Project Kool160

[boardy]

You recon I'll only see a 20Mhz clock on the TCC5? Hmm may not bother with these then and just use the BH5 lol.

Jeez it's getting so close to finishing this project it's annoying!! Need to get it all finished by early-mid march now as I'm going to a LAN at the start of April and wanna get the best I can outa the thing before going.

Gonna be tough but I think I can do it

 

[Gray Mole]

Just a quick update on the cooler, I haven't wired it up yet, but will do that and vac it properly today. I ran a quick vac after assembly, but I'd rather make sure it's all good.









So yeah it's currently assembled out of the case. I put the other spare suction so you could see how it is. Very bendy, but also quite solid when it's positioned. Sould be ok, and if there's anthing restricting this system, it won't be the suction line

Hope to have a better update after thie wiring, reassemble the chassis, and maybe at least get some temps before I'm stuff waiting for the controller.

Cheers

Gray

 

[boardy]

Oooh, I see what you mean about the suction line now, thats pretty kewl to have 1 that won't move too much

Looks amazing mate, I personally can't wait to see the temps on it Also can't wait to get it in my hands lol. The work on that is amazing, looks so tidy!!

On a side note, if I have my GTX's in SLi mode, I can't have a second monitor but I want to fit a small in-car TV somewhere on the machine.

I thought of using my old Rage-128 All In Wonder PCI gfx card for composite out, straight into the TV unit. Will that work ok? I don't see any reason why it wouldn't but obviously not having the GTX's yet makes it very hard to determine. I want to basically make a Samurize display of all system stats like Zax is doing in a way.

Just need to know if it can be done or not really, before I go out and start planning the design. Will I be able to have Samurize running on only 1 screen (the little TFT).

Cheers

Boardy

 

[PHILIP1193]

grey get a decent camera, your camera aint doing your work justice. surely you can afford one with all this money your making lol

From what i can see it looks mint, keep it up grey

Phil

 

[Gray Mole]

LOL my wife steals all my money anyways, so it wouldn't matter how much I made 8)

I didn't get as much done today as I'd hoped but I got the unit mounted to the baseplate and vacced out properly today as well, so tomorrow should be a fun day

It's all wired up and ready to roll though, just needs to be charged and tested now.

I still haven't decided whether to go panaflo fans with 12v, or the 240v high power fans yet. I'll test and see if the 240v version does a better cooling job, but I may end up with 90cfm front fan, and 60cfm rear fan and see how it handles. The condensor will slow a certain amount of the front air at that speed, so it may balance nicely. We'll see how it feels tomorrow.

Tidy? I didn't have a choice Boardy I needed it to be as compact as possible, but it's a perfect fit. I put the top onto the baseplate to see and it fits like a glove, but I'm not riveting the top back on to the Mach chassis until the controller arrives so it's easier to get that installed.

Cheers

Gray

 

[Gray Mole]

Sorry it took so long, had another mod to finish up.

Just a prelim test to see what the unit will actually do, I charged it to spec (around 220w is what the captube is set for at 2.9m of .031") with R404a so that I'd know it was all ok, and a little glimpse of the unit's abilities. It will get 402a on it's final charge, and quite likely something special added to it

In the shed it was rather cool, so the temps were better there of course. Running about 5inHG on the low under load, at around -51c. No load temp was about -61c.

I brought it inside to get some 'room temp' results, as most people don't like thier room at around 13-14c cos it get's a little chilly

Pics...



R404a no load



R404a load at 150w

So considering that it's fully charged, and the capacity of the unit is very high, I'm happy so far. Also considering that 402a is 4c colder or so, it's looking like -50c load shouldn't be any problem at all for this one, it's just how much colder I can make it go.

It's pretty obvious I've reached the fair limit of the gas now, so next will be the 402a, and then the 'additive' to see if it will make it even colder.

Still, -51c estimated load temp with 402a isn't bad, but I'm still aiming for the -55c load temp when she's done.

Gotta take a break until the new controller comes in so the initial testing is done. When the controller is here I can properly install probes and rebuild the mach chassis, then I can worry about 'how cold' :B

Cheers guys, and hope you like things so far boardy.

