Worklog: Project Thief - Fully Watercooled Dual PC

[Rubycon]

For those that NEED that power heat dump is of secondary concern.
I've heard these pumps and personally on the issue of noise I think that is way overblown. Properly mounted even at 26 volts (we've gone as high as 30!) the sound was not bad at all. The pump at 17V was actually more objectionable with a lower pitched tone.

The pressure they put out is very impressive. You have to be careful of the fittings you use. Conventional SLI fittings (slip type) can actually allow the cards to spring apart and the fittings leak! Acrylic topped chipset blocks show stress cracks around the screws from flexing. Granted this system was running four MORA 9x140s.

D5s are pretty nice but be very careful not to even let them slurp (insufficient water) for long, let alone run dry even for a second or the graphite bearing will be destroyed. The RD series can tolerate this abuse and not miss a beat.

 

[stren]

For those that NEED that power heat dump is of secondary concern.
I've heard these pumps and personally on the issue of noise I think that is way overblown. Properly mounted even at 26 volts (we've gone as high as 30!) the sound was not bad at all. The pump at 17V was actually more objectionable with a lower pitched tone.

The pressure they put out is very impressive. You have to be careful of the fittings you use. Conventional SLI fittings (slip type) can actually allow the cards to spring apart and the fittings leak! Acrylic topped chipset blocks show stress cracks around the screws from flexing. Granted this system was running four MORA 9x140s.

D5s are pretty nice but be very careful not to even let them slurp (insufficient water) for long, let alone run dry even for a second or the graphite bearing will be destroyed. The RD series can tolerate this abuse and not miss a beat.

Good to know because my motherboard block is plexi top and my SLI fittings are the slip type. What SLI fittings would you recommend? I could always take the motherboard block out and run it on a seperate loops. Also where do you even get an RD-30 or 40?

 

[Rubycon]

Find an Iwaki distributor that is local and willing to work with you in single quantities. I know some places carry the RD30 in stock that are in the pc watercooling community. RD40 is quite new and probably considerably more expensive. In either case NEVER use one of those converters that step up 12V from your PC power supply to 24V. Instead purchase a Mean Well from a place like Jameco for $40! It's dedicated and adjustable from 18-30V and runs off the utility mains so completely separate from your PC PSU, etc.

The best way to connect cards together is using one of those SLI blocks if available for your waterblock OR use a combination of rotary fitting (male x male) and a male x female (extender). Alternatively you could use short barbs with tubing and good clamps. Never trust wire ties or boutique type clamps with these pressures! Plumb it like you're doing your house plumbing and you will be fine.

 

[stren]

Find an Iwaki distributor that is local and willing to work with you in single quantities. I know some places carry the RD30 in stock that are in the pc watercooling community. RD40 is quite new and probably considerably more expensive. In either case NEVER use one of those converters that step up 12V from your PC power supply to 24V. Instead purchase a Mean Well from a place like Jameco for $40! It's dedicated and adjustable from 18-30V and runs off the utility mains so completely separate from your PC PSU, etc.

The best way to connect cards together is using one of those SLI blocks if available for your waterblock OR use a combination of rotary fitting (male x male) and a male x female (extender). Alternatively you could use short barbs with tubing and good clamps. Never trust wire ties or boutique type clamps with these pressures! Plumb it like you're doing your house plumbing and you will be fine.

Thanks - how about compressions - would you rather trust barbs with good hose clamps? Unfortunately I have Koolance blocks which are part plexi with a metal cover. I was waiting for Kepler to upgrade, maybe I could run with an Iwaki at 12V until I upgrade the critical components to be safe enough to handle more volts!

 

[Rubycon]

Nothing's going to beat barbs (properly clamped of course). They don't look pretty. BP compressions if cranked down tight will do OK though. Be sure to use a proper tubing cutter (NOT scissors! LOL) to get a SQUARE cut and you should be OK.

Not sure on those Koolance blocks but I would watch them especially if running the cards in series. The first one will have the highest pressure.

