Project: Lian Li PC-A70 Core i7 SLI (lots of pictures)

[Gabe_CA]

Hello and welcome!

My first water-cooled build, and my first post at XS. This will be a dual-loop Core i7 SLI rig. I like silver, so I went with the plain aluminum case. Lighting will be green and UV. The CPU loop will be blue, and the GPU loop will be green. Thankfully I don't have to put a M$ logo on the machine, even though they paid for nearly 30% of it

Hardware:

- Lian Li PC-A70 (with side window)
- Thermaltake W0133RU 1200W
- GA-EX58-UD5P
- Core i7 920
- 2 x EVGA GTX 260 Core 216 SC
- Mushkin 6GB XP3-12800 7-8-7-20
- 300GB WD Velociraptor
- Asus DVD-RW
- Logitech G15v2 and G9
- Toshiba 32RV530 1080p HDTV

Watercooling:

- 2 x MCP-355 with XSPC res top
- D-Tek Fuzion v2 (zip-tie mount, still no 1366 kit)
- 2 x D-Tek Fuzion GFX v2
- Swiftech MCR-220 and MCR-320
- Tygon 7/16" ID tubing
- Hydrix, Pentosin

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Stripped case after some dremeling... The drive bay looked nice, but there was no place to keep it.



Cleaning the water blocks. Cleaning the radiators was a mess and I did not take pictures...



MCR-220 in place after some dremeling.



MCP-355s with XSPC res top installed after some drilling. I've used some spacers to lift them up a bit. This way the fans from the front cool the pumps enough so that the bottom is lukewarm instead of the crazy hot default. What's better, the spacer is UV reactive and glows real nice

I've moved the hard drive bay from the (now removed) placeholder in the back to front. Only had to drill 4 holes. Fan blows air from the front.



MCR-320 installed on the top.



Replacing thermal paste on motherboard.



CPU loop assembled, and on the Pentek filter for leak testing.



Had to mount the Fuzion V2 with zip ties as there is no official 1366 mount yet



Looks to nice to disassemble...



...but that didn't stop me



Fuzion GFX installed. I've removed it once the tubing was cut, and then reassembled again when the water blocks were already on the GPU loop.



GPU loop on the filter. Will stay there for the next few days... I've used 2 90 degree turns to connect the video cards, as the tubing developed kinks when I tried to bend it in that tight space. Much neater this way...



Green glow.

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This is where I stand now. I did fire up the machine when the CPU loop was on the filter, and it worked OK. I hope that will be the case when I eventually start it again. My plans for now are:

- remove the Pentek filter on the weekend, and fill up the GPU loop with Hydrix-added water.
- cut a hole with my Dremel in the motherboard mounting plate, and hide cables from the PSU completely behind it. Cut another hole in front of the power supply connection on the motherboard. I have not decided yet whether I'll do this, but it's probable.
- Once D-Tek get off their lazy butt and make the 1366 mount, I'll reassemble the water block again, and fill it up with Pentosin-added water.
- Finally, install UV lighting.

One thing that I'm debating is whether I should add an MCR-120 on the fan in the back, and then drive the CPU loop through the MCR-220 and MCR-120. I could also fit another MCR-220 under the MCR-320, but I'm not sure whether that will be necessary in the end. So far I get around 40 degree idle + 80 degree on 100% load on my CPU when overclocked to 3.5GHz + turbo mode + hyperthreading. From what I see my water is quite cold, and does not warm up significantly when the CPU is under stress, so I tend to believe that the zip tie mount is the weak link Once I get the final 1366 mount, I will evaluate my CPU temps again.

[Serpentarius]

wont removing pentek requires a bleeding?

[MomijiTMO]

Zip ties aren't going to provide anyway near enough pressure for decent cooling. I hope D-Tek hurry the hell up.

[Gabe_CA]

wont removing pentek requires a bleeding?

It sure will. So will changing the CPU water block mount. That is the reason why I run on plain distilled water in both loops for now.

[Gabe_CA]

Fired up the machine today, and ran some tests. Overclocked my video cards using EVGA precision tool. It reports core clock and memory 741/1215 Max I could run it was 756/1296 but small white dot artifacts started showing up, so I scaled back a bit. With this overclock, I get 46 and 48 degrees C on the two GPUs after 20 minutes of Furmark in 1080p/16x AA/Xtreme burning mode. Idle temps are 32 C. This with the filter in the line. I think it's safe to say that heat will not be an issue on the video cards

[Angmaar]

awesome build! welcome to XS!!

[Gabe_CA]

This weekend I went ahead with my mod to hide cables behind the motherboard backplate. I have also removed the Pentek filter, and the GPU loop is now complete.



Dremeling hard...



All the cables routed behind the backplate.



It's going to be a challenge to put the side panel back on the case... It's better to have all these cables hidden.



UV lights installed, GPU loop filled with Hydrx.



Glowing...



Need a reason to go HDTV instead of a monitor? 22" and 24" do not come close to the immersive awesomeness of a 32" HDTV, and it beats a 30"-er monitor in FPS and price. I'm really happy with my Toshiba. I get around 60fps on Far Cry 2 on average with everything maxed out. Sweet!

I have also remounted the CPU, and I get much better temps this time. I've hit 4GHz+turbo on easily with hyper-threading disabled. I get around 60 C, and around 75 C on 4GHz with hyper-threading enabled. Will start to tune for stability in the coming days, and post settings. On the negative side, I had to scale back the video cards to 710MHz and the memory to 1116MHz because the nVidia driver kept crashing. It is now rock solid with these settings. Still waiting on D-Tek to finalize my CPU loop... More to come...

