Project: FrozenFire (MORE!! Watercooling changes Sep 8 05)

Heh, aside from a Mini which I know I won't get, an Aquaero is on my fairly short but pricy birthday list (incl the z-5500's, Dell 2005FPW 20" WS LCD, iBook 12", 2x1GB OCZ ram kit and a few misc cheaper items).

Right now I've already chewed through 100 gigs or so of the new drive, mostly so I can reorganize and clean out the three 80GB'ers that I have. I'm probably going to stick with just a single Raptor in this machine as I now have plenty of space, and the 16MB cache makes it quite comparable in speed for what I do. The other raptor plus the 80GB drives will go in my media ctr once it's all set (doing a half-assed watercooling setup on it for now, the thing is just too annoying to bleed to do it right)

I've got just under 40GB in my reencoded movies. Plus another 15GB or so in the 007 Bond series that I *cough* obtained. Just under 6GB in various music, though as I'm going to go through and re-rip stuff to FLAC that'll increase. 35GB in Simpsons Seasons 1-16. Another few in misc backup stuff, plus my watercooling guide which I finally manged to PDF (but then found some things I wanna change, though if anyone wants to look through a draft PM/email me and I'll send you a copy to look through)

I'll keep that in mind for the BIOS shots. I just wanted to grab something quick and can't be arsed to dig out my tripod, wherever it is.

I've been screwing around with overclocking a bit, I'm getting about 32c/40c temps at 2300MHz, stock voltage, and the thermal paste hasn't burned in yet either. I'm pretty happy with the temps, but I'll definately consider going through and re-lapping the CPU block when I do a "final" plumbing of the system. I've decided I may put the chipset on the GPU loop instead of the CPU loop as I only do have one right now and it'll probably stay that way. Temps are good all around though so I'm not concerned in the slightest. Depends on a few things I guess, probably I'll decide once I get the goodies I want from Sharka.

Already played a bit with using dual-core to it's fullest. Did the stereotypical "burn a CD while running a virus scan, formatting your new 300GB drive, playing something in winamp while breaking out some Far Cry action". Multitasking=win. And now that I have hard drive space again, I'll actually be able to use the power for my re-encoding adventures. I didn't have enough space to save the finished 700-1000mb movie, let alone the 1:1 rip of the original that I'd need.

/edit - more OCing fun. To 2.5GHz right now with just a small voltage bump (1.375v in the BIOS I think, up from 1.3375 or something). Not sure on stability yet but it seems fairly safe. Running two instances of CPU Burn-in right now (set to low priority so I can still use the machine but keep 100% load per core) and all seems well and good. Temp is up to about 46c though, and although not at all worrying, it is a bit higher. A couple of the micro-jets in my Cuplex XT are slightly clogged though, so when I take care of everything at some point I'll be sure to clean that out. Also, my Chaintech board now housing the 3000+, 6600GT and Cuplex Pro seems to be decent. Still waiting for a bit better bleeding but it's about ready.

 

Woot, another update. Now that the summer's over and I got a job it figures that I'll devote some time to modding instead of sleeping.

Anyways, I'm posting from the Chaintech media ctr board, so all is well and good there. I'm honestly not sure but I think I'm getting 22c ambient 34c idle, not load tested yet.

Found out something about Frozenfire's X2 temps... one rad had the fan unplugged! Not only that, the one that was in the primary CPU loop! D'oh! Anyways, thank goodness they share a res so the other rad could handle some load, but a chipset, 6800GT@U and a dual-core proc on a single 120mm quiet-fanned rad not insta-deathing is good.

So, I decided to finally mod the 6800GT/U block. Hacked off the vreg cooler. I figure it's safer as I'm 99% sure that's how I killed the card (that I RMA'd and now have for sale, another shameless plug). Anyways, I got that installed and did some replumbing. Made a mess draining so it'll stay off and dry out for the night. It's quite a bit cleaner. The CPU now has it's own loop and the NF4 Chipset and video card are together.

But I know all you care about are the pics!



Hacksawed off the voltage regulator cooler. There's *just* enough room for the stock sink to stay in place, luckily. I cleaned it up a bit and went over it with some black sharpie, for now, so the aluminum doesn't stick out too badly.


