Shazza's MM Cube Water Cooling Worklog (pics)

[Patriote]

10 out of 10 Mrs. Shazza!

[kuhla]

Looks really good! If I ever buy a mountain mod case, I think I will have to credit this thread for doing so. I never really considered them before due to size but this build looks so damn nice!!

[shazza]

Ha ... bet you guys all thought you'd seen the last of this thread.

Finally had a chance to do a little "clean-up" today.


First ... thought I should share a couple of my "catastrophes" during the build (some previously mentioned, some not) with the group:


1) Blew out a brand new Custom Sleeved PP&PC 750 Quad Silencer PSU ... still need to do the RMA

2) Burned up a DDC pump -- plugged in to wrong connectors during attempt to sleeve the cables (this one definitely my fault!).

3) Cracked up an EK-Reservoir ... this happened while IN THE LOOP ... although cracking started slow. This one is my fault as well, as this happened after my chipset loop must have been very hot ... turned off the fans, forgot, left the room ... came back much later and things were very, very hot. Note that the chipset is cooled with the MCR-220. The CPU/GPU loop is on a 120.3, and did not get nearly as hot during my "passive cooling experiment." I should add that Petra's offered to do an RMA for me on the res ... but I didn't think that was fair, since it was my mistake.

Here's a pic of the leftovers from the last two escapades:




On a more positive note, I had two things left to fix on my rig since I last posted. First was to paint the DVD drive cover to see if I could get a better match. Second was to paint the bottom part of my clear acrylic bay cover (since it was previously covered with electrical tape - a bit ghetto )


First, I managed to get the covers off of the Optical Drive front ( remember, I am mechanically incompetent, so this wasn't all that easy!):


The Naked Optical Drive:



The newly painted Silver Pieces:



The Clear Acrylic Bay - painting in progress:


(And yes, I know one should not paint in the garden, but I, ummmm, well ... let's just say there is a bit of excess silver paint in the garage from the Optical Drive cover experiment).


And, the finished products ---




The silver still isn't a perfect match on the Optical Drive, but better than before, the old color shown in the following pic:




Even the dogs are tired of this thread, but I may be back, if I have any luck with my photography experiments:

[Lunatock]

Sorry for your (hardware) loss

I thought the MM brushed aluminum would look awkward and unfinished ... but it looks pretty good

[leo_bsb]

nice dogs, congratulations!

[Isriam]

man this is a crazy build! totally love it.

would you mind telling me the total height of your pump + fitting + res? I really like that idea

[Waterlogged]

Snip......
3) Cracked up an EK-Reservoir ... this happened while IN THE LOOP ... although cracking started slow. This one is my fault as well, as this happened after my chipset loop must have been very hot ... turned off the fans, forgot, left the room ... came back much later and things were very, very hot. Note that the chipset is cooled with the MCR-220. The CPU/GPU loop is on a 120.3, and did not get nearly as hot during my "passive cooling experiment." I should add that Petra's offered to do an RMA for me on the res ... but I didn't think that was fair, since it was my mistake.
........Snip

It makes me so happy to see that there is still someone else besides myself that believes in accountability for your own actions. You are to be commended shazza.

It really makes me wonder sometimes with all the RMA scamming I see going on if ppl never heard of being accountable for their own actions or the phrase "you broke it, you bought it".


Beautiful build shazza.

[shazza]

man this is a crazy build! totally love it.

would you mind telling me the total height of your pump + fitting + res? I really like that idea

The pump/fitting/res just fit in a 5 1/4 inch bay ... so about that high (sorry ... too lazy to take off the panel and do an accurate measure).

These res/top combos are now made by EK ... and this is what I'll try next. This pic is the shorter one, there is a taller one (available at Performance-PCs):

[shazza]

@ Waterlogged ... yeah, I know what you mean about fake RMAs. It's a pet peeve of mine, so I'm good with taking responsibility when I screw somethin' up. OTH, I know the PSU problem was not my fault, since I plugged the Corsair into exactly the same connectors with no issue.

