Cooling Enjoying outdoors watercooling and sub-zero air temperatures

Recently I bought an EK waterblock for my GTX285 obviously in order to provide it with some water cooling goodness. So this weekend I set about to mount it to my card and have it plugged into my loop.

So, I shut everything down, removed the card from my computer and shut down the cooling loop. There is a bit more of an effort involved in this than what you might think because I have my tank and pump sitting outside under our terrace staircase feeding coolant through copper pipes that run through a wall vent into my computer room and from there feeds into my in-case loop. So, I had to get out of the house to have the pump disconnected, and then I needed to drain the pipes of coolant seeing as how the tank sits at a higher point than my computer, and thus if I were to just disconnect the tubes water would gush out. So I also had to employ an air pump to force all the coolant out of the loop.
(If you're interested in seeing this setup I will post photos later).

Then finally, after having done all this the system was ready to have it's newest member integrated into the loop, but first I needed to mount the block. So I grabbed my card, a screwdriver, the block and a tube of AS5 and went upstairs to disassemble the original cooler and mount the new one whilst keeping the missus with company.

Getting the original cooler off was no problem, and I had it off pretty much as fast as you'd be able to say "holy cheesecake goodness Batman". Then I cleaned the GPU and RAM chips of large quantities of paste and thermal pad residue (the amount of thermal paste on the GPU was horribly, horribly scary). And proceeded to smear a nice and thin layer of AS5 across the GPU, and stick the new pads following the waterblock onto the various other components needing good contact with the block. Finally I was ready to mount the block.

First though, I readied the block by mounting barbs onto it obviously, and then I set about getting it fitted onto the card. And that's when I hit a snag. I had bought the block for the GTX285 Rev2 cards - convinced that my card was a Rev2 version seeing as it is quite new, and that from what I could gather it should be. But no, no amount of fiddling and mucking about brought me any closer to finding a way of fitting the block. Then I uttered some words that shouldn't be reproduced in print, and examined it closer before uttering yet another string of words not generally found in standard dictionaries.

Turns out that my card is not a Rev2 card, and that I therefore need to return my block and have it replaced with one for a Rev1 card. Now you might think this isn't that big of a deal, and that sending the block back, and getting the other one in return shouldn't be much more than a couple of days at most right? Wrong. I bought this block from caseking.de - that's right, Germany. They're good guys, and they'll swap the block for a Rev1 block without any issues, but still - Germany. So it will be a week or two before the good one arrives.

After this realization I obviously had to remount the original cooler, and get the cooling system up and running again. Another fair bit of work resulting in nothing new apart from a nice and clean GPU pasted with AS5 - so it was not wholly fruitless I guess. It was still annoying though, but I am looking forward to receiving the proper block. And when that happens I will obviously need to repeat this whole process...

Phew, good to get it out. Rant over.

 

Ouch

Be sure to check out the pic below to determine which Rev your card is, and there for which block to get.


Courtesy of EK / scan.co.uk

 

That sucks. I've been in similar situations.

Re: draining the loop. With a setup like yours, when you next drain it, you should put a couple of valves on the hoses.

 

Yeah, I see it now. I should have triple checked it before ordering the block though. Oh well, so much for retrospects.

Yes I should, and I do have a couple of valves that I could use. However, I don't want to impede the flowrate too much, but I am thinking that I will install them regardless. They are good lever type ball valves, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

 

Maybe you should just fit quick-release fittings instead?

 

I use tube end caps I made, so removing blocks is a slightly wet but easy affair.

Pull one tube, thumb over end until cap is placed and blocking any flow, then the other tube same method. means the only water spilled is that which was in the block being addressed.

 

It's a familiar technique, but wouldn't work with my setup - well, it would work, but it would be more than sligthly wet. My water tank - a 20 gallon plastic tank - and pump sits at a higher level than the pipes from which tubes lead the coolant into my computer. Hence the pressure of all that water would literally gush out as soon as any seals are broken, and thus I would not only get sprayed a little, but also spray my beloved components.

Quick release fittings are an option, certainly, but the ones I've tried hinder flow too much for me to be comfortable with it, so I'm opting for the ball valves. I will at least try them out.

On another note; the block has now begun it's journey back to Germany, and after a few quick mails back and forth I am hopeful that I might have the replacement block early next week.

I'll take pics later so that I can show you what this all looks like.
Couldn't find the time to do so yesterday unfortunately.

 

Honestly, that looks like it's down to manufacturers, not Nvidia. They are trying to save money to offer a competitive product. You can see the Palit card is completely different and probably overclocks like ****.

