*҈ * No Pressure! * ҈ *a higly desired cooling upgrade* ҈*

[Vinas]

This is a mostly picture journey on a cooling upgrade that has been desired for some time. My wife finally gave me the green light... So foolish of her.

Something you should know
I do things a little differently. I tend to prefer function over aesthetics. My worklogs are usually only one or two days long (because I am too excited to use the new system). I test products and setups even when they are not optimal, it's my curiosity that kills me! For instance, I'm the kind of guy that would put a water block on a water block, or build a TEC sandwich, or build a chiller out of a mini fridge. I'm questionable at times! but enough about me...



Quick facts about the current build:

• the guts of this rig are sigged below \/
  
• i am upgrading the RAM, adding a GPU, the rest is all cooling
  
• currently there are two loops. CPU, GPU
  
• Existing build has dual 240 magicool extremes, and one Danger Den 240GTS. (a total of THREE 240mm rads, spread across a video and CPU loop)
  
• Using and combining existing Dual pumps, one XSPC pump bay res. One panworld/blueline PX40 (~480GPH @ ~45watts ) AC/120 pump. More info on that pump can be found here.
  
• existing EK copper water block, adding a second block & a second 5870.
  
• it uses high speed 4000rpm deltas. if you think that those would be loud, you would be thinking correctly.
  

Desired outcome / goals:
-> a bump in graphics for my flight sims and eyefinity
-> much better cooling with reasonably quiet operation (I fold 24x7)
-> a clean looking cooling loop (bling not required but acceptable)


The New stuff:

1. Adding a metric ton of enzotech, BP, feser, and thermochill fittings
2. replacing all of the cloudy tygon tubing with clear Primochill LRT
3. two thermochill PA 120.1's (on sale at sidewinders BTW)
4. adding another 5870
5. adding another EK fullcover copper block with black backplate(all rev 1 stuff - hard to find these days)
6. adding five low speed yate loon fans
7. upgrading to 16GB of RAM (mainly for my virtual machines)
   
8. adding an HP blueray drive (shhhh the wife doesn't know about that one)

and now it's time for pr0n

[Vinas]

unpackaging... will be working on busting down the old loop, see you all in a few hours.

[CedricFP]

Beautiful

[TonyLeung]

fold with v7?

[Vinas]

Thanks guys... I ended up working on this all weekend. Here are some pictures of the previous cooling setup and the work progress. I've also been flushing out the rads -- boy do those thermochill rads have a lot of debris in them! The water turned from cloudy white to a brownish murky substance. Very happy to have that _out_ of the new loop!



The original case and loop: (which I have used for a little over one year with no changes besides adding distilled once in a while)






The cloudy tubing was one of the reasons for changing the cooling loop.

[Vinas]

Here's the work area, my new RAMs, and a little water block mounting + leak testing...

[arkadur]

I've done a project on this case ...
It's very tiny for WC.
Looking good so far, keep it up

[Volumetrik]

LOL @ very tiny case, ITS HUGE !

[Vinas]

I've done a project on this case ...
It's very tiny for WC.
Looking good so far, keep it up

I think he is referring to that with the hard drive cage and horizontal support bracket installed, it is hard to fit a proper size radiator inside. At the suggestions of people here I had purchased the magicool extreme slim rads (the ones with the shiny side plates on them) because they are exactly 120mm wide. So they match the dimensions of a standard 120mm fan. If I had another $300 to spend on a case I probably would not buy this one again -- but no worries I can make it work!


Here's an update on the drain system... I've always wanted a drain so that flushing/draining the loop would be easy. There is already a fillport up on top of the case which I installed a while ago. The plan is to plumb that into the XSPC bay res/pump combo's fill port. I had to buy one adapter to make the wide fillport go down to g 1/4 threads.


here's the finished drain system:

[shazza]

Lots of goodies, Vinas!

Looks like a fun build.

[Vinas]

Thanks, Shazza! There's no way my stuff can really ever compare to the beauty of your builds!

Here's the final outcome. I wanted to do something different with the GPU link. I used a couple 90's and some 45 rotaries along with a custom bent tube. I had used the boiling method to make it keep it's curve without collapsing. It took me a few attempts to keep the tubing from clouding up. I found that about 10 seconds in boiling water is all it takes, then an ice bath makes the tube keep its shape.

[Vinas]

Just a quick update. The Lamptron FC5 I was using took a dump. The display lights up but nothing else happens... So, I ordered some Y splitters that I can run off my modded (red LED) Rheobus extreme!

After that I'm going to dress up the pump with some heat sinks, clean her up, and post up a few beauty shots.

[MadHacker]

Vinas. not sure if its just the angle of the shot. but does the tubing between 2 rads in the back of the case look kinked?

[Vinas]

Vinas. not sure if its just the angle of the shot. but does the tubing between 2 rads in the back of the case look kinked?

It does look that way. Fortunately the low radius technology (LRT) tubing is not kinked. I will get some better photos once I finish up the wire management and add the ramsinks to the pump!