Hope it all goes well with newegg. Yeah I did a quick search on water cooling dye in google and it was part way down the page or something like that. I know what you mean by involved this has become a marathon effort.
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Hope it all goes well with newegg. Yeah I did a quick search on water cooling dye in google and it was part way down the page or something like that. I know what you mean by involved this has become a marathon effort.
On a brighter side...I went ahead and orderd visible red and blue UV Reactive coolant dye, along with some clear coolant again...hoping that this time the colors will work.Quote:
Originally Posted by simon275
Also, Just in case, I ordered a couple of higher CFM Fans to replace the coolermaster ultra silents with. When I was done leak testing, and actually powered up the system last time, I noticed that I felt next to *no* airflow coming out of the ports with the radiators, but the airflow that I did feel was *very* hot. Along with that, a quick feel of the tubing and the rez after only about 20 minutes of the system being on showed them to be rather hot as well.
I'm thinking that, since the video card didn't die totally until it was on for about 45 mins (it was having problems after 10), that it's probably a cooling issue, and the only way I know to improve cooling, even in a water cooling loop, is to move more air over the radiator fins.
Cheers!
-MF
Couple of updates on DEEP PURPLE or today, but no pictures.
First, NewEgg.com got my video card back and today I got my shipment notification on the new one. Hooray NewEgg! 10/10 for them on their customer service.
On another note, I got my new fans in for the radiators. I mentioned above that the silent fans from CoolerMaster didn't move hardly any air (thus their silent nature). I was very uncomfortable with this (and I think it has a lot to do with the video card dying) so as I mentioned I ordered new ones. They came in, and I've since installed them. They are boring basic black fans, but move about 2x the rated CFM of the coolermasters. (Though I like the basic black look, as you can tell from the interior paint job, and they look great.) Powering up the system, I'm happy to say it's still silent as ever...and I can feel air movement over the rads now, so I'm sure to be happy.
I ordered my new blacklights for hte case today, the 15" tubes I had ordered from streetglow were just about 1" too long for me to fit in, so I ordered 4x 9" mini tubes, should work great when they get here.
Also ordered some clear non-conductive fluid and some non-conductive dyes from D-Tek Customs. Hoping it all comes in within the next 1~2 weeks so I can *finally* get this beast up and running. I mean, it looks great sitting on my kitchen counter with the tubes hanging in my sink, but, it'd look better up and running in my office.
Cheers for now,
MF
Good to hear. Newegg is so far my favorite computer parts merchant and haven't let me down yet.
Sorry for the shameless movie quote...but it's fitting.
So I got in my box of UV Reactive dyes from DTek Customs today. You know, the ones that were recommended above.
Always wanting to play with new toys right away, I decided to give the colors a quick test-run in distilled water. First went in the blue into half a liter of water, and it looked beautiful. Nice, dark, almost satin looking sapphire blue. The red followed into another half liter of clean water...and it was a great deep ruby color. :D
Pouring the two half-liters of colored water into one container and BAM! I get the *exact* same color problems as I had mixing the two bottles of colored PrimoChill Ice. :( Apparently PCIce uses the same dyes in their pre-mixed fluids as DTek sells for any use.
Yup, my dyed water when front-lit had the opaque, brownish red color, and only when back lit it's got the perfect purple crystal color...identical to the color problems I had with the PCIce.
Now I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I want nice purple liquid...but...it seems that I'm out of luck! When my blacklights come in, I'm going to throw some liquid in the rez and turn the light on. See how it looks with the blacklight on full time. If that still looks bad, I'll order some standard food coloring and see how that goes...though I'm not sure if food coloring is UV reactive or not.
Well...we'll see what happens!
Cheers
MF :?
I know, it's not going to be the title of the next Clint movie....but....I've got lots of good news!
My video card came in from NewEgg last night! Hooray! Installation was identical to last time, remove the old heatsink, clean the chip, apply goo, attach the water block. That's the 'good'.
I did all that, and then filled the system with my ugly fluid. Playing with the fluid in the light, I started thinking, and wondering, about the dyes and the blue-red ratio, wondering if the odd brown color was due to too much red. Since I had the bottle of blue, I tried adding some blue dye to the fluid (I was planning on replacing it anyway, so what harm could it do?). And lo-and-behold, it started lookgin better. As the system was running/leak testing, I kept adding a drop of blue here and a drop of blue there...and I can say I'm now 90% happy with the way the fluids look!!! (That's the better.)
