TJ Maxx

[clocker]

its looking nice...one question..why are your computers so organized but your rooms arent...whats up with that my friend?

Sprocket's home is also the spare/guest bedroom which, over the years has also evolved into the dumping ground for stuff that I can't seem to get rid of yet.
I'm contemplating a total renovation of this space soon.
The rest of my place is much neater, trust me.

[suprafreak6]

i trust you alright, dont worry about that...well...have fun with sprocket..tell me how much she overclocks

[clocker]

The only real difference to Sprocket's core hardware will be the new Expert motherboard which is reputed to be a better OCing board...we'll see.
Once she's settled in and running I'm contemplating a dual core chip to play with.

[clocker]

Whew.
What a hectic weekend.

I've been teetering on the verge of stripping Sprocket down for the final buildup...trying to get as much done as possible beforehand but the fateful moment finally arrived and she was put to sleep, hopefully to awaken in her cozy new home.
About half of the wiring had already been done, the remainder needed the components in place to get the correct lengths.
All of the waterloop was in place (rez, pump and rad) but hose routing was only theoretical till the blocks could be mounted.
The front bay/bezel mesh was ready for the DVD-RW and the twin Raptors.

So down she went...long live the Queen.

The only new electronic component in this tranformation is the DFI Expert motherboard which I purchased used from the classifieds.
Although I've had it for nearly a month I had no way to test it so that became my highest priority.
With my CPU, RAM and vid card finally freed from the running PC, I was able to POST successfully...a major hurdle overcome.
Also new to this build are the chipset waterblock (Swiftech) and the vid card block (DD NV-78) so I set about mounting them to the motherboard.
Having a completely removable motherboard/backplane sure made this easy...



The loop ends up going like so:
reservoir>pump>radiator>CPU>chipset>video>reservoir.
Since I'm assuming that the sensor readings from the Expert board will differ from those on the SLI-DR, none of my old data will be directly comparable...it'll be interesting to see how this loop is reported to work.

With the motherboard prepped it was time to begin what I hope will be the final case assembly.
Here is a shot of the front of the case showing the new switchgear and mesh bay cover...

Depending on how the Raptor cooling works there may be a phase 2 to the front panel but I'm waiting to see.
If I decide it's possible, the second step can be installed without disassembly (thank Jeebus!) so it's not a major hassle.

Now we're here...

Although it doesn't look it, she's about 90% finished at this point.
There is one more bit of fabrication to finish before the PSU is installed and then it'll go quite quickly.
I hope to have her leak testing by Wednesday night.

There is light at the end of the tunnel.

[suprafreak6]

YAY! looking good clock..lookin good

[j2k4]

Awesome, possum.

[lynx]

You'd get this finished much quicker if you didn't insist on doing things in a dark tunnel.

[clocker]

You'd get this finished much quicker if you didn't insist on doing things in a dark tunnel.

And what would be the challenge in that?
I'm practising for the Ray Charles Invitational.

[suprafreak6]

[clocker]

She runs!
Finally.

This build was fraught with problems- never have I had so much trouble with leaks (in fact, I don't recall ever having any leaks before).

Naturally, these couldn't be the easy-to-find, easy-to-fix leaks...oh no.
There was actually but one problem area and it was a bitch to get to...the tube run from the bottom of the rez to the pump intake.
Turned out to be the new hose barbs I was using, the ones with an o-ring seal.
The difference between the barb sealing and the barb leaking is about a sixteenth of a turn and, if you're not careful, installing the tube can loosen the barb just enough to dribble.

Since this tube runs through the subfloor I couldn't tell if the tube/barb joint was at fault or the barb/rez (where the o-ring is) interface.
Took me almost two hours to fix that little glitch.

Proceeded on to loading Windows which crapped out upon restart when "the video driver failed to initialize".
WTF?
Opened up the case (being a true optimist I had installed the sidepanels) and felt the fittings on the DD waterblock...burning hot!
HUH?
No water circulating, no fans spinning on the rad.
Molex pin had pushed out when connected.
Jeebus bloody Christ on a stick, what next?

Fortunately, nothing.
All went smoothly after that.
Mostly.

Vista has eaten the ntldr for XP64 bit and I haven't been able to repair it yet...dunno what that's about, didn't happen last time.
*sigh*

Anyway, all is now good on the hardware front, just need to straighten out the software.

Initial readings seem quite excellent temp-wise.
Sprocket Primed overnight at 2750 MHz (250x11) and the CPU maxxed out at 31C (room ambient around 65-67F, so about 20C).
The Raptors are running in the mid-twenties (slightly over ambient) so that setup is working as hoped.
Oddly, I'm getting intermittant SMART readings from the iRAM...sometimes Everest shows it and sometimes not...haven't a clue what that's all about.
Motherboard and PWM are showing as a few degrees cooler than the CPU...the new cooling setup there is better than before (you haven't seen that yet...I changed it at the last moment for a more elegant (and quieter!) arrangement.

I had hoped to get away with no fan controller- just run all the 120's (seven of 'em) at 12v, but there is a low pitched thrumming that I can't track down (I suspect the HDD fans) so the controller goes in so I can eliminate that.
Otherwise, this rig is the quietest I've yet assembled.

The Hiper PSU is a sweetie...lines seem rock solid under load and it's dead silent. A nice touch is the auxiliary 80mm fan which runs for about five minutes after the machine is powered down to dissipate internal PSU heat build up.

After the fanbus (and the associated wiring changes) is in place I'll shoot some final pics.

Oh yeah, one more thing...got a new CPU on the way.
Lucked into a 4400 x2 in the Classifieds at [H] for a very reasonable price and decided I couldn't let the last of the 2x1mb cache chips pass me by, so I snapped it up.
Should be here by Saturday I hope.

Have a good Fourth ya'll.