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The Beast


hardnrg

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It seems like forever since I've had my main rig set up... and it is almost forever since I started this case-mod/build.

 

So here's a small update, since I had a day off and have done enough DIY around the house to justify an entire day of computer stuff on my "free day" :lol:

 

(this is eventually going to form one of the last installments in the mammoth epic worklog that has been going (sometimes not going?) on for something like 4-5 years haha)

 

Before moving house, I'd blocked the CPU and both GPUs, and had recently moved the pump shelf up by using a shelf bracket instead of spacers up from the floor of the case.

 

UwVWK.jpg

 

JrTiC.jpg

 

 

In the past, I've always run separate loops for the CPU, and the GPUs. Since the MCR220 is kinda feeble for an i7 920 and pretty damn lame for 2x GTX260, and PA120.3 sort of overkill for either, I decided to combine both loops into one single loop.

 

This made the tubing routing somewhat easier, but with a T-line, T-lined rez, and 2 pumps, it only gets easier to a point! I dry fitted all the tubing, with the tubes in place for the PA120.3 (which was taken off for moving house).

 

mKRR2.jpg

 

 

I hadn't flushed out the system for a long time, so I clamped all the barbs except for the T-line at the bottom, and connected two long tubes into the bath, and filled a bowl full of hot water for the intake, and poured some malt vinegar in there too :lol: I know you're supposed to use white vinegar, but I've used hot malt vinegar to get chewing gum off my clothes, so I figured it'd be good at de-gunking the system.

 

After flushing with hot malt vinegar solution for about 10 minutes, I flushed with hot water, then cold water, then deionised water, and then drained the system. Then filled up with deionised and a bit of Zerex.

 

9oPPt.jpg

 

 

You can probably see why the shelf is necessary now. It's so that the pumps are above the graphics cards. Originally the pumps were at the same height as the graphics cards when I had 8800 cards, but with the extra length of the GTX260s, the pumps couldn't fit in the small space. Also, it was getting very tedious to tend to SATA cables with the pumps in the way!

 

hTeu5.jpg

 

 

I'm pretty happy with the tubing routing. It's a lot better than the "octopus" mess that results from running 2 separate loops!

 

Dauhs.jpg

 

 

So, I vaguely mentioned I'm running 2 pumps. Good old D5 Varios. One pumping into Fuzion,MCW60,MCW60 and one on the other side of the blocks, pumping into the rads. There was plenty of flow when I was running an open loop during flushing cycles.

 

h0HqZ.jpg

 

 

When I was packing all my stuff at my old place, instead of just shoving stuff into boxes, I meticulously sorted everything I owned into groups of similar things, so all my watercooling stuff was in one box. This meant I rediscovered some parts, like the Swiftech anti-kink coils that came in my first watercooling kit (Storm).

 

I'd never ever used them, and during tubing routing, I was getting kinking in several places, especially the notorious GPU-GPU block segment. I gave the coils a go, being very sceptical I didn't expect much, but how wrong was I?!

 

d9NZq.jpg

 

 

I can't believe I've never thought to use them before, they worked extremely well and you can get much tighter radius bends without any kinking or even slight flattening! Just look at that bend!

 

9jstz.jpg

 

 

I'm really glad I modded an Ikea shelf unit to be a low bathroom shelving thing (at bath height)... it made draining the system amazingly easy. I just positioned the PA120.3 over the bath and took out the bleed screw, and together with the open loop, that pretty much drained the entire system (a few remnants in the MCRes-Micro) :)

 

Not long now til I have the system up and running again. Then I can clean it up, maybe even polish it up, take some final shots, and then rewrite the whole damn worklog! :lol: *cringe*

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Looks pretty darn good, I was wondering when you were gonna post about your rig again.

 

I love work logs, I'll definitely be looking forward to reading your write up.

 

 

 

I want some chips now though, mmmmm malt vinegar.

