Project: ケイ - Watercooled Threadripper

Kei · 27 Mar 2013 at 11:50

I've finally got around to removing the fan speed alarm from the enermax fan controller. It's only been annoying me for the last 8 years.

I can finally drop the fan speed below 1000rpm and still have peace & quiet.

Been looking at more options regarding the radiators and think i might be able to keep all 6 hard drives. The enermax fan controller came with drive rails that allow a hard drive to be fitted behind it. I could then add a 2x 5.25" backplane that gives me 3 drives up top too meaning i could loose the 4 from the bays below and fit another 240/280mm rad. Problem then is finding somewhere to put the pump/res.

Kei · 28 Mar 2013 at 13:28

Distilled water and about 10% saab/GM antifreeze. Without the lights it has very little apparent colour. I used it as i had some spare and it has strong corrosion inhibitors and a lubricant for the pump. (plus it's long life so in principal should last a minimum of 2 years)

This is the concentrate before it gets watered down.

You can just about get the colour with the blue led, but it really seems to go green once it's mixed into the system.

Kei · 29 Mar 2013 at 10:54

I've decided to try and squeeze the double 240mm radiators in. I've now bought an alphacool XT45 240mm radiator which i intend to put in the top and loose the EX to the bottom. (its going to be a tight fit up top) I've also got myself some 45 and 90 degree fittings which will help and also a pair of scythe AP-15's.

Kei · 3 Apr 2013 at 17:43

Proof that my mathematical ability is somewhat poor. I really should double check myself before i start typing this stuff. (just redone my calculations and it comes out to 7:1 like you said, can't even remember what I did to get 72:1)

I've sorted out the hard disks now. Taken 3 out, the two small ones have been ghosted onto the 250GB drive and the 200GB drive is now in an external caddy. I've just got the 640GB, 500GB and the 250GB which i put into the 5.25" bay using a set of rails. Still haven't got a clue where i am going to put the pump/res once i fit the bottom 240mm radiator, which should be arriving tomorrow

Kei · 5 Apr 2013 at 16:00

Second radiator and a few other bits & bobs have now turned up.

Kei · 5 Apr 2013 at 18:23

All the new fittings have had their threads treated with PTFE tape.

I've swapped the xspc EX over with the alphacool. The XT45 is a very tight fit in the top of the case. All I have left to sort out is the tubing and the location of the pump/res. One minor cockup on my part is that the barbs for the bottom rad need spacers in order for an angle fitting to clear the fans so I've had to fit standard barbs for now.

Kei · 5 Apr 2013 at 19:45

Duh

I've only gone and done it now. (why the hell didn't I think of that?) Lucky I haven't filled it yet though. Do you reckon I should swap it around?

Kei · 5 Apr 2013 at 20:31

You were right, much neater the other way. (not like i had to use more tubing) It was nice and easy to turn around and i was glad i hadn't filled it. Going to start the filling/bleeding/leak testing in a minute.

Kei · 6 Apr 2013 at 00:34

Cheers.

Bleeding is taking forever. Don't think I'm going to manage to finish it tonight. No leaks anywhere which is a good sign though.

Kei · 6 Apr 2013 at 18:02

Thanks. I've been using a nikon d800 for the pictures.

Still bleeding the loop at the moment. It's incredible just how much air seems to get trapped in the alphacool radiator. I'm about to top up the tank for the 5th time now. :rolleyes:

Kei · 6 Apr 2013 at 21:04

Cheers, still got some way to go yet. I want to unify the fans and sort out some cable sleeving. The TX is fine, I swapped the antec from another PC as it's much quieter. The corsair has an unbelievably loud fan. (50dB loud) The new truepower is a seasonic design anyway and has the same 5 year warranty so I'm no worse off. (although i prefer the looks of the corsair) The advantage is that the antec supports 4 pci-e power connectors and is semi modular. I want to get a really decent seasonic supply in a few months, probably the fanless 520W so that i can have even more quiet.

I've finally finished bleeding the loop at last and have put it all back together. Sadly somewhere during the process my ancient enermax fan controller has gotten damaged and fan 1B no longer functions due to a fault in the potentiometer. (pressing it in makes it work, but as soon as you let go it stops again) So I am a fan down on the EX rad. The other case fans need to be run off voltage reducers as the motherboard seems to want to run them all at full chat. (it is enabled in the bios, but i reckon only 2 of the headers are speed controlled) I've got a trip back into the loft now to find three speed reducers and my zalman fanmate. Gives me an excuse to get a better unit next month though. (suggestions are welcome)

Idle temperatures with two of the case fans off and the one rad fan off and the rest running silently is 37 degrees for the cpu and 41 for the gpu. Not run anything yet but I reckon load temps will be greatly improved.

Here are some better photos. The completed loop. You can now see all the connectors on the HDAV H6 daughter board hiding underneath the essence ST. (this is what uses that ugly ribbon cable)

The hidden mess of cables isn't quite as bad as it was before. Lots of green cable ties. (not sure why i chose green but just went with it. Not that you can see any of them) Coolermaster grommets for the holes will be ordered next month.

