Can't wait to see what you do with it!
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13
Well tonight I was able to put 2.5 hours on the system.
The plan was to prepare the radiators (mount the fans on it) and then start installing the water cooling gear into the case. I was able to install both rad into the case and the reservoir as well.
This time I took some pictures for your viewing pleasure
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Enjoy!
The radiators with barbs, fittings and fans installed. Water blocks
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Fan side view of the radiators.
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The Thermochill going into the top of the case.
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It's in! The top three 5.25 slot are unusable now. That's ok I only need three and there are three more left on the HAF.
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Top view of the case. I had to drill custom holes to mount the Thermochill.
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I had to install the motherboard before installing the XSPC rad on the back of the case otherwise I wont be able after.
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Q9650 E0. I was lucky, I got a 1.15 VID! cant wait to overclock that baby!
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Installed a Bitspower tee at the ouput of the second rad to fit a bitspower thermal probe. I added an extender between the tee and the probe to make sure the probe "head" was not obstructing the water flow.
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Second radiator in and hooked to the thermochill's output.
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Overall view of what's done so far.
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Installed the very nice EK Waterblock reservoir. At the outlet there is a tee to a drain tube with a auto shutoff quick disconnect plug. Also there is another temperature probe at the botton of the reservoir.
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Here is where the pump will go...
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That's it for tonight.
cheers!
The plan was to prepare the radiators (mount the fans on it) and then start installing the water cooling gear into the case. I was able to install both rad into the case and the reservoir as well.
This time I took some pictures for your viewing pleasure
The radiators with barbs, fittings and fans installed. Water blocks
Fan side view of the radiators.
The Thermochill going into the top of the case.
It's in! The top three 5.25 slot are unusable now. That's ok I only need three and there are three more left on the HAF.
Top view of the case. I had to drill custom holes to mount the Thermochill.
I had to install the motherboard before installing the XSPC rad on the back of the case otherwise I wont be able after.
Q9650 E0. I was lucky, I got a 1.15 VID! cant wait to overclock that baby!
Installed a Bitspower tee at the ouput of the second rad to fit a bitspower thermal probe. I added an extender between the tee and the probe to make sure the probe "head" was not obstructing the water flow.
Second radiator in and hooked to the thermochill's output.
Overall view of what's done so far.
Installed the very nice EK Waterblock reservoir. At the outlet there is a tee to a drain tube with a auto shutoff quick disconnect plug. Also there is another temperature probe at the botton of the reservoir.
Here is where the pump will go...
That's it for tonight.
cheers!
3
I had some time tonight to work a little bit on the build. Jsut enough to complete the loop by installing the pump, water blocks, filling the loop and start a leak test.
The leak test stopped pretty quickly as the pump was leaking! Looks like I did not tighten the top enough after cleaning it :swearing:. I was able to tighten it in place without having to unmount it. good thing.
Another thing I just realized is the way I mounted the reservoir, on the HD cage, it might be an issue for the forthcoming nVidia GTX-285. I measured 10.5 inches of clearance and after checking on the EVGA web site their GTX-285 specifications are exactly 10.5 inches
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.
Either I am going to have to move the reservoir when upgrading to the 285 or find a 285 that is slightly shorter then 10.5 inches. I doubt the later is possible. Gonna have to think about that but since I am keeping by 8800GT for now I do have some time to come up with some idea.
Here is the loop completed:
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Leak testing. An old switching power supply retired from an arcade machine is providing power to the pump.
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Dont know yet I'll be able to put some time on it tomorrow but hopefully I'll get the thing running before the end of the weekend and start overclocking next week.
cheers!
The leak test stopped pretty quickly as the pump was leaking! Looks like I did not tighten the top enough after cleaning it :swearing:. I was able to tighten it in place without having to unmount it. good thing.
Another thing I just realized is the way I mounted the reservoir, on the HD cage, it might be an issue for the forthcoming nVidia GTX-285. I measured 10.5 inches of clearance and after checking on the EVGA web site their GTX-285 specifications are exactly 10.5 inches
Either I am going to have to move the reservoir when upgrading to the 285 or find a 285 that is slightly shorter then 10.5 inches. I doubt the later is possible. Gonna have to think about that but since I am keeping by 8800GT for now I do have some time to come up with some idea.