It's in the kitchen now leak testing, when I get home from work tonight I'll put it together, snap some pictures, and power it up! (The Happy.) I'll have some picture updates for you within a couple of days I'm sure. I'm still waiting on my black lights to come in, so no really good night shots yet, but, this weekend I'll also bring it outside into the sunlight for some good, well lit, regular light shots.
:D :D :D
I'm so happy!!! This system is finally coming complete! I'm expecting the lights this week as well, so everything should be coming together.
Cheers for now,
MF
Hello all, I'm back with a long overdue update! 8)
Without further ado...
Here is the system as it looked with the new video card in, and the lines fully filled:
And with the door open:
On the good side as well, my shipment from StreetGlow came in; lights and a power adapter for them.
I got a bit over anxious, so no in-package picture of the PC Power Adapter from Street Glow, but here it is. Basically, it's got a 4-pin molex female plug, and enough screw ports to plug in 4 12v neon lights:
And yes, that's a toggle switch that can be used if you don't want the lights to run 24/7. For me however, I can't seem to find a good place to mount the switch, so for now I'll want the lights on all the time. So, a simple snip-and-splice removes the switch:
Now, you may notice how much line I left. I did that on purpose in case I decide I want it switched in the future. However, it's horrible looking as is, so bit of heatshrink tubing and it's all happy:
On to my black lights. StreetGlow has the miniature 9" tubes (they come in pairs) that have seperate transformer/capacitor blocks...to ease installation of the mini tubes in tight places (I ordered 2 sets of these...for four lights total):
And a look at the previously mentioned tansformer block. They are designed for either quick car installation via the cigarette lighter, or with a quick snip, permanent wiring:
The next fun part was deciding where to mount the lights. My main goal is only highlighting the watercooling setup...so I don't want the tubes visible. The first one is hiding way up on the top of the case, out of direct sight. The picture was hard to take, but, I think you can see where it's at:
Of course I'm looming the lines on these in black as well to hide them from sight as much as possible:
The second light is going to be mounted underneath the cross bar. The odd shape of the door windows will cover the light from direct sight perfectly:
The thrid light (and for now last, as I can't find a good spot for the fourth) will be directly behind the resivour...to light the big body of water:
As for mounting the transformer blocks...they need to be totally out of sight as well, and for this, the back wall of the case comes off, and they get attached to the drive-bays (have I mentioned that I'm using double-sided foam tape for all the mounting):
The wires to the lights are running through some air-holes cut into the side of the motherboard tray...almost like they were perfectly designed for this purpose. The power adapter block, being black, found a nice (non-photographable) home next to the motherboard, it's basically totally out of sight.
So...as of now, the build is pretty much complete, as far as I can see. Here it is in it's home on my desk:
Now, for the sad parts. As I mentioned quite a bit above, I purchased UV Reactive coolant from PC Ice, and some UV Reactive dye from DTek Customs. Well, I know hte black lights work...with the lights off my t-shirt was a veritable light source in the room...however, here are some dark-shots of the case:
First, with the door on the case:
And with the door off:
As you can see....the fluid is NOT lighting up under the UV. :( I'm not sure what to do next.
But...that's all for now...
Cheers
MF
Okay...I'm totally unhappy and if I were in the country, I'd find a way to go to XFX and verbally browbeat every employee there.
In short, I went into the computer room this morning and my video card is dead, again. Thats 2 out of 2 XFX cards. This one at least lasted 4? 5? days. It can't be a heat thing, as the air coming out of the case is still bearly luke-warm, not hot by any means...but...i'll let the pictures speak for themselves:
On boot, all the text looks like this (and yes, it's standard english):
Another shot of the windows splash screen:
Before windows gets fully booted, the screen auto-turns off...the graphis card totally shuts down.
Worst part, is I'm not sure if NewEgg will take another return as last time they told me it was a one-time waiver on their required packaging policy. Since the card was working great for like 3 full days, I've discarded all the boxes by now.
I already ordered a new card, a PNY this time. I've e-mailed NewEgg about maybe helping me out...but I'm guessing I"m totally out the $300 bucks I paid for the XFX card. :(
Anyone else have any bad experience with this company? If not, I'd recommend fully against trying. I'm rather upset, this is getting expensive.
