Introducing...The Uberchair* (warning, not 56k friendly!)

[stu_allen]

Hi folks. Thought i'd do a build log on my latest project for you all!
Going to be a watercooled X2 4800+ with a SLI setup of 7800GTX's :cool:

First, some background.
Late last year i started putting together an AMD SLI rig, initially using the Asus A8N-SLI motherboard. Whilst its a solid board, its a bit limited on the overclocking front, so i went for a DFI board when that came out. Thats when the problems started! :cry:

The first DFI board had a power problem. When i powered it up, it killed: My FX-55, Both my 6800GT's, and two raptors. Not a happy chap! Several RMA's later i got a working board, working drives, and working cpu. Cos i had bought the GT's off a japanese guy on ebay when they were first released, i had no RMA path, so had to take the hit for some more. The replacement FX-55 was one of the last 130nm ones, and had serious heat problems. It would barely overclock, and was running 55deg c on water under load!

So i had a rethink. Decided if i was going to do this it was going to be properly. Ebayed the new GTs and new FX. Junked the OCZ600 psu cos i think it had also been damaged by the faulty mobo. Went for a PCP&C 510SLi - then grabbed an 850SSI for a steal of a price so ebayed the 510 again. :thumbs:

The watercooling setup i had in place before was an Aquacomputer german 6mm/8mm system, and whilst it was ok performance wise, i decided that a move to 8mm/10mm was in order for the new rig (i cant be bothered with this massive tubing lark and this complex about flow!)

So i stripped everything back to the beginning, and commenced the build! :hide:


*Why is it called The Uberchair? Well its a bit non PC i'm afraid (pun intended ;)).
Another forum i frequent full of bored geeks slacking off has a bit of its own language, and refers to computers as wheelchairs, cos geeks are virtually attached to them.
As this pc uses german watercooling, and is going to be pretty damn high end, the name uberchair seemed appropriate. Hope it dosent cause any offence - none is intended!

[stu_allen]

First the case. Stripped back to the bare bones - A CM stacker.

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/case1.jpg

In order to improve soundproofing (i like my pcs to be as quiet as possible!) the case is packed full of case foam matting. Given a decision between form and function, function wins every time, so this wont be the best looking pc in the world, but i dont care - no windows in this case ;) This stuff is from QuietPC (http://www.quietpc.com)

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/case2.jpg

The top of the case, where the Aquacomputer rad goes.

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/case3.jpg

[stu_allen]

Time to get the dremmel out!
The CPU and chipset blocks i am using have fasteners at the back, so i cut some holes in the motherboard tray for easy access. Plus a future use :mischeif: As the edges were a little rough, a bit of electrical tape sorted that out. No windows remember :thumb:
The brackets on the motherboard tray needed a little adjustment so the rad would fit too.

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/motherboard1.jpg

And installed in the case:

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/motherboard2.jpg

[stu_allen]

Now for the rad. An Aquacomputer Airplex Evo 360, this is a hefty thing on its own. But mine is a little chunkier than most! The rad is going to sit in the top of the case (hence the cutout.)

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/rad1.jpg

On the sides of the rad are brackets for the fans to attach to. Between each and the bottom of the rad is a neoprene seal, to make it nice and airtight. Rather than attach the fans directly though, i have a shroud for each to allow the fan to stand off the rad. This means less noise, and also no dead spot in the centre. Every possible air gap is sealed with electrical tape.

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/rad2.jpg

Between the shroud and the fans themselves is a silicone rubber gasket to help damp vibrations. The fans themselves are Papst 4412 F2 G/L 120mm fans. I struggled to find bolts the right size, so had to go slightly long! The nuts are tightened against each other, and sealed with superglue.

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/rad3.jpg

The rad attaches to the top of the case by the brackets, and an Aquacomputer grille. The fans exhaust air out of the top of the case, so no filter required.

