The NRZ N2 Waterblock Beta Thread

[trents]

thenrz, is the purchase of this giant radiator connected to the waterblock project or just a new toy? If the former, it represents another variable change and I wonder if it wouldn't be better to stick with rads of a class that most custom build enthusiasts would likely be running.

 

[EarthDog]

The performance should scale (up or down) on any rad. For example, if the difference between his block and another is 2C, it should be the same with a bigger or smaller radiator. The amount of heat the block gets into the loop doesn't change with radiator size.

 

[thenrz]

thenrz, is the purchase of this giant radiator connected to the waterblock project or just a new toy? If the former, it represents another variable change and I wonder if it wouldn't be better to stick with rads of a class that most custom build enthusiasts would likely be running.

This was a new toy for the GPU loop which is separate. It ends up I'm not going to use it; at least not for this case or N2/N3 product maturation. The loop may get hard tubing at some point, but that's it. The main components will not change now.

The performance should scale (up or down) on any rad. For example, if the difference between his block and another is 2C, it should be the same with a bigger or smaller radiator. The amount of heat the block gets into the loop doesn't change with radiator size.

This value is the reason I have a temp probe on the inlet and outlet of the block. It shouldn't change at all regardless of swapping out other components. That is, unless I put a very under powered pump in there or toothpick tubing.



Went ahead and spotted a great deal on a used 420mm Alphacool and grabbed it. $55 shipped to my door, and the guy took meticulous care of it. Was in a loop for less than 2 months then he went SFF. Never any dyes, always de-ionized clear goodness. We had a rather lengthy eBay messages exchange. There might be a couple of CPU blocks in my future shortly!

I got a bonus at work today, and that with all the overtime lately, I have put 38% more into my savings and 30% in retirement the last two months than my budget and long term plans dictate. This even with splurging on more fun stuff and N2 related materials (the number of small, and sometime large, packages that have been arriving since mid March is pretty impressive ). My boss is really cool about me and my pretty unique and wide ranging skill sets in particular. When I save him a good chunk of money, which I often do, I can more often than not expect 5-10% of the savings to come my way under the table unless it's like the time I saved them $36,000 on one of the CNCs... I got a $250 Amazon gift card for that one. It's great being a nerd in a factory setting.

So what does this mean? Once the last billet comes off on Sunday, I get probably 6 or 7 hours on the machine, and will have N2 blocks done to go out on beta then or Monday. Will also start on prototypes for N3 and R1, the first GPU block. I ordered the copper for the R1 prototype today, and will get with the purchasing manager on Monday to get the acrylic on order as well. Shooting for a basic 1080/1070 non-Ti GPU block for my first considering it's what I have here. The nice thing is, once I understand the underlying design characteristics, it's refining for particular board's topology and that's it. Very excited.

 

[Zerileous]

I wouldn't use hard tubing, if you're going to keep testing blocks I'd suggest flexible tubing, life will be easier.

 

[thenrz]

$50 is a steal for that radiator. Even with the weird size it is still a good deal imo.

It really was a sweet deal. I'm debating selling it or keeping for the day I buy a case that fits it. I'm not even sure what case fits 3 basically 200mm fans in a row. There has to be some or it wouldn't be a product... But would I even want a case that big? Decisions decisions...

If I sell it, I'll post it here first since I can do that now.

 

[thenrz]

Good evening everyone!

The final bits and pieces ordered from ppcs was delayed and couldn't ship Friday... They had a kit with a pair of EK VRM blocks marked down from $75 to $15 for Gigabyte motherboards. After doing some digging and taking some measurements caliper style, it appears the blocks will work. I went ahead and put it in my order. After arriving home from work, I saw an email that had for some reason gone to a subfolder immediately that the order was on hold waiting for customer response. Apparently they had miscounted the stock of the those EK blocks... but, they had the same thing but with plexi instead of acetyl. I called in at 4:50pm on a Friday and got straight through to a customer service guy. He quickly looked up my order and went to let the order puller know I was fine with the substitution. At that point, I was contacted via email to join a chat on the performance pcs site to keep up on whether my order would ship or not. Unfortunately, they missed the Fedex truck by about 5 minutes. It was hard to be mad with how much they worked with me and quickly tried to rush around and get the order out for me. Ends up they "threw something in" the box for me. What a cool thing to do! Super curious...

Anyway, I have plenty of data from today that I am formatting and will be posting either tomorrow evening or Monday for all to see. It contains timestamped data for each physical sensor as well as the software sensors set up to monitor hwinfo's data. The major pieces of information like the main delta, block and in/out deltas, and ambient over time are all setup through virtual sensors as well. This will be all in easy to view spreadsheet file type, and is formatted to be easily graphed. Many, many inferences can be interpolated and extrapolated from the data regarding the performance of the block and the overall performance of the system. It has been really intriguing to see how with a pretty heavy heat load how a sealed system goes through a couple of distinct changes... but I'm not going to go into all of that. I want someone who is curious enough to view the data to organically examine and make the same conclusions. My main concern, the performance of the block obviously, has been well satiated at my testing power levels. I am working to obtain other blocks to perform a direct apples to apples comparison against. I am hoping this coming week I can have two more to work into the loop... but we shall see. There's only so much I am willing to spend on blocks that will have one evening of use and then never again...

