MM U2-UFO and Horizon: The never ending 2 in 1 worklog (56k warning)

[ranker]

I used a stack of two thin ceramic tiles only because they were available after a home improvement kitchen project and also already conveniently cut to size to fit the base of the PCPC (a bit smaller). I didn't think about heat dissipation because that wasn't my intent, but I suppose ceramic does dissipate some heat. I also suppose that it also helps with noise vibration, but I wouldn't hold my breathe on that. My concern was the darn weight of the 1kW. Stupid question... the Silencer is stable and uneventful, right?

Very solid and stable and reviewed well across a variety of sites. I haven't had any problems. You'll notice I don't trust modular power supplies at all.

My current struggle is actual "floor space" in my case.. as in there's none. Moving the 1kW out and switching to a Silencer 750W would save a few precious cubic inches. I just see no viable way to mount more than one RD30, and in fact, I may have to do it sideways on the mobo tray and I am 100% unexcited about that.

It just hit me in the face that moving to stacked Dualities will not solve my problem because I will again lack floor space. At least the PSUs will be tucked away in the center column, but I will face the same old BS again. Another alternate long shot is to find some sort of external case for the pumps with some sort of sound absorption foam.. but then there will be unsightly tubes everywhere. I am in a big dilemma.

This was the reason I moved towards the Horizon instead. The Horizon offers more floor space as seen by the other Horizon build with two RD-30's in it. The U2-UFO has a ton of vertical space, but lacks the floor space that I need for my huge plethora of pumps and reservoirs.

[IanY]

ranker,

You'll never find a modular PSU in my home. My one and only one was an Antec consumer 500W unit bought at Staples under a desparate situation (lightning strike and a wife without a PSU). It lasted all of two days before a blackout took it out (and I had an APC UPS going.. scary). I returned that POS and got my $80 back.

Regarding the Horizon, my objection is its lack of radiator mountings. I have grown fond of the Duality precisely for that reason, and I had asked for a different front panel on my Optimax for that reason as well. I guess I can't have my cake and eat it too. I'm used to mounting DDC2s sideways, and even D5s as well, but the RD30s (seen one in real life at a distributor) is a different animal and I fear for the well being of the flimsy aluminum mobo tray. I would be a lot more confident if it were made of steel.

Have you switched to MX1 paste or do you use AS5 or Ceramique ? Do you know much about the Shin Etsu paste ?

[DarthBeavis]

come on now, that chick's on the back of every tractor trailers mud flap from Cali to DC. but nice job getting it set up for a custom rig. i always wondered hpw that came about.

andyc

Show me the mudflap with these one them:



The second one I made from:

[ranker]

ranker,

You'll never find a modular PSU in my home. My one and only one was an Antec consumer 500W unit bought at Staples under a desparate situation (lightning strike and a wife without a PSU). It lasted all of two days before a blackout took it out (and I had an APC UPS going.. scary). I returned that POS and got my $80 back.

Regarding the Horizon, my objection is its lack of radiator mountings. I have grown fond of the Duality precisely for that reason, and I had asked for a different front panel on my Optimax for that reason as well. I guess I can't have my cake and eat it too. I'm used to mounting DDC2s sideways, and even D5s as well, but the RD30s (seen one in real life at a distributor) is a different animal and I fear for the well being of the flimsy aluminum mobo tray. I would be a lot more confident if it were made of steel.

Have you switched to MX1 paste or do you use AS5 or Ceramique ? Do you know much about the Shin Etsu paste ?

I just recently switched over to MX-1 on my Horizon. I'm using Ceramique on my U2-UFO. I haven't had a chance to compare differences in temps yet but I doubt they'll viable results since I'm changing multiple things in my loop atm. I just hope I didn't get a rise in temps on my CPU's loop.

[Jedda]

Thinking about it, those ceramic tiles probably function as a heat shield, ala' Space Shuttle. They'd reflect heat but be very slow to absorb and radiate it.

Great thread, ranker.
Like you, my efforts don't fit a beginning to end, my mod thread. So it's a bit inspirational to see one laid out as where you're at with pics. I might start my own pilgrim's progress thread for my V2.
Finally have the second V1000+ and all day free to strip out it's internals.
Can't do a components pic, as there's no place free to lay them all out in the house and I'd be able to add up the outlay. Don't want to do that!

