ongoing project going online

[hensiepensie]

Hey guys,

Intro
I never made a buildlog or something like that, and i thought this would be a great moment to do so...

I have been ugrading my pc's since the mid 90's so i like to think i now my way around hardware, i also like to push it, so overclocking always atracts me.

Because my pc is never finished i will not give and endtarget, i will just add targets along the way.....i hope that makes sense

The reason for making this buildlog is i like to share, and i have learned much from others, so i hope i can help others with my log. I also did a fairly huge mod last week (with some photos) and ordered a lot of watercooling components

I have been aircooling the last years because of being a noob the first time watercooling and drowning my system, i'dd like to think i learned a lot, and am jumping back into watercooling with some high quality components.

Hardware Specs:

Thermaltake Kandalf
Sweex 650W PSU

Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3
AMD Phenom II X6 1100T
Corsair XMS3 8GB, 2000MHz, 9-10-9-27, 1.65V

MSI GTX560TI twinfrzr 1GB (for main 2 monitors)
ASUS GT520 (for 3rd monitor)

Kingston SSDNow V+200 240GB
OCZ Agility3 60GB
WD raptor 74GB
WD green 3TB
WD green 4TB

IIyama Prolite E2607WSV
IIyama Prolite E2773HDS
Samsung syncmaster 20 inch (i think, will need to check this)

Corsair SP2500 2.1 audiosystem

Logitech G15 keyboard
Logitech G500 mouse

The first mod and cleaning

Okay, let the story begin.....first off my pc was always sucking in a lot of dust because it stood on the ground in my livingroom, and it was to the right of my legs under my desk....

I decided it would be way better if my case moved to the left of my desk on top of a movable cabinet, it will be about 60cm off the floor, and will free up some space, also the cables are way cleaner now and much easier to clean everything....so the overall esthetics is much better, especially because it's my livingroom

so thats the easy part, the idea....haha...

if i would just pick up the case and put it to the left, i would be looking to the metal side of the case, which i don't want, so i needed to "mirror" the case like this....
a picture to explain.....

okay, some checks to do before getting the drill......
So i tried to fit the panels on the other side, and on my case it will fitt, the only "thing" is that the "writing" on the plexi is upside down, but at least it's see-through....

The problem is that were looking at the back of the motherboardplate through the plexi, so in fact we still see nothing in the case , a few messy cables maybe

So this was the easy part, the idea and checking of the panels, next comes the hard part, internally change the case so that the motherboardplate is on the left.....

So starting with the case, sidepanels removed most of the drives out (i have a removable three-bay hd-rack), but while taking the photo i see my raptor is still in it, back of the case already drilled out because i thought it would be easy , even thought i could leave the front bays untouched

but i soon realised that if i wanted the motherboardplate to be on the leftside (always looking from the front of the case) i also needed to turn whole back of the case 180 degrees, so the psu would come at the bottom, with my motherboard above it.... wow looks better too i quess.
BUT the drive bays are not the same, the left side is not the right side....so i needed to invert the drivebays too (else i could not mount the motherboardplate to the drivebays)

so, not so easy after all, haha, like always, but ok, when you commit, you have to commit 100% so were going for it!

front bezels, powerswitch, and other drives removed

now it's getting somewhere!!!!

I am rather annoyed now i didn't make more pictures of the mods but here are some of the things i needed to do....
the drivebaystand on the left is the example for the cutouts of the right one, so i took the dremel and made the nessecary nodges

That drivebaystand attaches to the front bezel, but because left and right were different (asymetrical) it didn't fit the drive bays would have ended up about 5-7mm to small, so i needed to clear that spacing and the standoffs

another picture after dremel

The other side of the drivebaystand had to be done in the same manner, but because of the assymetrical build, i didn't have to dremel a lot of the standoffs on the other side. Sorry no picture....

Time for a little mockup.....
Back of the case and a drivebaystand mocked up....

Attaching the right drivebaystand to the front bezel with rivets

Once your here, it goes a little bit easier....because you practiced on the right side....left side drivebaystand installed

checking if my bezel goes on it, and i like to mockup before drilling and dremeling

Oops.....this is a problem, which i still haven't solved yet, and i am open for suggestions
the covers for the case clicks into the notch, but because i have turned the drivebaystands upside down the spacing is off
if i turn the drive upside down it will line up perfectly with the highest cover, but then my drive's upside down (the drive is for mock up, but imagine a touchscreenfancontrol there and you get the problem)
for now i will leave some space unfiltered, which i do not prefer, but i haven't figured out what to do yet with this problem....

