-Post pics of your computer-

[BababooeyHTJ]

How hard is it inserting four video cards at once? What about removing them?

[shadow001]

How hard is it inserting four video cards at once? What about removing them?

Pretty hard if they're all connected together, even if the tubing extensions between each card are adjustable, as i have to line all 4 of them to the PCI-e slots at the same time, and make sure the retention mechanism on the motherboard for the PCI-e slots locks all 4 of them them into place at the same time....


It's one of the reasons why i like the horizontal placement of the motherboard tray on the case i linked above, wich will make said problem a lot easier to deal with...

[BababooeyHTJ]

Pretty hard if they're all connected together, even if the tubing extensions between each card are adjustable, as i have to line all 4 of them to the PCI-e slots at the same time, and make sure the retention mechanism on the motherboard for the PCI-e slots locks all 4 of them them into place at the same time....


It's one of the reasons why i like the horizontal placement of the motherboard tray on the case i linked above, wich will make said problem a lot easier to deal with...

Are there any tricks that you've picked up in doing this? Do you lay the case on the side to install the cards? How do those tubing extensions work?

Sorry about all of the questions. I'm debating water cooling my cards and it looks like a bit of a pita with crossfire. Thats the only part that I'm worried about.

[TRD Supra]

Wired Xbox controller is in. NHL and HALO are the only titles left for me to need my xbox now.

[Nunz]

NHL ftw

[shadow001]

Are there any tricks that you've picked up in doing this? Do you lay the case on the side to install the cards? How do those tubing extensions work?

Sorry about all of the questions. I'm debating water cooling my cards and it looks like a bit of a pita with crossfire. Thats the only part that I'm worried about.

With my current case being as large as it is, and quite heavy with all the water cooling gear in it( think close to 100 lbs fully assembled and filled with cooling fluid), it is much easier to install all 4 video cards with the case layed on it's side, but a strong table is definitely required....


The metal tubes between each card are adjustable, and the other tricky part is that you keep them loose and only lock them to their final position once the cards are connected and locked to the PCI-e slots themselves, and the backplate on each video card is lined up in the hole where the thumscrews are tightened....


It is a pita indeed and requires patience.... Builds like these aren't something you rush and you should double and triple check everything possible before moving to the next part of the build.

[Roadhog]

How hard is it inserting four video cards at once? What about removing them?

Pretty easy here (removable motherboard tray).

Building a water cooling loop is pretty straight forward if you have half a brain and can operate a screw driver.

[Sound_Card]

Can't remember if I put a picture in this thread...

[shadow001]

Pretty easy here (removable motherboard tray).

Building a water cooling loop is pretty straight forward if you have half a brain and can operate a screw driver.

It all depends how complex the build is in the end.....If you end up using 5 radiators with 20+ fans, 4 pumps, cooling 2 CPU's and the motherboard and the VRM's for each CPU, along with 4 video cards and extra reservoirs, and the fan controlers and 2 PSU's with all the fittings and tubing requirements while making it all look good, it's not quite that easy anymore....


This upcoming build will make my current one look easy by comparison basically...

[Mangler]

?

The upcoming build should be easier if you're using a cube case.

[shadow001]

?

The upcoming build should be easier if you're using a cube case.

For certain aspects it is, but there will be a higher number of radiators, more tubing and fittings, the double PSU setup and more fan controlers and since the case has windows everywhere, the installation has to look super neat from every direction because it's all visible, so it's a given i'll be spending a lot of time on wire management alone...

[BababooeyHTJ]

Have you ever had one of those tubes leak? What are those just compression fittings on the waterblocks? Sorry for all of the questions.

I saw you mention that flow meter that you were using. Could you hook me up with a little more info about that?

[TRD Supra]

White LED lights by NZXT

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0046Y5Z92/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00

[BababooeyHTJ]

Are those the led strips?

[Redeemed]

A few posts back folks gave you flak for your stickers. Honestly I think your rig looks great.


In the planning stages for some improvements to my system. It's been a while since I gave her a good going over- from my move and replacing video cards and hard drive the cable management is ruined, and she's fairly dusty- too embarrassed to post pics of her in her present state. Once I get her all cleaned up and the new parts added I'll definitely post pics. Gonna' take me a while to get it all though.

[shadow001]

Have you ever had one of those tubes leak? What are those just compression fittings on the waterblocks? Sorry for all of the questions.

I saw you mention that flow meter that you were using. Could you hook me up with a little more info about that?

The compression fittings are pretty much impossible to leak, since it's basically composed 2 metal pieces, wich one is a short cone shaped barb where the tube gets inserted into and a metal collar that slips on the outer diameter of the tube, and threads into the inner barb, compressing the tube the more you tighten it and it can't break, wear out or loosen on it's own.