I'll have another update in a week or so when my new card gets here.
Cheers,
MF
My heart goes out to you man, i cant believe two cards have died. Have you measured the temp of the dd cooling system?
Hope newegg will help,
Take this as a lesson to always keep boxes, always.
Cubey
try a different moniter
aand this should be moved to featured worklogs
I haven't done a temp measurement yet, but, I can say the air coming off of the radiator (immeidatley following the video card in the cooling loop) is never more than slightly above room tempreature (and I keep my A/C's in the house to about 18c so it's nice and cool. Unfortunatley, since the system has only been up and for a maximum of 3 days, I never had time to find and install any temp monitoring software. On that topic...any recommendations?Quote:
Originally Posted by nzcubey
Is it possible that 2x 120mm fans/rads isn't enough for this system? I've opened the case while the system is running and none of the lines or the res feel anything over slightly warm to the touch (which again says a lot as the house is always cold). I'm wondering if I should slightly change the routing of my tubes:
Currently it runs: Rad 1 -> Res -> Pump -> Southbridge -> Videocard -> Rad 2-> CPU -> HD's ->Rad 1
I'm wondering if it would be beneficial to change it to: Rad 1 -> Res -> Pump -> Videocard -> Southbridge -> rad 2 -> CPU ->HD's -> Rad 1
Does the Southbridge really put off enough heat that having it in that place on the loop would be bad for the Videocard? If I were to switch them...would I run the risk of burning out the Southbridge by running the post Videocard heated water over it?
As I'm brand new to this whole watercooling thing...I'm up for suggestions. Even if I have to buy another 10 feet of tubing to fully re-run the whole system in a new order...spending $20 on new tubing is cheaper than even one more videocard return (cost me about $20 bucks last time just to return the first burned-out one).
Well, this monitor works fine on my other desktop, and plugged into the laptop. Also, the monitor worked fine for the 3 days teh system was up. I doubt it's the monitor, but, I will give it a shot. I think i have an old glass monitor in the storage locker somewhere. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by mountain dew
Oh, and, thanks for the featured suggestion. <squee> Nice to be recommended! :D
I've already ordered my new video card, going with a PNY this time, i've always had good luck with PNY cards & memory. I contacted NewEgg about a return, but, I don't think they read my e-mail to them right. The confirmation I got back from them said that they "wouldn't ship a replacement until they got my defective part". I don't think they got the part that I don't want another XFX that will melt down. :( I sent them an e-mail asking for clairification...only hoping that they get it and can help me out. Especially since I bought a more expensive card to replace this one.
One other topic, as I was looking at my pictures that I took the other night, I realized that the top mounted light seemed to have fallen loose (I didn't stick the tape on hard enough). For those wondering, the light shouldn't (and now isn't) be hanging down visible like it is in the picture. Oops...bad photography on my part.
Cheers for now, will send more updates when I get some more news.
Edit: Forgot to mention, I am going through all of my build notes so I can put together a good "Lessons Learned" for any new (and experienced) modders. Sort of a list of all my mistakes, pitfalls, and odd things that I figured out in the process. That'll be posted when/if I ever decide that this build is complete. LOL
-MF
I dont have any experiance with it myself, but i get the feeling that it would be better to go: Res -> Pump -> Rad1 -> then Vid and other stuff so that the water wont warm up in the res and pump after its been cooled.
That's something I've never thought of. Does the pump really add any noticable temperature? Anyone out there have any experience?Quote:
Originally Posted by xdxforever
I'm not looking forward to re-draining all of my fluid again...but...by this point I'm getting pretty good at it.
Cheers,
MF
I think what you want is: Take the heat out of the case as soon as possible...
that means: put rad just behind the cpu or gpu and then the res -> pump etc..
but I also have no experience at all with watercooling...
(thinking about building one in the distant future though...)
I have always gone directly to the CPU first:
Pump-->CPU-->(bridges for tubing layout)-->GPU-->Rad-->Res and back to pump.
The incremental heat given off by the pump or warming in the Res is so marginal that it's really not even considered anymore...does an 8Watt pump really have much effect on a cooling loop disappating 200+Watts? Not a lot IMO.
Monitoring: Motherboard Monitor (MBM) or Speedfan (intel and non NVidia chipsets).
I have used a CSP750, DangerDen D5, and now a DangerDen DDC12V pump. All with loops in a similar order.
