Vega's Quad-SLI 3GB GTX580 sub-zero liquid cooled build

[shadow6491]

I also did have a question for you phase change gurus. Do you guys think the new 15000 btu unit I have will be able to cope with the heat load I will be putting it under? I am not looking for super cold but just sub-zero would be nice for some decent over clocks.

I am with Gunslinger on this one.

My honest opinion is that the proposed setup will be a condensation/hardware death nightmare.

If it were me I'd minimize the risk by only going subzero on the CPU via a single stage, which will be much easier to manage the condensation issue.

With a proper ambient watercooling solution, you should be able to do 900-1000MHz on your video cards,

In my system condensation is the worst enemy constanly pesky drips find there way into the wrong location and cause shutdowns. So far I have been liucky and have just had to clean up any residue with isopropal alchol and then wait for it to dry out.

But chilled water cooling of the GPU cards esp 4 of them will be a nightmare. Chilled water cooling the ram is just stupid. people only even water cool ram just for the bling factor.

Have you heard the KISS term Keep It Simple Stupid.

Nice setup dont ruin it by going overboard.

[antiacid]

Found out that prolonged -30C combined with the liquid pressure makes for seepage over time outside the tank with the silicon I used. I ripped out the old tank and have to start from scratch. If anyone has any ideas on a insulated custom size tank materials that can withstand low temps and 7 gallons of water pressure, I am all ears! (I don't have a welder).

for the best return on your money, I'd recommend a large plastic cooler. The inside portion is usually made of one solid piece of plastic therefore there's no leaking. It won't look as nice as your previous tank though.

If you feel like playing around to build your own tank though, you need to make sure that your bonding material can handle both low temperatures and your anti-freeze agent (you mentioned using propylene glycol i think? That's supposed to be toxic in ambient air according to the wiki, btw).

I don't know if it makes sense to size your system for a -30c operating temperature when you are about to dump 1200 watts into it... Perhaps you should look at connecting everything first and then seeing what kinds of temperatures you have and adapt your insulation strategy at that point.

[Callsign_Vega]

I am with Gunslinger on this one.



In my system condensation is the worst enemy constanly pesky drips find there way into the wrong location and cause shutdowns. So far I have been liucky and have just had to clean up any residue with isopropal alchol and then wait for it to dry out.

But chilled water cooling of the GPU cards esp 4 of them will be a nightmare. Chilled water cooling the ram is just stupid. people only even water cool ram just for the bling factor.

Have you heard the KISS term Keep It Simple Stupid.

Nice setup dont ruin it by going overboard.

I just read through your thread. Cool setup! A small freezer compressor can get that much liquid to -7C? That is pretty impressive. Does the compressor run 24/7? Have you taken any measurements as to how long it takes for the liquid temperature to rise in that tank with the computer on and off? I'd love to see those numbers.

I totally subscribe to the KISS method on many things. Although on this, its go Xtreme or go home. I know RAM chilled liquid cooling is totaly overboard. Although, I want to push some serious clocks on this RAM. Mainly it is because I want all of the computers heat dumped outside and no fans having to blow over the motherboard.

I will also be going Xtreme to prevent condensation. Conformal sealing/insulating the entire computer pretty much. MB, GPUs, RAM and water blocks. There literally will not be any access for air/moisture to contact circuits. That is until it all literally blows up in my face...

for the best return on your money, I'd recommend a large plastic cooler. The inside portion is usually made of one solid piece of plastic therefore there's no leaking. It won't look as nice as your previous tank though.

If you feel like playing around to build your own tank though, you need to make sure that your bonding material can handle both low temperatures and your anti-freeze agent (you mentioned using propylene glycol i think? That's supposed to be toxic in ambient air according to the wiki, btw).

I don't know if it makes sense to size your system for a -30c operating temperature when you are about to dump 1200 watts into it... Perhaps you should look at connecting everything first and then seeing what kinds of temperatures you have and adapt your insulation strategy at that point.

A large plastic Coleman cooler was my first design. Those things are awesome and have incredible insulation. The problem though is they are big and bulky. I would need to pull out the evaporator and possibly run into large problems trying to fit that. Plus it wouldn't look like a nice/compact setup that blends flush with the wall.

You read that propylene glycol is toxic in ambient air? What does that mean? Do you mean inhaling mist? Propylene glycol is used in human food and used in drinking water systems as anti-freeze. Its pretty safe. I could not find any data either way if propylene glycol interacts with silicon.

I have noticed that the volatile organic compound Acetic Acid is used in silicone sealants. This has caused some mild green colored corrosion on the brass fittings I have used and also on the metal that was used to braze the evaporator copper lines. It does not affect the copper itself. Hopefully the corrosion isn't too damaging and ceases once the acetic acid is vaporized and/or the silicone is cured and oxygen removed.

You guys did give me the interesting option of adding a large central reservoir that can be independent of the window unit and hidden away. I could hide a Coleman ice chest under the cabinet out of view in line with the evaporator tank and the pump. Thats why I'd love some temperature retention numbers from Shadow.

