-Post pics of your computer-

[caveman-jim]

Somebody needs a new camera... or time to learn about focus/stands

[nycdarkness]

One more picture coming up, this time with both CPU blocks installed(had to modify one of them to fit),the cooling circuit completed at the motherboard level, 24 GB of ram installed and 3 GTX580's as well as an ASUS Xonar sound card installed....There's not much left to do at the motherboard level execept set jumpers as to what i want enabled or disabled.





I start working on the radiator and PSU wire routing tomorrow.....

No Gpu water cooling?

[shadow001]

Somebody needs a new camera... or time to learn about focus/stands

It's a cell phone that too the pictures....

No Gpu water cooling?

The loop for the eventual GPU water cooling will be done with the next generation cards made at 28nm, and besides i need to do some more research on how to pull it off as i want it on a seperate loop with it's own radiator\pump\reservoir, and want nothing mounted on the outside of the case itself....It looks so good that having a radiator mounted externally would ruin the visuals.

[Ristogod]

One more picture coming up, this time with both CPU blocks installed(had to modify one of them to fit),the cooling circuit completed at the motherboard level, 24 GB of ram installed and 3 GTX580's as well as an ASUS Xonar sound card installed....There's not much left to do at the motherboard level execept set jumpers as to what i want enabled or disabled.





I start working on the radiator and PSU wire routing tomorrow.....

How is it you can afford like $10K in hardware, but not a decent camera to take a picture of it?

[Progression]

How is it you can afford like $10K in hardware, but not a decent camera to take a picture of it?

Well to be fair, that's not 10k.

[shadow001]

How is it you can afford like $10K in hardware, but not a decent camera to take a picture of it?

I'll use a better camera once i have it all done....This is more of a worklog style of my progression as the days goes on...

Well to be fair, that's not 10k.

It'll be about 7500$ once it's all assembled...


On that note, it's progessed quite a bit, as i i've gone to the initial fittment in the case, including the top mounted radiator and modifications required will be detailed as it wasn't easy an had to make every milimeter count....Here goes:





Overall view of how everything is looking and it's easy to note that the top radiator is extremely close to one of the CPU's memory slots and since the last picture, the water flow path has changed to make the tubing more simplified overall,as well as adding a drain port at the lowest point that i have access to within the loop.






View of the top section ,and i'm not out of the woods here, as hole needs to be drilled just behind where you see that little flip up panel with the USB,ESATA and sound jacks, that also lines up with the fill port that's built into the radiator itself....Serious mesuring with precision required here, and i need to get more screws that hold up the radiator itself,since the ones that comes with the kit are too short given the thickness of the case's top panel...





Here is where you see just how close the motherboard is to the blueray drives, wich like lian-li noted, involves removing a fan where the IDE and ATX power conectors on the motherboard is, but unlike they didn't note,also the brace behind that fan and the 3.5 inch adapter that's fitted to the lower pair of 5 1/4 inch drive bays....Basically LiAN- LI certifies it as an HPTX case, but there's a few adjustments involved they don't mention at all...


Given that the case has a removable motherboard tray though, i was able to gradually push the motherboard forward and check/remove clearance issues along the way....It also shows a better view of the drain port itself.

[Sasquach]

Somebody needs a new camera... or time to learn about focus/stands

Turn off the SSAA or nvidias Quincunx......

[Progression]

Shadow, I most definitely envy your setup.

[shadow001]

Shadow, I most definitely envy your setup.

Thanks....


Tomorrow i got to make a trip to the local home renovation center and pick up some extra bolts for the radiator, and a 1" bimetal hole saw to drill the fill port hole on the top of the case, as i got the exact mesurements supplied at swiftech's site with the use of their PDF's, so i know the exact location where to drill right down to the milimeter...No trial and error here.


Once that's done i'll prepare the cooling fluid, fill up the system and use a seperate power supply where only the radiator pump will be powered up, in order to bleed the cooling loop and use lots of tissue paper around all the fittings to check for leaks....As an extra precaution,i'll use non conductive cooling fluid just the same, and the system will be running for at least 24 hours like that, and i check for green spots on the tissue paper(the color of the coolant)....Sticks out like a sore thumb if it does leak.


If everything is ok there, then i install the actual power supply for the entire system and work on the wiring(make it look nice and neat), and install the storage(SSD's and hardrives)....Taking this step by step even if it takes the entire week.


And i haven't even started the software install,patches and configuration or overclocking part for that matter....That might take another week or 2 alone.

[caveman-jim]

measure twice, cut once!

[curio]

Xeon X5650's, wich are 6 core/12 thread processors, so the system will have 12 physical cores and can handle 24 threads,using 24 GB or corsair dominator GT DDR 3 2000, and they'll hopefully be running in the 4 Ghz ballpark...It's the only dual socket motherboard that supports overclocking.


It'll also have 3 GTX580's in triple SLI and a pair of OCZ vertex 3 240 GB SSD's in raid 0

cheese and rice

[curio]

How is it you can afford like $10K in hardware, but not a decent camera to take a picture of it?

How is it you have a decent camera but can't afford that type of computer?

