[Project Log] Fiery Black Knight [METAMORPHOSIS]

[alpha1ma]

Dear XS Forumers, I apologise first for the slow loading of this thread. It is mainly due to the massive amounts of images i had put up on post 1. It has always been my intent to consolidate all my updates, information and pictures on a single post so that viewers need not keep clicking next page and also minimise the chances of them skipping any useful information. For the past year, i have been browsing XS forums, viewing project logs, its always been an enriching experience, but i have to scroll down slowly to watch for any updates incase i miss any of them. Hah, so I really appreciate u guys for your patience in waiting for the pictures to load. New updates will be posted on a new post and consolidated in this post 1, sort of a double entry to make it easier for you guys.

I have put specific codes on each of the topics and sub topics or my contents. This will make it easier for you guys to refer to any part of this project log. You just have to copy the codes and input them under the find function. Shortcut for find is CLTRL + F. Please ensure you check the 'Match whole word only' option to avoid irrelevant finds.
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Contents [FBK0000]

Foreword [FBK0001]

Introduction and History [FBK0002]

Fiery Black Knight (METAMORPHOSIS) [FBK0003]

Components Line-Up [FBK0004]
Watercooling Line-Up [FBK0005]
Watercooling Set-Up [FBK0006]

Pictures (1 per each component) [FBK0007]

Pictures of Components [FBK0008]
Pictures of Watercooling Components [FBK0009]

Detailed Pictures [FBK0010]

Silverstone TJ07-BW [FBK0011]
EK Waterblocks Part 1/4 [FBK0012]
EK Waterblocks Part 2/4 [FBK0013]
EK Waterblocks Part 3/4 [FBK0014]
EK Waterblocks Part 4/4 [FBK0015]
Watercooling Components Part 1/5 [FBK0016]
Watercooling Components Part 2/5 [FBK0017]
Watercooling Components Part 3/5 [FBK0018]
Watercooling Components Part 4/5 [FBK0019]
Watercooling Components Part 5/5 [FBK0020]
3 x Asus GTX 280 1GB [FBK0021]
Silverstone Zeus ZM1200M [FBK0022]
Custom Case for Radiator Placement [FBK0023]

Problems Encountered Part 1/2 [FBK0024]
Problems Encountered Part 2/2 [FBK0025]

Setting Up [FBK0026]

Setting up CPU Loop Part 1/3 [FBK0027]
Setting up CPU Loop Part 2/3 [FBK0028]
Setting up CPU Loop Part 3/3 [FBK0029]
Mounting EK-FC280 GTX - Nickel Plated waterblock Part 1/2 [FBK0030]
Mounting EK-FC280 GTX - Nickel Plated waterblock Part 2/2 [FBK0031]
Setting up GPU Loop Part 1/2 [FBK0032]
Setting up GPU Loop Part 2/2 [FBK0033]

Fiery Black Knight (METAMORPHOSIS) Completed [FBK0034]




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Foreword [FBK0001]

First and foremost, i would like to thank the fellow people for their various important contributions, guidance, patience, advices, suggestions, support, comments that make all of this possible.

[In Alphabetical Order]

bianco [nice knowing the first time u asked mi bout the intel core 2 extreme processor..then later on we end up trying to poison each other..hah..and we share the same liking for black and red..((: and thnx for helping mi out with the bitspower fittings..o: i realli learnt loads of things from u..four bros..d:]

Doraemon269 [yoz, i seek out advice from u while i was overclocking the q9450..ur 3.8ghz was realli a wonder..]

dragonknightz [hah..u are the very first one that poisoned mi to watercool]

froze [i still recall our first encounter..(: hee..but we went on great ever since that..and i am realli very fortunate to have u guide my first outline for the cpu loop..((: thnk u froze! watercooling doraemon and his arrays of watercooling poisons..and all the MOs and and all the hardwares..(((:]

heartykid [another wc poisoner..(:]

iversongarnett [thnx everything, from guiding mi in overclocking from the very start of my project..learnt loads from u later on..everything bout hardwares and softwares, information of everything around the tech world..thnk u!! not forgetting that time when we had our great time trying to outperform each other in vantage gpus scores..haha..the four bros..(:]

joos7er [still remb the first time i seek ur advice bout the z5500 and xfi prelude..? hah..and not forgetting u persuade mi to get a q9450 instead of a q9550..i am glad..o: and later on we commited ourselves to watercooling our gpus..hahah..]

