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My new rig, not 56k friendly.

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Prisoner1138

Member
Joined
Jul 17, 2002
Basically a couple months ago I wanted to upgrade my current computer(pentiumd 805, 7900gs, 2gb ddr-667, etc etc), and I realized that this was technically the same computer I've had since like 1998, just gradual upgrades here and there. So I decided to treat myself to a brand new system, not a single salvaged part, no upgrades, just pure new-ness. There was one catch, no led's, cold cathodes, uv paint, fans with text, fog machines, excess chrome, etc. I've done all that in the past(well, no fog machine), and I'm older now and don't want a computer that I could use as the centerpiece from the ceiling in a dance club.

I opted to go for watercooling, not because I needed to, I just thought "never done it, so wtf not?" and so far this is what we have:

Thermaltake Armor VA8000BWS

I got this model specifically because I didn't want the silly 25mm fan on the side, the new armor+ is ugly, and I needed some openings on the side to work with. Aside from painting the interior of the case flat black(3 coats of primer, 4 coats of flat black enamel, so sanding specifically because I like the rough finish). I also removed the window and replaced it with an AC Ryan modders mesh panel, I cut the rough shape of the window so it would fit, as well as let me put the original clips for the window in place so the exterior looked nice. Unfortunately the holes in the mesh were so big that it wouldn't hold, so I had to use epoxy putty to keep the mesh in place. The back side of the panel with the mesh looks horrible, but you'll never see it.

Intel e6850ES G0 stepping CPU

I don't want a quad core processor, was willing to drop the cash for the 6850, saw an ES on ebay for 80 bucks less with a few minutes to go and won it. It was the logical choice at the time.

MSI 8800GT OC 512MB

This is the one from the infamous dell deal back in November. After enoguh screaming into the phone I got an additional 50 bucks off, total cost $157 plus shipping. It may have taken me 2 months to get it, but at that prices who cares.

Corsair HX620w

No flashy lights, "bling", just functional with good specs.

Abit IP-35 Pro

It had to be an Asus or Abit board, the Abit seemed more appealing

2x 150GB WD Raptor

Got a good deal in the classified section here, couldn't pass 'em up. I might add something else for bulk storage later, but I have a raid 5 nas already anyway, I'm not worried about it.

2x1GB Corsair Dominator 8500 DDR2

They were reasonably priced, and the dominator airflow fan was cheap and pretty quiet. Just had to peel the ugly blue sticker off the top. I figured the extra headroom of 1066 over 800 would be nice to avoid worrying about the ram not keeping up.

The watercooling consists of:

IC Diamond compound
D-Tek Fuzion CPU block with nozzle kit
Swiftech MCW60 VGA block
Swiftech MCP355 pump with Petra's top
Swiftech MCR220-qp (mounted in the front with velcro)
Swiftech MCR120-qp
Swiftech MC8800 SMC ramsinks (I screwed up the sticky tape on my first attempt, didn't clean the oil from the stock thermalpad off the ram good enough. So I wound up using the thermalpaste and superglue method. Yes, I tested, I can still pop them off if I really need to. The gel superglue I used really helped with controlling the amount I put down)
7/16" Masterkleer tubing
2x DangerDen Acetal fillports(one in the top where the usb used to be, I never cared for front or top mounted usb and audio, and it hides it. And the other is actually after the outlet on the pump as a drain, just kinda tucks into the case but can be pulled out if needed)
Anti-kink coils(black)
Yate loon 120mm and 92mm medium speed fans all around
Noise isolator VR 3.5" 4x fan speed controller
Swiftech Radbox


And now that I got that out of the way, PICTURES! (Please ignore the messy garage in the background of some pics. I hate my roommates, they won't clean up after themselves.)

case1.jpg

case2.jpg

case3.jpg

case4.jpg

case5.jpg

case6.jpg

case7.jpg

case8.jpg

case9.jpg

I'll be updating this again once I have more hardware and assembly done.

I didn't bother with pics of the case before it was painted, because we all know what the inside of a TT armor looks like.
 
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nice painting job!

3 coats of primer + 4 of paint sure pay of!!!
That interior/back looks like military epoxy protection coat! :attn:

Did you disassembled the whole thing to get primer/paint to every single part?
 
I removed the drive cages and the clips for the 5.25 bays as you can see in the first few pics. I also took off the stock io plate(who ever uses that anyway?), as well as the mounting bracket for the psu incase I need to flip it.

The front bezel was easy to remove, and then the original black parts(top and bottom) I taped off with a plastic trashbag so they could keep their original finish. The problem was when I removed the top plastic, I realized I could still see silver through the grate ontop, so I taped it all off except the plastic part and the mesh, and painted that too with just 2 coats.

It may look like a military type coating, but it's not. If I could have found flat black appliance epoxy paint, I would have used that. Now there's a couple nicks in the paint inside where drives go, behind the mobo(none of it's even really visible). If I wanted to do more than 3 rattle cans in terms of cost, the next option would have been powder coating, but that would have been 100 bucks easy.

The interior finish actually feels kinda like 400 grit or so sandpaper. it's weird, but I like it.

Another thing to note. Before I put the anti-kink coils on, the line between the pump and the videocard was kinked in 4 places. I pulled the card out to straighten it, put the coils on, and no more kinks. Those things are definitely a wise investment.

edit: you can actually see the paint I used and some of the disassembled parts in the 7th pic
 
Great job on the paint. Looks even and smooth! Very clean so far..can't wait for the final pics.
 
The finished product is gonna be a while, still undecided on what ram to go with(looking at 2GB, if anyone has any suggestions, throw 'em my way). The loop will be completed and PSU installed probably on Wednesday.
 
I dunno, I could load 'em in firefox jsut fine but IE choked for whatever reason, I switched from my isps server to photobucket so it shouldn't be a problem.
 
Looks great! Got any pics of the machine up and running?

Would love to see how it looks lit up through that mesh!
 
That's just it, there won't be any lights. No bling in this box at all(I was actually tempted to flat black the mounting plate for the d-tek block as well).

edit: I guess I could toss a couple LED's in there just for the sake of taking a picture at some point, but they won't be left in there.
 
It would look pretty cool if you had a couple green LEDs in there, just to give some eary ambient light.
 
Looks good - can I get a pic of how the radiator is secured in there... or it just standing in there?
 
Got the loop together, and running. I noticed a few things.

1. Filling an empty loop is a tedious pain in the ***
2. Flat black paint makes leaks REALLY obvious(of course I'm going to run it for 24 hours once the spillage dries up, leave some toilet paper here and there to check for leaks
3. Waiting for the loop to bleed itself out is annoying. I keep checking it every 2 minutes(a watched pot never boils)
4. Pentosin in the water(the correct mixture) makes for an annoying sticky mess I'll have to clean up later
5. The fan on the POS PSU I'm using to run the pump right now, is louder than the pump

I already snapped a pic of it with the lines full of air bubbles, I'll get another one later and post them both.

Here's the loop after it was just filled. Can't see through the lines at all, damn bubbles
case10.jpg


Here's the loop again after about 45 minutes, the lines still aren't clear, but they're getting there
case11.jpg
 
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Nice setup! Bleeding goes MUCH faster w/ a res, but then again you save some space with t-line.
 
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