Project: Silent Overkill

[Cenedd]

Happy new year all. Tiny update for you. Still haven't sleeved the ATX cable. Not been very well over Christmas and still haven't shaken the cough yet. That and it works without it so haven't gathered the enthusiasm yet. So what news then? Well, I've been rebuilding my wife's PC into my old watercooled case. Gives her what I thought was a graphics card upgrade*, larger SSD and it's quieter for me! Plan was that I would just rebuild with the existing parts and wouldn't need to buy anything. Well, yu can guess how well that went! Had to flip the top rad so the fittings were pointing upwards - not as neat but easier to bleed - which needed more 90s. Few more random fittings to facilitate replacing as much of the 10/8 with 13/10 as possible - front with some stiff flexible tube (could get kicked) straightened with hot water (70°C) and rear with a length of 12mm acrylic which was straight despite my best earlier aborted efforts at bending. Did a spot more cable tying and soldered the speaker back on after this shot but it gives an idea. Side panel which would be blocking the view of the table has a QDC bulkhead to connect to output of the pump, 8 Alphacool Cape Cora passive rads and then feeds the top rad via another QDC - so the panel is removable.



*Watercooled GTX 580 is better than passive cooled 720. This is true but she had three monitors and the 580 will only do two. Found a USB to VGA adaptor that was good enough for a small analogue-only screen.

How does this affect my machine? Well I ordered two new bottles of XSPC clear EC6 coolant since the ones if over-ordered in preparation were already in use replacing those that are soaked into my carpet! The new ones were clear and the old ones were quite yellow:

Spoke to XSPC and they say this can happen if exposed to direct sunlight. Not harmful but not pretty. Neither I nor OCUK can see how this could have happened but XSPC have kindly organised some replacements through OCUK. So soon it should stop looking like someone's relieved themselves in my res!

 

[Cenedd]

Looks like you managed to turn a relatively simple job into a complete rebuild. Top work mate

I can complicate - nay, over-complicate anything! T'is my special ability!....well, that and procrastination

Haha looking good though, certainly not the simplest case to watercool that's for sure with the PSU and drive bays right where you'd usually mount the radiator & reservoir.

Yeah, awkward but all most of the work already done. Dremeled out the 3½" floppy bays and the 3½" disk bays to mount the pump (previously had an XSPC pump-top and res). Cape Cora rads now come with a sort of plug-n-cool system but the ones here pre-date that. T-piece at each end and then a tiny bit of hose between the compression rings of each neighbour. It's 10/8 but it's run in parallel so the restriction is only at entry and exit - not quite as bad as 8mm ID in serial but given that replacing them (assuming I could find a fit) would have required buying 14x T-pieces, 2x 90°s and 14x joiner bits, you can see why I didn't bother! Res was a pain to mount as the bracket isn't designed that you can get the screws in if it's that low down. Had to get a friend to weld a steel plate across the bottom half and then tap threads in it so I could just screw into it from the outside of the case. Only downside is that you can't change PCI-E cards without removing the res

You really must be a sucker for punishment with the jobs you take on! Hope the reward was something shiny to go inside Silent Overkill

Yeah, you'd think. No, the only reward will be the avoidance of "Why has my PC stopped working? Why does it hate me?!" when the 120GB SSD filled its last gig. Only issue is the occasional "I can't find <app>!?" as I did a clean install onto a 240GB PCI-E SSD - I do spoil her Seemed like the easy option given that her docs, desktop etc will just be handled by folder redirection.

That's an interesting one with the coolant, never realised sunlight could do that to it. Still, if it is that sensitive to sunlight maybe XSPC should think about using a non-transparent plastic for the bottle...

A good solution to the problem if we can demonstrate that it is the cause. Given that OCUK say their stock room is no tanning salon, it was boxed for transit and that I had it stored (sealed) in a closed black cupboard, I can't help but think maybe something else caused it. I was half convinced the new bottles had got yellower overnight...but I think that was just different light and a nats of paranoia

 

[Cenedd]

Do you never get tempted to just give up and order a more sensible case? Not sure where you got your patience from but wish you could send me some!

