Associate
Awesome build, really like what you can fit into an MM case but just to big for my needs, looking forward to the finished build though 
Project: Kodiak
- Thread starter Verloren
- Start date
This post should contain my usual amount of pictures for the air version of the build, but it didn't interest me so all I ended up taking was this:
And this:
My original plan was to have the case under the desk where my old Antec 1200 currently is... but when I tried it its sheer bulk really ruined my comfortable seating position
I got my block delivery yesterday (group block picture forthcoming - CF card space ran out and I was too lazy to fetch a new card) and I only had enough self control to play some BC2 for a couple of hours before I had to rip apart the PC to start the water cooling conversion. Plus, 6970s in crossfire... loudest setup I have ever heard.
Anyhow, on to the first victim:
Yes, I did notice that I forgot to cut a thermal pad for that component in the upper right of the card before I placed the block on. Cutting and placing the thermal pads is really really tedious work...
I think EK's backplate mounting instructions are wrong, it says to use the 12mm screws for the central 3 holes, but when I tried they just ending up spinning the GPU standoffs and sticking out by 2mm. So Ignored it and reversed the instructions.
It was at this point that I realised the backplate wasn't designed for horizontal motherboards so the EK branding will be back to front and the FC6970 will be upside down
The GPU before conversion:
And after:
I was worried that the XSPC compression's wouldn't fit over the backplate (because they have no clearance), but this turned out to be unfounded... just!
Anyhow, time to take the whole thing apart, mount the water blocks, tube up, fill, bleed, leak test, reflow the indigo extreme and the post another update here. Its all moving along now!
And this:
My original plan was to have the case under the desk where my old Antec 1200 currently is... but when I tried it its sheer bulk really ruined my comfortable seating position
I got my block delivery yesterday (group block picture forthcoming - CF card space ran out and I was too lazy to fetch a new card) and I only had enough self control to play some BC2 for a couple of hours before I had to rip apart the PC to start the water cooling conversion. Plus, 6970s in crossfire... loudest setup I have ever heard.
Anyhow, on to the first victim:
Yes, I did notice that I forgot to cut a thermal pad for that component in the upper right of the card before I placed the block on. Cutting and placing the thermal pads is really really tedious work...
I think EK's backplate mounting instructions are wrong, it says to use the 12mm screws for the central 3 holes, but when I tried they just ending up spinning the GPU standoffs and sticking out by 2mm. So Ignored it and reversed the instructions.
It was at this point that I realised the backplate wasn't designed for horizontal motherboards so the EK branding will be back to front and the FC6970 will be upside down
The GPU before conversion:
And after:
I was worried that the XSPC compression's wouldn't fit over the backplate (because they have no clearance), but this turned out to be unfounded... just!
Anyhow, time to take the whole thing apart, mount the water blocks, tube up, fill, bleed, leak test, reflow the indigo extreme and the post another update here. Its all moving along now!
This was supposed to be my post of triumph, sadly though, this isn't that post
I started work yesterday, stripping everything down, and blocking everything back up. I modded my Thermal Armour (well cut and filed great chunks out of it) and started tubing up. It was at this point I hit a few snags.
First things first though, pictures (or else you guys won't stick around lol
).
First thing I did was put my waterblock on the second gpu, but seeing as there are pictures of the first GPU above, I saw little point in doubling them up. Next thing was to strip the motherboard down and fit the EK true backplate:
This was pretty simple, but I noticed my EK Supreme HF didn't come with the easy mount system, so I had to use the hugely ugly screws of sheer ugliness... wait a minute! *disappears* ............ 2 minutes later ............ OK, ordered an easy mount kit!
Next I wanted to fit the Mosfet block, behold the nude MOSFETs:
With the waterblock fitted:
You may notice that the block isn't the same one I posted ages ago, this is because I changed my mind and now wanted to show off the liquid instead of hide it all in a stealthed system. Lesson learned: don't be too hasty when buying parts - it costs you more money in the long run!
Becaue I want my entire motherboard watercooled I need to fit a Southbridge block, for this I fitted my EK one (sorry no pics of the naked P67, I wanted to preserve its modesty [actually I forgot to take a picture, I was too busy laughing at is pea sized figure that was attached to a heat sink many many times bigger than it is])
You may notice that I didn't use my black top SB block, so I now have a spare Sabertooth P67 MOSFET and a spare P67 compatible chipset waterblock.
