lastsplash
Well-known member
Finally finished my first loop! Big thanks to Daz for the help and getting extra parts shipped out so quick! And to Dazhong at XSPC for playing along too.
The most complicated part of the build was grinding the heat sink on the GTX 470's. They are the Zotac AMP! edition cards that came with a Zotac branded Zalman VF3000 heat sink. Since it came with a nice looking, full cover VRM RAM heat sink underneath the giant 3 slot GPU cooler, I decided to go the universal GPU route to save a few dollars and hopefully allow for easy upgrades. A problem I found, which I had anticipated (crossing my fingers didn't work), was the ports on the XSPC Rasa GPU blocks wouldn't clear the aluminium heat sink with compression fittings. So I got out the Dremel, took a deep breath and started grinding. (note: always wear eye and ear protection when using a rotary tool) After going through six grinding bits (and two trips to the hardware store) I discovered that sanding bits did a much faster and cleaner job. Very little build up of aluminium compared to the grinding stones, which clogged up very fast and just ended up melting the heat sink instead of grinding it. I tried to cover up the exposed metal with a Sharpie, it turned out OK but scratches off with the lightest touch of a compression fitting. No biggie.
GPU blocks went on without any problems, except for one screw which refused to thread. Daz and XSPC coordinated a quick RMA for me and sent a replacement in just a few days. Since I had some time to kill I decided to do a dry fit to make sure everything would fit as I had planned. I'm glad I did! I ended up ordering a few more fittings that I needed to make it all work. I also discovered that I tightened the compression fittings on the tube way too much. I had to cut all the tubing to get the fittings off the parts! I'm glad I bought 15ft. I ended up having to use pliers to untwist the compression fittings.
I also decided to just use fittings between the res and the pump instead of a small stretch of tube. I used a 20mm spacer, male/male adapter and an anti-twist adapter.
Once all the parts showed up, the rest went pretty easy. Was a lot easier than I expected, actually. I was a little uneasy when I ordered the parts. Since it was my first time, I wasn't sure if everything would work as I had imagined. I'll say one thing, everything looks so much bigger in pictures. I couldn't believe how tiny the MCP355 was.
I'll run some benchmarks and do some tweaking over the next few days and post the results. I can finally install Battlefield 3 on Big Blue! Here he is with little blue, my portable PC:
I've got some parts on the way to add a fill port and I plan on the bottom 240 mod in the future. Next time i get an itch, I guess!
System Specs:
Intel i7 875k
Gigabyte P55 UD7
Zotac GTX 470 AMP! x2
Corsair Vengeance 16GB 1600 9-24
Corsair Force 120GB RAID 0
WD Black 1TB RAID 0
Pioneer DVR-218L
Corsair HX750 PSU
Cooling parts:
XSPC Rasa CPU block
XSPC Rasa GPU block x2
XSPC RS360 radiator
XSPC DDC pump top
Swiftech MCP355 pump
FrozenQ Liquid Fusion 250mm reservoir
Bits and Pieces:
Feser 3/8"ID 1/2"OD "Muskoka Night" tubing
EK compression fittings x10
Koolance 45° swivel adapters x4
Koolance 90° swivel adapters x4
Bitspower 20mm spacers x2
Bitspower 25mm spacers x2
Bitspower 12mm male/male adapter
Bitspower 14mm anti-twist adapter
EK UV Blue coolant
Fans:
Gelid UV 120mm fans x3
Gelid UV LED PWM 120mm fans x3
Gelid UV 140mm fans x2
Corsair 140mm fans x2
Zalman ZM-MFC1 fan controller
Cables/Extensions:
Modright 24pin
Modright 8pin
Modright 6pin x4
Bitfenix 3pin fan x3
Bitfenix 4pin fan x3
Bitfenix 3pin fan to 3x3pin fan
Bitfenix SATA x3
Bitfenix SATA to molex x3
Bitfenix 2pin front panel x4
Bitfenix internal USB x2
Works PWM splitter x2
Shot with:
Canon Rebel T3i
Motorola Atrix
The most complicated part of the build was grinding the heat sink on the GTX 470's. They are the Zotac AMP! edition cards that came with a Zotac branded Zalman VF3000 heat sink. Since it came with a nice looking, full cover VRM RAM heat sink underneath the giant 3 slot GPU cooler, I decided to go the universal GPU route to save a few dollars and hopefully allow for easy upgrades. A problem I found, which I had anticipated (crossing my fingers didn't work), was the ports on the XSPC Rasa GPU blocks wouldn't clear the aluminium heat sink with compression fittings. So I got out the Dremel, took a deep breath and started grinding. (note: always wear eye and ear protection when using a rotary tool) After going through six grinding bits (and two trips to the hardware store) I discovered that sanding bits did a much faster and cleaner job. Very little build up of aluminium compared to the grinding stones, which clogged up very fast and just ended up melting the heat sink instead of grinding it. I tried to cover up the exposed metal with a Sharpie, it turned out OK but scratches off with the lightest touch of a compression fitting. No biggie.
