Arca's Rebuild: Wire Management+Liquid Cool

[Arca_ex]

CRAP! Alright, I hooked up one quick connect to a pressure guage, and the other to my air compressor, to see if it leaks, and it started hissing right away. The loud thing was the center input barb of the RBX CPU block, I had to take it out and I got a different clamp, problem solved. I pressurized it again, and it was looking good. Then after about 5 minutes i looked at the guage, I started at 8 PSI, now it was at 5. So i busted out the toothbrush with soapy water, and it is the outputs of both radiators, so I need to take them off and retape them, then see if it works, if not i have teflon dope, that should fix it.

Trying to get this done, I'll update tomorrow, any replies within like 20 minutes and I'll get to them, if not, talk to you tomorrow.

 

[7hunder]

i wish my dad would mod my case for me (

 

[Arca_ex]

He's helping lol, I did some drilling, the long holes I used tinsnips, drill two holes and cut out the middle.

 

[Arca_ex]

Let me take some pictures, here are the radiators connected and they can stay in place just fine with just the steel tubing connected, rock solid.

 

[Arca_ex]

Here it is, I propped up the case on an aluminum box, the radiators are only attached to the steel piping.

 

[Encore2097]

Nicely mod. where did you pick up those fittings secured to the pc and going to the rad?

 

[Arca_ex]

They are compression fittings that came off of one of the machines at a company called ASML (they make chips like intel and supply them to motorola etc) my dad used to work there awhile ago before he got hired at intel, lol. I wouldn't know where to buy them, but those fittings alone, with the bulkheads, would run for about 250 USD, all stainless steel, rated up to a couple hundred PSI.

EDIT: They came from a machine that was being dissasembled and thrown out, so they were'nt stolen if that was what anyone was thinking, I also found out that they are from a company called SwageLok and they are actually rated up to 6000 PSI! lol

 

[Arca_ex]

ALRIGHT, FINALLY OMG!!! Alright, NO LEAKS, I fixed 12 leaks, most of them at the brass compresson fittings under the PSU, had to rip everything apart and put teflon dope of them, worked after 6 hours of tinkering and fixing leaks, I pressurrized it and it held, so tomorrow I am going to fill it and start up.

Here are some pictures with it all fixed, in the pictures it is pressurized, should have taken a picture of the guage.

 

[Arca_ex]

Alright, here's how I initially filled the loop, my trusty 5 HP wet/dry vac, and an intake hose.

 

[Arca_ex]

DONE! Here's some pictures with no flash then flash.

 

[Arca_ex]

And here's a movie I made (poor quality, from my digital camera) for an idea of fan noise etc.

Click it to watch.

 

[Arca_ex]

Oh yeah.

TEMPS:

My mobo reads out bogus temps, first time I went into BIOS it said the CPU was 11 C, so I have to get a temperature probe.

The GPU on the other hand.

Idle is 30 C (fans on 7V) and Load (hour of BF2 at max settings, 1600x1200 at 75Hz) is 33 C (fans on 12V)

I also have the CPU overclocked to 3.5 Ghz from 2.8 (for now) and the GPU is overclocked to 585/1600, i think stock was 550/1500, ill have to check.

EDIT: Alright, I flashed the BIOS up to the latest release, and the temps are reading out okay, and I have idle temps of 29 C with the fans at 7v.

 

[flamerail]

Its pretty and noisy! SWEET!

 

[SolidxSnake]

Wait, what mix are youusing? 100% distilled?

 

[Arca_ex]

For now yes, pure distilled. Other stuff will go in soon. I'm just waiting on some dye to come in the mail, then I'll probably be adding some non-alcahol iodine or some antifreeze, not sure yet, UV blue dye should be here in 3 hours.

 

[flamerail]

For now yes, pure distilled. Other stuff will go in soon. I'm just waiting on some dye to come in the mail, then I'll probably be adding some non-alcahol iodine or some antifreeze, not sure yet, UV blue dye should be here in 3 hours.

Yum!

 

[fuzzba11]

Looks awesome, I love the gauge at the back!

 

[Arca_ex]

Oh, that guage was temporary, it measured air pressure in Mpa (Megapascals), and I used that to leak test my system with an air compressor. (10 PSI=around 0.06 Megapascals i think), all that's there now that its bled are the SwageLok quick connects. Heres some pictures (some are blurry sorry about that.)

Heres the back now that its all bled:

The dye (looks more blue in real life) i used 2 one oz bottles, 8 dollars shipped.

 

[MechaWyvern]

Much yayness to you! This turned out great!!

 

[Arca_ex]

Thanks lol, I love how this turned out too, I was skeptical at first, but now I have a rock solid rig with big bling factor =]