I then placed the Indigo Extreme on the CPU and followed it with the waterblock. Sorry about the lack of pictures, applying the Indigo Extreme required too much concentration I clean forgot to take pictures.
But you can just about see an edge of it there!
With that, my motherboard is all blocked up, as the below picture shows:
The chipset block is slightly skewed, because thats the only way it fits in!
I knew that the Thermal Armour was not going to fit anymore, but I bought this motherboard for its looks... so I can't let that go. The armour must fit no matter what so 5 year VIP warranty be damned, I'm cutting it up!
The below pictures show the extent of the water block conflicts:
Thats a lot of cutting! I was so focused on cutting into it without the right tools and without damaging the areas of the armour I wanted to keep that I took no pictures during this time. Helpful hint: do not cut away at the plastic with tin snips and wire cutters and expect to get a nice clean edge. I ended up having to run out and buy a couple of hand files to get some cleaner edges. Sorry for the lack of pictures :/
I was then ready to start tubing bits up, so I took the fittings picture I promised you guys ages ago:
Included in that picture is:
32 1/2-3/4" XSPC Compressions
8 Bitspower black sparkle 90 degree rotaries
7 Bitspower black sparkle 45 degree rotaries
2 Bitspower black sparkle T Blocks
2 Bitspower black sparkle plugs
2 Koolance RAM-35 Type 2 fittings
The following picture shows what the motherboard tray looks like in its present state:
I had originally planned to have the SB block inlet be a 45degree fitting, however when I tried that the tube ended up resting against the parallel flow crossfire tubing, which I really didn't like. So I took one of the 90 degree pieces and tried that instead, now the tube runs directly up between the crossfire tubing and bridge, touching nothing - which to me looks better. Unfortunately this move was the cause of my first (and worst) snag. More on that later. You may also notice that the CPU outlet and MOSFET inlet are not aligned - this is my second snag.
I decided to tube up the main loop's reservoir while I stewed over my now imminent delays.
and then I connected the GPU loop's reservoir to its pump inlet. This tube had to be longer, and doesn't look as good as the other tubing, but nothing I can do about that.
Unfortunately this is all I could do as I no longer have enough 90 degree pieces to tube up the GPU reservoir. Here is what all the reservoir tubing looks like in its current state:
I was quite disheartened by now, as I really wanted to finish it all up. But there is a silver lining to these delays.
During the air testing, I began noticing my PSU (Antec TPQ-1000) has developed a weird fan noise, which is generally irritating to me when not wearing my headphones (or getting drowned out by the angry vacuum cleaners formally known as 6970 stock coolers), so I ordered a new 80mm fan to replace it with. If I had tubed everything up I would have to drain at least the GPU loop to be able to remove the PSU to do this maintenance.
I measured the misalignment of the CPU outlet and MOSFET inlet to be 9mm, thats an odd number, so I ordered a 10mm extender - it should be possible to compensate for the 1mm difference with the tubing. I did try to order my last 90 degree fitting, but its out of stock everywhere, and the ETA for it to be back in stock is 7-10 days
.
I guess I will use that time to fix the PSU, change the CPU block mounting mechanism and do all the cable management... *sigh*
I started work yesterday, stripping everything down, and blocking everything back up. I modded my Thermal Armour (well cut and filed great chunks out of it) and started tubing up. It was at this point I hit a few snags.
First things first though, pictures (or else you guys won't stick around lol
).First thing I did was put my waterblock on the second gpu, but seeing as there are pictures of the first GPU above, I saw little point in doubling them up. Next thing was to strip the motherboard down and fit the EK true backplate:
This was pretty simple, but I noticed my EK Supreme HF didn't come with the easy mount system, so I had to use the hugely ugly screws of sheer ugliness... wait a minute! *disappears* ............ 2 minutes later ............ OK, ordered an easy mount kit!
Next I wanted to fit the Mosfet block, behold the nude MOSFETs:
With the waterblock fitted:
You may notice that the block isn't the same one I posted ages ago, this is because I changed my mind and now wanted to show off the liquid instead of hide it all in a stealthed system. Lesson learned: don't be too hasty when buying parts - it costs you more money in the long run!
