My loop is staying pretty cool so far.I just ran tests at each pump speed setting to see what the difference in temps would be. The difference between speed 1 and speed 5 was only 4C!
My two 7900s at full load went from the 70's to running at only 42C and the overclocked opti went from a dual prime95 high of 57C on air down to a high of 47C at the speed setting of one on the pump! However, running the pump a bit faster knocks off a couple degrees from the temp so it keeps it at around 45C mostly. Idle temps on the chip are about the same as with air but the idle on the graphics cards dropped down to 38C!
Tomorrow I'm going to run similar tests with different fan voltages to find the sweet spot between cooling and silence.
I'm really thankful to everyone here and on other forums who have helped me learn this stuff...its making my first water cooling build quite fun!
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Update 7-28-06
As mentioned in one of the posts, I decided to pull the waterblock and proc to take off the metal spacers thinking it possibly needed to be tighter to get better temps.
But check this out:
I found out that even though my protector epoxy balls 'looked' flat, they were not. Not even close. The next pic shows where the proc was making good contact (right side) and the side that wasn't.
Well, I got out a razorblade and shaved the baby's down. Then I found out that the core itself has a slight upward bow. That could have happened when my mainboard was bowed around the proc, not sure. Anyways, now I have re-attached everything and have seen only about 1* better temps. Maybe the AS5 will bring it down another couple of degrees.
I also think my temps will go down when I get rid of the Fluid XP and replace it with deionized water and Pentosin.
I'm also working on installing my UV lights. First step, take the custom made (by Mountain Mods) drive tray and install the wiring. This pic shows some JB Weld drying where the power connector is. (Under the clamp)
Here is a close-up of the wiring: (The white connectors will go to the inverters.)
There is a hidden benefit to using shrink tubing on the wires...if you re-heat them, they become flexible and then you can make the wires go almost anywhere you want. When they cool, it retains the shape you made.
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Update 7-30-06:
I'm sort of close to finishing, no seriously!I finished placing the mirrors and lights and figured out how/where to run the wiring.
Mirrors you ask? I had a local glass shop cut me strips of mirror the size of the UV light tubes. This makes the UV light that is normally absorbed into the black paint reflect back into the viewable area making it brighter.
That is a pic of the mirror prepping for installation. I got some double sided heavy duty clear tape to mount the mirrors to the case. Also picked up a package of that dual locking Velcro type stuff to attach the lights to the mirrors.
That shows you how it all will connect together.
Those are the mirrors installed on the top panel ready for lights and the next pic is of two mirrors installed on the side.
Here the lights are prepped and ready for placement in front of the mirrors and the next pic is a close-up of the dual locking Velcro stuff on the lights.
This is the beginning of a power splitter I'm making that will go on the bottom of the drive cage. It will be for plugging in the pump as well as any future extras needed.
And this is where I left off. I have a lot of sleeving and cable routing to do in addition to the power splitter project!
The cool thing is that I have temporary cables hooked up for the fans and such which means I can still listen to the tunes that get me into my rhythm while doing the work!hehehehe
As always, comments welcome.
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UPDATE 8-5-06
This picture shows several fan connectors ready for painting.
TIP: If you happen to buy a black powder coated case from Mountain Mods and need to paint additional items to match...use Krylon #1601 Glossy Black. It is very close to the black powder coat!
Here are a couple of the finished fan extension cables with sleeving. The larger cable is my X-Fi ribbon cable that will go from the sound card to the drive bay.
I got the power adapter finished that I showed a beginning picture of in the last update.
The first pic shows how I soldered the different wire lengths together and the one following shows a close up of the joint itself.
Here are all the wires soldered and ready for sleeving and assembly. The next pic shows the finished adapter. Installing it to the drive bay is a work in progress...
TIP: If you ever go to do something like this, make sure you test for continuity before finalizing everything. I had accidentally connected one of the adapters in reverse. If I hadn't tested it, I would have found out when I plugged something in and it proceeded to cook my system.
The next series of pics shows how I finished the cable that will go from the motherboard to the power adapter I made.
First up shows the side I already finished and how I hope the other end will look when I'm done. (Except that it will be black.)
To make it so you can't see different colored wires before the sleeving starts, the first step is to add short pieces of heat shrink tubing to the wires...
Then I measured the amount of black sleeving I'd need and put it on. Then I figured out what size heatshrink I'd need for both the middle of the cable (where the color changes from blue to black.) and the part that will go near the connector. I put all that stuff on and then...
...installed the Molex connectors.
Connecting the pins to the black adapter.
Then it was time to move the small heatshrink down and shrink it.
Once the sleeving was in place I heatshrinked the 2nd larger piece of tubing near the adapter. After that, zip ties were used to keep the cable orderly.
So far so good...
This is a close up of the place where the two sleeving colors meet. It's hard to see but there is a zip tie holding them together. After that was in place I heatshrinked the largest piece of tubing over it for a nice transition.
Here is the finished cable.
Then I ran out of sleeving and zip ties!Currently waiting on a shipment from Jab-Tech. (RANT: Jab-Tech is totally customer service oriented. They rock and are highly recommended!)
Update: 3-28-07:
I found a couple more pictures that may help out so I'm adding them in now. The job has been complete for a while now.
This is a close-up of the 'round' Xfi cable. Notice the two different size pieces of heatshrink tubing on the end.
Tip: Use clothes pins to keep the sleeving back from your working area. Like this:
I had MANY problems attempting to get the lighting to work the way I had planned. Just to show you what happened...first in the light:
And now in the dark...notice that only half the bulb is lit:
I wound up having to re-do the entire wiring job on the switch box. I went into the details over in this thread. (Specifically post #7) So, now the inverters are hidden very close to the CCFLs.
This is a (pretty bad) picture of when I was using Arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive to attach two small heatsinks to the three hot ICs on the rear of the card. It is hard to see but the heatsinks are being clamped with a removed IHS on top of them so they would stay perfectly flat during the curing process. This was REALLY hard and took about 6 tries to get right.
Tip: If there is even a remote possibility that you may need to remove them in the future, do NOT use AS Thermal Adhesive by itself!! It is much better to use a mixture of AS 5 with the thermal adhesive instead. That way you can remove them without such a high risk of killing the board. See this thread for more info. I finally got them off the other day but it was a hair raising experience.
Here is a pic of the heatsinks after they were permanently attached:
And here is a close-up of how I got the RAM-sinks that were included in the Maze4 Low Profile SLI Kit to work. (I used a razor blade to bend them sideways.)
Thanks for checking this out! Comments are welcome.
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Originally Posted by Shpoon
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