I think it's generally accepted that loop order relates to tubing length and THAT affects resistance in your loop. The shorter runs overall, the less tubing in the circuit, and the less resistance you have.
Before you install your GPU again, look at it edgewise and see if there are any gaps between the RAM and the waterblock. VERY CLOSELY. :)
That screen cap does look like overheating symptoms, but it might be that the waterblock isn't laying flat on all the RAM.
Thanks for all the advice...love the help.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dgephri
One question...is it safe (or advised) to put the standard heat-transfer-goo on the gpu-ram as well to ensure a good 'connection' between the chips and the waterblock?
I was pretty much on your same page as far as heat production from the pump. And as to removing heat as soon as possible. (Thus my loop going from GPU->Radiator->CPU->Hard Drives (minimal heat)->Radiator
I'll take a look at this card when I pull it out, to see if the ram isn't 'connected' to the waterblock...that may well be a cause of the problem.
Cheers!
-MF
oh yeah, thermal paste should go on the GPU core, each ram pad, and a nice thin, even coat. Be careful with AS5 in those locations since it IS still conductive...the DangerDen guys all put Ceramique on that stuff since there are little resistors and stuff so close.
I make this posting with a very sad heart...and an even more sad checking account. :(
I mentioned a post or two above that I'm compiling a large list of "lessons learned" that I'd post at the end of my build cycle, but I have two to do today that seem very important, and very relevant, to my current situation:
1) Re-Leak test *EVERY* time you open the case door.
and
2) Non-Conductive fluid....ISN'T!
Yes, you all heard me right...this video card failure is all my fault. :( And I have already taken the high-road and cancelled my RMA request from NewEgg. Since it's my fault on this one (though I'm convinced that the other one wasn't...no leaks)...I can't make them 'pay' for my mistake.
Now that I've given away the disastrous news...here's how it unfolded...
I go home today at lunch, and after reading the above replies, I decided to pull the dead video card to see if the RAM chips are indeed touching the heatsink.
I opened the case to see this, and my heart sank:
Everyone else see what I see? Look at the smooth silver backing plate from the heatsink on the video card. And, if you can see it in the pic (though it's hard) look closely at the part of the video card dead center in the picture.
Yup...leaked fluid, the bit on the card itself is well baked on. :(
A glance about 6 inches up reveals the culprit:
If you notice, the center tube is no longer secured below the lip of the barb. The hose clamp is still holding it on, but just by a touch.
Although I didn't elaborate on my exact time line in the previous posts, there was about a 3-day time difference between me getting this video card in the mail, and getting the lights in.
When the video card came in, I did the right thing. Installed, and ran the pump for about 24 hours of leak testing, with no problems. Then I turned it on and started getting all of my system software installed. 2 days later, my lights came in and I happily installed them.
Apparently, when I was putting in the lights, I hit the CPU block input-line and knocked it 90% off the barb. It didn't leak until it was under pressure, and it still took ~12 hours (the daytime of me using the computer that evening, taking the pictures, and overnight) for it to leak enough to kill it.
It was the morning after I took my pictures of the lights in use in the dark that the card was dead. I took the night-shots the same day I installed the lights...so that's why I'm pretty sure that it was during the light install that I knocked that tube loose.
Anyway...here are some more shots of the 'damage' as I was removing the card:
Baked on coolant:
With the water-block retention plate removed, you can actually see (near the center of the photo, slightly right, slightly down) a dark spot where the transistors have been physically burned out. You can also see purple stains on the stickers:
The thoroughly SOAKED foam backing pad from the water-block retention plate, though there is still some rather well-baked coolant here as well:
When I drained the system, the loose hose came off with no force at all...I'm DAMN LUCKY that the whole thing didn't pop off (as this is the in-line, with two out-lines on the CPU block...this is the lowest-pressure part in the system...lucky me). Had the whole thing popped, while I was in bed, not only would I have been mopping up coolant from all over my office, but I'm sure the entire MOBO would have blown as well.
After I took the card out, I started cleaning up more. I also reattached (properly) the CPU hoses, nice and tight, with all clamps below the barb lips:
As I'm waiting on my new card to get here (the PNY with 512 memory, vice an XFX with 256Mb), I’m going to go through each and every hose connection in the system (now that it's empty) and ensure they are ALL nice and re-secured after all the hassle of getting the lights wired.
