I have drastically reduced the complexity of the wc circuit and removed the Northbridge from it - it now only cools the peltier on the gpu.I will put up pics of the finished item fairly soon, but here are some recent additions in the last week.
Passive Reservoir
Available from 350mm to 1m in length - mine is 500mm. Allowed me to fit much quieter fans on the radiator cooling the water circuit. (2x120mm Panaflow 105cfm replaced with 2x120mm SilenX 55cfm) Here is the item as displayed by the vendor - available in blue, silver and black - mine is black -£45
Mounted to the rear of my case, I started with 2x25mm beaded holes for the hoses - the res is not hard mounted to the case but rests on the hosetail mounts
Here is the res in place with the hose through the case
The caps on the res are clear polycarbonate - I have drilled them to insert uv Led's to light up at night
Here is the res in place - the two fans in the top of the pic are Silenx 120mm/54cfm/14db - totally silent - £15 each
Peltier cooling on ATI X800
Having replaced my 9800XT I needed to fit the Watercooled Peltier to it. I am fairly sure that my 9800 failure was caused by arctic silver mixing with dielectric grease and wanted to avoid sealing the core in this way again. Bring on the Silicon sealer.
Here is the constructed watercooled pelt: Waterblock on top, peltier in between (white layer), and coldplate on the bottom which is placed on the gpu.
First I removed the air cooling from the card and was stunned to see the huge amount of excess thermal paste around the chip - any of this getting to the nearby exposed contacts would have fried the card.
Here is the prepared gpu - the area to be sealed is between the edge of the gpu and the silver shim - any condensation from the coldplate getting in here and the card is a paperweight (again)
Gpu is covered with masking tape, black silicon applied around it and then reduced to shim height (its about .75mm lower than the gpu) by taking a straight edge (aluminium ruler) and scraping gently from the middle of the gpu outwards to each side.
To prevent condensation on the rear of the card I stuck an AMD cpu 1/8 gasket to the board, filled it with silicon and smoothed it off, then removed the neoprene. This way I can reduce the height of the hold-down which was interfering with my Northbridge cooler
Now to cut the base neoprene gasket. This MUST be done with a scalpel, steady hand, and patience. Some of the components prevent the gasket from making 100% contact with the board and holes have to be made. (Do not stick gasket to board to make cuts - gently make lines on the gasket then remove and cut through)
Now fill open gaps, holes and edges of shim with dielectric grease - I then cleaned the top of the gasket with a Q-tip and IPA to remove any excess grease
The upper gasket is now aligned with the lower and stuck down
The constructed block is attached to the board
Flashed the X800 bios to unlock the extra four pipes and get X800XT PE clock speeds As per this link: http://www.sapphiretech.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6123
System rebooted and ATItool is run to get the clock speeds and temp
And we have -7C!! Anybody using an ATI should get ATI tool - It has a an automatic overclocking feature that gradually increses clock speeds and stress tests them until it reaches artifact point, then it dials it back to optimium and voila. get it here: http://atitool.ocfaq.com/
Next Project:
1.As the passive res works on heat being radiated to open air I am going to enclose it in a square tube with push-pull fans at each end. I reckon I should get a further 3-4C drop in temp.
2. The air to my pc is piped in directly from the outside to a shroud over the rad. I am going to rebuild the shroud to supply cold air to the passive res intake fan, and also to the inatke fan on the Promy.
Passive Reservoir
Available from 350mm to 1m in length - mine is 500mm. Allowed me to fit much quieter fans on the radiator cooling the water circuit. (2x120mm Panaflow 105cfm replaced with 2x120mm SilenX 55cfm) Here is the item as displayed by the vendor - available in blue, silver and black - mine is black -£45
Mounted to the rear of my case, I started with 2x25mm beaded holes for the hoses - the res is not hard mounted to the case but rests on the hosetail mounts
Here is the res in place with the hose through the case
The caps on the res are clear polycarbonate - I have drilled them to insert uv Led's to light up at night
Here is the res in place - the two fans in the top of the pic are Silenx 120mm/54cfm/14db - totally silent - £15 each
Peltier cooling on ATI X800
Having replaced my 9800XT I needed to fit the Watercooled Peltier to it. I am fairly sure that my 9800 failure was caused by arctic silver mixing with dielectric grease and wanted to avoid sealing the core in this way again. Bring on the Silicon sealer.
Here is the constructed watercooled pelt: Waterblock on top, peltier in between (white layer), and coldplate on the bottom which is placed on the gpu.
First I removed the air cooling from the card and was stunned to see the huge amount of excess thermal paste around the chip - any of this getting to the nearby exposed contacts would have fried the card.
Here is the prepared gpu - the area to be sealed is between the edge of the gpu and the silver shim - any condensation from the coldplate getting in here and the card is a paperweight (again)
Gpu is covered with masking tape, black silicon applied around it and then reduced to shim height (its about .75mm lower than the gpu) by taking a straight edge (aluminium ruler) and scraping gently from the middle of the gpu outwards to each side.
To prevent condensation on the rear of the card I stuck an AMD cpu 1/8 gasket to the board, filled it with silicon and smoothed it off, then removed the neoprene. This way I can reduce the height of the hold-down which was interfering with my Northbridge cooler
Now to cut the base neoprene gasket. This MUST be done with a scalpel, steady hand, and patience. Some of the components prevent the gasket from making 100% contact with the board and holes have to be made. (Do not stick gasket to board to make cuts - gently make lines on the gasket then remove and cut through)
Now fill open gaps, holes and edges of shim with dielectric grease - I then cleaned the top of the gasket with a Q-tip and IPA to remove any excess grease
The upper gasket is now aligned with the lower and stuck down
The constructed block is attached to the board
Flashed the X800 bios to unlock the extra four pipes and get X800XT PE clock speeds As per this link: http://www.sapphiretech.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6123
System rebooted and ATItool is run to get the clock speeds and temp
And we have -7C!! Anybody using an ATI should get ATI tool - It has a an automatic overclocking feature that gradually increses clock speeds and stress tests them until it reaches artifact point, then it dials it back to optimium and voila. get it here: http://atitool.ocfaq.com/
Next Project:
1.As the passive res works on heat being radiated to open air I am going to enclose it in a square tube with push-pull fans at each end. I reckon I should get a further 3-4C drop in temp.
2. The air to my pc is piped in directly from the outside to a shroud over the rad. I am going to rebuild the shroud to supply cold air to the passive res intake fan, and also to the inatke fan on the Promy.