[AMD_Freak]

You in the panhandle?

yea up near I-10 prolly 1.5hrs at most from Rucker

[shadow6491]

It really is to hard to answer those questions. If you remember back to year 10 physics you might remember that warm water freezers faster than cold water. Once the coolant starts to change temperature it is not a linear change. But on average it is about 1 or 2 degrees per hour.

I only run my compressor for about 8 hours that will reduce the 100 liters about 10 degrees. It takes at least 12 hours with the unit off and the computer running to increase the coolant by 10 degrees. These are not exact as I have never really needed to worry about it. With the computer off and the compressor off the coolant only changes by about 1 degree or so per day.

Good luck with the condensation. You will need to make your electronics water proof as there is no way you could insulate all those components to withstand condensation creation with -30 degree coolant.

[Callsign_Vega]

It really is to hard to answer those questions. If you remember back to year 10 physics you might remember that warm water freezers faster than cold water. Once the coolant starts to change temperature it is not a linear change. But on average it is about 1 or 2 degrees per hour.

I only run my compressor for about 8 hours that will reduce the 100 liters about 10 degrees. It takes at least 12 hours with the unit off and the computer running to increase the coolant by 10 degrees. These are not exact as I have never really needed to worry about it. With the computer off and the compressor off the coolant only changes by about 1 degree or so per day.

Good luck with the condensation. You will need to make your electronics water proof as there is no way you could insulate all those components to withstand condensation creation with -30 degree coolant.

Those are pretty impressive temperature change numbers. The purpose of conformal sealing is to make the components virtually water proof.

[WangChung]

You need some more monitors:


http://www.anandtech.com/show/4209/a...le-card-king/6

[Callsign_Vega]

You need some more monitors:


http://www.anandtech.com/show/4209/a...le-card-king/6

I am already pushing more pixels than 5x 1080P monitors. Even the 3GB GTX580s would not have enough VRAM for 5x 30" screens, let alone the 69xx series 2GB.

[l0ud_sil3nc3]

I see you were talking about pushing some serious clocks from your ram, hence the reasoning of water cooling them, however your limitation will most definitely be your IMC and if it can't keep up then watercooled ram won't really matter.

Regardless I want to see it when it is finished

[fatherTime27]

This has to be pretty much the most epic build to date

[Johnny87au]

Any new updates hehe

[KGB7]

Permatex Clear RTV Silicone Adhesive Sealant

handle temperatures ranging from -75°F to 400°F. The sealant resists oil, water, weather, vibration and grease.

http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/web...T|GRP2132_____

[Callsign_Vega]

Conformal coating almost complete. I did front and back of the motherboard but I did not finish the RAM slot and RAM blocks as I am running low on the Dragon Skin FX-Pro. I just ordered a new trial size (as pictured in video) as I will need it for the GPUs and to finish everything up.

Prep:






Dielectric grease in CPU socket:




Insulating stock MB water cooled components:




Insulating CPU block:






RAM blocks installed on the A-Data 2200+ 8-8-8-24:




Temporary setup testing CPU/MB block cooling:




Video showing some different angles of the coating:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLiiJ4k3nTA


I am really relieved everything is up and running properly after doing all of this work. This took a lot more time and effort than I originally though it would (Isn't that how it always goes?). It really takes a long time to mask everything off that needs to be, get the coating into all the tight small spots (There are a ton on a UD9). The Dragon Skin cures really fast and the workability time window is very small.

By the way, always put the CPU socket protector in the socket to protect the pins while you are doing stuff like this. Just one small slip of the CPU block when I was test fitting and it came in contact with some CPU pins. Luckily the pins bent back easy with a razor blade and a magnifying glass. Also, do not add too much dielectric grease in the CPU socket. I had to remove a tiny bit as the CPU gets "compressed" into the socket and against the pins more than I originally anticipated.

I used Liquid Laboratories Liquid Ultra on the CPU. Anyone else have experience with this TIM? This stuff was a pain in the butt to spread out! I've watched their video about spreading but I could not do it nearly as well as the video guy. The metal just wanted to stick together and/or to the brush and not the CPU itself. I could only get about half the CPU coated. Hopefully with the high pressure applied by the EK HF-Supreme it spread out a little more under there. So far the temps seem to be pretty darn good so it appears to be working decently.

With the repaired socket and the dielectric grease all stuffed in there, I was so glad when the PC tested working normally. Right now the CPU is idling at 15C and rises to only 22C under full-bore Intel Burn test. The AC compressor only kicks on about once every 15 minutes for a minute to keep the liquid temp down during idle. Right now I am waiting for the GPU water blocks and the Aquaero 5 components to come in from Europe to finish this build up. I'll make another update hopefully within a week when I get the extra Dragon Skin in with the RAM in the loop and I can go for some serious CPU over clocking.

