jt's wacky over-the-top custom computer build - Watercooled Dual 7950gx2 pics inside!

well, i'm sure some of you folks remember a few months ago me talking about the computer i was building - as of right now it's all done except for the video cards - waiting on the 7950's to come out at the end of may.

here's what i have so far.

asus a8n32 sli deluxe mobo
athlon fx60 cpu
corsair twinx2048-4000pt 2 gig ram

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EDIT(jt) : forgot some of the more important peripherals

creative labs x-fi elite pro soundblaster 7.1 soundcard
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along with the creative gigaworks 700 watt s750 7.1 system

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man these two together sound good.

my main monitor is a dell 30" 3007 lcd. i have 2 19" crts i am thinking of hooking up auxilliary-wise, sorta like the matrix opperator setup (might just have them doing the whole green falling characters thing heh. ). all of this is dependant of course on the stats and reliability of the 7950 video cards



2x wd raptor 74 gig 10k rpm hd in raid 0
2x ultra x-connect x2 550w psu
meanwell 320 powersupply (for peltier coolers)

mountainmods ufo case

i have 2 seperate watercooling loops in the computer, one for the cpu, chipset and graphic cards, the other for the ram and harddrives.

loop 1 (big loop, green coolant) :

eheim 1262 pump
1/2" tygon tubing
2x dual 5.25" drive bay reservoirs (in external rack)
2x danger den fillports (one as drain, one as fillport w/mini-reservoir)

4 x Antec TriCool 3-Speed120mm LED Fan

1x black ice xtreme dual fan radiator (for the cpu and chipset subloop)

2x black ice xtreme single fan radiator (one for each video card subloop)

coolworks ice probe aquarium chiller (mounted in reservoir to chill coolant below ambient)

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swiftech mcw 5002 64t cpu cooling block w/225 watt peltier element -

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danger den A8N MAZE4 Chipset Block -


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what i use for gpu cooling depends on the layouts of the 7950s and whether i decide to get 2 of them or two 7900 gtx's.

loop 2, (red coolant) which cools the ram and hard drives atm, consists of :

eheim 1250 pump
3/8" tygon tubing
2x koolance ram 30-v06 ram coolers -

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koolance hd-55-L06 dual hard drive cooler -

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1 dual 3.5" drive bay reservoir

2x Antec TriCool 3-Speed120mm LED Fan (red leds)

1 black ice extreme dual fan radiator

2 danger den fillports (1 for drain, one for fillport, w/mini reservoir)

i have an external rack that holds a few things, like the primary loop reservoirs and a 7" diagonal xenarc touchscreen widescreen lcd, oriented vertically, made from 2 ac-ryan bay columns, 10 space 5.25" bay walls made of flourescent green lucite. got wheels on it and the chiller mounted into the top bay. i also have a 4" diagonal lcd in my case bay, gonna display temps on there, and use the touchscreen to control various o.c. things.

i'm sure i'm missing some components, i'll add them in as i remember them heh.

i have pics of all these goodies that i intend to post today after lunch.


EDIT(JT): most recent pic of the monstrosity!

heh cool. lemme go get lunch and then i'll get em up.

heh the usual suspects - oblivion, cod2, probably ut2007 when it comes out. my main deal with this whole thing is to get reacquainted with the tech - i'd been out of the loop for quite a few years.

ok, here's some pics. first up, the case, with the mobo tray, the 3.5" bays and 5.25" bays removed, as well as all the lids and doors. stripped naked...

here are a lot of the goodies spread out on a king size bed, minus the radiators and a few other things.

another pic of the whole she-bang

the cpu box -fx60 ftw heh

some of the other gear - i'm not using that ultra psu in this box, got 2 of the upgraded 550 watt chrome deals, using the green one in the pic in my old dell. in the 2nd pic you can see another pump, returned that one for the eheim 1250. below the pump is the coolworks chiller, very cool unit.

here's a few pics of the cpu cooler w/peltier (you can see the wires connected). in the first pic is the fan cooler that came with the cpu - a very capable unit, did a great job cooling the fx60 up to 3.1 ghz stable (29.1 superpi using air cooling).

some closeups of the mobo with the cpu in the socket. i set everything up initially with air cooling just to test the basics make sure everything worked.

here's the computer set up to use air cooling - like i said earlier i got the cpu up to 3.1 ghz stable on air cooling alone. the memory is 500 mhz (250 mhz fsb) so i was getting real good performance from that too.

EDIT(JT) heh notice talkbass on the monitor, had to put the computer through its paces heh.

here we see some radiators initially mounted on the box - initial setup. the fans are between the radiators and the cube, connected and supported with 1.25" spacers.

the duct work on top is to direct air to the fan that's on the chiller probe. gotta have ductwork.

originally i intended to use a large mouthwash bottle as the primary loop cooling reservoir - it worked pretty well except the plastic cap began to deform from the coolant, so i had to replace it. i loved how it looked though, and it was a big bummer when it started to fail.

here's the secondary loop for the ram and harddrives. the name in the file is a typo, it's a 1250 pump.

here's a pic of the back of the cube with one of the graphics cards radiator/fan assemblies and some of the external tubing, along with a pic of the primary cooling loop in a jumble inside as i was putting it together to leak test it.

some more pics of the primary and secondary loops in the computer - the primary loop is made of the larger tubing, the secondary is smaller. the pump in the front is the secondary pump, the primary pump is mounted on the bottom of the 5.25" bay, hanging down.

some shots of the top of the cube, with the ductwork connected to the chiller, and also showing the two fillports for the 2 loops.

the ductwork is cool - there is a fan inside the computer, connected to the top, with ductwork inside, that then continues outside the computer to the top of the chiller. all to look cool . note the cool psu gauge - no water cooling setup is complete without a psu gauge.