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/rad4.jpg

[FB]

thats impressive

[stu_allen]

Rad now in place:

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/radcase1.jpg

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/radcase2.jpg

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/radcase3.jpg

[stu_allen]

Crossflow fan in next, to help the airflow across the motherboard. Because of the size of the rad, it dosent fit quite where it should, so ive had to move it down about an inch.

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/xflow1.jpg

The fan is installed on top of some more case padding to damp vibrations. Its also got some on top of it to prevent any hard surfaces on the inside of the case - as i'm using some offcuts its a little "ghetto" ;)

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/xflow2.jpg

[stu_allen]

More powertool action next!
I had decided to use 10mm OD tubing in this rig, (8mm ID) and plug and cool barb connectors. Barbs have proved to be a major headache in this rig!
The rad and flow sensor have 1/4inch fittings, and nearly everything else has 1/8in.
This a pic of the back of one of the 1/8 fittings

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/barb1.jpg

See that hex? Well i dont need or want it, and it'll harm the flow. Now whilst i said i dont subsribe to the "flow over all" approach with 20m wide tubing, i dont want to be robbed of it because of bad design - so out with the drill! The 1/8in fittings take a 6mm drill, and the 1/4 an 8mm

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/barb2.jpg

Much better!

[stu_allen]

In total this rig uses the following barbs:

1/8" 10mm straight: 2 on the res, 2 for the aquadrives, 2 for the cpu, 1 for the pump

1/8" 10mm elbow: 2 on the aquadrives. These were a RIGHT PAIN!!!! I tried 3 different types. One had threads too long. One had a nut too big for the cutouts on the aquadrives. The other was more restrictive than the 8mm ones i had used before! Still not sure which i am going to use...

1/4" 10mm straight: 2 on the rad, 2 on the flowsensor

9/16" 3/8 straightsx4 on the GPU blocks, just to be awkward :beat:

1/4" 10mm compression fittings on the chipset block just to mix things up even more!

3/4 10mm straight for the pump inlet

Most of the barbs were from [watercoolingshop.com (http://www.watercoolingshop.com)
The elbow barbs were from RS Components (http://www.rswww.com) and duncan rogers (http://www.airlines-pneumatics.co.uk/)

[joeMan]

:yup: .......... :yup: ........... :yup:
:rock: :!: UBERCHAIR :!: :rock:
:yup: .......... :yup: ........... :yup:

[stu_allen]

Talking of which...

Its an Aquacomputer Aquastream. Basically this is a modded Eheim 1046 that has been converted to 12v DC rather than AC. So its very quiet.
However, with the aquaero controller, you can increase the DC frequency from 42hz to 74hz, meaning that it becomes almost as powerful as a 1048. Still not earthshattering but plenty enough flow i reckon. Its as quiet as a mouse :yikes:

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/pump1.jpg

As standard, it has an adaptor for a 1/8" fitting for the intake. I had a 3/8 that would fit - if i shortened the intake slightly, so i did so! I used some epoxy putty to make sure there would be no leaks.

The pump is housed in a steel housing with the excellent title of the Full Metal Jacket. This reduces any EMI - as i have hard drives right above this was handy! The FMJ sits on the matting at the bottom of the case, and the pump is attached by rubber grommets to damp vibration.

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/pump2.jpg

[stu_allen]

Right, onto prepping the motherboard!
I was previously using a Koolance CHC-A05 (MB) block

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/koolance.jpg

This fits fine in SLI, but there are a couple of pros and cons.
Its very unrestricive - infact i think its possibly the most unrestrictive NB block out there.
However the mounting leaves a lot to be desired. The block can swivel, and infact chipped the edge of my northbridge!! So be careful!
Plus its only 6mmID tubing...

So instead, i tried the LanParty Freezer, bought from C&CC (http://www.candccentral.co.uk/) as recommended by someone on DFIStreet. Its a bit more restrictive, but not too much considering the design:

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/nb1.jpg

The block comes with 1/4" 10mm compression fittings, which use a little collar. This is because the thread is too long without it! A normal 10mm plug and cool fitting is too short with the collar though, and still too long without.