[shadow001]

cheese and rice

No eating on a budget involved....

[shadow001]

And a further step and it's a big one, since it involves drilling a 1 inch hole in 450$ case in an exact location for a fill port, to wich i replaced the stock plastic plug that ships with the cooling kit with a little bling.... A metal silver plated one...





I had to go triple check the mesurements and drill the hole with extreme care and very slowly as it went deeper and deeper, then finish off with a dremel to smooth it out and added a rubber grommet....Basically it looks like the case has always had a fillport there straight from the factory...

[Qb2k5]

One more picture coming up, this time with both CPU blocks installed(had to modify one of them to fit),the cooling circuit completed at the motherboard level, 24 GB of ram installed and 3 GTX580's as well as an ASUS Xonar sound card installed....There's not much left to do at the motherboard level execept set jumpers as to what i want enabled or disabled.





I start working on the radiator and PSU wire routing tomorrow.....

Thats Freaking ridiculous. You wouldn't have to upgrade anything for many years.

[shadow001]

Thats Freaking ridiculous. You wouldn't have to upgrade anything for many years.

That's the general idea for the motherboard and ram and it's cooling, since it's going to be a while before enthusiast desktop systems actually have at least 2X more CPU power than this setup with 12 physical cores running at 4Ghz each, can handle 24 threads at the same time and there's 24 GB of Ram to play with too...It can handle 48 GB btw...



Keep in mind that it might take longer still until there's games even close to using this much CPU power and ram to begin with too, but as far as video cards are concerned, the pace of improvement is quicker for the time being, and i'd be highly dissapointed if the 28nm generation coming out late this year or early next, isn't a least twice as fast as the GTX 580 or the HD6970...



Basically think of the HD 6990 dual GPU cards performance wise, but done with a single 28nm GPU and using half the HD 6990's power, running cooler and much quieter....I'd buy 3 of those in a heartbeat for triple SLI or triple crossfire and water cool them....

[LordJuanlo]

I want to share with you these photos of a "device" made by a good friend who likes to work with wood for my Logitech G27 pedals.



Closed under my desk



Getting them ready



Upside down



Wide opened



Now my chair won't move



What can I say... he's a genius. Thanks Edu!

[shadow001]

That's actually very cool.....

[aviphysics]

very nice

[Greasy]

That's an awesome idea!

[shadow001]

More pictures for your viewing please follow, and yes, they're a little better than what i took on the cellphone...



The finalised filling port on the top of the case, wich just putting a plug on it seemed pretty tame and i had some bitspower fittings left over so i came up with this:






The 2 intel 510 SSD's wich will be in raid 0 and sitting on a metal plate that seperates the motherboard area to the PSU section in the lower half of the case....I actually has to go to a couple of hardware stores until i could find the right screws to attach them there(along with quick release rubber mounts),since the ones that come with the drives are too short for it...






You get a better idea of what i'm talking about here in terms of overall location....Also note that i removed the coolers for the memory as i think that the red heatsinks on the memory really should be shown in their full glory,and not hidden behind a fan...






Another view of the top fillport, wich will be the only clue that the system is water cooled





Another view of the main motherboard area with the coolers for the ram removed, and showing all 24 GB or ram onboard:




That's enough for now as i want to finish this freaking build....

[Deaderinred]

After those pics i feel intimidated from showing off my new rig.

[Greasy]

After those pics i feel intimidated from showing off my new rig.

Show us the pics!

[shadow001]

After those pics i feel intimidated from showing off my new rig.

Don't feel like this is some sort of contest because it isn't at all....The build i'm doing is simply something i do because i get a kick out of it and nothing else, even if sometimes it involves modifications to make everything fit the way i want it too......I'm just that crazy.



As a little update,i filled the cooling loop and so far so good, no leaks to report and i'm using paper towels around all the fittings and radiator to check for leaks, so the next step is powering up just the pump for the cooling to bleed whatever remaining air there is in the loop, one final top up of fluid and leave it running for 24 hours and a final leak check follows(flashlight and checking the paper towels)....



Obviously nothing in the system is powered up except for that pump in case something does leak...

[nycdarkness]

That's the thing about building pcs that are way overkill. Pretty much practicality goes out the window and it's all about the self gratification afterwards. Much like anything else that is unnecessary, everyone has different indulgences.

[shadow001]

One last picture, this time at the air bleeding stage, wich can take a while and the pump makes a racket as it's cavitating every now and then, but it's bone dry as far as leaks goes(woot)....Here's how it's done with a seperate power supply rigged to power up the pump alone.





So since this is the last pain in the ass part to deal with, i should have all the physical installation done by the weekend and ready for the software install part after that...

[shadow001]

That's the thing about building pcs that are way overkill. Pretty much practicality goes out the window and it's all about the self gratification afterwards. Much like anything else that is unnecessary, everyone has different indulgences.

Indeed, though some have all possible indulgences in book, but it usually involves winning the lottery or being born into a rich family from the start, or in rarer cases starting your own business and making it big..

