Update on Liquid Cooling System

[daw123]

Originally posted by: Gillbot
testing stability @ stock is overrated. I crank mine up as soon as the proc is seated n the socket.

I've been unlucky with RAM in the past, so at the very least I'm going to Memtest the RAM. I will probably use Intel Burn Test for checking stability since it is a much quicker than Prime.

Originally posted by: PCTC2
Kuckily? Well, looks like you have space for a 120x2 radiator up front. I think you should watercool your graphics card with that.

Post edited.

Originally posted by: aigomorla
taking bids on how long it takes daw to tear down his system for tweeks!

i estimate 2 weeks.. possible 1 month if he can hold himself.

it looks good tho daw.. glad to see your finally up and running.


OMG DAW your running stock with turbo on. >.<

In a couple of weeks time, I'll be putting in the second X2.

 

[Gillbot]

unlucky schmucky, crank her up!

 

[daw123]

Originally posted by: Gillbot
unlucky schmucky, crank her up!

The second HD4870 X2 is on its way:
http://www.novatech.co.uk/nova...ecpage.html?SAP-4870X2[=http://i429.photobucket.com/al...wilson123/Untitled.png]

It's a Sapphire card, whereas the card that I have is Powercolor. I'm sure I can live with the differing logos. Plus Novatech are 10 minutes drive from my parents house, so if they give me sh*t, I'll set my dad on them

I'm ready for some quad-fire goodness. I diliberately left a dual card PCI-E gap in my MB.

Hopefully, I'll have better luck than Gillbot or Aigo when it comes to cross-fire

Over-clocking happens tomorrow. Wish me luck.


Edit: Maybe the links will work this time.

 

[Gillbot]

Crossfire is a failure waiting to happen. I've sworn off multi-GPU setups unless I drop back to a pair of voodoo2's.

 

[daw123]

HD 4870 X2 arrived this morning. I'm impressed with the delivery time, since I only ordered it in the early hours of Saturday and they said it was out-of-stock at the time.

Originally posted by: Gillbot
Crossfire is a failure waiting to happen. I've sworn off multi-GPU setups unless I drop back to a pair of voodoo2's.

I thought you and Aigo always had bad luck with X-fire / SLI rigs; it wouldn't be putting a slight bias on your opinion, would it? To be honest, I'm kinda looking forward to playing around with the quad-fire.

The thing which is annoying me at the moment is the over-clock and that is most likely due to my complete ignorance (see my post in CPUs and Overclocking). I didn't think it would be as simple as plugging everything in, changing a few BIOS settings and off I go. I suppose I need to be patient and work it out methodically.

I think I may also need to re-seat the water block. I'm sure I can improve the temperatures. The only problem is that its a PITA to do, because its so cramped inside the case (even though its a full tower). If the temps are still crap even after the re-seat, then I'm going to spend another £75 and buy a different water block (perhaps a Koolance 350??).

 

[Gillbot]

Originally posted by: daw123
I thought you and Aigo always had bad luck with X-fire / SLI rigs; it wouldn't be putting a slight bias on your opinion, would it? To be honest, I'm kinda looking forward to playing around with the quad-fire.

It was neat when it worked, but horrific when it didn't to the point I yanked my entire rig apart in frustration and swore multi-GPU off forever. In short, yes I'm biased but google will show you that we're not alone in our frustrations.

 

[daw123]

Well, I changed a couple of things:

1. Second HD 4870 X2 is installed and seems to be working. I am going to update to the latest Win 7 RC ATI CCC drivers released last week.
Quad-fire goodness: http://i429.photobucket.com/al...wilson123/IMG00031.jpg

What a PITA it was negotiating the damn card around the tubing and cabling. Managed to do it though, with a little gentle persuasion (club hammer j/k). I hope this card never fails because it will be b*stard trying to remove it.

2. Disconnected the rad fans from the PSU and the case fans connected to the MB and reconnected the whole lot to the M Cubed TBalancer. I can now control all the fans from the TBalancer S/W. Note that I used fan extension cables on every fan.

TBalancer inside the case: http://i429.photobucket.com/al...wilson123/IMG00030.jpg

Case temperature: http://i429.photobucket.com/al.../TBalancerCaseTemp.jpg

Rad Fans: http://i429.photobucket.com/al...n123/TBalancerFans.jpg

Flow meter: http://i429.photobucket.com/al...n123/TBalancerFlow.jpg

3. The above involved re-routing a few cables.

General inside case photo: http://i429.photobucket.com/al...wilson123/IMG00028.jpg

4. I got rid of the electrical tape wrapped around the soldered connections for the 3x rad fans to single fan connector. Instead used proper heat shrink.

