[Razor]

As this thread is getting a bit long here are a few links that will take you directly to certain points in this build.

Index


** Latest Update Click Link Below **

- Added another GTX480 for a bit of SLI action and upgraded my cooling to handle the extra gpu -

** Razors Watercooled Silent Gaming HTPC **




The rest of the build log -


- Upgrading my system to Intel Core i7 & overclocking the cpu -

Link


- Adding a Asus Xonar HDAV1.3 -

Link


- Swapping the Asus Xonar1.3 for a Auzentech Forte and adding a Western Digital 1.5Tb hard drive in a 3.5" HDD Silencer -

Link


- Upgrading the PSU to a Enermax 1250W Rev+ and adding a shroud to my external Thermochill Rad -

Link


- Upgrading the graphics card to a Asus GTX 480 -

Link


- Upgraded the case to a Silverstone TJ07 along with a new cooling setup and motherboard -

Razors Watercooled Silent Gaming HTPC



Adding a waterblock to an ATI 4870X2

I have had a watercooled gaming HTPC for well over a year now and I decided to upgrade the graphics card for a newer more powerful model. My previous card was a BFG watercooled 8800GTX, which under water overclocked passed 8800Ultra speeds.

This time I have gone for a ATI HD 4870X2 card which has 2 x 4870 gpus on one card.

My watercooling system is a Zalman Reserator XT which is a complete external unit which is what I needed as it takes all the heat out of my case. My AV rack doesnt have much room for airflow and is restricted at the rear and side. Having an external watercooling kit removes all the heat from the hardware and dumps it outside of the case keeping temps nice and low on the hardware and reduces the amount of fans needed in the case. This also allows for overclocking the hardware and getting more performance out of your htpc.

The 4870X2 I bought was made by Sapphire and came with stock cooling. The cooler on these cards are very poor and really noisy. It honestly sounds like a leaf blower. At idle in my htpc case the 4870X2 with the stock cooler was idling at around 74-78c and went to over 100c in gaming which is very high for a small htpc case.

I ran the card for a week or so to make sure it wasnt faulty before swapping the stock cooler for a EK Waterblock. The 4870X2 performance is staggering and I could tell instantly it has allot more power than my overclocked 8800GTX especially in games like Crysis Warhead and Farcry 2.

Here is the 4870X2 with its stock cooler and the EK waterblock.

ATI HD 4870X2

EK Waterblock for 4870X2

Once I had removed the stock cooler I had to clean up all the memory, gpu's and other chips with ArctiClean. This has to be done on both sides of the card. Luckily most of the old thermal pads were on the stock cooler which made it a bit easier. I would still advise cleaning all chips ready for the waterblock.

If you look at the two gpus's in the picture below they are covered in thermal compound and underneath the compound are black in colour. One picture down from that you will see the gpus are now shiny silver (I haven't a clue what that black coating was, it looked more cosmetic than anything).

Once it was all cleaned up it was time to put on the thermal pads and thermal compound. I used Arctic Silver Céramique as Arctic Silver 5 is conductive of electricity and the Ceramique isn't. You can short the card out if you use normal thermal compound, so stick to thermal pads or a non electrical conductive thermal compound.

Cutting up the pads and placing them on the required chips was a bit fiddly and took some time as did spreading the Arctic Silver Ceramique over the memory and other chips. This has to be done to both sides of the card as their are memory chips at the back of the 4870X2.

I have circled the chips you need to clean and then apply either thermal pads of thermal paste. The paste are the white bits and the grey bits are the thermal pads which come supplied with the EK Waterblock.

Once this is done its time to place the large copper waterblock onto the 4870X2 and the memory coolers at the rear of the card.

I then tested the blocks for leaks for 20 mins and once satisfied I installed it in my htpc.

A little tip if your finding it hard to attach the tubing to the barbs. Sit the end of the tubing in a cup of boiling water for a few minutes to soften up the plastic. It should now be easier to apply.

[Razor]

Crysis Warhead

Playable settings - 1920x1080, DX10, 4xAA, 16xAF, all advanced settings on Enthusiast

A few in game screen grabs

Zalman Reserator XT - Watercooling unit

I must admit I was blown away with my new temps on this card especially as its overclocked from factory settings. They had dropped by approx 40c from 74-78c to mid 34-36c. (Gaming temps never go above mid 40's on the 4870X2.)

I want to push the overclocking more on the 4870X2 which is why I will have to use Riva Tuner as ATI Catalyst can only ramp up the gpu core speed so much. As you can see from the picture below the gpu speed is already set at max in Catalyst.

I also have an overclocked quad core cpu a Q6700 @ 3.32Ghz and my X38 motherboard chipset was all being cooled in the same loop by the Zalman Reserator XT. The best thing of all was my system was once again silent now the ATI stock cooler had gone.

