Project: Obsidiswap

Guitarman0 · 25 Jun 2011 at 13:00

Sorry for the unimaginative name, I just can't think of anything else at the moment

.

O.k. so back in January I decided to watercool my Lancool K62 rig (Project: Cool Dragon) and I had a bit of a nightmare. Leaks all over the place and broken 5850. Also, when I fired up the rig, I had the GPU temps I wanted but my CPU temps were actually higher than my Venomous-X I had had before :eek:

Therefore I have learned from my mistakes and have put my partial failure down to a few things. 1) I rushed it. I tried to do the whole thing on my own in 1 day and for a first time watercooler this was a bad move. 2) Lack of research. I thought a 280 slim rad would be fine for a CPU and GPU....I was wrong

Also in order to use a bigger rad I would either mount it externally or buy a new case. I opted for the latter as I want a clean looking exterior.

Anyway, I did some thinking and earned a bit of money and have bought the following:

Corsair 800D (thanks to BringTheRain in the MM)

1x Black 1/2" compression fitting

3m White XPSC 1/2" tubing

2x black bitfenix 6 pin PCIe extensions

XSPC RX360 radiator

3x Scythe Gentle Typhoon 1850rpm

1x Silver Kill Coil

EK Multioption 250 Reservoir V2 Advanced

XSPC acetal pump top V3

LED Cap (basically a 1/4" plug but with space for an LED so I can use it in the res)

9x 45 Degree black 1/2" compression fittings

1x EK Anti-cyclon

PSU bridge Fpug (for jumpstarting the PSU as I find the paper clip really annoying

)

8mm Tubing (for draining my current system)

CPU Backplate (my EK block never came with one so I have made do with my custom one. This was cheap so I though I might as well throw it in to my order )

90 degree 1/2" compression fitting.

This will be used with my EK Plexi Copper 5850 full cover block, my Laing DDC-1T and my EK Supreme LT AMD CPU block.

I will most likely start ripping my PC apart this weekend but here are some pics to get this going

Lotsa Compressions

XSPC RX360 and my 2850rpm Gentle Typhoons

Guitarman0 · 25 Jun 2011 at 14:24

DWorrall said:
Good luck .

Thanks

tidusjar said:
I think thats why he's watercooling

Exactly

Anyway, very small update.

I have flushed the rad. Took 8 flushes and 2L of distilled water.

Beast of a rad :cool:

Done (please ignore the gun parts in the back, my younger brother is in the process of spray painting his toy guns lol)

Guitarman0 · 25 Jun 2011 at 14:35

DWorrall said:
You still need airflow for water-cooling lmao .

For watercooling this case is difficult to beat. Airflow is poor through the mid section of the case but I will have 3 scythe gentle typhoons drawing cool air across the rad and then a Noiseblocker PK-3 at the back removing the hot air so airflow won't be a problem. Also I will change the bottom 140mm fan to another Noiseblocker PK-3.

Guitarman0 · 26 Jun 2011 at 14:46

Update

This is what my rig looks like at the moment....

I stripped out as much as I could before draining just incase

Ready to drain

Drained

Empty K62

To drain I used a new method. I bought some really small tubing (8mm I think) and basically put one end over the nozzle of a bottle, squezed the bottle, then put the other end in the res. The suction power sucked the water out

This method was a lot easier than what I did last time (tip the case all over the place lol).

More to come.....

Guitarman0 · 26 Jun 2011 at 18:04

Final update for today:

Components

My CPU block was disgusting so I took it apart and gave it a clean. Sorry for the awful photo!
P.s. this photos was taken before cleaning.

Gotta love EK packaging

Fitted

I build a loop with the rad, pump and CPU block to test for leaks. I had no leaks

But on the down side, I have turned my dining room into a bomb site lol

More updates tomorrow

Guitarman0 · 27 Jun 2011 at 13:06

Update:

I installed the new backplate and got the TIM on the CPU

Waterblock fitted

Rad, gentle typhoons and noiseblockers fitted

Mobo and fan controller fitted

More to come...

Guitarman0 · 27 Jun 2011 at 21:07

Sgt Tackleberry said:
Looking good

Thanks

Update:

I opened the res

Fitting the anti-cyclone and silver kill coil

The EATX holes were too small to pass the res mounting screws through so I made them a little larger with my new screwdriver drill lol

These are the two bitfenix alchemy GPU extensions I am using. They are brilliant! No heatshrink can be seen nor cable colours. Also, the braid is more of a cloth braid than a plastic one so in my opinion it looks less tacky

I have mounted my cathodes out of view up by the rad. I will probably change these out for LED strips in the future. If you look at the top of the res you can also see my LED which goes into the clear blanking cap I have at the top of the res. This will give the water a nice blue glow hopefully

So here we are at the end of today. Unfortunately the res doesn't quite hang straight due to the EATX holes being misaligned but I really don't fancy drilling a new hole and potentially wreck the case so I am going to leave it for now.