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/nb2.jpg

And an inside view

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/nb3.jpg

[stu_allen]

Motherboard in place :beer: :beer: :beer:

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/mb1.jpg

The red circles are additional heatsinks that i installed when i first got the board. They are thermal epoxied on permanently! Some of them are pretty much useless cos where they are dosent get hot, some work brilliantly. Basically i went a bit mad and stuck them everywhere i could!!

Ive cable tied another papst fan (same spec) to the centre of the rad fan guards. I'm going to start the system using some OCZ 3200 Plat Rev 2 that will happily do 290+mhz. But ive got some VX4000 that i bought off Coldcase to try, and they will want to be cool!

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/mb2.jpg
http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/mb3.jpg

Lastly, note the cable stealthing :cool:
The DVD-r does go over the top of the crossflow fan, but the motherboard power connector is going to have to go here anyway. The Floppy and the SATA cables go under the motherboard, out the hole in the back of the northbridge, down to the bottom right corner of the mobo tray beneath the crossflow, then back to the drives :rock:
One sata cable missing a the moment - its in this pc.

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/mb4.jpg

[FB]

about your ram cooling, i did some messing with mine today, and i placed the fan so it blows air past the ram and not directly onto it from extremely close and it dropped my ram temps over 12C!!

[stu_allen]

The res i'm using is again from Aquacomputer -the Aquatube. They brought out a black one just after i bought this blue one :irk:
It has 3 fittings in the rear of the tube - from top to bottom: Intake, Temp Sensor, LED1.
And 3 in the bottom - LED2, Exit, blank. The two LEDS (red and blue) will be set to change colour depending on the water temp :cool:
Any space in the res housing is packed with foam again. Sony DRU-710A dual layer DVD writer also in shot :bow:

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/res1.jpg

Because the exit is on the bottom, the CM Stacker front panel that is going to go in the next slot down needs modifying:

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/frontpanel1.jpg

Note that i am only able to use a single one of the 6 USB connectors - the DFI board only supports 4 USB in addition to the rear panel, one is used by my aquaero controller, and two by the SD/MMC card readers on the floppy drive.
The other two cables are the front firewire, and the LED/power switches.

[stu_allen]

about your ram cooling, i did some messing with mine today, and i placed the fan so it blows air past the ram and not directly onto it from extremely close and it dropped my ram temps over 12C!!

Wow! This should be pretty cool - its got 3 120mm fans above exhausting, one 120mm fan blowing on to it, one 120mm fan blowing side on - the rear case fan is going to be oriented as in intake, plus the crossflow fan blowing side on :coocoo: :coocoo: :coocoo:

I'm getting ahead of myself, but the Aquaero has 4 fan channels that can be controlled in a myriad of ways, including by the 6 temp sensors.
They are going to be set up as:
1. 3x rad fans controlled by two water temp sensors
2. Rear case intake, controlled by ambient case temp or memory
3. Memory fan - memory temp
4. Crossflow, controlled by ambient temp and GPU memory temp

Temp sensors are going to be attached to the res, and in the feed from the rad (hot water and cold water), the GPU memory, system memory, PSU heatsink, and ambient case temp :o

[stu_allen]

I was hoping to have the PSU finished today, but my delivery never arrived :beat:
Paid extra too for the quick delivery - it had better get here tomorrow as its holding me up! :smash:

Built up the case foam as a base for the PCP&C 850SSI

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/psu1.jpg

And here it is in all its naked glory!

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/psu2.jpg

The red circle is where the temp probe is currently being epoxied. The DEAFENING delta fan has been removed - ive got a trick up my sleeve for its replacement, but thats waiting on this delivery :irk:

[FB]

those 2 fans might create a lot of turbulence and not cool the ram as much as you are thinking.

[stu_allen]

Onto the graphics :wave:

The XFX 7800GTX's arrived this morning. VERY impressed by the packaging, the extras (Far Cry, X2, MotoGP, a t shirt (!)) and the cards themselves - seem much better quality than the 6800GTs.