That's one of the main problems I face when fixing PC's for others: "Why's it so slow? It never used to be" "No mate, it didn't. But when it was new it didn't have 498GB of the 500GB HDD filled with 'start on boot' junk programs..." "BUT THERE'S STILL SPACE, WHY IS IT SLOW?!" *Face, meet desk*

Well, yes...that's why I rebuilt mine in an Evolv ATX. Nice and clean, no drive bays needed to be Dremeled out, PSU at the bottom where it should be (never liked the heavy bit at the top, makes it less stable). Only issue with the case is airflow to internal rads...but that wasn't going to be an issue for me

Patience is variable and is often insufficient to complete what started off looking like a small, easy job!

Turned down a paid custom-build recently for just that reason. They wanted to build a "super-computer" for gaming....with a budget of a whole £1000 (max). I could just see disappointment in the spec and ongoing support issues. Sent them to OCUK....you're welcome...and, sorry guys At least OCUKs support burden would be limited to the hardware rather than anything from "I don't know how to use a mouse..."

Harpss1ngh: I think in the Mayhems case it was specifically their XT1 concentrate and not the similarly named pre-mixed X1. The XT1 has glycol (either ethylene or propylene, I forget) and that isn't tolerated well by the PVC in some tubing. The EC6 doesn't declare glycols in its Material Safety DataSheet (MSDS) so as far as I'm aware, this shouldn't be the problem. Could be a different reaction though. The bottles were sealed so it shouldn't be anything atmospheric affecting them. Temperature was consistent (office is on a thermostat 24x7 - cheaper to keep it at temp rather than heating it up from cold every morning), so assuming the bottle isn't gas-permeable, logically it can only be either light, reaction with the bottle's plastic or some form of degradation within itself. Will chuck the new stuff in when it turns up and see what happens. Glad I fitted a drain now! Will post pics of the res before and after for comparison once OCUK receive the stock to ship out.

 

[Cenedd]

if it is that sensitive to sunlight maybe XSPC should think about using a non-transparent plastic for the bottle...

The OJ doth work in mysterious ways! For lo, no sooner had he said it than it was done!
New bottles turned up and instead of a semi-transparent clear plastic, they're an opaque white plastic. Presumably UV-proof (or whatever it is in the sunlight that discolours it) and possibly a different plastic. Both old and new are HDPE so doesn't look like they've changed the plastic, just the colour.

Drain time tomorrow - work permitting. Also, my office seems to be being watercooled* so that may disrupt things.

*Mono-pitch flat roof with skylights. One used to leak but was repaired...unless it rains heavily it appears. Had some drops hit the top of the empty alu case...but can't find any wet patch on the ceiling

 

[Cenedd]

Pretty much. At least I'm justifying the expense (and pain) of installing the drain port!

 

[Cenedd]

Yep. Wonder if I can get enough work out the way to start the ATX sleeving then

 

[Cenedd]

Thanks, that's helpful to know. It may be more apparent as the res has gone from 150ml to 880ml so there's a thicker section of coolant to show the colour change up. Will swap it for the new stuff and can now compare with my wife's PC since it has the 150ml res in it now.

 

[Cenedd]

I've got a drain on the lower 240mm rad at the front if you look closely, its connected to an EK 90 so swivels round when you need to use it and back hidden when you don't. All the other rads are at the top so drains would probably be useless, also these rads seems to drain like a dream compared to the EK previous installation.

I'll swap you! I've just realised that since I swapped the res input so that it fountains up the middle, I've effectively split my loop in two since there's a high point (and one-way at that) at the top of the res and a high point where the tubing goes over the top above the CPU. This means that, with the drain at the bottom on the other side, pretty much the entire contents of the res, pumps, GPU and CPU blocks will not drain. A weekend of fun is ahead I suspect!

Best thing is the colour. It's slightly darker than in this pic but I had to take it with a torch for lighting and a sheet of A4 as a background:



The best thing alongside it being this colour? Because the machine was running for the morning, it's almost exactly body temperature! It's a delight as you feel the bottle I'm draining it into warm up! Ewww!

 

[Cenedd]

So how do you get the coolant out of the other half of the loop when your drain has been planned (or not) by an idiot (myself)? VAX for the win!
1500 Watts of idiot-compensating power

Now that's better! New stuff is crystal clear and looks much better. Many thanks to XSPC and OCUK



And lit - the extra bubbles look great but don't last.