Okay mock up out of the build and, lets build! everything is riveted

It's starting to look like a case again

Remeber i said my pc was on the ground.....it was sucking up dust for like a year or so and was getting really loud again.
And when your pc is so in pieces as mine, it's the perfect time to clean!
So i bought a can of dustremover and started blasting!

cpu cooler before (shame on everybody who lets this happen!!!!!)

cpu cooler after

I also realised a lot of the noise prob came out of my supercrappy psu, and cleaned that too

finally, mounting the clean motherboard into a clean case!

psu put together and back in the case

560TI installed, which is a problem in this case, the pci cards get hold down by the green "easy-click" system, but the heatsink of the 560TI is in the way, so i dremeled a bit of the heatsink so the click, clicks, sort of speak

a little testing on a really messy desk.....
i just wanted to check if it would boot, because i broke of a plastic thingie of my pcie slot and check everything before continuing
normally the case was at the right side of the desk, and the idea is to place it on the cabinet on the left

back to the case, preparing some better wiring for airflow

sometimes i need my pc for working and this was one of those moments, so put in my drives connected it and worked a few hours

Because i turned the drivebays upside down i had to really mod the 3x drivebayracket with my hd's, i dont have pictures of that but i need to do some more things to the bracket so i can better install the hd's, so i will make a post on them later.....

I really like that my gpu cards is blowing air out of the top now and i did notice a drop in case temp of a 3-4 degrees
But as mentioned by feronix in the next post, please get rid of that psu!
I did and for a few reasons.....my 12v rail was giving 11.3V (is that even possible , it seems it did) but most of all there was something so wrong with that thing, when you turn off windows the casefans all kept spinning!!!
Whenever stuff like that appears, just order a new psu before you blow up even more components in your pc (by over/under volting cpu, mem, etc)

so i went for it, did a little research and bought a corsair AXi 860W, i like the idea of corsair link, and know it is a good choice if you like efficiency and quit operation, i also liked the digital processing of the i version vs the non i version
i drilled holes in the motherboardplate for "disguised" cable management, because i know everything is going out soon, for the new watercooling, i gave it a rest when i reached this point

Okay, now it gets fun...

i made a shopping list for watercooling and started ordering, i don't really mind waiting a few days more if that saves some $, so i picked carefully among the webshops
the list:
EK Supremacy clean CSQ nickel
Hardware Labs Nemesis 120 GTX
XSPC Photon 170 with D5 vario pump
Corsair SP120 quiet twin pack

Bitspower shiny silver compressionfitting (8x straight, y splitter rotary, ball valve,etc)
XSPC 13/19 clear/UV tubing
DEMCIflex dustfilters
antivabration thingies for fans/rads

and offcourse suplements like
psu bridging tool
articlean remover

I got the fans quick and installed them, just because we can
making some picture of the case now for your enjoyment

For now i think this openingspost is finished, and i will adress some problems in following posts....
Thanks for reading! and i am very open to anything!

i apoligize for the bad photo's (i will make some better ones in the future) and for the grammar and spelling as english is not my native language

 

[Feronix]

Heya mate, welcome to the forums.

I've merged your posts for you this time. In the future, you can use the

button rather than posting multiple times in a row. Thank you!

We also have an approval system, meaning that when you try to post images, they will have to be approved by a moderator before your post goes online to the public forums where you and others can see it.

All that said, the build should be nice, but please for your own sake change that Sweex power supply

 

[hensiepensie]

Hi Feronix, thanks for the welcome and the editing, i will clean it myself from now on (i think i will use a notepad and just copy it once a while, for safety)

Thanks for the tip with the image posting, i was wondering what i did wrong

ohh and the psu will be talked over very soon.....i know its awfulll

 

[MadShadow]

Wow, Thermaltake and OCZ in one package By the way, what kind of performance do you get out of this rig? Im actually interested in seeing some pics

 

[hensiepensie]

Hey Madden,

thermaltake and OCZ in one package, is that so strange? (real question)

performance is quite good considering my motherboard, cpu, gpu, and mem are about a year and a half old i think, i will post what you want be be a bit more specific please, i know i score high compared to the same systems in 3d mark for example, have to fire it up, but i think i had 4th or 5th score with an 1100T and 560TI (validated scores)

only thing is northbridge gets too hot for my comfort, and i think it also is the component which makes my oc's unstable, but i will elobarate on that later

i will edit my first post for a while because i want to do my last week mod in my openingspost .....and then i am about up to date, until my new components arrive for the watercooling, but now i am getting ahead of it

thanks for reading and i hope pictures and openingspost are all done tonight

 

