parallel HEX

[Mysterae]

This will be a bit of an odd project log as the build was completed quite a while ago, say about nine years ago in 2007! I had a thread of the build on Hard Forums and it even made it to their front news page . However due to a change in ISP in the past and a tragic data loss the images were gone, seemingly forever.

Then while building my server and digging up old backups I found the project files, even the raw files as well as the images I posted. Right time to build the server!

So I thought I'd post the images up on OC3D as a bit of a whistle-stop project log, it all adds to the history . If you want a more detailed and introspective log I'll post the Hard Forum link if it's allowed (and refresh the image links in that thread), but I reckon this log will do just fine .

To pique your interest, here's a completed image:

This build was pretty good for it's time:

- AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
- DFI LanParty RDX200
- ATI X1900XTX & X1900XT Crossfire
- Crucial Ballastix PC4000 1GB x2
- Tagan 580W PSU (modified with laser, you'll see how and why later)

The watercooling consisted of 2 D5 vario pumps (modified), a ThermoChill PA120.2 radiator and a custom designed and built acrylic parallel distribution system. The water blocks were all Aquacomputer (CPU, mobo chipset, GPUs and even stupidly enough the hard disks).

All that was wrapped in a glass effect acrylic case. Blutac was not my final method of fixing .

So I'll soon show you a laser optoisolated to a PSU, modded D5 pumps, some ghetto loop testing, a mental reservioir and collector system made of out acrylic and Sketchups galore. More soon!

 

[WYP]

This is pretty cool. It is great to see some classic modding

 

[Wraith]

Seriously glad you're sharing this with us after the pic you posted in the RIG gallery. It real cool old school modding.

 

[Davva2004]

 

[Excalabur50]

HMM computer in a fish tank I like it

 

[B NEGATIVE]

That looks boss.
Classic mod work right there.

 

[Mysterae]

This is pretty cool. It is great to see some classic modding

Ah, the memories!

Seriously glad you're sharing this with us after the pic you posted in the RIG gallery. It real cool old school modding.

I only found those images this weekend while building my server (another log due soon) and thought I'd post an image in the RIG thread. Then I thought why not post it all!

Thanks for subbing .

HMM computer in a fish tank I like it

You could liken it to a fish tank, I've seen similar .

So, time to go back to the beginning, the concept as it were:

Even back then I was interested in parallel arrangements and liked to draw out my intentions:

So at first the 6 port manifold was created and it all flowed from there, pun intended .

Taking the HEX theme and running with it, the motherboard mounting plate was created (the final design is a little different to this Sketchup).

Add in some botherboard mounts:

Skip forward a few steps and add in the motherboard, base and PSU:

Fitted the GPUs (X1800's later changed to X1900XTX & X1900XT) and some RAM:

Thought about where to fit the hard drives and DVD drives; the hard drives location did change in the end.

Add in some sides, D5 pumps and waterblocks:

Cooler Master crossflow fans - this was a bit of a botched experiment and the final design was much simpler, if less effective.

The intention was that the crossflow fans would create a blades of air to cool the motherboard. It worked very well but the noise from them was intolerable and so they were ultimately abandoned as you'll see later.

Radiator (ThermoChill PA120.2 and Cooler Master fans - there were made of metal and had excellent flow). As admirable as the ThermoChill PA120.2 radiator was, I think I was pushing it's capabilities to the limit with all those blocks.

View from the back and later with more sides installed:

Let's take a quick break as discuss the water cooling. What I needed wasn't available off-the-shelf : a six port manifold and a six port reservoir, so I mocked up a few designs :

The ball valves were fitted so that circuits could be isolated and the flow restricted and balanced if required. Plus it looked .

And settled on this awesome contraption for the purposes of being a collector and reservoir in one:

Which I then had built:

And would be placed here:

 

[Mysterae]

That looks boss.
Classic mod work right there.

Cheers Neg .

Next instalment!

Some more Sketchups for the moment:

The top of the case with the vent holes for the radiator and fans:

And some of proposed button and dial arrangements:

In the end I settled for none of the above, but very similar to the last one.

To give a sense of scale of the case by now:

Some final Sketchups of the case assembled:

Here's a thought I had of plan B, if one radiator wasn't enough. The idea was binned though!

Finally, giving a hint as to the location of the hard drives (waterblocked too, noob!) and the method of holding the panels together.

More later .

 

[Blade Runner]

That is seriously good, I love the way you can remove individual components in the loop without having to drain the whole system. I can see a LOT of thought went into this, respect.

 

[Mysterae]

That is seriously good, I love the way you can remove individual components in the loop without having to drain the whole system. I can see a LOT of thought went into this, respect.

Cheers. I found it wasn't as simple to drain and remove each component separately, air and backflow caused all such fun. In the end I just drained the system using the larger drain valve that I fitted to the collector/manifold.

Next Instalment!

Enough Sketchups! Now on to something more practical. You can only design so much, it's when you make something physical that you see the pitfalls or improvements that you can make. Before I used lots of expensive acrylic I built the concept out of 9mm plywood.

Pumps positioned:

Not much clearance between the PSU and optical drive:

I used some aluminium angle to build the wooden prototype, this would not be used in the final design.

