What about internal pics of the storm?

[nikhsub1]

Originally Posted by unregistered

a lack of bling has hurt the MCW6000
GOOD bling has 'made' the PolarFLO

yea

Yep, sad IMO.

[BillA]

difficult to say 'sad'
to Steve's credit he took a better read of the market than I, and delivered what they wanted
and his management of the 'review process' has been masterful

I'm the supposed know-it-all and look at the beating the MCW6000 got from JoeC
this is not to say that the MCW6000 is not 'successful', just missed those needing the bling bling

[killernoodle]

if you gold plate it, bling will come.

[Chew_Toy]

From what I have seen on the various forums is the fact most cant find it in stock. Untill supply is greater than demand I dont see how the MCW6k blocks are missing out on much.

Also I will agree that the PolarFLO blocks look nice but the retention plate to me would make the installed block look on par or less than that of the MCW6000 and between those two I would go with the best performing. That also is the only thing I dont like on Cathars new blocks, but it wont stop me from hopefully getting a total of 3 (1-G4 & 2-G5s). If the looks of it mounted with the included plate were to become an important feature I would have one made just for my mounting style out f someting like Lexan or Lucite.

[satanicoo]

Originally Posted by Chew_Toy

From what I have seen on the various forums is the fact most cant find it in stock. Untill supply is greater than demand I dont see how the MCW6k blocks are missing out on much.

Jackpot!

I have waited for almoust 1 month for a mcw6000 or mcw6002, at www.pcdiga.com, but he just coudnt get it! too short of a supply.

In the meantime a friend told me he would make me a clone ww, hell it works, so...

[Cathar]

Originally Posted by unregistered

probably because Cathar has to pay the full commercial rate for the machine time

Too true. Not being a company that is a "front" for a much larger company's machine workshop that is "gifting" machining costs, nor getting the blocks made off-shore, and the price I ask for the blocks is actually quite reasonable given the machining time that goes into them, being ~1hr in total machine time for a Storm block at standard commercial rates.

Impossible to compete with the "gifters" or offshore if one wanted to actually make money. Getting blocks made up has opened my eyes to the huge disparities in machining costs that exist in the industry which many take for granted. Remove the "gifting" and "offshore" elements and the price I ask for is a total bargain.

The machinists I use like me though because of the nature of the job at hand. Doing waterblocks is something that can be easily slotted in and around more commercially oriented jobs for the workshop, and I do understand why the "gifters" do it - purely because the machines would otherwise be idle and they'd have nothing to do - so the "gifters" may as well pay oneself a bargain rate as long as they're making something more than zero from the effort.

I'm probably just too stubborn to give up a totally lost cause. If I expected profit and a sustainable living under the present manufacturing model I use, I'd have gone broke and closed up shop ages ago.

[BillA]

can't close a shop you don't have eh ?
lol

[Torin]

Even if you charged 50% more Cathar, I and many others like me (I imagine) would still be willing to pay it. For a long term investment in utmost of quality components, premiums are worth it. I consider the current price for the G4/Storm to definitely be a great deal, and wouldn't consider spending the money on a lesser product.

[Blackeagle]

I've got to have one of these G5's Cathar. You've outdone yourself man!

Can you offer a estimate of when the retail G5's will be ready?

I also noted the greatly increased number of jets and cups in the G5 design vs G4. Along with the help of the silver base will the added jets/cups show a full 1c over the G4?

As always you do the finest of work. Congrats once again on another great block.

[Edward Ng]

Stew has given me the green light to let you guys see the pics I took.

I have shots of the block in both, Socket A and universal fit modes, as well as pics of the necessary bolts that DFI LANParty UT NF3 250GB board owners will need. The pictures are purposefully overexposed in order to bring out the detail in the delrin parts.

Please note that my block was sent out before the discovery was made of the land grid array 775 issues, so my block's base has not had the necessary portions adjusted to properly fit LGA775 boards, and is completely flat.

Now, on with the pics--clicking on a picture on this post will bring up the full resolution version of the image. Please check out the full resolution shots!


SocketA, bolt-through mode.


