Project: TJ07 Revived

Harpss1ngh · 26 May 2016 at 16:20

Hello X5690

Update:

Got myself a X5690 :cool:

This build definitely is getting expensive hahaha

Cenedd · 26 May 2016 at 16:27

Only 6 cores? I think it needs an SMP friend to keep it company

Harpss1ngh · 26 May 2016 at 16:47

Cenedd said:
Only 6 cores? I think it needs an SMP friend to keep it company

LOL! Yeah I thought about looking at a dual socket EVGA X58, which are my favourite boards but very expensive.

My next build will be an EVGA motherboard based one, but that'll be when the Ti Pascals are released and probably using a Dell XPS case I have lying around which I want to mod with a clear side panel:

Something like this maybe:

It's a very tight case that can only take a thin 240 Rad in the rear (and maybe a single 120mm in the bottom and a 92mm in the rear) but just look at it! You can control all the LEDS from the Nvidia control panel as well. I have a koolance bracket for mounting an external large RAD however it needs a 120mm mount on the outside which there isn't (I had one on an old Cooler Master CM 690 NVIDIA Edition case).

I love retro cases

As long as they aren't 90's Beige lol

I might see if I can mod a Rad into the top or something, but its a very nice case so would be worried about damaging it (plenty of cheap ones on the bay though)

Cenedd · 26 May 2016 at 17:01

Plenty of room on the side panel for a rad! *cough*

Harpss1ngh · 26 May 2016 at 17:09

Cenedd said:
Plenty of room on the side panel for a rad! *cough*

I was thinking that

Rad stand bolted to the bottom, cut a side panel

Harpss1ngh · 26 May 2016 at 20:46

Pics!

Why I can't use the SP120's in the top

Very masculine choice of socks for pics

visual comparison of the fans:

These Monsoon fittings look amazing:

There's going to be a lot of tubing bends here!

Will be sleeving those ugly pump wires!

The SP120's on my XSPC EX480 radiator, mounted to 7mm Phobya shrouds/decoupling things that I mount to all of my fans. They serve a dual purpose, shroud and vibration dampening, although they can't be seen here. They look like this:

Will add text later...

Cenedd · 27 May 2016 at 08:22

Image link is broken but can be pasted. Doesn't look all that much difference in the picture but it's enough that the motherboard tray doesn't catch them?

Have you tried the Alphacool fan shrouds? Not certain how well they fit side by side on a rad but because they wrap round the frame they're probably not a pain to get lined up and stay in place while you get it all screwed in.

Harpss1ngh · 27 May 2016 at 11:04

Cenedd said:
Image link is broken but can be pasted. Doesn't look all that much difference in the picture but it's enough that the motherboard tray doesn't catch them?

Have you tried the Alphacool fan shrouds? Not certain how well they fit side by side on a rad but because they wrap round the frame they're probably not a pain to get lined up and stay in place while you get it all screwed in.

Which image link? They look fine to me.

You mean the plexi shrouds? Too thick and don't provide dampening. The Phobya shrouds are only 7mm so perfect for push/pull with two rads in the TJ07's basement

Cenedd · 27 May 2016 at 11:22

"Visual comparison of the fans" there's a curly bracket instead of a square bracket so the image doesn't show.

Not plexi shrouds, silicone. Specifically: Alphacool Susurro Antinoise Silicone Fan Frame
I can't post a link I'm afraid. It wraps round the whole frame and so stays in place while you're trying to screw the fans on.

Harpss1ngh · 27 May 2016 at 11:53

Cenedd said:
"Visual comparison of the fans" there's a curly bracket instead of a square bracket so the image doesn't show.

Not plexi shrouds, silicone. Specifically: Alphacool Susurro Antinoise Silicone Fan Frame
I can't post a link I'm afraid. It wraps round the whole frame and so stays in place while you're trying to screw the fans on.

Lol oh I used a curly bracket instead of square lol, I thought I fixed that but I might have 'fixed' it with another curly bracket

. Fixed now.

Ahh yeah I see the frame. They look good, not sure how well it works as a shroud but for sound dampening looks good yes. I haven't had much trouble with the Phobya's I guess I'm just used to them now lol.

