Project: TJ07 Revived

Harpss1ngh · 11 Jul 2016 at 01:36

Sleeving time!!

So I'd like to think I've gotten better at this...

Ran out of a full length of sleeving, so I had to improvise with the leftover shrink tubing and two small lengths of sleeving:

All that's really left now is the bottom two rads, and the new case feet. Unfortunately I'm still struggling to get those two rads to fit with the tubing going straight up as well as planning a drain port for each rad through the bottom of the case (the extra height due to the new case feet will allow me to stick in a 90 degree fitting on both drain ports and screw in the bitspower drain ball valves).

If i have drain ports in the floor of my case, I will need to keep the fittings on bottom rad ports completely straight to screw into the drain line's bulkhead in the case floor...that causes issues with bending the tubing with the top rad ports getting in the way no matter how I rotate it...so I will need to add some 90 degree bends on the bottom rad ports to get the tubing around the rads, however I have very limited space to work with so that might not work. This is driving me crazy! :eek:

The other option is drain ports in the front of the case, which will hurt the aesthetics somewhat so I ruled that out. I thought about drain lines going to the back of the case instead but I was worried about any leaks frying the PSU as well as the 240 rad's drain port being more difficult as the PSU is in the way of it...anyway I'll keep trying.

I'll try to post pics of what I'm trying to do...

Cenedd · 11 Jul 2016 at 08:27

Instead of a pass-through in the floor, could you have a hole slightly larger than some soft tubing and stick a grommet in the hole to stop it a abrading? That way you've got some flex and it doesn't have to be exactly in line.

Harpss1ngh · 11 Jul 2016 at 15:23

Cenedd said:
Instead of a pass-through in the floor, could you have a hole slightly larger than some soft tubing and stick a grommet in the hole to stop it a abrading? That way you've got some flex and it doesn't have to be exactly in line.

I'll need to bend it 90 degrees if it goes in the bottom. Let me take some pics and illustrate to make it clearer.

Btw I saw someone with a Project Overkill V3 in the project log, noticed that isn't you :eek:

Cenedd · 11 Jul 2016 at 17:18

Yeah, I did notice that. I'll confess to thinking "Oi!" ...but I guess we can't all come up with such brilliantly original names

Harpss1ngh · 28 Jul 2016 at 14:45

Updates!

Top Rad & Fans connected!

This required using a dremel to carefully cut off a few mms of thread from 8x 30mm UNC 6-32 screws as 27mm length screws (7mm phobya shroud + 15mm fan + a couple mms for the Radiator to grab onto) aren't exactly available!

Also cracked open the box of Bitfenix Alchemy 2.0 Cables. Oh man are they nice! I fed the CPU 8 pin and 24pin ATX cables through the rear of the mobo tray and the 4 6+2 PCIE cables for the 2x980Ti's and then used the supplied cable combs to give it a nice clean look!

Plugging the cables into the monster Corsair AX1500i was slightly difficult as it was a bit of a tight fit with the 280 Rad next to the PSU and there wasn't much space for the connectors however I fits, although a bit snug!

Fitted the OCZ Revodrive 350 to the bottom x8 PCIe slot (Physically x16 but only has x8 pins soldered on the back due to chipset PCIE lane limitations).

Almost done!

The 480 Rad in the bottom is now going to be oriented so the ports face the rear of the case, so the drain port will be screwed into the rear by using a Bitspower Q Sparkle fitting.

The tubing will no longer go straight up out of the basement as it was difficult to align it all with the limited space under there. Instead, I will do what I did previously, 1 tube going down to the 280 rad from the case (from the pumps probably), from there it will feed the 480 rad's inlet, from the 480's outlet it will go up through the mid plate.

I'm not sure yet the best loop layout beyond that though, but the way it looks like it's going to work is this:

AC Pump/Res > Koolance dual Pump/Res > GPU > GPU > NB > Mosfet1> CPU > Mosfet2 > Top 240 Rad > Bottom 480 Rad > Bottom 240 Rad > AquaComputer Mesh Filter > Primochill Vortex Flow Indicator > AC Pump/Res

However the Aqucomputer MPS flow sensor needs to go somewhere. I might swap the flow indicator to before the EK Parallel SLI block thingy GPU Inlet and the MPS flow sensor after the Mesh filter but before the AC Pump/Res.

I dunno, maybe a pic with the layout drawn out will help!

Will upload some pics soon...

Harpss1ngh · 28 Jul 2016 at 19:00

Pics or GTFO!

Everyone loves pics here, so here they are:

New case feet!

