Liking the build and glad to see that you've named it after the g/cards - lol. Hope they run as well for you as they did for me. I will say one thing about the 480's they ain't as toasty as you might think. For me they idled around 30deg and after several hours of BF3 (on ultra) they still only maxed out in the high 50's.
Good to hear! I did have some concerns about running them through a stealth 360 + 120 but from what you have said I should be ok.
Now, a bit of an update here folks! I've picked up the spray paint, primer and lacquer tonight, as well as some di-ionised water for cleaning out the WC stuff before installation. I also got some new goodies (new to me, anyway) P1020725 by Penderyn, on Flickr An Asus P8Z68 Deluxe - retail at about £180 but I got it from Ebay for £90 delivered from an Official Asus Reseller- only had a months use too! Also a BigNG - for controlling all those lovely fans and monitoring temps with my water temp probes Two EVGA GTX 480 SC's.... (in 580 boxes!) P1020724 by Penderyn, on Flickr3 Wiiiith full cover waterblocks and backplates P1020727 by Penderyn, on Flickr And my sound proofing kit! P1020726 by Penderyn, on Flickr
.....and I got distracted playing Battlefield and forgot to upload this: The Mini ITX board fitted in place, those three screws work like a charm at holding it in rock solid. The 360 Rad and its three fans slot in just above. Untitled by Penderyn, on Flickr
That would have been me It was for no other reason that the foam packaging the the 580's came in gave far better shipping protection than the vac formed corrugate board that the 480's came in. As Parge said, I did pre-warn him as I didn't want to appear cruel - lol.
Its a Zotac 8200-C-E - AM2 board, have a dual core 4600+ in there. The cooler is a Scythe Big Shuriken. I'm going to downclock the CPU and run it passively with a Pico PSU. XBMC 11 Eden has just been released so that's going on there, booted off a 4GB CF card.
Little update. Purchased myself an advanced heatsink cleaning mechanism (aka: Colgate Toothbrush), and got to work cleaning the second hand watercooling stuff. Untitled by Penderyn, on Flickr Also, did a 30m leak test, everything seems fine - even the rusty old rad I'm using! The only problems I encountered were a few small leaks from a couple of 90degree compression fittings, but that was more because I hadn't tightened it up correctly.
Awesome stuff, loving the case. Subbed! I really want to do a dual PC too - 2 mobos in one. Would be awesome. Making me think I should probably watercool my IB, SLI GTX680 (or better come August) based build I want to do in August. Especially if I can get all the watercooling parts at cheaper prices. Hmmm.
The P8Z68 Deluxe with the EK Supreme LT Nickel Acetal block fitted Untitled by Penderyn, on Flickr Untitled by Penderyn, on Flickr
Ok so big update today! Mainly because I tore down my old computer so I haven’t had anything to access BT with except my phone. First of all, I received a new version of a grill from E22. This time its square shaped, which makes cutting it out much easier. I duly did that, and fitted it to the case. Untitled by Penderyn, on Flickr However, because of the nature of plexi, and the fact that this would be holding a fairly heavy rad, 3 120mm fans and a load of water, I didn’t feel 100% confident that it would take the weight, and decided to go with a top mounted rad grill, even though, they don’t look as slick. Because of the extremely tight restriction in where my radiator could be placed, it was very difficult measuring out the correct spaces for the screws. After two misses (luckily inside the area the grill covers so not on show), I managed to get the screws in the correct place. However, I then discovered that the Rad Grill I had lying about for the top had slightly different spacing to my radiator. An hour later with a drill bit and two files and two cuts to my finger, and we were in business. Untitled by Penderyn, on Flickr So with the radiator grill fitted correctly, I was able to get onto the less strenuous job of spraypainting everything. It was a very wet day, so I had to do it under the eaves, leaving the paint fumes to wander straight into the living room, which my housemates absolutely loved. There was a point about 2pm, where I actually had to take some time out and sit upstairs by a window because I was high off the paint fumes! I guess there is a reason it says ‘use in well ventilated areas’ on the back. Untitled by Penderyn, on Flickr I was using Halfords satin black as a colour, and after two coats of primer, I started spraying the case itself. This was easy to start with, but when applying the paint to vertical surfaces, had a few problems with runs. This also occurred when applying lacquer. Cue lots of sanding and recoating. I also found the lacquer, when applied to the front panel, made it overly shiny! I might go over the lacquer again with paint to regain the matt black look. Untitled by Penderyn, on Flickr I then added the Uchannel neoprene to the side window cut out, and installed the Perspex into the side window. Untitled by Penderyn, on Flickr After drying for about 24 hours, the installation of hardware could commence. First things first, sound dampening foam was installed on all the major panels. This should stop the case acting like a big drum, and also dampen external noise. The case had a number of pointless airflow holes that really just served to let sound out, so these were sealed up too. Untitled by Penderyn, on Flickr Now for some hardware: I started with the rad, and the fans. One thing I always do when building a computer, is put a towel down on a desk. This allows you to spin the computer around, should you need to access the back, and even allows you to put the case upside down or on the side without fear of scratching it. Next up, was the Mini ITX motherboard at the back of the case. This was relatively easy, as I had already cut out all the mounts etc for it. For the last week or so I’ve had this running XBMCBuntu off a CF card. This has been a good experience, and allows you to save power, lower heat and maintain total silence. However, the OS still has some quirks, for example it will only output 640x480 to my projector via VGA, and has a few issues with sound. For that reason, I’ve decided to try the Win7 Based version of XBMC, to see if that will perform better (hence looking or an extra 1GB stick of DDR2 on the marketplace). As long as it is compatible with VDPAU I’ll be happy. Untitled by Penderyn, on Flickr With that installed it was time to turn to the other side. I installed the front mounted Rad along with its fan, the Res and the P8Z68 Deluxe which looks gorgeous! Dual IO panels Untitled by Penderyn, on Flickr Front side install Untitled by Penderyn, on Flickr This is when I realised I had been an absolute fool and forgotten to take into account how long the GTX 480 PCB was. If I had the 250mm Res in there, I couldn’t fit the 480’s and vice versa! What a dumbass! So, what to do, well, fortunately I have a 5.25” front panel res that I can use instead, its not quite what I’d planned for but also not the end of the world, and will force a redesign of the loop. Hopefully I can use the compression fittings I already have. That’s all for now folks, hopefully I’ll finish building etc this week, and will have more updates and pics for you then.
Ok so here is something I didn’t anticipate: Major problem number two! Upon fitting the GPUs and the waterblocks into the case I came across a problem: the case isn’t actually wide enough to accommodate them. By this I mean, the waterblocks stick out past where the door would be fitted on. With the plexi installed inside the door, this is made even worse. Cue panic just before bed! Here I have one of two options: 1. Cut holes in the plexi and have them waterblocks extending through it 2. Somehow mount the plexi on the outside the side panel, without it looking terrible. Given my skills with a jigsaw (ie: not great) I’m going to go for option 2. So, I think I’ve found a solution. Wrapping 6.5mm Convuluted Conduit cable around the edges of the PVC, it leaves it with quite a cool industrial effect (usually used as a cable tidy, but I was going to use it in my build instead of sleeving everything). I’ll mount this on the outside using double sided tape and hopefully it won’t look terrible. Fingers crossed, this will give me enough leeway for the WC blocks to fit in with the door closed.
