last picture for the night and the wiring is pretty much done.....Cell phone picture so it's a bit blurry...I'll take a final set of pictures with the good camera in the coming days when everything is totally finished.
Waiting only for the final component to make the build complete(it's in UPS's hands now):
http://www.lamptron.com/products/vie...ntroller_Touch
Fan controler with a touch sensitive LCD display...
Final pictures and i'm still waiting for the fan controler....
For those wondering, everything is running great overall but with a few unexpected caveats:
1:First of all, the system overclocks like mad, easily reaching 195Mhz BCLK with Turbo mode on,meaning the chips are running stably at 3.9 Ghz and up to 4.3 Ghz with turbo mode on(jumps 2 multipliers in applications not using all the cores), and by stable i mean linX stable and the memory is running at an unbelievable 1900Mhz with all memory slots used(24 GB of it)...
2:The cooling can't keep up with prolonged sessions of LinX with all 24 threads running at full steam at 3.9 Ghz...The most is can handle while keeping temperatures in check on it's own is 3.6 Ghz, wich is still pretty respectable in it's own right, but not quite unlocking all the speed that the setup is obviously capable of, so if i really want that last 10% performance under full load conditions in LinX with all threads maxed to 100%, regardless of ambient temperatures, another radiator in the loop will be needed....In all other scenarios where the cores aren't being pushed to 100% constantly, the current cooling is more than enough to handle it just fine, and remain pretty silent in the process...
The good news is that i can add that extra radiator simply be removing the front hard drive cage,( it's only held with thumb screws) and placing a radiator there vertically, wich the pump on the H2O 320 kit can handle just fine according to swiftech's manual or i might take the safe route and add another pump, if nothing else for the sake of redundancy should one pump fail....
The bad news is that that's where i wanted to place a radiator to eventually cooler the video cards, so by taking the above option,i might be forced to use an externally mounted radiator for the video cards, wich the general idea was to keep the system looking stock, save for that top mounted fillport/level checker....
Anyhow,we'll see in a few months as that's more than enough work done over the past 2 weeks from start to finish, and it's time to enjoy the system....
Last edited by Shadow0001; 04-10-2011 at 03:18 PM.
I've actually figured out a way to add a bit more radiator to the existing CPU loop, and not make it too noticable, by adding a double thick 120mm rad at the very back of the case where you see the fan in the first picture, and integrating it with the current water loop....Just enough to lower temperatures on the hottest running CPU at a 3.9Ghz overclock.
That would leave enough room internally for a pair of thick 240mm rads in a sandwich for the video cards exclusively by removing the front hardrive tower wich is only held with thumscrews anyhow....The hard drives located there can be mounted in an external enclosure using an external SATA cable...
The pump and reservoir issue can be solved by using the last pair of 5 1/4 bays just below the blue ray drives...Opinions?
After having some free time and doing some mesurements, the extra radiator is ordered along with extra compression fittings for the whole CPU/ Chipset/VRM loop and the LCD lamptron fan controler is also installed....Looks very cool with the LCD being almost the entire size of the front bezel.
I'm also on the planning stages for the water loop for the video cards and settled for a pump/reservoir combo that fits in a 5 1/4 bay, primarily for space issues,and the last 5 1/4 bay will be used for it's own fan controler for the fans that i'll use for the GPU water cooling loop.
sleeving would look way better inside there ... other than that ... good job
Originally Posted by Elmy
Individually sleeve all the wires from the PSU?.....It's a huge amount of work given the amount of hardware i'm running inside this thing, and little benefit since it wouldn't really improve air flow that much inside the case relative to how it's setup now....
I'm going for function over form and the ability to add/remove/modify the hardware configuration with the least amount of work as possible and while keeping the overall layout relatively neat, even if it isn't the absolute best it can be..
I received the reservoir/pump assembly and additional fan controller for the GPU cooling loop and mesured the space available for the radiatiors, and there's just enough room for a pair of 280mm radiators in a vertical sandwich using four 140 mm fans, and EK makes a specific model that 45 mm thick and 315mm in overall length, wich is just perfect for the job size wise...Uses every last inch of available space...