Here is the loop completed:
Leak testing. An old switching power supply retired from an arcade machine is providing power to the pump.
Dont know yet I'll be able to put some time on it tomorrow but hopefully I'll get the thing running before the end of the weekend and start overclocking next week.
cheers!
Nice loop, gotta love the HAF.
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Edit: That PSU is beast.
Edit: That PSU is beast.
Quote:
Yeah, I would have loved to paint the case but I just dont have the place to paint here. Last time I did some spray painting in the workshop there was paint dust all over the house.
Originally Posted by P£P§! Great Setup, It looks weird to me now with it stock and not painted black on the inside.. but good job can't wait to see it finished |
5
I didnt spent much time on it today. The loop been leak testing since yesterday and this time (after the pump leak), it's watertight.
So I drained the loop, filled it with the coolant (distilled water & swiftech Hydrx), bled the loop and mounted the PSU in the case.
here are the now usual update pictures (with a special guest)
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The official project supervisor
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:
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So I drained the loop, filled it with the coolant (distilled water & swiftech Hydrx), bled the loop and mounted the PSU in the case.
here are the now usual update pictures (with a special guest)
The official project supervisor
9
This morning I had a few hours (about 4) to finish building the hardware.
I started with mounting the CPU block, then installed the drives, hooking up the cables, mounted the GPU block, installed the video card and finaly (and not the least) did the cable management. As you'll see there is a lot's of cables!
I really dont like where my res is located now. It'll definetely have to be move before I upgrade to the nVidia GTX 285 otherwise the video card wont fit. I do have some idea where it'll go. Anyhow that wont happen until some time.
here are the today's worklog pictures:
CPU block and RAM installed.
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Getting ready to install the storage, optical drives and the fan controller. The HDD config will be 3x Seagate 7200.11 500GB in raid 0 and two 1TB Hitachi in RAID 1.
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Video card installed and most cables are connected.
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Cables management-motherboard side.
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That's a lot of cables! How I'm gonna do that?
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I suck at cable management, but it turned out not too bad. I was wondering if the case side would fit... it did after about 15 minutes of adjustements.
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Red cathode installed. Overall view of the motherboard side.
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front view
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Next steps is to install the software and start overclocking! Stay tuned for overclocking results next week!
cheers!
I started with mounting the CPU block, then installed the drives, hooking up the cables, mounted the GPU block, installed the video card and finaly (and not the least) did the cable management. As you'll see there is a lot's of cables!
I really dont like where my res is located now. It'll definetely have to be move before I upgrade to the nVidia GTX 285 otherwise the video card wont fit. I do have some idea where it'll go. Anyhow that wont happen until some time.
here are the today's worklog pictures:
CPU block and RAM installed.
Getting ready to install the storage, optical drives and the fan controller. The HDD config will be 3x Seagate 7200.11 500GB in raid 0 and two 1TB Hitachi in RAID 1.
Video card installed and most cables are connected.
Cables management-motherboard side.
That's a lot of cables! How I'm gonna do that?
I suck at cable management, but it turned out not too bad. I was wondering if the case side would fit... it did after about 15 minutes of adjustements.
Red cathode installed. Overall view of the motherboard side.
front view
Next steps is to install the software and start overclocking! Stay tuned for overclocking results next week!
cheers!
Hello all
The system is a pleasure to use so far and it's very cool & quiet.
At stock settings the CPU core idles at or around 26C and 35C under load. It's difficult to determine the exact values because I have stuck sensors on the Q9650
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. Core 1 & 2 sensors are stuck at 37C and core 3 is stuck at 27C. I did a couple of quick overclock runs and I was starting seeing some movement on core 1 & 2 sensors.
Speaking of overclock, I had some time but not as much as I wish to start overclocking the rig.
I started by trying to get a stable FSB of a somewhat conservative setting of 470MHZ and kept the CPU to a low 6x multiplier for now. On the third try it ran Prime blends for 10 hours. It just needed a few bumps on the VTT (1.30) and vMCH (1.34) to do that. Everthing else is at default voltage (not "normal" or "auto").