 

[stren]

Well it looks like I'm picking up a 2nd hand RD30 with PSU. I may have to run it below 24V until I can beef things up.

 

[stren]

Tease mode activated

A box arrived

You said flap

The largest usb flash drives known to man and some awesome sauce:

Sometimes the front view is better than the back:

Opening a door:

Socket 2011 is bigger than I thought:

Inside the box is two more boxes:

- Curiously only a 2x CFX cable, but yet 2/3/4x SLI cables
- The sata 6gbps cables are black with partly white connectors as opposed to full black for the rest of the cables.
- The OC key that plugs inline with your monitor doesn't support high res monitors - bit of a fail there Asus. Shouldn't affect me as I can use the USB cable from my other rig anyway
- It would be nice if the back of the backplate was also black rather than the shiny tin foil like other boards

And the last tease for the night:

 

[Rubycon]

Well it looks like I'm picking up a 2nd hand RD30 with PSU. I may have to run it below 24V until I can beef things up.

This will handle your RD30 needs.

http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10001_null_123450_-1

 

[stren]

Thank rubycon - I believe it comes with that PSU, certainly a 24V jameco at least

 

[stren]

Had some time for another photo session seeing as the cpu doesn't get here for a few days:

Took the board out:

Took the ram out, seems to be the fastest I've seen at 1.5V with 4GB sticks.

Installed the ram, note that the polarity is reversed on each side, which makes sense if they flipped the pinout on the chip.

The paint job on the fins wasn't that even - some sticks definitely got more coverage:

Time to take off the heatsink in preperation for the EK full cover block:

Only the VRM area had thermal pads on the back and front of the heatsink:

Looks like Asus have moved away from that horrible yellow TIM they had on the R3E:

The VRM area with heatsink removed:

 

[Feliabolica]

OMG. The PC case looks huge!

 

[OVerLoRDI]

Can't wait to see what the board looks like with that full coverage block on it. Should be an impressive sight.

 

[General Kenobi]

Nice looking board there, especially with the RAM on it. And it's just going to keep getting better now - good choices.

 

[stren]

OMG. The PC case looks huge!

Thanks Feliabolica - it really is massive!

Can't wait to see what the board looks like with that full coverage block on it. Should be an impressive sight.

Even better on the occasions I put red dye in it, it should match nicely.

Nice looking board there, especially with the RAM on it. And it's just going to keep getting better now - good choices.

Thanks Obewan


Chip arrived, motherboard and ram blocks don't come until tomorrow though.

SSD is actually for my wife's rig. I don't have an ssd on my gaming rig yet believe it or not. I only use it for games so I wouldn't see that much benefit from a boot drive. I use my workstation for web browsing etc as it's on all the time. I'd need a 512gb drive or so to cover my games, so I'm waiting for prices to come down more.

Batch on the 3930K is 3152B448, we'll see how it clocks soon

 

[General Kenobi]

I don't have an ssd on my gaming rig yet believe it or not. I only use it for games so I wouldn't see that much benefit from a boot drive. I use my workstation for web browsing etc as it's on all the time. I'd need a 512gb drive or so to cover my games, so I'm waiting for prices to come down more.

Same here - I just don't have the money for an SSD of that capacity as it stands, and I'm not really interested in fiddling around with the smaller SSDs. The price/GB ratio still needs to even out more for me to buy one.

 

[Rubycon]

Never understood the capacity thing with SSD. Use RAID and a smart host with several GB of fast DRAM and get the best of both worlds! Capacity is not an issue with dozens of 128+ GB inexpensive disks in RAID0. :awe:

 

[stren]

Never understood the capacity thing with SSD. Use RAID and a smart host with several GB of fast DRAM and get the best of both worlds! Capacity is not an issue with dozens of 128+ GB inexpensive disks in RAID0. :awe:

You mean cheap hd's in raid or cheap 128gb ssds? I was planning on getting 4 250gb RE4 drives to run in raid 0 as a gaming drive, but then the flood happened.

Some blocks came in. Don't worry rubycon - these won't be used on the Iwaki!

