PROJECT LOG Biohazard Buildlog

Update!
Day: Whatever.

Some photos of the setup in the new apartment. It's still a bit messy as these were taken during the move in process. I had a come down with a cold, so my priorities weren't on tidying up loose boxes or wires yet.



I replaced the 5/4 aspect ratio monitor with 2x 1080p monitors I bought from a coworker for $50 each.



Because of the 3x monitor setup, my computer no longer fits on my desk (which is a great problem to have). Luckily, i have this wire shelf that just so happens to be the perfect size, with room for radiators and storage space below.



Now for the actual build updates. Since i haven't updated this log in so long there's a lot of stuff in here (i actually moved to my new apartment several months ago)



That's a big box.



I was running low on tubing, so i decided to go ahead and pick up another box along with some other goodies





My old res/pump combo was pretty old and noisy, so i wanted to upgrade to something a bit nicer and i needed something to fill up my 5.25 bays.

and finally we have the long awaited centerpiece of this build



A 9x 140mm rad. I've always been a fan of rad overkill builds, so I've been wanting to buy something like this for quite some time. The initial plan was to get a 6x, or 2 4x rads to set inside a custom wood box that would sit below my monitors. This would have been really cool, but it also would have added a few hundred dollars to the project budget, and i don't currently have access to the woodworking tools i would need.

unfortunately the rad got damaged in shipping, popping 2 rivets from the casing





I was going to contact performancePc about a partial refund, as i didn't want to wait for an RMA, or deal with the shipping hassle of sending back a giant block of metal. I never got around to dealing with it, but i don't think it will effect the project enough to be a major headache.



Leak testing the tower with an extra OEM psu. It took a while to attach the tubing to the fittings for the bay res, and i had to bend some metal to get it to fit properly, but everything went together without any leakage. The system has been running for over 2 months without any dip in water level



I ordered this 140mm AeroCool Fan to test for the res. Honestly would not recommend, I ended up sending it back after a month. The bearing started sounding funny, the fan itself wasn't very quiet, and all the rubber construction "features" to the fan blades were a gimmick.

Because the rad is so much overkill for the current system, i moved the 2 140mm case fans onto the rad, and left the rest open to leave myself time to save up for the massive amount of fans i would need. I did some temperature testing to compare the old radiator vs the new one. All tests were done with folding@home stressing the only the gpu for at least 15 minutes.

--ld rad:--
1x fan low speed
CPU: 65-73
GPU: 54
Water:43.2

2x 100+ CFM fan max:
CPU: 50-53
GPU: 46
Water: 34.8

With the new rad, i can run 2 stock fans at a dead silent 30% power (minimum spinup speed) with lower temps than the old setup with 2x leafblower fans running at full speed. I found I could get away with running the new rad passively, but the temps aren't ideal, and the performance gains from even 1 fan running silently was exponentially better than no fans.



After another month or two, I bought and tested a Thermaltake Riing fan to replace the failed AeroCool fan. My past experiences with Thermaltake have been hit or miss, but i really like the look, and noise level of these fans. After reading some in dept reviews i decided to pull the trigger on getting another 11. Luckily someone on amazon was trying to clear their stock, so i was able to get them for 10$ each+free ship (normal retail value is $15-$18)





My old fan controller can't drive this entire radiator, as it caps out at 1 amp (as do my motherboard headers). I did my best with the spare parts i had onhand, but until i get a new controller i can't manage to wire up all 9 fans yet. I want to run all of these fans on one channel, which will take 2.7 amps (9x.3 amp). If anyone has any controller recommendations, I'm open to suggestions.



The Riings look really cool through the front panel, and match the res quite nicely.



As I mentioned earlier, i had accidentally purchased the wrong revision waterblock for my gpu. Through some intense classifieds scavenging i was able to find and purchase a rev 1.1 card. I traded my girlfriend the 1.1 card for her matching 1.3 card. (Which means i now have 3x 970's folding for team 32 ) I also snagged an Asus Swift PG278Q. I've been looking for a new main monitor above 1080p with a high refresh rate and larger screen size since it sits back so far on my desk. Ended up getting the Swift because it was on sale for several hundred dollars off on newegg, and i have no self control... (i regret nothing)



Worth it.