I'm so sad. :( At least I can stop cursing the name of XFX. Sure I got one bad card. But I guess I have to say that this one was working like a champ...until I carelessly shorted it out by soaking it in coolant.
On another note...although I didn't see any coolant around the area of the PCIx connection bracket...I also used a lint-free cloth towel and a can of compressed air to ensure that no residual coolant leaked into the mobo PCIx slot. That would *really* suck to blow another card when the new one gets in. I think that the foam backing pad seemed to have absorbed *most* of the leaked fluid.
I guess for cleaning the foam pad, it's just lots of distilled water, soak, then towel dry, then resoak, then towel dry...hope that works. Aarrrgg....
Can I get a hug? This really hurts. :(
Until next time......
A sad -MF
Urgh... that really hurts. No hugs from the skinny man thou.
*hugs*
that really sucks man.....hard lesson learned.......ive never really thought about leak testing again....*looks at koolance case* but after this.....i think i will
ive really enjoyed watchin your project come a long since you started plannin it and postin it here in the forums
GL with the rest of the way
that really sucks...although "non conductive" fluid is labeled as such, so is pure H2O.
Dust on the card itself, dust from the air, anything other than the fluid CAN conduct current when the fluid contacts something.
The new fluids give you a decent chance when a leak is actually occuring in front of you, or when you first notice it to turn the system off and clean up.
I really feel for you...I am so paranoid the first time I turn my pump on for a new PC. I don't run the loop outside, I don't use clamps, and I leak test with all the hardware in and power off: if I had a leak, with no juice on, I am reasonably certain I can clean up the PCIce and dry it out for a couple days and be "ok."
I can respect that you are taking responsibility, and not trying to take more from Newegg. That's integrity, and fewer than you know actually have it. :)
make sure your Motherboard can get dried out...good 3-4 days out in good ventilation. Best of luck, be careful.
(guy type, sorry about your dog, pat on the back, then move away Hug)
Thanks for the support...I really think the most painful part for me, being the egoist that I am, was admitting that I screwed up. But...if I can admidt it to my fellow modders...well...that has to count for something.
Anyway...got home from work and couldn't stop milling about inside the case.
Re-re-re-checked all of my tube connections...and decided that since I have a good solid week of down-time till the new card gets here (remember, I'm posted at an embassy overseas, so my mail is *uber* slow) that I can make a few minor changes.
First, I've never liked how the feed-tube from the Res has had to be this huge, tight loop, resting up against the motherboard just so it wouldn't kink due to the connection I had to make with it:
So I had the revelation to turn it around. I did some measuring first to ensure I wasn't going to do my system worse in the switch and it turns out it's better all around. The new layout has reduced the total length of tubing connected to the res by about 2 inches. (Not a huge savings, but, any reduction is a good one.) On top of that, this new lay removes the possibility of any tube resting on the motherboard itself, and, the curves in these sections of pipe are greatly reduced, leading to a more straight (and less stressful on the pump) flow of fluid:
This did require the drilling of a new hole in the bottom of the case, but, drilling is a pretty basic thing, and i did it nice and slowly, from the bottom, so no aluminum bits had a chance of entering the case, I also had a wet-paper-towel on the inside of the case to 'catch' the drillbit (held with my hand, but i was drilling slow) and to catch any random aluminum dust to keep it out of the MOBO.
Of course, now you notice as I did that I have to move my neon. UGH! But, thanks to the wonders of Zippo Fuel, I got rid of all the old adhesive from the sticky-foam and got the tube moved no problems. And yes, before anyone asks, I once again triple checked all of my tube connections. :redface:
So here is the new location of the res, notice the nice, smooth, long straight flowing tubes? Pretty huh?
On the bonus and unexpected side, it's now even easier to hold hte res outside of the case for when I'm filling the system up...that was a pain before. (Yeah, I know that's what the fillport is for, but due to the way all of the tubing is lined up, a little bit of air is always ending up trapped in the res...so I ahve to pull the res out, unscrew the end cap and top it off with fresh fluid to get all the air out. A rough process, but, the more air in the system, the more sloshy noises I hear...and for my build, noise is bad!
