Project: First WC Rig (PICS)

Well, i am finally done and am happy with the results. I want to thank this forum for all the help i got on my way to building this rig. I had no clue about the details of water cooling until a few weeks ago when i started reading here. well, let's begin:

Here is the before pic, very very messy in there. HORRIBLE wiring job, huh?


supplies:
Danger Den: TDX socket 478, Maze 4 ati gpu, Make 4 nb, D4 pump
D-tek: pro 120 rad
Misc: artic silver 5, dual floppy rez, 2x panaflo 120mm 80cfm fans, tygon, hoseclamps


first thing was to empty out the case and make the cut. this was my first case mod and first time using a dremel. i will take it as a learning experience...not too pretty...




now, this case isn't the best for an entirely internal wc system, but i managed to fit it in here. my next one will definetly have a bigger rad, but that will be in a HUGE lain-li case



my big problem came when the res arrived. my system is all 1/2" but the res came with 3/8" barbs. it took a trip to home depot and a hunt to find a 1/2" barb with 1/4" threads to fit in the res. in the end it was the 1/2" barb with 1/2" threads, a union, then a female 1/2" thread to male 1/4" thread to make it fir. it all worked out though...



the easy part seems to be the leak test. tricked the atx power supply to turn on (something i learned here!) then left it for 24hrs. it took a bit for the pump to prime when i was flushing the rad, but here it did a lot better (must be because of the closed system...) Once it got going i was amazed at the power of this little 12v pump. definetely a good choice.



now it was time to install all the important stuff. I wish i had a different case when i got to this part. the Xaser III doesn't have a mobo tray, so there is not a secret "pooka" area to hide wires behind the mobo. i did the best i could with what i have. i might eventually get some wire wraps and devise ways to hide some more of the wires, but its not a contest, and this will work for now.




now time for the temps. i guess i might have done something right with this.

temps with ambient ~25C
air: 30C idle, 54C load
water 27C idle, 33C load

it seems to good to be true. After this i was able to get from 3.12GHz up to 3.30GHz (had to go to a 5:4 ratio cause of the RAM though). i also got my 9800 pro from 405/354 up to 435/366. Now i just need to get myself a good cpu to overclock to 4GHz

Now, to finish i know i need i grill to cover up that ugly dremel cut. but any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. thanks for all the help!!!

looks pretty good pal- getting ready to venture myself into the w/c world. Hopefully, my experience will be as good as yours Congrats!

Wowza very nice and clean lookin set-up there buddy

looks great for a firsttimer

To clean up those wires a bit more, take the other side of the case off and tuck them back there. Thats what most do anyway. There are only a few cases that have removable motherboard trays, the rest of us just tuck between the right side of the case and the motherboard mounting surface. But again, great job. Thats a creative alternitive to a circle that you cut with the drem.

beautiful job man. Treat yourself to a case of beer. I'm too ashamed to post mine. LOL. I gota work on that wire job

BTW, why not put a nice fan grill or something where the radiator is. I think it would look awesome.

Since your internal 3.5 bays mount sideways, you could put your hard drives in backwards to clean up the wires a little more.

thanks for the suggestions. i was thinking of hiding some of the wires behind the other side of the case, it just seems that there is not enough room. swapping the HDD's sounds good, too...it would just take a dremel and some riviting to face those the other way.

quick question jenkx, how did you get you 9800pro up to those clock speeds? i start seeing way too many artifacts after i go one step higher on rad linker

what plate are you running in that TDX?

SenC.

Senater_Cache said:

what plate are you running in that TDX?

SenC.

Click to expand...

not sure what you mean. if its the nozzle you're talking about, its the default one

yeah thats what I meant. thanks.

As a next step, I would replace that res with a T-line. I usually wouldnt have said anything, but with those barb-combos on the res, your not getting FULL throttle flow AFAIK. Also the way you have your pump plumbed, a T would actually have you use 2-5" less tubing. (I would run the T right up the mobo-wall there behind your pump.)
...>>GPU>>NB>>T>>PUMP>>...

SenC.

SomeGaze - Check out my picture gallery on my XaserIII moding..
http://www.sevenlabs.net/imgdb/thumbnails.php?album=10

It shows how I hide the wires behind the mobo. Its a lot easier when using a sleeved PSU.

By the way, it looks good! Nice job.