Dual Loop W/C-SLI Gaming Rig, Video Build.

Dual Loop W/C-SLI Gaming Rig, Video Build. Lots of Pics.

A year (or more) ago, I built a W/C Gaming rig around a NF4 Lanparty and 2 GeForce 7900's. It was for a friend of mine who had no experience with liquid cooling and If I'm honest with myself, the W/C setup was not very user-friendly and he had problems with growth in the loop an leaking.
SO!
Here we are a yr later and were going to re-do the whole thing with some new parts, a new case, 2 individual loops-one for the CPU and the other cooling the 7900's, and NO DUCT TAPE AT ALL!

I'm video-ing the entire build, starting with the first part which you'll find below where I go through all the components etc we'll be using.

Most everything was purchased from www.performance-pcs.com as I had heard good things about them and being located quite close by meant shipping was cheap and VERY fast.
Big thanks to them for letting me swap some unwanted purchases out, no questions asked and some very neat sleeving work too.
Also got some 1/4inch ID tygon from USPlastics...Minimum of 10 feet! (I only needed 3) and $8 shipping for an envelope with 2 stamps on it.
And we had to get another mounting kit from DangerDen for the existing Maze 4 as all those little springs and screws were lost during the melee. (They too pulled the envelope trick....oh well, had to have it.)

Heres part 1, its 79MB by the way so might take a while on slow cons:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7955529908808700601




More to come this weekend...

Today I had some free time so I got on with cutting the round hole for the fan, installing the barbs for the fill tubes on the res's and lapping the Koosah blocks.
Heres some pics:

Found that this mug was a perfect size for a template....nice.


The 'Before': My free handed circle.


The 'After' shot. Much neater.


Dremmel bit cuts a fairly clean line eh.


Heres one of the Bay Res/Pump combo's.


Hole marked for drilling.


Holes finished and barbs installed,(with a little epoxy).


Heres one of the DangerDen Koosah Blocks.


Before pic of one of the memory areas...quite dull.


And after lapping to 2000, better I'd say.

GPU area, Before.


and after lapping.


Side by side, for comparison.


A view from above...shiny!


Heres the Maze 4, lapped also to 2000.

Lookin' awesome .. Your a brave man using a see-through case .. Those things are a nightmare for hiding cables ..

Wow you are doing a LOT of lapping! Looking great!

I can't wait to see the finished product. Good luck

Pardon the question but did you fab that res yourself? looking good, excited to see the finished product.

maxspam said:

Pardon the question but did you fab that res yourself? looking good, excited to see the finished product.

Click to expand...

That's a XSPC "Bay-Res" Pump/Reservoir Combo

http://www.performance-pcs.com/cata...e=product_info&cPath=59_367&products_id=22697




Asus Crosshair Phenom 9500 Quad 2.2 Ghz D-Tek FuZion V2 CPU Water Block Mushkin 996533 4GB EVGA Geforce 8800GTS 640MB X2 SLI Swiftech Stealth Extreme Duty G80 Rev 3 VGA Waterblock Zalman ZM-GWB8800 GTS GPU Water Block SB Audigy Seagate ST325041 250GB WDC 250GB Swiftech MCP350 In-Line 12V DC Pump Swiftech MCW30 Chipset Water-block XSPC "Bay-Res" Pump/Reservoir Combo Saint-Gobain Tygon R-3603 Clear Tubing 20' 3/8" ID Black Ice® GT Stealth 120 Highest Performance Radiator Antec NeoPower 650 Watt Blue LED PSU Windows Vista Ultimate x64 SP1 Sunbeam UFO CUBE Acrylic Case Sunbeam RHK-EX-BA Rheobus-Extreme Fan Controller Panel

Hi nano_man

Do you notice that u'll not be able to close your top cover for the SLI setup? You have to do some modification like mine.

hata28 said:

Hi nano_man

Do you notice that u'll not be able to close your top cover for the SLI setup? You have to do some modification like mine.

Click to expand...

Yeh, i noticed that...still haven't quite decided what im going to do there. lets see a pic of yours, so i can see what you did.

Did some more work today, learned how to sleeve and made a bracket for the fill system, pics follow:



PSU before.


And after sleeving.


Temp LCD's after sleeving, (starting to get the hang of it now)


Installed the temp sensor into each res with some epoxy.


I needed some kind of bracket to house the fill system, this is what I came up with using the off-cuts left over after cutting the fan holes.


Mocked up, should work like this.


Here are the pieces after dremmel-ing.


Bit of sanding to tidy the edges up...


Pieces after sanding.


Make sure everything fits ok...

Here it is put together and glued.


Another angle.


And another.

nan0_man said:

Yeh, i noticed that...still haven't quite decided what im going to do there. lets see a pic of yours, so i can see what you did.

Click to expand...

I replaced the 4 thumb screws with the given drive mount screws and used Self-adhesive foam weatherstripping around it with rubber bumpers on the 4 corners. I can't even close it with the SLI bridge installed without this modification.













I had difficulties choosing the water blocks too for the G80 8800 GTS. so I got one new Zalman ZM-GWB8800 GTS GPU Water Block first from Newegg. And later a got a good deal from ebay for swiftech Stealth Extreme Duty VGA Waterblock. With the Swiftech I can install the Swiftech MCW30 Chipset Water-block for the South Bridge. So I waiting for some more parts to cool the North bridge and the mosfets.

Got some felt pads to cushion the DVD-RW.


PSU and Loop-1 Rad installed.


A look inside the lower level, it's really starting to come together.


Side view.


And the front.

hata28 said:

I replaced the 4 thumb screws with the given drive mount screws and used Self-adhesive foam weatherstripping around it with rubber bumpers on the 4 corners. I can't even close it with the SLI bridge installed without this modification.

I had difficulties choosing the water blocks too for the G80 8800 GTS. so I got one new Zalman ZM-GWB8800 GTS GPU Water Block first from Newegg. And later a got a good deal from ebay for swiftech Stealth Extreme Duty VGA Waterblock. With the Swiftech I can install the Swiftech MCW30 Chipset Water-block for the South Bridge. So I waiting for some more parts to cool the North bridge and the mosfets.

Click to expand...

Well, I had been thinking of routing out some of the 'lid' to accomodate the sli bridge, (Is your bridge bent? looks like it, did you do that?) and if that wont work then ill probably raise tha sides a bit like you did. trying to think what I can use instead of the weather stripping. hmmmm. probably go buy some more acrylic and use strips of it to give the sides more height. hmmmm.

I'm just thinking, Im going to have to be real clever when routing all these cables. case is tighter than I had envisioned.

nan0_man said:

Well, I had been thinking of routing out some of the 'lid' to accomodate the sli bridge, (Is your bridge bent? looks like it, did you do that?) and if that wont work then ill probably raise tha sides a bit like you did. trying to think what I can use instead of the weather stripping. hmmmm. probably go buy some more acrylic and use strips of it to give the sides more height. hmmmm.

Click to expand...

Well The SLI bridge is like some Flexible PCB so it can bent. It came with the Asus Crosshair.

I wish I have the gut to make some hole on the case like u

hata28 said:

I wish I have the gut to make some hole on the case like u

Click to expand...

I felt the same way until I tried it, then I said to myself..'wow, that was alot easier than I had thought!'

Way I see it, worst case scenario...buy a new case$79.95US). But so far, so good.

oh dude that thin tubing is killen me

maxspam said:

oh dude that thin tubing is killen me

Click to expand...

why?