The one other change I made was removing about 3 more inches of tube from the hard-drive bay out-put tube (the one leading down to the second rad). I had only ever rough-measured the tube before, and never got around to shortening it. Here is the after-shot. You really can't see a difference, and honestly with all the tubing there, I'd be surprised if anyone can really tell. But, as a hint, it's the tube in the picture that has a little residual fluid in it:
That's all for now. I think I'd better go before I decide to make more changes to the system. :) I should really test what I have so far before going any further.
Thanks again for the support (or, shall I say, sympathy)...it sucks screwing up...especially when your screw up BBQ's an expensive video card. :redface:
Maybe for my next post I'll show you guys some pictures of my first mod...it's got some really cool points...and will show everyone where I "cut-my-teeth" in the modding realm. I just have to take some pictures...at least it'd give me something to do.
Cheers.
-MF
Woh thats a great shame man. Damn I wish I had enough money to get one of them video cards let alone two!
Can't wait to see it all finished though!
All I can say...if I really *could* have afforded two...I'd have SLI'd them in the first place. :( I had to burn some of my buffer-savings just to get this thing up and running by now. I had initially set myself a total spending limit for this system...and was only *just* over that limit before this happened...but now I'm well over. :(Quote:
Originally Posted by gaz_the_chav
Sad for me, i have to bump my next planned vacation back a month or two just so I can be sure to have the cash I need for it. (grumble) I hate using credit cards (I just got myself out of bad debt about a year ago)...so I don't want to use them for vacation or for the 'puter at all. Sucks having to reschedule stuff like that due to me being impatient. (Okay, it wasn't really impatience, more like me not thinking about every alternative.)
So...next time, it's going to be another 24+hour round of leak testing and then locking the door shut. Yup...the lessons-learned post will be a good one.
Cheers,
MF
I get scared to add up what it really takes to finish my Mods. Cables, scrap plastic, LEDs, sleeving, aluminum strips, bolts, caps, nuts, nylon washers, chrome, trim, sticky tape, E-6000 adhesive, blah blah...it just keeps going up.
Luckily I rarely need to RMA, and ever more unlikely is any real hardware damage. Of course, what warranty is left when you solder onto the 5V in your keyboard? :)
Keep at it man...good precautions on the drilling and check all your hoses like it's and airplane taking off: "cpu, 3 barbs-check: HDD, 2 barbs-check: pump, intel and outlet-check"
WOW. Nice build you have going here. and I thought I was anal about painting my rig.
seems as though we have similar concepts in our heads. Great minds think alike!
My build log
great work, hope you get that vid card thing figured out.
Heh...you think this was bad...I *wanted* to be much more OCD on the paint job...but...didn't have enough paint to do multiple coats.Quote:
Originally Posted by gobygoby
The more I look at some of the 'bad spots' on my paint, it just gets under my skin. But, I can survive. I did as well as I could with the resources I had available. Very hard to do this stuff when I can't buy paints locally, and don't have anywhere besides a bedroom/office to do the painting in. :)
I'm heading to look at your mod now. :)
Cheers!
-MF
Well...I just got home from work, am too tired to go to the bar, and can't do anything really fun since, as we all know my 'puter is still dead. (Laptop works, but, not powerful enough to do any games and such.)
So...as promised here is Big-Red, my first mod.
A bit of history first. This computer is now over 5 years old. I first got into modding when I worked part-time at a CompUSA in Aurora, CO...this would have been back in about '99 or '00. Best part about working at a computer store is that you get good discounts on parts.
Anyway, this thing started out as a standard, beige Antec. No windows, no colors, nothing. A friend at the shop and I had stumbled across GideonTech.com, one of the first major modding sites out there, and had always wanted to do our own. So, we got parts together, and dove in head first.
Best part is that my dad had access to a full machine shop (he's a mechanic for the school district in my home town). So...we packed up for a weekend visit, and spent the whole time in the shop.
As far as that part went, I can say you're not truly a Man until you've cut metal with fire. And thanks to a plasma torch, we got to do just that. :) So without any further ado, here is Big Red, in it's current home, acting as my media server connected to my home entertainment center:
First, don't laugh, yes I was watching Shrek 2 when I took the pictures. And 2nd, don't laugh, every time the military has moved me, they keep breaking my TV's...so coincidentally, my TV's keep getting smaller and smaller, as they are getting expensive.
Onto the machine in specific:
I custom measured and cut both the holes and the plexi for the windows. The molding was from *something*.com...it's now FrozenCPU.com, but wasn't called that at the time. I can't recall.