Harpss1ngh · 31 May 2016 at 14:44

I'm not absolutely certain but I may have made an epic fail of n00b proportions with my build. I have a feeling the 980ti's may be obstructed by my Res which is already at the edge of the motherboard plate :eek:

Also I received the Corsair AX1500i PSU and it's quite long! There's only about a 10-15mm clearance between the PSU and the 280 Rad.

To make matters worse, to accommodate a drain port on each Rad in the basement of the case, and have tubing go straight up through the basement of the case rather than between the two Rad's, I can't do a push pull on both rads, and to have enough room for it all I will probably need to drill holes for bulkheads under the 3.5" bay where the USB port headers are. It looks like I can still keep the USB headers. Also I may need to have the Rads at an angle instead of flush with the side of the case.

I can't see any project logs that have done it the way I am, but newer cases such as the Caselabs cases (which are huge compared to even a TJ07) can accommodate this easily. I don't want the two rad's to be connected to each other by tubing, I want them to be independent. It makes draining and maintenance much easier and removing the Rad's when I took the case apart was a massive pain because the bottom ports were connected together by tubing previously.

.

I will post pics later but if anyone has any suggestions that would be great

Cenedd · 31 May 2016 at 14:57

Because of the sliding motherboard tray, you've not got any other flat surface to mount the res to, so you've therefore got it in the right place. What you may need to do is make up a plate that screws onto the holes you've got in the motherboard tray and onto the res bracket and just moves it as far to the right as you need clearance for the graphics card. If the plate isn't too thin and the holes aren't too close together, it should take it.
Failing that, you'd have to make up a bracket to floor-mount it but keep it standing upright.

Would swapping the PSU down to a 1200 or a 1000 help?

Harpss1ngh · 31 May 2016 at 15:35

Cenedd said:
Because of the sliding motherboard tray, you've not got any other flat surface to mount the res to, so you've therefore got it in the right place. What you may need to do is make up a plate that screws onto the holes you've got in the motherboard tray and onto the res bracket and just moves it as far to the right as you need clearance for the graphics card. If the plate isn't too thin and the holes aren't too close together, it should take it.
Failing that, you'd have to make up a bracket to floor-mount it but keep it standing upright.

Would swapping the PSU down to a 1200 or a 1000 help?

I used a PSU calculator and I'll need at least a 1200, but that depends on the OC I get off the GPU's and the CPU so it could be higher. So I got the 1500 to allow headroom.

The difference is:

AX1200i: 200mm x 150mm x 86 mm
AX1500i: 225mm x 150mm x 86mm

The steel plate I will need to look into I guess if I can't move the res enough. The cooler does add extra length so will see how long the actual PCB is but I still think its 10.5" without the PCB which is shorter than the width of the motherboard (about 9.6")

Harpss1ngh · 1 Jun 2016 at 09:17

Put on the waterblock on one of the GTX 980ti's last night as well as the backplate.

By the way I didn't use the TIM or the Thermal Pad's EK supply as I used Kryonaut Thermal Grizzly and Fijipoly Sarcon XR-m Thermal Pads! They are rebranded by Alphacool (Alphacool Eisschicht thermal pad - 17W/mK 100x100x0,5mm Sarcon XR-m). These thermal Pads are very expensive, but I've spent enough on this build as it is so I thought why the hell not lol. They're also the 17w/mk which are very hard to come by in the UK and expensive but lets hope it's well worth it. I can see why OCUK wouldn't stock them though due to their crazy price!

I used the stock pads on the Backplate as I used up all the pads for my motherboard waterblocks as well as on the memory and VRM's on my full cover block on my 980Ti GTX and I'm going to buy more for the 2nd block

. It's not cheap.

Cenedd · 1 Jun 2016 at 09:30

I looked at those - I was attracted by one set of numbers and put off by the other! Be interesting to know if there's much difference but I'm not sure you can read the memory or VRM temps off the card can you?

Harpss1ngh · 1 Jun 2016 at 10:08

Cenedd said:
I looked at those - I was attracted by one set of numbers and put off by the other! Be interesting to know if there's much difference but I'm not sure you can read the memory or VRM temps off the card can you?

