PROJECT: Osiris (800D)

[closetredneck]

UPDATE!! 16JAN2010
Almost done:

Post #30


Introduction:
I've been lurking here for a while. I guess my first post will be also be my first worklog.

I've been building computers for myself for about 10 years or so, but made my first venture into water cooling early this year. In January 2008 I built myself a pretty high end machine (XFX 780i with a Q6600, 4GB GSkill, and three 8800GTX all housed in a Silverstone TJ10.

In March of this year, I upgraded my video cards and decided I'd try and wet my feet with liquid cooling (pardon the probably over-used pun). I didn't know too much, but I did a little research and ended up with this:



It's all Swiftech: a 655, a single 120 rad and another 2x120 rad with an Apogee GTZ, and MCRES Rev2. I was never really happy with it visually, but it got the job done, and quite well too.

When I moved to i7/X58 in August, I picked up a 355 and XSPC bay mount dual pump / dual res because (a) I wanted to clean up the case and (b) planned on adding another loop for the video cards.



So, a couple months later I bought myself two EK blocks for the 285's and started thinking about that second loop. Originally, my plan was to place the CPU on the single 120 rad and the two vid cards on the 240 rad. After thinking about it a while I said to myself,

"Self, if you want to overclock that 920, it would just be silly to try and keep it on that single 120. If you are going to do it, do it right."

Self thought it was a good idea.

I knew I would need a larger radiator and I was having problems figuring out how I was going to fit it all in the TJ10. I didn't really want to go external either, so I decided it was time to buy a bigger case. And you all know how it goes: once you buy one thing, you keep buying and buying....

Purpose:
This worklog will document my Corsair 800D dual loop build. It will incorporate what I feel are my own good ideas, as well as a few of the ideas I liked from some of the other 800D builds I've seen here. I will try to make it as detailed as possible and provide quality photographs. I have a quality DSLR camera, but I'm lacking a quality photographer. I will also be making my first attempt at sleeving a PSU, with sleeving and shrink from some German guy named Nils. You guys may not know who he is...

Parts List:
Main Components
Case: Corsair Obsidian 800D
PSU: Corsair 1000HX
CPU: i7 920 (currently at 3.8, unless I decide to go higher)
Mobo: EVGA E760 X58 Classified
Mem: Corsair Dominator GT 6GB DDR3 2000
GPU: 2x XFX Nvidia GTX285
PhysX: EVGA 9800GT
OS Disk: 2x OCZ Summit SSD Raid 0
Storage: Seagate 500GB.
Optical: LG Blu-Ray DVD-RW

Loop 1 (CPU/Chipset)
Pump: Swiftech 355
Rad: Black Ice GTX 360
CPU: Apogee GTZ
Chipset: EK X58 Classified Block
Res: 1/2 of the XSPC dual bay
Fittings: Various BitsPower Compression
Tubing: PrimoChill 1/2" ID 3/4" OD Red Tubing
Coolant: PC Ice - Blood Red
Fans: Enermex Apollish UCAP12-R - Red (I'm a sucker for bling - if they don't work, I still have my trusty Scythe S-Flex)

Loop 2 (Two nVidia GTX285)
Pump: Swiftech 355
Rad: Black Ice GTX 240
GPUs: EK FC-285
Res: other half of XSPC res
Fittings: various BitsPower Compression
Tubing: PrimoChill 1/2" ID 3/4" OD Red Tubing
Coolant: PC Ice - Blood Red
Fans: Enermex Apollish UCAP12-R - Red

Various Extras:
Scythe Kaze Server Fan Controller
All-in-one Card reader
Red LEDs here and there, UV cold cathodes
Some G1/4 Temp Sensor stop fitting
BitsPower Rad Guards.
MDPC-X Sleeving and Shrink

Almost all my parts have been delivered and I should be able to get started with some pictures tonight. Tomorrow is my last day of work for the year, so I hope to have this build complete over the holiday break.

[HazChem]

Blood Red? Nice!!

I'm looking forward to this build!

[Serra]

Always love to see new builds, can't wait to see how it turns out.

[raymondftw]

Of Course We Know Who Nils Is!!!

[closetredneck]

Of Course We Know Who Nils Is!!!

That was sarcasm. I know you guys know who Nils is! I wouldn't know who he is if it wasn't for this forum!

[closetredneck]

UPDATE

Ok. Well, I got to work on the build over the past few days albeit quite slowly. I have encountered a few challenges along the way and I haven't even really got started yet.