Gray

 

[boardy]

Well that just about beats everything that I was expecting from a 404a charge!! Has there been any news on the controller yet?

I can remember my old GT holding idle around -40ish lol, this thing is gonna be *beeeping* awsome!! Gray mate your doing a fantastic job, is that really my unit? lol.

I have a few other little suprises coming up for this which I have just found should be possible. I've been ripping apart my old in dash TV from the car to see how hard it would be to mount it in a drive bay!! So far the tests show it MAY be possible but it'l have to come out of the DIN housing and be made into a new housing.

Just trying to find servos and motors and looking at the difficulty of it.

I'm just trying to get over -50 loaded on that 404a charge lol. MMMMMM power!!

Cheers Gray!!!!

Boardy

 

[Gray Mole]

hehe

When I saw -50c and better load temps in the shed on 404a I was pretty surprised, but with room temp they came back a little closer to 'normal'

Considering the -40 on a mach2 setup with chilly head and 404a is about as good as it get's, and even then you probably wouldn't quite see it, we're looking about 10c colder or so with the new compressor.

The unit's set up now for 24/7 operation. I didn't want to go 'best temps' by pulling back on the charge and losing capacity. The return temp about 4-5" back from the compressor is around -35idle and -25load, so the compressor is getting a good amount of cooling.

It's the cpu/mobo that needs some good insulation/condensation proofing with this thing. Either a backplate heater or a thick insulation job will be an absolute must with it. Considering how cold your week 13 '55 ran Scorchio, I expect that Boardy's will too, so for 24/7 that's gonna have to be kept in mind.

The controller might be here by the weekend, but if not then early next week. Once that's here I can get things finished up, and decide whether to give the unit fan control with 12v fans, or to go with the more powerful 240v fans that I have here.

The compressor is louder than a standard mach2 one, but to be honest it sounds almost exactly the same as the VapoLS compressor for noise. Considering it's a 404/507 higher efficiency compressor as well that's not surprising.

Ah well, either way it will be done soon and some final specs will be available, but -50 load is pretty much a guarantee on the 402a when it goes in and that's kinda cool. I have a feeling that we'll also be seeing a very small difference between idle and load temps on the evap due to the large capacity of the unit. I set it that high mainly because if you try to restrict the larger compressors too much you can damage them, so it's closer to where it really should be for the load it will be dealing with. I'ts been very easy to tune, so the system balance is good, and when it comes time for 402a, it should work quite well.

Either way, it's about the coldest single stage unit I've ever built, and quite likely will be for a long time

Gray

 

[boardy]

Wow that's quick for the controller, I remember stories on XS of people waiting months for them lol. Do you have any heater pads Gray? I've got no insulation of anything so could be fun trying to keep the condensation at bay.

I don't know how to tell you how excited I am about getting this puppy back in my mitts and seeing the proper blend of gasses. I'm gonna need some help from you in the form of diagrams and parts to build a chiller. After seeing you do this, I really want to give it a go myself (Skinny say nothing about against the law cos it's not against the law to build one hehe ).

I'd like to take this moment to thank Gray for all the work he's put into this unit and talking me through everything he's doing. He's had me hassling him asking technical questions about phase as I want to get into building them aswell, which he never got annoyed about and was more than happy to answer. Top bloke and very helpfull, so hat off to you matey and fantastic job your doing!!

Boardy

 

[ZaX]

Looking good Boardy. Samurize will work well with a dual desktop setup but you cant do dual desktop with SLi. This is the same problem I've got at the moment. I tried sticking in my rig (sig) a PCI GFX card but I couldnt get an image from it. My other system has an AGP card and a PCI card running fine (The Keycorp 57 TFT). STill testing here, will let you know. The only other option is to get one monster card like the G71 or R480 and forget about SLi.

 

[boardy]

Try whacking the small TFT on the composite output of the first GTX mate. I'm hoping that's how mine will work but if not I'll see if I can get a video out card.

If all else fails I'll whack a mini-ITX or smaller machine in and run a TV card in that. Just have TV playing thru the little TFT

 

[ZaX]

I've tried the composite output and the picture quality is terrible (especially on the 7 " screen, text cant be read). Also that wouldnt be a dual desktop, it would just replicate the screen.

