Worklog: Project Thief - Fully Watercooled Dual PC

[bleucharm28]

MIPs makes pretty nice blocks or maybe Bitspower. I'm not sure if they have stuff for X79 yet.

 

[Rubycon]

MIPS = very good stuff. Their nickel plating is also quite good.
BP has issues with plating and cracking acrylic tops. Their cylinder reservoirs are very nice though.

 

[stren]

MIPS = very good stuff. Their nickel plating is also quite good.
BP has issues with plating and cracking acrylic tops. Their cylinder reservoirs are very nice though.

Yeah I like MIPS but they don't have that many products, they're hard to find and slow to release stuff. Even BP haven't released an R4E block.

Anyway there's not flaking on the block right now at least, we'll see how they hold up.


Soo like I mentioned before I really didn't like the green/copper look clashing with the black/red R4E theme:

So I started to paint the GPU with liquid tape - first coat:

So here's how it looks now after two coats on both sides:

You can see some of the texture here, liquid tape is hard to work with - either annoyingly thick, or very thin and see through:

From this angle the texture isn't as bad:

However it would look a lot better with a backplate, I'm thinking something like this, smoked acrylic with an etch and a couple of LEDs to light it from the side:

What do you guys think?

 

[General Kenobi]

Nice change with the color. As for the backplate, it's great, but I'd considering adding a cut metal logo/sign instead of having it etched on. After that, add some multicolor leds with a controller and you're set here IMO.

 

[stren]

Nice change with the color. As for the backplate, it's great, but I'd considering adding a cut metal logo/sign instead of having it etched on. After that, add some multicolor leds with a controller and you're set here IMO.

I agree it would be better - having difficulty sourcing a laser cutter that can cut a think metal sheet I'm working on it in the background though



The temporary parts came in to see if I could get some clean routing for the motherboard/ram/gpu loop:

However it didn't quite work as expected- I couldn't get the 40mm extensions to work with the 5 way rotary snake, however a SLI connector did fit.

Now I'm not sure whether to:
- get two more sli connectors (I need this one)
- use two compression fittings instead
- get two of the bitspower crystal sli links to match better

What do you guys think?

I should probably go with the cheapest as I'm hoping monsoon free's new design will solve the problem for me.

 

[stren]

Anyone? Anyone? Buelller?

Here's another option:

 

[shelaby]

Anyone? Anyone? Buelller?

Here's another option:

I vote this one

 

[General Kenobi]

I agree it would be better - having difficulty sourcing a laser cutter that can cut a think metal sheet I'm working on it in the background though

Does it have to be laser cut? There are various places with water jet cutters, motorcycle shops/builders etc.

Now I'm not sure whether to:
- get two more sli connectors (I need this one)
- use two compression fittings instead
- get two of the bitspower crystal sli links to match better

What do you guys think?

I should probably go with the cheapest as I'm hoping monsoon free's new design will solve the problem for me.

If it's just a temp patch, go with the cheapest option.

 

[stren]

I vote this one

Thanks

Does it have to be laser cut? There are various places with water jet cutters, motorcycle shops/builders etc.


If it's just a temp patch, go with the cheapest option.

Thanks a friend suggested a water jet cutter too - as long as it has the detail to cut the text well it should be good. In the end I ordered the bitspower SLI crystal fittings, when they come in I can post a pic, hopefully they'll look decent without breaking the bank

 

[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.

So I picked up 2 M4 128gb drives on sale, and if I'm lucky I may get 3-4 C300 128gb hand me downs and one of these

But now I'm drooling over this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816151097

 

[stren]

Got some more parts today:

3 ssds and a bunch of fittings:

This meant I could do some leak testing with the gpu/motherboard/ram loop. Still missing the other gpu for now though, but the important thing was to see if the ram block connections were good:

You can see water on the bottom right of the board. The GPU didnt' have it's spare ports sealed tightened down properly. Didnt' see that leak for a few minutes as it was dripping down the back of the block and was mainly hidden by the card and the block. You can see it coming out and filling up the pci-e socket:

The bitspower crystal linke sli fittings were part of the order too. The closest one in this photo leaked initially as it had fallen out of the o-ring. They're not that sturdy so it's a bit concerning that they might fall out. We'll have to see how it goes.

