Case Mod - In Progress Project Slumber Parties UPDATED 12-16-10 Leak testing

The powder coating is epic win mate

 

Thanks guys!

As to the fact of her possibly mistaking the screws. I gave her direct links to the ebay auctions and package amounts. LOL Can't really botch that up. LOL

 

11-9-10 Water cooling Awsomeness!

11-9-10 Water Cooling AWSOMENESS!

I received a package yesterday from PA which contains by far the best quality, design, and originality in water cooling I have ever seen.


I believe all I'm at liberty to say is FrozenQ is an AWSOME gentleman.

Several days ago I sleeved the 6 12 white CCFL's that I had. I need at least 2 more but have 4 red sitting around so i'm going to see if I can exchange them at Fry's today. I'm waiting for 9am to swing around so I can go to Fry's then stop by SP Coatings and see if he has finished re coating the bits of fittings I dropped off a week and a day ago. So I can start sizing up tubing and getting everything ready for testing so I can move all the hardware over to the actual case.

Now I'm going to sleeve the harness for the FrozenQ reservoirs so that's out of the way while waiting. One thing that kinda stinks about the reservoirs is the nylon screws. Unfortunatly when I unwrapped one of them and just sat it down on the towel in the light box the head of one just fell off. :-( Thankfully I don't believe I will ever need to change the Ice Caps out. I think the bubble wrap may have been put on a tad tight. Nothing a screw extractor won't fix though if I ever need to take the caps off for any reason.

I would have shot 6 CCFL lights and the inverter switch wiring, but I got impatient and just started installing the lights. I will need to order a couple extension cables then sleeve those also. This is mainly why I hooked up the lights to see what I needed to budget yet for ordering since I have to juggle x-mas shopping with computer build now that Black Friday is coming up.

One thing that sucks is while installing the CCFL bulbs I originally had the 8 channel Lamptron inverter attached with 3M double sided tape. That didn't last long. I was working on the opposite side of the case and heard a band. The inverter slide right down and took a chip out of the powder coating on the corner of the 3.5 rail cage. Right in front. Thankfully the side panel hides this. Funny thing is not one blemish to the paint that I did on the controller. Go figure. Powder coating chips and my paint looks unharmed.

Needless to say it is now attached via the velcro that comes with the ccfl light tubes. Which I will also do for the OCZ SSD cage on the opposite side of the case. Granted it wont slide down and can't but it will swing when the case is moved. Hence why I want to fasten the bottom so its not swaying. Not that I will be lugging this thing around much.

Now the decision of black or white sleeving for the ccfl's in the FrozenQ reservoirs......

 

Sweet build man, I love the red/black color scheme. The res are killer too. Cheers

 

Thanks!
Don't forget white. LOL

 

LOL!!
Yes and the white too.

 

11-10-10 Picked up more supplies and parts

11-10-10 Picked up more supplies and parts
Well yesterday I picked up the extra bits of fittings that needed to be redone at SP Coatings. Attempted to pick up the other two 12" white ccfl bulbs I needed at Frys. They had the large diameter ones so no dice I'm about to order those, a lamptron controller, some extension cables. I picked up 4 gallons of distilled water yesterday at Walmart for $.83 ea and just placed an order for 12 6/32 x 1/4" and 48 6/32 x 1 1/4" button head black machine screws for the radiators. Total shipped was under $25 I actually only need 44 of the 1 1/4" but they come in packs of 12.

So I'm contemplating pulling the boxes out of the garage for my internal hardware. Well the rest of the boxes anyway considering half of them are laying around the house and never made it to the garage. LOL Then taking apart the temp setup so I can install it in the case and get all my tubing lengths. Then remove the blocks from the hardware to run the loops for a few days to check for leaks.

I'm really thinking I wont be able to clear the board when I go to pull it out if everything is hooked up. I really don't know about running the pumps with the other hardware installed either. I guess if nothing is hooked up to power it shouldn't matter as long as it sits for a good several days before use?

Can anyone verify the above statement since its my first attempt at water cooling?

