Alright, back at the apartment, with some new gear!
Arriving back at the apartment, I was greeted with some nice new gear. Well, it was used stuff, but still new to me! 20 feet of clear Primochill PrimoFlex LRT 1/2" inner diameter tubing, some angled fittings, a couple poly tees, a couple fill/drain ports, and of course, a Swiftech Micro Res! All these parts were, once again, from that nice fellow Rison from HWC forums. So, of course, me being impatient, I got to work, and eventually came up with this:
That pump has some pretty good power behind it for being so small... Then again, it was just shooting water through a radiator. Runs a little loud, but to be fair, it was on the table. When I picked the pump up, all I could really hear was the bubbles flowing. After this, I decided to remove the i5 and my Noctuas from my system and install the i7. This, of course, went just fine. The Noctuas were cleaned, and mounted to the radiator.
My god it looks imposing. It's going to be tight in the case, that's for sure. Pictured beside it is the Swiftech Micro Res. I have also decided on a mounting point for the reservoir. It will be mounted inside the drive bay, above the DVD drive with two strong pieces of velcro. It's a perfect fit, and it's just hidden from view. I can still check liquid levels if need be as well, by peering through the grills on the front.
Onto the i7. This thing was an easy install and boot, but it wasn't too much fun to get the overclock actually functioning. Most everything I tried ended in a boot loop with the post codes 6F or D4. Eventually I managed to get something working, and now I can post at whatever clock speed. Right now it's happily sitting at 3.8GHz with hyper threading enabled, at 1.26 volts. This is good enough for me. I believe 1.24 volts is what it dips to under load. I managed to prime at 4.05GHz, but the heat was a little too much for my poor NH-U12P, managing to hit 85 degrees within just a few minutes. Water cooling should let me really open up and push that little fucker till it screams.
So... A parts list for the water cooling!
I decided on going plexi/nickel for my blocks, because I managed to get a really good deal on the GTX470 block. Another nice person from the HWC forums is selling it to me for 85 dollars shipped, so I had to jump on it. I already ordered the CPU block too, so it should be in Amherst next week, along with the GPU block and my latest decision, the compression fittings. If you're doing it, you may as well do it right, right?
Also, here's what I ended up doing in Christmas morning with Nick...
As expected from the HAF series, this was a pleasure to build in, with lots of room. Will soon be housing my i5 and Noctua NH-U12P.
It's after 4 AM now, so I believe I'm going to be going to bed. GOODNIGHT!
-Jon
Arriving back at the apartment, I was greeted with some nice new gear. Well, it was used stuff, but still new to me! 20 feet of clear Primochill PrimoFlex LRT 1/2" inner diameter tubing, some angled fittings, a couple poly tees, a couple fill/drain ports, and of course, a Swiftech Micro Res! All these parts were, once again, from that nice fellow Rison from HWC forums. So, of course, me being impatient, I got to work, and eventually came up with this:
That pump has some pretty good power behind it for being so small... Then again, it was just shooting water through a radiator. Runs a little loud, but to be fair, it was on the table. When I picked the pump up, all I could really hear was the bubbles flowing. After this, I decided to remove the i5 and my Noctuas from my system and install the i7. This, of course, went just fine. The Noctuas were cleaned, and mounted to the radiator.
My god it looks imposing. It's going to be tight in the case, that's for sure. Pictured beside it is the Swiftech Micro Res. I have also decided on a mounting point for the reservoir. It will be mounted inside the drive bay, above the DVD drive with two strong pieces of velcro. It's a perfect fit, and it's just hidden from view. I can still check liquid levels if need be as well, by peering through the grills on the front.
Onto the i7. This thing was an easy install and boot, but it wasn't too much fun to get the overclock actually functioning. Most everything I tried ended in a boot loop with the post codes 6F or D4. Eventually I managed to get something working, and now I can post at whatever clock speed. Right now it's happily sitting at 3.8GHz with hyper threading enabled, at 1.26 volts. This is good enough for me. I believe 1.24 volts is what it dips to under load. I managed to prime at 4.05GHz, but the heat was a little too much for my poor NH-U12P, managing to hit 85 degrees within just a few minutes. Water cooling should let me really open up and push that little fucker till it screams.
So... A parts list for the water cooling!
TFC X-Changer 360 w/ 6x Noctua NF-P12s in Push/Pull configuration
Swiftech MCP355 w/ EK X-Top revision 2
Swiftech Micro Reservoir revision 2
EK Supreme HF revision 2 Plexi/Nickel CPU water block
EK 470 Full Cover Plexi/Nickel GPU water block
Primochill Primoflex LRT clear 1/2" ID tubing
Bitspower shining silver compression fittings x10
Bitspower black speckle T line x1
Bitspower shining silver barbs x8
Swiftech Fill/Drain port x2
I decided on going plexi/nickel for my blocks, because I managed to get a really good deal on the GTX470 block. Another nice person from the HWC forums is selling it to me for 85 dollars shipped, so I had to jump on it. I already ordered the CPU block too, so it should be in Amherst next week, along with the GPU block and my latest decision, the compression fittings. If you're doing it, you may as well do it right, right?
Also, here's what I ended up doing in Christmas morning with Nick...
As expected from the HAF series, this was a pleasure to build in, with lots of room. Will soon be housing my i5 and Noctua NH-U12P.
It's after 4 AM now, so I believe I'm going to be going to bed. GOODNIGHT!
-Jon