Quad Extreme project

[mandelore]

Hi all.

Well, this is the only place I could think of posting this "project". Unlike most It has already been done, and includes my 1gb 2900xt setup i rigged several month ago, so ill post this in the order in which i put it together.

Just to let you know that when i originally set up my 2900xt liquid cooling loop i was still on my 939 motherboard and my case front bay layout was slightly different, so any discrepancies you observe in the images will be explained by that.

My system consists of:

SYSTEM

• Asus Maximus Formula SE motherboard
• 2Gb DDR2 Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC8500
• 500GB Raid 0 (2 disks)
• Intel QX9650 processor
• 1Gb 2900XT graphics card
• DVD rewriter

COOLING

• 2x Thermochill PA120.3 Radiators, 1x 120mm Black Ice radiator
• 2x Dangerden clear front bay reservours
• 3/8" Clearflex 60 tubing
• Dangerden DD-29XT 2900xt waterblock
• Arctic web 437W TEC waterblock
• Custom-built dual 80mm RAM cooler
• 1x Swiftech Laing MCP655 12 VDC Pump (CPU loop)
• 1x Laing DDC 1-T Pro 10W 12 VDC Pump (GFX / NB loop)
• 1x Dedicated 600W / 24V Meanwell power supply

Cooling for my new rig as listed above consists of 2 separate liquid cooling loops, one cooling both my 2900Xt and the Maximus Formula's Northbridge/Southbridge fusion waterblock. The other loop is dedicated to dissipating the heat generated from the 437W peltier unit within the Arctic Web CPU cooler.
________________________________________________

Setting up the 2900XT cooling loop

Here are the basic components of the cooling loop shown in the photographs below:


This is the bare Thermochill PA120.3 radiator, pretty damn big in my opinion, and supports the mounting of 3x120mm fans. I opted for low noise / high CFM Akasa fans.

The next 3 images show the coolent base-Fluid XP, clear Dangerden reservoir and DD-29XT waterblock attached to the 2900XT card:



I proceeded to attach the fans to the radiator and then traced out the screw points and radiator shape on the computer case back panel which is where I planned to mount this radiator:



Once I had the basic shape and screw locations, I proceeded to drill the holes and cut out the radiator shape to allow airflow using a mains driven saw. I also cut out a large area at the top of the back panel to allow tubing to pass through the case panel into the computer case. I then proceeded to mount the radiator to the panel:



Here is the 2900XT graphics card connected to the loop resting on some skillfully constructed scaffolding



Finally here is the final mounted radiator and fillport that I attached to the rear of the case:



New rig components

My new motherboard, the Asus Maximus Formula Special Edition is a big step away from my previous systems. I opted for a socket 775 system with built in watercooling on the Northbridge, Southbridge and voltage regulators, as I intend for some serious overclocking:



The Maximus Formula is the base for my newly acquired Intel Quad Extreme 9650 processor, both of which I selected with eachother in mind, and hopefully this pairing will result in some nice overclocks.



-Cooling the QX9650

To cool my QX9650 processor I opted, as with all my previous rigs for a TEC cooling solution. After much looking around I decided to go with the Arctic Web Thermoelectric cooling block.
Below shows the packaging, the contents consisting of the cooling block, instructions and neoprene gaskets:



Here is a close up of the top and bottom of the cooler, with a thin plastic film covering the copper base against scratches:


________________________________________________

Modding the Maximus Formula

If I was going to overclock as far as I could, I decided to look for ways to improve the motherboard before I installed anything.
The first thing I did was to remove the built in Fusion waterblock and change the stock thermal glue to the more efficient Arctic Silver 5. Initially the waterblock would not budge in the slightest, so I had to use a hair dryer to heat the block up then gently twist the block for what seemed like forever till it gave way. Using a solvent I cleaned the thermal glue off the block ready for the Arctic Silver 5.

Here you can see the bare Northbridge and southbridge and the removed Fusion waterblock:



After I reattached the Fusion waterblock, I proceeded to add small 40mm fan with built in LED's to the Northbridge heatsink adjacent tot he waterblock. This fan was salvaged from an old hard drive cooler:



I also mounted a larger 50mm fan to blow horizontally through the length of the RAM modules to aid in their cooling. This is to go in conjunction with my removable dual 80mm fan RAM cooler:



Here you can see the motherboard with the 2 new fans in place and connected up:



Note: At a later date, once the motherboard was installed, I removed the cap from the southbridge heatsink and added a small 40mm fan to it to improve Southbridge cooling. Every little helps



________________________________________________

Prepping the motherboard for the Thermoelectric cooler

This is quite an involved and extensive procedure, and can be quite messy too!