nashaz [hee...won't forget u, one of the threes who assisted mi along with the overclocking and all..thnx! hehe..and compliments from u, a pro modder, is realli fantastic..d:]

pissing_intel [hee..sir..we realli had a nice time overclocking and trying to outbeat each other..((: u won the first round..and ig won the second using i7 ):..i have yet to won any..hahha..but cheers!! the four bros..(:]

VR-Zoners [thnk u guys..u are a great group of people i came to noe..and meet..and respect..btw i might have left out a few ppl coz i cant remb so much things at once..i do have a poor memory hah..will add on if i recall..d:]
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Introduction and History [FBK0002]

This project log has come a long way. It started from April 2008 with the purchase of a Silverstone Zeus ST85ZF 850W. From then on..its full steam ahead in gettting all those hardwares to materialise my rig. I had a red and black theme in mind. And i named the rig i was gonna build..Black Knight..here's the pic..







after that i proceeded to mount 2 x Thermalright HR-03 GT on my two pieces of 9800GTX, got myself 2 blowholes by the side of TJ09 panel in a bid to reduce my GPUs IDLE and LOAD temps. The results were good..total drop of 20 degrees in load temps.. With the addition of 2 more red tracers..i renamed my rig Fiery Black Knight coz of the amount of heat it is releasing and the strong fiery red given off by the leds. Here's the pics..








i was doing quite a bit of overclocking on my Q9450 but onli managed a 3.7 Ghz..in an attempt to get about this FSB wall..i went to purchase Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650..it was a great processor..made for overclocking..i managed a 4.4 Ghz on TRUE itself..managed to break my personal record for 3DMark 06..but the temperature of the processor is realli high..i decided to try out a watercooling kit to see if it cools well..the results is not spectacular..a few degrees lower than the TRUE..but i got the hang of whole WC works..heres the pics..






The time period is now october 2008..here comes a great promotion on Asus GTX 280 1GB graphics card..its SGD 400 a piece..i simply cant resist the offer...its supposedly used for a compy..but apparently the cards i got were quite new..i believed its brand new..with this cards..i embarked on a frenzy quest to get my vantage scores up..i gave up on 3DMark 06 coz the newer cards GT200 does not scale well in that benchmark..Vantage is a more accurate bench for GTX 280..i managed to achieve a 23k GPU score..throughout the benching..i realise that GTX 280 is way hotter than the 9800GTX..this is where i have the notion of going custom watercooling..and i did went custom watercooling..i made several heavy changes to my Fiery Black Knight and here begins the start of METAMORPHOSIS...





Why did you went for custom liquid cooling?

Theres a couple of reasons in delving into custom cooling. Previously, i was using the swiftech 120 compact cooling kit. It was able to cool the cpu better than a thermalright heatsink, but not by a huge margin. I wanted very much to get something that is capable of cooling my cpu more effectively. After all, i overclocked my cpu moderately (3 Ghz to 4.4 Ghz) for daily use (benching and gaming), and needed to realli keep the temps low..previous swiftech kit onli manage to keep it around 85 degrees celcius during load. The other reason is my gpus. GTX 280s is realli pretty hot on their stock coolers. Temperature for load soar between 76 plus to 85, 90 plus degrees celcius.

Why do you go for 3 Way SLI?

hah..main reason is i had already decided on watercooling my mb, cpu and gpu. hence might as well get another card to maximise the potential of my rig. After all, i had a 780i mb which is capable of 3 Way SLI.

