My New Rig. What an adventure.

[_AH_Slikk]

It seems like it has taken forever to finish this build but I've finally got it done. I ran into just about every problem you could think of but diligent perseverance has prevailed. I don't think that there was anything in this rig that I just put in once and it worked. I should name this rig (Two), because there are at least two of everything in here. Two video cards, two raptors in raid 0, duel core processor, two sound cards, two rads and so on. But more than that, everything that I put in here had to be taken out after I put it in, and then put in again a second time for it to work correctly. I originally had two ThermoChill PA120.2 radiators for my GPU loop but had to replace both of them. The mounting holes did not line up with my case but I finally figured out a way to get them mounted. After all of that, I put the water in and water started to leak out of them. I thought to myself, I couldn't be having that much bad luck, what are the odds of having two brand new rads leak right out of the box? It must have been something that I did to cause this problem. After dismounting the radiators, I found the problem. The screws that I used to mount the fans on to the radiators put little tiny holes into them. I thought wow, how could some twenty-five cent screws destroy two hundred dollars worth of radiators. What a heartbreaker. As if that wasn't bad enough, it gets worse. Now, on to the next major disaster. I finally got this rig all put together and here we go again, more problems. This time it's my brand new 4870x2 video cards. I know they worked because I tested them on air. So what could be the problem this time. Come to find out, water from the NB loop wound up leaking down on to the video cards and fried eleven hundred dollars worth of video cards. At that point I wanted to cry, then I wanted to throw this thing into the garbage can but I was to far into this to let this get the best of me. I said to myself, I'm gonna finish this if it's the last thing I do, so I ordered two more 4870x2's, took everything apart again, put the water blocks on, checked everything for leaks, and put it all back together again. Ok here we go again... This time I was scared to hit the power switch, but here goes. I hit the power switch and waddyaknow, It worked! Everything's working right and no leaks. I'm so tired after all this I don't know what to do. I'm just glad I finally got this to work right. Now on to the next phase, lets see what kind of benches I can get out of this thing. To be continued.

System specs and pics below.

Case: Thermaltake Mozart TX VE1000BWS Cube Tower
Case Fans: 6x Thermaltake A1926 120mm Blue LED Case Fan  Air Flow 78 CFM
Fan Control : Lian Li TR-5 Thermometer 5.25 inch Black
PSU: CoolMax CUQ-1200B 1200W ATX12V
MB: [XF] ASUS Rampage Extreme (x48 Board) (0501 BIOS)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 E0 Wolfdale 3.33GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor (Laped)
Back Plate: Xigmatek Crossbow ACK-L7751 Mounting Bracket (for the Fujitsu chip)
GPU: 2x Sapphire 100251SR Radeon HD 4870 X2's CrossFireX (2GB GDDR5), 512-bit (256-bit x 2) PCIe 2.0 x16 20GB/sec bandwidth, 24X CFAA
RAM: Corsair Dominator 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1800 (PC3 14400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
HDD: 2x Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000GLFS 300GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (Raid 0)
HDD: 4x Maxtor Ultra ATA-133 300GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache (Backup/Storage)
IDE to SATA: 4x Rosewill RC-204 IDE to SATA Mini Vertical Bridge (for IDE HDD's)
SATA Cables: 8x OKGEAR 36" SATA II Cable Model GC36AKM12
PATA Cables: 24" Dual Device ATA133 Cable - Black
DVD/CD-Burners: 2x Lite-On 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black E-IDE/ATAPI Model DH-20A4H-06
LCD: Acer AL2416W
HD Audio: SupremeFX X-Fi 8-CH Audio card
HD Audio: Sound Blaster Live Model: CT4870
TV Tuner: Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1250 Hybrid Video Recorder 1196 PCI-Express x1
OS: Windows XP Pro SP3
-----------------------
Liquid Cooling System
-----------------------
CPU/NB Loop Order: Pump - Radiator - CPU Block - NB - Reservoir
CPU Block: Swiftech APOGEE GTZ LGA775 CPU Water Block G1/4 Chrome HI-FLOW 1/2IN Barb Fittings
NB Block: Swiftech MCW-NBMAX North Bridge Water Block
Pump: Swiftech MCP655 12 VDC
Tubing: Masterkleer 1/2" ID, 3/4" OD, 1/8" Wall Thickness Clear PVC Tubing
Hose Clamps: 8x Stainless Steel Worm-Drive Hose Clamps
Shroud: ThermoChill PA160 Shroud
Barbs: G1/4 Chrome HI-FLOW 1/2IN Barb Fittings
Radiator: ThermoChill PA160
Radiator Fan: Thermaltake A2029 120mm Case Fans Air Flow 35.43-95.22 CFM
Reservoir: Swiftech MCRes-Micro
Thermometer: Thermaltake Aquabay M5
Coolant: Distilled Water
Biocide: Petra'sTech "PT_Nuke" Concentrated Biocide (10ml)

