I might as well show my first attempt too

[MrTurd Ferguson]

First off, I bought most of this whole setup from someone here but I can't remember for the love of God who it was, sorry. I'm sure they might recognize some of it and step up to say it was their stuff...I'm so sorry I can't remember who you are.

Secondly, I hate to even say what I stuck this on. It was a freebie computer to hold me over until I get my stuff together to go into my Antec 900 case. Part of the problem is deciding what actual parts I want, so it's just sitting in the box until I figure out which way to lean. Try not to laugh too hard...water cooling this setup is almost pointless.

The motherboard is by ECS. It's an old Nforce570slit-a board, I believe that is right. It's got a super awesome Pentium D 915 dual core processor in it, yeah man it rocks (haha - you laugh too). The ram is nothing awesome either, 2gigs of some crap Kingston ram...I believe it to be 667 pieces that won't overclock. The processor doesn't seem to like to overclock that great either. I have got it up to about 3.6ghz with temps in the 30's...so that is a good thing, right? The problem is it's just not stable and while it'll boot into XP, it doesn't seem to get along with Vista Ultimate very well.

Part of the problem is the board just wasn't designed for overclocking, I don't think. The processor is just crap...that's about the only word I can think of that is rated PG-13 to post here. The ram...Lord knows it's ram but that's about all it's got going for it. I don't remember what the case is...some crap too. The video card, I believe, is by Biostar and it's an Nvidia 7600GS...another piece of crap...

So basically...what I've done here is water cool a pile of crap. While the idle temps and load temps under Prime95 are pretty cool in the 30's, nothing is really stable enough to say that it would last for the long haul. I just got tired of this stuff sitting in the box and I wanted to see some water moving in it so here we are. Also, I took these pictures before I actually hooked anything up, so that's why nothing is plugged in. If anyone is interested in seeing the finished polished turd, let me know and I'll take more pictures. Enjoy.

 

[Conumdrum]

Dunno, looks pretty solid. Sorry the funny foam hat sets your overclocks back. If you take the hat off you'll prolly be smexy enuff to make the big pennies and see what that WC rig will do.

No leaks, great temps, great job!

I always liked the name 'Miss McSmegma Cheese'. Has a deep forboding to hear your gonna meet this person at a sales meeting, err or a blind date........

 

[Neuromancer]

Yup.. not feeling sorry for your HW here either man. you clock what you brung. As for shelling out for Watercooling before you bought better PC parts... well.. if you had not... you would end up like me... nice parts and no watercooling. Difference is come next upgrade, I still will not have WCing and you will

Excellent job, remarkable temps for Pee chip overall A+

(yes we all like pics of the latest and greatest hw, but lets face it, this is what it is all about... making the best of what you got )

 

[MrTurd Ferguson]

Well, that crap was free, the computer anyway. I first bought my case...actually the wrong one...an Antec 900. Paid too much for it...decided to just keep it. Did some mods to the case but basically put it on hold until I figure out what parts I really want. I've changed my mind so much...it's sad.

Then, I was on here...which I think is worse than Ebay cause someone always has an awesome deal in the classified section. I ran across most of this and the guy made me a super deal and I just couldn't pass up not buying it even if I didn't have something to put it on. I've always wanted a water cooled computer...even if it did me no good to have it...it's the coolness factor I guess.

Anyway, I put this together and I've not had one problem or one leak. I wanted to use worm-drive clamps but I decided to use whatever those things are. I plan to put the radiator on the back of my 900 but for this POS, I just drilled holes right through the side. I didn't care what it looked like, I wanted to see water moving. I probably should have located my parts a bit better...but I'm not leaving it on this computer, I don't think. I might if I run across another good deal, otherwise, this system is going to my next computer build.

I've always cooled with air and always had issues. I'm sold on water now, it's just too quiet. The idle and load temps are just too good too. True, a real processor and a real motherboard might give me higher temps to overcome but for now, I'm sold.

