Maximus Extreme + Zalman GT1000 tri-loop setup - picture heavy

[polar bear]

Well, here's my take on watercooling the maximus extreme. First of all, I did get decent temps using a Reserator XT with the stock fusion block chipset cooler. However, I decided after all to go all the way and replace this with custom blocks and radiators. So I'll start with a review of the components:

Zalman "Z-Machine" GT1000

4-5mm thick aluminum walls, tool-free HDD cage, supports up to 6 HHDs and 7 expansion slots

Laing DDC Ultra

4,7m head, 600L/h, 110 ml plexiglass reservoir

EK-Supreme CPU block


EK-NB S-Max


EK-SB Max-Ex (SB/crosslinX block)


EK-Mosfet ASUS 3a


EK-FC3870 X2 (GFX cooler)


Zalman Reserator XT


120mm Papst 4412 F/2M

2400 rpm, 140 m3/h, 38dBA

Three types of tubing:
1) ClearFlex60 19/13mm (1/2") for CPU loop
2) Tygon R3603 11/8mm (5/16") for chipset/GFX loops
3) ClearFlex60 12,7/9,5mm (3/8") for bringing CPU loop out of case to the radiator - see next post


For other hardware - check signature.

[polar bear]

So, to remove the stock asus chipset cooler, I had to first heat it up a little with a blowdryer. Prior to this, it was completely impossible to get it off (I've been running the MB for several months so thermal paste had gotten hard like brick lol).



I used ArctiClean 1 & 2 to completely remove the stock paste and prep the chipset blocks. Then Arctic Silver 5 as thermal paste.



The Z-Machine with everything installed except for mobo and related components. Side walls have been removed for ease of installation. The case comes with a handy MB backplate although there is no express removal option as it has to be secured to the case with 8 allen screws. Note the HDD cage - one of the reasons I chose this case in the first place as it is completely tool-free and features some nifty shock absorbing mechanism. Note also there's room for 2 more HDDs in the bottom of the case.





EK blocks were easy to set up and there was no drama involved. I also ordered their CPU backplate as well as mosfet backplates. Would have been nice with backplates for the other blocks as well, in particular the SB/crosslinx as it is quite elongated.



EK-SB Max-Ex was recently released. It's quite an intelligent design as it 1) covers both SB and crosslinx chips and 2) has barb mounting holes in a position so it will fit neatly between two GFX cards. Check this thread to see how this block came into place - many thanx to Eddie over at EK as well as Giuliano for his work with forwarding exact measurements over to EK - a big to both for their contribution! There is a 2nd revision coming up soon which should be an even better fit. As for me, I couldnt wait and ordered the block the day it appeared on the EK website lol





Now some photos of the EK-FC3870 X2 cooler. I really like this and IMO the "acetal" version is nicer than the acrylic version - it also blends in well with the rest of the acetal blocks.








Fast forward about 8 hours; add significant amounts of blood, sweat, tears as well as a pair of severly bruised hands and everything is set up. Oh, and throw in some severe back pain too following an attempt to move the beast (alone) from the living room where everything was mounted and into the office... Looking back I have no idea how this was even possible considering the weight of the machine!



Due to the relatively compact size of the Zalman case, the rads had to be mounted on the outside. For the CPU loop this was solved with a very nifty design by Swiftech: the MCB-120 radbox.



Using this, it was possible to fix the PA120.3 rad to the back of the case using the included screws and bolts and the 120mm exhaust fan mounting holes. Unfortunately, I could not bring the 1/2" tubing outside the case and had to use reducers to convert to 3/8". The loop exits/enters the case through the bottom PCI bracket and joins the 120.3 using G3/8 to 3/8" ID barbs.

As for the top 120.2 rad serving the GFX loop, it was simply placed on top of the Reserator XT using a Thermochill PS120.2 shroud.



Between this shroud and the rad is a layer with neoprene gasket for some vibration absorption.

One of the DDC Ultras had to be mounted externally as well - using a thick sheet with velcro and self-adhesive to fix it onto the case top. I guess this works to reduce some vibration as well.



The DDC Ultra for the CPU loop however did fit snugly in the front 5.25 drive bay with same velcro sheet fixed on top of the CD/DVD drive. Drive bays have been left open so the pump can be seen.





Here at the back of the case one can see that the tubing for the GFX loop has to travel a looong way from the rad on top of the case. The Papst fans for both rads have been hooked up to a couple of Zalman Fan Mate 2's for some cheap and easy fan rpm control. The controllers are attached to the back of the case but cant be seen in the picture.



I'm just using distilled water with Anti-Corro fluid - no other additives. Note the slightly off-whitish colour of the fluid in the CPU loop - for some reason it is completely clear in the other 2 loops although I'm using same concentration - 2% - anti-corrosive agent in all loops.



A close-up of the radbox in action.