MNPCTech Diamond Knurl Case Feet:

Case Feet Porn:

More Case Feet Porn:

Filled and screwed the case feet in (I later took a dremel to this screw so I can fit the PSU in there:

OEM Fan gril with the top mounted Magicool G2 Slim 240mm Rad:

The Magicool Rad with those Silverstone 15mm fans!

POWERRRRRRRRRRR cables (and my attempt at cable management):

Harpss1ngh · 28 Jul 2016 at 19:48

Waterloop plan

Here is my (poor) water loop component diagram:

This shows all the components of my loop that need to be tubed together.

Can anyone suggest what would be the best (easiest) loop?

Having a quick look I came up with this:

AC Pump/Res > Koolance dual Pump/Res > Primochill Vortex Flow Indicator > EK Parallel SLI Bridge > Mosfet1 > NB > CPU > Mosfet2 > Top 240 Rad > Bottom 240 Rad > Bottom 480 Rad > Aquacomputer MPS Flow Sensor > AquaComputer Mesh Filter > AC Pump/Res

I know it looks a bit ****** but I'm not the best artist in the world evidentally, but hoping someone can use their imagination

Cenedd · 28 Jul 2016 at 22:09

The only thing I'd comment (apart from the visual flow indicator seeming a bit redundant with the flow sensor) would be the run from top rad to bottom. You don't have to have them all in a line. You could stick the bottom rads in before the GPUs - either before or after the indicator, whichever is easiest to tube. Ultimately the order makes very little difference - it gets to a point where it's all in equilibrium anyway so where you have the cooling makes little difference.

Harpss1ngh · 29 Jul 2016 at 01:30

Cenedd said:
The only thing I'd comment (apart from the visual flow indicator seeming a bit redundant with the flow sensor) would be the run from top rad to bottom. You don't have to have them all in a line. You could stick the bottom rads in before the GPUs - either before or after the indicator, whichever is easiest to tube. Ultimately the order makes very little difference - it gets to a point where it's all in equilibrium anyway so where you have the cooling makes little difference.

I only have the visual indicator because I like it and its UV and it spins

. That's literally the only reason I have it haha.

I didn't intend to stick the rads all in a line, it just seemed the easiest to do, looking at it visually, I know water temps normalise in the whole loop as it's not like the extreme temps in a car (you can guess which famous YouTuber I've been following now

)

The plexi parallel sli bridge and the CPU block are directional (there's a specific inlet and outlet) afaik so I'm just trying to take that into account as well as the mesh filter which will go last before the aquacomputer res/pump.

I'll take into account what you're saying, I'm just going to do it the easiest way. You'll also see tomorrow why I've done it that way in my next update (hint: added/modded a new bulkhead

)

Btw..
I got another huge update to make!!! Bottom rads all tubed up! The remaining components are easy peasy to do. I'll do a quick power on test tomorrow by making sure my motherboard still posts after all the stress I've put it through (various youtubers swear it's safe to do for a quick test), and that the main (top) GPU shows an image before I tube up and wire up the rest of the components (hopefully all the drilling and dust doesn't short out anything and I don't need to get a fire extinguisher out

)

Pics and proper update tomorrow!

Harpss1ngh · 29 Jul 2016 at 19:36

Pics update!

Drilling the midplate and adding a bulkhead for the rear AX240 Rad!
This pic is before I realised my measurements were a bit off, so what you don't see here is when I rubbed out the markings and moved them nearly 10mm back as I conveniently didn't take a pic

With the bulkhead added! It's a little loose as the fitting on the rad pushes it a bit up, can be rectified by installing the USB port in the 3.5" bay (Will need to mutilate it to fit) and threading the bulkhead through it.

I decided to take a knife to clean up the dampening foam sticking out from the bottom (and totally screwed it up, should have left it how it was in hindsight

), luckily no one will know, except me..

Koolance QD4 Quick disconnects for the bottom in/outlets of the bottom rad's, to help me be able to remove the rads for cleaning or draining (if the drain port doesn't work well)

Here you can see the nice clean look of the Hammond box covering that ugly green front panel PCB and also that rear AX240's fitting screwed into the bulkhead, you can also see the Rad pushed right up against the box, hopefully it'll hold...

You can see here how tight the space is between the Rad and that massive beast of a PSU (they're touching!), that Rad is pressing on both sides, I hope that strong gauge Alchemy 2.0 cable kit holds (Crap I forgot to plug in the Molex/Sata Power! Going to have to take it apart again)

Yes, it fits! Front EX-480 fitted nicely. Tried to alleviate pressure between both of the bottom rad fittings as best as I could (keep tubing long enough to be able to remove and disconnect using the Koolance QD4, but also not to damage the fittings in the long run. I hope anyway). You can see the rad had to be pushed right to the left.

