Project "CUBEIT"

[septim]

remove stock thermal adhesive pad, use superglue on 4corners and tim in middle,
this procedure worked for me better.
use blade to remove adhesive, and be careful.

[GeoffP]

remove stock thermal adhesive pad, use superglue on 4corners and tim in middle,
this procedure worked for me better.
use blade to remove adhesive, and be careful.

Thanks septim,
What is "tim"?
Also, super doesn't transfer heat, does it?
So you would loose heat transference from the corners, and only get it from the middle of the chip with the "tim" transference compound - am I right?

If I leave the stock adhesive on, do they fall off by themselves? That could be quite a problem.

[alpha0ne]

Nice pics GeoffP, I got a boner

[GeoffP]

Nice pics GeoffP, I got a boner

LOL - thanks - I think

[GeoffP]

OK, I'm really, really pissed off.

The adhesive tape on the Swiftech BGA Memory Heatsinks is pathetic.

Had all the heatsinks fixed, putting on the Tygon tubing, the tubing just has to slightly touch the heatsink, and it ing falls off.

If I breath hard, the ing heatsink falls off.

Septim, you said use tim in the center - is that thermal interface material or something else. I need to know now as I'm certainly not relying on the adhesive to hold the bloody heat sinks on.

I was going great guns until this, good thing I do have some super glue.

What does everyone else do to hold on the heat sinks?

EDIT: Looks like Arctic Silver Adhesive will do the job.

One question re this, it did mention that using AS adhesive by itself will create a permanent bond, I did read that you can mix it with AS5 which will allow you to remove the heat sink in the future if required - anyone done this?

Now I have a time consuming job - remove the crappy thermal tape from 22 ram heat sinks - that will take a long time, it is really tough to get off Good thing I have a lot of acetone - should do the job.

[septim]

yep ceramique or mx1 or as5, so far only 1 fell down on me. use needle to apply 4 corners with glue.

*anti gravity sinks?*

[GeoffP]

Think I'll go with the AS Adhesive Septim. Thanks anyway.
Unfortunately doesn't seem to be any store in Melbourne that supplies it open on a Sunday.

[GeoffP]

Update on Saturdays work:

Pulled out the G80 adapter plate I bought earlier in the week and just made sure the mounting holes lined up - good for my piece of mind..


OK, first job was to gut the GPU's:

The existing fan & heat sink unit came off in about 10 seconds - removed the screws, slide it to break the seal, and lifted it off - simple


Cleaned up


Heat sinks on - as per earlier in my thread, HEAPS of problems with these things staying on


MCW60 fitted


2 cards stripped down and ready to rock
NB: I also changed the dual mounting plates for single plates


My son lost interest and went off to play KungFu on his computer


Next job is the CPU:

Old Zalman 9700 CPU cooler removed, CPU cleaned up


FuZion mounting screws screwed into Thermalright LGA775 RM LGA775 Retention Bracket. No drilling out of bracket required


FuZion mounted ready for tension springs


Finished


Started experimenting with loop and equipment positioning.
Got interesting at this point as I realized that even though the case is great, I would have liked a bit MORE room It is certainly EXCELLENT to work with though, can get your hands in ANYWHERE.
Found a really good position for the res, tucked up in between the two drive bays, great spot. I also had to swing the rad around 180 degress from my initial positioning.
I thought if I can keep the loop on one side, and the power supply and myriad of cables on the other side, that would be a good thing. Unfortunately my power supply is not modular (note to myself, but a bloody modular supply next time )
Will have to redo the pump position I think - I also forgot my drain line which will go in after the pump

It was a this stage that I realized that the 1/2" ID tubing is really, really WIDE/THICK. Had all sorts of problems getting the 2 worm clamps onto the FuZion barbs, and (to me) impossible to get them onto the MCW60 barbs.
I will have to use cable ties for the MCW60's I think.

Also found that while I was working on the GPU's, the bloody ram sinks would get knocked EVER so slightly and fall off.
Stopped there for the night, did some reading on the net and decided I definitely need some Arctic Silver Adhesive for these things.

