Project: Dark Armor

Leak test done. Shots of the new radiator and loop order.








Changed out the Thermaltake ToughPower 850w PSU as it was getting a little old. I wanted a quiet and efficient PSU so went for a Corsair AX850 as it is rated gold for efficiency and the fan only spins up once the load is above a certain amount. At idle the fan simply stays off.



I am a little disappointed with the quietness though as the unit has a slight coil whine issue at even moderate loads. The efficiency I expect is as advertised.







Managed to fit the Alphacool Velcro tape just under the X2O 750 by removing the film cover from one side only and sticking it under the Reservoir.





Not going to add any dye this time, want to keep restriction to a minimum and not worry about having to clean out blocks as often.





All done.





System back in place.





.. and ready for normal operation.



Having already done a temp test on the GPU at 950/1375 in my last post, now for some temp testing on the CPU...

Managed to overclock the CPU to 4.9GHz with HT enabled and did a quick prime small FFT run for maximum heat, might try for 5Ghz later when I am comfortable with 4.9Ghz and have some more time. All system fans at around 700 RPM, or well below for fans attached to controller. Ambient room temps were around 23c as it was a warmish day.

Spoiler

Finally, a noise test conducted while running above stress test.

Spoiler

Click on video to view

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That's me done for the time being. Will be updating this thread if I make any more changes. Also looking forward to seeing some shots of your new build, matt.

Over and out

 

Hey I see you've finished! Well at least for now anyway

How you liking it? You sure have some tubing in there now, probably the one thing I'm not looking forward to is figuring out all the routing for the cleanest possible look.

Have you tried to hit 5Ghz yet? 4.9 is great, 5 though, well its just seeing that 5 isn't it still half tempted to get IB just for the OCing lol I wanna see 5Ghz+ lol

Thanks for screenie of ya mods for Skyrim, I take it that entire list is just Skyrim?

Where do I have to go to get some of these mods? Been playing this afternoon/eve and I have to say I'm still loving it without mods. But if it can look even better I'm well up for it! lol I'm not even sure what the purpose of the game is lol I defeated Aludin a few days ago, thought that was it! Game completed lol seems theres loads of stuff to do, not sure when or how it all ends lol

I'm really looking forward to getting started on my new build, next month can't get here soon enough lol I'm still trying to sell one or two things, once I have I can start getting some other items ordered in preperation for the build.

Still not decided entirely on which rad to get, the XSPC RX240 or the Alphacool NexXxos UT60 Full Copper. The Alpha I believe is cheaper, by about £10 and the triple version of it has outperformed the RX360 going by Bundymania's test so I'm still thinking on that one.

But also I fancy trying compression fittings, so may order some of those in the meantime also.

May also go with a new Fan Controller, perhaps the Lamptron with the touch screen, its got 6 channels at I think 30watts or 40watts, since I'll be adding at least two more fans I'll probably need it. May end up doing push/pull on the Dual rad so a better Fan Controller might not be a bad idea

I shall have to start my own thread soon, with before and after shots. Might get that started next week, got a week off work with nowt to do really lol

 

yeah, going to chill out for a bit and see what's out there before making any more changes. Quite enjoying it really, temps are pretty low and there is almost no noise. Would be strange going back to graphics cards and CPUs with normal fans spinning up loudly everytime I started a game or randomly spinning up when browsing the net.

Haven't tried for 5Ghz as it's going to need near enough 1.5v and though I expect that'll be safe with the temps I'm getting currently I do also want to be a little cautious at that voltage as moving up slowly will probably be better for the chip and I should be able to pickup on how the chip reacts to higher voltages. In no rush really as have been banching at 5Ghz without issue for a while and seems more than likely that the chip should be able to do 5Ghz stable 24/7. I'm looking forward to IB too but probably not much of an upgrade from sandybridge and if i do settle at 5Ghz then it's even less likely to be worthwhile.

Those are all my current Skyrim mods. they can be downloaded from Skyrim nexus. There you will also find a utility called nexus mod manager that will download, install, update and in general maintain all your mods for you. All quite easy now really, not like the oblivion days when we had to use 3 diffierent mod managers and quite a few utilities and hope the game engine could take the extra load.

Had a look at the Bundymania test results and going by them it seems like the ut60 is quite a decent radiator, does well at all rpm settings and seems to have excellent flow rates. Though I did notice that some of his results didn't match skinneelab's test results, in regards to the black Ice Sr-1 to be more precise. In his results, Bundymania, shows it to perform at the top of the table at higher rpm and more near the middle at very low rpm, but skinnelabs showed it to be quite the opposite. Could be due to lots of factors though I suppose as it's only a 1c difference between the rads.

The 6 channel lamptron with 30w per channel and LED display would be the Fan Controller Touch. It does look quite decent really, a little pricey at £70 but probably well worth it going by the TPU review. Have thought about compression fittings too, would look quite good. I might consider changing all my barbs for compression fittings, maybe not right away though.

I'm actually quite interested in seeing how you manage to get your loop setup with the GPUs in parallel.

 

Nice work! Very clean set up. How do you like the xspc bay res? Did you have any issues with fitting it in the 3.5 bays? I like the koolance bracket as well. By far the most convenient and professional looking bracket imo. If i ever sli im likely going to do the same thing with an old tc 120.3.