The rear with the PSU bracket thing removed. I might keep it like that as I can make the PSU and Rad stick slightly out to alleviate any long term stress of the PSU's cables and the two Rad's tight fittings. Will probably modify the rear mesh cover to allow a few mm's of breathing space and to drill a hole for that high quality bitspower ball valve I'm using for the drain line. Or maybe just leave it, I dunno!

Side views showing the space between the rad's and the tubing.

That PrimoChill PrimoFlex Advanced tubing is so clear! Granted, the (XSPC HighFlex Hose) tubing I'm comparing it to came out of my old loop with old 4 year old pastel coolant and crap floating in it :d but I don't remember it being as clear as the Primochill!

Here, you can see the tubing from the top fitting on my front facing EX-480 Rad going up through the midplate through a hole in the sound dampening. I have a few choices how/where I can tube this up to, up to the Mesh filter before returning to the Aqualis pump/res or somewhere else I haven't figured out yet. Once I finish looping up the motherboard, CPU and the GPU's I'm sure I'll figure it out.

Angled view of case (porn)

A different angle (it's starting to look great now)

Front view looking in

Let me know what you think!

More updates coming soon, pretty sure I will get this done over this weekend

Harpss1ngh · 29 Jul 2016 at 20:07

I've been thinking about getting a couple of Poweradjust 3's to control the two XSPC D5 Pumps in the Koolance Reservoir, but there's mixed opinions about controlling pump power. Many seem to say just leave it at a setting slow enough that doesn't annoy me to death. Flow rate doesn't really have that much of an effect on temps anyway (in the grand scheme of things such as compared with the quality of blocks, rads and fans and the fact that there's 3 friggin D5's in the loop proving crazy amounts of head pressure!). In any case I will aim for 130-200 Litres per hour of flow and see how quiet it sounds then!

Cenedd · 29 Jul 2016 at 20:31

Harpss1ngh said:
luckily no one will know, except me..

Just as long as you weren't daft enough to post the evidence up on the internet....doh!

I would have suggested ditching the ball-valve and just using a stop plug to drain....but it would leave the point of spray uncomfortably close to the box of electrickery just next door :eek:

Is there room for a similar cube junction (if it exists) that has an exit on the top face and then have ball-valve followed by 90°? Would save a bit of the overhang that's just asking to be knocked.

PowerAdjusts are good but they are voltage control only - not PWM. If you want PWM, you'd need an Aquaero 6 (the 5 only has one PWM header). Entirely depends on what type of D5 you have. If it's the Vario, just set them where you're happy with them. If it's the PWM or a basic, this would be a good way of controlling them - even if it's just a one-time set. Other option would be to 7V them but I've no experience of D5s to say whether they'd tolerate it.....my DDC did until I got an Aquaero.

Oh, and for the record, Flix29 has got us both beat with an uber-kill 4 D5s!

Harpss1ngh · 29 Jul 2016 at 21:10

Cenedd said:
Just as long as you weren't daft enough to post the evidence up on the internet....doh!

I would have suggested ditching the ball-valve and just using a stop plug to drain....but it would leave the point of spray uncomfortably close to the box of electrickery just next door Is there room for a similar cube junction (if it exists) that has an exit on the top face and then have ball-valve followed by 90°? Would save a bit of the overhang that's just asking to be knocked.

PowerAdjusts are good but they are voltage control only - not PWM. If you want PWM, you'd need an Aquaero 6 (the 5 only has one PWM header). Entirely depends on what type of D5 you have. If it's the Vario, just set them where you're happy with them. If it's the PWM or a basic, this would be a good way of controlling them - even if it's just a one-time set. Other option would be to 7V them but I've no experience of D5s to say whether they'd tolerate it.....my DDC did until I got an Aquaero.

Oh, and for the record, Flix29 has got us both beat with an uber-kill 4 D5s!

Hah! Can't hide the evidence now.

Don't understand what you mean by cube junction, the case will be sitting on an Ikea side table which ishalf the height of my desk and the case will be angled so no one will knock into it and it won't hit the wall, but now you mentioned that I'll be well aware of the dangers of being close to that PSU lol. :eek:

Is the D5 Vario the one with the manual speed selector and the one that goes to 24v? That's the one I have, it has a blue wire which i suspect is an rpm wire and I'll probably plug that into the Aquaero 6 XT I have,to monitor pump speeds at least (I'll have a couple spare fan headers to use for this as I'm only going to use 2 on the aquaero). I saw an example online of someone ripping out the pcb and replace it with the PCB for aquacomputer d5 with aquabus and usb! They don't sell those (i tried, i really did) and the only way is to find a faulty aquacomputer d5 pump and use the pcb board. I thought PWM on the Laings doesn't work as the Aquaero follows the intel spec and the Laing doesn't. I guess ill have to stick with the old fashioned way!