[MadShadow]

Hey Madden,

thermaltake and OCZ in one package, is that so strange? (real question)

performance is quite good considering my motherboard, cpu, gpu, and mem are about a year and a half old i think, i will post what you want be be a bit more specific please, i know i score high compared to the same systems in 3d mark for example, have to fire it up, but i think i had 4th or 5th score with an 1100T and 560TI (validated scores)

only thing is northbridge gets too hot for my comfort, and i think it also is the component which makes my oc's unstable, but i will elobarate on that later

i will edit my first post for a while because i want to do my last week mod in my openingspost .....and then i am about up to date, until my new components arrive for the watercooling, but now i am getting ahead of it

thanks for reading and i hope pictures and openingspost are all done tonight

Thermaltake and OCZ have a bit of a bad rep on this forum. If you want to put images on here, I recommend imgur. Its really easy to do.

http://forum.overclock3d.net/showthread.php?t=59674 - Thermaltake

 

[barnsley]

OCZ and Thermaltake are the most hated brands on this site bud.

 

[MadShadow]

OCZ and Thermaltake are the most hated brands on this site bud.

Haha I just linked your thread from a while back

 

[hensiepensie]

ahhh i completely understand that, i think it are about the worst components in my pc, but sometimes you make errors.......and to throw it away......i just like $ to much for that, hahahah

for what it's worth the OCZ gave me BSOD's when running os on it, and thermaltake......the case is okay, considering it's 5 years old or something like that.....but i did some research lately on psu's on according to my investigation they're indeed a "crappy" producer.....

 

[vorticalbox]

ahhh i completely understand that, i think it are about the worst components in my pc, but sometimes you make errors.......and to throw it away......i just like $ to much for that, hahahah

for what it's worth the OCZ gave me BSOD's when running os on it, and thermaltake......the case is okay, considering it's 5 years old or something like that.....but i did some research lately on psu's on according to my investigation they're indeed a "crappy" producer.....

not always true i have a ocz PSU and SSD no problems at all. 256 SSD for £150 (was over a year ago now) was a bargin ^_^

 

[hensiepensie]

cool, nice to hear the psu work fine for you! didn't mean to offend or talk bad

I bought the SSD maybe 3 years ago, which was like half of the price of the intel's then, and twice as fast cause they were first (as i recall) to have 600 sata, but that's like ancient history, hahaha

Not saying its bad though, it still works fine only really had issues with the bsod, it was also too little for me, and i walked into the kingston ssd for 35€ about half a year ago which is like awesome!

i use the OCZ for my Holdem manager database (which is a brutal postgress-db, not kind for hardware....imo) and it does it job good

what kind of performance do you get out of this rig? Im actually interested in seeing some pics

pics are done for now, the pictures of the OP were all taken with an iphone4 potatoe camera, will look for my real camera for some better quality for the rest of the log

what you want to know about performance, 3dmark? oc's? memtest? i am still experimenting because i have yet to find a nice stable oc, but willing to share
3.9 Ghz on 6 cores is doable on stock cooler only multiplier, 1900 mhz on memory iss doable with a bit higher fsb then 200, and some more stuff, but the balance is the hard part, and i thinks that's hard to find in my setup
temps get really hot when oc'ing to the numbers mentioned and i think thats the main reason my oc's aint stable anymore

i really love to do something about that NB (thats the heat monster here) but i like to take it step by step, so first i want to install the preliminary loop (yes the loop will get bigger, ofcourse ) and get rid of that awful stock cpu cooler!

 

[hensiepensie]

I would like to ask a question, regarding intake and exhaust fans....
i know the best way is to just test it, but i'd like to think there is a most probable way of flow

my front 120mm fans are now intake fans, the top one cools my hd's, the middle one is just intake, bottom is empty
on the back i have now 2 intake fans (120mm, and 92mm) and if i use my pc very hard, i have an exhaust through the psu
on top i have an 92mm exhaustfan

my idea is that i could better take the intakefans on the back and make them exhaust too, so the airflow is front to back & front to top, instead of front to top & back to top....if that makes sense

the reason i have the 120mm as an intakefan is that it now blows air over the NB and i'd like to control it on that sensor, when the WC comes, it will probably change to exhaust (push-pull) because i'd like to think that air going through the case is better then converging and working against each other.....but i don't know....it's just the feeling i have when thinking about it....

anybody care to elaborate?