Naked card, again (what, sixth time or so?). Don't ask about the ramsink, I have no idea what that chip is but it fits with the block installed so it stays.


Using a couple of the long screws from the 6800 twinplexes to make sure it would fit with the voltage regulator stock heatsink in place. It's very close but makes it.


Céramique, for a change. No chance of shorting anything with that.


It must be on pretty securely, as it can hang there by the fittings. Hopefully I didn't overdo it, but if I did the floating core should save me (I hope!).




A few shots of the loop. Once I get more black tubing it'll replace all the stained clear. Getting there, slowly but surely.

Also, now that I only have two hard drives in place, I'm going to re-relocate the pumps. Take a guess where. It would clear with three and might even just clear with four there, but all the drives I took out are going to the media-center-to-be I'm posting from. Thanks nVidia for integrating four SATA ports.



I mentioned I made a fanbus the other day. I still need LEDs but it's pretty sleek. Not sure if it'll stay but probably. Regardless, it needs to be rewired to a degree (it has clamp-down terminals for bare wires, boo!) Silence was one of my original goals with the project, and this'll help. It's by no means LOUD, but it's definately noticible as-is. Taking out a few hard drives won't hurt noise either

Whatcha think? I still have more CF Vinyl work to do (I should get to that sometime), I'm probably going to redo the bulkhead area and do something more with the bottom wiring at least. Assuming I didn't kill my card (the one that lived originally) I'm pretty happy with how it came out, and it's a lot closer to how the final loop will be. I'm far less concerned about downtime now that I have another real computer I can use in the meantime, though it REALLY needs a new keyboard (this thing is natively DIN5 connection, "Windows 98 Compatible" as advertised). The Zalman 300w PSU is working fine on it, and except for the GPU fan it's already pretty quiet overall.

 

Wow your going to have some fun eith that 3800 X2 I tell you I have mine on a vapochill micro @ 2.7Ghz so hopefully you should maybe reach the 3Ghz mark . Also does your board crap out at all when its goin faster than 2.3Ghz? because thats what mine does so i had to use clockgen to get to 2.7Ghz.

good luck with the ocing and loely case

-Frank

 

I've got it set to 250HTT in the BIOS. If your sig is current, I've heard the MSI board has more overclocking issues than my Asus (and the only one is that last I knew it won't go over 245HTT at 1T RAM, easily remedied by going to 2T and it may have been fixed anyways). I'm just a bit worried now that the 2GB kit I want won't cut it. I got up to 250HTT on the 3800+ with ease for a cool 2.5GHz, and going by what I've heard, 2.7-2.9GHz sounds reasonable unless I need to end up (finally) doing the chipset voltage mod. I suppose if I set the ram to 5:4 it can still run some 230MHz with an upper-2.x CPU clock

I also did a bit more internal tidying. Not done by any means but I'm quite happy with the upper part right now, save the fugly grey IDE ribbon cable. Maybe I'll pick up another copper-braid rounded one, I always liked the look of those; and with luck I could still route it nicely. Now that I only have two hard drives (but another 100GB of space!) I was also able to clean up underneath a bit, but I'm not going to even come close to finalizing that till I can order the stuff I need from Sharka, as I'm going to be changing it fairly significantly.

As far as watercooling goes, the new setup looks like it should be fine. I managed to fill the Aquatube to just the right level so it gives a cool bubbling/frothing effect along the very top (though it doesn't get any of the bubbles in the lines). Unfortunately my MAG seems to be giving an odd clicking noise... when I go to finalize things I'll probably open it up and see if anything looks off. Probably just some crap that was in the lines at some point that found its way in. I still need to make sure I didn't kill anything, and I'm going to redo the smoked plexi wire-hiding thing.

 

@ Firehead, yeah that issue is fixed, just use the latest beta bios. I'd show some shots but my board died randomly one day (turned it from side to upright and blackscreen, nothing ever again)... me needs an RMA, but i have no reciept, as it was a second hander and the trader is a <insert long set of expletives here> flaking sod. Any ideas?