[dM@n]

Nice job!

Love the UV effects. May I have your 32" HDTV?

[vypher]

Man, that's a crazy setup! Great job!

[LockBreaker]

This project is beautiful. =)

Love how neat and tidy everything is. The UV-effect, as mentioned before by others, is just great. Not two glowy or exaggerated.

Everything is as it's supposed to be. =)

[shoota]

welcome to XS! what an entrance ur build is fantastic, good job!

[gr8golf]

welcome to XS! what an entrance ur build is fantastic, good job!

Seriously! I think he must feel like he's come home to a place he's never been.

[atomic ferret]

Very nice build. It's nice to see some people using good ol' fashion worm drive clamps to protect their goodies instead of going clampless.

[Gabe_CA]

Thanks for the warm welcome. Worm drive clamps - I guess I'm a bit old-school when it comes to mechanics I've started working on my overclock. Not too bad for a zip tie mount:



Couldn't get 4.2GHz prime stable for more than 2.5 hours. Heat and voltages really jump at 200MHz, and I'm not sure it's worth it for 24/7 use. Will have to spend more time to get the settings right. Hyper-threading adds around 15 degrees more, so I've decided to disable it for now. This will have to do for now, as I plan to use the computer during the holidays instead of benching it

[SGwillis]

i do like the lian li cases, just wish i had the funds to buy the i7 stuff

[exe163]

I like you lighting, created a very clean effect when viewed through the window.

[ibm390s]

impressive job. i love the simple layout.

the holes for the two front vents fit with the radiator mounting holes or you drill another set of holes?

[cobra_kai]

great to see more builds using the A70. Definitely a case I am considering...

[SGwillis]

great build and good clocks, want to get i7 now

[Gabe_CA]

impressive job. i love the simple layout.

the holes for the two front vents fit with the radiator mounting holes or you drill another set of holes?

Thanks. Just got back from a trip, so not a lot of updates. Still no mounting kit from D-Tek The last thing I need to complete the build...

The holes on the front do not align with the MCR-220. All I did was slightly enlarge the holes with the dremel, pull the ones on the top down, and the ones on the bottom up. We're talking a few millimeters here, so it's not a big modification. See the picture below:



As you can tell I started dremeling before I had a plan, so some holes are bigger than necessary The top is stock modified by Lian Li, and is a perfect match for the MCR-320. It is worth to get it in my opinion unless you have a ton of experience working with aluminum. It saves a lot of time and looks better than what you could cut yourself (unless you have access to laser).

I've also painted the DVD burner front plate to silver with a paint spray from Loews:



Not perfect, but better than the original black.

[Gabe_CA]

Here are some updates on my 24/7 overclock (as a reference for myself as well):

4011MHz (21x191)
Hyper-threading On (8 threads)
Turbo On
QPI 36x
Uncore 18x
LLC Enabled

Voltage settings in BIOS (stock value in brackets):
VCore 1.39375 (1.29375)
QPI/VTT 1.32 (1.15)
CPU PLL 1.88 (1.8)
PCIE 1.5 (1.5)
QPI PLL 1.14 (1.1)
IOH Core 1.14 (1.1)
ICH I/O 1.58 (1.5)
ICH Core 1.14 (1.1)
DRAM 1.64 (1.5)

With these settings I hit 4GHz effortlessly:



Temps stabilize around 70 degrees on Prime95. I've reached my max temp at 76-78 degrees when running Prime95 and the Intel burn test simultaneously (for 30 loops). Not bad considering the zip tie mount. My goal is to find the minimum voltages that still keep this overclock stable.

With no hyper-threading, I get the following overclock:

4158MHz (21x198)
Hyper-threading Off (4 threads)
Turbo On
QPI 36x
Uncore 18x
LLC Enabled

Voltage settings in BIOS (stock value in brackets):
VCore 1.4 (1.29375)
QPI/VTT 1.34 (1.15)
CPU PLL 1.88 (1.8)
PCIE 1.5 (1.5)
QPI PLL 1.14 (1.1)
IOH Core 1.14 (1.1)
ICH I/O 1.58 (1.5)
ICH Core 1.14 (1.1)
DRAM 1.64 (1.5)



Overall, I decided to stick with hyper-threading on, as the extra 160MHz I gain by turning it off is really not that significant. Temps are only higher with hyper-threading when all 8 threads are used, so that's not a big factor either. For higher overclocks I need increasingly higher voltages for VCore, which is not worth it for me for 24/7 use.

[shazza]

Nice build, Gabe ... do you have any performance updates after getting a more secure block mount than the zip ties?

[Gabe_CA]

Nice build, Gabe ... do you have any performance updates after getting a more secure block mount than the zip ties?

Sure, I'll have some updates once D-Tek comes out with their mount. Still can't believe it takes them this long. However, I believe my main limitation is the VCore voltage, not heat. I'm quite happy with 4GHz, and will likely stick with it. Perhaps wait a few months to see whether the braver overclockers experience degradation, given that 1.55 VCore seems pretty commonly used in this forum.

[anubis_is_evil]

rather than waiting for the mount, Duniek is selling dtek custom mount for 1366...you should get them, you can check them in sale section..

[Mav451]

Hey one question - saw you moved the HD cage from the top rear to the 5.25 drive area. How are you securing it in the case?