GPU Loop Order: Pump - Radiator - GPU - Radiator - GPU - Reservoir
GPU Blocks: 2x AquagratiX HD 4870 X2 Water Blocks
Pump: Swiftech MCP655 12 VDC
Tubing: Masterkleer 1/2" ID, 3/4" OD, 1/8" Wall Thickness Clear PVC Tubing
Hose Clamps: 10x Stainless Steel Worm-Drive Hose Clamps
Shroud: 2x ThermoChill PA120.2 Shrouds
Barbs: G1/4 Chrome HI-FLOW 1/2IN Barb Fittings
Radiator: 2x Black Ice GTX240 Dual Radiators
Push Radiator Fans: 4x Thermaltake A1926 120mm Blue LED Case Fan  Air Flow 78 CFM
Pull Radiator Fans: 4x Thermaltake A2029 120mm Case Fans Air Flow 35.43-95.22 CFM
Reservoir: Swiftech MCRes-Micro
Thermometer: Thermaltake Aquabay M5
Coolant: Distilled Water
Biocide: Petra'sTech "PT_Nuke" Concentrated Biocide (10ml)



Slikk

[_AH_Jack]

Holy Mother of God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!    That's more rig than I'll ever afford!    NICE !!!

[_AH_Duff4r]

+1 jack

You  FRIED more in Vid cards than my entire rig cost last Christmas

Nice RIG and good luck my friend...
Duff.

[_AH_BBQhead]

S~..  looks like it should do the trick...lol.. wow that's a lot of computer.   maybe some small fish to swim through the water tubes would be cool.

[_AH_Hornet]

Looks like it could need a few more hard drives

[_AH_Olds]

WOW!  :surprised-041:  That is some system! Looks like something out of Star Trek, like a Borg with all those tubes! Never seen anything quite like it  :cool: 

[_AH_Gonzo]

Jeeze Slikk!!

Does that thing double as a airconditioner for the house when you're not playing?!?!

Beauty rig though bud!

[_AH_Hornet]

I hope you have a nice UPS with that thing, 'cus I would hate to hear how it got stuck by a strange power anomaly.

I would call that an amazing work of engineering art.

[_AH_Rumely]

WOW that is one big rig....................When you turn that baby on I bet the lights dim in the house :surprised-041:  Nice work indeed !

[_AH_Toccs]

That's the dangdest frankenrig I've ever seen.   Reminds me of my former life:

At my last employer, we used to have a 4 head Cray (freon cooled) with 250KW generator running all the time. That Cray took up about 4,000 sq ft of space. It was used to model nuclear weapon detonations in the first 100 milliseconds. We only modelled the first 10-100 milliseconds; after that the equations were unmanageable.

You could look through little portholes and see the freon boiling, kinda like the old Christmas lights.  :cool:

[_AH_taldrg]

~S~ When you turn it on does your outdoor emergency generator kick in?

[_AH_Hornet]

Hah, Toccs former life reminds me of my previous job at one of GE's datacenters.
They have 6,000 servers at that location and hundreds of other devices packed into 60,000 sq ft operating on 8ms for full battery backup and 18 seconds for full diesel generator pickup (my site had 4 caterpillar engines standing about 12 ft tall and 10 ft wide and about 30 ft long) with enough fuel on site for 3 days continuous blackout.