To do:
clean up radiator fan wiring, clean up case wiring
find and install suitable fan controller
Custom wire sleeving/management
Watercool 2nd GPU
run hardline for internal loop
Add dedicated fillport and drain port
find mounting point for water temp LCD screen
Dremel 5.25 drive bay to show off dual bay res.
Build radiator enclosure

Looking good sporktar. How's the staying. Pressure on those? They seem to be gaining quite a bit in popularity.

I'm growing interest into using those fans even more for my own build. Seeing them in yours makes me seriously consider locking them in as my radiator fans. Great build so far, can't wait to see it all cleaned up.

Blaylock said:

Looking good sporktar. How's the static Pressure on those? They seem to be gaining quite a bit in popularity.

Click to expand...

Surprisingly good, especially for the noise level and price. At 25% in speedfan i can't hear the fans at all, and i can noticeably feel airflow on the other side of the rad. My stock corsairs were dead quiet at 100%, but i could hardly feel anything on the other side (I believe the stock fans are airflow editions, so this shouldn't be too surprising). The new blade design on these isn't a gimmick but i think it's more optimized for high speed usage and not as much for undervolting. That being said, the dead-zone is pretty small, spin-up voltage can be set lower than any other fan i've tested, and they still perform really well at whisper quiet speeds. At 100% fan speed, there is a tolerably low amount of noise and a substantial bit of airflow out of the rad making these fans a solid choice for anyone looking for something more unique than the standard led fans on the market.

Dalchi Frusche said:

I'm growing interest into using those fans even more for my own build. Seeing them in yours makes me seriously consider locking them in as my radiator fans. Great build so far, can't wait to see it all cleaned up.

Click to expand...

The photo's really don't do these fans justice, they look super slick, especially in the dark. I'd recommend giving them a shot, especially if you can find them on sale.

In the words of Neo..."whoa"

Very nice build spork.

I do agree that the TT fans looks good but I will wait on some expert testing done to see if they are great candidates for rad fans as I might take the plunge on them if they show up to be a top contender. I can't help it but love the eye candy on those. Don't they come with a hub to change the colors on them?

AFAIK, those ring LEDs are patented so no one else can do LED rings on their fans unless they allow for licensing but that's a whole other topic.

Good stuff and can't wait to see more pics.

GTXJackBauer said:

Very nice build spork.

I do agree that the TT fans looks good but I will wait on some expert testing done to see if they are great candidates for rad fans as I might take the plunge on them if they show up to be a top contender. I can't help it but love the eye candy on those. Don't they come with a hub to change the colors on them?

AFAIK, those ring LEDs are patented so no one else can do LED rings on their fans unless they allow for licensing but that's a whole other topic.

Good stuff and can't wait to see more pics.

Click to expand...

No hub controller to my knowledge, they just sell different led color models. I'd be lying if i didn't admit that the main selling point for me on these fans was the aesthetic appeal, definitely very cool. Here is one of the reviews i looked at during my research. it's based around the 120mm model, but they should be similar enough, definitely worth a read.

sporktar said:

No hub controller to my knowledge, they just sell different led color models.

Click to expand...

They actually do have a RGB Riing Fan that comes with a hub if you were to purchase them as seen here.

Regardless, you got a great deal on those fans.

Day something: The Biohazard.

The 11 thermaltake riing fans i purchased came with molex to 3 pin adapters, along with some extenders with inline resistors. Instead of purchasing fan splitters online i decided to gut the adapters and re-solder and sleeve them into 3x1 adapters (with some help from dog)


Completed adapters:


I also used one of the leftover molex plugs to wire both of my monsoon endcap led's to a single pass thru molex.


All 3 splitters run to a splitter i already had on hand, so all 9 radiator fans can be run to a single fan controller.



My folks were nice enough to get me 2x 8 GB matching RAM sticks off my amazon wishlist for Christmas, so i went ahead and added those to the system. Turns out the version of windows 7 i own won't use anything over 16 gb, so i currently have half my ram capacity going unused. I tried to buy win 7 ultimate, but they don't seem to sell it anymore, and i'm still avoiding windows 10 on my desktop for as long as i can...


While doing some work on my pc i noticed some unsavory things floating around my loop...



I ended up just draining and flushing the loop, then bombed it with some ptnuke as i didn't have time for a full breakdown (something i later regretted)

Fast fowared a month or 2 to a saturday night at 5 am (about a week ago), i powered off my system when i heard a whining sound. Turns out one of my monsoon led caps had snapped, and started dripping water on my 2nd gpu. The sound was air being sucked into the loop by the negative pressure of that part of the loop without any pump pressure.