Becaue I want my entire motherboard watercooled I need to fit a Southbridge block, for this I fitted my EK one (sorry no pics of the naked P67, I wanted to preserve its modesty [actually I forgot to take a picture, I was too busy laughing at is pea sized figure that was attached to a heat sink many many times bigger than it is])
You may notice that I didn't use my black top SB block, so I now have a spare Sabertooth P67 MOSFET and a spare P67 compatible chipset waterblock.
I then placed the Indigo Extreme on the CPU and followed it with the waterblock. Sorry about the lack of pictures, applying the Indigo Extreme required too much concentration I clean forgot to take pictures.
But you can just about see an edge of it there!
With that, my motherboard is all blocked up, as the below picture shows:
The chipset block is slightly skewed, because thats the only way it fits in!
I knew that the Thermal Armour was not going to fit anymore, but I bought this motherboard for its looks... so I can't let that go. The armour must fit no matter what so 5 year VIP warranty be damned, I'm cutting it up!
The below pictures show the extent of the water block conflicts:
Thats a lot of cutting! I was so focused on cutting into it without the right tools and without damaging the areas of the armour I wanted to keep that I took no pictures during this time. Helpful hint: do not cut away at the plastic with tin snips and wire cutters and expect to get a nice clean edge. I ended up having to run out and buy a couple of hand files to get some cleaner edges. Sorry for the lack of pictures :/
I was then ready to start tubing bits up, so I took the fittings picture I promised you guys ages ago:
Included in that picture is:
32 1/2-3/4" XSPC Compressions
8 Bitspower black sparkle 90 degree rotaries
7 Bitspower black sparkle 45 degree rotaries
2 Bitspower black sparkle T Blocks
2 Bitspower black sparkle plugs
2 Koolance RAM-35 Type 2 fittings
The following picture shows what the motherboard tray looks like in its present state:
I had originally planned to have the SB block inlet be a 45degree fitting, however when I tried that the tube ended up resting against the parallel flow crossfire tubing, which I really didn't like. So I took one of the 90 degree pieces and tried that instead, now the tube runs directly up between the crossfire tubing and bridge, touching nothing - which to me looks better. Unfortunately this move was the cause of my first (and worst) snag. More on that later. You may also notice that the CPU outlet and MOSFET inlet are not aligned - this is my second snag.
I decided to tube up the main loop's reservoir while I stewed over my now imminent delays.
and then I connected the GPU loop's reservoir to its pump inlet. This tube had to be longer, and doesn't look as good as the other tubing, but nothing I can do about that.
Unfortunately this is all I could do as I no longer have enough 90 degree pieces to tube up the GPU reservoir. Here is what all the reservoir tubing looks like in its current state:
I was quite disheartened by now, as I really wanted to finish it all up. But there is a silver lining to these delays.
During the air testing, I began noticing my PSU (Antec TPQ-1000) has developed a weird fan noise, which is generally irritating to me when not wearing my headphones (or getting drowned out by the angry vacuum cleaners formally known as 6970 stock coolers), so I ordered a new 80mm fan to replace it with. If I had tubed everything up I would have to drain at least the GPU loop to be able to remove the PSU to do this maintenance.
I measured the misalignment of the CPU outlet and MOSFET inlet to be 9mm, thats an odd number, so I ordered a 10mm extender - it should be possible to compensate for the 1mm difference with the tubing. I did try to order my last 90 degree fitting, but its out of stock everywhere, and the ETA for it to be back in stock is 7-10 days
. I guess I will use that time to fix the PSU, change the CPU block mounting mechanism and do all the cable management... *sigh*
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Associate
That black sparkle is pretty cool. Tempted to pick them up...
What sleeving is that? Looks a bit like paracord.
What sleeving is that? Looks a bit like paracord.
@RollerBall - The sleeving is a high density nylon. Its got a cloth feel to it, very similar to Bitfenix Extensions. It looks much nicer than the plastic sleeve as it isn't reflective, but it is a little pricey :/
Associate
Can you trust me where you got it from? I know you can't post the link or OCUK will whinge. Is it more expensive than MDPC?