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/7800stock1.jpg
http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/7800stock2.jpg

Voiding the warranty from the start - hey this IS bleedingedge :rolleyes:

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/7800a.jpg
http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/7800b.jpg

Hey, wheres all my memory? Aha, here it is!

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/7800c.jpg

[stu_allen]

those 2 fans might create a lot of turbulence and not cool the ram as much as you are thinking.

Possibly. But most will run at 5v under normal running.

The airflow is designed that all the fans bring air in, but at low volts. The exhaust is via the rad, and this will always run faster.
Opposite the mobo is a large (11") vent, which will passively draw in cold air.

Before i tore this apart and started again, i had the mobo upside down, with the fan at 5v on the memory, plus the rear case fan, and it seemed to work ok. I have got a hell of a lot of tuning possibilities with the aquaero - i am not joking when i say it'll probably take me a week to get the airflow, temp control and hysterisys right!

[stu_allen]

Last one for tonight - you are now up to date!

I was previously using Aquacomputer Aquagrafx coolers on the 6800GTs. These cool the core, the ram AND the power circuitry.
However the 7800 has a different power circuit, so they wont work. They are building a new card design, but it may take a few weeks...

Doing some more research i decided that mem/power cooling wasnt necessary, as i should still have decent airflow. So i decided to go for DangerDen Maze4 GPU blocks. I also put some OCZ Ramsinks on the memory, just to be safe. The bottom card is having a temp sensor epoxied to a ramsink so i can monitor temps and increase airflow automatically.

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/maze4a.jpg
http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/maze4b.jpg

Now these come with an awkward fitting size. My plan was to use fittings suitable for 3/8 hose and squeeze the 10mm tube over them, and for the connection between the blocks use the 1/2" high-flow barbs and the 3/4" tygon that was included with the kit.

But the tygon WONT WORK -it kinks in the distance required for SLI. So ive got two more 3/8 fittings arriving monday and i'll stick with 10mm tube throughout.

Tomorrow: hopefully get the psu in and set up, get the hard drives in, make a new USB lead for the aquaero, and get some of the plumbing in place. :thumbs:
Still no damn ETA for the 4800 :stop:

[flexkill]

WA WA WA WHAT!!!! :yikes: .....awesome :bow: :beer:

[FB]

well only one way to find out about the ram temps, try with a single fan, then try with both and compare

[RyderOCZ]

Incredible read Stu_Allen....love it....very very nice work :thumb:

Looking forward to the rest :D

[stu_allen]

A brief one for today, as ive been a little busy.
Fitted the PSU.

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/psu3.jpg

Looks nice dosent it? But all that bare metal is a lovely place for those nasty sound waves to reflect off, so out comes the case foam again.

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/psu4.jpg

Now this stuff is extremely sticky. It has a 2mm thick solid piece, then the foam on top. As i might want to remove this from the psu in the future, i stuck some masking tape on the psu itself, then stuck the foam to that.

I dont need foam all the way across, because my Audigy 2ZS sits in the bottom PCI slot.

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/psu5.jpg

The foam to the right of the psu at the bottom of the case is not the case foam with the solid backing - its just normal thin foam. This is being used as a dust filter for the open vent in the bottom of the case, so the psu can suck cold air in without getting choked.

Those 7800's are a tight fit with the maze4 blocks arent they? I had to move one of the ramsinks slightly because it hit the northbridge block when i tried to fit the card. I really like those stainless bars that XFX supply to prevent the card bending.

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/gpu.jpg

Now, what about the trick up my sleeve i had for the psu fan i hear you ask? Well this is where things started to get awkward - fans have been todays problem item.

I picked up a 80-120mm fan adaptor. Bolted this to the psu, with the heads inboard using hex bolts (ideal as you can get an allen key inside the opening to make them nice and tight), with a silicone gasket inbetween to seal the gap. Then another papst fan is bolted to the outside, using a silicone gasket and washers to damp the vibrations.