At this point and time in the game if something has a nuclear meltdown I will be forced to scrap the project until around April of next year. Due to everything that is coming up in the next several months; concert this month, x-mas, new years concert, my oldest daughters b-day (turning 10), my fiancee's b-day in feb, valentines day, convention in New Orleans for my fiancee's work in march, and my youngest daughters b-day (turning 9). As you can see my plate is pretty full financially from here on so buying parts that cost $100+ is next to not happening. Which is what anything that would fry while sizing up tubing and testing the loops would be.


Another issue I'm being faced with is which rad to dedicate to what. I originally thought of the RX360 being for the NB on my Rage and the i7 920 then the RX480 being for GPU dedication. Due to the fact it would be larger to incorporate x-fired HD5870's or a HD5970 or for future upgrade paths. I've also toyed around with cooling the 9800gt that is for Physx dedication so that would be added into that gpu loop also. Although I haven't found a block strictly for it. Only the GTX cards. I can get a block that is for many things, but not an interesting specific model from EK or the like.

I'm really itching to start putting this thing together and contemplating the tear down process of the hardware in the temp setup.

 

11-10-10 Bloodrage problems with Bclk mod

So I attempted the bclk mod today since I was going to replace the TIM on the rage and change the NB to water and setup some tubing. After jacking with the damn board forever trying to get the resistor to stay in place while I soldered. I decided against better judgement and used a pair of tweezers. BAD F$@#$@ IDEA!!!!!

Just as I got the tweezers on it and it in place I went to grab the iron with my other hand and I felt the tweezers come together. Which in turn means the resistor went who the #@$@ knows where. I've looked all around on the board prior to turning it over. No dice I looked all over the dinning room table. No dice. I've looked on line for specs on that resistor and all I've found is a measly 100 ohm. With the amount of people that have done this you would think that there would be solid information out on what the replacement part numbers are and where to get them if anyone looses one. So now I have a hardly used 1 year old Rage that is dead in the water until someone out there posts up some information on the many threads I have posted in.

 

If it helps, I have a sample pack of resistors. I'm not totally sure of their values.

 

Wow that's crazy you just so happen to have a sample pack laying around. LOL
I can order some from Digikey easily. My only problem is I don't know what size they are. Apparently its a pass through and the only value that matters is the 100 ohm. So that leaves me with the size of the resistor itself. I don't have calipers to measure one that is still on the board to gauge which one to order, but these things are only like $.30 each. So I guess I can order several of each and see what looks like the size once it gets here. I just don't know.

So many people have done the bclk mod I find it hard to believe no one knows the actual part number of those little suckers and where to get them from.

 

I got a bunch of electronic stuff from a retiring electrical engineer.

 

11/13/10 More Orders

11/13/10 More Orders

Well I got home late last night so I'm updating a bit later then I said I would.

Since I screwed up and lost the resistor for the Bclk mod on my Rage I had to place an order with digikey.com for some more. I ordered 10 for good measure so maybe by the 9th I actually get it soldered and not loose another one. Total $6.21 shipping was rediculous since the 10 resistors were $.60.

I also placed an order with FrozenCPU consisting of:
Heatsink lapping kit
7 12" Cold Cathod extension kits
Lamptron 8 channel inverter "black this time"
4 12" white cathode's "2 as extra in case I decide to install more
Another kill coil so I have two shinny ones. "I have two already one new and one used but the used one isn't shinny due to it being using in a loop with green coolant"

I should be receiving all this mid next week.

I also picked up some black thumb screws at Frys last night since I forgot to order them at Frozen.
I will hopefully only have to place one more order to Germany through MDPC-X for some more sleeving. Although I do sometime need to pick up a Sammy F3 drive sometime. Maybe I can put it on my x-mas list. LOL The fiance told me that you get things you ask for for x-mas but on your b-day you get what people get you. Makes you wonder what the point of people asking you what you want for your b-day is. LOL

 

11-13-10 Screw Arrival

11-13-10 Screw Arrival

Today the mailman dropped off some screws that I ordered from Ebay.
48 6/32 x 1 1/4"
12 6/32 x 1/4"


you can also see the thumb screws I picked up last night in this shot along with the next shot.


