Watercooling, all arrived and ready to be installed!!

gr1mey

gr1mey

gr1mey

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Well after 3 weeks of researching and gathering all the required parts and tools I am ready to install my first watercooling setup in my rig...

I have the following:

Alphacool NexXxoS XP CPU Block
Swiftech MCW60 VGA Block
Swiftech Memory Ramsinks
Thermochill P120.2 Rad with Polished Chrome grill
2 x 120mm Sharkoon Silent Eagle Fans
Laing DDC 12v Pump w/ Plexi Top
DangerDen HD Poly 5.25" Bay Resevoir
all 1/2" Barbs
8ft 1/2" ID clear tubing from DangerDen
12 x Hose Clips
Royal Purple Ice Coolant
2L De-Ionised Water
Arctic Silver 5
Arcti Clean kit

and also to aid me in the installation I have these:

3 x HSS Jigsaw Blades
110v Bosch Jigsaw
14.4v Hitachi Cordless Drill
3.5mm HSS drillbit
12mm HSS drillbit
Half-Round File
Matt Black Spraypaint
Masking Tape

Im going to start tomorrow morning by cutting the hole for the rad, then with a dry fit of motherboard and gfx (with removed stock cooler) cut all the tubing to length, fix all the tubing with the jubilee clips, fill the system and leave it on leak test overnight.

will report from my other PC into this thread with a progress report some time tomorrow when the system is on test.

wish me luck!! cutting into my £180 silverstone case is a little daunting even for me (who quite happily rips peoples houses apart and puts them back together for a living)

:)
 
no of course not!

thats why Im doing a dry-fit first to cut the tubing to length then leave it on test, no components in there, I will remove the motherboard tray :)
 
thanks for the comments guys.

Unfortunately I dont have a digital camera at the moment, I lent it to someone for a holiday in Australia!!! I will try and borrow one tomorrow.

Well, the story so far is...

I removed the old heatsinks for both the CPU and GFX card, cleaned with the Arcti Clean Solution.

I Had pre-assembled all the pump and res, blocks etc during the week. so all I had to do next was put the motherboard tray in with GFX and CPU, roughly fit the CPU and GFX block, I then cut all the pipe to length.

removed all of the parts from the case, and laid them on the floor, with the rad slightly elevated, and the res higher than the rad. Filled the res and this is where it got tricky...The pump was far quicker than anticipated, and I couldnt turn it off in time so it pulled a lot of air into the system whilst I was trying to fill it. However after the system was full (the water at this point was very cloudy and full of bubbles, I left the cap off the resevoir and just slightl opened the bleed screw on the rad, put a towel under it, I then left it to sit for about an hour and a half whilst I prepared the case for cutting.

I then masked the top of the case out and traced the shape of the grill and screw holes onto the tape with pencil - after a check and double check I blackened these in with an OHP marker pen.

The actual cutting has been the easiest part so far, just took my time, drilled pleanty of pilot holes for the jigsaw, and when it was cut I filed all the burrs off.

When I got the case back inside, the WC system was virtually air free. So I then proceeded the fit the rad, pump and res into the case, just leaving the bocks propped up on a box for the moment, opened the top of the res again (but left the rad valve shut this time) in order to get rid of the remainder of the air from the system. I will check a bit later, and cap the res off and leave it for a good while on leak test. I doubt it will leak, I have ensured everything is nicely secured. But better safe than sorry eh!

As I say, I hope to get hold of a camera tomorrow and take some pics of the finished rig for you :)
 
F.F.S!

Well after all that, I got both the CPU and GFX blocks fitted in situ (im still only running it off a jumpered PSU) but blow me down, what should have been one of the easy parts of the whole install has managed to stop me from completing!!

The Swiftech BGA Ramsinks I bought to go on the memory on my GFX card wont stick!!! I removed the protective film thats on the back, which leaves you with a rubbery thermal pad, thats tacky, but no matter how hard I press them onto the RAM modules they just wont stick - the way the card is, they face downwards, and they just keep falling off!! wtf?

will I be able to boot the system tomorrow without these ramsinks? or are they essential?

how should I get the to stick to the ram modules? some Arctic Epoxy or what?

Just typical of computing eh : :mad:

ed- I have AS5 and some Arctic Ceramique around somewhere would either of these stick the little buggers?
 
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no I wont forget to bleed, have had to bleed 3 times during installation as little pockets of air have gotten trapped when I lay the case on its side. But its not too much hassle.

I did clean the ram modules with the surface purifier, the thermal pads just aint sticky enough. read a few threads via google about peoples with this same problem.