 

[wassupdoc]

Without meaning to put a downer on the whole build... If you can afford all the WC gear why not get a better case?

 

[hensiepensie]

hey wassup,

no downer here ,

i have a few reasons why i did not (yet) get a new case;
the main reason is i like to buy high end components, which would be something like a mountain mods custom, or corsair 900D or something like that....there $300-400 and i want some of the cash reserved as backup for any things that go wrong, so i can always "complete" it at any moment....if that makes sense
I don't really know how many rads i want in my new wc loop, and therefore looking for a case is a bit out of order......

to be honoust, probably there will come a new case, but first i want to fill this build up with a lot more radiator surface and testing, later (like in longterm planning) the motherboard, cpu,mem, and vga will probably be replaced too

for now, and to keep it logical, no case and the extra $ will go into upgrades of the WC build, when thats done, up to the next (big) upgrade!!

i got a lot of plans, but i don't like to post them before they become a little more concrete.......else this log is gonna be awful to read (which i already think it is....) and nobody wants to read plans which will not be executed....

EDIT:
hmmmm just got some mails, some good, and one bad......
first off the good thing is that i can pickup my hose nearby, and the pwm splitter and xspc reservoir/pump, are sent out today (so prob will be delivered here tomorrow).

The sad thing is that the big order with about the rest is delayed, when ordering i thought the EK supremacy was in stock (almost sure because i checked it before paying), but i got an email and it seems they get them 20th june, and then it gets sent to me (the whole pakcage)....so have to wait a few days longer or check if i can get that block here sooner via another shop

 

[hensiepensie]

Update:

Today i received 2 packages , the xspc pump/reservoir and a PWM 1 to 4 splitter, i will pickup my tubing tomorrow, as i didn't have time for that today...

i cannot get the cpu block sooner, so i will need to have patience.....not my best side

first package, the pwm 1 to 4 splitter, the proper one, so power comes from psu, not from motherboard, pwm signal and sensor come from motherboard, but only signal goes beyond fan 1 (so rpm sensor only goes to first fan, else the readout would be wrong)

second package, was waiting for this also about 10 days, but here it is

looks nice, feels nice, the reservoir is glass, and the brace is powdercoated aluminium, the pump is a D5 vario, there is a led supplied, which i thought was white (standard), but i forgot too hook that up in the build so haven't tested that yet.

some pics...

And offcourse i couldn't wait installing it right away!!
so the vibration thingies on the reservoir.....one side...

other side too

on its feet, only for looking how wide the gap was, not that wide

because it was a little bit cramped where i wanted the reservoir, and didn't want to scratch it or something like that, i made cardboard template....this way i could also drill from the other side which was preferable (else i had to disassemble everything like motherboard and drives too).

it was getting later and later, and the quality of the photos was getting worse and worse.....this is the best one i have for now of the updated build (from tonight).....

I redid some of the wiring in the case and it looks much cleaner now, still have an issue with my 3bay drive bay, as my raptor is now touching the reservoir (which will get solved!)
Another really great feature of the reservoir i din't knew before i got it, is that you can rotate it in the brace! so mount it, and then turn it so you the least angles , the 3 threads are 0-45-90 degrees and from left to right it is, out-in-in(capped)

I remembered i wanted to take a photo of the piece i had to cut out on the vga heatsink, and this one turned out ok....the piece i needed to cutout is near the green pci-lock, i can still only lock it with one of the locks, the other one (the one thats open) can never fit, because of the PCB is in its way......

Then something a bit different, i thought i would post my setting i am running now, als for future reference....
fsb 225 mhz
cpu multiplier 17,5 = 3940 mhz (1.5V)
memory multiplier 8 = 1800 mhz, 8-9-8-27, 2T (1.65V), unganged
NB multiplier 12 = 2700 mhz
HT multiplier 12 = 2700 mhz
vga core clock = 915 mhz (880 std)
vga mem clock = 2371 mhz (2100 std)

EDIT:
I have been thinking about buying another rad, that was always the plan but i rather made my first loop so i could see the difference when i add a 240 rad.......