CPU / mosfet area.



And finally the two 3870 X2's cooled by EK-FC3870 X2 - here using another cool invention - a SLI/crossfire connector.



It comes in 1, 2 or 3 slot variations and makes for the most tidy setup using two or more cards together. Unfortunately, I had to use 90 degree angled barbs in this loop but I guess some compromises have to be made once in a while



Finally in the next post a look at some performance/temp stats when I get around to it.

[polar bear]

Idle temps



FSX at highest settings

[BNDMOD]

Suscribed..
Waitin for pics ... :d

Nice hard there... :d

[disruptfam]

edit:

Wow thats alot of stuff in that smallish case....

looking preety good did you flush out your rads beforehand?

can you switch the hd's the other way? that would clean up the cables alot

abit of tidying up here and there and you got yourself a nice rig

Good work

[[XC] NetburstXE]

That looks very cramped. If all I had was a midtower, I'd rather do air than water. There just isn't enough space in anything other than a full tower.

[Giuliano]

Nicely done..

What kind of tubing clamps did you use on the Crosslinx block?


I can't tell from the pictures..

[polar bear]

Thanks for comments & interest everyone!

edit:

Wow thats alot of stuff in that smallish case....

looking preety good did you flush out your rads beforehand?

I did flush out the rads. In fact I even managed to damage a 120.3 rad by inserting one of the fan screws way too far. I didnt discover this until later -
in the worst possible way! Some 5-10 mins into leak testing all lights/electricity suddenly went out in my flat Turned out water had been leaking from the
read rad , then trickled onto the table then further down to the floor where it collected on top of the power outlet for my computer Luckily, I had another 120.3
lying around (reserved for future use hehe) so didnt have to wait for several weeks for a replacement to be shipped. Oh well. Learned a few lessons there
I guess!

can you switch the hd's the other way? that would clean up the cables alot

abit of tidying up here and there and you got yourself a nice rig

Good work

No, I don't think it is possible to turn the HDD cage around. Anyway, most of the wires that can be seen in the pictures are well hidden when the side
panels are mounted.

That looks very cramped.. If all I had was a midtower, I'd rather do air than water. There just isn't enough space in anything other than a full tower.

Indeed! It ain't a pretty sight, I agree. But the reason behind this project was to utilize and upgrade this case for some serious uber-watercooling of some xxxtreme components This build is for performance - not aesthetics / silence in any way. I did it this way rather than buying a new case - I like the Z-Machine a lot really.

Nicely done..

What kind of tubing clamps did you use on the Crosslinx block?

I can't tell from the pictures..

Actually, the picture of the crosslinx block in the first post is misleading as it turned out I didnt use the barbs as shown. Instead, I went for this 11/8 mm combined barb/clamps on all of the chipset blocks:

[disruptfam]

idle temps looks a tad high whats your ambient?

[polar bear]

Ambient is probably around 18C when office has not been used for half a day then it rises steadily to 25-26 after a few hours of use (got 2 systems running at the same time).

[polar bear]

I'm having some serious problems with stability. It seems to have gotten worse after I did this mod... At both stock and each bios setting I have tried so far the system just freezes and stops responding completely after 10-15 minutes. It seems this happens a little bit quicker during torture testing but it can also happen randomly whilst browsing the web.

So far I havent been able to pin the cause of this down... Just before the system stops responding the graphics of the taskbar changes - then the desktop icons changes colour when I click on them - although this varies from time to time. Sometimes it just seizes to respond - although the mouse cursor can still be moved around but system is completely dead... :

[calvin]

Also a fan of mid tower cases having recently installed a loop with a PA120.3 inside my mid but I would never attempt anything this extreme. Three loops including wc'd sli in a mid

Nice job.

[polar bear]

Just had a session with super-relaxed timings (used auto). At the same time I cranked up the voltages significantly. Stable so far (screenie below) but I find the voltages and timings completely unacceptable.

[taylormsj]

That looks awesome !

[polar bear]

Also a fan of mid tower cases having recently installed a loop with a PA120.3 inside my mid but I would never attempt anything this extreme. Three loops including wc'd sli in a mid

Nice job.

Well, as I said I quite liked this case when I saw it but back then I had not been introduced to xtremesystems lol so I was using a E6600 with a Zalman ZNPS9700LED CPU cooler and a single 7950 GT haha! No watercooling at all! Then as I constantly upgraded the system and ended up with an OC'ed 65nm quad, DDR3 memory and 2x 3870 X2s in crossfireX i realised i wanted some extreme cooling - and I ended up with the system as displayed here.

That looks awesome !

Thanks - glad you like it! To be honest, the case IMO looked way prettier with just the reserator xt on top - but hey cant have it all especially with a 3-loop setup in a mid tower. Guess I could have used a tj07 or a coolermaster like lots of people around here but wanted to keep the Z-machine.

