Project DEEP PURPLE (The Introduction)

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Originally Posted by b4i7

very.. VERY nice....
ive been waitin to see this near completion since you started postin about it.... looks real good

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Thanks! :) I'm really *really* happy to report that my video water block came in today. I'll be installing it, along with the plumbing for it tomorrow. I, unfortunatley, am still short 4 hose clamps...so no filling and leak testing it until they come in. But...I can finally get that last bit of work done!

Log entry on it should be up tomorrow. I'm *so* excited! Kills me that i have to wait until probably friday for the hose clamps, then I'm giving it a solid 24+ hours of leak testing (remember the atx-power-jumper from page one) before any power goes to anything outside of the pump. No blowing up my brand new baby!

Cheers

MF

I love the look of the case. The purple is a really cool color.

Glad to hear the waterblock came in. I can't wait to see this thing running!

I just checked on this, last time I looked you didnt even have the case, nice progress, keep up the good work.

Well now, I’m back again after a bit of work on DEEP PURPLE to give you another installment. :)

As I said, my video card waterblock finally came in. And the boys from DD did a great job on it, it’s beautiful!

Anyway, it came with all the required screws, gromits, washers, and even a very thin set of instructions:

Looking through the top of the block does worry me a bit. It looks like there are still some small artifacts from the milling process inside…I’m hoping they aren’t loose and won’t kill my pump…that’d ruin my day fast. But it still looks great:

The underside, complete with polished contact points for the memory and the VPU.:

Step one on the installation is the removal of that bar that was just put on for looks:

Then the factory heatsink and fan come off:

A bit of rubbing alcohol and some cotton swabs later, and I’ve got a really nice looking clean VPU ready for a new batch of heat transfer goo and a waterblock:

I put the heat-transfer goo from coolermaster on the VPU and on the RAM chips where they contact the waterblock. (I’m hoping that I was supposed to put it on the RAM…it just made sense.) Then I flipped it over and carefully lined up the holes before making contact. I started with the outside 5 screws, saving the four internal ones directly around the VPU for last:

I pre-preped up the mounting plate that keeps pressure on the VPU with all the gromits and such:

All happily screwed together on the back:

And mounted up complete on the front:

The card slid right into the machine all happily:

Water tube from the rad to the card:

And one from the card to the northbridge:

And all back together.

Now, one thing that is half relief, half upsetting to me is the southbridge. If you recall from page one, I had initially wanted to put water block on both the north and southbridge chips. The block I ordered for the south bridge wouldn’t fit, due to capacitors around the board and I almost ordered a new one. But for some reason I didn’t. And, now I’m really half glad that I didn’t because I’d have had to take it off and go back to the original heatsink anyway:

So…from this point I’m only waiting on my last box to come on with 4 more hoseclamps before I can fill it up and leak test it. They should be in next week sometime, I’m hoping by Thursday/Friday so I can leak test and then do all of my software installs! Hooray!
Cheers!

MF

It looks great, not to sure about the purple but otherwise amazing job keep up the good work. :)

Hello again all...

Nothing really new to report, but I thought I'd make a quick mention of a problem I ran into a few days ago that I forgot about until I started cleaning up my disaster of a table...

So...remember when I got my radiators in? And I said that DangerDen had thought of everything...well they missed one thing.

A while back DD changed their thread pattern on their radiators, to a much more standard pattern...can't recall the number...but it's a much more common pattern.

Anyway, they also have the new barbs out (you recall the extras I bought with the first shipment, just in case)...well...it was a great thing I had the extras with the new thread pattern because DD screwed up. The barbs they sent me with the radiators were the wrong thread pattern for the radiators. How funny huh?

So...word of advice, if you order DD rads, be sure you ask them to test-fit the barbs they send you so you get the right ones.

Cheers for now, more news when/if my hose clamps come in this week!

-MF

Hello again, and welcome to a very depressing edition of my log for project DEEP PURPLE. :?

So, as we know I've been waiting on my hose clamps to come in so I can finish sealing up, and fill the cooling loop.

Well, they came in, and the first of my two major problems popped up. I mixed the red and blue PC Ice liquids and have some odd results.

The liquid turned to an opaque brown color when looked at via direct light. When held up and looked at through back lighting, it's a beautiful crystal purple...but when you look at it front-lit...it's brown. :( It's not contamination...there is no sediment or anything that could filter, it's just an odd refraction of light. And I'm not sure how to fix it. I'll leave it in and see how it looks when I get the black lights behind it. It may still glow purple...and that's what I want. (Pictures to follow...haven't loaded them yet.)

Anyway...on to my big problem...the one that makes me want to cry...

I went to start on software installs last night...and...well...NewEgg sent me a dud video card.

On the initial windows boot screen pixels were blinking on and off like crazy. Having never worked with a PCI-Express system...my initial thought was: "Windows is using an AGP base driver...and it'll solve when I geet the real driver installed."

Well...about 40 minutes into installing...the screen went black.

I rebooted, and heard the windows boot sound...so I know the rest of the computer is working...but the screen is black. :( So...I get to go through the multi-week RMA process. It'll be a good test of NewEgg though, since I'm an idiot who didn't keep any of the packaging for the video card. I'm hoping htey'll send me the new one, and let me return the old one in the new one's box.

/sigh

Ouch. Sorry to hear about the video card. On the bright side, we should get to see just how great newegg's service is. Good luck

If newegg don't replace it the card will be under maunfacturer warranty contact them if newegg don't cooperate.

Nice water cooling set up to bad about the colour. You could always buy clear water cooling liquid and add purple food dye to it. Some food dye is fine and doesn't affect the water blocks.

Heres a guide I found comparing different purple coolant additives there are actually some out there.

http://www.wc101.com/reviews/Additives/

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Originally Posted by meticoeus

Ouch. Sorry to hear about the video card. On the bright side, we should get to see just how great newegg's service is. Good luck

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Well, NewEgg said their standard policy on returns is that they need all of the original packaging. However, they did issue me a 'one-time exemption' to that, so they are taking the card back and sending me a new one. YAY!

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Originally Posted by simon275

If newegg don't replace it the card will be under maunfacturer warranty contact them if newegg don't cooperate.

Nice water cooling set up to bad about the colour. You could always buy clear water cooling liquid and add purple food dye to it. Some food dye is fine and doesn't affect the water blocks.

Heres a guide I found comparing different purple coolant additives there are actually some out there.

http://www.wc101.com/reviews/Additives/

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Thanks for the info on purple dyes. I was thinking about going that route with a bottle or two of clear PC Ice and some purple die, happy to have some research behind it now. Thanks!

I'm glad that NewEgg is accepting my return...as soon as the new card comes in...I'll be trying again. This is becoming the most involved, and for some reason difficult, computer build I've ever done. And I've not even gotten around to software installs yet. LOL