Needless to say i'm pretty disappointed, i really like monsoon products and this is my first ever watercooling parts failure. To make it worse, the product picture shown on performance pc's shows this item as having metal threading, not plastic. So had i gotten the model described on the website this never would have happened.

I decided to take this opportunity to completely disassemble my desktop and clean out the mystery substance that had been growing. I originally thought it was only bio-growth, but it turned out to be both bio and corrosion from me not properly flushing my radiator. This is rather embarrassing as i know better than that, but i hope the following photos can help you learn from my mistakes. Take the extra hour to properly flush your radiator, it will save you the headache in the future, and save your parts.

My first red flag was a giant shard of aluminum sticking out of my cpu block.


I suspect that shard was responsible for doing this to my pump...


A thorough toothbrush clean to all of my waterblocks, res and fittings were done to get them back into working condition. However, the corrosion did eat away at some of the nickel plating on my waterblock.

There's really nothing i can do to fix the gpu block or pump. They both still work, although my pump is now a bit louder than it should be.

After flushing about 15-20 gallons through my res i was able to clean out any remaining copper or aluminum flakes, which should fix my corrosion issue. Thanks to the advice given to me in this thread, I'm now confident i won't run into this issue again... Lesson learned. Many thanks to everyone who provided advice.

I took advantage of my system being down to order some new parts which should be arriving early next week. I should have an update here soon. Can't wait to get everything put together, and start folding for team 32 again.

edit: sorry for the image orientation, they're looking fine in my file browser. For some reason some of them are flipping once i upload them.

Thanks for sharing your story with images to teach others of the consequences in water cooling when certain steps are skipped.

Can't wait to see more updates!

Progress has been a bit slow due to this water damage completely destroying any shred of organization in my apartment. The fight with my apartment complex to fix the issue has been going on for about two months now. In the meantime my desk has been relocated, and i have to crawl over a pile of boxes and chairs to get to my toolbox. Not an ideal situation



Taking advantage of the system being completely broken down for a re-work i decided to drill a hole for a fillport on the top, along with some other misc. drilling that would result in metal shavings getting everywhere.



It's not the most elegant looking, especially because of it's location and how much it sticks out, but I'm still satisfied with how it came out.



The res that i currently have coming in the mail requires mount points on the case. However there really isn't anywhere internally that would work, so i decided to pick up a plexi sheet from the hardware store and make a mounting point where the front intake used to be.



Cut down to size:



I decided to re-name this buildlog "Biohazard" since "the power" didn't really feel right, and i have a biohazard symbol on my waterblock, and on my esc key on my keyboard... Also whatever was going on in my loop last update was probably a biohazard...

Since i will be taking out the two front intake fans i wanted to do something to replace the cool looking red led rings. Running with my new theme, i decided to mark out a biohazard design.



I went over the printout with an xacto blade, then peeled off the plastic coating on the inside of the biohazard design



Using some fine grit sandpaper i had lying around, i scuffed up the unprotected part of the plexi in order to make the design stand out, and capture led lighting.





Very carefully drilled out some holes for 3 mm led's



Then wired 2 banks of 5 leds to a single 3 pin connector. I used the soft rubber gromits from the top of my case to go between the metal and plexi, then picked up some hard rubber washers from the hardware store to go in between the screw and plexi on the other side. Not only does it look cool, but i'm hoping it will cut down on pump noise by isolating the vibration a bit.
Unfortunately the leds didn't work with my fan controller knob, so I'm considering wiring them to an on/off switch, possibly opposite of the fillport? Haven't decided yet.



I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It's gonna look really nice through the fan grill, my only concern is where the radiator mounting points will line up. I may have to drill through the biohazard symbol.

Tracking says i should be getting my parts in tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be able to get back up and running here soon. Sorry again for the image orientation, they are getting flipped when I upload to the forums. Anyone have a solution to this?

Nice job on the plexi!

How are you doing your uploads, via desktop?

I'm liking the Biohazard plexi Sporktar. It's a shame about your cooling loop...and apartment. In the end you'll get it all worked out.

Nice project, keep up the good work thanks for the pictures and info. =)

ATMINSIDE said:

Nice job on the plexi!

How are you doing your uploads, via desktop?

Click to expand...