 

You may be right (oh who am I kidding, you're probably right), but I didn't see it that way as I was in the midst of my frustrated rant. It just seemed logical to me that Nvidia revised their basic board layout for the GTX285, and thus the manufacturers followed suit. Maybe it was wrong of me to put all the blaim on Nvidia - after all my card is a Gigabyte model, and I do love it - but still; it was good getting it off my chest.

 

I'm interested in seeing pics of this set-up

 

Yea, I'd be pissed off too - but at least you'll get there in the end!

 

Sounds like an awesome water cooling system. I have been pondering having one that I can shove out of my window during the summer to dump the heat outside, then have blowing at me during the winter to keep me warm!

 

You avatar pretty much sums up this topic Journeyer.

 

It is really effective, and even though I at the moment is running the loop passive - I have yet to mount my radiator - I'm currently getting temperatures in the range of 17-20C as the outside temperature is around the 15C mark. When temps go lower however, that's when the system really shines hitting between 5-9C on all cores when the outside temps reach 0C or below. I'm really anxious to see what a triple radiator can do for this system, but I need to pull in power cables for the fans, and also I need to build some sort of housing for the fans/rad so that the fans will not get drenched when it rains. I think I have a solution to this problem, so I hope to be able to get something constructed soon.

Why yes I do believe it does - finally it's more than suitable.


Pics of my system will have to wait until this afternoon. I was meaning to put them out yesterday, but as I got home from work I got busy swapping the tap in our kitchen for a new one. This should have been a simple affair of simply unscrewing the old one from the water pipes, and plugging in the new one. However, things are never that easy when dealing with shoddy work done by the previous occupants. So I spent a good four hours before finally finishing the job, and at that time I just collapsed onto the couch watching the latest Flash Forward and Dexter - and I had forgotten all about having promised pics. So, please accept my apologies in my lateness, and find comfort in that I will have them up tonight - I promise.

 

Finally the pics are in.
Please excuse the poor quality of these pics - they were taken with my cellphone, and even though it's a 5Mpix camera, it's not really up to scratch compared with a proper 5Mpix camera. It was however, the only one available to me at the time.

First up is a pic barely showing the presence of tubes, pipes and a large, white plastic tank sitting underneath our terrace staircase. This pic was taken in the dark. You can see the edges of the tank with the tubes going out of it.




This pic shows where the copper pipes enter the wall vent and go into our playroom. The next pics will be more interesting. However, as you can see from this pic - and the previous one - the setup is quite discrete, and unless you know where to look, and what to look for, you will not see it from the outside.




Okay, so here we see the vent the pipes run through from the inside. I had to remove the original vent cover to make room for the pipes, and I replaced it with an acrylic panel. Not the prettiest solution I know, but for the time being it will have to do.

There's also a thermometer right next to it - the top reading shows the coolant temperature in the tank, and the lower figure shows room temperature.

I am working on a control system that will allow me to turn off the pump from the inside, as well as a tank level probe and fan controller for the radiator that will be placed outside.




Next I show how the pipes have been run down alongside the wall, and bent to go to my computer. I secured the pipes to the wall using white double 10-15mm pipe brackets, and bent them with a 12mm copper pipe bending tool. Here I am also showing off a little more of my part of our playroom.




This is where the pipes end, and where tubes take over to lead coolant into my in-system cooling loop. I will eventually install lever-type ball valves at the point where the pipes end, but I'll wait until the new block arrives.




A larger overview of where the tubes enter my system.





And next are some bragging pics for the e-peen and for showing off my battlestation.
First: What's behind me when I sit down in front of my computer.




Second: The battlestation itself - the most recent pic with Razer Lachesis included.




Third: The battlestation again - an older pic, but included because it's the only one showing a bit-tech screen.

 

nice plumbing
i dream to make something like this for quite a while
but first i need a new pc with watercooling

 

Thanks mate.
Just go for it!

 

Just had a very similar problem myself with a 4890 (looks like the VRegs were moved to the other end of the card, and some caps moved about). Nothing that an hour or so with hacksaw and file couldn't fix though .

 

Yeah, I see you point. Unfortunately that was not an option in my case. None of the fastening holes lined up, some components butted against the block and ... well, there was no way I could have safely modified it to fit. Anyway, the replacement block is underway, and I hope to have it by the weekend.

Then I will give it another go, and at the same time I will install some ball valves at the pipe ends, and I will hopefully get the radiator installed. Also I am planning to build a control panel to hang on my wall which will allow me to turn off the pump without having to go outside, as well as a control system for the radiator fans. I am also hoping to be able to build some sort of tank level probe, but I'm still working out how to do that.

 

Ballcock arrangement from a standard toilet cistern, with the press-button thingy replaced by a standard press-to-make or press-to-break switch. Doesn't give level indication, but does let you set off an alarm if the level goes below whatever limit you want to set.