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/psufan1.jpg

The fan power cable goes inside the psu by way of the 80mm gasket, and i soldered the plug on from the PCP&C fan conector to wire it up. As i'm admiring my handiwork and taking this picture i spot a problem... :smash:

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/psufan2.jpg

I cant get a power lead in. Or at least i cant get a straight power lead in. I'm going to scour the UK for an angled lead - i'm sure ive seen them somewhere, and this hopefully should fit.

The CPU block also arrived today, a new Cuplex XT from aquacomputer. I slotted it into place, to admire how shiny it looked, and found ANOTHER problem.

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/fanproblem.jpg

Damn, my memory fan is not going to work.
Ive got a couple of options here - move the fan to the extreme edge of the board, half over the PWM and half over the memory. Or replace it with a 92mm fan - that would fit fine. Infact, could make it two 92mm fans, for additional pwm cooling...i'll have to have a think about it. :suspect:

ETA's for stock of the 4800+ have now been put back to next weds/thurs of next week :stop:

[Pointhore]

Very Nice. :thumb:
That should be one sweet ride when it's done. :thumbs:

[stu_allen]

Right, two panaflow l1a's ordered from the excellentDorothy Bradbury (http://www.dorothybradbury.co.uk/) and a right angle mains lead ordered from RS!

If anyones got any questions on the build, things they want to see more detail on (or less!), please post away! :thumb:

[stu_allen]

No questions? Well then i'll carry on!
Time to concentrate on the hard drives.
I'm using two 72gb WD Raptors in a Raid 0 configuration for the OS and programs - flies like you wouldnt believe!
For data, i am using a pair of HGST 400gb drive in a raid1 configuration to keep my data nice and safe.
In order to keep all these cool, without having to have fans blowing in from the front of the case (noisy!) and damp down the seek/spin noise i am using Aquacomputer Aquadrives.

In the old rig i was using four single aquadrives, but for this rebuild i have changed to a pair of Aquadrive Duals - this halves the length of the cooling path, and means there are only 6 flow killing direction changes instead of 12. Once dismantled they look like this:

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/aquadrive1.jpg

The water enters the anodised aluminium block, which the drives screw into. I had a few shin-etsu thermal pads lying around, so used these to help the heat transfer -the sides of the HGST drives are quite smooth, but the raptors are very rough!
In the top left are the metal plates that fit the top and bottom, these have a semi-hard plastic coating to absorb the sound.

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/aquadrive2.jpg

Each of the Duals has one raptor and one HSGT drive in it. The drives are then covered by a rear plate, leaving space for the power/sata connections. I had to modify it slightly, as the nut on the 10mm barbs was a bit big.
Sidenote - when dremmeling out stainless steel with a tungsten carbide tipped cutter and a dremmel, wear long sleeves, a facemask, goggles, gloves and a respirator. Ive been picking steel splinters out of my hands all day!

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/aquadrive3.jpg

The front of the drive has a pair of solid stainless plates.

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/aquadrive4.jpg

The drives mount by means of rubber grommets to isolate vibrations.

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/aquadrive5.jpg

Because i wanted the drives set back, so i could stealth them behind the normal bezels, i had to drill new holes in the Stacker. These were on flat metal rather than indents - which was a problem! I had to glue a nut to the grommets to fill the gap, and it was VERY fiddley to fit them.

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/aquadrive6.jpg

Once in, i stuck a neoprene offcut on the front as additional damping, and somewhere for me to glue the bezels (they wont snap in cos the aquadrives are in the way.
Also note the padding around the floppy - basically every single gap on this build is padded and sealed to damp sound and vibration...

[stu_allen]

The right angle power lead arrived from RS. But oh no! PCP&C in their wisdom had fitted the power socket upside down - this meant that the power cord wanted to run through the fan shroud!

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/psuprob1.jpg

This is one of those times in a build where you are really happy with something youve made, then find a later problem means youve got to undo all your painstaking handywork and redo it. So the fan, shroud etc came off, the psu removed and opened up again. The offending part:

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/psuprob2.jpg

Just to say: Dont EVER EVER EVER take the cover off a psu unless you know EXACTLY what you are doing. And even then not until it has been left disconnected from the mains for 24hrs. This isnt dangerous in the sense you might fry your system - its dangerous in the sense it might KILL you. I did a degree in electrical engineering so am no stranger to high voltage, and even working on powersupplies "cold" rather than "hot" i STILL dont like it. But needs must...