 

[boardy]

Thats really strange cos I had my 6" screen running on my media center PC out of the composite of the FX5200 in that and quality was awsomely good. I dunno whether it's cos the screen is designed for media center applications or what.

I'm sure there is a way to do it but if not I just had another idea which would be a fantastic thing to try! Mini ITX system with an mCubbed on it monitoring everything. Freeing up system resoures aswell!

 

[boardy]

Little updatey time

Well guys another little update on this. I havn't really progressed much as I'm still waiting for stuff.

Once I get the phase unit big things will start happening and I'll start posting pics instead of ideas lol

I'm also contemplating using a different case for this as the P160 may be a little small for my needs, but we shall see. Scorchio is coming down to my area again at some point next week and is very kindly bringing his Armor down for me to have a go with for more space. I think it's gonna be just what I need to get that little extra room in the machine.

Also I have my LanParty SLI-DR on it's way and possibly an EXPERT aswell to play with as my AsRock ULi board has virtually no overclocking options. It looked like it did, but when I got it the voltages are so pants and for some reason it wont run my RAM 1:1 @ 200mhz!!! This is BH5 that does 270Mhz and I've also tried my TCC5 @ stock and nothing, so I'm a little miffed.

I should also be getting a pump off mav to give this Koolance a little extra flow and really get the water going round the GFX cards much better. Just need to order some new tubing and Y-splitters. I'm also looking at water cooling the power regs on the 7800GTX's but still looking for blocks

Well, thats about all for now. Once the Phase arrives and I get a PSU with 24pin ATX connector for the DFI, I should be good to give this FX55 a run for its money.

Boardy

 

[boardy]

Well this hasn't been updated in a while due to me loosing all interest as the G-Froster controllers for my phase unit are STILL not in the country

BUT...Here's the first section of Kool160's actual build process. Fitting the Koolance to the case so I can move it as much as I like without having to worry about it falling off, being broken, and generally making life easier.

First thing I did was to remove the base plate off the Koolance and position it where I wanted the Koolance to go. I used circuit board cutter to scratch the positions of the new mounting holes I was going to drill into the case, and used my lovely auto center punch to mark it up. I then used the circuit cutter to make pilot holes for the large drill bit, (yes circuit board cutters will go thru aluminium!!) and the drilled the large holes.

I then put 4 bolts through the Koolance and added some spacers to the bottom to give the unit more clearance and room to breath.

The spacers -

The clearance in situ -

and again -

I was pretty happy with this amount of clearance on the unit, so left it at that for the time being. The great thing about this mounting is that I used wing nuts inside the case, so if I do need to remove the Koolance just undo 4 wing nuts and pull the unit off the top.

The next thing, mount the controller.

Thats where that will live

cont...

 

[boardy]

...

Right so now the controller is all in, the Koolance is mounted all I need are my 7800GTX's to whack in here, which I'm told are shipping out to me on Monday

Heres a few pics of the finished thing to date....

In this one you can see the 4 bolts coming through the top of the case attaching the Koolance onto the case -

Next to my server -

and again -

Hope you enjoyed my first section of building. Things will heat up a little when the phase unit arrives

For now, I'll leave you with those pics and waiting for the next installment of Kool160 build process.

Cheers

Boardy

 

[ZaX]

Looks really good so far mate. Watching this with real interest as your system specs are very similar to mine (apart from the week 13 chip and custom phase unit).

 

[maverik-sg1]

You might find boardy mate (as I do now) that plumbing the water by making space in the top of the case (above the psu) will create less challenges in the area of SLI watercooling.

When I used those slots for the water I found I had to compromise a lot just so the pipes could get in the right position (so it did not kink).

Looking good though mate

 

[K404]

All of a sudden, I wanna spend money making my rig look good!

Guess the Exos is damn fine for GPU cooling... seems a popular choice for it.

 

[boardy]

Hehe thanks guys

Scorchio - course your gear is being put to good use Was just waiting for the right time to release it back into use that's all

Cheers for the advice mav, I'm sure it'll come in handy soon Luckily I have 1m of pipe coming off the Exos on both in and out so shouldnt be too hard to re-route if needed

Few other suprises in store for this little project yet

Boardy