 

[MrTurd Ferguson]

OH, I remember now who I bought most of this from...ECLIPSER. I believe that is how he spells his name on here...

So a big thank you for the awesome deal he made me, all his help and all the answers to my newbie & stupid questions I ask too. Thank you my friend.

 

[jediman]

looks like your res is a bit low. could be making noise that you could get rid of by filling it up a bit.

 

[Nebulous]

Hey I've had my share of junk too. I look at it this way:

It's cheap/free, it runs and it's mine and that's all that matters. No leaks is also a good thing! .

You have a pretty decent wcing setup there and I don't see anything wrong with it. I'm sure it'll cool an E8400 just fine.

 

[MrTurd Ferguson]

I certainly hope it will, that's somewhere in the neighborhood of what I was thinking of getting, processor wise.

I appreciate the positive comments. Yeah, it was free so I can't complain, I don't guess. And should I have an accident, it was free and cheap to replace, so no love lost there either. That's mostly why I figured I'd do better to try the system out on it and not a pile of brand new, high dollar, stuff. I'll get the pictures of it together and running today and share those also.

 

[Bobnova]

I think it's very cool, personally.
Nothing wrong with watercooling an ancient computer!
Given the parts i'd water cool the socket 462 backup computer i have here at the shop

 

[Spawn-Inc]

great layout and routing for the setup, and great temps!

well done for a first attempt, even a third or forth.

 

[MrTurd Ferguson]

I was expecting to hear I'd routed the hoses wrong. This is my first attempt and it's been awhile since I've been here and read anything about doing this.

Now, for this rag...I know it don't much matter. But I've got the Danger Den part shown in the picture for the CPU. I've also got an Apogee GT by Swiftech. So which one is better? Let's say I wanted to cool either an E8400 or E8500, which one between the two I have would be better?

And the water level is a bit low but it's quiet and I kinda like watching the water swirl around, except for the occasional bubble it creates and sucks into the pump. I've got to get actual fluid for this thing cause I've only got tap water in it right now. But I keep messing with it and therefore I don't actually waste anything by just dumping the tap water.

I want to put a window in there and I want to mount the radiator a lot better and more nice looking. But I know I'm not leaving it on this computer. Especially not with that POS mobo and POS CPU...probably not in that POS case either. That Antec 900 better watch out...I've seen some cool stuff on here done with a 900.

 

[Spawn-Inc]

you did it right, res before the pump, you have the blocked piped properly and short tubing.

as for better block, there about the same and so it's down to preference or looks.

and for coolant, buy some distilled water and flush out the system from the tap water, then fill with distilled and get some biocide in there.

 

[MrTurd Ferguson]

Yeah, I think I read something about distilled water somewhere before, I'll do that.

Here's a screen shot I just took awhile ago...nothing great but I thought maybe I should prove what I said. Like I did say though, it's not Prime stable.

 

[Bobnova]

1.2 volts? I'm not surprised it isn't prime stable. Don't most 65nm chips go up to 1.5?

 

[MrTurd Ferguson]

Well, I've moved the voltage up and it doesn't seem to matter what I set it at. It seems to stay running better in XP than it does Vista, it'll lock up for no apparent reason in Vista. That motherboard doesn't have much of an option for overclocking. The ram is basically doing all it's going to do, so if you set the mobo to clock the ram accordingly to the CPU overclock, it usually won't post.

I might could squeeze more out of it if I had better ram but the motherboard would still hold it back. I see the multiplier switch between 12 and 14 on it's own, even unclocked. Overclocked, I see it change and it changes the speed between 3 and 3.5ghz. No matter what I put the voltage to in the BIOS, I still pretty much see that voltage in CPU-ID. In XP...it would stay up and running but running Prime I got an error message on core 1 after 30 minutes. The computer was still running fine however and didn't give problems...switching over to Vista on the other partition resulted in a lockup.

So I don't know...