Project: 972 Rebuild

[Tattysnuc]

A while back I spent some time and built what I consider to be my first DESIGNED water cooled build. It turned out ok, but there were several things I learnt while building, and a few things that my patience didn't allow me to finish satisfactorily.

My Rig comprised:
Asus Rampage II Extreme
Intel i7 970
12GB Corsair DDR 1600 (6x2Gb)
2xCrucial CT128M225 SSD's in Raid 0 for Win 7 OS
2xGTX480's

Plus water cooling stuff...

It looked like:

I started off with a single loop. but wasn't entirely happy with the temp ENTERING the top GPU, so I did a quick re-plum and split the rig into 2 loops. 1 for the CPU and Chip set, and one for the GPUs.

... then the pennies dried up, and over the past 12 months I've been forced to sell off bits of the rig - the CPU, the memory, and then the board. Times have been a little tight, but now I'm finally ready to finish off the build. I received a Gigabyte X58a-OC for Xmas, and am waiting on the CPU, which is currently being processed by customs... an intel i7 980 (not X)

The mandate is to finish off building this rig, and overclock it as far as it will go for 24/7 operation.

While the rig is in pieces I've taken the opportunity to flush through/clean out the W/C components, and replace the fluid/hoses with something a little more sympathetic with the motherboard.

 

[Tattysnuc]

2.0 Setting the scene...

I had planned all along for the rig to be drained without the need for a compete take down, but due to my own impatience I rushed the layout and ended up concealing access to the drain point. Doh!

Anyone familiar with the 700D will know that there is a plastic partition that obscures that T-line Drain port. Doh!

The cables to the rear were a real rats nest:

which made putting the back on the case a bit of a nuisance. Sometimes cables would interfere with the mechanism, sometimes cables would be disconnected from the drives leaving me with an O/S raid 0 array with only one drive. PANIC!

The fans sandwiched between the 2 radiators, I thought was a good idea. I've learnt today that the reason that they don't seem to push as much air is because when I bought them I thought I'd bought Gentle Typhoons - 1850's. Either I screwed up and clicked on the wrong item, or someone picked the wrong fans (Gentle Typhoon 1450's) from the warehouse and I never spotted. Needless to say I'm moving to the fans of my choice - Scythe Jyuni 1900's. Noisy at hight speed, but they seriously shift air. A fan controller being an absolute must!

My room's becoming a bit of a dumping ground for old computer parts, so I've been unable to get on with the work I so needed to do - just look at my CLEAN desk...

Something has got to change...

 

[Tattysnuc]

3.0 My "Domain"

I'm very lucky to have a room all to myself - I live with my wife and stepkids in Liverpool, and we have a dog and 2 cats. My room is my sanctuary when I can tinker, but it's gotten a bit out of hand over the last 12 months with work commitments, and not having enough free cash to complete my build. This Xmas I've taken 3 weeks off work, and my wife's only managed to fill 2 of those with festive arrangements, leaving me with a week of "play time" as she likes to call it.

First off is to clear some room, and reclaim my domain!

That's Ruffus. He's my 9.5 stone English Mastiff/German Shepherd Cross. Man do I love that doggy!

As you can start to see, even floor space is somewhat of a premium...

The desk that I use to build my rigs on has become somewhat overtaken with classic kit...

I'll be honest - I bought that Amiga off a certain online auction site a few years back, along with Sensible World Of Soccer 96 edit, and it's been sat there ever since. I need to find more time...

 

[Tattysnuc]

4.0 Tidying completed

After 2 days of sorting through my stuff, and moving tat from surface A to B, then back again, I finally managed to get my shelves a bit fuller..

..then below...

and the other shelves..

.

Its not that I don't have enough storage, it's just that I have too much STUFF!

I nearly have access to my drawing board and pool table...

But there's finally room to start testing stuff and work...

The Amiga is just lashed for now....

Once I have my main rig back up, I'll get it back out...

 

[Tattysnuc]

5.0 The board and components...

Setting up the test bench...

The bits that will form the basis of todays tests.

Top left round ANTI-CLOCKWISE
Gigabyte GeForce 8400GS (borrowed from HTPC to remove need to water loop as GPU's already have blocks fitted)
Some Corsair Thumb drives (Win 8 installed on one, utilities on other 2)
Corsair Force 3 - 240Gb SSD
3*4Gb Corsair Vengeance LP DDR3 1600 (3 others not shown)
Corsair HX1000 PSU - will be reused as it's a quality PSU, and big enough for my needs.
Asus 1366 cooler (won at a competition last year)

The Box containing my new board...

Arrrrgggghhhhh! Another box inside!

Not much underneath the motherboard by way of extras are there...

