looks great. Score with the mobo too

[Antioch]

Ah, yeah. I had measured out the dimensions of the side-panel to get the cut to go the other way. Unfortunately the way Lian Li makes the panel, they bend some of the metal along the edges back underneath for about 1" in all directions. I had toyed with the idea of messing with these folds, but decided it would be too complicated and made the cut in the other direction. I can live with it though!

I'm really glad about the motherboard return as well. The trouble is now I'm very scared to get another one. I'm afraid it will have the same problems...

[Antioch]

So I got my replacement motherboard today. Same problem. When I use the motherboard there is a constant, electric, high-pitched "beeping" coming from the area around the CPU where the power phase caps and MOSFETs are. It starts once I being to boot windows (at least I can't discern it while in BIOS) and remains even when idling on the desktop. I'm not sure if this is a bad sign, but the PSU also has a very low buzzing sound (this model's fan never turns on unless you start drawing a lot of power).

I tried plugging in an older, messed up 650W CPU (it's a bit busted and needs RMAing of it's own - it makes some odd noises of it's own). When I test with this PSU the beeping occurs in the PSU unit as well, oddly enough.

I had this same problem with the first motherboard (which was actually a P7P5DD Deluxe, not the P7P5DD-*E* version), although I didn't test it with the old busted up PSU.

Does anyone have any idea what is going on and how I can fix it? This electrical noise is driving me nuts and makes me so upset that I burned so much money on it.

No one really reads this thread so I'm not crossing my fingers for a response, but I'm running out of options here

[aka_GK]

Antioch,
unfortunately I have nothing to say to you about your MB problems, I am sorry for that, but I really like you log and snowy pictures too, looking forward to more!

[Antioch]

Unfortunately there may not be any more. Too many set backs and real life business has caused me to rethink this whole project. May just return all the parts and cut my losses as I just can't live with the whine. It's depressing, really. Such a nice board! If only manufacturers would actually do some quality testing instead of raping customers wallets.

[Antioch]

Well. I got my new motherboard this week, opened it up, mounted it, and turned it on.


Yup, USB3.0 SATA3 - slightly future proofed. I don't expect to get any SATA3 drives, but I *may* pick up a USB3 device in the future.



To my dismay I was greeted with a shrill electrical whine I responded by promptly putting it back in its box and packing it up. I also noticed my beautiful PSU was emitting a feint, low-pitched hum - uh-oh. It too got put back in its box and packed up. Both were RMA'ed and I must admit, NewEgg is fast - they got em unpacked and processed the same day they arrived. Replacements should be shipped on Monday and arrive on Tuesday.

The PSU should be fine, but I am very worried about the motherboard. I think the noise is a fault of the manufacturing process used and that they're all defective (yes, I am of the opinion that this is certainly classified as a defect). I may be getting ahead of myself here, but if the replacement is defective too it will get RMAed. Since I'm so close to NewEgg I'll be able to play the RMA-game once a week (excellent turnaround time) until I get a good board. When NewEgg finally tells me to stop I'll try asking for a refund (which I am loathe to do because I bought a waterblock that only fits on the P7P55D series boards). Failing that I will get on the phone to ASUS and complain to a manager asking them to ship me a replacement that is verified to be SILENT.

Anyways, after that fun got out of the way I was greeted with something else. I had a tiring day on Friday - had to teach 2 back-to-back classes for a total of 4 hours without a lunch break. Got in the car, came home with my stomach crying for food but was distracted by something:



My first shipment of parts! (and certainly not the last - *sigh* says the wallet)

Open her up to find - wha?



Odd. Moving right along....




(This shot didn't turn out too well so I had to shrink it - but I liked it so here it is)



So, did I get a block with good pins? It looks like it to me. Only a couple are slightly bent, but looks fine on the whole. What do you think?

My big parts order should be arriving on Monday. Lots more goodies in there. Unfortunately I forgot a few so I'll have to make a second purchase (but, as I said, I'll be needing to anyways -- I'm sure you all know how it goes )

[Alexandr0s]

Lol, it's probably one of the best blocks I've seen so far XD.

[Antioch]

Well at least I'm not completely unlucky!

[Antioch]

... or maybe I am completely unlucky?

Got my next batch of parts today - needless to say I'm dissatisfied. I'm not *really really* anal, but I expect that when I pay a premium for "enthusiast" parts I get quality for the hefty price tag. It is only when that expectation is not met that I become really anal, and angry to boot.

Well, where should I begin? Hmm, let's play a game, "Spot the Problem!" Look at the picture, see the problem, scroll down to find the answers. We'll start with an easy one.







In the first picture, one box has clearly been opened before - "guaranteed" my @$$. Well, I'm sure they left EK okay, it was PPCs that sent me an opened part for full price.

The second picture shows, yet again, another used part I received. This one doesn't have a seal, but from the packaging (or should I say, lack thereof?) it's pretty obvious. And if it isn't....

The third picture shows a nice big ol' scuff in the acrylic tube. Not only that but you can see some scratching on the black cylinder at the bottom.

The fourth picture shows a GREAT circular gash in the top part of the black cylinder. Mmm, gotta love it.

