Midnight Smurf: Watercooled Edition

[airdeano]

nailed it.. hehehehe.. ra-ra-raystorm razors to match the CPU.
thats what i plan to use for my 660 ti cards. ive got an aquacompter block, but
not enough "bling and lights" for me.

for radiators, dual 240 60mm fatties should handle it. or a 30/45mm 360 and 45 240.

looking good, PaPa

 

[PapaSmurf6768]

Thanks guys! James, I'm hoping what I have will be enough, I'm not looking for killer temps, just low enough to keep everything stable. And airdeano, I wish they made some Razor blocks for the Asus 670, unfortunately there is only one block available for my card.

 

[| raVen |]

Looking good dude
I will suggest to cover your SLI bridge fully with carbon, so it will look even better.
I think that you will need to mod your 650D to keep both GPU and CPU nice cool, and still keep your fans really quiet.

 

[Mgutierrez33]

Mother of God... so good... fresher than a NEW-BORN!!! Definitely appreciate the carbon fiber accents, nice subtle touch that has big impact on the appearance of the build. I plan on doing something similar with my next build with the cable braiding... gonna have to look at some guides though. I know HOW to do it, I just want to see some tricks to get it to look that damn clean!

 

[alMinTa]

Watercool the sound card?

 

[Mgutierrez33]

watercool the sound card?:d

omgomgomg dew't!

 

[PapaSmurf6768]

Update!
All the hardware is now here, it's just a matter of finding the time to install everything (probably this weekend)!

One of my two ASUS DCII 670 water blocks:

EK Bridge to set them up in SLI:

Phobya 200mm Radiator I'll be throwing in the front. Between this and the EX280 I have in the roof, I should be able to maintain decent temps.

Not sure how I feel on the circle design of the EK stuff, might end up hitting it with the old carbon fiber. We will see what I end up doing this weekend!

 

[Mgutierrez33]

def. curious to see what your temps look like with that 200mm rad. I hear mixed opinions of their capacity to keep things cool. Possibree because of limited fan selection?

 

[PapaSmurf6768]

Yeah I'll be honest, I'm a little bit worried too on how the temps will be. I've been doing a lot of googling though and there are people running this rad along with a 240 and they're getting good SLI temps. I seriously contemplated buying an extra 120 rad to throw in the back, but I think it will look bad and not really be worth it for the cooling it'll give. I'm hoping it'll be OK!

 

[airdeano]

i see the combo installed and commented, but no reviews on how hard their
systems are being pushed. "yeah, great temps really cool under load.." but no one
states the overclock (if any) and what are cool temps? just wondering, because i see
items for sale and no one really owns-up to overclocking their cards or chips..
i think you'll be fine, until you start to really press the chip on overclock. the GPU(s)
i wouldn't be so worried..

 

[PapaSmurf6768]

Going by this thread, the guy is running two 480's and an i7 930, and he says he gets 69C load temps on the CPU and 56C load temps on the GPUs. Not sure if he can prove it but it is a positive sign, considering he is running a 240 in the roof and not a 280.

 

[Mgutierrez33]

The thing with the 200MM rads is, the "good" fans have decent rated (yeah, cause THAT'S accurate) static pressure ratings as well as CFM, and run decently quiet... and the surface area of the rads isn't the problem, got plenty of that... the only thing I could think of is that fan selection is otherwise mediocre at best. None of the big names in case fans seem to make 200mm fans, and the only LED fan that I would even REMOTELY consider is the BitFenix SpectrePRO lineup (based on OEM rated static pressure ratings and various random reviews I have seen here and there stating they seem to keep focused airflow over a distance). Maybe the CoolerMaster lineup or the Yate Loon fans, but that's about it really.

 

[PapaSmurf6768]

BIG Update!

Found some time to work on the old girl tonight, I made a ton of progress so check it out!

First up was to give the 200mm radiator the old carbon fiber treatment to match the 280mm rad.

Also want to show this little piece of hardware I got, the plan is to plug all my fans into this thing in the back and run it at 7V from the power supply. No more unreliable 650D fan controller!

Now, let's get these waterblocks installed! The first 670... NAKED!

After about 15 minutes the first block was seated.

The now uncovered back of the PCB. I really tried to get the block and the stock ASUS backplate to work together, but it couldn't really be done. Now I have to spend another $50 to get those ugly EK backplates

Two ASUS 670's, now clothed in their new waterblock suits!

Linked em up with an EK bridge, not sure if I'll leave it as be or hit the top of it with carbon fiber. We'll see what I do once I see the blue coolant running through it.

Now, time to get to work with my new toy I got for Christmas

The 650D's fan holes were too high up to mount the rad with the barbs at the top how I wanted, so I drilled my own holes to make it fit. The dremel made quick work of the metal, I was impressed! The bigger holes are stock, the smaller ones that are further apart are the ones I drilled.

Rad with fan, the screws that came with the rad are a little too long so they poke out of the fan a little.

Rad mounted! I used two of the smaller screws to mount it to the front of the case, and the other two to screw in the adapter plate that had the right spacing of holes for the fan. I wish Phobya included some more screws!

So here's where I am as of tonight!

Tomorrow the plan is to drill one more hole to run a tube from the 200mm rad to the drive bay more easily, then get everything tubed up and leak tested! We're very close!

 

[FredEx]

I'd use a sheet metal nibbler to clean up that front fan hole.

 

[PapaSmurf6768]

Any (cheap) recommendations? I used a sanding wheel on the dremel to smooth them out a little but there were a lot of sparks and it would've taken a while to get them all smooth.

 

[FTR.4500MHz]

Any (cheap) recommendations? I used a sanding wheel on the dremel to smooth them out a little but there were a lot of sparks and it would've taken a while to get them all smooth.

If you have a jigsaw i would cut all around again and finish with the hand file.

 

[Dandaman91]

I love what you've done with this rig, looking forward to seeing what else you will come up with

 

[FredEx]

Any (cheap) recommendations? I used a sanding wheel on the dremel to smooth them out a little but there were a lot of sparks and it would've taken a while to get them all smooth.

I have used a couple brands of nibblers, but what held up the best is made by Klein Tools.

I got mine at Lowes in the electrical area a few years ago, but just found it on-line.

http://www.amazon.com/Klein-Tools-76011B-Nibbler-Tool/dp/B0000CBJCT

 

[PapaSmurf6768]

OK guys, she's just about done! There are a couple of other things I would have liked to do (clean up front fan hole, sleeve front panel connectors, etc) but due to time constraints I couldn't get around to everything.

For tubing, I decided to use the new Primochill Advanced LRT tubing that they sent me because I complained about the old Pro LRT that had some terrible clouding issues. I used Duralene before and it was good, but after I drained the loop I realized how stained it was. Hopefully this new tube isn't as bad as the old stuff!

All tubed up, I'm very happy with how tidy I made the runs look. I wanted to cut a hole in the front drive bays to run the tube straight up to the res, but couldn't do that because I moved my hard drive there.

Leak testing and checking the fans!

Loop is filled and dye is added, absolutely LOVE the look of it! Definitely not going to be covering the EK bridge with carbon, it looks too darn cool!

And finally, she's all cabled up. Cable management in the back was a nightmare, but I got it ll to fit eventually.

I'll be taking some final shots once the weather gets a bit better (there's about 2 inches of snow on the ground here) but for now, I guess she's done! I'll be posting up some temperature results and some other things later as well. Let me know what you guys think!

 

[jamesriley94]

Looks good apart from the SLI block.

I really don't like the look of the EK SLI block :/
It doesn't really fit in with the colour scheme IMO.
And I think the black block may have looked better?