Project: Revamp is back online!

[TrevorRC]

Hank [From Peformance-PCs] fixed the problem, order has been shipped... Newegg has shipped.. Jab-tech has shipped.

Just waiting on Petra's Tech Shop.

If PPC's stuff arrives Wednesday I'll cut the hole then and mount. Doubting Petra's will here before Thursday.

Working on cleaning out all my old stuff [Cleaning out the old case, cleaning it up and so on.] for sale. Thread'll come soon with pictures, if anyone is remotely interested. Same with the sound card.
-Trevor

 

[TrevorRC]

Everything has arrived except for the fans from Petra's Tech Shop.

Unfortunately, my sister left for California for 2 weeks.. so I'm digital camera-less. I'll see if I can borrow one from a friend, but for now pictures will be non-existent.

Also, another note... I went to install Vista and realized I didn't have enough room in one partition. Bloody brilliant, I know. [Had the room in another, but the way I'd set up my hard drive I couldn't move them around.]

So I'm going to install Ubuntu or DSL or Knoppix and just do a quick external HDD backup [Mainly my ISOs/Music/Documents/important stuff... leaving program files cuts it down to under 60 gigs.], then re-partition and install.
I'll keep you updated.

--Trevor

 

[TrevorRC]

Alrighty then--Got Vista up and running as a temporary solution. Still need to partition and such... did some measurements for my radiator today, and realized that I'm going to need to extrude the PSU roughly 1/2->1" out of the back [Longer screws and a support bracket.] in order to make it clear the wires.

Going to back up all my data tomorrow... it should be a very productive day, no plans made with friends so it'll be 100% computer time. Should consist of getting my software-end [backup, reformat, partitioning and Vista install and so on.], buying longer screws, cutting them to length, dremeling the hole necessary in the top of the case, buying some mesh, then mounting of the RadGrillz
[Still no fans from PTS yet--they arrive Monday, so I'm SOL until then. Also have some plans monday, so most likely Tuesday I'll get the water itself set up...

I'm really considering doing it without the fans then inserting them when they arrive. Still up for debate, as the radiator might be a bit heavy with all that water in it.

Most of the exterior work will be done by Sunday.
--Trevor

 

[TrevorRC]

Considering mounting the PSU on the bottom instead of the top.

It'd get plenty of cold air, and it'd help remove air from the system instead of taking air out from outside. [The way the G70 is designed if a radiator is put on top there is a vent for the PSU to get air anyway.] Air pressure and such.

Still up for debate, in any case. Reformatting in a few minutes; then I'll decide final placement of everything.
--Trevor

 

[TrevorRC]

PSU is bottom mounted.

RadGrillz has been put in place, as has the T-Line top.

Mounting the radiator and fans as I speak; though most likely going to turn the fans into 4-pin instead of 3-pin. Not going to start the sleeving modification 'till I get to California... I'll have 3/4 days after the 28th where I'll have plenty of spare time, so no worries.

Side note, I have to learn how to drive a stick in 2 days, or I'm screwed. I-65 + Stick + New stick driver = Problems.

--Trevor

Edit: Here is the 'plan' for air:
3-120x38mm Sanyo Denki [SanAce] Intake, all @ 5V.
1-120x25 Yate Loon @ 5V
Exhaust:
1/2 Sanyo Denki @ 7V
1/2 Yate Loon @ 7V [Either going to use 2 Yates of 2 SDs as exhause, unsure at this moment...should know in a bit.]
PSU fan

Should be fairly balanced. Most likely going to put the 3 exhaust fans [and the Yate intake] fans on the Sunbeam.

Off to Ace to buy some screws. Back in a bit.

 

[TrevorRC]

Alright...got everything unpacked after the flight. All waterblocks have been mounted. Cutting the tubing, putting it in place then hitting the shower for a local concert.

Hi-res pictures coming soon!

Most likely the cable management is going to be crap until I get back to Indiana. No soldering iron here, so I can't combine several of the wires, and the Sanyo fan's lead [mounted on the back] is far too short, so odds are I'll have to use a 3->4pin adapter.

Anyway, off to finish the tubing. Most likely won't fill the system 'till I get into the apartment tomorrow, but it should be ready. Layout is Pump -> GPU -> CPU ->T-line [Which is directly/straight through to the radiator...picture to show what I mean.] -> Radiator -> Pump. Lots of tubing needed for Radiator -> Pump, but I should be fine. Might run out of tubing though, in which case I'll order more tomorrow [When I originally purchased the tubing it was going to be used in a mid-tower, not a super-tower.]
--Trevor

 

[TrevorRC]

Water system is almost completely bled. I spilled a small amount of water last night, so in the mean-time I'm letting it continue bleeding and making sure any residual water evaporates.

