Build Log: The Green Dragon

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jappe66

jappe66

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Apr 13, 2012
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Welcome to my very first Build Log! I'm not very good at blurbs or anything like that so I'll just get right on it.

Last week I finally ordered the parts for my build. Today one package arrived but I'm still waiting for a second package from different shop. I should have just ordered all parts from the same website so I could have started to work on the build today already 😛

I don't have much for you yet, but I will show you what is my starting point and some teasers!

So my case is a white BitFenix Shinobi XL. I've heard a lot of people complain about it being plastic and crappy but I just don't see what there is to complain about? The finish on those parts is absolutely amazing and it feels very nice to my hands. The side panels are metal as well as the back and bottom. The front and top have BitFenix SofTouch finish.

The case cost me about 150€ about 6 months ago and I wouldn't change it to anything! Now there's so much room and I started to enjoy watching water cooling build logs so I fell in love with this new hobby.

It turned out to be quite big thing on the money side but I decided, what the heck. "I want it so I'm gonna do it!"

My main colors will be white and green. White coming straight from the case itself mostly and the tubing and liquid will be green. Also green LED fans.

Here's my first plan that I made a couple weeks ago:

pumpplan.jpg


At first I was planning to mount the reservoir outside the case like mentioned in the picture but then I found one that would fit perfectly on the inside. To the same location. And when I start building this there will probably be more changes to the plans. Or so I've heard from people who have done this before 😀

Now here's some teasers for you to enjoy:

vnfmdi.jpg


4vl6c1.jpg


So there you go! I named my project The Turtle because I couldn't come up with anything better. Actually I could go further with this idea and get some turtle figures standing on the case when it's finished or something. See how crazy this watercooling makes me? 😀

You will have to wait until early next week for some build pics but I'm hoping to get the other package by Friday.

Not much to show yet but you gotta start somewhere!
 
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Yeah I drained the loop, took the reservoir apart and cleaned every bit of it with paper towels including the o-rings and then I just put them back together. I also used gloves to get better grip when tightening it.

I don't know if it would have gone worse from there but I wanted to make sure it won't. There's also nothing below the reservoir but the floor of the case so no harm done. And the liquid doesn't induce electric so I should be fine.

By the way I'm using the water what is used in car batteries. I don't know if there is a word for it in English (at least I couldn't find it) but in Finland we call it "akkuvesi" which translates to "batterywater".

It's not sold as "distilled water" but it says in Wikipedia that it is distilled or deionized water. I'm serious you can't find distilled water in Finland anywhere 😀 at least with that name. They sell "purified water" in pharmacies but it's quite expensive.

Just wanted to get a confirmation that I'm using a suitable coolant. I know some Finnish amateur water coolers who use drinking water in their loops but surprise surprise they've had a jungle in their hands in 6 months, lol.

Shouldn't the silver kill coil prevent anything from growing there anyways? 😛

EDIT: By the way the 2-sided tape sucked 😀 I put 3 slices of it in the back of the Samsung SSD and tried to stick it in to the outside of the 5.25" bay and guess if it sticks? Also after trying to get the tape out it left some very ugly marks and glue on the SSD. Will need to scratch them off later. Very disappointed to that tape. I thought it would be useful but no...

Need to find a new place for the SSDs now 🙁
 
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The silver killcoil will prevent any microbes but if you wanted an additive then you could go with this.

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_381_1071_1073&products_id=34085

A double sided tape that I found that works really well is this.

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=22268

If you can't find distilled water then there are others but they can be expensive, this is one that I like and use all the time even though distilled water is readily available.

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_381_1063&products_id=27047

There is also these;

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_381_996&products_id=30636

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_381_303&products_id=33719

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=59_381_303&products_id=33718
 
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The main issue with using tap water isn't bacteria, your kill-coil or Biocide will handle that. Its more that your introducing foreign metals and chemicals into the loop. Who knows what your pipes are made of, and what mess has gotten into it.

I use de-mineralized water in my loop (mainly because i couldn't find distilled 😗), if you can find that you should be fine. As I said above, its mainly the minerals in the water that your avoiding by going for Distilled water.

Also, as soon as the water hits the loop it conducts electricity. De-Ionized water doesn't conduct, but all the metals of your loop are very willing to give up ions. Besides that, metal contamination will also cause conductivity. Case in point.
uS is a measure of electrical conductivity.
waterquality09.jpg
 
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Thank You MoC, That is very interesting information!

CopperTransfer_zpsfd7ae91f.png


The picture is of 2 identical kill coils the copper colored one is after one day in my new setup with the MO-RA3 radiator.

The instructions that came with the MO-RA3 from the Watercool company stated the best growth treatment they had discovered was simply adding pure citric acid to the loop.

The Ball canning corporation has citric acid in the product lineup and I bought some and added 1/2 teaspoon to the loop, so I thought I'd be double sure and tossed in a silver kill coil as well.

