Guess what?

[clocker]

Meh.

[lynx]

Time to move this to Sports Club?

[clocker]

Oh noes!
Please...not that!

Back on topic....
Had to remove the Winnie this morning, she's moving to her new home (Bye-bye old girl, you've been great!) and I realized that had the loop been filled with coolant I'd have been in a world of hurt...no way to drain the loop without getting water all over the place.

Gotta rethink this arrangement.
Either a t-line/drain needs to be installed (no immediately apparent place to do this) OR the pump must be relocated with enough hose slack to pull it from the case and drain.

Damn.
Oh well, I've got till Wednesday to figure this out...

[Barbarossa]

This should have been moved to Funny Stuff ages ago...

[clocker]

Hardware can be very amusing...

[clocker]

Hmmm...possible change in plans, waterblock-wise.
I was just notified that I've been moved up the waiting list for the new StasisThermal Neptune GPU block.
I was expecting to be in the second production run which would have shipped in Feb. but someone dropped out of the first batch and it's going to me.
Should ship by Friday.
Not sure what to do with it...I can wait an extra week and install now or just continue with the current loop and install whenever.

Decisions, decisions.

[j2k4]

Decisions, decisions.

I'd go with the first one; it's capitalized.

[clocker]

Thanks Kev, that was very helpful.

It's actually gonna depend on how difficult it is to remove the ramsinks on the 6800GT.
If they pop right off, the new, full-coverage Neptune will go on.
If not, whenever my tax return arrives the block will go on a new 7800GT.

Microsoft is gonna love validating this latest incarnation of Sprocket...new HDD, new CPU, new sound card ( not sure they even care about that)...I'm sure that whatever formula they use to determine a machine's identity is going to be screaming foul.

[clocker]

It's actually gonna depend on how difficult it is to remove the ramsinks on the 6800GT.
If they pop right off, the new, full-coverage Neptune will go on.
If not, whenever my tax return arrives the block will go on a new 7800GT.

[warble]What a difference a day makes.....[/warble]
It no longer matters how difficult the ramsink removal might be...I sold the card and the sinks/Maze waterblock as a bundle yesterday.
Sadly (although not surprisingly) I did not net enough for a 7800GT, so either I get busy and sell off more goodies or wait till my tax return arrives...either way, I'm temporarily without a vid card.

I'm putting on my rose-colored glasses and calling this delay a "good thing" as the pressure to get Sprocket up and running is gone and I can detour to a few minor upgrades I've been postponing.
First in line is the CPU block.

The Storm waterblock is a wonderful performer but the universal mounting plate is ugly and obviously generic. There is a plethora of unused holes and it is unnecessarily large and awkwardly shaped.

I'm going to remake the mount to only include the two holes necessary for a939 mount. Also, the ugly (and long) Swiftech plastic barbs will be replaced with the DangerDen chrome "hi-flo" barbs pictured. The barb replacement required (I've already done it) reaming the stock holes and retapping to 9/16-18 for the DD parts. This is pretty simple as the top plate (see pic below) is Delrin and easily machinable.

If you've never seen the inside of a modern waterblock the complexity might surprise you...this one is pretty sophisticated and undoubtably expensive to produce- which is why it's been discontinued in favor of the Apogee, a much simpler design.
The barbs and mounting plate fit onto the topplate of the block (upper left).
The center plate (top right) directs incoming water through an array of hollow pins which fit into the holes in the copper bottom piece.

These pins are much smaller than they appear and could only be made economically by casting and machining, hence the use of Delrin instead of copper. You can see the path of the CNC toolbit around the pin area- almost certainly done in one pass and not possible with a copper piece which would require several depth cuts to finish.

What you can't see (cause I couldn't photograph it properly) is the bottom of the holes in the copper baseplate. Swiftech must have used a special hollowpoint drillbit as there is a small pyramid at the hole's base. This combination results in considerable turbulance and superior heat absorbsion by the coolant, the price being a pretty complex manufacturing process.
For the end user, care must be taken that the coolant is clean and without debris as the pin holes are just that...the size of a pin, and easily clogged.
Mine was relatively good, just a few of the holes were clogged and I suspect that was due to not flushing after I removed the block...the antifreeze just coagulated as it dried out.
No matter, soaking in water and some compressed air took care of the issue.

So today I make the new mounting plate.
Haven't decided on the material yet, either aluminum or Plexi would do...I'll see what I have on hand and go from there.

I also plan (keep in mind how incredibly flexible my "plans" seem to be... ) to remount the rad/pump/reservoir more logically.
We'll see how that turns out.

[clocker]

Opteron has arrived.
At least FedEx tracking says so.
Can't wait to get home and drool on it for a while.

The StasisThermal Neptune block ships out tomorrow.

I did get the new pump mount figured out...t'was easier than expected (for a change).
Now if the reservoir were in place and I had a vid card, Sprocket would be good to go.

Yeah, like that's evergonna happen.


Plan on snapping some pics (you know- my signature blurry, horribly compressed approximations of reality) of the air-cooling stuff for sale and post it early this AM.
Response to the watercooling thread was better than expected so I'm gonna give ya'll first crack at this stuff...it'll be exclusive here at FST for the first 24 hrs.
Don't tarry.