Bit of an update regarding the water cooling portion for the video cards...I have received more parts and partially assembled them, but as the old saying goes, a picture is worth 1000 words...
After a lot of carefull mesurement, and even removing the 2 front fans that come stock with the case, this is the absolute maximum amount of cooling that can be installed vertically where the front hard drive cage is right now in this picture:
There's 5 millimeters left depth wise and less than 1 CM vertically, and the additional pump reservoir and lamptron fan controler seen in the first picture will occupy the last pair of 5 1/4 bays drive bays directly above....
I had to use EK radiators for the simple reason that they're the only ones i've seen that are 47mm thick, while other brands are 30 millimeters thick( not using all the room available and less cooling surface area overall), or too wide at 55 millimeters or even 60 m millimeters, wich i wouldn't be able to fit a pair of them in there to begin with....The case is very large, but it's going to be crammed to the gills with hardware basically, and still allow for 4, 12 inch long video cards in Quad SLI or Quad crossfire if i want too, as there's no vertical reservoir or independent pump to deal with in terms of space requirements....I want it fully usable.
Last edited by Shadow0001; 05-02-2011 at 11:35 AM.
One more picture incoming now that i had a few hours available and the parts came in....It's been a while since i last updated this...
I added an extra radiator to the cpu loop in such a way that the water gets cooled after passing CPU 1 and before going into CPU 0, as the latter was getting hot as the overclock exceded the 3.8 Ghz mark with all threads floored to 100% and hyperthreading enabled in programs such as Linx....CPU 1 was never a problem at all since it's the first to receive the cold water from the top radiator anyhow, and the cooling overall was sufficient the everyday use as long as all 24 threads( 12 physical, 12 logical), aren't getting hammered to 100% loads sustained...
The basic idea with the smaller cooler is that's it's as large as i could fit, and i only need to drop temps on CPU0 by 10~15*C under load to make running at 3.9 Ghz a reality even at 100% full loads under hot weather, and this might be just enough....200 Bclk on this board is unstable no matter what, so i don't have to worry about cooling for the CPU's beyond this point...The board is giving me all it's got
I know there's a blue hose(dark blue really), but i ran out of black so it'll do fine for now...:p, and i also added quite a few compression and 45* silver plated fittings for that extra snazzy look, not that it improves cooling performance, but i'm already using about 30 fittings, and at 8 to 12$ each, there's enough in the setup already to buy a decent video card....
More to come with the video card water cooling....And if you're wondering, the system weighs a ton even though the case is aluminum...
System is in the final stages of bleeding and it's being a pain since there's still a tiny air pocket somewhere it's being a pain to get out of the system but it'll get out eventually, and i'm pleased to report that there's no leaks and i'll run full load tests at 3.9 Ghz under linx and see how the temperatures shape up overall....
If it's good enough, then i'll move on to the video card cooling loop and more wire management as the final major step left in the build....
Finally got the water cooling loop fully bled, but also did some pre fittment work on the water cooling loop for the video cards by installing the radiators and pump/reservoir to see if all the mesuring i did was accurate and i had picked the right parts for the job, so without further delay
Here's where the radiators will be installed, and as you can see by the picture, the power/reset switch is directly above the radiator nearest to the front fascia of the case with very little room to spare....The radiators are a pair of EK 240mm rads, and the remaining room closer to the motherboard area is used for compresson fittings and 90* elbows as sadly, The EK's don't have holes on both sides of the radiator to install barbs...
This shows just how tight fitting everything is, as the Koolance pump/ reservoir is actually slightly longer than your average DVD or blue ray drive and there's a 3 pin case fan just a couple of millimeters from the pump housing....It's that close, and i'll actually have to make a shim or slightly widen the holes that bolt the drive to the 5 1/4 bay to get some extra distance...
Dremel to the rescue to slightly widen the holes and the last free bay will be used towards a lamptron fan controler for the video card loop, wich in any case only uses the front section of the bay, so slightly raising the pump at the back by a couple of millimeters, won't have much of an impact, even with regards to the front bezel....
