Project Venture I

[MasterG]

As of now I have $446.56 in a Paypal account that is just waiting to be distributed among several popular online computer stores. I have vowed not to stop until every dollar is in someone else's hands. What better way than to spend it on a water cooling system for your PC? Of course all of you reading this are saying, "Duh". Then again, this is a PC Modding and Overclocking forum so most of you have one sitting in your machine right now. Now it is my turn to enter the realm of water cooling and case modding.

Looking through the Project Logs forum you see a wide range of names with wild acronyms and some with even their own logos. Well I wont be making any logos or acronyms and I couldn't really think of anything special, so I chose "Venture I". It describes perfectly the nature of this project. There will be many firsts in this project from cutting holes in my beautiful V1000B to the water cooling system itself. It will be a learning experience that hopefully will result in ultimate sucess.

This marks the first post of many in this thread so stay tuned for more. Many of you have already helped me out with choosing the right parts and making suggestions. I appreciate all your help, but now it comes time to use these suggestions and make this project happen. So here goes :shrug: .

[MasterG]

After much flip flopping and consideration I have finally determined that it was all sort of useless. How much difference is it really going to make if I have a Swiftech Storm or a Danger Den RBX? Well the Storm has the special water jets, but no the RBX is bigger and will transfer more heat and back and forth until it becomes silly. So after all this I have compiled the following list of components which I know will get the job done at the very least. This is my first system so I have nothing to base my opinions on. This will be my baseline benchmark for many more configurations to come.

Danger Den D5 Pump
Black Ice Xtreme II Radiator
2x Panaflo M1A 35dB 85CFM Fans
Danger Den 5 1/2" Bay Reservoir
Danger Den TDX AMD64 CPU Water Block
Danger Den MAZE4 Chipset Water Block
Danger Den Acetal MAZE4 GPU Water Block
OCZ Memory RAMsinks
10ft ClearFlex 60 1/2" Tubing
14x 1/2" Black Plastic Snap Tubing Clamps
Royal Purple Ice Radiator Super Coolant Additive

[MasterG]

Well the parts are now on their way and should be here before the end of next week. In the mean-time I did some stress testing and took some screen shots of temperatures when the comp is idling vs when under maximum stress. Have a look.

CPU: 34C / 52C
Chipset: 34C / 37C
GPU: 42C / 76C

At the moment, the CPU has a Thermaltake A1838 Silent Venus Cooler on there with Artic Silver 5. It's a good quality heat-sink and as you can see, performs decently well even with 5% of overclock. The chipset is Asus' mini-heatsink with a 9500RPM fan cranking away on it. At 9500RPM, you wouldn't expect much of a difference in temperatures. The GPU fluctuates wildly, which is somewhat common with video cards. It's simply the stock Leadtek cooler on there. I guess the temps are terrible considering the card is running OC'ed at 488/1310.

[dominick32]

Good luck on the WC rig man. PS, nice choice of components. :santa: You will basically have the same install as me: http://www.overclockers.com/tips1222/

Keep us posted.
Dom

[MasterG]

I've actually drawn quite a bit of inspiration from your project so a thank you is in order :). We'll see how it goes, I am excited about the project and I think I will be pleased with the results. I've always wanted to do this and I'm glad to finally be there. I will say horever that I woke up at about 5AM this morning hearing gurgling noises in my dreams. I went over to my computer (in the dream) and opened it to find one of the hoses had slipped off the CPU and was draining the entire cooling loop onto the motherboard :cry: . It was not a pleasant dream, but I'm sure it wont turn out like that. I'll update this again next week when the parts start flowing in.

[dominick32]

I've actually drawn quite a bit of inspiration from your project so a thank you is in order :). We'll see how it goes, I am excited about the project and I think I will be pleased with the results. I've always wanted to do this and I'm glad to finally be there. I will say horever that I woke up at about 5AM this morning hearing gurgling noises in my dreams. I went over to my computer (in the dream) and opened it to find one of the hoses had slipped off the CPU and was draining the entire cooling loop onto the motherboard :cry: . It was not a pleasant dream, but I'm sure it wont turn out like that. I'll update this again next week when the parts start flowing in.