My Bad!

That coolant combination with pure steam distilled water was the perfect environment and copper transfer began instantly, without electrical current flowing through the water, the citric acid and silver produced amazing plating results.

Not only was the silver attracting the copper ions it was also beginning plating chromed metals as well.

I of course removed the kill coil immediately and the plating reaction stopped.

 
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My godness! I was waiting for Gigabyte's new motherboard to get revealed. That definitely will look better than the Maximus VI Hero. Though don't know about the price yet.

That board has good PCI-E slots since I could do x16/x16 Crossfire later on.
 
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I'll wait to see the prices and then I'll make decisions. I received the parts yesterday but I'm at my girlfriends now so I don't know when I get to build the machine again. We had to put her dog to sleep yesterday because he had a bad tumor in his mouth.

Can't really think about my computer at the moment...
 
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Thanks guys.

Back to the build. I've put the GTX670 on sale and ordered Asus 7970DCII card. Now I'd like to order the water block as soon as I can. The pictures still show that the EK block only has holes in the bottom and they don't go through...

http://www.jimms.fi/tuote/EK-FC7970-DCII-ACETAL-N

I also Googled the block and only saw setups with tubing on the bottom side. I do have some additional 45 degree fittings now but I wished I could have gotten the tubing straight on top.

And what thermal paste you recommend for the gpu? Thanks :)
 
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I have many years of experience with water cooling and all types of water blocks, and I can't believe that the block that you linked for some reason does not have holes that go through. I'm not sure why that is since it severely limits your options.

I use Artic Silver 5 on all my blocks that require thermal interface material. There are many that you can use that are very good and everybody has their favorite and for the most part unless you are going to be doing some serious overclocking most will do. The key to it being effective is to spread it in a very , very thin layer since the objective of the TIM is to provide a smooth contact surface free of any spaces like micro scratches and indents.
 
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It's too bad that you ordered the Asus card because since your putting a water block you could have gone with a reference 7970 and then you could choose a standard block like a Watercool Heatkiller. The biggest draw to the Asus card is the fan/heat sink design and the clock speed is lower then a stock board and some of the other high end boards. If your not using the special fan/heat sink then you should consider canceling the order and go with a stock 7970, it's a waste to take that heat sink off. Saphire, XFX or Gigabyte would be good choices.
 
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I didn't actually want the DirectCU II but it was the only water block what they had in stock for 7970 :/ also the availability of the GPUs is not very good. The store where I ordered it from only had the Asus in stock from 7970's.

I could order from SpecialTech again but the only thing is I can get a good part payment contract from Finnish shops (don't know a good word for it) unlike from SpecialTech where I would need to pay it straight away.

Jimm's is the only store in Finland where I can get water cooling parts and they only have the Asus block in stock :/

EDIT: I canceled the orders and changed the Asus to XFX GHz Edition 7970. I also sent a question to SpecialTech if they accept the GTX670 block and back plate as a return since I haven't even opened the boxes yet. If they accept that then I'll just have to wait for the block to come from UK :)

I can use the 7970 without the block as long as I have to. Just want to make this well to the end.
 
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My condolences about your dog, as a dog person myself I know that must have been hard to do.

Have you made sure that XFX card is reference design?
Cooling Configurator is a good site to check for this kind of thing.

Though I do wonder why you dropped the 670? The 7970 is an upgrade sure, but I wouldnt say worth buying a whole new card for.
 
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I guess your in a bit of a bind with supply availability, you may want to think this through before you end up with something you don't want or need.
The Asus video card that you were ordering had a very advanced cooling solution and did not need water cooling, however they did make a block for it so I can see why you were tempted to go for it.

By already having a GTX 670 you could have grabbed another for sli and had a very powerful gaming machine but which ever you decide just make sure that your getting what you want.

 
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I have to say I was a little confused about which one to order since the stores have about a hundred cards listed on their website and like 10 different in stock.

The change to the 7970 was because of the computing power. Yeah I could have gone with SLI 670 but then again I'm not in the need of so-powerful gaming machine 😛 and now if I get to sell my 670, it feels like I only paid little to nothing about the new card.

I'm pretty sure the XFX card is reference model but I'll make sure with the configurator :)
 
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I've heard they had some temperature problems with 7970's and a lot of consumers had to return those cards because of overheating. But they have addressed that issue and the new cards are fixed. Not sure if that was the problem with the post you're referring to, toolmaker.

I read a review about the XFX 7970 GHz Edition and this is a quote from the conclusion:

"XFX built a great video card with the XFX Double D HD 7970 GHz Edition. It stays cool and provides excellent performance in all video games. If you are in the market for a cool and easily overclockable Radeon HD 7970 based video card, pay attention to the XFX Double D HD 7970 GHz Edition."
 
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