General view of what it'll look like even though the hoses and blocks for the video cards aren't installed yet....I'll still use a fair amount of 45 and 90* fittings between the radiator and intake inlet of the pump( it would be a seriously tight turn otherwise), and the lower video card and radiator, but the output from the pump to the top card will almost be a nice straight line as they're pretty much at the same height....
That's all for now, the final parts are on the way....
I wonder if there's an award for just how much hardware can be packed inside one regular tower case....I think i got good chances..
Pretty full. How are the 240 stacked rads held together? Is it just by relying on the BP fittings connecting them? Or do you somehow screw them together with the fans between them?
The fans in between the 2 radiators have 16 screws so those radiators aren't going anywhere to say the least....
As for holding the assembly to the front fascia there the stock fans used to be, i found these might come in handy, but i need to paint them first:
They're available from koolance at 11$ each, so it saves me quite a bit of work compared to having to make my own ....:P
Last edited by Shadow0001; 05-06-2011 at 03:56 PM.
Sadly, no extra pictures for now, but the final parts for the GPU water loop should be in my hands by tuesday at the latest, so i can wrap up the overall built by next weekend unless there's unexpected complications that arise....
I'll also do some extra wire management by passing that 8 pin CPU power and 6 pin GPU power cable under the video cards by using the available space between the PCI-e slot and video card backplate, wich there should be just enough room for both cables, as they kinda stick out like a sore thumb the way they are now....
I also might remove that middle brace to better show off the GPU blocks and fittings...We'll see.
And here's another update on the exciting adventure(or pain in the butt
Fitted the fan controler for the video card water loop, only to find out that one off the RPM readouts(fan number 2 specifically), works intermitantly but i'll have to investigate further to see if it's a bad connection somewhere, and the pump is also fitted, but i might change the order and put the pump above the fan controler for a reason i'll show in a later picture...
Here we have the final location of the radiators and just how tight fitting everything is and i used the original rubber mounted screws for the 140mm case fans that ship with the case along with a 120~140 mm fan shroud to hold the radiators in place, and it did the job, but it doesn't hold the assembly that well, so time to break out the dremel and use whatever i had on hand to make an additional brace, and this is what i came up with in an hour of work....
I used the bracket that comes with another 140mm fan, wich i can't use given the lenght of the SR-2 motherboard, and with some cutting and mesuring and extra long screws with addtional nuts, came up with the above contraption, wich i'll still work on it some more to make it visually appealing(also use some black touch up paint) and use longer screws that will bolt riight into the radiator, but holds the radiator assembly very nicely indeed....That sucker isn't moving anymore...
The overall system as it looks right now, wich shows how i intend to route the hoses and the top one is the pump output straight into the first video card at the top, while the bottom hose will go towards the radiator closest to the front of the PC, pass by the second radiator and then go back into the pump.....
Wich is where the last problem is as the turn radius is a little too tight and even with the coil fitted, the hose is slightly crushed, so i'll use the simplest solution and that's to move to pump to the 5 1/4 bay where the fan controler lives and hopefully that will ease the turn radius enough not to squeeze the hose like that, maybe even remove the coil....
Now if only i could get those video card water blocks from UPS to put the finishing touches on this, but i'm in the home stretch...
And another update and more pictures follow:
That thick PCI-e and the 8 pin power connector for one of the CPU's, well a couple of pictures says it all:
They're both now passing under the 3 video cards rather than being visible passing over the top of them, wich improves the overall neatness aspect of it overall.
And i found a solution for that partially kinked tube that didn't involve moving the pump in the upper 5 1/4 bay, wich wasn't feasable as the housing was making contact with some fan headers on the motherboard given that it's so large, so with the use of a 90* adapter, i came up with this:
The kink is pretty much gone and it gave me another benefit too:
Leaves enough room open if video cards ever get any longer, even up to 12 inches long wich is the maximum allowed by the PCI-e specification, and i can install up to 4 of those to boot....
Looks great, which CPU's are you running?