Some of the main components:



I'm not going to post pictures of every angle showing every little detail of the case or motherboard or other components because there are many reviews with pictures of the components available on the internets and also in other worklogs here. But, I will show a few shots of the stuff I'm using.

Some of the cooling components:



A package from Germany:



And my cool custom artwork I was so anxiously awaiting:



The sleeving looking good. Obviously there's more; I ordered one of the Christmas specials, along with the tools, and this extra pieces of black and red sleeve.



And now for some shots of the components:

EVGA X58 E760 Classified 3-Way SLI:





Swiftech Apogee GTZ:



EK Waterblocks X58 Classified full mobo block:



EK GTX 285 GPU block:




Hardware Labs GTX 360:



XSPC Dual BayRes with two Swiftech MCP355 pumps and BitsPower fittings installed:




Some BP compression fittings:



The Enermax Appolish 120 fan:



This fan is really really cool, and certainly looks great. The LEDs are amazing. I told you in the first post I'm a sucker for bling. Although, I'm not sure how it will work in a liquid cooling setup. At full speed, it moves quite a bit of air but it's also pretty loud and I'm sure it will be even louder pushing that air through the radiator. In addition, it uses a built in thermistor to determine the running speed based on the temperature. This is easy to bypass; simply cut off the thermistor, solder the two leads together, heat shrink and presto bango: full speed! Still, I'm wondering how it will work when hooked to a fan controller...I'm thinking dropping the voltage to the fan will also drop the voltage to the LEDs.

PrimoFlex UV Red 1/2" by 3/4" tubing:



Ok. Now getting into the real work. I knew I would have to mod the bottom of the case in order to fit the second radiator down there. I preferred a side mount rather than flat mount, so I went with noeru's approach and planned on cutting a vent in the side panel and installing the radiator vertically. I figured this would allow more flexibility in the future. The only problem was the GTX 240 didn't want to fit down there. It's just a bit too wide. Even my old Swiftech 240 didn't want to fit down there. Looks like I was going to have to cut the bottom of the case anyway. I have to admit, I was a bit apprehensive about taking a jigsaw to a brand new, 280 dollar case.

First, you have to remove the lower hard drive cage by removing the 6 rivets that hold in the panels. Mr_Armegeddon has detailed that in his fine worklog here.



I decided to cut a small opening to allow part of the radiator to sit "below" the floor of the case. I will have to come up with some better way of securing it, although it seems like it will stay put with the fans attached. We will see how vibration affects it...







In order to prevent damage to the radiator, and dampen vibration I took some black vinyl tubing


cut it lengthwise with an Xacto knife, and wrapped it around the newly cut opening.


I had ordered a Bitspower 240 Rad Guard, and went to work cutting the opening in the side panel to provide airflow to the lower radiator.



Always remember to wear your personal protective equipment when working with power tools.



Rad Guard installed:



I decided to install a BitsPower 360 Rad Guard up top for two reasons. First, I didn't really like the way the top panel of the case looked and second, since I installed the BP 240 guard on the side, I wanted some consistency in the look.





With the major case mods out of the way, I started looking into my cooling loops. First thing I did was flush the radiators with some warm water from the sink.



I then hooked everything up and gave it a nice rinse with a very dilute vinegar / distilled water solution. I then drained the system and flushed with distilled water. I again drained, and then set up a preliminary "table-top" distilled water leak test.



I'm glad I did. I found a few failed 45 degree rotary fittings, and one 45 degree dual rotary fitting all to be leaking. In addition, the fittings on my Apogee GTZ were leaking badly, which I had never had an issue with before. Fortunately, I remembered reading in another worklog here (maybe Petrucci's) that the stock GTZ o rings were significantly thicker than the ones on the BP compression fittings. During one of the drains, I changed out the the o rings and the GTZ stopped leaking.

After the rinse/leak test, I tore down the loops and decided to mount the fans to the rads and test fit them in the case.

Looks pretty sexy if you ask me...



Some early looks at the glow of the LEDs...




And a shot of the rads/fans in the case:



So, I'm currently waiting for replacement fittings before I can continue with the cooling loops. In addition, I'm also having another issue: I'm having trouble getting screws in the correct length so they mount the fans snugly against the rads but don't penetrate so far that they will damage the fins of the radiator. I'm going to venture out to the local mom & pop hardware stores since the big boys (Lowes and Home Depot) absolutely suck when it comes to real, actual hardware. If I still can't find what I need, I'll have to look online. IF that fails, then I guess it's time to cut the screws to length.

