--- r e f l e X i o n ---

[Xion X2]

Braking out the dremel and polishing wheels an excellent idea mate.
I had a boss once who ofen would say.
Give the hardest job the the laziest man and he will find the easiest way to do it.
Excellent work mate.

Yo, KG, you sayin I'm lazy?

Just kidding, bud.

I haven't had this dremel for long and am so used to hand polishing things. My last time out watercooling, I polished an entire Lian Li Server Tower by hand with some Mother's polish. Thank god for dremels is all I can say. It turned a 3-4 hour job into a 15 minute job.

Wow, they're sure purty

Thanks, Bill! Great to see you around.

This just keeps getting better and better.

Good work, sir.

Thanks, Wezly! Glad you like.

So right now I'm working on getting the blocks on the 5970s. I'm pleased with how easy it is to get these DangerDen blocks on. And it's also nice to see the stock backplate coming of use as it offers some opposing force and keeps the PCB from bowing from the pressure of the waterblock. That's been a concern of mine in the past in using full cover blocks, but the backplate keeps the PCB relatively straight.

I don't have both blocks on yet but thought I would share some of the progress thus far.

The workshop (if you can call it that. More like a studio/kitchen/workbench):




Yes, that IS tubing. I am actually going to watercool this thing.. for you guys who have been waiting around forever waiting on some H20 shots.

Removing all the screws to undo the backplate..



Luckily, there weren't too many of them. I've taken some HSFs off that had a screw for every day of the month. The 5900, besides the two GPU brackets, had fewer than most cards I've seen. And the new aluminum heat sink is extremely light compared to the copper slabs of the past.

Backplate is off.



One piece off, one to go. Time to remove the heatsink and fan.

This can't be done without removing the two GPU brackets (I call them GPU brackets.. I don't know what the technical terminology is for them) on the back of the PCB:



Those come off pretty easily. Each bracket is held in by four small screws, so eight in total.

Aaaannnnndddd... she's off!



Let's get that big, bulky, archaic air cooler out of the way and make room for something that's a little more efficient and a lot better looking.

But.. wait. The ever-annoying stage of having to remove all the old, mashed-up thermal paste before applying the waterblock. Ugh.

Luckily, I have Arctic remover and purifier to do the job.



And a box of professional, hi-grade Q-tips. No, I'm not joking.. I'm dead serious as they do make them.

*snicker*



Ahhhh. Much better. I love a nice, clean, sexy graphics chip (or two .)

And now, the best part. After applying the thermal paste and pads and popping a few screws in we get to see our new baby all dressed to impress.




Isn't she a beaut? I'm really loving the nickel plating.



Reflection.



We'll throw our little MC-TDX buddy in to join the tube party.









That's all for now! Tomorrow, I hope to have some shots of the motherboard with both cards fitted and maybe some other blocks to begin experimenting with tube routing.

Thanks for reading!