The most impressive part of the mod, in my mind, is my laptop hard drive. As I mentioned, we worked at a computer store, and as such, had access to lots of junk/trash parts. Whenever we would do upgrades for people, their 'old' drives typically ended up as ours in our shop. I found 2x identical laptop drives and had this mod planned for ages.
First, I took the top plate off of one, and used it as a template to make a plexi plate. After destroying 5 or 6 while drilling, I finally got one made. Then I went into the paint-room at my dad's shop, took the other one apart, and did as fast a cover-swap to the other drive as I could...leaving the heads and platters exposed to open air for as little time as possible.
I'm *VERY* proud to say that this drive is STILL in active use, and has never once had any data storage/crash problems. Yup, a self modded, plexi-topped hard drive...and 5-6 years later...it still works!
Anyway, back to the case...
Before filling, the inside was painted a nice silver (the dull steel-grey just didn't cut it for me), along with all the fan holders and such.
Another fun touch I put in was a plexi-mirror on the bottom. Looks great and helps with the 3 lights a lot:
As you can see. I had to use two 3.5"-5.25" hard drive mounts to raise up the laptop drive enough to be seen through the window.
Also, as I said, the computer is over 5 years old...in that time I had to replace the PSU...thus all of the wires are no longer sleeved...they used to be...but upkeep on this case sort of went through the window somewhere between Denver->Australia->India. LOL...amazing how moving a lot will do that.
Well, the front of the case has the same stone-style paint, and if you look close, I actually put a toggle switch for the neons on the very bottom right of the case (it's a red button):
Another nice mod I have (but no picture sorry) is that I built a full size, removable, washable, air-filter into the inside of the front bezel. The whole front panel is an air intake, and I didn't think I wanted that much dust in my nice new windowed and mirrored case. Since I've moved to India, I have to pull it out and clean it about every two weeks...it's insane...but...seeing how much dust *isn't* getting into my system is worth it.
Lastly is the quintessential dark shot of the case:
Yup...the middle-light hangs just in-sight (one reason I went so crazy about hiding all of the lights in Deep Purple). And yes, for those who noticed...the 2 smaller lights are the same brand/style lights as I have in Deep Purple. The mini-tubes from StreetGlow. The large tube is also a Streetglow tube. 5-6 years going, with LOTS of use, and they are still burning bright.
So there you have it...the original case by modding.fan. :) This one is actually much more heavily "Modded" in my mind (as I cut the windows, did the air filters, and most especially the hard drive)...but I don't think it was nearly as much work as Deep Purple has been. Mostly because I had the proper facilities for Big Red, I also had a couple of home improvement stores I coudl readily run to in the middle of modding when I needed to. (Not to mention a professional mechanic staring over my shoulder the whole time.)
Still have about a week till my new video card comes in...so until then cheers.
Once I get Deep Purple up and running, I have a few pictures from the build of BigRed...I'll throw those up too. But...those will be *long* after you all get to see the finished product of Deep Purple.
Cheers for now,
MF
Leave for a few days and look what I missed. Sorry to hear about the video card :( It may be a little late, but the dye looked nice and purple in the pictures. I think you got that part down.
So...I sent a bit of hate-mail to the folks at D-Tek Customs yesterday over the non-UV-reactivity of they "UV Reactive" dye. I got a very confusing respnose back from them today. It makes no sense to me, but, me not being a chemical engineer, maybe you all can help explain it to me. See, in the message, I basically told them off for selling dye as "UV Reactive" when, as you all saw in my pictures, it really isn't.
I sent them the same pictures you all have seen in my log.
The response I got back was along the lines of "from the looks of the pictures, you used too much. Try using only one or two drops in a few cups worth of water and see how that works. When the die is too concentrated, it looses it's reactivity."
Does this make sense? How does watering down a solution *increase* it's reaction to UV? I told them in the mail that I'm not worried about a return/refund (as it'd cost me about 15 bucks to mail back the dye for a 20 dollar refund).
I'm going to test their thoery once my new card comes in...just with a glass of water outside the case (I can't right now, since I have the rez and half the lines filled still...i turn on the lights...i turn on the pump...and it'll make a mess).
Anyway...thoughts?
Cheers,
MF
that is a definite possibility, if the fluid is too 'dense' in color the light might not interact in the desired way. Try holding a cup of water under one of the lights and drop your mix in with an eye dropper, then you can know how much to put in in proportion...
thats awsome man keep up the great work
Hello fellow modders...
