new vga water cooling setup

[jikdoc]

built my 1st attempt at wc with tons of help from reading the forums here and from trans am who came over and helped (to be honest, trans did most of the work while i watched and tried not to get in the way). pics on the way when i can borrow a camera.

based on recommendations here and a few other sites, i got:
aquaxtreme 50z pump
dtek pro 120 heatercore & shroud
fusion HL vga block
swiftech 5.25 res
mcmaster 7/16" tubing
swiftech radbox
hose clamps, swiftech coil sleeves, zalman fanmate

the entire setup fit nicely into a lian li pc-v1000 case that has a vapoLS installed. with the wc i was able to go from a stable overclock on a 6800gt of 405/1050 to 430/1100 with a boost in 3dM05 from 50xx to 54xx.

some notes on the setup that might help other 1st time builders

sanyo denki fans (available from some dude on ebay) are the bomb. they're cheap, move tons of air and are pretty quiet.

the 7/16" ID tubing was great, very flexible and passes through a pci slot hole in the back of my case without noticeable kinking. the tubing fits extremely tightly over 1/2" ID barbs and although i did use hose clamps, they seemed superfluous. it took a lot of effort to get the tubing on the barbs.

the radbox setup was perfect for my needs because of the limited interior space in my case. in addition to space saving, the radbox allows the rad to use cool room temperature air as opposed to air from a warm case.

the zalman fanmate2 was a perfect addition to my wc setup and allows me to control the radiator fan without having to open up the case or use software. i installed an additional fanmate to control the rear case fan.

coil sleeves from swiftech were great in getting rid of the 2 minor kinks i had.

velcro and 24-hour hardware stores are proof that god exists, i used it to secure my pump and it's rock solid. the pump itself is VERY quiet, barely audible with a closed case.

on a negative note, the swiftech reservoir is a bit hard to bleed air from the system. currently i have the res mounted at an angle to keep air from entering the circuit. i could use a few pointers in getting rid of air using the swiftech res.

one last minor negative point is that i waited nearly 3 weeks before i received my silverprop fusion HL. the delay in receiving my vga block wasn't through any fault of the retailer, but due to the fact that the block was shipped from australia.

[Ancient_1]

It took about the same for my G4 to arive from Australia also. I was getting worried it was lost in the mail.

[jikdoc]

wow, nice g4! the limited availability of the g4 is sort of what drove me to abandom wc for my cpu and go with a vapoLS instead. i figured the vapo will last me through several mobo/processor combinations and that the ambient air in my apartment is rather high, so wc the cpu wouldn't be that much of a gain over my xp-90.

[jikdoc]

if you can, get someone with wc experience to come over and help you set the rig up. i doubt that i could set up the system in 1/2 the time that trans am did and i'm certain i would have had major leaks and kinks in my tubing.

trans will probably post about our experiments with phase change on his winnie and my vapoLS, msi neo2 plat combo.

[Ancient_1]

My rig is already setup just not with the G4 (I will probably wait for the G5 for my main rig and use the G4 in a different one since I want a 3 barb block and will just mod one of the G5s for it then) I also dont work well with others when its my own stuff being worked on, I do much better the other way around tho. I guess I am getting too old and grumpy lol
Here is a shot of mine.

[jikdoc]

wow, the red lighting makes your rig looks like the tubing a patient has put in when they undergo cardiac bypass surgery

[Ancient_1]

I had chaged this setup around quite a few times and decided that the red theme wasnt used much so I went that route with it. It is a lil different than most.

[jikdoc]

here's pics of my new wc setup in a lian li pcv1000 case with a vapochill.
here's a thread where i describe installing a vapochill in the lian li pcv1000 case which had been said couldn't be done: http://xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=47435

front



side



side with radbox installed a week later



oblique view of radbox in rear of case, the 2 small black things on the case above the radbox are zalman fanmate2 controllers which i use for sanyo denki 120mm fans on the radiator and inside the case as a case fan.



rear of case with tubing entering through open pci slot. i applied a little coil sleeve to relieve some slight kinking.



mobo section without wc



mobo section with wc (blurry pic, sorry). the fan on the bottom left cools my ram sticks and blocks the view of the pump. i remove the fan for the next picure.



pump, held on with velcro, aquaxtreme 50z, nearly silent



vga block, fusion HL on bfg 6800gt



evap mount, pre-watercooling



hole for evap head going through the divider between the motherboard and powersupply sections of the case



hole for evap head drilled into the bottom of the case



chillcontrol, mounted on the other side of the case to keep the wires out of the way.

[cuddles]

Looks nice. Thanks for mentioning about the Silverprop. Looks like I need to order that part 3 weeks earlier than the rest of it

[Ancient_1]

I am sure I posted a link to criticool who had them in stock and a fair amount cheaper in your original thread, if not brb
nevermind they are out now too.

[MaxxxRacer]

yes but you really dont want to buy from criticool... if you want to hear what i have to say about them i will, but i dont feel like typing that much at the moment.

[Ancient_1]

bestpcmods is cheaper also but only has the SL in stock and have only heard good things about him.

[jikdoc]

what happened to you with criticool max? i had a funny feeling about ordering from them so went with frozen mods even though it was a little more expensive. frozen mods is ok and it seems that they deal directly with silverprop, so i felt secure ordering from them.

[bacon]

what happened to you with criticool max? i had a funny feeling about ordering from them so went with frozen mods even though it was a little more expensive. frozen mods is ok and it seems that they deal directly with silverprop, so i felt secure ordering from them.

tho is guna take an age i ordered my HL about 1-2 weeks ago from frozenmods, doubt ill see it before xmas as they send the order to silverprop, kind of cheek as they dont do anything lol apart from tell silverporp where to send it

anyone know of a usual amount of time it takes to get the block from OZ?

[MaxxxRacer]

Well i will summarize what happened with criticool. I had boughten a pump relay from DD (the criticool model) and it had killed my computer. It fried the mobo and video card. So i contacted criticool (thats what dd said to do) and sean (the owner of criticool) told me to send my mobo vid card and relay to him. After it finally got there (mail is really slow) he tested it and told me that the vid card was not the fault of the relay, that the relay was FINE and worked great and that he would give me a new mobo. Given that the relay was fine i would have thought he would have sent it back, but he said he would refund me the money of the relay and would NOT give me back the relay.

So i emailed him telling him very politely that he was full of crap that it was not broken that and if it was ok then he should send it back cause i do need a relay. It was 3 weeks before I heard from him after that and i got an email saying he was in a car accident and is in the hospital. ITs been several months since then and i have heard nothing form him. I try calling but no one answers and his email addy gives a return to sender. So either he really did get in a car accident or he is one hell of a lyer. but its been several months and the email said he would be back very soon.

[echow87]

ouch...now i gotta rethink and see if i should buy them pump relays...

[MaxxxRacer]

LOL. there are other pump relays.. ones that dont hook into your pci slots. they sense the 12volt line.