On a different note, I have been working on printing my PSU/wire shroud parts today. I am going to install the flow meters for both loops down in that area, and I needed a solid platform to do so. The fact that my craigslist special case doesn't have a basement bugs me, but not having one allows me to mount a rad down there, and I am just going to make one that is custom built to my exact needs. After what's on the printer now is done in about a half hour, I just have one more part to print, but that has to wait until the rad's location have been moved to the bottom where it will be permanently. I have another idea for something pretty cool that will be printing all night and be done in the morning. It's a bunch of parts to a cable channel system that I'm printing with clear PLA and has a slot for RGBs behind it. I will be printing several 4" sections, 1" sections, and a half dozen each of 15 degree wedge sections with 6 angled forward and 6 angled back. Tomorrow I will do 6 of each right and left 15 degree wedge sections while I'm at work. It should be pretty cool, and a way to get two birds stoned at once: turn unavoidable wires into something cool.

I wouldn't use hard tubing, if you're going to keep testing blocks I'd suggest flexible tubing, life will be easier.

I have two female to female fittings that will be used to switch from hard to soft tubing for the CPU block. I have a mount/clip printed that will serve as an anchor point for this transition. I am really interested in trying my hand at PETG. Now that I have a load of data, I feel confident to change things up, baseline again, and retest. Curious to see what the differences are, if any. The GPU will be set up as well, as I am nearing a point where I get machine time again. After the N2 betas are done (about half way for both), I will get an R1 cut and see how it fairs on my GTX 1070.


Here's some shroud photos with a couple of the sections printing in the background and then the large section's fitment test:

View attachment 209813

View attachment 209814

 

[thenrz]

So, I'm sitting here soldering together some addressable LED strips to go in the blocks that are being made this week and into next as well as some other projects. The LEDs in my prototype block that has been running for close to a month now haven't ever worked while in the system. Worked perfectly outside of the system powered by an Arduino. Full control and all that. I arduously cut out of my long roll of WS2812B LED boards 6, 8, 10, and 14 LED strips that I made wire sets for and soldered together for not only the blocks but some other custom things I have been working with on the side. I then plugged them into the motherboard with a standard 3-pin header cable. Nothing. Nada. There's only three wires... It's really hard to mess up +5V, Data, and ground. I looked over my wiring again... took about a second. Nothing out of place, nothing amiss. Then I soldered just one solitary LED board into the argb cable. Again, nothing. Doesn't make any sense. I know the LEDs work, at least in general. After flipping some wires around and other illogical things to solve what seemed to be an illogical problem, I had the thought to just cut into one of the ends of the 3-pin motherboard connectors. There's a red, a blue, and a black. It doesn't take an expert in rocket appliances to figure out what should be what there......

.....and then things became clear.

*** A view of the connector. Arrow denoting 5V on the left. Your normal everyday connector.
View attachment 209877


***Rotating around the X so the arrow is still on the left.
View attachment 209878


Fried probably 20 LEDs before I thought to cut the connector up. Sheesh. Red is going to data, black to power, and blue to ground. It's no wonder it wouldn't work. I have 13 more of these cables, so 26 more ends that I need to use up that will now require continuity testing on each one to make sure they're all like this. At least I know now, I guess?

 

[EarthDog]

Anyway, I have plenty of data from today that I am formatting and will be posting either tomorrow evening or Monday for all to see.

I've been waiting for this data (well, something to compare your results to, lol) for weeks... let's see it!

 

[thenrz]

I've been waiting for this data (well, something to compare your results to, lol) for weeks... let's see it!

It's going to be a while man. My fiancee tested positive for COVID-19... it hasn't been a good last week. I am staying at my parent's house since they're still down in Florida, and I don't have access to anything right now. Odds are I'm also going down for the count too, and honestly I'm pretty terrified of this situation. I'm off work right now obviously, and I'm stuck here. So it's just me and my "take as needed for anxiety" bottle of ativan until I either become symptomatic or test negative. If I end up confirmed to be positive, I'm going to go home, but I can't get tested because I'm not exhibiting symptoms. I argued that my cohabiting partner is positive, and that there's almost no way I can be clear if I don't have some freak immunity.

My fiancee had a coworker who is undergoing radiation therapy for cancer, and she spends a lot of time in hospitals... so that's the infection vector. It was an all of the sudden thing. If people think that because restrictions are being eased that somehow the virus is "going away", then we need to start handing out Darwin awards.

 

[EarthDog]

Stay safe... keep us posted.

 

[Blaylock]

Sorry to hear that nrz. Good luck to your EDIT: (future) wife and hopefully you two pull through without complications.