The next update will be over-clocking the CPU. That'll be fun (*** sarcasm ***)

 

[Gillbot]

crank it up already

 

[daw123]

Originally posted by: Gillbot
crank it up already

Now that I've got the hardware sorted, except for the FDD; I had to order an extra long cable for this because of the location of the connector on the MB (low left on the MB with the FDD in the middle drive bay). The standard 450mm long cable was too short.

Any way, I will be O/Cing this sucker, but for once I'm going to be methodical about it and ramp the O/C up slowly recording the various voltages as I go (and I didn't realise how many variables there are). It's going to be a slow process though; probably a few weeks of tweaking involved.

I want a 24/7 stable O/C without suicidal voltages.

Edit: spelling

 

[Gillbot]

eh, I find the acceptable max voltages, set them there and keep cranking it up till I crash then I tweak from there. I'm an impatient OCer though.

 

[daw123]

What do you guys, think if I were to replace the 4 original Lian li case fans with 4 Yate Loon D12SH-12?

The case fans are located:
2 in the front (intake)
1 in the middle
1 at the rear (exhaust)

I don't mind if they are closed corners.

The Yate Loons spin at 2200RPM plus (as reported for my rad fans), whereas the original Lian li fans spin at 1300RPM, so the Yate Loons should move a lot more air throughout the case and aid temperatures.

 

[aigomorla]

Yates are awesome...

if possible Daw do a push pull config. meaning sandwitch your rad with fans.

Then you can cheat the static on them, and get better efficiency at a lower noise.

 

[Gillbot]

I run nearly all high speed yates in my case on a fan controller.

 

[WoodButcher]

Yates move more air and are decent as far as noise is concerned, particularly when undervolted.

 

[daw123]

Originally posted by: Gillbot
I run nearly all high speed yates in my case on a fan controller.

Originally posted by: WoodButcher
Yates move more air and are decent as far as noise is concerned, particularly when undervolted.

Order placed for four Yate Loon D12SH-12 fans. They should arrive in a couple of days time. They'll be connected to the TBalancer fan controller.

Originally posted by: aigomorla
Yates are awesome...

if possible Daw do a push pull config. meaning sandwitch your rad with fans.

Then you can cheat the static on them, and get better efficiency at a lower noise.

I will have to have a look at this. It will be difficult to get a screwdriver through the holes in the top PSU cage to be able to screw the rearmost fan to the rad. If its possible, I'll buy three more Yate Loons and use a push-pull config.

I've even thought about how I can get the additional 3 fans connected to the TBalancer (which has 4 fan channels):
Channel 1: Top fans on rad
Channel 2: Bottom fans on rad
Channel 3: Rear case fan
Channel 4: Front case fan

Central case fan connected directly to the PSU.

 

[Gillbot]

all of my rads have a yate push-pull config. it makes for really nice temps.

 

[daw123]

Originally posted by: Gillbot
all of my rads have a yate push-pull config. it makes for really nice temps.

I've had a look and I know I can get at least three bolts through the rear most fan on the rad, so I've placed the order for three more Yate Loon D12SH-12 fans for a push-pull config.

I will also buy a cheap soldering iron and solder (I left mine at my parents) in order to solder the three fan cables on to the one connector. I should be able to do everything this weekend.

 

[daw123]

Originally posted by: daw123

Originally posted by: Gillbot
all of my rads have a yate push-pull config. it makes for really nice temps.

I've had a look and I know I can get at least three bolts through the rear most fan on the rad, so I've placed the order for three more Yate Loon D12SH-12 fans for a push-pull config.

I will also buy a cheap soldering iron and solder (I left mine at my parents) in order to solder the three fan cables on to the one connector. I should be able to do everything this weekend.

All the case fans have been replaced with Yate Loon D12SH-12 fans and I fitted 3 additional Yate Loon fans to the underside of the rad for a push-pull config (and I managed to fit all four bolts into the fan nearest the rear).

I fitted the FDD cable and the floppy disk drive works. I've also tidied up the cable managmenet a little (it's still pretty poor though, but good enough for me).

All fans except for the one in the centre are connected to and can be controlled by the TBalancer fan controller.

Here's some pics:
http://i429.photobucket.com/al...wilson123/IMG00042.jpg
http://i429.photobucket.com/al...wilson123/IMG00044.jpg
http://i429.photobucket.com/al...wilson123/IMG00045.jpg
http://i429.photobucket.com/al...wilson123/IMG00046.jpg

I don't know if the temps have improved since I am leaving the side panel off and I have removed the RAM cooler, so I can swap out the RAM to RMA it.

Once, I get and install the replacement RAM and fit the fan cooler, this build is finished.

 

[WoodButcher]

So what is your opinion of the t-balancer system? is it worth the coin?

 

[daw123]

Originally posted by: WoodButcher
So what is your opinion of the t-balancer system? is it worth the coin?

I like it although you need to get used to the S/W interface.

You can certainly do a lot more with it than a traditional fan controller (such as set up profiles for the fans)