Ok, everything is tubed up, leak tested and is in the process of bleeding. There is an issue with bleeding at the moment, but more on that later.
First things first, the pictures!
Remember the horrible cable mess in the last post? well its been relocated:
In this position it will all be hidden by the motherboard tray... thankfully. I didn't sleeve every PSU cable because I decided I will upgrade my PSU early next year, so I am saving the rest of my sleeving for that.
I had already pre cut the lengths of tubing required to finish the job while waiting for parts to come back in stock hence the labels you see on the tubing in the next picture (also notice the long hideous screws are replaced with the nice easy mount system... so much prettier):
Before I inserted the motherboard tray, I connected the pumps to the T-blocks and the T-blocks to the drain ports:
This is what it looks like from the left side panel now that the cables are 'managed' (I use that term loosely) and everything bar the motherboard tray is tubed up:
I inserted the motherboard tray and conencted the GPUs to the their radiator next (sorry for the drop in picture quality, I was starting to get excited and just rushed the pictures):
and then I tubed up the right hand side.
The final step prior to filling and leak testing was to place the top of the case back on (which connects the fillports to the reservoirs via the RAM fittings), here is a totally pointless, really bad picture of that connection:
Finally, its time to break out the Bounty!
I stopped taking pictures of the 'bountifying' here, because after 'bountification' of the GPU loop it just looked like a Bounty wonderland.
I started by filling the CPU loop first, which was obviously very exciting, and you know... taking pictures just isn't...
Anyhow after filling I just left the CPU pump going while I ate dinner with the wife and watched the 2 hour Hells Kitchen finale (priorities...
).
After all that I filled the GPU loop and remembered the camera existed!
You will probably notice how the left hand side reservoir (the GPU loop) looks like a badly poured beer.. well thats exactly how it is, and still is even after my best attempts at bleeding it (this is a common theme across the whole loop as you will see in the pictures). The CPU loop bleeding was coming along really nicely by this time though!
Now some miscellaneous 'debountified' (mostly) pictures:
That last picture is to really highlight the difference in consistency between the two loops. Quite horrible really.
I even tilted the case in all directions (this thing is ridiculously heavy) to try and fix the frothiness which worked, I had huge air bubbles moving around the loop and escaping to the reservoir which dropped the liquid level down to that of the CPU loop (how I want it at the moment) and the loop looked really nice. But pretty much as soon as I turn the pump on again, the frothiness comes back and the liquid level rises massively (and if I leave it long enough with the fillport open, it starts to overspill slightly - quite ridiculous really when the reservoir is actually only 3/4 full).
My first thought was maybe its sucking in air from somewhere, but surely if there was a gap like that I would have a slow leak (leaving it off all last night produced no puddles in the case), which leaves me suspecting the parallel flow I would welcome any ideas on this, I really want to keep the loop design.
First things first, the pictures!
Remember the horrible cable mess in the last post? well its been relocated:
In this position it will all be hidden by the motherboard tray... thankfully. I didn't sleeve every PSU cable because I decided I will upgrade my PSU early next year, so I am saving the rest of my sleeving for that.
I had already pre cut the lengths of tubing required to finish the job while waiting for parts to come back in stock hence the labels you see on the tubing in the next picture (also notice the long hideous screws are replaced with the nice easy mount system... so much prettier):
Before I inserted the motherboard tray, I connected the pumps to the T-blocks and the T-blocks to the drain ports:
This is what it looks like from the left side panel now that the cables are 'managed' (I use that term loosely) and everything bar the motherboard tray is tubed up:
I inserted the motherboard tray and conencted the GPUs to the their radiator next (sorry for the drop in picture quality, I was starting to get excited and just rushed the pictures):
and then I tubed up the right hand side.
The final step prior to filling and leak testing was to place the top of the case back on (which connects the fillports to the reservoirs via the RAM fittings), here is a totally pointless, really bad picture of that connection:
Finally, its time to break out the Bounty!
I stopped taking pictures of the 'bountifying' here, because after 'bountification' of the GPU loop it just looked like a Bounty wonderland.
I started by filling the CPU loop first, which was obviously very exciting, and you know... taking pictures just isn't...