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/psuprob3.jpg

Had to bend the capacitors out of the way so i could slide out the power connector, rotate it 180 degrees, then refit it. The result:

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/psuprob4.jpg

The edge of the right angle rubber cable still needed a slight trim, as did the very edge of the shroud, but it now fits - i can actually turn this pc on now!!

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/psuprob5.jpg

Of course, things dont go smoothly, and i managed to pull out the temp sensor i had epoxied to the psu heatsink as i remounted the psu, but after i had test fired the supply up, i reckon i am putting out more CFM than before, so i am confident that i will have no temperature issues.
Oh, and its pretty much silent now too :thumbs:

[Underwater Mike]

Stu, really a beautiful job!

[stu_allen]

I did most of the plumbing today too - its taking shape!
The route is:
Res -> Pump -> Rad -> CPU -> GPU1 -> GPU2 -> NB -> Aquadrive1 -> Aquadrive2 -> Flowsensor (to do) -> Res.

On 6mm/8mm tubing this gave about 0.8 litres per minute, which sounds low but works just fine thanks. This setup with 8mm/10mm tube should give a fair bit more - there are a 13 less right angle bends in this build, and the graphics blocks are much freerer flowing. Although the NB block is more restrictive, and i dont know about the cpu block yet. We shall see tomorrow!

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/takingshape.jpg

Things to note - you can never have enough foam in a quiet pc, there are big blocks along side the rad to damp the fan noise and prevent hot air from pooling there, theres foam padding around the drive bays too.

The tubing is UV reactive PUR, so ive fitted two cold cathode UV lights (yeah, i know ive got no windows but it just looks funky when i do take the side off ;) ) - one is on the rear of the drive bays, and the other is at the top of the motherboard, hidden in this shot behind the rad fans.
Ive used a bunch of antikink springs to let me get some nice tight angles without crushing the tube.
I need to screw the front of the PSU down as its under pressure and is lifting up.

The rear case fan is only one not two - as this is being used as an intake i wanted some kind of filter, but if you put one up close this increases the noise. So i butchered an old 120mm fan, and fixed it on the outside of the case, with some foam as a filter.

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/casefan1.jpg

I also used some high density foam as a bit of stealthing/noise reduction for the rear of the aquadrives:

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/drivestealth.jpg

I couldnt stealth all the cables, but managed most of them.

Tomorrow its time to set this baby up - the Aquaero, which controls all the fans, temperatures, pump etc!


http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/aquaero1.jpg

[Katbones]

I am having an excellent time following along with your build. Thank you for sharing this with all of us.

[THunDA]

Wow.. very nice work.. looking foward to your finished product.. :)

[stu_allen]

Right, got the 92mm panaflo's in for memory and pwm cooling (the pwm apparently runs really hot on X2's)

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/panaflos.jpg

Fitted the flow sensor (the white block on the left hand side below) and connected up the aquarero - what a mess of wires! 4 fan inputs, but ive got 7 fans going into them so there are joiners and extenders, 6 temp sensors, flow sensor, led wires, pump wire, usb wires, plus the wires and transformer for the UV tubes, and two water tubes from the rad, two from the res, and two from the flow sensor all in a small area!
What a mess!

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/cablemess.jpg

Luckily you wont be able to see it, i'll put a blanking of foam in the rear so it will be hidden.