 

[Cenedd]

Cheers. Certainly looks better than it was....just hope it stays that way.

 

[Cenedd]

Thanks.

No problem. I posted it in a separate thread a while back in case it was of any help to anyone: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18730079
Incidentally, my skills with SketchUp consist solely of SketchUp's tutorial videos and this model. There was a fair amount of colourful language involved but it became a bit of an obsession so I got it finished. Hope it's of use to you.

 

[Cenedd]

Well, it's been a while folks. I'd like to say that I've made or am going to make drastic and exciting changes to the system.....but in all honesty I've done nothing but get on and use it (work and gaming) since 2017. I'm resurrecting this thread solely because

Drain number 30?

Nope, 31....and it wasn't planned this time either. Was minding my own business, getting in a bit of gaming when something started beeping. Slightly annoyed, I looked left and spotted the reservoir fill-level graph taking a nosedive. Quick check through the window (handy things it turns out!) and there's coolant welling out of the graphics card and making a beeline for the PSU! Good job there isn't 880ml in the res and a good litre in the rad to follow it eh?! *facepalm*

After the panic, the kitchen roll (all of it) and drying the carpet* this is what the problem was:



These are Barrow acrylic stop plugs and I'd got one in the GPU to complement the acrylic tube coming in from the bottom, and one in the top of the res. Both had suffered the same issue - although the one on the res didn't actually crack through until removed. I've also had threaded acrylic tubes and filters from them - the former cracked (although I cannot rule out mechanical strain here) and the latter crazed so I replaced it with their glass version. Now I should point out that I have rather a lot of metal fittings by Barrow (extensions and angles mainly) and have had no issues with any of them.

Was going to just fill it back up once I'd dried the PSU - did I mention how glad I am that ignored the mounting advise and mounted it with fan downwards so that it presented a solid top to any coolant leaking from above?! Thought I may as well check it out with Dr Drop and found there was still a slow leak. Some testing and a res clean and rebuild later and it's air-tight again. Although it did save me from filling it with a loose fitting on the pump which could have been interesting!

Incidentally, the gauge on Dr Drops is very cheap and the slightest drop while you're using it (of while shipped) means that the needle points at some random point on the scale even when not connected. Manufacturer of the gauge says it isn't adjustable to re-zero it. That's not exactly true though. If you disassemble the gauge (two screws on back and then the case comes off) you can pull the needle off the spindle and put it back on reading zero. The scale won't be accurate anymore (ie 0.5 bar may only be 0.4) but it makes it usable again.

Also fixed some minor issues and cleaned a few things up. When the Aquaero got swapped out, the new screen was ever so slightly larger than the old one and the pressure caused it to bow. Filed the hole out a bit more to sort this out but the glue had gone along the top edge. Thought I'd get away with masking taping (Frog Tape) off the glass and just flowing some super glue into the edge. Nope, some got through the tape and now there's some crusty parts on the inside of the glass that I can't get rid of.

Quite a few of the blue LEDs have failed. They were set to fade blue to red with temperature of each componant but I've had to switch so they fade green to red instead....although this now clashes with the sleeving which is all in shades of blue. There may need to be an LED rebuild at some point.....although I suspect this may be in the same sort of timeframe as Brexit!

Another couple of litres of XSPC EC6 from OCUK have refilled it with nice clear coolant again. It seems to go yellow with age and also, I suspect it may not be as non-conductive after a couple of years....and this seems to be an important feature the way things are going!!

In writing this, I've also just realised that there's another of these same time-bombs on the bottom of the GPU....so replacing that'll be fun now that I've filled it again!

So, yeah. The point of this was really to say that if you have any of these fittings, either replace them or at least check them for signs of impending doom!

*I still stand by the wise advice a friend of mine gave me: "When it leaks all over your carpet, are you going to want a clear, colourless stain or an alien green one?!"

 

[Cenedd]

Jesus wept...

That explains why the carpet was wet then!
I didn't get notifications on your project so I'll go binge read it now. Hope you're doing well and aren't suffering from acrylic fragility too!

 

[Cenedd]

Well, the stop plugs turned up and I changed the bottom GPU plug....whilst still full of several litres* of (fresh) coolant. Remembered to replace the pressure relief membrane this time - after learning the scary way that it really interferes (by design) with the Dr Drop readings. Container and kitchen roll under the plug and go for it. It started leaking out....and then thought better of it when it heard the degree of colourful language I was prepared to throw at it!
Here it is back together in its new green lighting....that doesn't at all clash with the blue sleeving *cough*



*More than 2 but less than 3.