Anyhow after filling I just left the CPU pump going while I ate dinner with the wife and watched the 2 hour Hells Kitchen finale (priorities...
).After all that I filled the GPU loop and remembered the camera existed!
You will probably notice how the left hand side reservoir (the GPU loop) looks like a badly poured beer.. well thats exactly how it is, and still is even after my best attempts at bleeding it (this is a common theme across the whole loop as you will see in the pictures)
. The CPU loop bleeding was coming along really nicely by this time though! Now some miscellaneous 'debountified' (mostly) pictures:
That last picture is to really highlight the difference in consistency between the two loops. Quite horrible really
.I even tilted the case in all directions (this thing is ridiculously heavy) to try and fix the frothiness which worked, I had huge air bubbles moving around the loop and escaping to the reservoir which dropped the liquid level down to that of the CPU loop (how I want it at the moment) and the loop looked really nice. But pretty much as soon as I turn the pump on again, the frothiness comes back and the liquid level rises massively (and if I leave it long enough with the fillport open, it starts to overspill slightly - quite ridiculous really when the reservoir is actually only 3/4 full).
My first thought was maybe its sucking in air from somewhere, but surely if there was a gap like that I would have a slow leak (leaving it off all last night produced no puddles in the case), which leaves me suspecting the parallel flow
I would welcome any ideas on this, I really want to keep the loop design.
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Soldato
Thats beast.
Sorted out my frothing issue, it turns out it was the fault of the reservoir. Aquatube's don't have a large capacity, and the huge flow rate of the GPU loop was displacing all the liquid backwards which caused the pump to be sucking froth and the occasional large air bubble along with the liquid. I fixed this by filling it all the way and then half way up the small RAM fitting. The next step was to turn the pump on and off frequently, shake, tilt and wobble the case (with the fillport open - this only bit me in the arse once luckily) to let the air rise, top up the liquid and repeat. I got a little carried away with this and was even counting micro bubbles so I kept going until the loop looked clear. This took a couple of hours, but the results speak for themselves. The only bubbles I ever see are the occasional micro bubble from the rad, but after a bit of running I will repeat the bleeding process until those are gone too!
I also re-took a few pictures from yesterday to show the difference in a more visible way (look to the previous post for comparison's sake)
That slight skew in the 2 T-blocks was caused by me moving around and using the drain ports (I accidently dropped the plug of the drain port when I was undoing it to release some liquid and had to plug the torrent with my finger while I groped under the desk for the plug lol), but it is now straight. Maybe I will redo this picture next time.
Here is a random picture I found on my CF card from yesterday that I forgot about:
I will be bleeding the micro bubbles out of the CPU loop tonight to make it match the GPU loop. Then some final cable management before benchmarks, overclocking and more benchmarks (barring any unexpected problems)!
I also re-took a few pictures from yesterday to show the difference in a more visible way (look to the previous post for comparison's sake)
That slight skew in the 2 T-blocks was caused by me moving around and using the drain ports (I accidently dropped the plug of the drain port when I was undoing it to release some liquid and had to plug the torrent with my finger while I groped under the desk for the plug lol), but it is now straight. Maybe I will redo this picture next time.
Here is a random picture I found on my CF card from yesterday that I forgot about:
I will be bleeding the micro bubbles out of the CPU loop tonight to make it match the GPU loop. Then some final cable management before benchmarks, overclocking and more benchmarks (barring any unexpected problems)!
Associate
was thinkin of modding the cables aswell,any more pic,s of the cables to help me decide..thx
What other pictures of them could I take? The only planned image is of everything connected, that would show the cables how they would look when in use, but other than that I am drawing a blank.
Rather unsurprisingly, I appear to have run into another problem!
I booted into windows for the first time in ages, and tried to reflow my Indigo Extreme... unfortunately, it doesn't appear to have worked properly
The temperature graphs just shot up to ~95 and hung there. I left prime 95 going for about 12 minutes (way longer than the 30ish seconds its supposed to take lol) and the graph never dropped. I probably shouldn't have tightened the water block down completely before reflow and removing the block once to change mounting system and reusing the IX probably didn't help.