Because the thermoelectric cooler will introduce subzero temperatures to my system, it is crucial to insulate accordingly. The first thing that I did was to cover all of the slots/connectors and cpu socket with tape and coat the motherboard pcb with a Conformal coating spray:



I then proceeded to spray the pcb, both front and back with conformal coating 3 times. Each time I allowed 15 minutes for curing before proceeding onto the next coat.

Once this was done, I then removed all the tape from the motherboard and moved onto insulating the internal part of the socket. I will post this next part as a sort of step-by-step guide for any members who want to know how to correctly use Dielectric grease.

1) Fill the central recess in the socket with dielectric grease till it is level with the socket pins:


2) Smear dielectric grease across the pins and gaps in the socket, try to get it everywhere in the socket you can


3) Push in the CPU and the dielectric grease that is squeezed out try to spread this around the cap. Avoid getting this onto the IHS


4) Pull the lock lever and secure the cpu. Once secured into the socket proceed to squirt more dielectric grease into any visable voids and gaps. I found a small syringe ideal for this


5) Apply a neoprene gasket to the back of the pcb where the processor socket is located to insulate against condensation from the rear of the cpu.


6) Add dielectric grease to the gaskets designed to fit around the processor socket and then place them onto the motherboard. I had to trim some of mine to allow for adjacent components. I also used silicone glue on the gaskets around the motherboard base to completely lock away any possibility of air getting in. Here you can also see where I have applied Liquid Metal Pro Thermal interface material to the CPU:


All that was left to do was add neoprene to the Arctic Web block and then attach this to the motherboard:



________________________________________________

Connecting Radiators, tubing and finalisation

Here you can see the Arctic Web cooler with the 3/8" barbs installed:



There are two inlets and outlets on this waterblock, and as you can see I have connected them diagonally as stated in the instructions, and then connected "like" connectors via a Y-shaped splitter:



Here you can suspended tubing ready for the motherboard installation and then quick connection, as well as a side shot showing the dual front bay reservoirs, one for the graphics card loop and the other for the Arctic Web loop:



Radiators

I decided to mount my other Thermochill Pa120.3 radiator to the back of the computer case, while having the much smaller 120mm Black Ice (tho blue in colour lol ) radiator to the inside lower front bays of the case:



Once the radiators were mounted correctly I proceeded to fill most of the loop with coolent, which as you can see here, looks very much like good old blood .

This brings a new meaning to the guts of a computer system



-Finalisation

Once the loop was mostly filled, excluding the tubes being connected to the motherboard, I installed the motherboard with the Arctic Web installed, and proceeded to connect up the corresponding loops to the northbridge and the Arctic Web cooler:



I hope you have found my project interesting, and I will provide various Overclocking and benchmarking results on this thread as I get to grips with my new system.

Mand


__________________________________________________ _
Benchmark Results

9-1-2008

[hat]

oh. my. god.
that is one hell of a... cooling contraption...
and I was proud of myself when I installed my freezer 64.

[DaMulta]

Can you take some pics of around the case? After pics you might say.



Oh and I want your machine......heheh

Did you figure out about the temps?"

[mandelore]

Originally Posted by DaMulta

Can you take some pics of around the case? After pics you might say.



Oh and I want your machine......heheh

Did you figure out about the temps?"

sure i will take more pics.. erhem.. just need to clean my room lol!

its an electronics graveyard in here

as for the temperatures, whenever the cpu is not under load, the reported temperatures instantly reset to fixed values, I guess it just cant handle subzero readings. Just would love to know just how "cold" it is at idle. under orthos, occt etc, at over 4ghz, the temperatures do increase to around 35ish on each core.tho it takes a while for them to get there

[Jizzler]

You're a madman! Very nice

[Random Murderer]

wow... i hope for your sake you don't spring a leak! everything will be dyed red!

[mandelore]

Thanks guys!

im actually waiting on a replacement for my cpu loop pump, ive opted for a Laing DDC with Petra's DDCT-01s Top. As I kinda accidentally left my pump running dry for 3 days. Ouch!

It still works, but makes alot of noise and probable will explode soon enuff. also replacing the 80mm fan in the meanwell power supply with a equally powerful yet much quieter fan, as the current one is a leafblower

[mandelore]

Originally Posted by Random Murderer

wow... i hope for your sake you don't spring a leak! everything will be dyed red!

ahh, but i can cope with dyed red, its non conductive so at least it wont blow anything up

[DaMulta]

Originally Posted by mandelore

sure i will take more pics.. erhem.. just need to clean my room lol!

its an electronics graveyard in here

as for the temperatures, whenever the cpu is not under load, the reported temperatures instantly reset to fixed values, I guess it just cant handle subzero readings. Just would love to know just how "cold" it is at idle. under orthos, occt etc, at over 4ghz, the temperatures do increase to around 35ish on each core.tho it takes a while for them to get there

I'm surprised that it doesn't stay frozen at all times.