Things I would do differently with hindsight: use one of those pastry icing decorator things to have better control over the application of the Dragon Skin. Also, the stock UD9 MB water cooler was a pain to insulate. Getting an EK UD9 MB block would have been a better choice. I'll leave that option open after I see how this current MB cooling works under sub-zero. The good thing about the Dragon Skin is it is easy to work with. Al you need as an X-Acto razor to cut away and trim the Dragon Skin. In the meantime I have to work on getting some parallel resistors set up on the thermistor sensor in order to get the compressor to cycle at the temps I want.

[Johnny87au]

Nice pics dont forge to take some finalized pics , Ram blocks? Wow u have to much money to spare man..

[Zloyd]

The ram blocks tipped you off eh :P Insane build crysis looked mindblowing on your monitor setup its too bad they dont make them without bezels.

[disturbed13]

The ram blocks tipped you off eh :P Insane build crysis looked mindblowing on your monitor setup its too bad they dont make them without bezels.

if they did that the screen would just fall out
there would be no way of keeping it in place

[Callsign_Vega]

if they did that the screen would just fall out
there would be no way of keeping it in place

A lot of people do not realize a LCD panel "floats" in its housing. It is impossible to make LCD tech to truly have no edges/bezels. I am not even sure it is possible with multiple OLED screens.

Really the only way you could get multiple displays fit together with no gaps would be edge blending software for multiple-projectors.

[disturbed13]

or buy a bigger single screen
click this
watching that vid is how i learned

[antiacid]

these are the thin bezel monitors he'll want

http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/11/03...hinnest-bezel/

So anyway, what's the coolant temperature when your cpu idles at 15c? That's suspiciously high for only the mb/cpu if we're still talking about the -15-30c you discussed earlier in the thread. If you're running at 15c like you suggested you might try, then a delta of 7c could probably be improved with more flow / different TIM. Have you considered indigo xtreme?

I'm looking forward to to see how much more OC can be achieved with chilled gpu's compared to water cooling them

[Callsign_Vega]

or buy a bigger single screen
click this
watching that vid is how i learned

You cannot get bigger single screens with this kind of resolution. 1080p blown up looks horrible. The only thing out there is 4K resolution TVs that are around $100,000.

these are the thin bezel monitors he'll want

http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/11/03...hinnest-bezel/

So anyway, what's the coolant temperature when your cpu idles at 15c? That's suspiciously high for only the mb/cpu if we're still talking about the -15-30c you discussed earlier in the thread. If you're running at 15c like you suggested you might try, then a delta of 7c could probably be improved with more flow / different TIM. Have you considered indigo xtreme?

I'm looking forward to to see how much more OC can be achieved with chilled gpu's compared to water cooling them

Those thin bezels do look nice, but still only 1080p. Unknown image quality and input lag also is a show stopper.

The coolant temperature is only a degree or two below CPU temp. Like I said I do not have the compressor running full bore, it is only cooling the liquid to +14C right now for testing before I get in more Dragon Skin and finish the coating and RAM block install. I don't want condensation issues before its all sealed up tight! Right now the compressor is laughing off the computer, only turning on once every 15 minutes or so with a run time of ~45 seconds.

[disturbed13]

You cannot get bigger single screens with this kind of resolution. 1080p blown up looks horrible. The only thing out there is 4K resolution TVs that are around $100,000.

well of course it does
my 22" LCDs are 1680 x 1050
which makes a 23" a 1080 HD monitor
im not sure what the resolution should be on the 40"+ screens

[antiacid]

well of course it does
my 22" LCDs are 1680 x 1050
which makes a 23" a 1080 HD monitor
im not sure what the resolution should be on the 40"+ screens

big screens are usually 1920x1080 on newer model, some variation of 720p on older ones.

Screen size is not proportional to resolution. Sure, there's a trend. However, there's also wiggle room.

[Callsign_Vega]

I am done insulating the MB to include the RAM blocks. Maybe I should call it the Ectoplasm computer:







Initial testing of CPU/MB/RAM. Spent a crap load of time going up and down the BClock range testing all multipliers and CPU PLL voltages. Nothing really let me break free of ~4.8Ghz @ 1.45VCore. The only thing that let me up the Ghz was more VCore. 1.51V let me get 5Ghz. 1.54V let me get 5.2 Ghz. I'd imagine closing in on 1.58V would be needed for 5.5Ghz.

My setup really didn't care for low BClock, but it loves minimal CPU PLL. Setting it to its lowest voltage, 1.3V produced the most stability in IBT. I think I got a decent clock for 24/7 voltage using 14 C liquid for now:





IBT stable and memtest passed @ 844Mhz 6/6/6/18/1T 1.66V with liquid cooling. 4000Mhz NB and 211x23. Do you guys think these tight timings would be better for gaming or increase DDR3 speed to around 1070Mhz @ 8/8/8/24?

[luke997]

Epic build Vega

Subbed, can't wait to see these Palit 3GB with blocks...

[RCG_Bex]

I don't recall going above 1.6v at the GOOC to get 5.3Ghz on my X980 under watercooling... Yes it was hot but cool and stable enough for benching... I reckon you can push it a little harder