The top view is much nicer now though:

With red dye the crystal links won't look so out of place.

That's all for now. Case should be back from powder coating with another 14 gentle typhoons on tuesday, so expect a big update then Until then the board can dry out a bit I need more time for working on the backplates and the reservoirs.

 

[Rubycon]

Good choice on storage controller. Personally if I were buying a higher end Areca host I'd go for the newer 1882-ix series. It's a modest improvement over the 1880-ix but may be a bit more future proof in regards to SSDs.

Be careful with filled PCI-E slots. Hopefully you were using DI/distilled water. Any hardness in the water can/will leave behind mineral deposits. While when DRY these don't cause much harm they are slightly hygroscopic in nature. What this means is they will absorb moisture from the air and (particularly on humid days) they can alter the electrical characteristics of the slot to cause many a great headache down the road!

Best bet with any board that's received a dousing like that is to flush it out with 99% isopropyl alcohol.

 

[stren]

Good choice on storage controller. Personally if I were buying a higher end Areca host I'd go for the newer 1882-ix series. It's a modest improvement over the 1880-ix but may be a bit more future proof in regards to SSDs.

Be careful with filled PCI-E slots. Hopefully you were using DI/distilled water. Any hardness in the water can/will leave behind mineral deposits. While when DRY these don't cause much harm they are slightly hygroscopic in nature. What this means is they will absorb moisture from the air and (particularly on humid days) they can alter the electrical characteristics of the slot to cause many a great headache down the road!

Best bet with any board that's received a dousing like that is to flush it out with 99% isopropyl alcohol.

Thanks dude - I'll do that. You are full of useful information


I'd also like to welcome my newest sponsor - DT Waterblocks. I'll be using and reviewing their new cpu waterblock the "5Noz".

This is the lowest restriction block out there - from Martin's Preview:

It'll be interesting to see how it does vs the raystorm which is one of the top blocks out there.

 

[Rubycon]

I would not trust any block not using a metal hold down. Raystorm and the homebrew one pictured are such. With proper metal retainers you can crank down the mounts until they bottom out getting the best pressure (and temperatures under load!). With a flimsy acrylic/acetal/delrin hold down it will cry uncle long before optimal mount pressure between plate and CPU IHS is achieved. What good is that low flow/reduced restriction if the plate is not optimally mated with your CPU IHS???!

DR MIPS knows how to do it right!

 

[stren]

I would not trust any block not using a metal hold down. Raystorm and the homebrew one pictured are such. With proper metal retainers you can crank down the mounts until they bottom out getting the best pressure (and temperatures under load!). With a flimsy acrylic/acetal/delrin hold down it will cry uncle long before optimal mount pressure between plate and CPU IHS is achieved. What good is that low flow/reduced restriction if the plate is not optimally mated with your CPU IHS???!

DR MIPS knows how to do it right!

Haha I thought you might have something to say about it. I'll ask Erik about the loading force that the spider arms are designed for.

The raystorm showed that you can have "good enough" mounting force just with acrylic to compete with the best blocks out there. Theoretically as long as the material's strength doesn't degrade, you should be able to design a spider strong enough. However the raystorm full copper does come with an aluminum mounting plate for those who are concerned. Maybe this is something that DT can work on as an optional extra.

In addition as long as the block isn't moving or degrading, a TIM like indigo xtreme should remove problems with a weaker mounting force.

Are there any reviews out on the MIPs block? It seems too new for my google skills to work up much except the preview photos.

To be honest the low flow may not be of much concern to me with the Iwaki. It may be more the jetplate design coupled with the fin sizing that proves to be critical for temps.

 

[Rubycon]

Yes flow should not be a concern. If there is a lot of back pressure however things in front of said restriction will run under considerably higher pressure. (i.e. avoid acrylic tops on large chipset blocks!)