I guess while I'm waiting for that, I'll fire up all my components and make sure everything works as is. If everything is good, I'll start installing the blocks on the mobo and GPUs and sleeving the power supply.

Until next time....

[MCS1181]

Really looking forward to seeing progress on this one, looks awesome so far man, love the red LEDs on the fans. I'm right about to do a very similar revision to my current build, with the same case, same res/pumps, and same radiator/loop scheme. I had a couple questions about the progress you've made so far if you don't mind. One, did you have any trouble fitting the XSPC res in those 5.25 bays? I saw a couple posts with people talking about that res not fitting in this particular case, which sounded odd to me. Also, what did you use to cut the side panel of the case with?

[closetredneck]

Really looking forward to seeing progress on this one, looks awesome so far man, love the red LEDs on the fans. I'm right about to do a very similar revision to my current build, with the same case, same res/pumps, and same radiator/loop scheme. I had a couple questions about the progress you've made so far if you don't mind. One, did you have any trouble fitting the XSPC res in those 5.25 bays? I saw a couple posts with people talking about that res not fitting in this particular case, which sounded odd to me. Also, what did you use to cut the side panel of the case with?

Thanks! The res fits in there without issue on my particular case. However, it does look like the "tool-less" clips that hold devices in the bays are not catching. I've never really been a fan of the "too-less" design and will probably end up screwing my devices in anyway.

As far as the cutting, I used a regular jig saw with a fine tooth blade for metal. It's something like 36 teeth per inch.

[Angmaar]

Those Enermax fans look sweet along with the rest of the build.

[HazChem]

Looking good!

I had a hard time finding the right sized screws for the fan and rad mounting so I just bought the longer screw and Dremeled it. For as much modding as you have done, that should be no problem for you!

[MCS1181]

Thanks! The res fits in there without issue on my particular case. However, it does look like the "tool-less" clips that hold devices in the bays are not catching. I've never really been a fan of the "too-less" design and will probably end up screwing my devices in anyway.

As far as the cutting, I used a regular jig saw with a fine tooth blade for metal. It's something like 36 teeth per inch.

Sweet, thanks for the reply. Yeah I've never been a fan of those tool-less clips either. The HAF, which I'm using currently has them for the 5.25"'s and for the PCI expansion slots, and both are incredibly cheap and worthless, I just use screws and plan to with the 800 as well. Glad to hear your res fit alright though.

As far as the jigsaw goes, I used one to cut my HAF side panel and it was a really tough cut and hard to keep it straight. Maybe I wasn't using the proper blade, though it said it was for metal, I broke two of them. I'm not much of a modder.

Thanks again and good luck with the build, I'll be checking back for more updates!!

[Vinas]

Looking nice! I wanted to use the same res but just didn't have the room. I'm interested to see how it works out!@

[hale88]

Look so good dude

[afireinside]

I like how you were afraid to cut at first, then ended up cutting the top and everything to. Looks really good so far!

[Serpentarius]

nice setup those led fans are truly mesmerizing ... cant lift my gaze on to them ...

rads at bottom huh? it'll be a pron if you had stacked a few 480 rads bottom ... and placed the psu top

[closetredneck]

Thanks for all the kind words and complements. I'm liking the way it's coming out as well, but it's taking a lot longer than I expected.

Looking good!

I had a hard time finding the right sized screws for the fan and rad mounting so I just bought the longer screw and Dremeled it. For as much modding as you have done, that should be no problem for you!

Yup. Tonight I grabbed the safety glasses, dremel, and cut-off wheel and took a few millimeters off about 25 screws. Pretty fun but those screws get hot! It was a fairly quick decision to use the robo-grips to hold them.

I like how you were afraid to cut at first, then ended up cutting the top and everything to. Looks really good so far!

Heh heh. I figured once I made the first cut, the damage was done so why not go all out! It was pretty fun and I think it came out alright too.

rads at bottom huh? it'll be a pron if you had stacked a few 480 rads bottom ... and placed the psu top

Now that's a neat idea! Wouldn't mind seeing someone do that...

[closetredneck]

UPDATE:

So, I set everything up on my desk a did a little test run to make sure everything was working before I started tearing heatsinks off the mainboard. I also wanted to make sure the PSU was good before I sleeve it. I ran some 3D benchmarks, some system tests, etc. and everything looked good.