Brief Outline of Metamorphosis

- New Casing
- 3 Way SLI
- New PSU
- Custom WC (2 Loops)
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Fiery Black Knight [METAMORPHOSIS] [FBK0003]

Components Line-Up [FBK0004]

[Monitor] Dell 2408WFP 24" LCD
[Speakers] Logitech Z5500-Digital 5.1
[Mouse] Razer Copperhead Tempest Blue
[Keyboard] Razer Lycosa
[Operating System] Windows Vista Ultimate 32 Bit / 64 Bit

[Processor] Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 3.0 Ghz
[Motherboard] Asus Striker 2 Formula 780i
[Ram] 4 x 2GB Crucial Ballistix Red Tracers 800 Mhz
[Graphics] 3 x 1GB Asus GTX 280
[HDD] Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB GLFS
[HDD] Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB
[Soundcard] Auzentech X-Fi Prelude 7.1
[Optical] Pioneer DVR-213LS
[PSU] Silverstone Zeus ZM1200M 1200W
[Casing] Silverstone TJ07-BW

Watercooling Line-Up [FBK0005]

[CPU Waterblock] 1 x Swiftech Apogee GTZ Extreme Performance
[GPU Waterblock] 3 x EK-FC280 GTX SLI - Nickle Plated Acrylic
[Northbridge Waterblock] 1 x EK-NB S-MAX Acetal
[Southbridge Waterblock] 1 x EK-SB Striker 2 Formula Acetal MODDED
[Mosfets Waterblock] 2 x EK-Mosfet ASUS 3a Acetal

[Pump] 2 x Swiftech MCP355 12v DC Pump
[Reservoir] 2 x XSPC Acrylic Reservoir for Laing DDC
[Radiator] 2 x Feser X-Changer QUAD 480 Extreme Performance Radiator
[Tubing] 20 Feet Tygon B-44-4X Food, Milk and Dairy 1/2in. ID 3/4in. OD Laboratory Tubing
[Coolant] 2L Feser One F1 Cooling Fluid UV Red

[Fittings] 1 x Bitspower G 1/4 Shining Silver Dual Rotary Angle Fitting
[Fittings] 1 x Bitspower G 1/4 Shining Silver Extender
[Fittings] 2 x Bitspower Shining G 1/4 Silver D-Plug Set
[Fittings] 14 x Bitspower 1/2in. Compression Fittings for 3/4in. OD Tubing

[Fan Controller] 2 x Scythe KazeMaster 5.25"
[Fan Controller] NZXT Sentry LX 5.25"
[Fans] 8 x Scythe Slipstream 120mm 110 cfm
[Fans] 5 x Zalman ZMF3-RL 120mm
[Fans] 2 x Zalman ZMF2-RL 92mm
[Custom Case]

Watercooling Set-Up [FBK0006]

[CPU Loop] CPU > NB > Mosfet > Mosfet > Radiator > Reservoir > Pump > CPU
[GPU Loop] GPU 1 > GPU 2 > GPU 3 > SB > Radiator > Reservoir > Pump > GPU 1




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Pictures (1 per each component) [FBK0007]

Pictures of Component [FBK0008]

[In Above's Order]

















Pictures of Watercooling Component [FBK0009]

[In Above's Order]





















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Detailed Pictures [FBK0010]

[Starting with the first item bought for METAMORPHOSIS phase]

Silverstone TJ07-BW [FBK0011]







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EK Waterblocks Part 1/4 [FBK0012]
EK frenzy!





EK-NB S-MAX Acetal







EK-SB Striker 2 Acetal







EK-Mosfet Asus 3a Acetal








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EK Waterblocks Part 2/4 [FBK0013]
Metal fitting..thnx bianco!





EK-FC280 GTX RAM Backplate







EK plugs..spot the odd one out..







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EK Waterblocks Part 3/4 [FBK0014]
EK-FC280 GTX SLI - Nickel Plated










EK!!!