 

[thenrz]

Thanks guys. It's been really stressful. I hate that she's a statistic now, and I'm almost positive I will be soon as well. So far Janice has had light symptoms and it is currently day 3 post-confirmation and day 5 after symptoms started. Describes it like the flu but "sharper". The fever does funny things to perceptions. She's a healthy person and takes relatively good care of herself. We're both early/mid-30s, so not too old but also not too young anymore.

It's killing me that I can't be there with her if she needs anything. I can't stand it, honestly.

 

[trents]

You two will be in my prayers. Keep us posted.

 

[thenrz]

You two will be in my prayers. Keep us posted.

Thanks trents, it means a lot.

All the precautions we've taken, and it ended up being someone at her work with whom everyone should have been more concerned. I am getting into a hypochondriac head space now. Super conscious of everything I'm feeling. This is going to be a long week or two either way.

 

[trents]

Understandable. This too shall pass.

 

[thenrz]

The coworker is in the ICU. Her immune system is steamrolled from radiation therapy. My heart totally goes out to her and her family... She has three young adult children who are all positive as well. Two of them work at local Amazon fulfillment centers, and between there and a mother who has been going to the hospital 5 times a week for treatments, they were being exposed at both work and home. What an awful situation... It puts my problems in perspective, that's for sure.

Fiancee's fever is 102.3F and she has the cough. Chills, aches, sore throat, and a bit of the toe thing which is apparently common. No heaviness in the chest, though, which is very good news.

On top of all of this, my kitty is probably within a day or two of passing. He presumably has liver cancer, and has gone down hill fast the last few days. I brought him with me which may not have been the best idea at the time because they can be carriers, but now I am very thankful. I slept on the couch with him where I have him setup with plastic sheeting under his little kitty bed. He's so weak and out of it. Doesn't appear to be in pain thankfully. I have a vet friend who assured me that he isn't exhibiting the signs of being in pain.

What a rough time right now. Vacation and my wedding are both pushed back to a date TBA now. First world problems there, but I it weighs on me on top of everything else. Stay safe guys. Just because restrictions are being relaxed doesn't mean anything has changed. It's up to everyone to protect themselves and those around them at all times otherwise we're in for a resurgence much worse than the original wave.

 

[trents]

Seems to be one of those times when life has backed up and dumped on you guys. My heart especially goes out to you concerning the kitty. Our pets become family and they generally show us what unconditional love and faithfulness is about. I still feel the pain when I reflect on the times we have had to put down our four legged family members.

 

[Zerileous]

Wow, I'm very sorry to hear all of this, the good news is that in all likelihood things will turn out okay for both of you. I do wish you could be tested, but it is what it is at this point. Feel free to shoot me a PM if you have any questions or there's something you don't understand. I'm not in a position to offer medical advice, however I can point you in the direction of what I view to be a valid resource and allow you to draw your own conclusions.

 

[thenrz]

Went and grabbed my computer and stuff this morning. Thoroughly wiped everything down with lysol and all that. I picked up a mining frame for $10 off craigslist the other day, I don't think I mentioned that (and yes, I actually texted the guy back and told him about my situation). My goal during this quarantine is to get the data posted, put together the open air i7700k rig for more permanent testing, and once I have a new test platform, start on redoing my computer into something fun. I will have the Ryzen data moving forward, and I'm pretty sure I can get 180W+ on an i7700k and decent motherboard with the right overclock.

I have another week and a half or so to kill and nothing but time... and that sounds like an easily attainable set of goals. The mining frame should work out really well for having a ton of working room especially since it's just one video card at a time. It's been cool to have my testbed be on something like a 3900X, but moving forward I want to use my main PC for more of what I want to do with it such as CAD/CAM work, devving, light video work, and getting back into the Linux scene. It isn't convenient to have to be without my main computer when working with N2, and this is especially so when I have had such a long gap since I've been able to produce parts.

What I will do, though, is leave the current N2 block mounted and working in there as proof of longevity. I will take it out in a few months and look at how it's help up over time. I have no worries, though, considering the top shelf quality of all the individual components. The gaskets are made from Viton fluoroelastomer for example. Much higher chemical resistance than buna-n, and since it is a bit softer, I find it better for seating in place for long periods. Rambling again...

My kitty cat passed away last night. I'm glad he went peacefully. I told him to just go and sleep and rest... it's very weird how pets seem to let go once you tell them it's okay to do so. This isn't the first time I've had that happen. My fiancee is subjectively feeling less crappy today although her fever is still low-mid 102s. No update on the co-worker. I'm still symptom free. My temp a few hours ago was 98.3F. So on with getting things hooked up and seeing how much I forgot to bring with me.

Oh, I had to get the internet started up here again. Spectrum should be out by tomorrow or so I hope. They're just going to switch on outside and I'll do whatever in here. That's the protocol now. Thanks for the kind words, guys. Been a struggle.

 

[Zerileous]

Sorry to hear about your kitty, but I'm glad it was peaceful and he was able to have you to care for him.