4 D5's?! Madness :eek:

Cenedd · 29 Jul 2016 at 22:59

The white Bitspower Q-ball (I think they call it) cube junction. The square thing you have attached to the drain valve.

The default Laing D5 doesn't implement PWM properly as far as I'm aware. EK have apparently just released a fixed version and Aqua Computer have been fixing theirs for a while now. I believe you can fix it by adding a resistor somewhere - though you'd have to Google that.

If you have the one with the speed selector, I'd just pick a speed that works and not worry. You can probably report the speed back with the tacho wire to either the Aquaero or to the motherboard - the Aquaero ports could be more use for other things if you are running short. Technically there's nothing stopping you running it as voltage controlled though - assuming you're comfortable changing the plugs on the wires. If you were to put either a 3-pin or 4-pin fan plug on the end, the Aquaero could both power it (at variable speed via voltage) and report its speed. Also tidier as only one cable....just a thought.

Harpss1ngh · 30 Jul 2016 at 19:21

Cenedd said:
The white Bitspower Q-ball (I think they call it) cube junction. The square thing you have attached to the drain valve.

The default Laing D5 doesn't implement PWM properly as far as I'm aware. EK have apparently just released a fixed version and Aqua Computer have been fixing theirs for a while now. I believe you can fix it by adding a resistor somewhere - though you'd have to Google that.

If you have the one with the speed selector, I'd just pick a speed that works and not worry. You can probably report the speed back with the tacho wire to either the Aquaero or to the motherboard - the Aquaero ports could be more use for other things if you are running short. Technically there's nothing stopping you running it as voltage controlled though - assuming you're comfortable changing the plugs on the wires. If you were to put either a 3-pin or 4-pin fan plug on the end, the Aquaero could both power it (at variable speed via voltage) and report its speed. Also tidier as only one cable....just a thought.

I think I know what you mean now. I'm going to cut the hose a little shorter so I can allow that front 480 rad to move a little in (it will reduce the stress on the tubing going up through the midplate as well. That will push the ball valve an inch inside!

I'll stick with the standard pump speed selector. I used to keep it at 3. The Aquabus D5 I'm not sure how to set it up right in Aquasuite

I've just installed Aquasuite 2016-4 and updated the firmware to 2007. Plugged in the Aquaero 6 XT and the D5 top with fill level and the D5 Pump via USB. I've change the ID to 13 on the D5 pump. Changed the fill level sensor from a Pressure delta 40 sensor to a Fill delta 40 sensor.

I haven't gotten around to configuring alarms or the Pump speed or even the fill level and flow sensor (It's the 'High Flow' one that plugs into the Flow port on the Aquaero, it doesn't have Aquabus or USB).

I'm still trying to figure out how to set all the fans and sensors up as I don't know how really, is there a guide on how to set this up? The phobya and bitspower watercooling temp sensors are reporting roughly 26 degrees (slightly different on each one) room air temp which is probably a couple degrees off but that's fine with me.

I just powered on the PC to the BIOS and it all works and is detected perfectly, just before the thermal shutdown kicked in and shut the PC down :eek:

. Glad that's working as a last resort!

Hooked up the Aquaero's RPM to the CPU header on the motherboard and configured an alarm to send a 0 RPM to it if there's an alarm or emergency shutdown. Then set it to shutdown when 0 rpm detected in BIOS.

Cenedd · 30 Jul 2016 at 22:25

Sounds like you've got most of it done.

From what i can tell, temp sensors seem to be accurate to within maybe as little as 5C - even by the same manufacturer.

Fans you need to set to be either voltage controlled (power) or PWM. After that you create a controller - either fixed (which let's you control by hand on a slider) or curve (which let's you set speed based on a temp sensor).
Then you assign the fan header(s) as the output for that controller - and for a curve, what temp sensor as input.

If a fan isn't assigned to a controller it runs at full speed (and noise) unless you've set maximum limits on the fan.

Other than that, ask and I'll try to answer when I'm not out tomorrow.

Harpss1ngh · 30 Jul 2016 at 23:45

Cenedd said:
Sounds like you've got most of it done.