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EK Waterblocks Part 4/4 [FBK0015]
EK-FC280 GTX SLI - Nickel Plated









EK-FC280 GTX SLI Backplate






EK Stopper






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Watercooling Components Part 1/5 [FBK0016]
Watercooling Components Line-Up





OCZ XTC RAM Cooler





2 x 60mm Fan Red Led





8 x Scythe SlipStream SY1225SL12SH 110CFM








Feser TFC Xtender Radiator Shroud Red Led








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Watercooling Components Part 2/5 [FBK0017]
Nexus 92mm to 120mm Fan Adapter





Sleeves, heatshrinks and adaters





Bitspower X-Station Red Led







Scythe Kazemaster







2 x XSPC Premium Acrylic Reservoir for Laing DDC







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Watercooling Components Part 3/5 [FBK0018]
Akasa PaxMate II Noise Reduction Kit






10 x 3-Pin Extension Cable





92mm Fan Filter





10 x Herbie Hose Clamp






2 x Bitspower Premium D-Plug







Single Slot Back Plate






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Watercooling Components Part 4/5 [FBK0019]
2 x Swiftech MCP355 Pump








16 x Bitspower 0.5" Compression Fittings + Black Sparkle






lol..i learnt this from bianco..copied is a better word..d: GIVE MI AN A!!





Tighter! Close in Alpha Team!





Swiftech Apogee GTZ Extreme Performance Waterblock







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Watercooling Components Part 5/5 [FBK0020]
20 Feet Tygon B-44-4X Food Milk and Dairy 1/2"ID 3/4"OD Tubing #AAA00038





Feser One F1 Cooling Fluid UV Red






Feser X-Changer QUAD 480 Extreme Performance Radiator











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3 x Asus GTX 280 1GB [FBK0021]









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Silverstone Zeus ZM1200M [FBK0022]









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Custom Case for Radiator Placement [FBK0023]











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Problems Encountered Part 1/2 [FBK0024]

Radiator Placement

Initial plan of mounting a Feser 480 on the TJ07 backplate is abandoned as TJ07 backplate is much too weak to support the Feser 480. Was having this idea previously cause i was using TJ09 at that time and the backplate is much more sturdy. I finally decided to opt for the option of placing the entire radiator outside the TJ07 case. A custom case or some sort of rad box (except the radiator is gonna be mounted outside the custom case) is used to solve this problem. Let the pictures do the talking..

Mounting Radiator on Custom Case



















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Problems Encountered Part 2/2 [FBK0025]

EK-SB Striker 2 Formula Acetal

Ok, this problem all started ever since i decided to go for 3 Way SLI rather than sticking SLI. Previously was not going custom watercooling, hence GTX 280 SLI was the best i can go for to ensure i have a slot available for my Auzentech X-Fi Prelude soundcard. However I decided to go custom watercooling ever since i learnt that the GPUs are scoring really high temperatures during the benching of vantage. At the start, i wasnt planning to go for 3 Way SLI. I was sourcing out my watercooling components with my SLI setup in mind. Upon checking the compatible list for EK waterblocks, I was thankful the EK-SB Striker 2 Formula Acetal can be used since I was just going for SLI. The list mentioned that a 3 Way SLI is not compatible with that waterblock. So I bought that Southbridge block happily. However, as time goes by, a thought hit mi on why not go for 3 Way SLI setup since watercooled cards only take up a single slot. With that thought in mind, I bought another GTX and totally forgotten about the Southbridge limitations. And on one fine day, I was gearing up myself to start building my rig, when i realise that the big problem of my Southbridge waterblock. The compatible list came to my mind and I was at a loss. I contacted EK through froze and got the reply that this Southbridge waterblock should work with watercooled GPUs. I was abit upset to hear that. Apparently I was being doubted. Hence nevertheless I decided to mount it to prove that it cant. And attached below are the pictures. Do note that the GPU cant even be mounted with those two barbs fittings attached. Only upon removal can the GPU be mounted.