After this 10 hours I have put back the CPU at it's maximum multiplier 9x for a speed of 4230MHZ to see how hungry of vCore it is. I kept Load Line Calibration off for now.
At an idle vCore of 1.29 and 1.24 under load it was able to run prime small ffts for about two hours. So it still need a few bump on the vcore to be stable but that's great voltages for 4.2GHZ
I went back to stabilize the FSB (put the multi back to 6) and I added one notch of vMCH and now it's been running prime blends for 18 hours and still running.
So 4.2ghz will be my first setting for a 24/7 overclock and move my way up from there with the room left on vcore.
once it's stable, I'll post some screenshots and progress on higher overclock settings.
cheers!
The system is a pleasure to use so far and it's very cool & quiet.
At stock settings the CPU core idles at or around 26C and 35C under load. It's difficult to determine the exact values because I have stuck sensors on the Q9650
Speaking of overclock, I had some time but not as much as I wish to start overclocking the rig.
I started by trying to get a stable FSB of a somewhat conservative setting of 470MHZ and kept the CPU to a low 6x multiplier for now. On the third try it ran Prime blends for 10 hours. It just needed a few bumps on the VTT (1.30) and vMCH (1.34) to do that. Everthing else is at default voltage (not "normal" or "auto").
After this 10 hours I have put back the CPU at it's maximum multiplier 9x for a speed of 4230MHZ to see how hungry of vCore it is. I kept Load Line Calibration off for now.
At an idle vCore of 1.29 and 1.24 under load it was able to run prime small ffts for about two hours. So it still need a few bump on the vcore to be stable but that's great voltages for 4.2GHZ
I went back to stabilize the FSB (put the multi back to 6) and I added one notch of vMCH and now it's been running prime blends for 18 hours and still running.
So 4.2ghz will be my first setting for a 24/7 overclock and move my way up from there with the room left on vcore.
once it's stable, I'll post some screenshots and progress on higher overclock settings.
cheers!
2
Finished my first stable overclock yesterday. 4.230GHZ at 1.26 vcore so there is still room left for higher speed.
The load temps are around the mid 50's but that's with the radiator fans at a very low and silent 1000 RPM. That will probably be my everyday setting with a more agressive setting for heavy duty tasks.
Still need to figure out how to lower the tRD or performance level of the RAM. right now it's at 9 and the system will not post at 8 even if I add lot's of vMCH. There must something else. Gotta read and find information on that. If you have any tips, please share!
The load temps are around the mid 50's but that's with the radiator fans at a very low and silent 1000 RPM. That will probably be my everyday setting with a more agressive setting for heavy duty tasks.
Still need to figure out how to lower the tRD or performance level of the RAM. right now it's at 9 and the system will not post at 8 even if I add lot's of vMCH. There must something else. Gotta read and find information on that. If you have any tips, please share!
2
very very nice! (sorry for bumping btw
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I got here through google since i'm also getting the HAF and am indeed planning on getting the same rad as you.
Was it easy to customise the top of the case so the 3 fan rad would fit?
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I got here through google since i'm also getting the HAF and am indeed planning on getting the same rad as you.
Was it easy to customise the top of the case so the 3 fan rad would fit?
3
Quote:
Hello
I was relatively easy to fit the Thermochill in there. I downloaded the rad template from the Thermochill site and with the template I marked where the holes needed to be on the case. The holes for the first fan (toward the front of the case) are kept as they are and I drilled the holes for the next two fans.
Some holes needs to be done in the mesh and I cutted the mesh with a Dremel. Not sure if it can be done nicely with a drill.
cheers!
Originally Posted by Elightos very very nice! (sorry for bumping btw
I got here through google since i'm also getting the HAF and am indeed planning on getting the same rad as you. Was it easy to customise the top of the case so the 3 fan rad would fit?
|
I was relatively easy to fit the Thermochill in there. I downloaded the rad template from the Thermochill site and with the template I marked where the holes needed to be on the case. The holes for the first fan (toward the front of the case) are kept as they are and I drilled the holes for the next two fans.
Some holes needs to be done in the mesh and I cutted the mesh with a Dremel. Not sure if it can be done nicely with a drill.
cheers!
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