I need to change over to the second application, but as you can see by the pictures, my CPU and MOSFET blocks are hard connected rather than a tubing loop, so changing the TIM is a massive pain in the arse. I will need to remove the motherboard and remove the MOSFET and CPU blocks together as one unit, which in turn involves draining both loops and disconnecting everything
Oh well... One problem after another...
On a brighter note, I ignored the problem and ran fur mark @ 1920x1200 8xMSAA extreme burn in test and the GPU temps peaked at 58 degrees with a 1 degree difference between them, lots of capacitor whine though...
CPU after 45 minutes of prime with the pump enabled peaked at 60 degrees stock voltages, stupid indigo extreme (that's right, I can blame the tools if I want to).
Time to swear some more... And resign myself to taking it all apart... Maybe Friday night /weekend.
I booted into windows for the first time in ages, and tried to reflow my Indigo Extreme... unfortunately, it doesn't appear to have worked properly
The temperature graphs just shot up to ~95 and hung there. I left prime 95 going for about 12 minutes (way longer than the 30ish seconds its supposed to take lol) and the graph never dropped. I probably shouldn't have tightened the water block down completely before reflow and removing the block once to change mounting system and reusing the IX probably didn't help.
I need to change over to the second application, but as you can see by the pictures, my CPU and MOSFET blocks are hard connected rather than a tubing loop, so changing the TIM is a massive pain in the arse. I will need to remove the motherboard and remove the MOSFET and CPU blocks together as one unit, which in turn involves draining both loops and disconnecting everything
Oh well... One problem after another...
On a brighter note, I ignored the problem and ran fur mark @ 1920x1200 8xMSAA extreme burn in test and the GPU temps peaked at 58 degrees with a 1 degree difference between them, lots of capacitor whine though...
CPU after 45 minutes of prime with the pump enabled peaked at 60 degrees stock voltages, stupid indigo extreme (that's right, I can blame the tools if I want to).
Time to swear some more... And resign myself to taking it all apart... Maybe Friday night /weekend.
Despite the problems, it looks absolutely beautiful. Very impressed by the workmanship and very jealous of the results so far.
Love the pictures showing the underside of the GPU block that you never see. Very rare to find those pictures!
Could we have a picture or 2 pointing straight down onto the mobo?
Love the pictures showing the underside of the GPU block that you never see. Very rare to find those pictures!
Could we have a picture or 2 pointing straight down onto the mobo?
Thanks for the kind words guys, I am happy with how it looks.
Unfortunately, like so many others on here I am not happy with the Feser liquid. I can see floating bits and it froths... A lot. Also under UV light it looks orange lol. I will try and get a picture of the orange for you guys, need to find my monopod first though.
As such I am changing my liquid (seeing as I need to drain it anyway) and I will be replacing it with distilled water, mayhems red dye and PT nuke biocide (don't want to have silver visible anywhere in the reservoirs). This also works out insanely cheaper to refill if the need ever arises, shouldn't clog blocks and won't cause scum/tide marks.
@Tomcat825 I was originally going to with black Alcatel tops on everything until I realized that exact thing. You never see the prettiest part of a liquid loop usually, so why not show it off because I can? A top down view is a shot I really want to get, and I will when it's all re filled and ready to go... Again.
Unfortunately, like so many others on here I am not happy with the Feser liquid. I can see floating bits and it froths... A lot. Also under UV light it looks orange lol. I will try and get a picture of the orange for you guys, need to find my monopod first though.
As such I am changing my liquid (seeing as I need to drain it anyway) and I will be replacing it with distilled water, mayhems red dye and PT nuke biocide (don't want to have silver visible anywhere in the reservoirs). This also works out insanely cheaper to refill if the need ever arises, shouldn't clog blocks and won't cause scum/tide marks.
@Tomcat825 I was originally going to with black Alcatel tops on everything until I realized that exact thing. You never see the prettiest part of a liquid loop usually, so why not show it off because I can? A top down view is a shot I really want to get, and I will when it's all re filled and ready to go... Again.
Ok, just a quick update to this log for you all.
I have stripped everything down, cleaned all the wc components and re-assembled with a new Indigo Extreme and refilled the loops with distilled water and PT Nuke. That lot took a good 6 hours, but it was rather a lot of work!