....now that i have to wait like 10 days more, i am thinking of ordering the rad extra, so i can "complete" the rads too but i am affraid the fittings will not work and then i have to order other ones etc. etc....thats why i wanted to do it in stages, then i can safely assume that all the fittings ordered in stage 1 get used (in stage 2 or 3)

what are your thoughts about this? what is preferable?

also is there some kind of universal mount to mount radiators to drivebayholes? i want to place the 240 vertical in the front of the case.....i think

 

[Innocent159]

Not to be rude the case makes it ugly! Buy a cheap case. I'm sure you not on a tight budget But all and all specs look great.
If you transfer the rad to a new case you will take more time cause you will do everything again and leak test and all that. New tubes, etc

 

[wassupdoc]

Facepalming hard that you decided to ruin the card's resale instead of just getting rid of the cheap retention bracket >.< I got rid of it on my colossus - easy job - and used thumbscrews instead

 

[hensiepensie]

LOL, i am so Dumb! you are totally right doc.....i could/should have just get rid of the green retention thingie......sometimes i think backwards.......dumb me

good tip nevertheless!

@innocent, no offense taken, i think it's ugly too now! i am really torn up about a new case, also because it is mentoned before.....
IF i buy a new case i want it to be viewed form the right (so r-atx, or horizontal like the mountain mods ufo with brace or something like that) but there are only 2 cases i can find which meet my requirements (both mountain mods), BUT i really like the fact of modding a lot of gear into something it shouldn't (and the looks will be turned over if i will keep my case, but as you can read, i am still in doubt over a new case)

I also think it would be way to easy to just buy a obsidion 900D or an mountain mods ufo and put everything in it......that feels like cheating for me , i like the challenge that nothing fits , it keeps my brain energized about it!

but maybe i'll get sick of the case and order a proper one! i will look into the caselabs stuff as i went through an awesome build with that and maybe the can produce what i want......

Another thing , i don't like the word cheap in front of case, although it seems crap now, when i bought that case, it was one of the biggest, badass, "watercool-build" case and cost me about 200$ (which was like 4times as expensive as the previous ones....)

i'd like to think that when i buy some new equipment, i buy good (expensive) stuff, so it lasts a long time, so if i buy something new, it's gonna be good quality and probably expensive

i do appreciate the input, just wanted to clarify my thoughts about this to you!

I know it all looks like crap/ghetto (compared to the average build here) but i am confident i will get some subscribers when it starts to look like something!

Maybe a little offtopic, but i'd like to learn about airbrushing (i did it once with a crap set, but i'd like to learn more about it and maybe buy a nice set and do it proper), anybody got some good sites/forums etc for this?

 

[wassupdoc]

LOL, i am so Dumb! you are totally right doc.....i could/should have just get rid of the green retention thingie......sometimes i think backwards.......dumb me

good tip nevertheless!

Maybe a little offtopic, but i'd like to learn about airbrushing (i did it once with a crap set, but i'd like to learn more about it and maybe buy a nice set and do it proper), anybody got some good sites/forums etc for this?

We all make mistakes xD Ah well!

There's a guy on here who did a StarCraft 2 build with INSANE airbrushing - I'm sure there was some details on there, give it a search

 

[hensiepensie]

Thanks doc,

Just went through the whole thread, awesome grafix there!! really an insane build indeed.....

If you guys would advice me on a case, i would be much obliged.....
....it keeps going through my head, and i think you have more knowledge about the absolute top cases

So if i am gonna buy a new one, i would like it to have at least these requirements:
I want a case with a window on the right
I want a lot of radiator space (lets see minimum of 3 rads, more = better)
I want great build quality
I want customizability

I'd like to have a horizontal mortherboard (if not it's ok)

I knew about the mountain mods ufo, which would set me back about $400+ (+ shipping), but after reading some build and reviews from caselabs cases, i am falling in love with those cases.......but everywhere i see there really expensive....

I did some research on there website, and an Mercury S8 would set me back almost $500 (+ shipping) (which i can justify if it's really good), now comes the main question....

Do you think the caselabs mercury 8 would be a better choice then a mountain mods ufo? or are there even better cases for me?

I really need to tackle this before i buy more radiators, because i'd like to be smarter with my upgrades, for example if i buy 240 rad, i want to know i am reusing it in the new case.

just some brainstorming here since i am falling in love with that caselabs cases.....

some links....
http://www.caselabs-store.com/mercury-s8/
vs
http://www.mountainmods.com/u2-ufo-c-21_32.html