Pc Specs:

Silverstone LC17 - Case
Asus Maximus Formula Special Watercooled Edition
Q6700 @ 3.32Ghz
4 Gb Corsair DDR2
ATI 4870X2 with EK Waterblock
Samsung HDDs (500Gb, 750Gb, 750Gb)
Samsung DVD writer
Scythe Quiet Drive 3.5 Internal HDD Silencer (with one 750Gb HDD)
Zalman Reserator XT
Creative sound card (soon to be upgraded)
Corsair HX620 PSU

3 x Coolink SWiF-801 80mm silent fan (11dB fans)
1 x SilentX (15mm deep) 80mm silent fan (14dB)

Keysonic Keyboard
Logitech MX Revolution Mouse
Razer Destructor
Vista 32bit


External Drives
1 x Maxtor 1.5T
1 x Samsung 1T in external caddie
1 x Samsung 500Gb in external Caddie
2 x Freecom 500Gb
3 x Lacie 250Gb
1 x Lacie 500Gb
1 x Maxtor 320Gb

[Razor]

Originally Posted by namuk

Top job is it anygood at playing games

LOL....

Cheers mate. It spends half of its time gaming the other half providing me with movies and tv shows. I would be lost without it.

[chalkywhyte]

Great work Razor.

Looks nice and clean. Great set up too.

[Razor]

Originally Posted by chalkywhyte

Great work Razor.

What Size is that TV? its Mahassive

Cheers Chalky,

Its a 70" 1080p SXRD.


Here is an old pic with some Crunchy Nut cornflakes added for scale.

[chalkywhyte]

Originally Posted by Razor

Cheers Chalky,

Its a 70" 1080p SXRD.


Here is an old pic with some Crunchy Nut cornflakes added for scale.

*SNIP*

Nice

I edited my post as i seen it in your sig after i had posted.

[Chaos]

When are you going to update the cornflakes? They are well old now and must been some sort of water cooling device.

[Theydon Bois]

Excellent mate - Adding to the sticky now

I dont suppose you have any pics from how you set up your CPU?

Now, can I be real cheeky and ask for the following info?

I ran the card for a week or so to make sure it wasnt faulty before swapping the stock cooler for a EK Waterblock.

How much was the GPU watercooling block?

Once I had removed the stock cooler I had to clean up all the memory, gpu's and other chips with Arctic Silver ArctiClean. This has to be done on both sides of the card. Luckily most of the old thermal pads were on the stock cooler which made it a bit easier. I would still advise cleaning all chips ready for the waterblock.

How long did it take you? What did you clean the chips with?

On this pic:

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/2622/img6435t.jpg

Can you highlight the parts where you put all the thermal pads (drawing a circle round them or something?

I then tested the blocks for leaks for 20 mins and once satisfied I installed it in my htpc.

How do you test for leaks? Can you elaborate on the process?

Zalman Reserator XT - Watercooling unit

What sort of price does this cost, and do you need to buy other parts to go with it? (Ie out of the box does it cool a CPU or nothing unless you buy optional extra's?)

Cheers mate....

[Theydon Bois]

I dont want the random warblings of some nutter on youtube, I want the random warblings of Razor the nutter on AVForums.

[Razor]

Originally Posted by Chaosx

When are you going to update the cornflakes? They are well old now and must been some sort of water cooling device.

Crunchy nut cornflakes will be my benchmark for years to come I cant see them being replaced any time soon.

Originally Posted by Theydon Bois

Excellent mate - Adding to the sticky now

Cheers mate.

I dont suppose you have any pics from how you set up your CPU?

I havent got any pic's of the cpu waterblock install. Installing the cpu waterblock is no different to adding an aftermarket cpu cooler. I am going to be upgrading my cpu block to a swiftech GTZ when they come back in stock. I will add these pics when I can get my hands on one.

Now, can I be real cheeky and ask for the following info?



How much was the GPU watercooling block?

The GPU waterblock cost about £85 excluding p&p and can be found at most decent pc suppliers. I got mine from specialtech as they were the only ones to have any stock.

How long did it take you? What did you clean the chips with?

Can you highlight the parts where you put all the thermal pads (drawing a circle round them or something?

The cooler swap out took about 2 hours to do, then another hour was spent messing with the watercooling in my htpc.

I did take my time with the waterblock and as it was a dual gpu card there was more chips to clean and reapply thermal pad/compound than there would be with a normal single gpu card.

It was quite a fiddly job cutting up the thermal pads and applying them I advise a pair of tweezers for this part. The thermal paste also took a bit of time as the Arctic Silver Ceramique was hard to spread. I used some cling film over my finger and spread a small amount on the memory chips. You don't need allot of this compound as more will have the opposite effect and temps will rise instead of fall. You just want a semi transparent layer of the compound on the chips.

I will update the pic in the first post to show the chips I did. Everything was listed in the waterblocks instructions.