From what i can tell, temp sensors seem to be accurate to within maybe as little as 5C - even by the same manufacturer.

Fans you need to set to be either voltage controlled (power) or PWM. After that you create a controller - either fixed (which let's you control by hand on a slider) or curve (which let's you set speed based on a temp sensor).
Then you assign the fan header(s) as the output for that controller - and for a curve, what temp sensor as input.

If a fan isn't assigned to a controller it runs at full speed (and noise) unless you've set maximum limits on the fan.

Other than that, ask and I'll try to answer when I'm not out tomorrow.

Thanks, after fiddling a little more I can see what you mean.

I also need to consider whether to get a SPLITTY9 as my old 3x3pin fan splitters have all the RPM wires connected and also because I need more than 3 fans per channel as I have 12 fans. I will want the speed of 1 or 2 of the dual D5's in the Koolance reservoir monitored too so fan splitters with 6 or more pins would be great. I can't seem to find any that have more than 3 ports though. Temporarily I can use the crappy cables I have to power some of the fans at least but need a long term solution. I'll probably need fan extensions to get the cables to the splitty9 anyway so might be better off finding the right fan splitter cables instead.

Cenedd · 31 Jul 2016 at 08:16

You can just snip (and insulate) the unwanted tacho wires on a splitter.
Personally I'd run at least one pump off the Aquaero so you can monitor and control it (assuming it's PWM or voltage controlled rather than vario). I would say two but as you've got three there's less issue with needing to know in case one fails.

Can you solder? If so, you'd probably be better making up your own fan cables. You can do it without soldering by crimping two wires into each pin and chaining one of the next. You can buy 3 or 4 pin fan plugs and crimp on pins. It would mean you can make them the length you want and also sleeve them if you want while you're after it.

Make sure you group fans by what you want to control - like all on a rad. Otherwise you'd be turning up or down things together. Also make sure they are identical on a channel because with only one monitored for speed, it's only valid to assume the rest are at the same speed if they are identical fans.

If you need additional channels of voltage controlled (not PWM) you can add a PowerAdjust for an additional single channel - the standard version is all you need; the Aquaero does the control via aquabus.

Harpss1ngh · 31 Jul 2016 at 17:13

Cenedd said:
You can just snip (and insulate) the unwanted tacho wires on a splitter.
Personally I'd run at least one pump off the Aquaero so you can monitor and control it (assuming it's PWM or voltage controlled rather than vario). I would say two but as you've got three there's less issue with needing to know in case one fails.

Can you solder? If so, you'd probably be better making up your own fan cables. You can do it without soldering by crimping two wires into each pin and chaining one of the next. You can buy 3 or 4 pin fan plugs and crimp on pins. It would mean you can make them the length you want and also sleeve them if you want while you're after it.

Make sure you group fans by what you want to control - like all on a rad. Otherwise you'd be turning up or down things together. Also make sure they are identical on a channel because with only one monitored for speed, it's only valid to assume the rest are at the same speed if they are identical fans.

If you need additional channels of voltage controlled (not PWM) you can add a PowerAdjust for an additional single channel - the standard version is all you need; the Aquaero does the control via aquabus.

I can solder yeah. I have 4 of the Corsair SP120 fans, 4 1800RPM Scythe Gentle Typhoon's, 2 silverstone 15mm thick slim 120mm fans and a couple 92mm noiseblocker fans. I don't mind combining the silverstone and the noiseblockers together on one channel and separating the SP120 and the GT's which leaves me with 1 channel for the pump rpm cable.

I might just get the 4 way Phobya or Gelid Y cables if I can find them as those would be perfect so I don't have to mess about with soldering or crimping, or even sleeving lol.

The Pumps I have is the XSPC D5 Vario (This one), so I'll just set them to 3 (TBH the pump noise never bothered me even at full on 5 with even 2 of these, but that might be completely different with 3 D5's lol, the Aquacomputer D5 isn't mounted on dampening and bolted onto a mixture of steel and aluminium so might make noise, but I'm going to dampen the back of it so hopefully it won't be bad)

Cenedd · 31 Jul 2016 at 17:31

Mainly the noise is pump vibration being transmitted to the case and the case amplifying it - so rubber mounting is your friend rather than sound proofing.

The pump as speed monitoring only would only give you the option to set an alarm based on it stopping. Given you have other D5s in the loop (it's not going to just fail) you might want to use the channel for fans.
The Aqua Computer D5 if it has Aquabus can plug in without using a fan channel. Multiple aquabus connections can be made if necessary, you just need a fan splitter.