First water cooled rig from scratch...worklog

[mhorgel]

As you can see from my sig, I have a fairly good AMD 64X2 4400+ system, but when the Conroes came out, I had to have one. I have an Asetek water cooling kit on my AMD system, but I wanted to make an extreme system from scratch for the new rig.

System

Lian Li PCG 70B with window side panel
E6600 (retail)
Asus P5B Deluxe (replace stock NB HS with CM Blue Ice Pro)
G-Skill 6400HZ 2GB
OCZ GameXtreme 700W PSU
ATI X1900XTX
150 GB Raptor
750GB Barracuda

Cooling

Thermochill PA 120.3 with Cooltechnica 1/2" barbs
DDC 18W with Radiical head and Danger Den 1/2" barbs
AquaXtreme MP-05 SP Limited Edition CBU block
Maze4 GPU block
Masterkleer 7/16" tubing
Delrin fillport with T line

Here's a few "before" pix of the case...







Oh Boy...My E6600 arrived...It's a week 27, which have a good rep for overclocking...




The first attempt at cutting the holes in the top of the case was less than spectacular, because of lack of a template...



Then I finally stitched together 3 PA 120.1 templates, taking care to leave the proper distance between them. I highly recommend cutting holes in this shape, as opposed to circles, as it is much easier to do this shape, mostly straight lines and just a few arcs at the corners.



I am still waiting for hardware to arrive, but I was able to mount the PSU. It's upside-down, so as to give the fan more room to breathe.



I get most of my stuff this week, and I'll be working on the project and posting more pictures as I go.

One question...Would it be advisable to remove the cage that a top mounted PSU sits in? It will certainly make the Rad easier to mount, but I am somewhat concerned that doing so will alter the structural integrity of the case. If I do remove it, do I just drill through the rivets holding it in place?

8/29 Update:

Radiator installation delayed while I wait for my barbs. I did manage to get my fillport and T-line installed...





Got lots of goodies from the UPS man...





Rad installed...







Some mods done to my P5BD to ready it for water cooling, and an aftermarket NB cooler. I used AS5 on the mosfet HS.



I guess my warranty is void now...



Voiding more warrantys, this one on my new X1900XTX





My DDC-18w with Radiical head...



Due to me not knowing the intake from the outlet, and asking for the output to go up and inlet to the side, Radiical gave me 90 degree barbs. Since it will be 2 weeks before I can get replacements, I went ahead and constructed my loop. I will change to straight barbs later.



And the finished loop...



Leak testing...



Passed a 14 hour leak test, so I got up bright and early this morning, installed the motherboard, drives, and mounted my GPU (big PITA) and CPU waterblocks.







I mounted the DDC on a square of Petra's gel stuff



A little cable management aside, she's ready to go!



Success!!!



...not so fast...about an hour later my DDC failed, almost (I hope) destroying my CPU, so I have to get a new one. Hopefuly Danger Den will get me a replacement quick, so I can get my system up and running without too much delay.

Got my new pump and new straight barbs. After substituting the new pump for old, I did some testing of the system. Temps were much higher than I thought they should be (70C under load at stock speeds). After a little investigating, I found out that my waterblock only fits in certain orientations. the part of the block that contacts the CPU is not centered on the mounting bracket. Therefore, when I installed the block (incorrectly, as I discovered later) capacitors next to the socket on the mb prevented good wb/cpu contact. I needed to rotate my wb 180 degrees, which added a "twist" to my loop, but as far as I can tell, no flow restriction ( I REALLY did not want to drain the system and swap the tubes on the wb).





I drilled a 1" nole in my mb tray, and lined it with some edging for cable management...



Here's a shot of the new pump in the Radiical bracket...



My aftermarket NB cooler, which keeps my NB temps cool...



I had to get a new LCD widescreen, this LG has great contrast, 5ms response time, and is very reasonably priced ($309 at Circuit City, you have to order on the web)...



and a few pix of the (almost) finished rig before putting the side panels on...





And now a few pix with the case fully assembled...











If there is anything you want to see that I haven't shown, let me know! Again, thanks for all your help.

Mark

[Xeon th MG Pony]

not only that the discharge air is slightly quieter with that shape.

[Batman!]

Very nice, but what did you use to cut the holes? Dremel? Jigsaw?

[Patriote]

Nice job!

[mhorgel]

Very nice, but what did you use to cut the holes? Dremel? Jigsaw?

Dremel with the cutting discs. I found that it was best to cut the straight segments until the wheel was about half its size, and then cut the arcs until the disc was consumed. Easier to cut an arc with a smaller disc

Mark

[nealh]

damn nice work

[Aerou]

inice work so far ...
Cuz your doin it from scratch, this could be helpful for some starters ...
KEEP THE GOOD WORK

[Xicer]

Nice work dude! Im thinking of getting that same exact case and some watercooling components very similar to what you have, so I'll look forward to what you do. Keep up with the good work!

