New Mozart TX Dual Loop Build with Lots of Pics

[Sunayknits]

Output for parallel blocks is on the wrong card.

Hehe, look carefully and think about how the blocks flow. In through the bottom (on the left in the last photo), through both blocks at the same time, then out the top. This is a parallel configuration without using a 'y'.

Not only will I get less flow resistance, but the card temps should remain very very close to one another.

Still, nobody has yet found my egregious (and totally obvious) error

[karl_eller]

I'd be somewhat inclined to swap the inlet and outlet on the left-hand mofset block, but aside from that I can't see anything wrong with the loop layout...

Eller

[oerekum]

no clamp on the other GTX barb? wrong motherboard screws?

[karl_eller]

All the mobo screws look right. And yeah, he's missing a clamp on one of the Apogee GTX barbs (inlet).

Eller

[Maxx103]

I'm gonna guess here...I only see one hose going to the dual cards - no output hose???

Looking at the card configuration and factoring in the two hoses coming from the rear of the case.....


If you look closely - the two hoses come from the back of the case and then disappear through a cutout in the motherboard tray. Then you have one hose going to the bottom graphics card, followed by two hoses from the bottom card to the top card.......but I don't see another hose from the top of the card to the rest of the loop.

[karl_eller]

I'm gonna guess here...I only see one hose going to the dual cards - no output hose???

Looking at the card configuration and factoring in the two hoses coming from the rear of the case.....


If you look closely - the two hoses come from the back of the case and then disappear through a cutout in the motherboard tray. Then you have one hose going to the bottom graphics card, followed by two hoses from the bottom card to the top card.......but I don't see another hose from the top of the card to the rest of the loop.

Water loop for the GPU goes in the bottom card, through both, then out the top.
The two hoses coming out the back of the case are just the drains for the CPU/mobo and GPU loops.
And he hasn't finished tubing everything, since the CPU/mobo loop doesn't have an inlet yet.

Eller

[Sunayknits]

no clamp on the other GTX barb?

Hehe yup after I took the pics I noticed I had forgotten a clamp on the GTX

Sucks 'cause that tubing is rather difficult to get on the barbs

Good catch!

[CoNMaN]

Any updates?

My Mozart build:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=182793

[NoobCake]

WOW, are they the koolance compression barbs?

making me drool

[Waterlogged]

WOW, are they the koolance compression barbs?

making me drool

........................

[smee]

making me drool

Yea man! noob cake is my fav!!!!!!!!!!!

Jk jk!! lol. But yes I agree, koolance compressions are awesome, it's just the word "koolance" that makes me shivver.......

[Sunayknits]

(me)

Hey everybody, I've been away for a while, dealing with life and what not ... mostly due to my mom getting cancer. She's doing pretty good now, chemo seems to have stopped it for now so we're all pretty stoked.

So anyway I have resumed my build and will be adding more pics soon.

I've changed several things since my initial build and learned a few lessons along the way:

Compression fittings have some disadvantages:

a) initially I had used some very soft Primochill tubing and I knew I would regret it. Well it turned out exactly like I expected, the tubing slipped right out of the fitting after running the system for a few days (I'll post a pic for reference later) and coolant poured all over everything. Luckily I had just turned off the machine so hopefully no permanent damage was done ...

b) The whole fitting will often unscrew instead of just the outer part when you try to remove the hose (just means you have to cut the hose, no biggie but kind of dumb)

c) You are limited to thin-walled tubing

I've since changed everything 'cept the mobo to Koolance barbs, with large O.D. tubing (3/8" x 5/8") and Herbie clamps. This doesn't look as nice but damn those Herbie clamps sure are sweet. They're super easy to remove and do a great job of sealing


The next couple of posts will detail what failed in my initial build, then I will move on to my current status. Take care everybody, and eat right and excercise so you don't get freaking cancer!