Last job for the night was to cut out a hole in the bottom of the drive bay with a hole saw. This will allow me to feed cables into the drive bay and keep them relatively hidden as well.
NB: Even though I did dremmel it out and the hole edges are very smooth I will still be fitting a grommet - will do the same for the other drive bay as well


On Sunday all I can do is clean up the 22 ram sinks and play around with the loop configuration. Can't get any adhesive until Monday. BUGGER - was hoping to be practically finished by Sunday.

[[cTx] Nooc]

Nice job Geoff!

That black PCB Gainward is just yum

[Hard H20]

I see you are cursed with 1 black pcb and green pcb. I'm in the same boat. I'll swop you my green pcb for your black pcb.

[GeoffP]

I see you are cursed with 1 black pcb and green pcb. I'm in the same boat. I'll swop you my green pcb for your black pcb.

Yep
Comes down to not being able to source a second XFX when I wanted it. Had to settle for the Gainward.

I do have a can of black spray paint, I could always..........

[septim]

lolz, nice job on that, carry on man...

no to the spraypainted XFX..... again Lolz.

hope your ramsinks stays on this time...

[GeoffP]

Just spent the last 90 minutes cleaning the thermal adhesive tape off the ram sinks.
That tape is bloody hard to remove.
I am using Arctic Clean 1 & 2 Thermal Material Removers but it is still hard work.
Initially used my finger nail, gave up on that quite quickly, swapped to my Frequent Flyer card, much better.
Anywho, having a bit of a break, done 14 sinks, ONLY 8 to go.
NB: My thumb feels like it is going to fall off

FINALLY finished
BEFORE AFTER

Only took 2 1/2 hours...

[septim]

hehehe, told you to use a blade on em. put AC1 to soften em up then blade em off, then clean with AC2...

[[cTx] Nooc]

damn I remember doing that with my ancient nf2 NB heatsink. I used some axe body spray in that it contained some alcohol, it helped A LOT but still took time; the sinks were forever doomed with smell of ty fragrance

[ranker]

Just spent the last 90 minutes cleaning the thermal adhesive tape off the ram sinks.
That tape is bloody hard to remove.
I am using Arctic Clean 1 & 2 Thermal Material Removers but it is still hard work.
Initially used my finger nail, gave up on that quite quickly, swapped to my Frequent Flyer card, much better.
Anywho, having a bit of a break, done 14 sinks, ONLY 8 to go.
NB: My thumb feels like it is going to fall off

FINALLY finished
BEFORE AFTER

Only took 2 1/2 hours...

Jesus. I didn't even go to those lengths. I just put the AS-A/Ceramique mix directly on top the tape.

[serialk11r]

LOL wow lots of people are having serious problems with the heatsinks on the RAM. Did your son loose interest, or did you have to kick him out because you were saying inappropriate words while putting the sinks on?

[GeoffP]

Jesus. I didn't even go to those lengths. I just put the AS-A/Ceramique mix directly on top the tape.

I may be slightly "ANAL RETENTIVE"

[GeoffP]

Did some more work on the loop today as well.


Still have to add the 2 GPU's, but that will be done after I have stuck on the ram sinks.

Not too sure about the positioning of the drain tube. Is this a good position? If I moved it down towards the rad any more I started to loose the free flowing bend in the tubing. At the moment I can't see any flattening in the curves which is good.

I also cut down the pump power cord and sleeved it as well

At this stage I think I will be putting the power supply at the top of the case - that gives me a natural fall down behind the mobo tray for all the power cables as well as freeing up a lot of real estate on the base of the case on the pump side.

I also moved the pump from the mobo side as it was getting too cramped, and that was without the drain tube as well so I think the layout is a bit better now.

I'm open for comments - good and bad please for the loop layout so far.

[GeoffP]

LOL wow lots of people are having serious problems with the heatsinks on the RAM. Did your son loose interest, or did you have to kick him out because you were saying inappropriate words while putting the sinks on?

both

[ranker]

Did some more work on the loop today as well.


Still have to add the 2 GPU's, but that will be done after I have stuck on the ram sinks.

Not too sure about the positioning of the drain tube. Is this a good position? If I moved it down towards the rad any more I started to loose the free flowing bend in the tubing. At the moment I can't see any flattening in the curves which is good.

I also cut down the pump power cord and sleeved it as well

At this stage I think I will be putting the power supply at the top of the case - that gives me a natural fall down behind the mobo tray for all the power cables as well as freeing up a lot of real estate on the base of the case on the pump side.

