Nephanor

Okay, this one has been a HUGE pain and a lot of time. I literally had to convert it to air cooling, because not only was my loop terrible for water cooling (the layout made it near impossible to fill/drain) but I could not get it to post. I finally got in there, converted it all to air, and got it to post properly with air. And then I went in, changed some settings in the BIOS that would let all four video cards post, and it's good. It boots with all four, and runs fine with all four! I got all the addons for the UV and control of the RGB working great too. Now, my fun is removing all the water cooling stuff (still have the pump and some of the tubes screwed into the case) and deciding what to put to make the glowing worth it all, as the big space where the pump was is now empty. Any suggestions on what would look cool in the pump's spot? I have green and yellow UV reactive filament, and a decent 3D printer. Also, another issue I never even thought of.....my UPS can only output 900 W, and with all four video cards running, it draws WAY more then that. So, now UPS is needed >.<

I got it posting with ONE GPU, rather than all four. I know, I know, I should have.

Welll, this isn't good. I can't get the damn thing to post. It cycles through a bunch of numbers on the status display, then goes to 00 and never gets past it. Looks like I may have to empty the damn thing and try to remove parts one at a time till it works. Already tried memory, no luck. Luckily I kept all the fans for the CPUs, because if it REALLY comes down to it, I may just make this damn thing air cooled. I am THAT pissed off right now. This is a LOT of work that isn't working. And worse then that, a lot of money.

Well, I need to learn to not rush. I was trying to fill the system today with the final fluid after getting the system prep done and I made a rookie mistake. I forgot to put a plug back on before moving the computer. Fluid got EVERYWHERE. Luckily, since it's a water base, it is fairly easy to clean up, and just letting it dry up in other areas, but damn, what a mess. Still giving it some time before I connect any power to it, just in case. Just glad it didn't stain the carpet where it hit it, and I was able to get a towel to soak most of it up. I was in full panic mode, thinking one of the tubes had gone loose till I noticed the plug not in place. Boy was that a relief.

Well, it's all together and it survived the leak test. SysPrep is currently flushing though the system and will be the rest of the day. I did learn one VERY valuable lesson: Setting up a simple way to fill is MORE important than preparing how to drain. In my setting up the layout, I completely neglected to determine how to fill the damn loop. This is a LOT bigger pain in the ass than I expected for this one because of the Res placement. Luckily, I found a way. By tipping the computer on it's face, I can make it easier to fill. It's a bit of a pain, but it works. It's also a bit of a chore getting all the air bubbles out, but again, it works. Will finish up prepping the system today, and tomorrow will flush and work on filling with the final fluid and getting all the cabling squared away.

Getting closer! All done the bending! Just need the 90 degree adapter, and I will have that all done! Going to wash out all the pipes with soapy water, as I did have to use olive oil on the insert to get it in and out of of some locations. Also, with that last bend I also ordered some stuff so I can make a fan extension cable, which I will need to connect some of the UV lights to the controller, as the cable isn't long enough. Didn't have the terminals or the pins for the male end, only the female end. In the end, I also didn't use a Primochill 90 degree adapter, and it's not even green, but it's in a location you can't even see, so it won't matter. While I wait for these parts (probably end of the week or early next) I will work on organizing cables and securing the UV lights, which seem to want to wiggle all over the place. One disadvantage of the hard board lights I suppose.

One more tube done, room for 3 mistakes. Yeah, only got 5 tubes left. Should be good for the next tube, since it's simple. That means I have 3 full tubes to try and get the final tube done, with it's 4 bends, and it will use the WHOLE TUBE, so if I mess up a little bit, it's a whole redo. Also, it's going to be tough to install because of how it will be shaped. This has led me to push for just having a single 90 degree fitting so I can cut the bends down and make it easier to install. It will add a couple days to the install time, since I need to wait for the fitting, but I think in the end, it will be worth it for ease of install.

Just got another tube done, so that's 4/7 done. Done: Pump to splitter, Splitter to Reservoir, GPU block to rad, rad to reservoir. The splitter is where the drain also is, lowest point of the whole loop. Needs to be done: pump to GPU block, front rad to CPU block, CPU block to back rad. The first of the three needing to be done will be the pain one. Probably going to work on the 2nd & 3rd one first, get those done. If it REALLY comes down to it, I may even just do the ones I can't get done in hard tubing. I have 25' of soft tubing (so I could use a little bit for the drain) I'd just need to get a couple appropriate fittings, which I know won't take long, especially from Performance PCs. Here's some pictures of what's done and it all installed. Back side of case, showing splitter to res Closeup of the splitter/drain, hard to see the pump to splitter as it's under the cables. Front side showing GPU to rad and rad to res.