[ranker]

Thinking about it, those ceramic tiles probably function as a heat shield, ala' Space Shuttle. They'd reflect heat but be very slow to absorb and radiate it.

Great thread, ranker.
Like you, my efforts don't fit a beginning to end, my mod thread. So it's a bit inspirational to see one laid out as where you're at with pics. I might start my own pilgrim's progress thread for my V2.
Finally have the second V1000+ and all day free to strip out it's internals.
Can't do a components pic, as there's no place free to lay them all out in the house and I'd be able to add up the outlay. Don't want to do that!

Thanks, I only wish I had my camera to document the work I'm doing on my Horizon as we speak and get some quality pics of my finished U2.

I'll be looking forward to seeing whatever project you're working on as well. We might as well share all of our best ideas

[Jedda]

I'll be looking forward to seeing whatever project you're working on as well. We might as well share all of our best ideas

Mine is driven by the same parameters as your's.
*Start build
*Buy too much to fit in case
*Start again with bigger case
*Buy more bits
*Start again, moding two cases to make one big enough to fit all the bells and whistles.
I'm sure underpants fits in there somewhere?

I call it the V2. It's two Lian-Li V1000+ bolted together.
Mobo and drives in the first half, with rads n stuff in the second. M-cube sensors up the yin yang should give me hours of happy tinkering once it's together as there's plenty of options for rad/loops/airflow tuning.

[ranker]

Mine is driven by the same parameters as your's.
*Start build
*Buy too much to fit in case
*Start again with bigger case
*Buy more bits
*Start again, moding two cases to make one big enough to fit all the bells and whistles.
I'm sure underpants fits in there somewhere?

You just basically described my entire work log. LOL.

I call it the V2. It's two Lian-Li V1000+ bolted together.
Mobo and drives in the first half, with rads n stuff in the second. M-cube sensors up the yin yang should give me hours of happy tinkering once it's together as there's plenty of options for rad/loops/airflow tuning.

This I gotta see. By the way, the only thing that prevents a clean look for my case will be the humongous amount of wires I'll be utilizing to monitor everything with my mCubed suite. The only thing that irks me is that if I utilize my digital thermometers, I can only monitor the temperature of the copper block itself instead of being able to place it directly on whatever die I'd like to monitor with the analogue sensors.

I'm wondering if the temps off the copper block are even worthwhile to monitor. Anyone know if they're close enough to the real temps off the die?

[IanY]

ranker,

How do you like those Sharkoon 2000s ? I think I am going to try one of them to see how I like them.

[ranker]

ranker,

How do you like those Sharkoon 2000s ? I think I am going to try one of them to see how I like them.

I like em better than my Thunderblades, Scythe Sflex F's, and a few other fans I have lying around. For pure silence, nothing beats the Silverstone's or Yates, although I find the Yates to be better on radiators than the silverstones. For radiator fans, the Golfball 2000's have been the best from my totally unobjective testing. Basically they kept temps low with the least amount of noise to my ears.

[Jedda]

Yeah, black sleeving helps reduce the m-cube spaghetti visually, at least. Like you I'm going to try both analogue and digital sensors to discover what works. I'm hoping the digital ones can help sort hot spots and airflow over the 680 board's mofets and such.
Wouldn't it be nice if the motherboard manufacturers properly calibrated the cpu sensors?
The whole build really revolves around how hot that mobo runs.

[ranker]

Yeah, black sleeving helps reduce the m-cube spaghetti visually, at least. Like you I'm going to try both analogue and digital sensors to discover what works. I'm hoping the digital ones can help sort hot spots and airflow over the 680 board's mofets and such.
Wouldn't it be nice if the motherboard manufacturers properly calibrated the cpu sensors?
The whole build really revolves around how hot that mobo runs.

You nailed it. I went to extra lengths just because of how hot this board runs. If the 680i's weren't such great overclockers, I've have switched by now. I just recently picked up a P35 mobo for my Q6600 and right now I'm not just happy with the prelim results (and the fact that it supports crossfire instead of SLI).

Anyhow, more pics coming of my rebuild. I'll just have to use my camera phone as I'd like to document everything rather than wait for the lady to come back with the camera.