The IO panel was removed from an old case I had; it later turned out to be AT spec and not ATX so I had to source another, but it would do for this process.

Motherboard position to mark the standoffs.

Yeah, not going to work!

Case panels all built:

PSU is the first to go in:

Precision engineering

Motherboard in:

These Coller Master HD waterblocks were such a bad idea. Luckily I noticed hairline cracks in the thin and brittle acrylic and binned them before even using them.

The ThermoChill PA120.2 radiator with Cooler Master fans in a pull configuration. These were awesome fans, constructed from cast aluminium and would take a finger off if not careful! I would end up painting the radiator silver later.

Top panel vent holes cut:

Positioned in place:

Original hard drive location was a bit tight (which would change again later).

Coming along, those nasty cables would have to be sorted out.

New donor case for the ATX IO panel I needed:

Cut along the dashed line .

Ta dah!

I could then finally mount things properly.

Then I tested mounting the crossflow fans. Awesome idea, way too noisy!

Way back in the days when you needed an external cable for Crossfire...

Such a mess of wires! I would later hack that fan controller apart and create a more elegant solution (imo anyway!).

Ah, back in the days when EL wire was cool .

More ridiculousness to follow ...

 

[Mysterae]

Next Instalment.

Time for some water cooling shenanigans...

The selection of waterblocks and good old Bulgin anti-vandal switches:

The waterblocks were exclusively Aquacomputer:

CPU cooler - Cuplex XT (modded to 2 port outlet)

Here's what I did to mod it to one port in/ two port out (to make it less restrictive):

Mark out the metal to be removed:

Where I need to add material to block the channel:

I used some modellers putty that sets hard.

Then the channel was milled open.

Drilled and tapped the perspex cover for the centre inlet.

Tested and no leaks .

The mod worked really well .

Chipset cooler - Twinplex

The quality was unusually poor for Aquacomputer, look at those bits of almost loose swarf! I've always check the insides of waterblocks ever since, regardless of who makes them.

Cleaned up:

Fitted to the motherboard including anti-kink springs on the fittings.

Graphic card coolers - Aquagratix

Crossfire used to be a pain with the need for a master card:

Even with watercooling I found the X1900's to be really hot cards especially in the VRM area, so a little bit of modding was required. Additional heatsinks in the VRM area were thermally bonded to the waterblocks:

The heatsinks were different height due to how the cards were to be placed.

Spring loaded GPU plates no less .

All done:

The wires coming out of them were for the LEDs that would later be controlled; used some diodes to reduce their forward voltage.

Added in some plain bits of acrylic with my own graphics:

Hard drive coolers - Aquadrive (no matter how much I defended it at the time, watercooling hard drives is no better than a gentle breeze of air).

 

[Dicehunter]

Modelling putty inside a waterblock, You sir are brave ^_^

 

[Mysterae]

Modelling putty inside a waterblock, You sir are brave ^_^

I was and it paid off . This stuff was like stone when it set and didn't go soggy when wet, thankfully!

 

[WYP]

I'm loving this old build log. The pictures are top quality.

 

[Mysterae]

I'm loving this old build log. The pictures are top quality.

Cheers WYP, more incoming!

Next Instalment - Lets talk watercooling.

As a reminder, here's a diagram of my intended parallel loop:

In order to test my madness I first had the hex distributor made:

Why have one made when two is only a smidge more . I specified them as unfinished so I could do the polishing myself; left one is unpolished, right one sanded and polished with Acryl Star. Sadly one chipped near the thread, still water tight just not ideal.

I didn't have the collector made at this point so I improvised with an empty bottle of 7up. The [H] is a reference where I first posted this log so long ago.

The hard drive blocks weren't in circuit at this time so those outputs were blocked off.

Back in the day your choice in tops for the D5 pumps was pretty non-existent, so I fixed my own fittings to the pump using epoxy; I just had to make sure they wouldn't leak under pressure.

GPU blocks (unmodified when this picture was taken).

Time to test some flows, pressures and the system in general.

Plenty of flow with the D5 at 100%:

It created a lot of bubbles! To stop this I put some packing peanuts in the bottle .

Time to test it under load:

So happy with the results and with my design of the collector completed, I was over the moon with how it turned out in person:

Constructed from acrylic blocks at the top and bottom and an acrylic tube in the middle with large rubber o-rings at both ends, held together with stainless steel threaded rod with nuts, washers and nylocs at the bottom, all tightened up to ensure there were no leaks. Fittings wise, a drain valve at the bottom and a fitting for the flow to the first pump. Up top six ball valves return the coolant from their respective blocks via 90 degree fittings. Finally, a fill-port is fitted at the very top.

Needles to say, I was keen to try it out:

With some UV LEDs:

It was starting to look like a movie prop!

 

[Davva2004]

How did you manage to keep two GPUs and a CPU cool with just a 240mm rad? What witchcraft is this?

 

[Mysterae]

How did you manage to keep two GPUs and a CPU cool with just a 240mm rad? What witchcraft is this?

Barely!

The ThermoChill PA radiators were great for their time, thicker than the average radiators you get today. Even with that considered I know I was using it beyond it's limit and ran the fans higher than I originally intended (great fans helped a lot). I've never under-specified a radiator since .