[madmaxx]

a little dab of loctite will keep those barbs from twisting out & leaking

[Sunayknits]

The failure of de feet


Well I told you I'd let you in on a couple failures I had that kinda killed my enthusiasm for a while:



Here you see the EK Southbridge block splayed open for your enjoyment. This is a very nice part. Notice the Koolance compression fittings (sigh).



Here it is installed. The arrow is where I had a problem. The hose I used was too thin-walled and over time, it ended up coming loose from the fitting. Apparently the weight of it pulling down was enough to release it from the fitting entirely. Fortunately I noticed right away (I was just showing off the system and had just turned it off!) so I was able to get the machine into the bathtub quickly. Coolant went everywhere, all over the mobo and gfx cards, so I pulled it all apart, fired up the air compressor, rinsed the affected parts under tap water and blew everything off thoroughly.



After I had it all apart I noticed something rather disturbing ...



Yep, they're both cracked.



Gotta be careful with Acrylic!



Crack is fun in a pipe, but not in your res.



That beatch has a deep crack!

This failure was due strictly to my own stupidity. The mounting bolts for the res were not perfectly flush with the bayres mount and I cranked the acrylic down too hard. I've fixed this in the new version that you will see soon

[MomijiTMO]

Crack is fun in a pipe, but not in your res.

ROFLMAO.

Anyhoo thanks for sharing with us. I for one will make sure I don't screw my res down too hard. Lucky you were aware of the problem before you lost any parts. Good luck with the rehash!

[septim]

ouch, bad cracks...

[i found nemo]

daang dude, hope it runs good now. and sorry to hear that about ur mom, but glad she's gettin' better

[Sunayknits]

sorry to hear that about ur mom, but glad she's gettin' better

Very kind of you to say so, thanks

[Sunayknits]

Here we go, picking up a bit of steam again ...



Curiosity did WHAT to the cat???



FoxConn 8800GTX cards, all dried out and new fittings installed. Those Koolance barbs are SEXY!



The first time around I found that filling was tough so I made some modifications for an extra set of breather tubes



Yeah it's a bit ugly



I'm using white clamps for the upper loop (proc + mobo parts) and black for the lower (GFX) loop



This will be a pee cee someday ...



New fittings, including LED-hole plugs on top. Eventually I plan to add a custom controller with RGB LEDs in each plug - but that's later on



The paint job on the bayres mounts was a crappy rattle-can job (thanks Performance-PCs!) so I opted to polish them instead. I also countersunk the holes a bit more to keep the acrylic from cracking again



Shiny!



Don't fall in!



Polished is purrfect!

[Sunayknits]

Hang in there buddy,

We're rooting for you and your Mom, keep the faith.

andyc

Thanks Andy!

[Sunayknits]

Portholes

Installing some functional eye candy

[i found nemo]

Very kind of you to say so, thanks

no prob nice to see ur loop coming back together nicely.

[Sunayknits]

I like to think of the pump as the 'heart' of the system
In this case it's like Doctor Who; he has 2 hearts


Before surgery


After a couple hours in the ER


The patient is looking good!


Stitching it up


Hiding the sutures

Moving right along now ...

[Sunayknits]

Allright b!tch3s, let's get to it!

I wanted the fans and radiators to be complete assemblies that I could control with a single +12v line for each loop.

I was going to make a power breakout board then I found this Sunbeam jobby that worked just great. No point in re-inventing the wheel, right?


Early testing


Sleeving cables. The adapter cables allow me to get rotational speed from a single fan in each assembly


Testing my work


Installed - left side


Making progress!


Installed - right side


Closeup of right side

[Sunayknits]

I had to relocate the hard drives to make room for a pair of i-Rams, so I used this elegant solution from Mountain Mods:


Mockup - it fits!


Making it pretty


The brackets are anodized, but it's a cheap type 1 and can be scratched easily


Custom-made power cable. Gotta love those IDT power terminals!


A bit more stuffing


Some perspective