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