 

What's the latest beta? I have 1013 final installed right now; last time I checked 1013.02 was the last beta, which is before the 1013 final. Anyways, I still am pretty sure my ram only suppots 2T; regardless I'm at 250htt and once I'm sure everything is dried out I'll see what I can do. The 6600GT fan is more annoying that I remember (oh I've been spoied by h2o, but I'm going to watercool this thing (Chaintech-based media ctr) too; I need some fittings and a Twinplex Pro so I can steal the twinplex from my A8N. Maybe I'll just make another plexi top for it in the meantime; it worked fine for the Cuplex Pro anyways.

Enough media center ramblings; overclocking seems to be going well and that's what I care about. I'll probably drop my ram down to 5:4 ("DDR333") and see where the proc seems to max out, and then see what I think I should do for a 2GB kit. I really don't like how expensive the Ballistix is, though it's a real clocker, and don't see a real point if the OCZ can make it. And I like OCZ

Still need more correct fittings... gah. I think Sharka is getting their new AC stuff this coming week so I should be able to take care of it. I'm not thrilled by the prospect of replumbing again, but it's inevitable so oh well. It'll be better in the end for it, and that's what I care about most. Actually, they have the fittings I need, but a certain highly placed nurse bought the last of the black plug+cool and I need a pair of APE120 grills, plus a couple more goodies. I need to set up a makeshift stopper too till Sharka gets those in (NEXT order). Where I had my drain T was fine before, but having it just below the aquajet because I needed a makeshift right-angle fitting makes it utterly useless. Hence me spilling water all over the place during my replumbing

I'm thinking of picking up a Lian Li v800 case in the future for my media ctr box. Any thoughts? I haven't heard much about it and I need to figure out whether I could cram in all the crap I want too (watercooling, four hard drives [it has space for two, but I only need one of the three 5.25" bays], etc). Good price considering it's both an HTPC case capable of accepting normal ATX boards and full-height cards and it's a Lian Li. Anyone used one of these and have thoughts?

Hard to say what to do for an RMA Tulatin :/ I'd almost say I could have you send me your mobo and then I'd RMA it through newegg as if it were mine and send it back, but I a) don't know if they'd accept it (I'm inclined to think they track serial numbers now on more expensive stuff) and b) what a pain. You might be able to go direct through asus for an RMA though, it's hardly like they can deny it's one of their boards or that you own it.

Anyone out there have any ideas for lighting? I know I want either white or yellow up top, not sure if I'll bother with the bottom (or whether it'll even be windowed). I've had a few ideas for LEDs but they're all rather tricky to execute nicely. I also need to figure out my fan wiring, assuming I keep the fanbus as-is. Shouldn't be too tricky but still something I need to keep in mind. I have some ideas regarding an acrylic mounting plate, but the simplicity of cathodes is appealing

 

GOOd work on the AC Aquagra FX6800 mod and the fanBus as well. The LED's will make that fanBus, what color do U plan on using?..

 

Probably white, though I'm not decided yet. If I could get a decent yellow I'd use that but I've yet to find one. I figure it'll contrast nicely with the black and give the added bonus of illuminating the floor when I go for my 2am snack I may go ahead and get one of each color I'd consider and see what it looks like, but I don't see a whole lot of colors working well for me.

Tomorrow morning I'll test again, make sure everything is well and good. I'm sure it's all dry by now, I just slept pretty late today and then was working for most of the time afterwards. AND we're trying to fix our porch door (don't ask). Finally watched Sin City at the request of everyone else who works at the video store... strangest movie I've ever seen but definately in a good way.

Was just browsing PPCs for some various whatnot (HTPC ideas mostly) and stumbled across this - basically an aquadrive LT for $23. Not sure whether it has interchangable fittings and if so what type, but some of their other WC stuff seems to be G1/4, It even goes along with AC's "any color you want, so long as you want blue" way of doing things. At that price I can finally afford watercooled hard drives, though I'm not entirely sure that I want to do that, at least in FF. A definate HTPC-possibility, but that's something for another time.

 

Greetings...

If you want any of that black Mazzer PUR tubing Sharka has it now in stock. What they don't mention on their page is that it has about a 1" minimum bend radius. I got 25 feet of the stuff and am completely redoing FF with it.