Ive heated the pads up with a lighter, and stuck them again, and 7/8 have held for now. I will place an order for some AS Adhesive, and stick the blighters on. Really gets on me wick tbh as everything else went well, its the stupid supplied sticky that wont stick thats let me down :(
 
does anybody think that AS Ceramique or AS5 would have any chance of sticking these ?

ed- or would superglue do the job?
 
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ok, thanks for the reply.

will the RAM not overheat during games though? Surely I should invest in some adhesive to stick these on, Im game a lot at I plan to overclock the card.

But if you think it will be alright without then I will boot the machine tomorrow, I just wont stress the GFX too much.

Just as a note, when I removed the old stock cooler, there was thermal pads on the base for the memory, but it was hardly melted - so you are right they dont generate much heat. :)
 
Well Im up and running (sans Ramsinks) Ive ordered some epoxy if I do decide to install them....

what can I say, Im really impressed with the system - its dead quiet, the only thing I can hear now is the whurr of my Raptor and that's in a silentmaxx enclosure anyway!!

temps are very impressive:

(CPU - idle)The Eudemon's thermal sensor is reading 20'c
(CPU - idle)Everest is reading 19'c
(CPU - load)The Eudemon's thermal sensor is reading 25'c
(CPU - load)Everest is reading 24'c

(GFX - idle)ATi Tool + Overdrive both reading 32'c
(GFX - load)ATi Tool + Overdrive both reading 36'c

The GFX memory is currently at 37'c idle and 40'c load, this is without the ramsinks, so hopefully when they are on they should make a difference - also when I install them I will attach a thermal probe to the GFX core.

So what do you think?
 
yeah my digi cam isnt here atm, so I'll have to try and borrow one. Inside is a little messy atm, I kinda horsed the drives and bits back in last night as I was wanting to get done hehe.
 
yeah I did think about that, but I dont think I will be upgrading until DX10 - thats more than long enough for the card to be of good use in games.

I plan in the future to do a watercooled SFF build, and this card will go into that when it becomes redundant in my main rig.
 
thats what I plan to do, just a small dab to hold the thing there, and I will use some arctic ceramique - think its "stickability" is a bit better than the AS5.
 
that is a thermal probe.

since Ive moved the PC upstairs (those initial temps were downstairs where its colder) Im getting 25' idle on the CPU and 38' idle on the GFX, but Ive overclocked the GFX card to 700/800 at 1.425v put back at stock that would be more like 34-35'
 
temperatures.JPG


Thats what Everest is reading for my CPU temp, and the thermal sensor from my Eudemon unit reads 20.

Room Temerpature is around 19-20, so it is cooling ambient.

Dont insinuate that Im not telling the truth please.
 
temperatures2.JPG


thats after about an hour and three quaters of cs source.

again the thermal probe on the eudemon is 1 degree warmer.

yeah dunno about the ramsinks yet, Im not decided - the temps on the card even now the memory is overclocked are still reasonable - 44' after that gaming session.
 
since Ive been back in, room temperature has gone up to 25' as I closed the window and obviously my body heat has warmed the area up a bit.

Im not lying, ffs.
 
why cant it be? both the Mobo sensor, and the sensor from the unit read the same, bar a degree.

as we speak room temperature is 25' and the CPU sensor reads 25'

its not impossible, as its fact and Im looking right at it now.

wish I had my digi cam.
 
yeah whatever.

Im basing this on the fact my mobo sensor reads one temp, and an additional one glued to the side of the CPU IHS reads 1 degree warmer than the mobo.

I have another sensor monitoring case temps and another monitoring the outside temp.
 
alright so Im obviously lying through my teeth, or all 4 of the thermal probes are.

seeing as its an impossible achievement.
 
if you look at the top of this page of the thread those are the temperatures after a long gaming session.

29' on the CPU at 25' room temp.

whats so wrong here?

I get the same temperature as ambient on my watercooling after a boot, and after a session of hard CPU usage its 3-4 degress hotter than ambient.

why is everyone on my back its lame, my system is super fast, only a single core 3200 and an x1800xt, with a pa120.2 rad with big bore tubing.

both additional sensors from a thermal controller and mobo sensors report the same temps bar a degree or two.

I will borrow a temperature probe at the weekend and clear this up.

All I wanted was some nice comments on a job well done, and all Ive had is people accusing me of ************.
 
alright in that case when I leave gaming tonight I will run prime95 for an hour or so then take some screenies and post them.

Im desperately trying to get my hands on a digi cam so i can post photos of the setup and temps from the eudemon unit.

I dont appreciate this treatment one bit atm.
 
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