There's quite a few people elsewhere that swear by it. The EK stuff generally only has 3 or 5w/mk, so this is a big difference, so do the Akasa thermal pads which are actually really poor from experience. The pads are also a different material, they crumble if you rub them and if they get too compressed when tightening waterblocks they leak a little silicone oil which isn't conductive however. Not sure if I can read those temps individually but I definitely can measure my Motherboard's chipset temp which is blocked with that thermal pad and having pushed this motherboard hard and knowing how well it used to perform, I should be able to deduce easily any noticeable difference (it's a great overclocking board!)

Hopefully I can push the GPU's and BCLK higher with better heat transfer these pads provide and stay within reasonable temps, I guess that depends on Asic Quality but not sure how much of a real world difference Asic Quality makes.
One of the GPU's has a 70% ASIC Quality and I don't know about the one I just waterblocked. After doing some digging it seems lower Asic Quality GPU's would benefit from being watercooled than on air and higher Asic Quality ones are better on air due to generally less heat and power, however their overclockability tapers off quicker than a lower asic on water...I dunno, there's mixed information out there....

Also....going back to my last couple posts about the GPU's hitting the reservoir, I have to shift the Res at least 40mm to the right to avoid the cards. I don't think I have that much room in the case to shift it before it hits the 5.25" bays which I have removed temporarily. I can cut out just enough for the res and stick in my Bluray drive and the Aquaero controller but I might have to leave the Alphacool dual res I got earlier for another PC if that is the case (which tbh is probably what I should've done in the first place as its not necessary, but I like the look of those bay mounted res's).
I think if I get a big square piece of sheet steel (maybe 2mm) and line it up with the 5.25" bays, I can push the res 40mm to the right and get reinforcement from the 5.25" bay (which I will need to drill into to screw the steel plate to as well as cut down to fit the res). It would mean my motherboard tray won't be moveble anymore which isn't a big deal once it's all tubed up. I guess that would work....

Harpss1ngh · 3 Jun 2016 at 17:14

Another update...

I ordered an EVGA Short dual SLI Bridge V2. It has filters to change the white EVGA light to RGB colours. I will use the blue filter to match the rest of my theme. It is a great looking bridge and supposedly improves SLI performance and supports high refresh rates (although I don't know how much of that is just marketing and whether the standard dull SLI ribbon cables do the same thing...

I also received my 2nd EK Nickel Plexi waterblock (These blocks are huge, heavy and look so great). I also got the EK 2way SLI Parallel Terminal which will also look great when this thing is completed.

I will have to start deciding the direction the loop will go in soon, I already have some idea's but will see how it goes...

I have ordered a 2mm thick sheet of 250x150mm Mild Steel which I will wrap in my matt black vinyl and used to hold the Res that needs to be shifted right by at least 40mm, closer to the 5.25" bays, it may even require cutting part of the bays, I haven't yet decided! I have also ordered longer m3x12mm cap head (allen) screws, washers and nuts to use with the steel plate which will be bolted into the motherboard backplate and the 5.25" drive bay plate to provide reinforcement as that Res is heavy and will get heavier with more water. I will use what is left of my sound dampening to absorb the pump noise from causing the steel bracket that I am makeshifting from vibrating and causing noise.

The steel and bolts will arrive next week, hopefully I can start getting more done within the next week or so, so that I can post better pics of this build's progression.

Cenedd · 3 Jun 2016 at 19:12

Sounding good. Good to hear they've made the bridge colour changeable now. Could be marketing hype but they're probably just highlighting the differences between sli1 and 2. If you could find a cheap sli2 bridge it'd be the same.

Bigminimus · 3 Jun 2016 at 21:21

Nice build!

Harpss1ngh · 6 Jun 2016 at 11:14

Cenedd said:
Sounding good. Good to hear they've made the bridge colour changeable now. Could be marketing hype but they're probably just highlighting the differences between sli1 and 2. If you could find a cheap sli2 bridge it'd be the same.

They're just tacky stickers you stick on top, doesn't look right. You can open the bridge with a torx screwdriver and stick in a photography filter, like the coloured ones for flash as the LED is white. Also the bridge can be painted, it's 2 pieces, one is aluminium and the other is plastic. Easy to mod online