If only I could get the beast to run stable Last test did run for about 20 minutes then some vista error message saying not enough memory or resources i can't remember and i had to force shut everest via the task manager although the system remained responsive this time at least.

[calvin]

To be honest, the case IMO looked way prettier with just the reserator xt on top

Have to admit the two do complement one another very well.

[Apollo4g]

polar bear how did you get Everest on the side like that in Vista?

[polar bear]

Hehe it's nice isn't it, the everest ultimate sidebar for Vista Here's how: goto everest file - preferences - vista sidebar - enable vista sidebar support. Then just add the everest gadget from the other gadgets for the sidebar. Then you can add/remove the various temps/voltages etc under vista sidebar - sidebar items.

I've been using everest now for maybe 6 months and its a great program. Remember to download the latest update from their website - just copy the files over your installed files in the lavalys-everest folder under program files. Then you will get support for latests mobos and other hardware e.g. graphics cards etc.

Also I really like the "system stability test" and it's way of graphically displaying various parameters (as seen in above screenshots). All in all a must-have app IMHO!

[polar bear]

Update:

1. Added some photos of the 3870X2 cooler in post 2.

2. I think I have found the solution to my instability woes Turned out it was actually one of the 3870X2's causing the trouble. I remember now that during setup of the waterblocks, as I removed the stock fan/heatsink on one of the cards, one of the capacitators? (i think so but not completely sure what it's called) came off I did manage to hold it in place with the new heatsink but I guess once it was off it did not function as before, hence causing system freezes after a certain time - 10-15 mins as mentioned before. This also explain the graphical glitches just before the system went unresponsive.

Anyway the problem was gone after I removed the 3870X2's and inserted a 8600GTS instead. Suddenly I could finish PCMark Vantage + 3DMark06 as well as run everest stress test for several hours.

So now as to what to do with the broken card... Do I RMA it? I did in fact do this with a 8800GTX that also got damaged in my other system (short circuited as the hose clamp from the card above touched its backside ). That card was replaced without any issues after I submitted an RMA claim.

It's just I feel a tad guilty as it was clearly my fault that I broke the card (again) - as well as the warranty - isnt that voided once you replace the stock heatsink with something else?

Well, for now I'm back to a stable system - I'm so glad it wasnt the mobo - would have been considerably more strenous to replace that with all those waterblocks installed... So now for some further testing and an attempt to bring the Q6600 towards 3.8GHz and then perhaps 4.0, let's see, now that there should be more OC headroom once the old Reserator XT and Apogee GT has been replaced by PA120.3, Laing DDC Ultra and EK-Supreme

[polar bear]

Well, I was just midway through a Vantage run then I just glimpsed over to the everest sidebar and what catches my eye (drumrolls please): all of a sudden I can see 4050MHz!! Turned out after I swapped the GFX cards (actually had to do this twice as it was the 2nd one that was faulty, so had to reconnect the tubing and refill water and bleed and all lol) the bios had decided to switch multipler from 8x to 9x (it does that sometimes after a hardware change but usually results in system that wont boot).

BUT NOT THIS TIME MAMA! Oh no cause I had already cranked up the voltages as I was not sure why system was not stable - was running Vcore of 1.60. So YES I am happy to say that I am finally stable above 4.0GHz the MAGICAL limit (for me anyway lol ). Below follows proof (yes I am not making this up ) - not the best Vantage score but anyway my personal fav so far as it beat the previous score (same system with Q6600 at 3.6GHz) by nearly 700 points ie a 9,3% increase!

Lol still awhile until I can compete with MikeGuava though

[polar bear]

For some reason 3DMark score is not nearly as good - well, to be honest very disappointing in fact (as my previous high score running at 3840MHz with 3870X2 was 19284?!! ...). Could be cause I was running catalyst 8.2 dunno yet (had 8.3 of course as I was using crossfireX). Anyway check screenie below, will continue testing this rig.

[polar bear]

Another 3DMark run with 8.3 installed. Still not good. Not sure what I'm doing wrong here ...

[polar bear]

Solved! Turns out I had catalyst AI disabled which resulted in the low score. I had been experimenting with FSX and forgot to turn it back on. Have not completed 3DMark06 yet just realized its already better cause opening of return to proxicon got 120 fps. Will post screenshot and link when it's complete.

[Xel'Naga]

That is a lot of stuff OUTSIDE that smallish case

edit:

Wow thats alot of stuff in that smallish case....

looking preety good did you flush out your rads beforehand?

can you switch the hd's the other way? that would clean up the cables alot

abit of tidying up here and there and you got yourself a nice rig

Good work

[firas]

great work man, reminds me of this http://67.90.82.13/forums/showthread...34877&page=312
I don’t know which gave the milky look the tubes or the coolant, but I wish you used transparent tubes with some colored coolant (green or red)