New Watercooling Rig (lots o Pics)
 

Here are some pics of my newly finished watercooling rig. I had posted that I was buiding it about 2 months ago. Well real life has kept me real busy. Plus I had 2 defective kr7a-raids sent to me. I ditched the kr7a and just went with the gigabyte. The cpu and gigabyte mobo were free since I won them at the Xtreme Performance giveaway. Any questions can probably be answered at my website for the computer.

Custom Computer Site


http://www.jakeandkelly.com/customco...2-2223_IMG.JPG

http://www.jakeandkelly.com/customco...2-2217_IMG.JPG

more pics


http://www.jakeandkelly.com/customco...2-2218_IMG.JPG

Pics of the reservoir when I still had blue dye. Go with the green glowing stuff. The blue sucks.


The reservoir has a wave like motion at the top when the pump is on. This lets me know everything is moving nicely.



http://www.jakeandkelly.com/customco...2-2220_IMG.JPG


http://www.jakeandkelly.com/customco...0-2079_IMG.JPG

Couple things I wanted to do was cool the northbridge with water. Maybe my next project. I also still need to make a window in my side panel. I'll post that pic when its done. I have an 1800+XP nonOCd. The temp is 34 degrees idle and 36-37 degrees load. All blocks are from Danger Den, Eheim pump, BIXtreme radiator (push pull 120s). 2x 120mm rear fans and 120mm blowhole. Maelstorm pot controller from caseetc. keeps everything nice and quiet. Antec 400watt PSU is the loudest part of the whole project. Damn Enermax PSU had to go because it kept sagging the 5 volt rail so bad the machine would freeze.

Anyway...

Thanks to everyone on these forums for some great ideas. Thanks to Joe for suggestions on the reservoir.
Let's keep this water cooling stuff going! It's at least a fun way to spend your afternoons and weekends.

Looks really nice! Probably a dumb question, but what case is that?

Liteon FS020 is the case. I purchased it from Outsideloop.com. It's great for modding but is heavy as hell. The steel is thicker than normal but nothing a bimetal bit on a jigsaw won't cut. Thanks for the positive feedback.

nice job there I like the res

nice setup, even better cause it's in one of the best cases ever

Looks good. Can you fit any PCI cards in the PCI slots?

Nice, clean execution. Hats off. Love the colors.

Very cool. Probably in the top 5 for looks out of all the watercooling systems I've ever seen. Is that a pearlescent paint/clearcoat on the system? I love how the blue water inside the silicone hoses looks..

The res is definitely a killer. Looks like huhhhh a washing machine ? mmmh or a tiny aquarium :) You should consider putting fake fishes :D
Great work overall.
Is the pump fixed or is it just lying there ?

hehe nice office...

NOOOOOOOO Real fish!

Hey Triton, I like the blue bezel on the front of the case in line with your radiator, which way is the radiator fan blowing in or out?

Nice job, need fish? :D :D :D

Jim

Thanks for all the positive comments. I do appreciate it.

Jim: The fans for the radiator are blowing into the case. Yes I know this can add heat to the interior but I'm moving enough air that it shouldn't be a problem.

Gmat: damn good idea. Wish I thought of it. Cuz it would have been funny.

Jaydee: I can fit 3 PCI cards into their slots. In fact I run a modem card, network card, and a 1394 card. I'm gonna change the 1394 card to an audigy sound card soon. I don't like the onboard sound at all. If I were able to get a damn KR7A working I would of had 4 PCI cards to work with. I think my next board will just have more incorporated things like 1394 plugs and integrated network card would have helped. But the rig works and it's doing everything I need from ripping CDs, financial stuff, to video editing. Oh and gaming of course.

Una: I used rustoleum metallic blue for the interior of the case. That doesn't match the blue on the outside but that's what I wanted. The outside is a metallic navy blue and gold. I forgot the brand name but I bought those paints at Pep Boys. The outside paint job was the whole sanding, primer, sanding, primer, sanding, 1st coat, sanding, 2nd coat, sanding, clear coat, saning, clear coat job. I got lazy on the interior and used 2 coats of the rustoleum. I'll be damned because it looks just as good as the outside paint job.

Regarding the blue glowing dye. It sucks a*%! Caseetc has a lot of cool stuff but I do not recommend the blue glowing dye. It doesn't glow worth a damn. Stick with the original green stuff if you want the UV light to work well.

There's been a lot of talk about the BIX performance. My setup is doing 34-37 degrees right now. Ambient temperature is like 75-80 degrees farenheit (24-27 degrees celsius) in my house. So I'm happy with the results. Plus before the conversion to watercooling. I had 6 120mm fans plus a much louder PSU creating one hell of a racket. Now it's a gentle humm eminating form my comp.

Any more questions ? :)

Doh, I wanted to add that there is usally a hard drive rack that sits in front of the reservoir for the liteon FS020. I removed it and used the hard drive rack above the CPU. Keeps everything more organized. However, If I wanted to add like up to 4 more drives I could put the rack in place. It would just cover half the reservoir.

you can just make your own hdd bay to sit over the 120mm fans anyway, it'll give great cooling and still look fairly good

Cool, I was just wondering because I didn't see any installed PCI cards next to the pump in the pics above. I wasn't sure there was room in front of the pump to fit them.