I had a go at the cable management. Round the front I think it looks good. It is a mess round the back but I had to keep a section as clear as possible for routing tubing round the back.

I am having to use these horrible orange sata cables at the moment as I have nothing else. Does anyone have any black SATA-II or SATA-III cables with one end right angled spare?

More updates tomorrow

Guitarman0 · 29 Jun 2011 at 22:26

hyperst said:
looking good, to get round the res not being straight, you could use these http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-093-EK&groupid=962&catid=1534&subcat= they work well as i have mine mounted with these.

It isn't really worth it. The res only hangs ever so slightly angled. Thanks for the link though

Just to let you guys know, I have the system filled with no leaks and am running it pump only overnight to help with bleeding. Will update pics tomorrow if I get time

Guitarman0 · 30 Jun 2011 at 15:07

Another update:

So, after lots of cutting I sorted the tubing and prepared it for a leak test

Filling. I had no leaks

System powered off after an overnight leak test. I tell you what the radiator literally took ages to bleed! It was a right pain.

And with the side panel on

I will get some final pics up with night shots later this week/early next week and try and get some overclocking done in the next week. I did a quick prime 95 test and I have managed to knock 10 degrees off my CPU and 15 degrees off my GPU from my last rad. I am very happy

Guitarman0 · 2 Jul 2011 at 22:12

Sgt Tackleberry said:
nice job m8ty. looks really good.

what temps are you getting now?

46.9 degrees on the CPU and 45 degrees on the GPU with prime95 blend and furmark running at the same time. I should also add that is with the GPU and CPU both overclocked. It is a big improvement over the 57 degrees CPU and 54.5 GPU I was getting before

I will try to get some overclocking done in the next week and get some results then

Quick update:

I noticed there was horrible interference when using the front panel headphone jack so I emailed corsair and they are going to send me another. Many people have said they have done the same but received the USB3 upgrade panel so *fingers crossed*

Guitarman0 · 4 Jul 2011 at 15:56

Temps

I haven't had time as yet to do any more overclocking or take any nice "final" pics but I did manage to do some testing to see how much my temps have improved.

In all of the tests I fired up p95 blend test and furmark. I recorded the temps after around 30 mins.

Just remember all of the "before" results were using a black ice stealth 280 rad with Noiseblocker PK-3s. The black ice rad had a much higher fin density so would benefit more from faster fans than my XSPC rad would. However, I run my fans at 50% almost all of the time so the 50% fans results were the ones I cared about.

Test 1 - All fans (including case fans) at 50%

Before

After

Test 2 - All fans (including case fans) at 100%

Before

After

Overall I am really happy with the results. It has given me quite a bit more headroom for overclocking which is nice

What has really surprised me though is that my mobo temps have dropped by up to 9 degrees in some instances from when it was in my Lancool K62. Considering airflow in an 800D is supposed to be awful, I am very happy and surprised by this

I will try to get some final photos done some time later this week and possibly some overclocking

Guitarman0 · 5 Jul 2011 at 00:55

Sgt Tackleberry said:
glad you like it m8.

Looking really good with your temp drop..

nice clocks on your gpu ....

I posted pic of my build on "show us your case".

Thanks

I saw that post. Looks very good

I especially like the vinyl on the mobo tray

Guitarman0 · 6 Jul 2011 at 16:35

Finished pics

Guitarman0 · 24 Jul 2011 at 22:16

Small update:

So after starting up my PC I put in my headphones and noticed some horrendous interference through the front panel audio jack. I emailed corsair about this and without hesitation they sent me a replacement. Little did I know until it arrived that they sent me the USB3 upgrade panel for free. Big thumbs up for corsair support!

Guitarman0 · 22 Aug 2011 at 11:24

Tokin said:
This looks really nice

Thanks mate

Anyway, some good and bad news.

Well, as I was installing the USB3 front panel kit I somehow managed to break my Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer card

. Anyway, I did some looking round the forums and managed to get an ASUS Xonar D2 thanks to Jokester.

I love the way it lights up at the back

Guitarman0 · 22 Aug 2011 at 14:07

kenmare said:
How did you break your card you klutz.

Looking superb!

As I was inserting the front USB into the mobo I think I accidentally bent the card :S OOPS!