As you can see from the pictures, the right hole is blocked by the second GPU, and even though the left hole is not blocked, you can hardly screw a barb in there. froze was very helpful and contacted EK once again with the pictures for reference. I recommended the only solution I thought was viable and that was to custom a waterblock for NB and SB together like what Bitspower had done. However the response was a negative. I was a bit upset, purely because EK was unable to offer a solution and my recommendation was rejected. But I was definitely not pissed or so upset by EK. I mean come on guys, I was sort of expecting a solution one way or another and it din happen. Coz I will feel a bit down but definitely no hard feelings. Plus, EK list specifically stated that that southbridge waterblock cant be used for 3 Way SLI. To tell you the truth, I was pretty mad at myself for my forgetfulness. Hah, anyway, lets get on. The problem in hand was the southbridge incompatibleness with 3 Way SLI. I spent lots of time trying to think of a way to get about it. I came up with several solutions. The simplest one was to get a small fan for my southbridge. The hardest one was to get someone to customise a new southbridge waterblock. I decided to go somewhere in between by choosing to get someone to mod the current EK southbridge waterblock instead of customising a totally new southbridge waterblock. I took measurements and draft up several plans. It was pretty difficult and I have to really ensure a high degree of accuracy to ensure the final product fits. And less than a week, I finally have a MODDED EK southbridge. I was really excited and also anxious to see if it really works. The top and the two tubings for inlet and outlet are made of brass. Silver brazing at 1K degrees celcius for the tubings and soldering at 300 degrees celcius between the top and the block itself. Heh, enough of technical data, lets get on with the pictures.




EK-SB Striker 2 Acetal - FBK MOD

















Problem solved






Note: I would like to restate my point that the SB problem occured solely due to myself. EK has stated that it would not work. Hah..I was only a bit upset that a solution din came up, thats all. I would like to take this opportunity to thank EK instead for providing those awsome quality waterblocks. Just look at the amount of EK blocks I indulged myself with..lol.. And a personal big thank you to Eddy, for doing everything possible to make everything tie up nicely. After all, this modding of the EK southbridge block only proved another point, that EK blocks are customisable too. Thnk U! Not forgetting my dear froze..lol..who had helped mi tremendously throughout my METAMORPHOSIS phase. Its hard to be a middleman and get such massive amounts of orders together and I thank you once again..




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Setting Up [FBK0026]
Setting up CPU Loop Part 1/3 [FBK0027]

Setting up the HDD Cage






Silverstone





Replacing Striker 2 Chipets, Mosfet Coolers






haha..onli to realise the SB waterblock cant be used for 3 Way Sli arrangement.



Temporary Solution





Swiftech GTZ









My messy setup area..lol






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Setting up CPU Loop Part 2/3 [FBK0028]

Sleeving..sleeving..








Temporary Soundcard Solution






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Setting up CPU Loop Part 3/3 [FBK0029]

Final Product

ok..no exactly final..juz a single loop on my cpu + nb + mosfets
still thinking of where to put the second loop or if not..selling it away..
awaits ek response..:o












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Mounting EK-FC280 GTX - Nickel Plated waterblock Part 1/2 [FBK0030]

Taking a last look at my stock GTX







Dismantling the Cooler









Before and After using Arctic Cleaning Kit








EK-FC280 GTX - Nickel Plated waterblock mounted










Bye bye stock coolers.. ):






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Mounting EK-FC280 GTX - Nickel Plated waterblock Part 2/2 [FBK0031]

Triple goodness!! d:










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Setting up GPU Loop Part 1/2 [FBK0032]

Preparing to mount the three GPUs together













Tightening the SB tubings with zipties









After mounting the GPUs



realise that sound card is in the way..need an extender..plus a 90 degree barb coz mid plate is in the way..





Bianco to the rescue..









Problem solved!







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Setting up GPU Loop Part 2/2 [FBK0033]

Leak Test!!










Enters Feser Coolant!








Under UV Light!









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Fiery Black Knight [METAMORHPOSIS] [FBK0034]

Fiery Black Knight - Completed














Fiery Black Knight - Powered Up!