The aquacomputer aquagratix block is very smart, just wish they did a backplate for the 6970 like the one they have for the 7970.

The alphacool XT45 is a very tight fit up top. With some severe difficulty, i can just about manage to remove the memory without needing to shift the radiator.

So, next on the agenda is:

1. New fan controller as the enermax is on its way out (it is about 8 years old now)
2. 2x gentle typhoon AP-15's for the bottom radiator
3. 2x 140mm case fans. Should be BeQuiet silentwings USC's to match the side panel but they are insanely expensive. Probably end up with 3x of something else that cost less but match.
4. Braid the unbraided cables. Might consider bitfenix alchemy extensions for some of it.
5. Get a 2TB+ hard disk and migrate current drives/partitions across. Also considering getting an icybox backplane so i can fit more drives into the 5.25" bay.
6. Replace integrated reservoir/D5 top with a tube and separate top to make things tidier
7. May well consider changing the XSPC EX for a thicker unit like an alphacool UT60 or a monsta.
8. Fanless or superquiet seasonic psu
9. Replace dominator ram with another pair of hyperX genesis to match or replace the lot with something superior and give me 16GB. (got 12GB presently)
10. Migrate to an X6 thuban or steamroller when it eventually rolls out

Kei · 6 Apr 2013 at 23:20

I found that twisting the tube clockwise (same direction you rotate a barb to tighten it) whilst pulling from one side usually works. Another method is to force the tubing up the barb using a flat bladed screw driver or similar tool. (being careful not to slip and damage you or your prize parts)

Had a good ferret around in the loft and have got 2x 7V adaptors a dual 5V adaptor (modded it to 7V by releasing the pins on the molex and moving the ground to 12V) and a zalman fanmate 2. These should tide me over until I replace the fan controller. I've looked at a few and I reckon the scythe kaze master pro 6 channel is my best bet using 2 fan splitters so fan 1 controls both radiator fans together and the same for fan 2, leaving the other 4 controls for the case fans. (front intake, back exhaust and 2 side intakes)

Kei · 11 Apr 2013 at 15:52

Something to laugh at. I had to put my TX650 back in the day after i fitted the antec. Ok the corsair has a noisy fan but the antec had severe coil noise when powering my 6950 in games. (oddly enough it's quiet in the other system which has a 6850) Meant i had to cut all of those cable ties and redo it all for the 3rd time.

I have also been doing some photoshopping trials for 550 paracord sleeving. I've grown fond of the blue/green LED theme from the enermax fan controller and my reservoir has a blue LED and green coolant. (plus they are my favourite colours) This is what I've come up with. The darker green I'm less certain on.

I've tried teal...

...and black.

Kei · 11 Apr 2013 at 18:13

Yeah, i expected black would be the most popular choose. What about Navy instead? (I've altered the green as it wasn't a good match for what's on the market)

Vs the black

Kei · 16 Apr 2013 at 00:13

Ordered several miles of paracord in navy, blue and green. Should be fun trying to sleeve all the cables. I've decided to sleeve some basic extensions as i don't want to void the warranty on the corsair since it's still got 4 more years. Still need to buy some heatshrink for doing the fan cables. (looking at 6mm 3:1 in black) Here's an alternative order to the colours

I've moved the two lower radiator fans back to push as case temperatures were sitting above 30 almost constantly. With them the other way around I'm getting 27-29.

I find it odd that the coolant takes on a green colour in the reservoir and yet appears clear in the tubing. Hopefully it should go quite well with the sleeving.

Kei · 16 Apr 2013 at 22:05

Yay, paracord is now here. Looks absolutely cracking. The green appears to be UV reactive too. Colours are slightly different to my photoshopping, but not too far off. Just need to get hold of some connectors and crimps or find some cheap extensions. (I've got some old cables that i cut out of an old antec supply last year that i could make into extensions with the right bits)

Kei · 16 Apr 2013 at 22:44

Cheers. The dark blue and green came from thebushcraftstore and the lighter blue came from wildelk.

Kei · 17 Apr 2013 at 00:39

Going to look at sleeving the d5 pump cables tomorrow using some hellerman sleeves instead of heatshrink as I have a healthy supply of them. If I'm successful, I'll move on to the fans.

Kei · 17 Apr 2013 at 19:44

Got some sleeving done this afternoon. Takes quite a while, so i imagine this is going to be a long winded job.

Kei · 17 Apr 2013 at 22:23

I tried to sleeve the front panel USB cables but they are just a tiny bit too thick for the paracord to fit over so I'll probably have to use ordinary sleeve for them. (several failed attempts and one ruined length of sleeve) I've now sorted the D5 pump power connections and a short molex extension for the xonar sound card. (Which i have done as sleeveless)

The molex on the D5 won't be on show so i used sleeving on it. (Going to do the fan speed wire next)

The 24 pin ATX, 8 pin EPS and both PCIe connections will be done like this, however i need to buy some extensions/molex sockets first.