How do you test for leaks? Can you elaborate on the process?

I rigged up a separate loop just for the waterblock. I then connected it up to my zalman reserator XT and let it do its stuff. I sat the card/block on white tissue paper to see if any of the blue coolant leaked out. All was fine so I disconnected the watercooling system and went on to install it in my htpc.

What sort of price does this cost, and do you need to buy other parts to go with it? (Ie out of the box does it cool a CPU or nothing unless you buy optional extra's?)
Cheers mate....

The Zalman Reserator comes as a complete kit. Its easy to use and setup and works a treat. A great way to get into watercooling and it can be taken across to your new system so in the end works out good value for money. Especially if you overclock your hardware.

- Main watercooling unit which houses two radiators, 1x140mm silent fan, flow gauge, temp info and controls.
- Water additive 250ml (you could do with buying some more) 500ml costs about £12 a bottle.
- Tubing (I bought about another 2m which I had plenty left over, it's handy to have laying around if your swapping kit out and adding to the setup)
- CPU block
- Degassing tub (not needed really as the zalman is good at getting rid of any trapped air due to its design).
- Clamps (I bought some more)

I bough all this for £240 last year but due to the weak £ it now costs more. Here is a link to a decent supplier and more info on the Zalman Reserator XT. I got mine from ebuyer.

Zalman Reserator XT Water Cooling System


You will also need to buy some distilled water. I got mine from an auto parts shop.

Do not what ever you do use tap water or even boiled tap water. Tap water has minerals, bacteria, and algae in it which will corrode and cloud your water cooling system, possibly causing a catastrophic failure

Add the Anti-corrosion coolant to the distilled water and then add to your watercooling setup.


Here is a link to a review of the Zalman Reserator XT

PC Perspective - Zalman Reserator XT Hybrid Liquid Cooling System Review


My mother board had watercooling as a feature on the chipsets so it was easy to install and setup. All I had to do was connect up some more tubing. It really is up to you what you do with the setup. IMO the Zalman Reserator XT is doing a great job of dealing with the heat. It can handle an overclocked Quad core 65nm cpu, dual gpu's (overclocked) and the motherboards chipset. That is allot of heat to get rid of and best of all it runs silent.

[Theydon Bois]

Bang on mate! Really appreciate that!

[Houghsx]

Fantastic set up mate, you must be proud
By the way you have any spare rooms and in need of a lodger

[Razor]

Cheers for the kind words.

Not spare rooms at the moment mate (funnily enough I am a landlord).

[booyaka]

nice to see some pictures Razor - nice work on the 4870x2.

Tempted to upgrade my 8800gt but at the moment it does a fine job @ 1650 x 1080 on my 22" screen. (volt modded and clocked heavily!!)

Recently upgraded motherboard and ram so will get some pictures up soon when i get moved into my new house. Feel like someone has chopped my arm off as i have no internet and no computer for another 3 weeks at home!!!

[Razor]

Cheers booyaka, I enjoy building rigs. Especially the watercooling part.

Please do post some pics and specs in this thread it would be nice to see other setups in here. Allot of people have htpc's in their lounge but dont game on them which is a shame as a pc runs rings round a console when it comes to gaming. All that is really needed is a £100 graphics card.

I do still use my consoles but only for exclusives. Multi platform games are always played on my pc's.

[EmotionalTrout]

Cracking piece of kit there Razor

My shepherds pie has gone cold now looking through this thread

So if I rent from you will you chuck in one of those tvs for me.......go on, you know you want to

[Razor]

Originally Posted by EmotionalTrout

Cracking piece of kit there Razor

My shepherds pie has gone cold now looking through this thread

So if I rent from you will you chuck in one of those tvs for me.......go on, you know you want to

Cheers.

Sorry for being the cause of your cold Sheppards Pie.

[meansizzler]

Nice steup, AV I mean, cooling looksreally thin, but as for Silent, no such thing as silent, are you using 3.5" HD's?, a single one of them makes more noise than my complete gaming system... Using them stock fans on your P180 case or did you swap them out?, I find the Nexus ones at 7V are great...

[Singh400]

Very nice Razor I think water cooling will be the next step for me, looks fairly easily (he says ). How come you added the water block thingy yourself and didn't just buy a third party one with the block already on?

[Razor]

Originally Posted by Singh400

Very nice Razor I think water cooling will be the next step for me, looks fairly easily (he says ). How come you added the water block thingy yourself and didn't just buy a third party one with the block already on?

Cheers mate. Watercooling is good fun to do and not hard at all.

Watercooled cards are hard to find and allot of the time you will end up paying £200 or more for a watercooled version of a card. I managed to get a good price on my older 8800gtx which was factory watercooled and it only cost the price of the cooler on top of the card so I grabbed it. This time there was no other alternative. Also as Namuk says if you do the job yourself you know that it has been done properly with the right amount of thermal paste etc.