Universal-fit mode.


Universal-fit, from underneath.


The contact surface; please note, once again, that this is not the final bottom plate, as the final baseplate has portions cut out to clear capacitors and other components in the proximity of the LGA775 sockets. Keep in mind that even though it's not mirror-smooth, the murky reflection shows zero distortion, indicative of a flat surface, which is more important than cosmetically perfect smoothness.


Under the inlet and outlet.


Just the top plate, with 3/8" fittings preinstalled.


Underneath again, at an angle.


Top side of the middle plate; the conical shape of the jet inlets, responsible for the acceleration of the fluid streaming in to the cups in the base plate, are visible.


Same shot, at an angle.


Underside of the middle plate; the jet outlets are clearly visible; they actually run part way into the cups in the base plate!


Same thing, different angle.


The copper base plate; notice the cups have small raised portions at the center for breaking up the dead flow zone at the center of the jettisoned streams; these little items supposedly make for a good portion of the Storm's improvement over Cascade.


Tilted.


Anyone else who wants to use the Storm G4 on DFI LANParty UT NF3 250GB boards will need bolts similar to these, which I got from Home Depot.

If you're having trouble finding these in your neck of the woods, let me know and I can pick up a pack of them and send them to you for $2.50+shipping. They cost me $0.89+tax/pouch, but Home Depot isn't exactly a five minute walk from me, my car isn't particularly easy on fuel, and I need to take out time from my extremely busy day to not only go to Home Depot to get them, but also to stop by the post office to send them, and both places tend to have substantial waiting lines. This is only the case for first batch orders; with the second batch and any batches after that, Cathar will have bolts like these sourced and included, marking the primary difference from what's included with my block, other than the new, LGA775-compatible baseplate.

-Ed

EDIT: Captions added. Cathar, please let me know if you need any of them changed or removed.

EDIT2: There have been reports of the pictures not showing up; if you have this problem, click here for the low resolution images, or here for the full resolution images. If it still doesn't work, "something error happens," with Earthlink's server, or the pathway between you and it, and I can't do anything about it. I checked my quota on my hosting and I've used less than 1GB out of 10 for my monthly limit, so I have no idea why it's acting up!

EDIT3: Please don't kill this mirror; try the first links first!:
Downsampled Versions (<600pixels wide)
Full Resolution Versions (Just cropped from the raw shots)

[DryFire]

wow ed you sure recieved that quickly.

have put it in your system yet?

[Edward Ng]

Originally Posted by DryFire

wow ed you sure recieved that quickly.

have put it in your system yet?

No, not yet; still waiting on the new motherboard and pumps to come in. I sold 'Hammer my two CSP-750 Mark I's, and am awaiting my pair of Mark II's to arrive from Bigfoot. The two Black Ice Pros are already mounted to my newly modified case along with their shrouds and Globe 120s, as are my new PSU and new reservoir. Just need the mainboard and pumps to come in and I'm ready to start putting it all together.

I'm still not 100% sure if I will be able to include my Maze4 northbridge block into the NV-68's branch of my loop, due to the placement of the nForce3 chip on my new DFI LANParty UT NF3 250GB; it's really close to the GPU and its massive block.

It won't kill me if I can't, since I can always install a plain air cooled sink on it, what with the front 120mm intake fan blowing right into that spot. It would also make routing my tubing much, much easier; picture it, the fittings on the NV-68 point up, the chipset is beneath the video card, and the radiator is installed behind the rear exhaust of the case, with the fittings poking in right underneath the PSU. I am still trying to figure out how the heck I'm supposed to run my tubing, even if the chipset block does fit with the video card and NV-68 block in place!

-Ed

[j813]

Stew
Besides the paint prob that you had, do you think this block would experience clogging? (Uber tinnie tiny holes, that's hard work) Anybody who has a Cascade experience any clogging? Maintenance every?
I think this was asked before, but is there a difference in performance if it has 2 outlets like the WW?