 

Thanks for the heads-up - very glad to hear it. Is it safe to assume they have the APE120 grills back in too? It's still listed as preorder on their site, and though I emailed them about it I'm not sure if they got it or sent something back, as I've been having mail hosting issues (my 1SweetPC expired and I'm having trouble renewing, so I finally bought Aquamods.com and am trying to switch over my mail stuff to there). With luck that'll about finish off all the watercooling parts that I actually need (well, misc fittings too, etc) and I can start to come near a state of semi-completion (so, nowhere near done )

Bday is approaching too so I may get some goodies. The speakers are at the top but an Aquaero is on there. It's more of one of the "It'd be nice but I can't at all justify buying it right now" parts but I'll make sure to leave room for it nonetheless. Need to find a new place to keep my flat panel as it's over where one of the APE120 grills would go :/

Also, just curious, anyone know if the AC External Rad Mount thing can work with a Black Ice Pro-series rad? It's a bit hard to tell from the pics. If you're going to ask, the idea would be for passive rad on a media center, unrelated to FrozenFire.

 

The APE 120 grills were in stock when I was there Thursday. One of my "bitches" with Sharka has been their lack of timeliness in getting stuff up on their site. Their is a lot of AC stuff in their warehouse that no one even knows they have (even them) because it isn't on the site. I asked the other day when they would be getting some more plastic P&C elbows and they told me they had a whole box of them! I mentioned that they weren't on their site and the pump feet weren't either. I think the only thing that is going to cure this is some friendly competition. Have hopes this will occur soon.

All the Aquaero's that came in were sold already and they won't be ordering again till next month per Richard. I'm bummed that they ordered 20 Aquastreams and only got shipped 6. Glad I got one from dgkulzer off eBay or I would be waiting again for parts.

I would call Wes if I wanted to know about the Evo mount and the BI series rads.

 

I don't think it will fit looking closely, the fittings extend too far on the BIP/BIX past the screw mounts, where it's more "straight-down" from them on the APE series.

I need to get in touch with Wes anyways, see if he'd be willing to set up some sort of partnership/drop-shipping thing for the bigger stuff (I plan to actually carry smaller/cheaper things, like fittings and whatnot, plus things they don't have like the shirts and Multitools). It's my Graduation Challenge project this year (whoop-dee-doo, huge project so I can finish HS) to open a business, at least to some extent, and as I "am" Aquamods, LLC and now own the domain/hosting, it's a matter of putting together a site and getting stuff to sell. More planning first :/

They should redo their store using eCommerce or something, I hate that yahoo layout. I mean it works well, but just isn't laid out how a lot of people like.

Anyways I guess I'll try and order up the last of the parts I need tomorrow. Yay for getting paid and then spending the whole thing and then a bit.

 

Perhaps if someone other than myself comments on their hard to use site maybe they might do something about it, but I don't think so. BTW, they also have a slew of Multi-Tools as well, but again it isn't on the site.

 

Well, my Sharka order is placed and apparently should come in on my birthday. A bit more practical for the mod than the free razor I was sent by Gilette (heh, my first impression was "where did they get my name?!"). Aside from lighting and perhaps some new IDE cable stuffs, it should be about the last of the parts I need. They could still use some site work, but as long as everything is in the order I'm quite happy with their service. Not quite Newegg but oh well. I should have enough WC parts to do my media center box too. Well, sparing my external rad ideas. But that's another project for another day.

Anyone contemplating an X2 processor - go for it. Best upgrade I've made. AutoGK being multithreaded was a lovely surprise too.... reencoding went from about 2:20 (h:mm) for a full movie to about 1:05, and I'm chewing through my new 300 gigs at an alarming rate. Being 20% done after eleven minutes is awesome (and the computer is still USABLE while reencoding!) I could set affinity for the apps and game at the same time if I were so inclined. Dual core = future, and a bright one at that.
[/AMD marketing]

Pondering business plans a bit more is on the docket as well.

 

Ok, this project log is officially transferred to the new section.

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=98614&page=1&pp=20

Pics above. Comments below.

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?p=1070966#post1070966

Moderators, if you so desire, you may close this as to encourage use of the new project log forums.