I also moved the pump from the mobo side as it was getting too cramped, and that was without the drain tube as well so I think the layout is a bit better now.

I'm open for comments - good and bad please for the loop layout so far.

Any idea where to go for a comprehensive site for sleeving, molex modding, psu modding instructions? I'm on the last leg of finishing off my system for good and I'm looking to cut my ATX cable from my PSU down by half of its length as well as relocating molexes and sleeving them. However, I'm a bit scared to just read tid bits here and there and jump in. A PCP&C 1K PSU doesn't come cheap...

[MnM]

Not too sure about the positioning of the drain tube. Is this a good position? If I moved it down towards the rad any more I started to loose the free flowing bend in the tubing. At the moment I can't see any flattening in the curves which is good.

But this http://www.pccasegear.com.au/prod1944.htm

Then you have more freedom to position the tubin as you want. I am using it on my current water cooled system and it works just fine.

As for me I am still questioning my sanity after seeing the total of the UFO case + rad. Is arounf 1K... Still not decided if I want to pay that much... looking at the DD - Water Box Plus maybe I will end up buying that one - with postage is less than the cost of the UFO case. Still undecided ... has anyone got anything (bad/good) to say about the DD - Water Box Plus?
(https://www.dangerden.com/store/prod...3&cat=1&page=1)
As for you GeoffP - would you still buy the case if you knew then your experience from now?

[InTheFlow]

Still have to add the 2 GPU's, but that will be done after I have stuck on the ram sinks.

I'm open for comments - good and bad please for the loop layout so far.

Your build is coming along nicely. I especially like how you did the fan controller using the custom bay cover...excellent work.

About the RAM sinks and thermal adhesive. I highly recommend that you NOT use the thermal adhesive by itself. It is better to mix some Arctic Silver 5 in with it so that if you need to remove the sinks later, you'll be able to do so without as much hair pulling as I went through.

Any idea where to go for a comprehensive site for sleeving, molex modding, psu modding instructions? I'm on the last leg of finishing off my system for good and I'm looking to cut my ATX cable from my PSU down by half of its length as well as relocating molexes and sleeving them. However, I'm a bit scared to just read tid bits here and there and jump in. A PCP&C 1K PSU doesn't come cheap...

I don't recommend cutting your PCP&C's main ATX cable. There are more creative ways to minimize cable clutter. For example; you could fold the cable over on itself, zip tie it and then sleeve over top of that to keep the 'clump' from looking bad.

If you were to cut the cable to shorten it and needed to use it in a different case or with a different motherboard in the future, you'll be up the creek unless you want to 'un-mod' your previous 'shorten the cable mod'.

[GeoffP]

Any idea where to go for a comprehensive site for sleeving, molex modding, psu modding instructions? I'm on the last leg of finishing off my system for good and I'm looking to cut my ATX cable from my PSU down by half of its length as well as relocating molexes and sleeving them. However, I'm a bit scared to just read tid bits here and there and jump in. A PCP&C 1K PSU doesn't come cheap...

I found a link on sleeving which was very descriptive - will try to find it for you. I used that information to do the fans on the rad shroud. After that its dead easy to do.

You just need a good soldering iron (with flame adapter for heat shrink shrinking), solder, sleeving, heat shrink, good set of cutters, electrical tape, sharp scissors to cut electrical tape, molex pin removers, bite your tongue and off you go. ALWAYS remember to make a note of the pin-out of ANY cables you remove from a molex connector (or take a photo for visual reference).

I have also purchase some extra wide sleeving which I will be using to help hide some of the power supply cables which wont be needed. Next supply I buy will definitely be modular in design - MUCH better idea.

Once you have done a couple of sleeves, its quite infectious

[GeoffP]

Your build is coming along nicely. I especially like how you did the fan controller using the custom bay cover...excellent work.

About the RAM sinks and thermal adhesive. I highly recommend that you NOT use the thermal adhesive by itself. It is better to mix some Arctic Silver 5 in with it so that if you need to remove the sinks later, you'll be able to do so without as much hair pulling as I went through.

Thanks mate,
I will definitely be mixing AS5 or Ceramique with the adhesive. Like the option of undoing what I have done.