 

[Cenedd]

(although I'd be more concerned about the red G1 logo with the green )

Well, if you're gonna clash, might as well do it properly! Might look at the possibility of making up a PCB to sit in the bottom of the res with through-hole mounting for the RGB LEDs. Depends if there's enough room for the resistors in the rather limited space - currently they're in the deep holes the LEDs sit in. If they're on the board it'd be less grief to wire and stuff in the space but I suspect it'd need surface-mount resistors to fit. Will have to model it up when I get time - current project is to build a belt grinder. Currently have a 2HP 3-phase motor sitting on my bench and I'm wiring up the controls. Nothing like variety eh?!

 

[Cenedd]

Well, hello again all. Hope you're all keeping well (and sane!) through all of this and that OCUK have been kind enough to post you things to play with!

This isn't exactly completion of this project - to be blunt, I got to a point where it was all good, everything worked and...I kinda just enjoyed it rather than worrying about the finer details. So I still haven't, for example, sleeved the ATX power wires. So what is this then? Well, it's very likely to be a (yet another) descent into insanity....don't say you've not been warned!

So, a very nice man (I won't name him in case he doesn't wish to be) posted me a shiny thing to play with in my boredom. Specifically a water-cooled Titan X (the Pascal version in the 1000 series) which should be a very nice step up from the 980Ti. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't looking to replace it just yet but you don't look such a gift-horse in the mouth....and it should, in theory, let me enable hardware acceleration in Handbrake as well as turn up the settings in the games (that I am occasionally granted time to play!)

So in gratitude of such a gift, obviously the first thing I did was see how many pieces I could dismantle it into and then drill some holes in it.



Those should let me mount the RGB LEDs I previously wired up for the GPU block. The holes needed to be 5mm not 3mm but I've put them in different locations to the stock holes so they line up with the LEDs....it was that or solder another 6 resistors and fight with the sleeving!

So this'll be a straight forward swap with no drama then, right? Nope. The water terminals are shifted 30mm towards the front of the case relative to the old card. No problem, there's enough flex in the hoses to cope with that, no? Yeah, if I'd not gone hardline there would be...but I did and both links are bent pieces too! I'm hoping that one I'll get away with because it finishes in a double-45 connector that might just have enough scope to swing the other way. The other I might get away with sawing 30mm off the straight part of the link....I hope! So place you bets, how much will end up on the carpet this time?!

 

[Cenedd]

Ok, took stock of the coolant I thought I had and....ordered more from OCUK. Opportune time for a coolant change if I have to drain and refill anyway. I suspect I'll lose some to the VAX anyway (went and split the loop after installing a drain port). So for now, a benchmark of the existing card as a baseline. Click for a larger version (same as all my pics on this thread).

 

[Cenedd]

LOL crikey you weren't joking when you said you'd taken it apart
She's a good card. Looking forward to seeing it with RGB. I never even knew it had led holes lol. I'd been waiting that long I just fitted it as quick as I could.

Well, if you're gonna do it....OVERKILL it!
Yep, had a pair of 3mm holes and now it also has a pair of 5mm holes.

Too late. I hear his wife got in first

Yup. She's currently running the GTX580 and her third monitor won't run off it so it's on a USB to VGA adapter that flakes out periodically. I bought a new monitor a while back and thought of passing one down to her....and then thought better of it! She got jealous and added a third so now we have a wall of monitors between us so that we can't see each other while we're at work. On the plus side, already working from home is a definite bonus at the moment! Pic in post 253 is now her PC.

 

[Cenedd]

lol if I send you anything else I'm going to superglue it all together that should keep you busy for a few days

You already tried! The 3M tape sticking one half of the back plate on was a delight to get off without breaking anything! Had to get that off to remove the top of the block to clean it - it looked like it needed cleaning but turned out not to - just the air getting to the nickel plate.

 

[Cenedd]

Whereas the backplate for my 980Ti had "Titan X" on it for some reason. Must have been a sign! .... although I'm confident it'll turn out only to fit the previous gen of Titans!