[SiGfever]

As old as those puppies look they ought to be tired.

Excellent build, look forward to more pics.

[shazza]

Thanks, all. SiGfever ... the big one is 10 and the little one is 15, so they are old for sure.

Here's a few more pics after everything has been buttoned up:















That's about it, folks. Now planning Build No. 2, as we are moving to Arizona, and this one will stay in Florida. Decisions, decisons, decisions. Thanks for all the support from Day One. Great group here.

[disruptfam]

awesome!!!! this thread go 4eva and still would be great

[Jedda]

Build #2 will be even better, I'd wager, with the experience from this one.
Not the first custom sleeved psu prob I've heard of. Don't let that one slide, with your move and busy life. I know of 2 others where the shipping costs and general resistance from the online retailer deterred the customer from persueing the issue.
I suspect the assembly fault incidence is much higher than we'd expect.

[shazza]

Thanks, disruptfam and Jedda ... I've learned a lot from your work logs and answers to everyone's questions.

All I know about Build No. 2 is,

-- it will be BLACK,
-- it will be TiGHT (as in as neat as I can possibly make it),
-- it will NOT be a Pink & Blue show (although I am quite happy with this one as a first go ... visitors get quite a start when they see Grandma's PC )
-- it is still in the planning stages ...

[disruptfam]

ooooh sounds good

my next rig/project/lan pc will be...

white powercoated tj07
black tubing...

etc etc

[Jedda]

lol
My next build will be ...
All about putting a smile on my women's face.
New monitor, it seems, mobo and case. There's enough bits for the rest of it, sitting around here.

[shazza]

Awww...what a nice guy Jedda is.

I do know the new build will have to match the new Dell 3008 monitor

[Isriam]

Thank you shazza

[SiGfever]

Those are some excellent pictures, they really show case your build.

[Jedda]

Awww...what a nice guy Jedda is.

I do know the new build will have to match the new Dell 3008 monitor

Who's a lucky girl, then?
Very nice indeed!

[septim]

very nice shazza, will look forward to build 2...

[shazza]

Welllllll, in the spirit of full disclosure, here's an update.

Had some serious gaming duty this past week. AND, I noticed that my chipset loop EK res cracked again! But, I caught it before anything leaked (more about that in a minute). Again, I think it's my fault ... don't think I can get away with running the MCR220 with low fans. So, ordered a new EK top/reservoir combo from Performance PCs.

Draining the res and preparing to put on the new top, and I did this:




Yes, I know ... I should be the poster girl of "How Not to Water Cool!!!" I've done this same drill 3 times before with no problems. And everything was going fine this time ... then I dropped the container with the drained coolant.

Oh yeah ... the carpet is less than 6 months old. Good news is, it's being ripped out in a month as part of a major remodeling project.


This is not as bad as something I did last year: Red Wine across a white sofa:




Needless to say, my husband is sponsoring my next AIR-COOLED rig for the new house

[Jedda]

These quad cases take up so much room there's always an available table top shortage, I find. No where to put things down on.

Love the red wine. Making a point waving the arm around, were we?

[Talonman]

It makes me so happy to see that there is still someone else besides myself that believes in accountability for your own actions. You are to be commended shazza.

It really makes me wonder sometimes with all the RMA scamming I see going on if ppl never heard of being accountable for their own actions or the phrase "you broke it, you bought it".


Beautiful build shazza.

I was thinking the same thing.... This attitude is to be commended for sure.

[IanY]

I believe that baking soda, a steam cleaner, a gentle brush and a lot of patience would take care of the carpet.

The red wine bit... I don't know if anything would work. You know that the sofa appears a standard size. Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware.. stores like these have slip covers.. some of the ones in Damask look lovely.. and these slip covers look like they would be a perfect fit for your couch.