LMAO...
Definitely a worst nightmare scenario. Three things that you probably already researched: Plumbers Tape on the Barbs, Metal Type Screw Clamps, and 24 hour leak test.

Dom

[MasterG]

I'm going with the standard plastic clamps believe it or not. I figure that they'll do just fine. I heard something that the metal screw clamps can actually damage the hose and cause it to break so that discouraged me from using them. I will be using plumber's tape on the barbs if I can find some around here and a 24-36 hour leak test is practically a given.

[dominick32]

I'm going with the standard plastic clamps believe it or not. I figure that they'll do just fine. I heard something that the metal screw clamps can actually damage the hose and cause it to break so that discouraged me from using them. I will be using plumber's tape on the barbs if I can find some around here and a 24-36 hour leak test is practically a given.

I used the plastic clamps as well, but you always have to throw in the metal clamp variable in an all out long term leak free project. Either way, you should be fine. Will you be documenting the install? I would love to see progress pictures of the rig.

Dom

[MasterG]

Yes, once everything gets here Thursday or Friday, I will start the build and document the entire process. I'll post everything up here as I go along. Thanks for your interest.

[MasterG]

As of now, the components are on their way and should begin coming in Wednesday. All of the parts should be here by the end of the week, but I will do what I can as they come in. So here's the plan for the build:

Wednesday - Shut down the computer, remove all components from the case and store away in a temporary location. I will also do the preliminary modification of the case of marking out and cutting out the hole in the top for the radiator. The case will then be thoroughly cleaned out and the case fans will be removed.

Thursday & Friday - Begin installing components as they come in. Ultimately finishing up assembly of the water cooling loop and beginning the 24 hour (or thereabout) leak test.

Saturday - Final assembly of everything into the case and the first full system boot under water cooling. Will also begin the tweaking and overcloking process. By Saturday night I hope to have a good working combination of settings. I will start 12 hour burn-in test to test the stability of the new configuration.

Sunday - Finish up tweaking, testing, and burn-in. Post final results up here on the forum.

I will be documenting the entire build and will be updating this thread as I complete the various stages of the build process. The final touches will be applied Sunday evening.

[MasterG]

GPU and Chipset water blocks have arrived. The mounting hardware for the Chipset block was missing but big kudos to Danger Den. Called them up, they answered right away, told them what was up and they're sending the parts out tomorrow free of charge. That's quality service.

[masakabassist]

Looking forward to it. Good luck. Subscribed by the way!

[Flip-Mode]

What system are you cooling???
And I'm subscribed to this thread!

[MasterG]

Here are all the specs:

Lian-Li PC-V1000B
Silverstone 650W SLI PSU
Asus A8N-E
Athlon 64 X2 4800
2GB (4x 512MB) Corsair XMS DDR400 2-2-2-5
Leadtek 7800GTX 256MB
Audigy 4 Pro
ATI HDTV Wonder
2x 74GB Raptor 10K RPM Drives in RAID 0
250GB Western Digital Storage Drive

[MasterG]

Thanks for the subscriptions, by the way. I'll have more up here tomorrow when I start modifying the case and making preparations for the WC system.

[MasterG]

Well Wednesday and Thursday have come and gone and I still only have two of the waterblocks. Due to some shipping error, the remaining packages wont be arriving until tomorrow. So it looks like I'll be starting on things tomorrow night or over the weekend depending on what comes in the mail. After missing parts and shipping errors, I'm worried about what might happen next. I'll keep you all updated as things progress along.

[MasterG]

Amazingly, 3 out of 6 orders I placed managed to get screwed up. So it's impossible to tell when I'm going to get this stuff. Another round should hopefully be here Monday. I also found out that you don't get screws with case fans and for some reason, the screws I have for the case fans I have now are too small for the Panaflos. It looks like I wont even be starting on this project until next weekend now. Things just got really screwed up so don't expect anything soon. I'll keep you all updated.

[Flip-Mode]

It happens man, don't worry.

[MasterG]

As of now I am just waiting on the tubing, clamps, and fluid. Everything else is here except for some of the hardware I need. I will be able to get to a store this weekend and get the necessary parts. I'll go ahead and dissasemble tomorrow and get that over with. Once I get back, I'll start the build probably on Monday. Once I get the rest of the parts and the hardware, I don't anticipate and more issues.

