Project: Cool Dragon

[Guitarman0]

Special thanks to Shinester184 for helping me diagnose the problem by letting me use his 5850

Hi guys!

I have been wanting to watercool for a while now so I have decided to go for it this christmas.

I am planning on watercooling my 5850 and Phenom II 955 in my Lancool K-62. This is my first watercooling build so go easy on me . Anyway, my watercooling gear I have bought is as follows

Tubing: XSPC 7/16 Clear - 1m
Pump: Laing DDC-Pumpe 12V DDC-1Plus incl. Phobya Laing DDC Light Plexi
Radiator: Hardware Labs Black Ice Stealth 280
CPU Block: EK-Supreme LT AMD - Plexi (754/939/AM2+/AM3)
GPU Block: EK-FC5850 5850 CF - Plexi
Coolant: Thermochill EC6 Non Conductive Coolant - Red
Reservoir: XSPC Single Bay Reservoir
Fittings: 1/2" Chrome Barbs
Thermal Compound: MX5

Here is the build before I start.

I began by taking off the Zalman GPU cooler I fitted. It is a big cooler

I was very nervous peeling off the adhesive ram heatsinks but I got there in the end.

Clean card

Next I am going to take off my CPU cooler (Thermalright Venomous-X). Will have an update later today

 

[Guitarman0]

Nice, well spaced out build log - keep it up

Loving the case, contemplating purchasing it sometime soon - what's the cable management like, out of interest?

It is pretty good. All of the holes seem to be in the right place for me except for the 8 pin which is a little tricky to feed the cable through. Otherwise, I love the case. Only downside for me is it is a little small but I suppose that would be a benefit for some people. Great value for money though

 

[Guitarman0]

Just a quick update, I have taken off my CPU cooler.

Before removing with the fans

Without fans,

Dirty CPU,

Its a pretty big cooler

And here is the clean CPU.

Keep an eye on the MM as I will be selling the CPU cooler and GPU cooler after christmas.

Otherwise, I will get the watercooloing gear christmas day (possibly some photos then), if not I will be building on boxing day so more photos then

 

[Guitarman0]

I think he means he is selling the cpu cooler and the gpu cooler.

Yep, I meant CPU cooler and GPU cooler

 

[Guitarman0]

nice!!!...
I have the same case too, i want to water cool my cpu but i can't see the room in the case!, so i'm glad you doing it so i can see how this turns out ..
what blue neon light r u using?, my case aint that blue and i have the same number of blue fans as you too and neon lights.

more pic ASAP .

I am just using some unbranded ones I found on a competitors site. They were really cheap

 

[Guitarman0]

Everything arrived Good old santa XD

Nice of Phobya

Some fun for when I get it up and running

I am going to replace the pump top today and if I get time flush my rad. More updates later

P.S. I also have my reservoir and fittings, just forgot to take a photo of them

 

[Guitarman0]

Ugly pump

Naked pump

Pretty pump top

Pretty pump

Will try and get the rad flushed later. If not, more updates tomorrow when I actually start

 

[Guitarman0]

Here is a pretty picture heavy update

So I found out that my rad wont fit my case so I am gonna file the holes for the rad. I will have photos later to explain this better but long story short I am going to have to remove my mobo from my case.

Here is my TV card

My sound card

The mobo

I also removed the 120mm fan in the drive bays as my res will go there

I am using MX4 for the CPU and GPU

Unfortunately I cant use the standard stock cooler backplate so I going to go without for the moment.

Mounting in.

The CPU block (shiny!!!)

Installation was pretty easy

Here is the GPU block. It is a monster

I actually hate thermal pads. They were a pain!

Here is the GPU block installed

More updates later today

 

[Guitarman0]

The holes for the barbs in the rad were spaced too far apart for my case so I have had to mod it a litte

Not the neatest of mods but it is not visible with the top and side on.

Filing the section down.

Bending the metal back

Now the rad sits nicely

Also, I found a fix for the CPU mounting back plate. My dad helped me drill through the threads so the screws now fit

Just flushed the rad

More updates soon.

 

[Guitarman0]

Go easy on the thermal paste lol, keeps jizzing over the edge

lol. I made the mistake of lifting the syringe to 'break' the thermal paste from it. It ended up going over the edge lol.

 

[Guitarman0]

O.k. so I mounted the radiator on the top of the case.

There was barely enough room for the 8 pin power cable

With all the blocks installed and all together

I mounted my pump with some soft rubber stickpadded to the bottom of the case

With all the tubes

Ready for a leak test

Leak testing

I thought the GPU block looked great

Crappy news now though, the machine won't boot. I am going to have to drain the whole thing and test all of my components because I have tried all of the obvious stuff

 

[Guitarman0]

Yep, I had everything air cooled before so I know it works. There were no beeps but I got a engstrom0304 round and we interchanged my stuff with his (etc tested ram, board, CPU etc). Motherboard was the problem. RMA time.

 

[Guitarman0]

Well at least you have a way forward now, could be that the mounting plate for the cooler somehow managed to short on the back of the mobo??

Thats what I thought to start with but I have checked it and there is no metal on metal

 

[Guitarman0]

any more news on the mobo yet?.

Well, I have opened an RMA request for the mobo and the GPU because after more testing I think the GPU is also faulty (or is faulty instead of the motherboard). My warranties run out early Jan so I am running around seeing if I can pick up a GPU for a tenner to test the mobo. If not I will send both GPU and mobo off and risk paying the fee to get one of them back if it is not broken.

 

[Guitarman0]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-243-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=938

not quite a tenner, but hey

Thanks for the link mate, but I am looking for something in my local shops as I dont really have time to wait for the deliveries. Also, the watercooling gear has cleared me out so I am really short on money.

Thanks anyway

 

[Guitarman0]

dam, everything was going so well now this!. do you know what could have done this?.

Not a clue Possibly removing the vram adhesive heatsinks from my 5850 but otherwise not sure. I have got a friend coming round tomorrow (hopefully) and I will test his 5850 in my mobo so I can see if the mobo is broken.

 

[Guitarman0]

Since this is a build log I might as well share with you guys the bad stuff too.

Here is the mess after draining the loop

And this is me testing the CPU on engstrom0304s AM3 board

And here is my PC at the moment, ready to test a GPU on. Shinester184 has very kindly allowed me to use his 5850 to test my motherboard.

I suppose all I can do now is wait

 

[Guitarman0]

Im sorry but are you testing the MB with it sat on the anti static bag????

I didnt think this was not to good of an idea.

Should I not be doing that?

 

[Guitarman0]

As far as i was aware the bags are conductive on the outside. I just sit mine on the box.
Im trying to find a reference to back this up.

I wont be doing that next time! Thanks for the info

 

[Guitarman0]

Small and relatively insignificant update:

I have decided after advice from the forums to change the fan direction over the rad.


Before

After

I am bored of waiting for the new GPU already lol.