Project Mega Rig

Messiah Khan · 18 Mar 2007 at 19:37

Well its been an eventfull time since last update. I bought a cheap PCI-E card to test the PCI-E sockets, and it turned out that it was indeed the mobo that was borked. So I took the plunge and bought;

P5B deluxe
E6400
2Gb OCZ
7900GS

Put it all in, and it ran nicely. Managed to get a nice stable clock up to 3.7Ghz But then last night I was on the computer when all of a sudden the screen goes black. I turn to my side to see white smoke pouring out of the computer, so i quickly pull out all the powr cables. I stripped it all down, and it turns out the Phase evap head back plate had shorted the back of the mobo. the backplate is basically a metal plate with the relevant screw holes in, with a layer of neoprene and a heaterplate on the inside. I think what had happened, is that the neoprene was too thin, and I had tightned the whole thing too much, causing two of the solder points on the back of the mobo to pierce the neoprene and touch the metal backplate. A small charge then ran through this backplate, heating one of the bolts which in turn heated the mobo resulting in a dramatic scorch mark and a dead mobo.

Damn this rig is turning out to be expensive. and to top it off, it looks like OCUK don't sell the P5B deluxe anymore.

gt_junkie · 18 Mar 2007 at 19:49

So sorry to hear that Messiah! Bet you're gutted!

Not having the best luck there mate! Hopefully you've got it out of your system now and you'll be smoke free for the next few months!

Chin up! It's a beautiful PC! :cool:

gt

Messiah Khan · 18 Mar 2007 at 19:57

Cheers. Seems like ocuk do still sell the P5B deluxe. I didn't show up before, but does now. Weird. :/

Here's some more pics from another thread to keep you lot happy. I know you all like pics.

;

Edit; Oh and ive now moved the fan at the back of the rad to the outside of the case, and made a shroud between the rad and the case, out of an old fan. this allows me to move the rad a few mm further back, so that it doesn't get in the way of the bolts on the evap head.

gt_junkie · 18 Mar 2007 at 20:13

That looks amazing! Glad you got the rad/fan situation sorted too!

gt

VeNT · 18 Mar 2007 at 20:54

any reason for that board and not a DS3/4

that looks so uber, I'm gonna have to get some water cooling I can tell! how much did the water cooling part set you back?

orderoftheflame · 18 Mar 2007 at 21:53

*dribbles*

Logic Zero · 18 Mar 2007 at 22:55

messiah khan said:
Well its been an eventfull time since last update. I bought a cheap PCI-E card to test the PCI-E sockets, and it turned out that it was indeed the mobo that was borked. So I took the plunge and bought;

P5B deluxe
E6400
2Gb OCZ
7900GS

Put it all in, and it ran nicely. Managed to get a nice stable clock up to 3.7Ghz But then last night I was on the computer when all of a sudden the screen goes black. I turn to my side to see white smoke pouring out of the computer, so i quickly pull out all the powr cables. I stripped it all down, and it turns out the Phase evap head back plate had shorted the back of the mobo. the backplate is basically a metal plate with the relevant screw holes in, with a layer of neoprene and a heaterplate on the inside. I think what had happened, is that the neoprene was too thin, and I had tightned the whole thing too much, causing two of the solder points on the back of the mobo to pierce the neoprene and touch the metal backplate. A small charge then ran through this backplate, heating one of the bolts which in turn heated the mobo resulting in a dramatic scorch mark and a dead mobo. Damn this rig is turning out to be expensive. and to top it off, it looks like OCUK don't sell the P5B deluxe anymore.

LOL, sounds fun

Did you scream or anything?

Looks awesome btw

***F1ZZY*** · 19 Mar 2007 at 02:26

messiah khan said:
Edit; Oh and ive now moved the fan at the back of the rad to the outside of the case, and made a shroud between the rad and the case, out of an old fan. this allows me to move the rad a few mm further back, so that it doesn't get in the way of the bolts on the evap head.

Nice one, but I thought the problem was sourcing a thinner fan in the first place?

How thick is this new fan?

Should be good though bro, shrouds=good

Any pics of that bit?

Did you move the case grill to outside on the fan too?

[Just very intrigued by this build, it's a stunner, and sorry for all the grief it's causing you]

Messiah Khan · 19 Mar 2007 at 09:50

VeNT said:
any reason for that board and not a DS3/4

that looks so uber, I'm gonna have to get some water cooling I can tell! how much did the water cooling part set you back?

Well it was between the DS4 and the P5B Deluxe. No real major reson why I went with Asus tbh. One reason though is that the heatpipe cooling on the DS4 cover the Southbridge as well, meaning that more modding would have to be done when fitting the NB block.

***F1ZZY*** said:
Nice one, but I thought the problem was sourcing a thinner fan in the first place?

How thick is this new fan?

Should be good though bro, shrouds=good

Any pics of that bit?

Did you move the case grill to outside on the fan too?