I also reflowed my IX and got better results this time, I am still not 100% happy though as there is a 3 degree difference between Core 0 and the next hottest core so I might try my luck at another reflow with the same IX (The loops are filled and bled so I don't want to strip it down again - and Indigo Extreme is very hard to clean off the cpu).
I have another couple of problems though, the FC-Touch fan controller is still messed up - only channel 6 seems to work as advertised so I have contacted Lamptron to get this sorted. My GPU pump also appears to be vibrating quite a lot, but thats not too hard a fix!
TODO:
The Mayhems dye is winging its way to me from the UK, so I should get it within the next week or so.
I decided against keeping Eyefinity as well, I just wasn't all that impressed with it. I will be going for a 27" 2560x1440/1600 or a 27" 120hz monitor early next year instead.
I ordered a pair of Sennheiser PC360s to replace my rather crappy PC151s (I used to have Medusas a while back, it was hard deciding between getting an unknown pair or another set of Medusas), so hopefully that will create an awesome soundstage ready for BF3.
Sorry for the lack of pictures folks, essentially it looks the same as before but with distilled water instead of red Feser One F1... in other words, boring
I have stripped everything down, cleaned all the wc components and re-assembled with a new Indigo Extreme and refilled the loops with distilled water and PT Nuke. That lot took a good 6 hours, but it was rather a lot of work!
I also reflowed my IX and got better results this time, I am still not 100% happy though as there is a 3 degree difference between Core 0 and the next hottest core so I might try my luck at another reflow with the same IX (The loops are filled and bled so I don't want to strip it down again - and Indigo Extreme is very hard to clean off the cpu).
I have another couple of problems though, the FC-Touch fan controller is still messed up - only channel 6 seems to work as advertised so I have contacted Lamptron to get this sorted. My GPU pump also appears to be vibrating quite a lot, but thats not too hard a fix!
TODO:
- Fix/replace fan controller
- Isolate GPU pump better
- Order more red Bitfenix extensions to change my red/black cables
- Look at getting a slim external dvd drive to velcro underneath case
- Dye the loop liquid red
- Customize and sleeve last sata power cable
- Neaten extension cables
- Add lighting
- Polish shiny bits
The Mayhems dye is winging its way to me from the UK, so I should get it within the next week or so.
I decided against keeping Eyefinity as well, I just wasn't all that impressed with it. I will be going for a 27" 2560x1440/1600 or a 27" 120hz monitor early next year instead.
I ordered a pair of Sennheiser PC360s to replace my rather crappy PC151s (I used to have Medusas a while back, it was hard deciding between getting an unknown pair or another set of Medusas), so hopefully that will create an awesome soundstage ready for BF3.
Sorry for the lack of pictures folks, essentially it looks the same as before but with distilled water instead of red Feser One F1... in other words, boring
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Associate
Sennhieser PC350 with a headphone amp or get the asus xonar essence with internal amp and you will certianly be impressed......trust me, and others!!!!
I looked at getting an Asus Xonar Essence STX before, I couldn't justify the price ($180) though, especially when the card I bought for this build was on sale for less than $75!
I also looked at the PC350s, however I dismissed those pretty quickly because they are closed cans, open ones seem to sound better to me. As for an amp, I get lost looking through those, as I am no audiophile I really don't know what I'm looking at! Maybe you could recommend one for me (are good headphone amps and pre-amps available as all in one solutions)?
I also looked at the PC350s, however I dismissed those pretty quickly because they are closed cans, open ones seem to sound better to me. As for an amp, I get lost looking through those, as I am no audiophile I really don't know what I'm looking at! Maybe you could recommend one for me (are good headphone amps and pre-amps available as all in one solutions)?
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Associate
It really comes down to what kind of ears you have! lol some people just dont notice any difference between the high end stuff and the other stuff. I personally couldnt live (game) without it now! I reccomended the pc 350's because the 360's don't really compare spec wise. The 360's are more expensive with a regular ohm rating of 80, where as the 350's can handle all the way up to 160 ohms, now you can see where you will need a headphone amp! And that is what the asus xonar does best, clean amplification, not to mention a host of other settings and equalization including dolby dts and 7.1 virtualization which really sounds amazing