[mhorgel]

Nice work dude! Im thinking of getting that same exact case and some watercooling components very similar to what you have, so I'll look forward to what you do. Keep up with the good work!

I'll keep posting pix as I go! Thanks all for your support!

Mark

[septim]

One question...Would it be advisable to remove the cage that a top mounted PSU sits in? It will certainly make the Rad easier to mount, but I am somewhat concerned that doing so will alter the structural integrity of the case. If I do remove it, do I just drill through the rivets holding it in place?

why don't you try it? it is blocking airflow a bit/ and depending where you'd place your radiator barbs also ..., just drill using 1/8 bit... if you feel it don't look nice, rivet it back on (aluminum 1/8 x 3/8 length).

or you could use some aluminum square tubing cut it to shape to act as support when riveted... (prop it diagonally from back of case to top of case)

[xXxDieselxXx]

Nice man.. keep it coming...

[mhorgel]

Always unexpected problems!

Thermochill recommends attaching fans to the rad using #6 x 1/2" screws with a gasket between the fan and the rad, and then attaching the fans to the case using #10 x 1/2" screws from the other side. Problem...the Yate Loon fans that I got do not have a hole at the front and another in the back of each corner...rather thay have an inch long tunnel which goes through the entire thickness of the fan. Therefore, I have the wrong screws, and am going to have to have one screw go through grill/case/fan/gasket/rad. I figure a dozen #6 x 1 1/2" or 1 3/4" will do...obviously I will try the shorter ones first, Thermochill makes it no secret that screws that are too long will puncture the core (not covered under warranty...LOL).

Sigh. At least I got the fillport and t-line installed. My radiical pump head, DDC, blocks, barbs, and other assorted stuffs are all coming this week. Hopefully the trade winds from Australia are blowing towatds the USA and I'll get my radiical head in time to complete my loop over the upcoming long holiday weekend.

Mark

[septim]

yah the actual length you'd need are #6 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 depending on whats inbetween...

mine, i tap some #6-32 holes on my PA, and used some #6-32 by 1 1/2 to 1 3/4
i even tried attaching a 38mm sanyo denki there using 2inch length...

[mhorgel]

Bump

New pix added to original post

[smopoim86]

great work, keep the pics coming.

Have you thought about getting a shroud for the rad?
Seems it would be easier to mount(dont have to worry about the screws puncturing the core)

[mhorgel]

I heard shrouds didn't really help temps much, never really thought about it from the perspective of easier mounting, I'll see how it goes...I got 1 1/2" and 1 5/8" screws, and I'm sure one of those lengths will work without puncturing the core.

Mark

[septim]

didn't really help temp much, correct on this, temp diff of 1 inbetween 2 degrees...

what we're after here is the airtight quality, so as we don't recycle air thru our rad, its coming from one side out the other, if not air tight, your out the other side air may cycle back in the middle and decrease some performance...

[mhorgel]

Good news...I got my waterblocks, DDC ultra, and motherboard. My rad grill comes today. I only lack my radiical pump head, a video card (considering Sapphire x1900xt for $316), and drives. I should be constructing my loop this weekend, so I can leak test as soon as my radiical gets here from down under.

Mark

[stormshadow]

i love the new g-series cases.
i wish they used the same PSU location on the k60 (smaller version of the g70)...

[mhorgel]

I got my Rad Grill today, and installing the fans/rad was tricky! Getting all 12 screws through the fans and correctly lined up with the rad was a dificult maneuver involving masking tape, bright lights, and a lot of patience.

Also got my mb today, reports on the Intel board are that week 27 6600's and the P5BD = good overclocks! All I need now is my radiical head, and I'll be able to construct my loop and leak test!

New pics on the original post.

Mark

[septim]

nice work on that
now to place fan controller/ temp LCD on the upper drive bays?
with 3 more 5.25 bays free for optical drives.

now bringing out more popcorn...

[Istasi]

This looks great, and is super-clean so far.

Just one question, why not mount the fans so that they pull fresh air through the rad?

[mhorgel]

This looks great, and is super-clean so far.

Just one question, why not mount the fans so that they pull fresh air through the rad?

That was a source of some great thinking for me. The case has 3 stock 120 mm fans bringing air into the case, one in front, one in back, and one in the side panel. My choices were to push cool air down into the case through the rad, and reverse the other 3 fans (otherwise I would have 6 fans sucking, and none blowing), or to have the fans pull air from the case through the rad, and out the top. The thinking is that though my CPU and GPU temps might suffer a bit, overall system temps would be better with cool air being sucked into the case from the front, rear, and side, cooling the drives, VGA card, and CPU/NB area, and exhausting the warm air through the top.

Mark

[septim]

and your inverted PSU.

[dinos22]

i feel sorry for the pump with Asus P5B Deluxe with constant poweroffs just haven't thought that through the Asus mob