I come here today, almost ready to weep in defeat.
My new video card came in today, the one I forked out $300 for to replace my burned out XFX card.
The watercooling block, a DangerDen Koosah, doesn't fit. A quick browse over to DD's site claims that they fit fine on a 7950GT card. However, there were two (and a half) problems. (Nope, no photos, sorry.)
First, the card itself is about 1mm too "deep". As in the dimension that the card would normall stick out from the motherboard. The mounting screws wouldn't line up. Being a modder, and only having about 1mm worth of problem...I figured...lets do some modding.
A touch of sandpaper later (just on a bit of the plexi block where the barbs mount up) and it seemed like I was golden. The bit of plexi I had to sand off wont' be visible at all, and the block is still plenty thick. It actually looks like this was a bit of a poor design on DD's part...as the plexi over-hung the copper it was sitting on top of...so it just looked like the plexi mold wasn't measured right.
The 1/2 problem is that my 7950GT card only has 4x mounting screw holes (vice 9x holes, and 9x screws that came with the water block. I was very uncomfortable with lettign only 4 screws, right around the VPU hold all fo the weight...I was much more comfortable when it was 9x). This only counted as 1/2 of a problem, as it was end-user comfort, not manufacturing.
So...now I was all happy again...I put the card on, and there was a freaking capicator sitting on the block...holding the card about 2mm off of the base of the block. Basically, there was no way for me to fix this problem. The VPU, and half the memory, has no way of touching the card.
I was stuck in the decision, for about 20 minutes (20 minutes which included lots of door and wall kicking, screaming, and my heartbeat being at olympic-marathon-runner pace) as to whether to give up and just use the air-cooler on the card.
That was not the right choice.
So...I'm returning the card to NewEgg for refund (nothing shady here...told them I can't use the card because it won't fit my watercooling block). And have ordered a new XFX card...yup...the same one that I already blew up.
For anyone counting...I started making purchases for this computer 4 months ago...yup...June. I had the system running...really really running and in use...in September for about 3 days...and since then have been down again.
THis has turned into my most troublesome, problematic, and painful computer build of all time. Of all the computers I've built and modded...this one is ready to give me a stroke.
I will march on, however, as I'm too stubborn to accept defeat from a damn machine!!!
Dam thats gotta suck. Looks like sum one is out to get u lol.
Hell yeah! That's the spirit man!Quote:
I will march on, however, as I'm too stubborn to accept defeat from a damn machine!!!
-Dave
damn, how much bad luck can you have...
Yes...I've had about as much bad luck in a build as anyone can. :(
But...it's just a tunnel...and I'm pretty sure I can see a light somewhere.
Anyway...I am rectifying a minor oversight this time as well...I've got a sound card coming too. Can't believe I neglected that bit...
<sigh> It'll happen...sooner or later.
One bit of good news....I did get a couple bottles of clear PC Ice in today as well. When I get the thing up and running, I can test, a few drops at a time, re-coloring fluid to see if it is truly reactive at lower concentrations. (However, i'll test on water, and when i find the right amounts...then color the coolant)...
Grr....sick how, even after all this, I can still seem to find a bright side...
Anyway...cheers!
-MF
Hello all!
I've been out of town on business trips for hte last couple of weeks, and thus, unable to post.
But...when I came back...WOO HOO...all of my stuff (re: the latest video card) came in.
I did an install, and let it run leak-testing for a good 24 hours. Now...it's up and running like a champ!
Soon as I get caught up at work I'll be doing some final updates to the page, pictures, test tempretaures and all the goodies!
I ahven't forgotten about my log, just got delayed for a while!
Cheers,
MF
Welcome back, it's nice to hear the good news that you've got Deep Purple up and running at last. I can't wait to see the final pics, your work is excellent.
FyreKnight
Glad to see that you are back!
Can't wait for the next updates, This has been one heck of a ride! They should make a movie out of this log... It has all the things Hollywood wants right? Laughter, Heart Ache, Inspiration! And most of all... the will to not be beaten by a damned machine! :p
If you get another dead GPU on your hands, I'm gonna run a fundraiser for you and buy you a new one.
...and then I'm gonna slap you. lol
Good Luck my purple lovin friend!
-SF
