ASUS A8V Water Cooling Question

[MiddleEarthGeek]

Hi,

New here, and the forum looks great. I have purchased (but not yet received) the ASUS A8V Deluxe mobo, and am planning to watercool. Doing so will require removing the HS retaining clip and backplate. ASUS doesn't know if there are the standard 4 screw holes in the mobo to mount the cooler block retainer on the back/front of the mobo....wondered if anyone has done this with this mobo (wasn't sure where to post this...cooling or mobos so forgive me if I "chose poorly"). I've not had anyone specifically say they used this combo, so I was wondering......

Thanks SO much!

MEG

 

[joelslaw]

you didn't list what make or model the cooling block you are useing is, we need that info to help. the best place to look for compatability questions is the website of the maker of your water block, they usually have compatability lists. hope this helps, and welcome to the forums!

 

[MiddleEarthGeek]

Boy, I feel like an idiot. I'm planning to install the Thermaltake Big Water Kit. Unfortunately I searched their site and found no such list, tho I did find one on the Zalman and I'm good to go for even their biggest and newest CU unit.

MEG

 

[joelslaw]

actually I just realized I'm the idiot, you said that in the subtitle to the topic. Just to make sure is this the one:
http://www.thermaltake.com/wat...aterblock/cl-w0010.htm
if so, you'll notice one of the features are the universal mounting clips that work for (among other things) k8 cpus, that means you. Because they are clips, I don't think you should have to remove the preinstalled mounting bracket, but I could be wrong.

 

[joelslaw]

once again, i'm the idiot! it's this one:
http://www.thermaltake.com/wat...5bigwater/cl-w0005.htm
but what I said still applies.

 

[MiddleEarthGeek]

Yep, that's the waterblock. All of the review installs showed a bracket that has to be mounted on the BACK of the motherboard, via the standard 4 predrilled holes. The mobos they showed had no back bracket, and I know that's an AMD specification, along with the back stiffening bracket, so I assumed they are removable. Seems like other folk's back plate is plastic, however...the A8V Deluxe is the only one I've seen that's metal.

MEG

 

[joelslaw]

the one on my s8vse is metal too, and yes, they are removeable. At any rate, if it says it will mount on a k8, it should fit your mobo fine. the problems you run into with cooling compatability, usually come from the size or placement of the sink, but obviously that's not a problem here. I'd go for it!

 

[MiddleEarthGeek]

Thanks for all of the help! Yes, I am certianly going for it. I've got everything on order (from the Egg), but I've not got anything here yet. I'm putting together a fairly reasonable system I think, but I really did want the water cooling. Is your mobo pre-drilled around the socket?? That is, 4 holes, 2 on either side of the socket, on the ends of the socket where there are no retainer clip screws? I know I DO need those.

MEG

 

[joelslaw]

yes. those are the holes that the preinstalled bracket is mounted in. all k8 boards have to have those. btw my board is the k8vse, there is no s8vse (typo). what are your systems specs gonna be?

 

[MiddleEarthGeek]

Here's what's going in so far:

Thermaltake Black "Shark" case
Thermaltake Big Water Liquid cooling kit
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 90nm process Cpu
ASUS A8V Deluxe mobo
ATI Radeon 9600XT Pro 128mb Video Card
Crucial Ballistix pc3200 DDR ram 2Gb (4 512k sticks)
Plextor 716a DVD-RW/CD-RW Dual Layer Drive
Seagate 300GB 7200 rpm HD
UV Blue Round IDE Cables
2 Cold Cathode UV tubes
Logitec MX1000 Laser Mouse
Logistix Blue LED illuminated KB with Cell Phone alert
Samsung 213T 21.5" 25ms LCD Flat Panel

Lots of graphics apps, some gaming (I've used the 25ms Samsung screen and it's not bad....heard too many horror stories re: Dell 2001FP or 2005FPW 16ms screens)

What do you think?

MEG

 

[MiddleEarthGeek]

Oops....forgot an important one:

Antec TrueControl 550W PS with Remote Fan Control panel.