Also, extremely small leak at the top of the pump--isn't sealed well. Used teflon tape, still no luck. More likely than not I'll just apply a seal around the outside.

By 5PST I'll have the entire rig up and running. Most likely wire management will be non-exsistent, for now at least.

--Trevor

 

[TrevorRC]

Wow. GPU load is 34C.
Idle is 33.

Down from 34/63C.

Unfortunately, still running into an odd bug with ATiTool--eventually, regardless of temperature [this happened pre-watercooling], my system would simply lock up and 'go blank.'

Still running, but no video output. [And most likely frozen.]

I'm unsure if this is because of insufficient voltage, or from another cause. Any ideas?
Most likely going to pump the voltage up a little bit anyway, just for fun. Worth noting that this did NOT happen pre-16 pipe flash. Hm...

CPU results coming soon!

 

[scrawnypaleguy]

piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiics

 

[avi85]

Originally posted by: scrawnypaleguy
piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiics

I second the motion!!!!!!

 

[TrevorRC]

Still need a connector cord for the camera.

Keep in mind, this is in no way a 'final' build. Up and running, near completion. But not done. Here are a few things I need to fix/change:
1) The water tubing interferes with the fan that is over the GPU for memory. So, I am:
A) Going to epoxy the fan into place.
B) Going to use fishing line or something of that nature and use the mounting holes. (This seems to be the better idea.) This will also help keep the HDD cool.

2) New screws for the radiator. The ones I have are 1/4" too long, in addition to being curved at the top so even if they were shorter, they still wouldn't go down.

3) Sealant for the pump. It's leaking. Not terrible, but still something I'd like fixed.

4) The back exhaust fan cannot be plugged in to a motherboard header (It's within spec for the DFI board, but I'm wary of plugging it in regardless.), but at the same time the lead is too short to reach my Sunbeam. I'm going to fix this as soon as I get home.

5) The wires are far, far too long coming out of my PSU. And the SATA cable is horrendous. (Not to mention it doesn't work. Lucky I had a spare on.)
Other than that, going great.

Issue 1 will be dealt with later today, same with 3. 2, 4 and 5 will most likely have to wait.
Pictures soon!
-Trevor

 

[TrevorRC]

The volt mod was what my card needed. No longer crashes when overclocking...temps only budges a degree.

So, here's what I did:
Added ramsinks to the RAM on the card.
Velcroed a Yate to my motherboard tray. (12V)

GPU Core now tops out at 633 (vs. 530 pre-voltmodding and watercooling) @ 1.6V. Most likely I'll bring it up to 1.7V, see if I get any significant gains, if I get nil (or next to nil, ~30Mhz) I'll bring it back down to 1.6V. Might even try 1.5 just for kicks and giggles.
Idle is 29, Load is 34 (Extended, 30 minute load under ATiTool which stresses more than most games do )

With core @ 630 memory caps at 576... if I back the core down to 623, memory comes up to 621.

Edit:

Current overclock:
CPU:
X2 3800+ @2.8 Ghz - 1.51V (Digital Multi-meter, not board sensors)
Tried going higher, not much luck. I'm most likely going to keep backing off the voltage until I can stay stable @ 2.8.
Temps are still unknown at this point in time, though I wouldn't imagine them to be too high.

GPU:
X800GTO2+16 Pipes
523/517 (Core/Mem)
1.6v/2.008v (+.2v/Stock)
Considering pushing an extra .1v into it to see how it goes core wise. Might overvolt the memory a bit, too.
29C/35C (Idle/Load; Core)
32C/45C (Idle/Load; RAM)

Memory:
G.Skill HZ @ DDR500 (9:10 divider right now.) Going to Memtest them @ 280 tonight with slightly loosened timings and see how it goes.

Power supply voltages still have to be tweaked, they're a tad high right now.. Need to buy a decent screw driver to do it.

About to hook this thing up to the 'net to get some stability tests (Prime95 is acting funky, always has on my rig.) Most likely SP2004 (Yes, I know it's the same as '95, but it doesn't mess up.) or OCCT.

Everything is currently 32M stable (Or ATiTool 1 hour, in the case of the video card.)

Pictures coming as soon as I can find a connector cable!
--Trevor

Edit again

Also, just bought a 500Gig HDD. Who knows what I'll do with it.
--Trevor