[MasterG]

Well it has now been nearly a month and I still don't have all the parts I need. However, I just worked it out with Voyeurmods and I should have my order by the end of the week (I hope). Other than that, I have everything I need to get the job done. So we'll see how the shipping goes and if the parts come then I'll start on it this weekend.

[MasterG]

Parts have come today so this project can finally get off the ground. I'll start deconstructing this afternoon and getting ready to cut the hole in the top of the case.

[flamerail]

Love that retarded "nos" button asus puts onto there programs... It really stands for "Now Obout 'to' Splode!"

[MasterG]

Project Venture I became self aware at 6:14PM on February 24, 2006.

Details to follow.

[MasterG]

I've been messing around with this new setup for a few days now and I really have come to like it. I think all of the hard work is paying off. My friends who have seen it of course think I'm insane, but whatever. I just finished a 20 hour Prime95 stress test to see how the current configuration is holding up. I was very pleased with the results. I'm running 245 bus speed and 2700 on the CPU (up from 2400). The voltage is also at 1.375V, but it reads around 1.42 in CPU-Z and Motherboard monitor so I don't know what to trust. The video card is at 496/1320 from 430/1200 stock (7800GTX). I was able to run several benchmarks with no problems at all. My scores were 28375 for 3DMark01, 14972 for 3DMark03, 7768 for 3DMark05, and 4991 for 3DMark06. That setup is working pretty well. I'm going to see if I can take the bus up to 250 and the video card to 501/1350. We'll see how it goes, I should also have some pics of the build up here soon too.

[dominick32]

Temperatures? Pictures!!
<---- Me wants to see. :santa:

[MasterG]

Ok so here are a few photos of the build process and the completed result. Enjoy.

[MasterG]

Here's the completed build. I'll have some overclocking results up here as well pretty soon.

[dominick32]

Excellent build man! Its looking great. :)

Dom

[MasterG]

Excellent build man! Its looking great. :)

Dom

Thanks. :)

[Burdman27911]

I'd like to echo dom, It was an excelent build,...In fact your build is very very similar to what I've been planning for the past 3 months (I'm not building till next spring due to other constraints, but I can still plan!). If I could make a small suggestion, I think the wires look a little messy, but that's about it. Very nice.

[MasterG]

Thanks. Yeah this was sort of my first big build so I think I'll be going modular next time and I'll be making my own specialized cables. I'd reccomend modular to anyone building a new computer. There are a lot of unused wires that could be removed from the case and it would look a lot cleaner.

[MasterG]

There are a few setups I've been messing around with and I've sort of come to these two configurations. Here are some results on them.

----------------------------------------------------------
Overclocked:

3DMark2001 SE - 32100
3DMark03 - 19228
3DMark05 - 9264
3DMark06 - 5101 (SM2.0 - 2055; HDR/SM3.0 - 2012; CPU - 2081)

Chipset - 244MHz
Multiplier - 11.5x
CPU - 2805MHz
Core Voltage - 1.47V
Memory - 200MHz (2-2-2-5)
GPU - 498MHz
Video Memory - 1440MHz

(CPU/Chipset/GPU)
Idle - 32/30/31
Load - 40/30/34
----------------------------------------------------------
Stock:

3DMark2001 SE - 28604
3DMark03 - 16787
3DMark05 - 7999
3DMark06 - 4443 (SM2.0 - 1792; HDR/SM3.0 - 1749; CPU - 1814)

Chipset - 200MHz
Multiplier - 12x
CPU - 2400MHz
Core Voltage - 1.31V
Memory - 200MHz (2-2-2-5)
GPU - 430MHz
Video Memory - 1200MHz

(CPU/Chipet/GPU)
Idle - 30/30/31
Load - 35/30/33
----------------------------------------------------------

I have now decreased the speed on the video memory to 1350MHh and GPU to 495MHz, but I have not run updated benchmarks so I presume they would be slightly lower. I began to get error in the screen and random pixels appearing in places they shouldn't with the higher memory clock. That has all been solved by dropping it down a bit.