Noob's first water cooled computer

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smartermoney

Senior member
Jun 19, 2003
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there are several pics where i am linking to at the bottom. BIG pictures. So you have been warned 56K pople.



The case is a Lian--li 65b
MB is a Asus A8v deluxe
Cpu is a athlon 64 3400+
mem is corsair XMS pc4000 pro vers (ya the ones with the lights)
pump is a swiftec mcp650
tubeing is tygon
Rad is is moded (yes totally by me) Heater core off a chevette
120mm fan is a panaflo
Fan shroud is a DD
Fan controller is a painted coolermaster
HD is a maxtor 250gb (the dual 74G raptors in raid will replace this one, just using that one in my current rig)
Rom drive is a NEC DVDrw+- 2500A i believe
sound card is a Soundblaster Audigy 2 zs platinum
VC is a BFG nvidia 6800 ULTRA OC
power supply is a ULTRA 500W bLACK AND Green UV
Res is a DD 5 1/4 bay.
Hrs of labor.......to many to count.
Just wanted to take my time and get it right and expecially hide all the wires.




please comment on this rig and let me know how i did for my first time.

I have to give out the props to ALL those that helped me along the way. I will be sure to get the name after i get through looking at my previous threads.


Link to my pic gallery for this computerMy WC case pic gallery
 
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smartermoney

Senior member
Jun 19, 2003
306
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thanks for the kind words. I just have to finish my finals this week and then i get to load her up and try and see what it'll do.

I am hoping to beat my current AIR cooled rig which was my HONEST first ever total build.
it will be tough though. it is a
X-blade case (silver)
Ultra Silver and blue 500W PS
Asus P4C800E deluxe MB
P4 3.2 Extreme Edition Chip
ATI 9800xt VC
1GB Hyperx Pc 3200 C5
2-74Gb Raptors
Audigy 2 zs


The one between these was a small from factor pc in the livingroom running MCE2005. Kind disapointed in that one...louder than i had hoped. Not to go of air flow on it.


i want to really build a FX-55 machine next. prob gonna get rid of the 3.2EE for the 55fx. play more games than i do vidio whic is why i originally got the p4 for.
 
Appledrop

Appledrop

Platinum Member
Aug 25, 2004
2,340
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hmm it looks good.. ive often wanted water cooling, but decided that it would be very fiddly to fit etc..

was it hard to fit? any probs?
 
BonzaiDuck

BonzaiDuck

Lifer
Jun 30, 2004
16,889
2,208
126
Very nice. I second the motion on the "price-tag", but we all know, between hardware and software, this pre-occupation springs wallet leaks monthly . . .
 
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smartermoney

Senior member
Jun 19, 2003
306
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i tried to not keep the $ figure in mind. My wife would poop if she found out :)
i was pretty frugal as i am a deal shopper so it was the good stuff but i got most at a pretty good price.
 
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glorygunk

Senior member
Aug 22, 2004
805
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very sweet setup

what i've found is that you get a cooler effect with all the background lights off and the flash on your camera off

so shut off that christmas tree! :p
 
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smartermoney

Senior member
Jun 19, 2003
306
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pics were taken with no flash and then enhansed in photoshop because they were dark. tat is why some are kinda blurry. i used the flash and it did not look as good.
 
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akira34

Golden Member
Jun 26, 2004
1,531
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Word of advice about photography... Invest in a tripod. Using that, you can take very low light images and get them to come out well, or at least without the shakes... Also, for viewing on the web, I always make the images 72dpi and no more than 8-11 inches wide (in Photoshop's image size panel). That makes for much easier viewing via web browsers (people have to scroll less to see the entire image).

Otherwise, the rig in the pictures looks like many other's I've seen. Nothing poor, but nothing stellar either... It might be nice if you posted what your air cooling temps were, and what they are in the water cooled configuration... Otherwise, it's all just for looks.
 
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smartermoney

Senior member
Jun 19, 2003
306
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never ran this comp with the air. built it for water specific.

I have yet to see a light moded nv6800 or tdx water block

i have seen many setups and there is some crappy ones out there.

yea i have a tripod, just to lazy to use it.

i forget that most people dont have the 20" lcd's that i have so the image that looks good on my screen is to small for most.

oh well. just something for me to re-do :)

i have asked but no one ans yet.......

how do i measure the Water temps? only thing i have is a sensor on the fan controller taped to the rad. But there must be a better way.