The last picture may not be so obvious. Let me explain what is going on. There are 2 Anti-Cyclone pieces that were "folded" together and bound with one piece of tape (seen in the middle). The outside (bottom) faces still have the acrylic protective paper on them, the inside (top) faces do not. They are scratched up - particularly the one on the right. The ones on the left are hard to see. Neither piece looks as bad as it really is - I tried my best with the photography but it didn't come out too well.

The opened res-top box (pic #1) really gets me though, because PPCs goes out of their way to make sure they seal all the other boxes with tape, or melt the top of plastic bags so you can't open them without cutting the bag. Of course that didn't stop them from sending me two used pieces, charging me full price, and not informing me about it. Bleh.

3 years ago when I bought from PPC I had some problems - I can't remember what - but I told myself I wouldn't buy from them again. I disregarded that warning and bought from them anyways (they had a part no one else stocked) and got burned. So this time when I say "I won't buy from PPC again" I mean it. Not only that, but they're terribly slow to ship, and have quite a douche-bag return policy.

It's service like this that really makes me hate to be an American. The corporations $h!t all over individuals just to make a few cents. I mean, let's not pretend like the current economic situation wasn't caused by some greedy @$$hats taking advantage of lower-income folks. Bleh. Not only that but I've had some Customer Service nightmares before (f**k you Lenovo [actually, they made it up to me, but I still have a small grudge], f**k you CostCo [yeah I know, but they stole $16 from me], f**k you Washinton Mutual [glad you went out of business {were bought out}, you d-bags]... and the list goes on).

That's not to say I haven't had good customer service before (Thanks, Swiftech, et. al), but on the whole it has been bad and caused much mental anguish, as you can probably tell by now. However, I've had the good fortune to study (electrical engineering) and live in Japan for an extended period and this kind of crap would not pass. People would get fired for treating the customer as poorly as I've been treated. Customer service is *spectacular* there. I could tell you so many wonderful stories of when I (and others) have been treated properly... but I won't (unless you want me to!). I will simply say that if they make a mistake (or even if they don't) not only will the apologize and fix the problem, but they'll do something else for you as a "thanks, we're sorry" gift.

*sigh*

Anyways, I won't be opening the rest of the parts and taking pictures until I get things squared away because, as I said, PPCs return policy is really d-bag'ish.

I just hope when my motherboard gets here tomorrow it will be buzz-free. If it is, all will be forgiven.

... and sorry for the rant. I'm sure we've all been there (and that's the problem).

Edit: I'm pretty sure those white scuff marks are from EK's stock res mount scuffing the acrylic. Anyone have suggestions for replacement mounts that will NOT scuff? Will EKs new black "unbreakable" mounts not scuff? Thanks.

[Antioch]

Got my replacement motherboard and PSU in today.

The PSU is sexxxxy as usual. The motherboard is crap as usual.

Talked to ASUS nicely about it. The tech support would not be nice to me though, as clam and patient as I was. He event went so far as to say I was making the noise up (because yes, I suddenly, on my bajllionth ASUS motherboard purchase am deciding to be crazy)...

I'll play nice when them though. I'll send it in for a repair, although either way I have lost faith in ASUS. They will either verify that there is a buzz and will be unable to repair it, giving me a replacement in stead (which I guarantee will have the buzz just like my 3 boards have), or they will be able to repair it. If they verify the buzz it means they have a whole line of defective motherboards they're out selling to people. If they can repair it it says that a solution exists but they're too lazy to do anything about it. (I'm omitting the elusive 3rd case: that they won't verify the buzz. If this happens I'll certainly never use ASUS again. As much as I don't want to think it will happen, I'm actually pretty sure they won't verify the noise. My experience with high-school drop out mail-away tech support has been completely * banana*ucked up).

So there you have it. I'm pretty much hating this build, maybe I'll just stick with the good old P5B?

And for those of you who say I should just live with it - okay, maybe if the board cost me $25 I could rationalize the noise as the price for cheapness. However, the board costs ~$250 - for that it had better work properly. Not only that, but when I plugged my powerful GeForce 8800GTX in, the noise got worse ("powerful" in terms of power consumption and size, compared to the dinky GeForce 220).

*sigh* especially when thinking about the time spent on this that's lost. How much money would I have earned if I were at work instead of fighting with stupid people?

[JasonDTM]

Sometime it's nature of the beast when it comes to electrical circuitry and or components.

[Antioch]

Unfortunately it's not. 3 boards, same problem. I'm not the only one with this problem, apparently EVGA has issues like this as well, as did my old Lenovo laptop (my friend's did too). It's the result of shoddy manufacturing and quality assurance. If they took the time to either use higher grade choke/inductors or the effort to squirt some silicone compound inside each "cube" housing the vibrating part the problem would be fixed. (The latter is how you can fix this problem with older boards - on newer boards the parts are covered up so you can't).

It all comes down to the company's bottom line. Piss off a few people, make more money overall - or piss off no one and make less money overall?

That and Chinese manufacturing quality sucks

[Kenjiwing]

Awesome retro hardware @ the top