More information on the MIPS block is sketchy at this time actually. I'm curious as to how it performs. Currently the best block to get for performance and reliability would be EK HF copper.

Indigo Extreme, Coolaboratory Liquid, etc. are outstanding performers but can absolutely handle NO movement after reflow has completed or performance suffers greatly. Because of our environment such compounds are ruled out. (Computers are in constant motion here for days at a time and during rough weather they can receive quite a pounding!)

If you NEVER move your system (i.e. forget about lan parties, etc.) then it probably will work fine.

 

[stren]

Yes flow should not be a concern. If there is a lot of back pressure however things in front of said restriction will run under considerably higher pressure. (i.e. avoid acrylic tops on large chipset blocks!)

More information on the MIPS block is sketchy at this time actually. I'm curious as to how it performs. Currently the best block to get for performance and reliability would be EK HF copper.

Indigo Extreme, Coolaboratory Liquid, etc. are outstanding performers but can absolutely handle NO movement after reflow has completed or performance suffers greatly. Because of our environment such compounds are ruled out. (Computers are in constant motion here for days at a time and during rough weather they can receive quite a pounding!)

If you NEVER move your system (i.e. forget about lan parties, etc.) then it probably will work fine.

Haha well I can't even fit the case in my car - so lan parties are a no go anyway unless I take the removable motherboard tray out, a pump and a large enough rad lol. IX is a pain though, I had the flow come out the side one time and a solder ball roll down in to the socket - glad I caught that!

The motherboard plexi/nickel block is next in the loop on the gaming rig, but I was thinking of moving that to it's own separate fourth loop anyway to avoid the Iwaki punishing it lol.

 

[General Kenobi]

Nice items... good thing that you got that leak nailed down early though, that could have gotten nasty really quickly.

 

[stren]

Nice items... good thing that you got that leak nailed down early though, that could have gotten nasty really quickly.

Thanks General - You are quite correct on that, luckily I knew I wouldn't power up the system for a while so there was a good amount of drying time.

Got the frame back from powder coating:


Unboxing pics:

2 motherboard trays are better than one:

Some accessories:

These are only the frame parts - the exterior skin is still at smasher's place:

"Super Mounts" - From top: 120x4, 140x4, 180x3 and 5 way hard drive flex bay mount (120x5)

Pedestal front and back:

Frame top and bottoms for case and pedestal:

 

[pandemonium]

Very cool! Looks like fun.

 

[stren]

Very cool! Looks like fun.

Thanks it is

I have a video that I'm trying to put together of building the case. Here's a shot of assembling the pedestal pieces:

- Unfortunately no more photos of the pedestal, but essentially there's a front and back and a top and bottom, each of the four joins look like the pic above.
- They get screwed together with 7 screws along the top and one on each corner (side).
- Screw the top and bottom to the front, and then add the back on.
- Then start work on the main case. Start with the center and work outward. Here's the motherboard compartment - the two inner vertical sheets and the top and bottom sheets.

- Assemble the two vertical sheets to the top sheet (8 screws):

- Then add the other bottom sheet (8 screws):

- Then put the case down on it's front and add the back (34 screws)

- Then put the case back on it's side so you're ready to easily add the front panel:

- Screw in the front panel to all the other pieces (36 screws) and put the case on top of the pedestal.
- Screw in any flex bay mounts and accessories
- Screw the case to the pedestal (4 screws) and it should look like this pic below

- Add the motherboard trays to the motherboard back plates and attach the handles (6 screws total)
- Add the hinges for the doors
- Rearrange any back panels
- test your super mounts fit
- Clip on the exterior frame panels
- start building or clip on the frame

Here's mine without the exterior panels, don't worry the black plate covers will dissapear by the end of the build (18 bay waterfall reservoir to come)

 

[T_Yamamoto]

looks awesome

 

[General Kenobi]

That thing makes even HAF X look like a mid case. Death Star quality.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

That thing makes even HAF X look like a mid case. Death Star quality.

can it run crysis?

 

[billyb0b]

makes my 800D look puny