Thanks! I've been doing it on my work laptop. I'm wondering if it's something with windows 10, since that's the only thing that's changed since my previous uploads.

Blaylock said:

I'm liking the Biohazard plexi Sporktar. It's a shame about your cooling loop...and apartment. In the end you'll get it all worked out.

Click to expand...

Thanks! At least nothing in my computer was damaged, it could have been worse. More damage was done by the leaky window than my loop (soaked my 1 tb wd green drive)

ITAngel said:

Nice project, keep up the good work thanks for the pictures and info. =)

Click to expand...

Thanks! There will be plenty more updates here soon.

sporktar said:

(soaked my 1 tb wd green drive)

Click to expand...

Other than the HD, did your 2nd GPU survive?

GTXJackBauer said:

Other than the HD, did your 2nd GPU survive?

Click to expand...

Yea, i caught the leak within a minute, and quickly powered off the system. A few drops got in the plastic shroud of the stock cooler, but no damage was done at all. I had the system drained within 5 minutes.

sporktar said:

Yea, i caught the leak within a minute, and quickly powered off the system. A few drops got in the plastic shroud of the stock cooler, but no damage was done at all. I had the system drained within 5 minutes.

Click to expand...

Oh ok. Glad to hear!

Day: Sideways photos (sorry, still trying to figure out why this is happening)
Because my phone died shortly after opening the new package this update doesn't have many pictures, even though a lot of time was put into it. (Roughly 2 seasons of bobs burgers worth of time.)

Made a power switch for the front acrylic led's out of a spare 3 pin extension and a switch i already had from another project.



I decided to mount it opposite of the fillport to even out the awkward placement.



One of the main motivators for this update was to get rid of the existing res. It looks nice, but it's hard to fill, there's really no place to add a fillport, and it's fairly shallow. I had been looking at hotswap bays for my co-workers cloud server build, and found one i really wanted for myself. I only really use HDD's these days for backups and large file storage, so 90% of the time my drives aren't even plugged in. Having a hotswap bay allows me to easily move drives in and out of my system without having to mess with my cabling. This puts me one step closer to finally being able to put my back panel on.



Unfortunately it has a 70 mm fan with a proprietary connector
I actively avoid anything smaller than 120mm, and i still prefer 140 over that, but I'm just going to have to deal with it unless i can come up with some strange shroud design. I cut the existing connector off, and soldered in a 3 pin connector from another spare sleeved fan extension. So now i can at least control the speed, and turn it off via my fan controller when i don't have hdd's installed.

Sweet loot:



Unpackaged sweet loot



I bought this SLI bridge to go along with my biohazard theme. Of course i misjudged the gap, so I have to use the smaller tube without that design.



Did some more acrylic work for the new more robust water pass thru's.



Cut out the old 120 mm fan grate to make room for the new plate. The new pass thru's look better, are more sturdy, and now i can remove the motherboard and graphics cards without pulling any tubing off the barbs. Just pull the quick disconnects and unscrew the acrylic plate. This will be great for maintenance or any troubleshooting i may have to do.



More cool pictures of expensive toys



Finally caved and bought a grill for the radiator. Finding someone to build me a custom enclosure proved to be more difficult than i anticipated. Apparently not many people my age in my town have access to a garage and a load of powertools, or the skills to use them. Overall it turned out nice, it was a pain to fit all the fan cables and daisy chain adapters into such a small space, but it looks much cleaner now. The grill is a bit too expensive to buy for both sides, especially since i'm only using fans on the front, so i'm thinking some mesh from mcmaster will be enough to protect the back end from any damage. I'm not too concerned about it getting knocked around at home, but i'm planning on taking it to a BYOC lan in a few months, so i definitely don't want my fins exposed then.



Unfortunately i ordered the wrong size res mount, so i had to put in a new order last night. I'll save those sweet res photos for my next update. Things are coming along well, and the res looks amazing. I'll be folding proteins in style in no time.

Nice job on the radiator setup. Looks super clean, really liking the pass-thru job you did, a little jealous, my case won't let me take out the MB without dismantling the entire thing.

That radiator is gonna do some insane cooling, I don't imagine you have to ever turn your fans up to keep your loop cool. I was looking at that rad for an upcoming project, but it kinda turned me off when it said it had use Stainless-Steel in the shroud, does the shroud come in contact with the cooling liquid in any way? Thanks for the info and looking forward to seeing how this project turns out.