The only thing that could mak it leak is the rubber o-ring where it threads into a radiator or water block( extremely unlikely as that is), or several months down the road where you notice that the outer locking collar can be threaded further in, since the tube has been squeezed so hard for months since it was first installed, that the tube wall becomes thinner over time.


As for flow meters, you can keep it simple like this:

http://shop.aquacomputer.de/product_info.php?products_id=2899

[TRD Supra]

Thanks.

A few posts back folks gave you flak for your stickers. Honestly I think your rig looks great.


In the planning stages for some improvements to my system. It's been a while since I gave her a good going over- from my move and replacing video cards and hard drive the cable management is ruined, and she's fairly dusty- too embarrassed to post pics of her in her present state. Once I get her all cleaned up and the new parts added I'll definitely post pics. Gonna' take me a while to get it all though.

Yeah. NZXT has red blue white and some others. the kit is nice. very needed for a great install.

Are those the led strips?

[shadow001]

My bad, forgot that you need to plug in that flow/ temp sensor to this, wich can handle one of those flow sensors, 8 temperature sensors and 4 fans:

http://shop.aquacomputer.de/product_info.php?products_id=2668

[caveman-jim]

How hard is it inserting four video cards at once? What about removing them?

You do it one at a time, typically you have to figure out which order to install and remove them depending on how your wiring and case permits.

[shadow001]

You do it one at a time, typically you have to figure out which order to install and remove them depending on how your wiring and case permits.

With solid tubing connecting all 4 of them together, they also have to come out at the same time jim..... The only option where you can still install them seperately depends on the brand of the water cooling gear you're using, and if they make a bridge connector like for instance EK does:

http://www.ekwb.com/shop/blocks/vga-blocks/fc-connection-parts/ek-fc-bridge-quad-parallel.html

You'll need the above along with this for each of the cards and their respective water blocks:

http://www.ekwb.com/shop/blocks/vga-blocks/fc-connection-parts/ek-fc-link-r5970.html

Then you can install or remove each water cooled card seperately, since the parallel bridge gets installed afterwards over all 4 cards, linking them together....

[shadow001]

Been reading reviews for all the available power supplies on the market in the 1200 watt class, and it seems that the Corsair AX1200 watt PSU's is what i'm looking for, so a pair of them are already ordered.


I like the single rail design, the large fan to keep it quiet, while being fully modular and having very little voltage ripple on the 3.3 volt, 5 volt and 12 volt rails, and to have even some voltage sagging, the PSU needs to be kicking out at least 900 watts sustained, but since there will be 2 of them installed, even my setup won't make both PSU's hit 900 watts....At least not without an electrical breaker in the house activating...


I could make do with a pair of 1000 watt units, but i remembered the old rule to make a PSU last.....Don't exceed 75% of it's rated capacity sustained, wich is something that was easily exceeded with the 1500 watt silverstone on a sustained basis, but even then it handled that beating for over 2 years without complaints, so they are tough suckers for sure.

[BababooeyHTJ]

Thats nice, I didn't know that you installed to bridge afterwards.

I'm cheaping out and going with xspc blocks and the standard tubing in series which looks like even more of a pita since it won't be very ridgid with only one tube connecting the two cards.

Have you ever put a amp probe or any other sort of meter to see what the power draw is like on that pc?

[shadow001]

Thats nice, I didn't know that you installed to bridge afterwards.

I'm cheaping out and going with xspc blocks and the standard tubing in series which looks like even more of a pita since it won't be very ridgid with only one tube connecting the two cards.

I'm not using the EK kit with my cards simply because the water blocks for the cards were released quite a bit later than koolance did for theirs, but had to use those adjustable extensions that link all 4 cards together before they're inserted:




They get installed at the same time and removed at the same time too....Pain in the ass for sure, but no leaks and they're connected in parallel mainly to reduce water restriction as each card receives cold water at the same time and a little bit lower temps than using a serial connection.

[shadow001]

Have you ever put a amp probe or any other sort of meter to see what the power draw is like on that pc?

Used an inductive amp meter around the PSU's power cord while running benchmarks and the system routinely drew over 1400 watts A/C at the wall socket, so figuring that most power supplies are 85 to 90% efficient, the PSU was dishing out 1300 watts D/C for sure, and the overclocks for the video cards weren't finalised at the time, so with higher clocks comes even higher power use.


Now the system has 2400 watts to play with....

[Roadhog]

It all depends how complex the build is in the end.....If you end up using 5 radiators with 20+ fans, 4 pumps, cooling 2 CPU's and the motherboard and the VRM's for each CPU, along with 4 video cards and extra reservoirs, and the fan controlers and 2 PSU's with all the fittings and tubing requirements while making it all look good, it's not quite that easy anymore....