[Soong]

I find that pulsing the pump helps clear our the air bubbles. If you just let it run then a lot of the air gets broken up in the super small bubbles that don't have the buoyancy to float up into the T-line when the water is circulating at speed. Once you shut down the pump for a length of time the micro bubbles will congregate and form large bubbles. Sometimes large enough to stall the pump when you turn it back on.

[shadow001]

I find that pulsing the pump helps clear our the air bubbles. If you just let it run then a lot of the air gets broken up in the super small bubbles that don't have the buoyancy to float up into the T-line when the water is circulating at speed. Once you shut down the pump for a length of time the micro bubbles will congregate and form large bubbles. Sometimes large enough to stall the pump when you turn it back on.

I stopped the pump about an hour ago, and left the fillport open with the front of the case several inches higher by using some books and the water level has already dropped a little bit, so i think some of the air is slowly escaping thru the raised fillport....I'll leave it like that for the night and check the level in the morning, then fire up the pump and see if the intermitant noise is gone for good...

[Deaderinred]

Show us the pics!

k.

this is it, amd phenom II 3.20 quad core, with a xfx 6950 2gb and 4gb of ram.


as you can tell, the cable management is fantastic.

my desk, tidiness is my number 1 concern. running xp yes, windows 7 is still in the post, should of been here today but it hasnt come.


this is the case, its the case i used with my old build, works pretty well and keeps things very cool even though i just use fans (there is one on the side of the case you cant see)


and this is my old build from like 2004/5? its a athlon64 2.0ghz 2gb ram, it had a x800 agp then i got a x1950agp which is there, plus a ****tie tv card and some other card that i cant remember wtf it was, and thats my old dvd drive too which noone told me we had moved from ide to sata for disc drives now so i had to go out and replace that too, and the goddamn psu.



dunno wth im going to do with it.

[shadow001]

What a struggle to get that last bit of air out of the cooling loop, i had to physically tilt the entire case 90 degress several times while cycling the pump on and off and hearing the air bubbles making their way to where the fill port is, and adding fluid each time....Took an hour this morning, but now the cooling system is quiet as a mouse, and still no leaks to report....



Time to add the hard drives and PSU this afternoon, then screw around with the wire management part, but at least the pain in the ass parts are done...

[Mangler]

What a struggle to get that last bit of air out of the cooling loop, i had to physically tilt the entire case 90 degress several times while cycling the pump on and off and hearing the air bubbles making their way to where the fill port is, and adding fluid each time....Took an hour this morning, but now the cooling system is quiet as a mouse, and still no leaks to report....



Time to add the hard drives and PSU this afternoon, then screw around with the wire management part, but at least the pain in the ass parts are done...

That is the drawback with a radiator mounted in the roof of the case, if you want to bleed the system fast, you need to tilt it.

[shadow001]

That is the drawback with a radiator mounted in the roof of the case, if you want to bleed the system fast, you need to tilt it.

Would be histerical if after all this work, the motherboard is dead and doesn't start up....


We'll soon find out...

[shadow001]

More pictures with the power supply, twin terrabyte hard drives and the power wiring for all the components basically done, and you'll note that the area between the Power supply and hardrive cage isn't exactly roomy to say the least...


SSD hookups:




And the trouble spot where i had to pack in a lot of wiring:




This is a more generall picture that shows the front cage to mount hard drives and more SSD's completely empty, and it's only held with thumb screws, so the potential is there to handle a dedicated water loop for the video cards...Muhahaha.

[OverclockN']

Man, that is one hell of a computer. You certainly have your hands full.

Thanks for all the updates, it's actually quite entertaining!

[shadow001]

Man, that is one hell of a computer. You certainly have your hands full.

Thanks for all the updates, it's actually quite entertaining!

At least it gives some ideas of the issues and problems when water cooling is involved, especially if the overall setup is more complex than usual....I could make it even more complex by cooling the video cards with their own loop,but as it is, it's already been nearly a week setting this up, so i'll leave that part for later...

[nycdarkness]

Mommy I am dusty and I cant breathe

Needs a dusting and some water baddddddddd. 30fps in Crysis 2 .. lol Something isn't right.

A psu with 6 pcie cables wouldn't hurt either >>

[Greasy]

k.


and this is my old build from like 2004/5? its a athlon64 2.0ghz 2gb ram, it had a x800 agp then i got a x1950agp which is there, plus a ****tie tv card and some other card that i cant remember wtf it was, and thats my old dvd drive too which noone told me we had moved from ide to sata for disc drives now so i had to go out and replace that too, and the goddamn psu.


dunno wth im going to do with it.

Damn! You really get your monies worth out of a PC! Congrats on the new build btw.

My cable management is **** too. These older cases just don't make it easy!

[shadow001]

last picture for the night and the wiring is pretty much done.....Cell phone picture so it's a bit blurry...I'll take a final set of pictures with the good camera in the coming days when everything is totally finished.






Waiting only for the final component to make the build complete(it's in UPS's hands now):

http://www.lamptron.com/products/view/Fan_Controller_Touch

Fan controler with a touch sensitive LCD display...

[OverclockN']

Spare no expense!!