Of course I've had all the stuff for the following laying around the dining room and kitchen counter so It was about time it all went together.





Yes that's last weekends Texas Nascar Sprint Cup race in the back ground. I'm running a bit behind.

My FrozenCPU order shows to arrive on the 17th. I'm hoping the resistors show up at least the 16th if not sooner so I have time to fix the board then I can lap the board heatsinks reapply TIM and install the heatsinks and water block to the board and install it to start the rest of the tubing fitament so I can run the loops for a few days before I hook everything up and run power. After that it should be good as done other then some minor sleeving here and there and installing a Samsung F3 drive sometime. A future gpu sometime next year when ATI releases the 5970 replacement. Then there is my 32" Sony Bravia 32EX400 I've had my eyes on. Then I think it would be complete.


UPDATED 1ST POST WITH CURRENT PARTS LIST AND TO BUY LIST.
So until mid next week...........

 

11-15-10 Board fixed BIG PROBLEMS!!!

Well got the resistors in and fixed the Rage on the first shot. Installed the board then the cpu block and NB block went to install the gpu to see if I should make the fittings for the internal rad be in front or the rear of the case and was star struck by this missfortune.


I had no way of knowing this really with ordering all the parts while the case was in pieces at the powder coaters. Just as I thought I was on the home stretch I hit this snag that I really don't know how to fix/workaround other then smaller reservoirs.

 

Wow, downgrade GPU or res?, think I'd go with a smaller res or a bay res or even a relocation of the res if possible, failing that then a shorter GPU, I feel for you mate it's one thing after another .

The radiator & stand looks really nice though.

 

Well a gpu downgrade is out of the question. Honestly I'm looking to upgrade after the first of the year to the new dual gpu ATI card when it comes out. The res is about my only option. I contacted FrozenQ about the issue since I just received these from him a week or so ago to see if maybe I can exchange them for the 160mm ones instead as those should clear without issue.

Thanks!

 

12-15-10 New FrozenQ reservoirs back to work....

12-15-10 New reservoirs from FrozenQ so time to get back to work

I can't believe to this day its been a month since I last updated and had a chance to do anything with the build. :-(

More or less 2 weeks ago I received a package from FrozenQ and really only had a chance to open it to make sure they weren't in pieces. I didn't get around to removing them from the bubble wrap or anything until today. I believe the day they arrived I was:

1. raking leaves and moving them to compost
2. Setting up X-Mas lights outside

So I've been very busy with two trees inside an 18 foot tree outside and everything else doing laundry shopping for X-Mas gifts. I just finished wrapping the last of them for now yesterday. My fiancee and I helped out at the local Toys For Tots drop off in the Highlands where she was on the news on Fox. Then on Monday we were on the news again at the Toys For Tots warehouse which we will be back at tomorrow and then again on Sunday helping sort and box toys. So its a very busy time of year for us.

Since today was a free day since presents are done and laundry is more or less caught up I wanted to set myself in attack mode and get some work done. So now that the following has been delivered I need to get to work.......



So hopefully I will get up some pics of some working water cooling gear later tonight.

 

I can't find my EK block for my 5870 LOL I hope the card is a little shorter when the shroud and everything from factory is removed. It barely clears the fill fittings in the top of the FrozenQ reservoirs. The intake fittings need to point somewhat toward the card itself since the tubing will be coming from the rear of the case. :-(

 

12-16-10 Leak Testing

12-16-10 Leak testing
Well its just shy of 2am I found my block in the Rage box. Have the cooling loops running all night to check for leaks so far the cpu/nb block loop are fine and have been for about 2 hours. Only leak was the out for the XSPC res top. Little crank on the fitting and all is good. So both loops are cranking away with fans on the rads to keep the temps down with the pumps heat output. Will up a pic tomorrow just too dang tired.

 

Glad to hear you got that mobo fixed, I've been there before, only it was a transistor. Can't wait to see the loop all cleaned up.