Bit of a delay in leak testing - i had a blockage somewhere. I originally thought it might be the rad, so had to dismantle the loop and test each component individually - turns out it was one of the aquadrives. The tube that connects the two halves of the block was barely in on one side, and pushed all the way in on the other, blocking the flow! With the front plugs removed you can see the issue:

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/aquadriveproblem.jpg

Bit of a pain to sort this out - getting the aquadrives out was tough enough, cos my method of glueing a nut onto the rubber grommet had made them a VERY tight fit! Then i had to remove the drives to get purchase on the tube, and in the end decided to shorten it by 5mm. Hacksawed it down and refitted - much better!
Checked the other one whilst i was there - it could do with 3/4mm being trimmed off as it sticks out a little, but its right in the middle of the block and as its such a pain to dismantle i'm going to leave it for now.

Ran the loop (minus the flow sensor and res) "open" with normal tap water into the sink to initially flush it, then ran it with hot (50C) water to clean out the last bits of gunk. Then flushed with distilled water, then connected up the res and flow sensor so that its a closed loop, put in the Aquacomputer "AC Fluid" as an antibacterial/anticorrosion agent, topped up with more distilled, worked out the bubbles and sealed it up!

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/front.jpg

Must clean off the fingerprints!
Been running overnight, no leaks so far :) Flow is 82.5 litres per hour, compared to 48 before so i am very happy with that.
A couple of the temp sensors arent reporting in, so i need to wiggle some wires.

In case you think theres not enough sound deadening foam in this case ;) i did the side panels:

http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/side1.jpg
http://www.letsoffroad.net/uberchair/side2.jpg

The first side with the cutout, is the main place cold air will enter the case, partially passive, and partially from the memory/pwm fans. There is thick foam around the cutout, and thin foam by the drive bays (as the case sticks out internally here so thick foam wont fit. Theres a gap at the back because the side needs to slide on.
The second side is mostly thin foam, because the motherboard tray is quite close, and i'd like some air circulation around the cutouts i have made on the back of the tray, to help keep the cpu socket cool. The foam in the centre is just thin filter foam for the crossflow fan to prevent any dust.

The only things left are to restealth the front drive bays, and re-plug all the power cables back in, but i cant do the former until ive finished leak testing, and the latter until i have the CPU. The ETA of which, has been put back again, either a week or two weeks depending on which retailer you believe. :stop:

[dsumanik]

Wow stu, alot of work went into this baby! big and baddass is the theme for this project.

Based on your findings with chipset coolers i went with a mips AN8 freezer for my board as well. All my parts are in the mail as we speak, ill send you a link to my project once it starts, however my new rig is gonna be quite the opposite of this one, a much tamer animal to say the least.

A few questions:

1. what did you use to trace the radiator cutout for your dremeling? Did you eyeball it? I am going to have to do a similar mod.

2. i will be using a 2x120mm rad mounted sideways, would you recommend pulling or pushing the air through the rad. (ill have a shroud either way)

3. Did you have to use teflon tape on the mips cooler?

4. Would a 2x120mm copper core rad be enough for 2 7800 gtx's a 4400+, and chipset cooler?

[jpongin]

:bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:

I hope you do more builds. I can't wait for the benchies. This was an excellent read. Thanks for sharing your project to us! Totally sick.. SICK.

[stu_allen]

A few questions:

1. what did you use to trace the radiator cutout for your dremeling? Did you eyeball it? I am going to have to do a similar mod.

2. i will be using a 2x120mm rad mounted sideways, would you recommend pulling or pushing the air through the rad. (ill have a shroud either way)

3. Did you have to use teflon tape on the mips cooler?

4. Would a 2x120mm copper core rad be enough for 2 7800 gtx's a 4400+, and chipset cooler?

Thanks for the comments guys. I got halfway through burning things in then the damn motherboard died, and ive been stupidly busy since so havent had time to play with it. Got a new mobo now, have fitted its extra heatsinks, and am going to swap it in tomorrow!

1. The rad grille came with a cardboard cutout. i taped this securely and used a very sharp knife and metal ruler to cut through the card and into the case itself, leaving a nice line to dremell.

2. With hindsight, i reckon pulling would give less noise.

3. I used teflon tape on all the screw fittings.

4. Probably. I went for as large as i could, so i could have more fans turning slowly for less noise.

[Rukee]

sweet display, shows water flow rates....very cool!!