A pair of Xeon X5650's,so that's 12 cores and 24 threads now running at 4.2 Ghz, with 24GB of corsair dominator GT and 3 GTX580's soon to be water cooled once i receive the blocks next monday( at least that's what UPS says...).
Temps stay at 60*C with the fans running at only 60% while running LinX and loading up all the cores to 100% for sustained periods( read, several hours)....So it appears to be quite stable to say the least....
Are you just using a single pump? If so your flow must be seriously crippled. I have my doubts you'd be above 0.5GPM w/ that loop.
Single pump for the CPU loop(built into the top radiator along with the reservoir) and another pump for the GPU loop, once i get the GPU full cover water blocks....
Now i can't really say about how much flow there is, but at least for the completed CPU loop, the CPU's are now running at 3.9 Ghz at 1.35 volts with turbo mode on(4.3 GHz then), is LinX stable and with the radiator fans set at 60%, averages 60*C with all cores loaded to 100% while running LinX.....
So i'm plenty happy with that to be honest, as it's the temperatures that i care about the most all things considered, and they're way below the point where the CPU throttles down to protect itself(95*C).
I wouldn't mind a second pump in each loop, but it would be mostly for redundancy purposes more than increasing the flow or getting even lower temperatures...
And another update and it's pretty close to completed for the overall build...The water blocks for the video cards are installed, here goes the first picture
There is a surprising amount of screws holding the stock cooler on GTX580's, but it wasn't hard with the instructions supplied in the kit...
And it spawned a twin...This one was faster to install as i knew what to do from the first card, and here comes number 3 with all the fittings installed and the flow setup in parallel:
Next up is a pair of pictures with the cards installed in the case and i actually had to lay the case on it's side as installing 3 cards on the PCI-e slots at the same time with the tower standing vertically is quite tricky to say the least...
Closer view of the cards follows:
Now everything is running fine and there's no leaks and the bleeding is done, so i ran just a single run of 3Dmark 11 at default clocks just to get a baseline value and i'm pleased to report that at full load, it never exceeded 45*C, so i'm pretty pleased with that as it's no where close to what these cards can operate at with the stock cooler under load( near 90*C)....
I'll keep on running other games and benchmarks to get temperature readouts on those at default to establish a base value and then the fun part starts....How high can they go, but it'll take some time to find out no doubt...
Time for this thread to rise from the dead, as there's some new hardware in it, and i'll beef up the cooling and reduce restrictions where possible, but first a picture of the new video cards while still with their stock coolers( 4 HD7970's)
And thus we bid farewell to the 3 water cooled GTX580's that used to reside there, which have served me well for nearly 16 months now:
New cooling gear is on the way and i'll add another pair of DDC pumps in series on the GPU loop, as passing thru a fair amount of angled fittings, 4 GPU full covers and 2 radiators in series seems too much for a single pump, so i don't want to take chances and it'll also serve for extra redundancy should any of one of the 3 fail.(crosses fingers it'll never happen...
Received the pumps and acrilic top for the GPU loop and assembled the whole thing, and as usual a picture says it all:
Also some extra fittings to modify the water loop, and found a way to increase the air flow on the radiators for the the GPU's while it all still fits internally and looks neat.....The koolance water blocks for the GPU's come in next week.
keep it simple and the some pictures of the updated system:
The 4 HD7970's, water cooled and ready to rock.....
2 extra punps besides the one already built into the reservoir itself located on a 5 1/4 bay, so that makes 3 pumps not just for extra flow but also redundancy.
The modifed radiator sandwich this time with 5 fans and i replaced a pair of 120mm by a pair of 140 mm that have high static pressure, and also the flow is improved because i removed some 90* fittngs.
It's bled and still got some detailing work to do on the harness, but the brunt of the work is done.....I'll post a final picture once it's all really finished and nice and clean.
Getting ever closer to completion with more cable management done, used automotive touch up paint(matte black) in certain areas to match stuff in the same color and the fan controler for the GPU loop installed and some work done on the back of the motherboard too:
Last edited by Shadow0001; 02-20-2012 at 10:19 PM.
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