[The Wizzard Project] Rincewind's U2-UFO Liquid Cooling Adventure (large pics)

[Rincewind]

After years of languishing in the cesspit of outdatedness (2.0 Ghz P4 with 1Gb RDRAM, nvidia 7900 AGP, etc.) I got permission from my wife last November to build a high-end gaming machine. Well, the last part isn't really true but that's how it all turned out (: So at the end of 2007 I started cruising the tubes to research the best build for my situation.

I never explicitly planned on going water cooling, but then I never planned on working with a computer that sounded like a vacuum cleaner either. My initial build was complete by Jan. 20th:

Case: Mountain Mods U2-UFO with a thermochill front panel with accessories
Case Cooling: 9 Yate Loon 120mm silent case fans Some LED, some black.
Mother Board: eVGA 780i
Processor/cooling: Intel Q6600 with a Tuniq Tower 120
RAM: 8Gb G.Skill DDR2 1000
VGA: x2 eVGA 8800GTS G92 in SLi
Display: Dell 2707WFP (27" LCD)
Media: Asus 20x DVD/CD-RW
Storage: x4 WD 750AYYS w/ Vista Ultimate x64
Power: PC Power &Cooling 750W PSU with a 900W CyberPower UPS

I managed to stay close to budget, and was very happy with the performance of my new build. There was no comparison with my old machine. My CPU temps were doing well in the mid to upper 30's idle (over clocked to 3.6Ghz), my VGA was around 50 idle (with fan speed at 60%, stock clocks), after fixing some issues with the stock cooling on the eVGA MB, I got my chipset temps down from 108C to 64C idle. It was nice. But I had an itch.

The only downside was that with the new (larger) case I couldn't enclose it in my "computer drawer" and keep it out of earshot. That meant the obnoxiously loud stock nVidia north bridge fan was going full bore, an arms reach away. The VGA fans weren't helping either. Also, not having a fan controller for the case fans meant that they were unnecessarily running at full speed, adding to the din. This computer was pretty loud, and not really by design.

After consulting with my financier we () decided a quieter approach was needed. Water cooling was needed. Urgently. Being able to hear the computer in the nursery helped in that regard ;D. So, some new equipment was ordered:

• Evercool Twinkling VGA Cooler for the South Bridge/MCP chipset
• 15' of Tygon 3/4" OD 1/2" ID tubing (this whole set-up is 1/2" ID, 3/4 OD)
• A bunch of sleeving and heatshrink to beautify the cabling
• ZALMAN MFC1 Plus 6 Channel Multi Fan Controller
• A RadioShack butane soldering iron with some silver solder (this came in handy!)
• A few LED's and some UV case lighting.
• A bunch of reusable swiftech hose clamps and zip-ties
• I raided about 4 ACE hardware stores and a custom bolt shop and wholesaler (J& E Supply) to get enough black 6-32 bolts of various lengths and cap types (: I liked the bolt shop. It was across the street from five seedy strip clubs.
• Koolance swiveling angle nozzles
• Koolance QDC shut-off nozzles (male & female) with a nylon T junction. These are for draining the system.
• Koolance liquid (distilled water + propylene glycol + anti corrosion + dye)
• XSPC Black Dual Bay Reservoir 5.25" with Bubble Window (it's HAL 9000)
• D-tek Fuzion CPU block with nozzle kit washer installed
• ViperJohn's custom north bridge water block with mosfet heatsinks (ViperJohn is THE MAN, as in YTMND, not "The Man")
• x2 Danger Den IONE 8800 G92 blocks with acrylic tops and optional SLi nozzles
• Thermochill PA120.3 Radiator with 1/2" ID barbs and with the performance shroud (properly flushed before install!)
• and a Laing D5 Vario/Swiftech MCP655 Inline 12V DC Pump

It's a long list for sure, but I think that about covers it. Next up is the rebuild.

[Rincewind]

Sometimes it starts with luggage. In this case it all starts with a box. Or two. Or about a half dozen. This is the box that started it.


Before we open the box, lets look at some naked parts:


The naked shell of the Mountain Mods U2-UFO. The OCZ Silencer is sitting in there chilling out.


Here's my storage media. The HDDs are already attached to the MM HDD brackets.

Okay, back to the unboxing:


Taking a look inside these boxes reveals a trove of water cooling goodness. On the table is (from left to right) the Koolance Liquid, XPCS reservoir, SB cooler, case lighting, nozzles, Danger Den IONEs, Zalman fan controller, and a kitchen knife.


A close up of the IONEs. They're pretty hefty for a one piece water block.


A shot of the Zalman front panel controller. It took one night to sleeve up the wiring included with this unit. It looks MUCH better internally when the wires are sleeved up.


The Evercool VGA cooler. This will be used on the 780i MCP chip.


A shot of the Swiftech pump & clamps, the Thermochill PA 120.3 Radiator with gaskets, and some sleeving. The butane soldering tool is hiding in there too. (:

Okay, enough unboxing


In this photo I'm beginning to align my radiator fans on the Thermochill 120.3 shroud. Initially I wasn't going to go with the shroud, but I changed my mind when I got a closer look at the radiator:


Yeah, that's right, the Thermochill is bent on the back side. This kink renders the screw holes on the top right half of the radiator useless. Unfortunately, I ordered from NCIXUS.com. They have a strict no return policy on water cooling hardware. But they also have the best prices. I guess I know why now. Grr. So with the shroud I must go!