Well, getting tubing started. Sadly, I screwed up a few already and wasted the equivalent of 2 full tubes at least. But I have completed 3 of the 7 tubes needed. Problem is, one of the ones left will require an entire tube and have at least 3 bends in it. It will go from the top of the pump (the visible fitting) turn to the right before it hits the divider, then turns back into the back half, then it will turn up towards the back of the GPU distribution block, then turn into that fitting. I am saving THAT one for last. I may end up having to buy more tubes if I screw that up. Or just get a fitting and turn it into two separate tubes, which probably will be the best method and save some issues. Going to be some strange ones, but mostly not visible I realized. I may even just say screw it and get a bunch of flex fittings and make this whole thing out of that for now. I am gonna be honest, now that I have started on the tube bending, I realize it's NOT as easy as I had hoped. Especially in this case. But I will do what I can with what I have left in the way of tubing.

Phase 4: All cables done, tested and installed. Next step is the tubing, which will be REALLY fun.

Phase 4: Ran into an issue. I got the pins a day early, but when I completed the first GPU cable, I had accidentally put the pins facing the wrong direction, so had to take it apart. Then when I put it back together, I found I did it again, and so had to re-do it. Then I noticed the 2 separate pins had the same issue and had to do it again. So I finally finished the cable and put it into the tester, I found that I had mixed the pin order up on them. I had forgotten to account for the cable being 'flipped' as it was plugged in, and now I have to go through each cable and likely re-order all the cables in their various combs. In the end, I finally got the one cable finished, but since I had cut the length for a different cable order and curve, it messed up the lengths. Not only that, all the re-building the terminal caused the heat shrink to get tugged loose, so the cable is very rough looking. I decided to keep that cable in the back, and was able to hide all the length issues down in the power supply area where it can't be seen.

Phase 3: GPUs installed, distribution block installed, major cable routing completed. Now I just have to wait for the pins to finish the power cables, and then begins the part that makes me the most nervous: tube bending. I got 12x 30" tubes, so I should have more than enough, but this is something that I don't want to mess up on. Going to start simple, make the outlet (which is going to be connected to the "In" part of the pump assembly) in the rear back part since that will be just a straight piece going to a splitter (one to the output flow valve, the other to the the rest of the system)

Phase 2: Pump secured, and as best as I can get for now. Also did the first part of phase 3 and got power to the SSDs.

I'm going to be honest, I have been slacking big time on this build. Partially due to real life and partially my own laziness. So I smacked myself and decided to give myself a goal: Complete it by Mid October as a birthday gift for myself. In that vein, I have set myself tasks based on getting this done. Here are the tasks in order: 1. Complete GPU cables on one end (since they need to be fitted and measured before I can seal the other end) 2. Get mounting holes for pump drilled and mount the pump, and organize cables and controller boards (not visible in the latest picture, they are on the other side of the bottom) 3. Ensure SSD's have power connected and route all power cables for pump and controller boards, install all 4 GPUs and fluid distribution block 4. Finish all GPU cables (need some more pins or that would be sooner) and test them to ensure they work. 5. Get tube bending done (this will be likely the only multi-day task) 6. Leak test and system prep (will take a day for the prep to run it's course) and then get the good fluid into the system 7. Start installing and getting things going software wise, provided there's no issues between here and there, and test out lighting (since it's software based) 8. Enjoy powerful new render machine. And to prove to myself I am going to do this....I went from one GPU cable completed 4 days ago, to this: Yup, that's all the GPU cables done. Yes, I know, I have loose pieces of heat shrink at one end. That's for the other end's sealing, I just put it on that end so it wouldn't get lost and was in a safe spot.

Also, after trying to fit the pump in the back area, I found it wouldn't work. No good mounting spots and worse, it will make it too hard to get the tubing in and out, so I gave up on the idea of having the cool 'power core' on the front part and just am moving the pump there. Will have to do some mods to the bottom so I can attach the pump to it, but it has a perfect spot to put it. Grabbed the drill bit today to put the mounting holes. Here's what things look like so far with the two CPU cables installed, and some of the cabling for the front panel plugged in. Also, the UV LEDs are all set up (except 1 group) so I need to look at where I will be mounting the aqua computer controller for that and the RGB, and getting all that connected in next. I want the cabling done before I start getting the tubing bent. May have to re-work the order based on things too. Also, you can't see it (because it's clear) but there is a "Clearneon" UV purple paint on the sides of the radiators, so they will have a little glow too. Since I don't have the pump down there anymore, I may move the optical drive down to the bottom so it's not visible from this side (which has the tempered glass panel to see the inside). The other side doesn't have a panel (only went with one) so it's not worth having that messing up the view. So re-thought order of system: Res -> splitter (for drain) -> pump -> GPUs -> front rad -> CPU -> back rad -> Res I do see two areas of issue: 1. The GPU block will have a VERY tight bend coming in right by the tempered glass, and I do mean TIGHT. 4 inches to make the right angle turn, maybe more. Likely will have that one the output going to the front rad, since it will be short. 2. The back left side where I was looking to have the output from the res will have a fan awfully close for another tight fit. But I can swap it to output from the other end. Not sure what that will do in terms of the system, pushing and pulling from the same end. Thoughts?