Thanks

[j813]

oops 2 posts

[pHaestus]

If you clean your radiator/heatercore prior to using it and then filter the distilled water before it goes in the loop then it should be fine. If you're using some mix of stuff then you can always mix it up the night before, put the container in a full tub of the hottest water your bathtub can make, and verify nothing starts to precipitate out.

Also Cathar. No package here as of yet. Can you put a trace on it? Probably customs held it up again lol

[JFettig]

Cathar, I thought you origially had this thing down to 10 minute machine time? or something similar to that?

It kinda made me wonder when I saw the price and a while back you said that the machine time was really low.

Jon

[DryFire]

i think he was saying if you used a mold you'd only need 10 mins of machine time to clean it up.

[JFettig]

This was months ago when he first started talking about the design.

Jon

[Cathar]

Originally Posted by JFettig

Cathar, I thought you origially had this thing down to 10 minute machine time? or something similar to that?

It kinda made me wonder when I saw the price and a while back you said that the machine time was really low.

Those statements were for a less complicated, and lower performing, version of the design.

[mwolfman]

Originally Posted by Cathar

Those statements were for a less complicated, and lower performing, version of the design.

Do you do the CAM part as well? If you do, then what software? Or do you write it in text?

[Cathar]

Originally Posted by mwolfman

Do you do the CAM part as well? If you do, then what software? Or do you write it in text?

Nah, I just bring MS-Paint drawn plans in to the machinists, and they then draw it up in MasterCam 9.

[jaydee]

Originally Posted by Cathar

Nah, I just bring MS-Paint drawn plans in to the machinists, and they then draw it up in MasterCam 9.

I have been on the road all month so far. Today is the first day I had internet access. The past week in my spare time I have been coding a CNC version of the pics I showed in the first page of this thread for my little CNC mill. Not an easy task with mill control software that only works in 2D. Made some significant modification to the design but I think it will be good. Calling it "Jet Block XT". Unfortunately my mill is broke. But by the time I get all this code figured out it will be this time next year anyway and the mill should be fixed or replaced. .

Anyway here is the basic drawing if the middle piece. All the red lines are tool paths. My mill came with a .dxf to G-Code converter. So basically I draw the tool paths I want to use and import it in .dxf format and it creates G-Code. Very very very sloppy G-Code but G-Code non the less. Unfortunately it only spits out 2D G-Code meaning only one pass (the first pass of about 5). So I have to create the next 4 passes changing alot of code..... One more obstacle it my mill can only run about an hour at a time before the motor overheats so I am going to have to break this up into about 5 different sets of code. Each set only doing one set of passes. My main reason for making my own version is to complete the project originally started here: http://forums.procooling.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=5476. Sorry the pics are gone, will try and find them and re-upload them when I get home.

Anyway excellent work Cathar

[Cathar]

Originally Posted by Cathar

I had a few closeup pics, but they are a little fluffy on the ends due to using very old cutters. The tool used to cut the delrin tubes had already been through about 40 of the G4 copper plates. Just a prototype here so it's not "picture perfect".

Discovered what was wrong with the G5 prototype middle plates. The machinists accidentally used a 33% larger cutter than intended to cut the tubes out. As a result the tubes on the G5 prototype middle plates have a wall thickness of 0.10mm, as opposed to the intended 0.35mm thickness. Quite frankly I, and correspondingly the machinists, were somewhat amazed that we were able to reliably form 0.1mm (~1/256" for you imperial boys) wall thicknesses with the Delrin. Machinist then groaned as he realised that this probably now meant that I would walk in with a design one day that called for 0.1mm thickness machining with the confidence that it can actually be done reliably.

Will be getting replacement G5 middle plates in the next 8-10 days.

[mwolfman]

Cathar:> What do you think about thisone?

http://forums.procooling.com/vbb/att...achmentid=3876

going to have 7 chanels made like that, and the millbit is like yours, makes a top in the midel.

[Cathar]

Originally Posted by mwolfman

Cathar:> What do you think about thisone?

http://forums.procooling.com/vbb/att...achmentid=3876

going to have 7 chanels made like that, and the millbit is like yours, makes a top in the midel.

I'm not sure I understand what I'm looking at, and what you're asking of me.