[Grinch]

very nice looking ranker....*-)

[ranker]

A quick update for those asking about how I setup my drain line:

The best design for a drain line is as follows:

Use a T line near the lowest part of your loop. Right off the T-line, add a small-sized quick disconnect (http://www.sharkacomputers.com/alqudicog1th.html). However, leave the other half of it off. Now connect the other half of the quick disconnect first to an alphacool ball valve (http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...ucts_id=20601), and then to a DD fill port.

Basically it WON'T clutter your case and you can always drain it by simply connecting the other half of the quick disconnect, opening the fill port, and then turning the ball valve. Viola, instant drain line without taking up the space of a drain line.

very nice looking ranker....*-)

Thanks Grinch,

I'm curious about your Vcore setting for your e6600. To get to 3.6Hz stable on one of my chips, I've had to push it to 1.5 Bios (1.47 vdroop).

[Colossous]

Ye Ranker, that looks good dude !! I've got an Opti 1203 to start when i finish my present build and your work is making me want to get to grips with that case duder !!

[Jedda]

Anyhow, more pics coming of my rebuild. I'll just have to use my camera phone as I'd like to document everything rather than wait for the lady to come back with the camera.

We'll wait patiently for your sabbatical to end and thus you be able to show us more pix.
I'd like to see how you laid out m-cube, pumps, sensors etc, if it's able to be shown in your pics. Probably use velcro and tape to mount BigNG, hub etc, myself.
Cheers mate.

[kevinbo03]

PS: I have the same garbage can as you...Let me guess...IKEA ? lol

LMFAO


Me too

[cablesguy]

Ranker,

All that comes to mind is AWESOME!!, looking forward to ur Horizon worklogs

[septim]

the goods finally... very nice... although we would require some more pics...

request, pic of tbalancer setup...

*i h_te BSOD, well time to format a harddisk soon*

[Istasi]

Do you have any better pics of how the EK Res is mounted in the U2 UFO? I'm looking to go dual loop whenever I upgrade my hardware, and need ideas for where to mount the res for the PA120.3 loop.

[justin_c]

Why 3/8" 5/8" instead of 7/16 5/8? What barbs did you use (for the cpu and chipset, and specifically the gpus).

[ranker]

Hey guys, I'm back!

Ye Ranker, that looks good dude !! I've got an Opti 1203 to start when i finish my present build and your work is making me want to get to grips with that case duder !!

The hardest part about working on a UFO is coming up with a build to be satisfied with. For my next builds, I'm going to plan it out on paper and just stick with it until the end. It gets painful and drawn out whenever you decide to revise it on the fly. Lesson learned after 3 UFO builds now!

We'll wait patiently for your sabbatical to end and thus you be able to show us more pix.
I'd like to see how you laid out m-cube, pumps, sensors etc, if it's able to be shown in your pics. Probably use velcro and tape to mount BigNG, hub etc, myself.
Cheers mate.

The lady just came back (perfect timing considering my own "vacation" ). I'll get pics up of where everything's located.

Ranker,

All that comes to mind is AWESOME!!, looking forward to ur Horizon worklogs

Thanks, I'll be posting more pictures today shortly. Just need to get caught up.

the goods finally... very nice... although we would require some more pics...

request, pic of tbalancer setup...

*i h_te BSOD, well time to format a harddisk soon*

You got it.

Do you have any better pics of how the EK Res is mounted in the U2 UFO? I'm looking to go dual loop whenever I upgrade my hardware, and need ideas for where to mount the res for the PA120.3 loop.

I"ll get these pics up as well. The easiest way to mount them in a U2-UFO is to just screw the holder into one of 5 1/4" bay slots so that it faces the outside of the bay. Or another trick if you prefer not to drill is to screw it into a 3.5" bay.

Why 3/8" 5/8" instead of 7/16 5/8? What barbs did you use (for the cpu and chipset, and specifically the gpus).

I use the 3/8"-5/8" because the hit on temps for insignificant components don't matter too much to me. My GPU/HDD/Vreg/Chipsets aren't going to affect my overclock much if they take a 1C rise in temps. However, everything on my CPU loop is dedicated towards eeking out the last .01C possible. I kept that loop on 1/2" ID.

[Grinch]

glad to see you back ranker...

[justin_c]

EK barbs are ok for sli? and for everything else? because i might just use black plastic barbs for inbetween the SLI cards, can you tell me how much space there is inbetween?

[Patriote]

Oh oh! Welcome Back Ranker!

Love the build m8!