Ahh - there it is. My salvation!

Shiny! and ORANGE!!!

All 1366 pins present and correct - none bent like on my P8P67 bought from sc... a competitor!

Now with my spare lapped i7 920. It's not a very good clocker this.

Ram and CPU now installed...

I'm definitely going to have to paint that RAM Orange to match the board...

 

[Tattysnuc]

6.0 First Boot...

So, first things first - do all the memory, motherboard and SSD all work...

There's LIGHTS!

Windows 8 seems to install...

All present and correct!!!!

Even with a little overclock - well, I did buy an overclocking motherboard. Why not, even though it is only a quick test to see if it all works.

I'm going to enjoy tweaking this bad boy... Enough for now though...

 

[Tattysnuc]

7.0 Breaking down the remainder of my 700D

Back to the task in hand - dismantling the remaining components from the 700D.

First - drain the loop....

I really did put that drain point in a stupid location. That partition took some real persuading to come out - not without spilling a bit of my blood with it

OK - all fluid removed? Lets start taking out the parts...

The GPU's come out fairly easy. These are GTX 480's. I've got a Dell 3008WP screen @ 2560x1600 so these do get pushed quite hard. Mostly when folding though

Yuk! Dirty Fan!!!

Double yuk! Obscured dirty radiator!!!

My Apogee XT or something like that. I'll take it apart and clean the insides later...

The Phobya G-Changer with 3x Scythe Jyuni 1900 fans. This seriously kicks out some heat

Oh....my....goodness!!!! Triple yuk! The shame of it all!

One quick rinse through under the shower...

nearly as good as new - paintjob pending.

Next task - how do we remove that interfering front panel... Answer? 1 screw at a time..
First the right one...

ARRRRGGGGHHHHH - I've just stripped the blinkin' head off the left one.

Where's that imitation Dremel...

Philips head is now Flat head...

and out she comes!

 

[Tattysnuc]

8.0 Fill Port

I'd like to have a fill port...

...to be able to top up my Koolance Res/pump

The unit actually looks black, but the flash seems to make the colours funny.

It would appear that the case will simply not grant me access to the top of the Koolance res.

Perhaps Dremel is not such a good idea at this point.

I wonder if the fan controller could go on top, then the res beneath...

NEARLY! Now - I could lie to you at this point and pretend that the next bit was intentional, but I'm not that kind of guy...
First Remove the heatsink from the transister...

then the plan was to de-solder the transister, put it some cable and mount the transister on another surface, but NO! Instead just as the solder was melting, I pulled the transister but instead of it coming out cleanly, it pulled the copper track from the pcb. Could my day get any better?

Quickly, I assembled a test rig to ensure that the other 5 channels still worked...

which they did. Even with 2 fans running off a single controller. Phew! Close shave!

Does the Fan controller now fit, and allow the drain plug access to the Res fill port?

Hell yeah!

 

[Tattysnuc]

9.0 The clean-up

Now the cleanup operation resumes...

It's a bit of a sad sight, but finally all the components are out.

That's as far as I've got so far. I'll clean up the bits, then start showing where I'm planning to go with this...

 

[Tattysnuc]

10. Removing the partition

It should start to make a bit of sense where I'm going with this build - I'm trying to increase the number of rads available in the rig, while improving the overall look, and adding a black with orange highlights theme, to the overall build.

In order to get more radiatorage and fannage in, I plan to turn the PSU on it's side and then slide a 3.120 G-Changer in behind so that air is sucked into the case through the side panel (that which sits beneath the mobo). Current thinking is to have a vent in the base of the case, but that may be expanded to include a 140 mm fan assisted exit... The PSU will also act as an exhaust port.

The partition on the 700D is a bit awkward in as much as I'm unable to place my Corsair PSU in sideways - first thing to do then is to remove the current partition and then replace with something better placed, and also tailored to help with cable management as I no longer have a plate at the back of the rig to hid cables behind.

Firstly, assessing how to remove that darned partition/plate..

Looks fairly innocuous...

Aha - 2 pop rivets at one end...

...and 2 at the other. Is that all?

http://forums.bit-tech.net/pict
Nope! There are flaps cut into the motherboard tray that are folded into the partition too. Ever wished you'd never started something...

[IMG]http://forums.bit-tech.net/picture.php?albumid=2279&pictureid=31717
Looks like the motherboard tray is held in in a similar fashion - thankfully, they chose some M4 screws too.

Too late to turn back now. Front rivets drilled out...

and the back ones...

also, now gone!

The caption says it all...

it wiggles!!!!

Nearly!!!

Freedom!!!!!

So, now I should be able to mock up how it will all fit together....