I then went to work on installing the EK full board block. You need a small screwdriver to get out the stock heatsink screws.



Ughh...what a mess.



The old heatsinks:



Everything all cleaned up. I used ArcticClean Thermal Surface Purifier. Been using that stuff for years.



EK provided thermal pads to install, so I cut them down to approximate size.



And the block installed. As soon as I turned the board over, I noticed the LEDs that come with the stock heat sink can be used on the acrylic bridge EK provides. Cool! But, then I thought I should have run that wire under the block. About that time, I realized I had forgotten to remove the other layer of protective film from the thermal pads. So the block had to come off anyway. It doesn't show in this picture, but I routed the LED wire under the block, and also trimmed the excess pad from around the lower corners.



And here's the mobo in the case. It looks so tiny!



Next up was the GPUs. One of my trusty old GTX285s:



And following the same steps as the mobo. Screws out, stock heatsink off, clean, prep, thermal pads and grease, new block. I think I was a little sloppy with the Ceramique, but that stuff is hard to work with.





And here's the block installed. One thing I realized after doing this first one...remove the bracket too. Otherwise, you have to hang the end off the edge of the desk or table when you lay the card on the block. I ended up replacing it with a single bracket anyway. Also, I videoed the process on the second one, so as soon as I figure out how to edit it into something coherent, I'll post it up as my first ever YouTube video!!.



I'm still waiting on some replacement rotaries to come in, but I started playing with the tube routing. It's hard not to have long runs with the pumps/res in the drive bay. I think I'm happy with it, except at the lower GPU.





So, I guess tomorrow I'll start sleeving the PSU and fans and such. I guess that's the logical next step. Sleeve and cable management. ughh. If my fittings arrive tomorrow, I'll tighten everything up, add the coolant, and start my leak test as well.

[aka_GK]

nice and... bloody red

[noeru]

very nice Work　
"GTX240" is "XSPCRX240" than 13m / m or greater is nice in case the air flow from bottom to top?

[closetredneck]

Sorry for the lack of updates. Been a little crazy and the sleeving is taking MUCH longer than I anticipated. My fingers actually hurt from continually tightening/loosening the compression fittings, then working with the sleeving. Compounded with the dry, winter time skin, it is not very much fun. I'm also waiting on some red heatshrink to arrive so I can finish up.

I received my replacement BP rotary fittings and tightened up the loops and started a leak test....only to find a major leak at the EK GPU blocks. It didn't show during my first leak test because the blocks weren't mounted on the cards. When I put everything together in the case, I was fairly confident everything would work out. A little too confident, I guess, because I didn't notice that with the cards installed, the BP compression fitting was too wide and was catching on the PCB. This kept the compression fitting from completely tightening and would not allow the o-ring a good seal on the block. EK provides spacers, but they are too thick and there is not enough threads on the BP compression to reach the block if using the spacer. I thought about grinding away some of the PCB, but decided against it. So, I'll order some male to male G1/4 adapters and wait for them to come in. In the mean time, I've used some barbs and clamps between the two cards.

I'll post up some pictures later to show what I'm talking about.

very nice Work　
"GTX240" is "XSPCRX240" than 13m / m or greater is nice in case the air flow from bottom to top?

Yeah, it was a tight squeeze. Too tight, really, but It seems like the hole I cut in the bottom will hold it and it's not going to hurt anything by having the rad hang out. Right now, airflow is from bottom to top of the case with the fans pushing case air through the top radiator and out the top mesh. I am considering reversing this later and having the fans pull air in from the top and push it through the rad and into the case. I'll do some temperature testing with room, inside case, and loop temperatures and see how much difference it makes.

[Spazloy]

do you stil have the silverstone TJ10, i would be interested in buying it if your in the UK, or any large case for that matter, anyone got a cheap 2nd hand one going, im willing to pay somewhere around 30-50 for a large case.

oh and i love this build. Those red fans look awesome, how much are they each?

[Anemic]

Oh, I like the look of this!

[Antioch]

Yeah, I've been using ArctiClean since I bought it - but it's really just a gimmick. One bottle is simply "goo be gone" citrus scented, and the other is isopropyl rubbing alcohol. After I bought the set and tried it out once I instantly knew I had been ripped off

[nigelke]

thats nice

Love the red ^^

[Armitage]

It looks great so far, is that thermal past hanging off the side of the South bridge? Really?!