[Just very intrigued by this build, it's a stunner, and sorry for all the grief it's causing you]

Well I solved it by taking a standard 25mm thick Lian Li, and sawing off 7mm, and removing the fan motor and supporting struts.

I have got some pics, but no way of uploading them until I get my new mobo. But it basically goes;

Fangrill>Rad>Shroud(Cutdown 25mm LianLi fan)>Case>Fan(25mm Nexus Fan)>Fangrill

Because the rad/fan sandwhich is so thick, ive had to resort to holding it all together with cableties. But its suprisingly solid like that actually.

JCBeastie · 19 Mar 2007 at 16:04

Just wow.

Amazing work mate.

I've always wanted to do something similar but use the vapo as a water chiller for the system, think that's workable (obviously not with water but with a suitable coolant and probably not -0)?

Messiah Khan · 19 Mar 2007 at 16:06

JCBeastie said:
Just wow.

Amazing work mate.

I've always wanted to do something similar but use the vapo as a water chiller for the system, think that's workable (obviously not with water but with a suitable coolant and probably not -0)?

Its very possible, although the vapo will have to undergo a large amount of modification so it might be easier and not much more expensive(possibly cheaper?) to start from scratch and have a custom chiller built.

VeNT · 19 Mar 2007 at 18:11

what does the water cooled part of this rig consist of?

matt100 · 19 Mar 2007 at 19:28

messiah khan said:
Its very possible, although the vapo will have to undergo a large amount of modification so it might be easier and not much more expensive(possibly cheaper?) to start from scratch and have a custom chiller built.

and have to insulate all your pipes against condensation in exchange for reasonable temps to cool not so temperature dependant bits of your system like nb/sb and gfx..

waterchillers are pointless IMO unless you can build them yourself and have the bits to hand in which case they are very cheap.

Joe42 · 19 Mar 2007 at 19:28

Nexus... Lian-Li... compressor cooling... 5 stars. Subscribed.

JCBeastie · 19 Mar 2007 at 20:04

Was going to say what's the point of buying a chiller, you gotta bodge it yourself! :O

Crossy · 19 Mar 2007 at 20:08

That Setup looks sick mate....5*!

Oddw1re · 19 Mar 2007 at 20:12

I bet you that its not cold its ice cold

Messiah Khan · 20 Mar 2007 at 08:55

VeNT said:
what does the water cooled part of this rig consist of?

You want spec, ive got specs!;

Water loop spec;
DDC2 pump
Tygon tubing
Thermochill 120.1 Rad
DangerDen fillport on T-line
DangerDen fillport as drain on Y-piece
Maze 4 GPU block
Maze 4 NB block

Phase unit spec;
Unseen/Gsmaster's freeze pack controller
Ssilencer/@itor's Clear enclosure and evaporator
White EL wire under braid and 4 x white LED's in the enclosure
Standard mach size condensor and desuperheat coil
7' of .028" captube, fully wrapped and taped w/long suction return
tuned for approximately 220w max capacity at -29c / 150w at -44c
Danfoss NL11F compressor
402a 'blend' for increased glide, allowing low fans for 24/7, high fans for benching with reduced temps
Sunon 120mm condensor fan, 2 x papst 80mm rear exhaust fans

System spec;
Asus P5B Deluxe
E6400@ 3.8Ghz (And climbing)
7900GS
2 GB OCZ
X-fi music
v2000+II
36Gb Raptor
250Gb WD
250Gb WD
80Gb Seagate
6x Smartdrive 2002c enclosures
Samsung S183A SATA DVD-RW
Tagan 580W Easycon

VeNT · 21 Mar 2007 at 20:29

nice
thinking of moving to water cooling from my ninja, fancy getting temps down and FSB up more.
wonder if my old maze 3 could be modded to fit..........

Messiah Khan · 24 Mar 2007 at 23:23

A bit of an update; My new P5B arrived today. Ive been really carefull with the insulation to make sure that it won't short again. I also bought LOADS of Di-Electric grease, so condensation certainly shouldn't become an issue. Ive now got most of the stuff back together. I have however had a bit of grief with my hardrives, but im getting that sorted now.

Ive now redesigned my bay cover to make it a lot easier to add and remove. Its not perfect, but its certainly much better than before. I might make a mk3 sometime, but i'll leave it for now. Ive also been working on the sidepanel, to make the windows etc. Thats nearly finsihed, I just need to modify the panel mounting rails, so that I can fit the nuts that hold the bolts in place. I also want to round off the corners of the Polycarbonate and polish it all down. I'll have pics of all this in a day or two.

But for now, here is a pic of how ive mounted the rad;

It goes Fan Grill>Rad>Neoprene gasket>Shroud>Case>Fan>Fan grill
The pic is whith the Fan and fangrill removed. UYsing cable ties to hold it all together is suprisingly solid actually. Anyway, thats all for now.