This upcoming build will make my current one look easy by comparison basically...

Still pretty simple... It a few tubes and connections. :|

Then again this is coming from someone who has rebuilt their own transmission, engines, done a whole obd1 to obd2 wiring swap, automatic to manual trans conversion, and a custom turbo kit... So, water cooling a pc just seems super basic to me.

[shadow001]

Still pretty simple... It a few tubes and connections. :|

Then again this is coming from someone who has rebuilt their own transmission, engines, done a whole obd1 to obd2 wiring swap, automatic to manual trans conversion, and a custom turbo kit... So, water cooling a pc just seems super basic to me.

True to an extent, just with the amount of plexiglass the case is packing, everything is visible and there's no cable management at all in these cube cases, so it'll involve me routing all the harnesses very neatly, and making my own attachment system, and using power distribution hubs for all the molex connectors since there's far more of those to connect than there are molex outputs between both power supplies...using molex splitters looks tacky...


It'll involve a lot of cutting and drilling( a second power switch for the second PSU for instance) and measuring and labeling, with the latter being especially usefull so that it's easier to know wich power connector comes from what PSU, as well as making it easier for possible trouble shooting if problems arise.


I'll also make a cutout for the second PSU so that it gets better ventilation, and decided on changing the color of the tubing to orange since the black tubing looks little drab when everything else is black too....It wasn't an issue since the current case has no windows, but will be with the new one for sure.


Everything that i need is already ordered, at least to get the project started for the first few weeks, but i'm sure i'll need more stuff as the build progresses....1300$ spent( so far, and i had most of the stuff i need).

[TRD Supra]

NZXT White cabling installed

[BababooeyHTJ]

Nice, what is that a sleeved extension?

[TRD Supra]

Nice, what is that a sleeved extension?

Yep. NZXT again. they are in white, red, and black.

VGA ones are running late! This is probably my last tweak for a bit. my wallet is hoping for some time off, hahahaha.

[VW_Factor]

Used an inductive amp meter around the PSU's power cord while running benchmarks and the system routinely drew over 1400 watts A/C at the wall socket, so figuring that most power supplies are 85 to 90% efficient, the PSU was dishing out 1300 watts D/C for sure, and the overclocks for the video cards weren't finalised at the time, so with higher clocks comes even higher power use.


Now the system has 2400 watts to play with....

What meter you using?

With most inductive meters I know, you are supposed to "read" the hot line, not the neutral line, and never both together.

I have a power strip that I use for metering and have isolated the hot lead out of the insulation for proper measurements.

[shadow001]

What meter you using?

With most inductive meters I know, you are supposed to "read" the hot line, not the neutral line, and never both together.

I have a power strip that I use for metering and have isolated the hot lead out of the insulation for proper measurements.

It's an A/C inductive amp meter, not a D/C one, so there's no hot line or neutral line....

[VW_Factor]

It's an A/C inductive amp meter, not a D/C one, so there's no hot line or neutral line....

/facepalm

Apparently you don't understand how inductive amp meters work for A/C power, nor do you understand hot/neutral/ground.

[shadow001]

/facepalm

Apparently you don't understand how inductive amp meters work for A/C power, nor do you understand hot/neutral/ground.

Heh...All i do is wrap it around the power cord right after the wall socket, and it doesn't seem to have any issue giving me a reading in either amps or watts.

[Roadhog]

It's an A/C inductive amp meter, not a D/C one, so there's no hot line or neutral line....

lol wut.

And you claim to work on airplane electrical systems?

[shadow001]

lol wut.

And you claim to work on airplane electrical systems?

http://www.outsidesupply.com/ammeter-clamp-on-ac-dc-200-amp.aspx

have a nice day....

[VW_Factor]

Heh...All i do is wrap it around the power cord right after the wall socket, and it doesn't seem to have any issue giving me a reading in either amps or watts.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_I_use_a_clamp_on_amp_meter

Here, so you stop ****ing up your readings.

[TRD Supra]

In the dark

back to pictures.....

[shadow001]

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_I_u...p_on_amp_meter

Here, so you stop ****ing up your readings.

The ones i use don't have to isolate wires at all, then again they're not the average gear people can buy( they are extremely expensive)....

[VW_Factor]

The ones i use don't have to isolate wires at all, then again they're not the average gear people can buy( they are extremely expensive)....

Like the one you linked to me? Don't bother carrying on, I'm done..

[shadow001]

Like the one you linked to me? Don't bother carrying on, I'm done..

That was used as an example to show others what i'm talking about in general terms....The capabilites vary to a large degree, understand?