I am doing several classes and they all require my comp so after finals this week i am going to load up the OS and then test her out before i get it loaded up with crap.
I am then going to do a clean install of the os on my air rig and see where the #'s lie.

what is the best testing measure? 3dmark05? best for overall measure? i know you can use doom but isnt that just mostly VC?
 
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akira34

Golden Member
Jun 26, 2004
1,531
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Originally posted by: smartermoney
yea i have a tripod, just to lazy to use it.

i forget that most people dont have the 20" lcd's that i have so the image that looks good on my screen is to small for most.
Click to expand...

I have a 19" LCD on my desktop, but I don't use that system for most things online. I have a laptop with a 15.2" display that works fine for all other sites. Even my own, where I put up some digital images from holiday gatherings works fine. With the resolutions I use, anyone with a 17"+ display is fine... I won't factor for smaller than 17" CRT's especially since most people have either larger displays, or LCD's...

As for being too lazy to use your tripod... That IS major laziness... What does it take, 30 seconds to setup a tripod once and then not again?
 
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essasin

Platinum Member
Mar 4, 2004
2,777
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hey what kind of temps are you getting? Are you blowing are through the rad and into the case? or are sucking air out of the rad and out through the bottom?
 
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smartermoney

Senior member
Jun 19, 2003
306
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essasin:
Fan is mounted on the bottom pushing outside air through the rad into the case. i have the 2 80mm fans blowing across the rad from the front. 1-80mm fan exit from the top,1 from the rear, 1 from the rear through the PS which draws air from the case. So in total i have 1-120mm +2 80mm fans in. 3-80mm fans out so i should be in just a small positve air into the case. I believe this will help keep the crap out of the case as i have filters on all the in-fans. I have not "ran" this yettt. gotta wait till this weekend till i get my finals done. I have not gotten any good suggestions for measuring the temps. I have a fan controll which shows temp but maybe not to accurate. i could get the CPU temp with motherboard monitor but no idea of water temps. i need to know of a good way to test the temps.

also need the best way to check how she runs. would it be best with 3dmark05?
 
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essasin

Platinum Member
Mar 4, 2004
2,777
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0
Originally posted by: smartermoney
essasin:
Fan is mounted on the bottom pushing outside air through the rad into the case. i have the 2 80mm fans blowing across the rad from the front. 1-80mm fan exit from the top,1 from the rear, 1 from the rear through the PS which draws air from the case. So in total i have 1-120mm +2 80mm fans in. 3-80mm fans out so i should be in just a small positve air into the case. I believe this will help keep the crap out of the case as i have filters on all the in-fans. I have not "ran" this yettt. gotta wait till this weekend till i get my finals done. I have not gotten any good suggestions for measuring the temps. I have a fan controll which shows temp but maybe not to accurate. i could get the CPU temp with motherboard monitor but no idea of water temps. i need to know of a good way to test the temps.

also need the best way to check how she runs. would it be best with 3dmark05?
Click to expand...


Nice setup for airflow. I am sure it'll push all that hot air outta there. As far as checking temps i use cpu cool. To check out how she runs there are lotta monitoring programs out there. Go here, its a sticky over at amdmb forums it has a lot of benhcmarking, and monitoring programs Link. But its never really trully accurate but itll come close enough. From what i read most just go by software programs that are posted on that thread. When you do run it, the most common problem is that temps are a lil high because the cpu is uneven. I dont have a tdx , but I have the rbx and it took a good 10 mins to get it perfect.
 
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akira34

Golden Member
Jun 26, 2004
1,531
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Originally posted by: smartermoney
ya know it,
just for you akira, i will get out my $5 tipod and retake some pics :)
Click to expand...

Don't pull anything in the process... Of course, it WOULD be nice if you reduced the image size too... I'm looking via a 23" LCD and I STILL have to scroll to see the entire picture. Of course, the image is also out of focus enough to generate headaches, so I don't look for long...

If you're using a digital camera, don't be afraid to take 3x the amount of pic's you would with film... I've done that, sometimes even over 5x the number of shots I would have with film, just to get some good images. Then again, I'm not using a cheap camera either (professional digital SLR camera) so I get great images without much effort these days.
 
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