 

Thanks. The bay reservoir is pretty good, fits well into the 5.25" bay and slides out easily. I have an empty slot above the bay so generally slide out the bay without having to remove the faceplate. The Koolance mount is also exceptionaly well made and the easy detach feature works very well, couldn't recommend it enough

 

Question about the water cooling (forgive if this sounds noob-ish)

After you finishing testing the water cooling system, do you keep it together and put it in the case or do you take it apart and then put it back in the case? The reason why I'm asking is because I would be afraid of a possible leak if I had to take it apart and then put it back together again.

 

Not Noob-ish at all, JeyNyce.

In fact it depends on how you would want to set it up or how safe you want to play it but most people, including myself, generally set it up inside the case. This is due to it being easier to measure and cut tubing, as well as set it all up in one go.

The safest and easiest way to do this is to use a 24-pin bridging connector. These are available from many retailers and are relatively inexpensive.



http://www.candccentral.co.uk/phobya-atx-bridging-plug-24-pin-black.html



Alternatively you could use the paper-clip trick.




http://www.dansdata.com/danletters074.htm


Further explained:

http://www.ehow.com/how_4928308_make-power-supply-work-motherboard.html


Using any of the methods above will allow you start the power supply and any components attached without the need to have a motherboard/case plugged in. you can then use napkins under any barbs and on any components you are worried may get wet.

So long as water doesn't get on any components while they are switched on there should be no damage. Also as the water is distilled/de-ionied it doesn't conduct electricity and generally doesn't damage components even if you do develop a slight leak. Just keep an eye on the system and ensure you use napkins in the correct places.

Also make sure you use correct size and good quality tubing with decent barbs, and as long as you don't tighten any zip ties too much you're unlikely to have any issues.

 

Got some more temps for prime95 small FFT, this time at 5.0GHz. Keeping HT off for the time being and testing was conducted early in the morning with a cool breeze aimed at the radiator. So ambient temps were pretty low

Spoiler

 

Nice Temps there dude!!

 

Thanks mate. Had to do 5GHz

 

Too right you did! Seeing numbers like that is so making me want to buy IB lol

Just ordered an XSPC RX240 rad, thought I best get it as they seem to be going out of stock, just ordered WCUKs last one!

I see you've started a new thread, after a SSD now, I didn't think it would take you long before you wanted something new to play with

I fancy one of those Crucial M4s too! Or one of those new Kingston HyperX 3Ks that have just come out. I want a 240-256GB version but there around £235

Really must do Overtime at work so I can buy more new toys

 

Yeah we all need something to keep us busy. The Crucial M4 should be here tomorrow. Had been hearing a lot of good things about Crucial SSDs so now that I have most of the watercooling stuff out of the way I can also move on to general performance improvements, also I will finally be able to run pcmark with the opportunity to pickup some more points at hwbot.

It's only the 64GB version as they are still quite pricey and I only need it for the OS and perhaps for a couple of games. Something like skyrim should see significant improvements in loading times given the large amounts of data it loads quite regularly. Maybe I'll add another for raid if I like them enough


On the watercooling side I've still got to add some quick disconnects near the rx360 to go with the Koolance BKT-HX001 quick release mounting bracket. Koolance also make some quick release connectors.




A video demonstrating how they work.

Spoiler

Click on video to view

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This will make the rx360 easily removable and re-attachable when moving the case around. I could even remove the rx360 altogether now that I have the sr-1 240 in the loop.


I Would also love to add a water chiller to the loop, but the price is a little steep at around £430 for a decent one.

Waterchiller Hailea Ultra Titan 1500 (HC500=790 Watt cooling capacity)



Still it doesn't cost much more than a HD 7970 or GTX 680 and probably be of use much longer

Good call on the RX240, should be great for low noise cooling. It's also extremely low resistance so there shouldn't be any worries about the x20 pump maintaining good flow rate. It would be interesting to see what effect it has on your temps, going by my results it should be well worthwhile for your crossfire setup.

 

I can't imagine ever going back to mechanical drives now, especially since I've had an SSD for about 2 years. Just fancy a faster one now, may go for another 120-128GB one, I probably don't need double the storage. I've only got a few games installed at any one time really. Got 7 on atm, but will uninstall Metro 2033, I just can't get into it, and replace it with Alan Wake. Still playing Skyrim, think this ones gonna keep me busy for ages lol

I've also thought about including QDC's in my WC setup, I just can't think of a use for them really. May try use one for draining purposes, so I can just disconnect a tube low down in the loop and drain from it. Maybe off of my GPUs, see how it goes.

Thats good idea for attaching them to your rad, certainly make transportation easier.

Now a waterchiller would be pretty awesome!

Be great to see what kind of temps could be achieved with one of those! Condensation may be an issue though, Specialtech I think sell gear to help with that.

Might have to look on YouTube, I'm sure theres loads of people that have done it.

Found a review of that unit

They seem to do quite well

Though they say in the review not to run any Rads with this, as they add to the water temp.

 

After reading that review you posted this part sounded completely reasonable.