[mandelore]

Originally Posted by DaMulta

I'm surprised that it doesn't stay frozen at all times.

being quite honest, untill i buy a probe and fix it to under the cold plate i cant be certain what the temperature is. I simply dont trust what im being told

[DaMulta]

Are you giving that TEC plenty of volts?

[vivanco]

wow i love that cooling setup and all the goodies you got
have fun clocking that buddy
one question tho, why not ocz xtc memory cooler ?

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/XTCMemoryCooler

edit: and how is that ballistix tracer is able to do 1200mhz with 4-4-4-6 timings?

That is a b-e-a-u-t-y.

[mandelore]

Originally Posted by DaMulta

Are you giving that TEC plenty of volts?

yup, im using the reccomended psu, 600W, and dishing out 24V.

the rads are luke warm to the touch so they are doing brilliantly at cooling the tec, if the temps are accurate, I guess the cpu is dishing out quite a bit of heat when its clocked high.

the T junc max is 105C, so 35C is PLENTY away from that

however, i am having difficulty getting the fsb high on this motherboard. It doesnt make sense, I even tried a bios config the same as that of another maximus formula + qx9650 owner and its a no go?

I want to use a low multi + high fsb, but i just gotta figure out why its not stable

[pt]

pls tell me your adress so i can steal that rig
it looks very good
and what about oc results?

[CDdude55]

Did you set the Motherboard on the motherboards box? Or use the anti static bag to put the motherboard on?

[mandelore]

I got those timings with high voltage 1.4V, but kept chilly by the fans i use. I set everything up on the mobo box, but i discharged all static when handling it.

ATM im trying to get a stable oc, running occt then bumping vcore when needed. started thismorning from stock frequency.

If anyone else here has a maximus formula, any help getting my fsb high would be appreciated, ive already trauled the web for info, mostly from xtreme etc..

[mandelore]

Originally Posted by pt

pls tell me your adress so i can steal that rig
it looks very good
and what about oc results?

i managed 4.4ghz on the stock cooler, so id imagine a wee bit more with nicer temperatures. im still working on getting this stable. dunno why my mobo wont play game atm, and my psu is rated for quad cores, tri gfx cards, 18 satadrives, so its plenty methinks, i hope..

[mandelore]

Well, after messing around, and finding it was my ram that was bsoding my pc, i upped the ram voltage and got this: 4620MHz

[Random Murderer]

Originally Posted by mandelore

Well, after messing around, and finding it was my ram that was bsoding my pc, i upped the ram voltage and got this: 4620MHz

holy crap!
you gonna keep pushin her?

[DaMulta]

4.6 stable? What do you have your memory volatge set at?




Hey what do you run your 2900 at stable? I went ahead and ordered a maze block for my card. The only reason I didn't get the full covage block was because of the fact that it would only work for that one card. Do you think that I will be able to set it at your GPU speeds?

[mandelore]

Originally Posted by DaMulta

4.6 stable? What do you have your memory volatge set at?




Hey what do you run your 2900 at stable? I went ahead and ordered a maze block for my card. The only reason I didn't get the full covage block was because of the fact that it would only work for that one card. Do you think that I will be able to set it at your GPU speeds?

i am 3dmark stable at 955 core at 1.45vgpu @ 62c load, as long as your volt regs/ram is sufficiently cooled, i see no reason why you cannot get those speeds, no reason at all.

yeah, the full coverage is a drawback in that sense, I was quite tempted by crossfire 3870's. but meh, I lub my card , and i doubt id get anywhere near what i paid for the card + waterblock. damn this habit is expensive.....

however dx10 is a bit more picky, I cant run much above 900 in dx10 without small artifacts, but that was only tested with the bios's 1.35v, maybe more vgpu would help.

my ram voltage is veried atm, still trying to work out what the hell it likes. I have ran 1200 on my other cpu @ 1.4volts, been running around 1.35ish atm just to make sure that theres no instability. 4.6GHz at that fsb is dissapointing tho, i just cant seem to get a high fsb without crashes, im sure im doing something wrong... AMD overclocking was SOOOOO much easier

[panchoman]

whoa man! thats pretty crazy, can we get a 360 of the case? i want to see how you mounted the other 2 rad's. also 35C is a little hot a 437w tec isn't it? but i would get a diode or an infared gun, etc. as i wouldn't trust the bios for such readings. great job!

[Completely Bonkers]

Thanks for taking the time to write up your project (with photos). Great job. Good luck going faster still.

[steelkane]

kick-ass overclock, I seen the case after the cutting you did for the rad,, just wondering is your computer with all that awesome hardware, time & money spent,, In test mode. and your going to take it back apart to paint the case to make it all look the way it runs, or are you just going to leave it the way it is.