My Lian LI PC-70 Build (heavy on pics!)

j.jarman

j.jarman

j.jarman

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Joined
27 Dec 2002
Posts
108
Location
UK
Hi, just a few pics really of my latest build (rebuild really :D)

External link to HQ pics (58mb):
http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC Pics/highqualitypics.rar

External link to normal quality pics (8mb)
http://www.jjarman.aquiss.com/PC Pics/normal quality.rar

List of components:

CPU - Intel Q6600
Motherboard - Asus Maximus Formula, Special Edition
RAM - Crucial Ballistix 8500
Graphics card - Asus 8800GTX
Sound card - Creative X-FI, Xtreme Music
PSU - OCZ 850w
Hard disk rack - Icy Dock 3bay, 5 disk (SATA), filled with 5x500GB samsung disks.

Cooling

Most of the tube is 3/8" (1/2" is too bulky) but some is 1/2" too. Tube used is mainly DD clearflex for 3/8" and a piece of Tygon R-3603 between top rad and NB. Old system was done entirely in tygon R-3603 and must say i wasnt very impressed with it. Very expensive and imo the DD clearflex is far superior.

Blocks:

CPU - stock DTEK fuzion
NB - Swiftech MCW-30
SB - EK SB block
GPU - EK F/C 8800GTX block.
MOSFETS - Thermalright HR-09 air blocks (a nightmare to fit lol)
 
Pumps are dual 18w DDCs (3.2 version) on a Hardwareluxx Laing DDC Dual attachement block (very quiet and impressive).

Top radiator is a Black ice gts stealth 360. Quite restrictive but i still like it a lot. Atop of this is a beautiful stainless steel radiator guard from Aqua Computer.

Bottom Rad is a Termochill PA120.2 with shroud (more like it eh?? :)). Fans are much quieter on this rad (when turned up) and the airflow through it is fantastic.

The fans on both rads are red evercool fans. Originally i had YL D12SL-12 fans on them. Was not very impressed with them though. Quiet, but airflow was pittiful.

Anyway...some pics :D

Picture of the Motherboard as it arrived:

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Some pics of the Mobo after id finished with it :D I used Arctic cooling MX-2 for thermal compound :)

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on of my favs (notice the 1/2" and 3/8" barbs on the NB) :

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This is the reason for the 1/2" barb. On the top rad i have installed a small angled tube in the outlet barb of the radiator. This tube makes sure the liquid going to the rest of the system is from the top of the radiator. This is important because it makes sure there can be no air in the radiator (as the rad is at the top of the system, this is where most air would collect, reducing the rads performance). And here's a pic of it :D

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Here's a pic of the top radiator with fans on (all sleeved ;))

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To make the holes for the rad in the case i drew a template in autocad and carefully cut the holes using my trusty 18v dewalt grinder and dewalt drill (im a serious dewalt man :P). Here's the end result (there was no hardware in the case when i originally did this :P):

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Here's how it looks with the aquacomputer grill on:

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The bottom thermochill PA 120.2 is done in pretty much the same way:

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Here's some pics of the pumps (can post pics of the dramas assemblind the block if anyone wants!), all cables sleeved again:

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Must say that im extremely impressed with the performance of the pumps. Even with so many blocks in 1 loop i need to have the 250ml reservoir completely free of air, or they will suck it round the system. Have mounted UV LED's on the back of the pump. Used to have a lot of lights in the case (about 30 under the motherboard). Looked fantastic..but i got frustrated one day (in haste), blamed them for a problem i was having and ripped them all out :D.

Havent uploaded pics of the 8800gtx with waterblock on, uve all seen them before :) although i can if anyone wants.

Here's a pic of the hard disks in their rails, ready to go into the icy dock sata bay (un-used PA.160 in the background :)):

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I lapped my Q6600 to get the best temps possible..wasnt bothered about getting a shine, as long as its flat is all that really matters. Included a couple of pics so you can get an idea of the original shape of the heatspreader:

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I used engineers blue to check the contact with the heatspreader on the DTEK Fuzion. The areas where the heatspreader of the Q6600 is blue indicates better than 1 micron of contact with the Fuzion:

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A quick pic of the ram (cooled by one of those OCZ thingies :D):

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Pics of the loop in various stages of tubing:

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End result of tubing:

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The loop runs :

Res > Pumps > 8800GTX > Q6600 > Black ice 360 (exhausts out top of case) > Northbridge > Southbridge > PA120.2 (exhausts into case, very little heat) > res

Some people wont like that layout...but it works extremely well.

Here's a pic of the very nifty Zalman Fan controller (an absolute god send!!):

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Getting wires to this neatly was a bit of a nightmare. As you can see from some pics, i have cut holes in the case (and used grommet strip to cover edges) to neaten the wiring as much as possible.

Here are some pics of the (almost) finished product:

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I will get some pics of the machine at night (and with all sides on!!) during the coming days, as these final pics dont really do the case justice!

And thats it!! Hope it wasnt too boring!!!. Cant explain how much time and thought the build has taken so far. But the work never ends...overclocking is now in progress and ill post results on that too (currently at 3825MHz and struggling :P).

Thanks for your time
 
The actual spec of this machine has changed slightly since this log :<

I now have an E8400 in place of the Q6600, my graphics cards are now 2x4870 radeons instead of the 8800gtx. The ram has changed from ballistix into 4GB of OCZ reaper. And, my desk is 100x tidier :D
 
i prefer to have both pumps on the same loop for failsafe reasons. When the GTX was under full load it increased the cpu temp by a mere 2 degrees.
 
was quite complicated...took a lot of work :D

Cant say ive had any probs with the icy dock (and i hope i dont!)

And urr..ill try n work on the sig :P
 
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