Nickel plexi because I want to run some red dye (on special occasions only for all you dye haters out there)

Finished cleaning the TIM off the south bridge only to find a piece of tin foil with more TIM underneath. Weird.

Pretty easy to install when the block is in two parts, the single piece blocks are much harder:

VRM area:

Full board:

and one more:

That's all for now

 

[OVerLoRDI]

If you are going dye, look into Mayhem's coolant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siAISwFqTdA

http://www.mayhems.co.uk/shop/mayhe...-aurora-tharsis-red-coolant-609224350863.html

 

[Rubycon]

You mean cheap hd's in raid or cheap 128gb ssds? I was planning on getting 4 250gb RE4 drives to run in raid 0 as a gaming drive, but then the flood happened.

Some blocks came in. Don't worry rubycon - these won't be used on the Iwaki!

I would not recommend striping mechanical drives at this point.
Yes cheap 128/256gb SSDs striped on a high performance host provides sizzling performance at a fraction of the cost of a turn key enterprise solution.

Oh and honestly I'd be more concerned with EKs nickel plating issues than over pressuring those acrylic tops.

If you are going dye, look into Mayhem's coolant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siAISwFqTdA

http://www.mayhems.co.uk/shop/mayhe...-aurora-tharsis-red-coolant-609224350863.html

Um this is a very bad idea. Use nothing but distilled water and silver kill coils, period. If color is needed a colored tubing should be used.

That vendor has a shaky track record, at best. Caveat Emptor!

 

[General Kenobi]

Nice look with the block settling in... kind of reminds me of SimCity from above.

 

[stren]

I would not recommend striping mechanical drives at this point.
Yes cheap 128/256gb SSDs striped on a high performance host provides sizzling performance at a fraction of the cost of a turn key enterprise solution.

Oh and honestly I'd be more concerned with EKs nickel plating issues than over pressuring those acrylic tops.





Um this is a very bad idea. Use nothing but distilled water and silver kill coils, period. If color is needed a colored tubing should be used.

That vendor has a shaky track record, at best. Caveat Emptor!

These blocks have the new EN plating from EK, we'll see if it holds up, my old EK nickel blocks never had any problems with just distilled and a kill coil, so hopefully I'll continue to be lucky.

Yeah I haven't heard any dye be good, but mayhem certainly seems to have the most drama around it. The dye would only be run for a few hours at a time and then drained e.g. lans/photos etc.

Nice look with the block settling in... kind of reminds me of SimCity from above.

Thanks General Kenobi - the ram blocks make it seem even more like it too, they remind me of battersea power station:

More pics to come shortly

 

[stren]

With ram blocks, the fittings aren't the final ones, just more for planning. I'm working with Monsoon free to see if something special will make the tube routing super clean

Now adding in the gpu makes it look ugly and busy The copper and green pcb really don't match. I called a nickel plating company to get a quote on plating both copper GPU blocks and it was $175 for both! So that's not going to happen. I may switch to the other acetal/copper block and paint the edge of the copper silver. I have another idea for the PCB

Much better with the gpu off again

 

[Rubycon]

There are numerous reports of so called EN plating failing. Even some have plating falling off in pieces before the block is even installed! It was like they plated returned blocks over top bad plating!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IElIqBTnMM



Honestly it would be best if they just stopped plating and left them bare copper, covering the tops with either copper or acetal.

 

[stren]

There are numerous reports of so called EN plating failing. Even some have plating falling off in pieces before the block is even installed! It was like they plated returned blocks over top bad plating!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IElIqBTnMM



Honestly it would be best if they just stopped plating and left them bare copper, covering the tops with either copper or acetal.

Urgh EK really dropped the ball huh. I thought for sure after how they treated their customers that they must be doing it right now at last.

Well we'll see I guess. If the blocks go bad I guess I'll RMA for acetal/copper.

 

[Rubycon]

It's ashame really...

I like the EK HF blocks for CPU. Their mounting system is the best in the biz.
Luckily they make them in full copper so no worries there.
GPU and chipset blocks OTOH are a different story altogether.