My 1st Watercooling attempt

So I finally decided to give watercooling a try and swap my TRUE, NB and SB sinks for a new loop with some case mods and a bit of a case tidy up as well, so here goes:



The Kit:



1 x XSPC RS360 Radiator

1 x EK NB Water Blocks EK-NB 780i

2 x 1M 10mm Flow Springz (UV Blue)

8 x XSPC G1/4 to 10mm Compression Fitting

1 x Zalman ZM-RHS1 VGA Coolers

3m x XSPC 10/8mm PVC Tubing

1 x 1L Feser One Coolant UV Blue

1 x XSPC Dual 750 Bay Reservoir Pump ? Clear

1 x Swiftech Apogee GTZ (LGA775) CPU Block

6 x Noctua NF-S12 1200 RPM 120mm Quiet Case Fan

1 x Enzotech - Low profile Chipset block SLF-1

2 x 12" Akasa UV Cold Cathodes

1 x 200 piece pack of 100mm black cable ties

1 x 12m Roll of PTFE Tape

2 x 33m Black Electrician's tape



The Process:



The obligatory external "before" shot:



http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/DSC01688.jpg

I whipped the TRUE off and got the mobo disconnected and removed from the case:



http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/DSC01702.jpg



Flipped it over and whipped off the 8 sprung screws holding the heat sink arrangement on



http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/DSC01703.jpg



Once removed (with a bit of tugging and a sphincter twitching crack) the whole thing gave way revealing that EVGA haven't skimped on thermal paste and pads, in fact they appear to have heaped it on



http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/DSC01705.jpg

http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/DSC01706.jpg



So once the chips were all nicely cleaned up I installed the back plate for the CPU block and retaining screws for the NB block



http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/DSC01710.jpg



The blocks went on relatively easy, in fact the SB heatsink was the biggest pain (as you can see the one I went for sits at odd angle, but does the job) :P



http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/DSC01711.jpg



Close up of the blocks in place



http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/DSC01714.jpg

I tubed it up, filled the res and ran it for about a week to leak test and wait until the remaining fans were delivered along with getting myself a jigsaw to attack the case with :P Up until now the rad had been sitting on the inside bottom of the case with three temporary fans just sat in top, needless to say my temps were actually worse than under the TRUE, by quite a bit.



http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/DSC01727.jpg



http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/DSC01711.jpg


Close up of the blocks in place



http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/DSC01714.jpg



I tubed it up, filled the res and ran it for about a week to leak test and wait until the remaining fans were delivered along with getting myself a jigsaw to attack the case with :P Up until now the rad had been sitting on the inside bottom of the case with three temporary fans just sat in top, needless to say my temps were actually worse than under the TRUE, by quite a bit.



http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/DSC01727.jpg

So once all the parts arrived, I stripped the machine back down again and marked up the mobo tray and bottom of the case for my jigsaw antics


http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/DSC01796.jpg



http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/DSC01797.jpg



Cutting the small holes on the mobo tray proved very fiddly and if im being honest a right mess, so off to plan two, one big hole ;)



Once cut I used some edging to finish off the holes id cut



http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/DSC01811.jpg



http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/DSC01813.jpg

In the end the edging to the bottom of the case was actually reducing the purchase of the screws into the rad, and you couldn't see it anyway with the rad and fans in place, so I removed it and fitted the rad under the base of the case, with the three fans bolted on top, sitting on the floor of the case sucking air up from under the case, through the rad.



http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/DSC01814.jpg



I then "discreetly" installed the two UV tubes in the reveal of the front frame, one either side



http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/DSC01816.jpg



http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/DSC01817.jpg



From there on it was pretty plain sailing getting the mobo in and taking some time to route the cables down the back of the mobo tray and through the hole id jigsawed out:



http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/DSC01823.jpg

Lights out, UVs on



http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/DSC01827.jpg



http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...3/DSC01828.jpg



So after a few hours with the rad being it its new place the temps have dropped to just under what the TRUE gave on a cold day. Im hoping that when the AS5 cures I will get more of a drop, but have noticed that under load they are a lot lower that the TRUE gave.



All in all im very pleased with the end result and may tweak the odd thing here and there and may at some point spray the mobo tray black and may even lap the CPU as cores 0 and 1 have always been at least 5 degrees hotter than cores 2 and 3 – but that's for another day





Cheers



TB



:D

LOOKING GOOD :up:

I WISH Noctua would make some normal colour fans, coz i rate them highly, i use Yates high on my Rig 1 rad, and Sythe S-Flex 1600rpm Ultra Quiet on rig 2's rad's, i have 4 more Sythes for when i upgrade my TJ07 (rig 1) to my TFC (Feser) 480 (120.4) rad, as IMO they the best fans other than the Noctua ones.
What make UV lights are u using?

Thanks :)

I dont mind the Noctua fan colours and i swapped Sythe S-Flex 1600s for them and the Noctuas are definately quieter - whatever your taste I suppose :)

I used 2 x 12" Akasa UV Cold Cathodes

http://www.akasa.co.uk/akasa_english..._ak_178_uv.htm

Ta

TB

:)

Looking very nice Mr TB

Cheers

Well after a mare with the 780i ive RMAd it and bought a P5Q Deluxe (nice cool NB on the P45s :))

Whilst at it I got myself a 4870x2 :P

So the NB has come out the loop, with just the CPU in it now I get a steady 30 (few degrees each way) on all cores at 3.6 with not going over 50 on Prime 95 :)

http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/1384/dsc01864ze2.jpg

Yeah i got my HIS 4870X2 the other day with a EK nickel plated block. This is for my TJ07 rebuild, i can't wait to get that sucker powered up :)
Looking good mate, shame about the 780, what was wrong with it?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by lloyd_mcse

shame about the 780, what was wrong with it?

---

Buggered NB or memory controller by the looks of it.

Started off with "C1" errors (Memory) then onto "25" and "50" errors - common issue with 780is apparently :S

Nightmare!
I'm sure you'll have better luck with the P5Q, been thinking about getting one myself for my bedroom pc (amd 5200 atm). It looks to be the mobo of choice atm

Yes Asus FTW (except my Striker II which was pants)

And one in the dark:

http://img127.imageshack.us/img127/1908/dsc01868wr9.jpg

Now i see why i thought the mobo was upside down ha ha...thats a lot of graft you done there TB...well worth it tho.... looks mint aswell with those uv lights...hope mine and jackamos are as good...got some uv green paint aswell.:thumbup1:

Ta :) hope yours works out :)

How effective is having the rad at the bottom tb, might have to stick water in mine now i've seen yours! was considering putting a radiator up front, but decided there wouldn't be enough room for the drives, so thought i'd have to get a cosmos to stick a tripple rad in, but seeing yours has made me reconsider! Nice work by the way, and on inspecting the side panels of my stacker, they've handily included threaded holes for screwing down some perspex side windows :001_smile:

Thanks :)

The rad at the bottom draws air from under the case (and as cold air "falls") the air is quite cool and sitting the rad under the case also helps the the space taken up (i DONT think it would just sit in th ecase).

I have heard of people installing 2 double rads in the door panels which i didnt findd out about until I ordered my stuff - may also want to consider that ?