- My 8800gtx with factory watercooling overclocked to 8800ultra speeds used to idle @ 50-52c.

I bet if I reseated the 8800GTX's waterblock the temps would drop even further.

[Singh400]

Originally Posted by Razor

Cheers mate. Watercooling is good fun to do and not hard at all.

Can see myself flooding my PC with water...

Originally Posted by Razor

Watercooled cards are hard to find and allot of the time you will end up paying £200 or more for a watercooled version of a card. I managed to get a good price on my older 8800gtx which was factory watercooled and it only cost the price of the cooler on top of the card so I grabbed it. This time there was no other alternative. Also as Namuk says if you do the job yourself you know that it has been done properly with the right amount of thermal paste etc.

Yeah thats what I thought cost and having the peace of mind that you did it yourself. I did have a quick look for HD4870X2 water cooled cards last night, couldn't find any!

Originally Posted by Razor

- My 8800gtx with factory watercooling overclocked to 8800ultra speeds used to idle @ 50-52c.

- My new 4870X2 idles around the 35-37c mark which is very impressive considering the card at stock idles in the mid seventies and its a dual gpu card.

I bet if I reseated the 8800GTX's waterblock the temps would drop even further.

Blimey, my 9800GTX+ runs very hot. Idles at 45-50c and gets up to 65c while gaming

[Razor]

I am about to push buy now on an i7 setup up to replace what I have now.

My list of goodies so far:

- 920 i7 DO stepping (runs cooler than C0 stepping cpu)
- Asus X58 PT6 Deluxe V2
- OCZ Gold 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 2000MHz

I also want to upgrade my cpu waterblock. At the moment I am leaning towards the d-tek fuzion v2 block. It seems to be a very good block and isn't as restrictive which is ideal for a multi block setup.

[Razor]

All the i7 upgrade parts have been bought and should be here on Friday. I can't wait.

[chalkywhyte]

Originally Posted by Razor

All the i7 upgrade parts have been bought and should be here on Friday. I can't wait.

Oh should be a beast of a machine mate. Keep us updated on the upgrade please mate. You got a benchmark list to see the differences?

What you doing with your old bits. Any freebies?

[Razor]

Originally Posted by chalkywhyte

Oh should be a beast of a machine mate. Keep us updated on the upgrade please mate. You got a benchmark list to see the differences?

What you doing with your old bits. Any freebies?

Cheers mate.

I have got some benchies kicking about for my current spec. The 4870X2 seems to be bottlenecked by my q6700 @ 3.32Ghz even though it aces all my games. The new core i7 should remove that small bottleneck and allow me to get the most out of my 4870X2.

I have 3 pc's in the house at the moment. All are socket 775. I have decided to give my old man my E6600/Asus P5b setup (which is in the bedroom) and replace it with my current mobo/cpu/ram.

I am also looking to upgrade to win7 when it arrives for sale as I only have vista 32bit at the moment.

[chalkywhyte]

Originally Posted by Razor

I am also looking to upgrade to win7 when it arrives for sale as I only have vista 32bit at the moment.

Heard nothing but good things from magazines and users about this. It might be my next PC purchase too.

Its my graphics (9800gtx+ 1gb) that prob bottleneck my new system. As i managed to overclock my q6600 to 3.5 on air. But seeing as i'm a PS3 gamer. PC graphics don't really interest me to much.

But i must admit your pictures of your graphics card in action certainly make me wish i was a PC gamer.

[Razor]

The 9800GTX is a decent card. How comes you dont use it much? You have a decent gaming rig there.

I like to game across all platforms as all platforms have decent games worth playing. I mainly use my consoles for exclusives and keep the pc for multi-platform games and pc exclusives. The pc is my main platform of choice.

I have also heard good things about Win7 but then again I have never had any issues with vista and have it installed on 3 pcs and a laptop. I really do prefer vista as an OS to XP. I am sure the same will apply to win7.

[Singh400]

Do you water cool your CPU too? And I would hardly call the 9800GTX+ a bottle neck (not because I have one honest ). Runs everything I throw at it fine. Obviously compared to the likes of the HD4870X2 / GTX280 it is a small player.

[chalkywhyte]

Originally Posted by Razor

The 9800GTX is a decent card. How comes you dont use it much? You have a decent gaming rig there.

I just prefer the easyness of a console. Don't get me wrong i do use it now and then. (Crysis) But not as much as my PS3.

[Razor]

Originally Posted by chalkywhyte

I just prefer the easyness of a console. Don't get me wrong i do use it now and then. (Crysis) But not as much as my PS3.

Fair enough mate. Good to see that you do play games on the pc.

I mainly use mine with a pad in the lounge as this is far more comfortable than being huddled over a coffee table.

To me it feels like a next gen console when I am using the 360 pad.