Matx watercooling

[GSG-9]

I think the title says it all, I installed an AIO watercooling system in my matx rig, the project was more about cleaning up the cable clutter that developed after my upgrades.


Here is my rig two days ago. Before I began.

The Motherboard I am working with is a ASUS P5E-VM HDMI. It is one of the few (if only) matx board that has the G35 Chipset, making it favorable for overclocking.

Before I began this project...I was in need of this project to say the least, My cable management had failed after wiring my computer for 4 hardrives (2 internal drives externally) and upgrading to the beastly HD2900 videocard.

Here is the AIO before installing

My modding tools laid out before me, some are...quetionable, (bread ties...) but they have there uses.

Modding in room for fans can be a little dangerous..I nicked 2 fingers pretty bad.

I plan on removing the 2x hardrive bays and replacing them with a 5x bay. I have two problems with it I did not want to deal with last night. Firstly, its welded to the side of the case, which will make it hard to remove. Secondly The setup there now has modular hard drive bays, something I will transition to the 5x setup. The removable 2x drive bays need to be modified to fit my 5x setup.

Im a graphic artist and got a little distracted playing with my camera before I got back on task.

Before Shot:

After Shot:

Next to 22'' monitor:

I cut out holes for the 80mms in the back, removed the twin 80s from the front, modded the front to fit my 140mm that had been in the side and mounted the AIO where the 140mm fan had been.

Sometime soon I will either be upgrading to an ATI X2 card or an Nvidia 9800 GX2 card. If I can work it out I will get a Gigabyte Matx crossfire board that is here and attempt Crossfire with watercooling in an matx case. I will keep you posted and update my pictures and worklog here as I go along.

Edit: Image Shack has froze on 2 attempts to upload all 53 files, i dont really want to try again, I will add the rest threw tpu...eventually.




7-13-08
Im very tired, I have not slept enough lately. I have been working to much..
Anyway..
My lowest sustained temperature I achieved on my cpu was 21c for 15min ambient temperature was in fact 71 degrees fahrenheit (21c)
My average idle temperature was 25c, my highest idle temperature was 29c.

My average load temp (2x Prime95) was 49c.

E6600 @ 3.4.2 Ghz (380 Mhz fsb)
Revision B2
Stepping 6
V Core is at 1.55v

The 2900 is out, a 4870 should be here in the next few days.

 

[GSG-9]

I have a little surprise about the performance of this unit, for now lets just say the cooler has a lot more potential than any reviews online gave it credit for.

 

[InnocentCriminal]

^^

Interesting stuff dude, I suggest you invest in some cable ties and wrap. Even if the cables are all over the place, wrapping them up will make them look neater.

Otherwise, kudos on the mATX watercooled rig.

\m/

 

[GSG-9]

^^

Interesting stuff dude, I suggest you invest in some cable ties and wrap. Even if the cables are all over the place, wrapping them up will make them look neater.

Otherwise, kudos on the mATX watercooled rig.

\m/

I have 5 cable ties, I am not using any of them
They are red, yellow, blue and green and orange. I dont want those colors in there, maybe I will sharpie them..

Where its at now is a major improvment from where it was, I will cable more better after a videocard upgrade, I dont want to give cables set locations tell then.

 

[InnocentCriminal]

That's understandable, what card will you be upgrading to? I think you might be able to flash your Pro to XT, might be worth investigating if you're not planning on upgrading anytime soon.

 

[GSG-9]

That's understandable, what card will you be upgrading to? I think you might be able to flash your Pro to XT, might be worth investigating if you're not planning on upgrading anytime soon.

I have flashed every ATI card I have but this one
The only reason I have not are I dont have a floppy drive attached to my rig and My clocks for the 2900Pro (in specs) are already well above that of the xt, also the Sapphire version of the card (that I have) has all 320 stream processors enabled, so its not like in the old days when flashing my 9800se/pro to a 9800xt may enable pipes, but that would be so cool if i could

 

[InnocentCriminal]

Arrh fair enough, I remember reading it here on TPU somewhere and some dude posting it here.

Not that you need it. ^^

 

[GSG-9]

Im getting ot now but there was a tool W1zz had up to do it with a usb drive but I never did get it to work.
What I am looking for is a X2 series or GX2 series card to put in here, and if its still around buy fit's Matx Gigabyte Crossfire bored (its 16x/4x but that will do for me) and CrossfireX them. All in an matx rig.
Im talking with DanishDevil about his 3870x2 with waterblock, it would make this project that much more epic.

 

[InnocentCriminal]

Definitely!

Well, good luck and I'll be watching your progress.

 

[GSG-9]

Im very tired, I have not slept enough lately. I have been working to much..
Anyway..
My lowest sustained temperature I achieved on my cpu was 21c for 15min ambient temperature was in fact 71 degrees fahrenheit (21c)
My average idle temperature was 25c, my highest idle temperature was 29c.

My average load temp (2x Prime95) was 49c.

E6600 @ 3.4.2 Ghz (380 Mhz fsb)
Revision B2
Stepping 6
V Core is at 1.55v