:D

Edited by Andrewr05

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Looks pretty darn good, I was wondering when you were gonna post about your rig again.

 

I love work logs, I'll definitely be looking forward to reading your write up.

 

 

+1

 

Gives me lots of ideas :)

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Holy Cluster Hardnrg! You would be better off making a custom computer case for that! haha!

 

Looks powerful! But it looks like you need more room!

 

 

I'm kind of waiting to see the next rev. of the

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/9304/ex-...l?tl=g30c97s168

 

I read a few reviews and work logs using this res/pump system to run duo loops and it looked pretty good. Would defiantly be a space saver. The only real complaints I saw was longevity issues from people using coolant other then strait distilled water.. Thus the warning, "Note: Typhoon III Reservoir System - PEC has a 3-year limited warranty. Use of cooling fluids that contain Ethylene Glycol or any other harsh chemicals void the warranty for this product."

 

There was talk of another model comming out made from a different material... Only time will tell :)

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yeah Psy, you think it's cramped now, you shoulda seen it running two separate loops with additional blocks for NB and 2x MOSFETs! Pretty much the whole motherboard was obscured by tubing lol. you'll see it in the worklog when i get time to do it.

 

you're right about the custom case, this one is as modded as I had the time/money for... but the next case will have to be a custom layout that breaks out of the ATX tower mold... even a MountainMods case is compartmentalised into two narrow towers... my design would basically be a skeleton frame with a cover... basically a TechBench thing with a cover or magnetic panels

 

i can't wait to get the drives back in and get it running...

 

one last mod is to complete the fan controller (36W/channel) that i've prototyped... all my audio equipment is in the same ~2.7 x 2.7m floorspace, so i'm not going to be running the 13 or so industrial Panaflos at full speed lol

 

urg, anyway, nearly time to get off the bus for work, yay :/

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yeah Psy, you think it's cramped now, you shoulda seen it running two separate loops with additional blocks for NB and 2x MOSFETs! Pretty much the whole motherboard was obscured by tubing lol. you'll see it in the worklog when i get time to do it.

 

you're right about the custom case, this one is as modded as I had the time/money for... but the next case will have to be a custom layout that breaks out of the ATX tower mold... even a MountainMods case is compartmentalised into two narrow towers... my design would basically be a skeleton frame with a cover... basically a TechBench thing with a cover or magnetic panels

 

i can't wait to get the drives back in and get it running...

 

one last mod is to complete the fan controller (36W/channel) that i've prototyped... all my audio equipment is in the same ~2.7 x 2.7m floorspace, so i'm not going to be running the 13 or so industrial Panaflos at full speed lol

 

urg, anyway, nearly time to get off the bus for work, yay :/

 

I took the U2UFO case Horizion back, duo front and flipped the back over allowing me to drop the MB tray to the bottom of the case. I have 2 triple rads mounted to the front. Theres actually room to mount a 3rd triple on the back pannel if I wanted to...if I did that I would probibly want to switch out one of my windowed sides for one with fan holes :) but that's basicly what it is.. a framed box with holes to mount sutff :)

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Ah yes... that's pretty much what I have pictured in my head, with the mobo horizontal... my case would be somewhat different in that everything mounts to the internal skeleton, (e.g. rads, fans) so you can take the panels off without disconnecting anything... so the case would be fully functional with or without the panels on... and I'd be able to remove them all...

 

Anyway... that's a long way off lol... and I need to finish (or rather start over) this case worklog first otherwise some people will shout at me :lol:

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Ah yes... that's pretty much what I have pictured in my head, with the mobo horizontal... my case would be somewhat different in that everything mounts to the internal skeleton, (e.g. rads, fans) so you can take the panels off without disconnecting anything... so the case would be fully functional with or without the panels on... and I'd be able to remove them all...

 

Anyway... that's a long way off lol... and I need to finish (or rather start over) this case worklog first otherwise some people will shout at me :lol:

 

 

Sounds like a fun project :thumbs-up:

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