dream setup in kitchen leak test

[Richy]

Hey all, I've managed to finally round up all the parts I've been waiting/collecting for some time now, and I thought I'd share the leak test with you before the final article is complete!

My previous setup consisted of a Thermaltake Symphony, which truly is a thing of beauty. There's not many bad things said about it in reviews, but it becomes obvious fairly quickly that the whole system is restricted by 1/4"ID tubing, and tiny holes used in the reservoir.

I love this baby though, it's 4ft tall, 5x120mm fans, and WAS silent as a mouse, until the dual series pumps began making a complete racket that drove everybody in my flat nuts. SO out with the old, in with the new!
new toys:

D-Tek Fuzion v2 with quad midplate
on a q6600, previously at ~30deg 3.75GHz with the Thermaltake block, might hit 4 now?)
EK G92 8800gts 512mb block
Haven't cooled a GFX before, but this thing was LOUD
Maximus Extreme Mobo w/ 6gb ddr3 @ 1333
will be using the stock NB cooling block, I know there are less restrictive solutions, but it was fine before and I've got a meaty flow with this pump)
2x Laing DDC3.2 in series on an alphacool hardwareluxx dual top
completely silent! I chose this because I am pushing a huge loop with this setup

Anyway, here's the leak test currently taking place on my dishwasher in the kitchen:


It's on the dishwasher in the kitchen, connected to our Kitchen PC - the product of the combined boredom of my flatmate and myself in combination with many spare parts - it's got 5.1 surround and accesses videos/music from 4 computers in the house via WMP or Itunes

I removed the reservoir and pumps from this cavity to replace with an EK reservoir, there is a plate to cover this (rear view currently anyway)

dual pumps, these will be mounted in 5.25" bays

thought you might like a better look at our kitchen PC - it's syled as a mac as a long-running joke on one of my flatmates who loves them, personally they are not for me, but styling XP exactly like one is fun for the kitchen and confuses many people. Oh and the laser keyboard - tried using a keyboard whilst cooking? Doubles as a touch pad, works perfectly.

When i'm not sapping the PSU, the kitchen PC (or "Cookatron 9000") is completely hidden but for the screen + projection keyboard

Tomorrow I'll mount it all inside my case, which is in the background of the 2nd pic, there's a few modifications i've made to that which you might be interested in, I'll show you later!

[septim]

nice. once its all in the case, pls post some temps.

that cooling tower is in passive mode with no fans?

(later on suggestion would be to replace that condenser style radiator too)

[Richy]

There are 5 120mm v-low RPM fans on that rad, you can just about hear it if you put your ear to it, but airflow is good. I'll definitely post temps, but due to Uni exams, will likely be monday afternoon

[b@llz0r]

that keyboard is a great idea for the kitchen!

what is visability like with the lights on?

[Richy]

sorry KaptCrunch, I don't quite understand what you're saying, do you mean put the CPU block the right way up? Or something to do with the vertical position of the cpu/pump compared to the radiator?

[Richy]

The pumps, tubing and reservoir had to go, I love the radiator though, and also having the reservoir outside of the case.

b@llz0r: the keyboard is perfectly bright in full daylight, the positioning means it's never in direct sunlight though, might be an issue there. There are two main companies that make these things, avoid the I-tech ones, as the ones made by Celluon have 3 different sensors, which results in far more accuracy. You have control of brightness+sleep/standby settings too. It's nice when you wave your hand over the kitchen worktop after being away for a while and a keyboard appears!

[[XC] NetburstXE]

Did you make the radiator tower?

[Richy]

No, I don't have the tools/skill to build stuff to that degree, it's bloody thick aluminium, approx 5-8mm in places! My Dremel would throw a fit... The radiator tower and it's fans are all that's left of the Thermaltake Symphony.

I have a question for the pro's... If i put a pump higher than the res outlet, but run it for a day or two such that the res is higher, will it be ok to put it back down after that, considering there would be no air in the system? These dual pumps are pretty powerful, I can't personally see any problem, and i'm now testing having the pump higher than the res, no problems so far, flow is still strong after i've re-initialised it a couple times.