After measuring how much wire on each of the three fans I needed, I moved on to sleeving. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of my awesome wiring and sleeving skills. It's a lot of fun though. The whole time I was building this system I was having a blast. Too bad it's an expensive hobby to have (; In the above picture I am taping the shroud with a 6-32 taper. This is so I don't have to mess around with nuts on the bolts that pass through the front of the case, through the fans, and into the shroud.


Here is the complete radiator assembly mounted to the front of the MM U2-UFO. Yeah, I accidentally installed the middle grill on backwards... I need to fix that sometime... (:


Below is a shot from a naked 8800GTS 512 and of my Q6600:

[Rincewind]

The reservoir sitting tight in the 5.25" bay. "I'm afraid I can't do that Dave." Eventually, I had have to take the reservoir back off for some minor modifications to the bay.


Here's a shot of ViperJohn's North Bridge chipset cooler. It's a great piece of work.


A shot of the inside. All smooth and coppery and stuff (:


Here's a picture of ViperJohn's mosfet heatsinks. That's a Koolance swivel angle barb lurking behind the heatsinks.

Next up is assembly!


This is the MCP chip cooler. These spring clamps are not easy to install.


To seat the 8800 properly, some the MCP fan fins had to be bent slightly.


This is the NB water block about to go in.


All the water blocks attached


A close-up of the cooling assembly.


Here's a look at the SLI water bridge. You can see that I used the 3603 lab tubing.


Here's the bit of modification I did to the 5.25" bay. I'll be mounting the pump through these holes.


Here's the underside of the pump. I used some double sided 3M foam tape as padding. It's also very handy at keeping the pump attached to the bay for mounting (:

After finishing up the install, it's time for the bleeding!


Here's a shot of the bleeding in progress


The reservoir


A closer look at the pump mounting. All that cabling has been tucked away (:

After a 14 hour bleeding and leak test, I assembled the parts together. The final results are below.





This is the messy side of the case (: I didn't do anything super special (other than tuck away wires and zip tie things in place). I just never get the opportunity to see this side of the case! On the wall is some Scott Kurtz and Frank Cho art. (;


Here she is in her native habitat! All spruced up and ready to go. On the wall is (the much better) art of my 6yo son. He free handed the African continent and filled in the names for the countries. Apparently, there are many pirate islands, sea serpents, and huge spiders surrounding the African continent.


The parting shot.

[Rincewind]

Overall, the experience of building my first liquid cooling setup has been great and I accomplished what I had set out to do in my system.

For starters, the noise is gone. I can actually hear my very silent hard disks seek. I can hear the gentle gurgle of water against the bubble window in the reservoir(that's had me nervous more than once (: ). It's really kind of nice.

Also, my temperatures are running much lower. My CPU has been as low as 29C idle after sitting around doing nothing all day--I've booted it up and had it running at 26C for a few minutes It was running in the mid to upper 30's on air. This is clocked at 3.6. The 8800GTS's are running in the upper 30's idle and upper 40's under load (stock speeds). The fan on the MCP has dropped the temps from 65 idle to 45 idle.

A water cooling solution isn't for everyone, but after having done it for myself I would recommend it to anyone thinking about doing it. It's very satisfying work.

I'd like to extend a thank you to the liquid cooling gang here at Xtremesystems.org. This is a great group of people and I got a lot of help and inspiration from reading this forum.

Well, that's one itch scratched. Who can give me another?

[joecop120]

that looks sick so far! I wish I had the money to make a build like that!

[biglipzit]

OMG nice setup, I wish i wasn't saving up for school and could blast the money in the bank on those dangerden 8800 blocks

[k0nsl]

Lovely photographs and congratulations on a successful build.

[Rincewind]

Thanks guys!

OMG nice setup, I wish i wasn't saving up for school and could blast the money in the bank on those dangerden 8800 blocks

Get through school and you'll have the money

Education > Hobby computer building.

[shazza]

Very nice build! (And I love your son's artwork).

[septim]

pump is upside down?...

nice pictures...

[Rincewind]

Very nice build! (And I love your son's artwork).

A late edit here, but I'll tell him he's got a fan

pump is upside down?...

nice pictures...

All the blood is rushing to it's head

[Polizei]

In this image, what is that hose clamp doing going to the CPU block? Either it slipped off the barb or youre using it to prevent a kink?

[Rincewind]

In this image, what is that hose clamp doing going to the CPU block? Either it slipped off the barb or youre using it to prevent a kink?

OH NO! **Rushes home**

Hehe just kidding

Good eye, though! That clamp is just hanging there looking good (;. I used it briefly on the D-Tek but replaced it with a zip tie. It slipped down and I forgot about it until the bleed test. I cut it off last night

[oron_S]

Very nice!!! keep up the good work

[disruptfam]

very nice

[systemviper]

mountian mods, way to go.

great job, can tell you planed it well...

best of luck with it!

[BlueAqua]

I just found this thread and I think your setup is amazing! You gave me some great ideas for my UFO build. Great pictures too.

[Rincewind]

I just found this thread and I think your setup is amazing! You gave me some great ideas for my UFO build. Great pictures too.

Thanks! Let me know here when you start your own build thread

[RockfordFosgate]

Looks very nice

[Snyxxx]

Good job, thanks for taking the time to post all the photos.

[NaeKuh]

awesome build rincewind!

definitely on your build

[Fusion2002]

What did you use for lighting? I love the purple/blue look you achived.

[clone38]

Always good to see a clean looking MM case,well done

[F1ZZY]

I'll wait until i get home before passing judgement, those pics are waaay too big for my work laptop.

[aspire.comptech]

it is quite purdy, I like the black crinkle finish.