GPU blocks went on without any problems, except for one screw which refused to thread. Daz and XSPC coordinated a quick RMA for me and sent a replacement in just a few days. Since I had some time to kill I decided to do a dry fit to make sure everything would fit as I had planned. I'm glad I did! I ended up ordering a few more fittings that I needed to make it all work. I also discovered that I tightened the compression fittings on the tube way too much. I had to cut all the tubing to get the fittings off the parts! I'm glad I bought 15ft. I ended up having to use pliers to untwist the compression fittings.
I also decided to just use fittings between the res and the pump instead of a small stretch of tube. I used a 20mm spacer, male/male adapter and an anti-twist adapter.
Once all the parts showed up, the rest went pretty easy. Was a lot easier than I expected, actually. I was a little uneasy when I ordered the parts. Since it was my first time, I wasn't sure if everything would work as I had imagined. I'll say one thing, everything looks so much bigger in pictures. I couldn't believe how tiny the MCP355 was.
I'll run some benchmarks and do some tweaking over the next few days and post the results. I can finally install Battlefield 3 on Big Blue! Here he is with little blue, my portable PC:
I've got some parts on the way to add a fill port and I plan on the bottom 240 mod in the future. Next time i get an itch, I guess!
System Specs:
Intel i7 875k
Gigabyte P55 UD7
Zotac GTX 470 AMP! x2
Corsair Vengeance 16GB 1600 9-24
Corsair Force 120GB RAID 0
WD Black 1TB RAID 0
Pioneer DVR-218L
Corsair HX750 PSU
Cooling parts:
XSPC Rasa CPU block
XSPC Rasa GPU block x2
XSPC RS360 radiator
XSPC DDC pump top
Swiftech MCP355 pump
FrozenQ Liquid Fusion 250mm reservoir
Bits and Pieces:
Feser 3/8"ID 1/2"OD "Muskoka Night" tubing
EK compression fittings x10
Koolance 45° swivel adapters x4
Koolance 90° swivel adapters x4
Bitspower 20mm spacers x2
Bitspower 25mm spacers x2
Bitspower 12mm male/male adapter
Bitspower 14mm anti-twist adapter
EK UV Blue coolant
Fans:
Gelid UV 120mm fans x3
Gelid UV LED PWM 120mm fans x3
Gelid UV 140mm fans x2
Corsair 140mm fans x2
Zalman ZM-MFC1 fan controller
Cables/Extensions:
Modright 24pin
Modright 8pin
Modright 6pin x4
Bitfenix 3pin fan x3
Bitfenix 4pin fan x3
Bitfenix 3pin fan to 3x3pin fan
Bitfenix SATA x3
Bitfenix SATA to molex x3
Bitfenix 2pin front panel x4
Bitfenix internal USB x2
Works PWM splitter x2
Shot with:
Canon Rebel T3i
Motorola Atrix
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