The PSU will be rotated so that the fan pulls air that's just been pulled into the case via the 360 rad.

This is what I'm trying to achieve... Shame I have ZERO metalwork skills or tools. Just me in my bedroom with a dremel-type tool. Is it too late for me to change my mind?

I think so...

The front of the case has a cavity which is vented which I intend to take advantage of as an obscured air in-port.

and I'm just going to switch my existing chunky 120mm rad for a slightly bigger one. Phobya G-Changers all the way!!!

There's something which interferes with the PSU's situation... 2 rails, again riveted to the base of the case...

The other is obstructing the radiator. They'll have to go!

Gone!

 

[Tattysnuc]

All traces of blue, I intend to re-colour orange to match the mobo...

Additionally, I have received a parcel today...

That's 2 packs of Masterkleer ORANGE hosing, 3 Scythe Jyuni 1900 fans and 2 120mm fan grates/filters covers.

Also pictured are 2 rads that came courtesy of an alternative forum...

 

[Tattysnuc]

MOAR

 

[Tattysnuc]

Loving your work Tattysnuc, keep it up!

Cheers mate!

Your a villa fan, this is now my favourite build


UP THE VILLA

They're needing all the support that we can get at the moment! What a dreadful time to support The Villa, Barnet and the New York Jets. Maybe I should walk away form all sports and stop afflicting them with my bad luck!

 

[Tattysnuc]

I've 2 items outstanding for my build:

1. Intel i7 980. Currently waiting customs clearance since 4th January. Ho hum...
2. G-changer 360 + stand. On order, awaiting delivery.

Can anyone advise how I can weld a plate in situe into the base of the case...?

Ie are there any cheap welding kits or something similar that I can use to secure a plate in the gap? I'd like to not have a plat sat over the hole, but actually in it, which I'd then sand and re-paint.

 

[Tattysnuc]

That's certainly worth a consideration - I'm concerned that it will simply push out though.

I'm going to have a look around for some "DIY welding" kits and see if I can't make something a little more "robust" I reckon you must be able to arc weld with a car battery... but then you have to have like materials - ie you can't weld aluminium to steel.... Don't you?

There must be some way to do this...

I've got a "high power" PSU which can be sacrificed in the name of research...

 

[Tattysnuc]

love the "warts 'n' all" rebuild project so far mate!

keep it up

PS

Perhaps another solution to the hole fill problem would be to re-use that mesh from the plate you removed? Snip it out carefully and use a little clear epoxy to "glue" it to the underside of the case? Just a thought

Nice suggestion - I'd like it to sit within the hole and not proud of the bottom of the case - I don;t intend to re-do this again in 12 months because I know there's something not quite 100%. I'll definitely be re-using the removed shelf - thanks for the suggestion

 

[Tattysnuc]

Project: 972 Rebuild - Part 12

More goodies have arrived today!

I picked up some QuikSteel which this looks to be the same sort of thing as JD Weld...

My radiator and a brown box arrived....

I'm not sure how other rads stack up, but I've had stunning results on the one already in the rig, so what could possibly be better than a 360 C-Changer radiator? Yes - 2 G-Changer rads...

Wonder what's in the boxes...

Oh I remember - radiator mounting brackets.

And there's my new rad - Phobya have changed their branding since I bought my first one - it's now a stuck on embossed sticker instead of a "pressed" logo - oh well, it wont be seen anyway.

No building tonight - too busy cooking Paella for the masses! Tomorrow night's looking promising though. Think I'll start with filling that hole. Any tips on preparing the surfaces, or how to use QuikSteel?

 

[Tattysnuc]

Update on the CPU - status has changed to "Awaiting Customs Charging" - looks like I'm going to have to pay a contribution to her Majesty after all. Ah well. Should be here soon....

 

[Tattysnuc]

JB Weld is pretty damn strong, you won't be able to push it out if you seal it completely, it drys rock solid which is why its a pain in the rear end to sand.

You could also solder a piece of ally, soldering kits are a very cheap....

Not sure about welding, I'm sure it can be done but I don't have any welding experience.

I've a gas and electric soldering Iron, but they wont get any where near hot enough to braze the two surfaces together.

I wonder If I can get a high power PSU (30a) that I have, connect one terminal to the case, the other to a welding rod and then weld using it. At worse I'll trip the electrics.... Probably.

I'm thinking about tacking a plate into the gap, at the corners, then fillering the gap round, before sanding back...

 

[Tattysnuc]

CPU is at Parcel Force's national depot - It's attracted £42.75 worth of customs charges...

I can't wait for it to arrive! It feels like that piece is preventing me going forward, and we all know that's not actually the case as I have an i7 920 I could use in the mean time.