MEG

 

[joelslaw]

very nice! in fact, I think calling it a "fairly reasonable system" under rates it a bit. put yourself an x800 or 6800 ultra, and a 74gb raptor, and a surround sound set in and you'd have a gaming demon! plus you've got water cooling, so I asume you'll o/c. very nice indeed! Is this your first? (probably not, if you're a graphics junky)

As far as your display though, I'm personally not a big fan of lcd's. I HATE ghosting, makes me sick at my stomach. And God knows, when your sneeking around corners try to be undetectable, or racing the downtown streets of a metropolis, or killing Nazi's, the last thing you need is to be sick at your stomach! Also, I have heard (as far as graphics programs go) that lcd doesn't reproduce color or grayscale with as much accuracy as high end CRTs. Then there's price. It kind of pisses me off that I could buy a NEC MultiSync FE211 SB what I consider to be the best of the best CRT for a little more than 1/4 the price of the HP f2304 (yes it's an HP, but don't let that fool you) which I consider to be the best of the best LCD. 4x the price!?!?! just because it's flat!?!?! But I guess if you need the desk realestate it's kind of your only option.

N E ways, let me know how it work when you get everything assembled! .... very nice, indeed!

 

[MiddleEarthGeek]

Thanks, thanks a lot. Actually, not the first one I built, but the first one of this magnitude. Never did wc before, and you'll laugh when you hear what I'm upgrading from. Let me preface by saying I'm in medical IT, but in the medical/programmer area. I've got a Mac that I use for photoshop, but I do a lot of other graphics stuff. I'm wearing bifocals now, and the crisp text on the flat panels that I use at work are MUCH MUCH easier on the eyes than even the 21" CRT I used to have. I suppose I could get a HUGE CRT for the money I'm paying for my LCD, but it'd be harder to read for me. For gaming, I may just purchase an "auxilliary CRT" for gaming use...maybe hook it up to the VGA port.

I happened to purchase the ATI 9600 XT Pro at the after Thanksgiving 5am sale at Best Buy for $90, so I thought I'd start with that, but I covet the X800 and the 6800 ultra...probably happen soon.

I've never watercooled a system before, so this will probably be fun.

Now, what I'm upgrading from......are you ready? A Dell PowerEdge 1300 server with blazing dual PIII 400Mhz processors and 512MB ram, onboard ATI Rage graphics, and SB Compatible card, 17" Trinitron monitor too....

Now, how is THAT? Think I'll notice a difference? We IT folks never upgrade....but I think I will be tweaking "Deep Thought" for a long time.....

MEG

 

[joelslaw]

LMAO! well, I gotta say while the dell is probably no fun (not since 1998 anyway) it's gotta be better than the MAC you use at work. I'm no friend of mac, in case you couldn't tell. Not that I like Dell! I used to be a technician, and when we had dell specific problems we had to call them. I would rather slam my head into a wall than talk with dell tech support! I seriously think they hire people off the street and give them scripts! "It's your ISP, it's your ISP, it's your ISP" (sorry, once I get started on dell, I can't stop)

n e way, you should LOVE your new system! I upgraded from a 1.33ghz athlon system, and squeeled like a little girl the first time I booted my new machine! (seriously, like a little girl) Yours is even a bigger jump, so you'll definatly have a ball! When do you get all the parts?

you're right about the crts, though. that's one of the biggest weaknesses on crts over 19". seemes kind of odd to me. maybe it's because lcd's use dvi.

 

[MiddleEarthGeek]

Hey,

Well, it's built. All is good...except that in transit, a couple of the FILLER nipples on the Thermaltake Big Water pump broke off!!! I called them with no answer yet, but in the meantime, since they were clean holes, I used plastic welding epoxy to fill the holes in a watertight fashion, let it cure, and leak tested X 24h. All was good, so it's running!!! Blazing fast is all I can say. Anyway, I am also having a problem with the DVI port on my 9600 XT Radeon. I've seen in a blog review that ATI has mucked up the DVI standard to the point where some monitors (my samsung is included) wont correctly process the signal. I am a sufferer of that , and don't know where to go from there...but VGA works fine.

Anyway, that's the update...not done testing yet...

MEG