OK.... For me this build was a lot of fun.. In fact it was the funnest I can remember.. All the parts fit, they all showed up on time..... No leaks!!! I even did not have to bleed the system!!! Just kept adding water, turn on... turn off add water... etc... done!!
I am going to throw a bunch of pics in here for you all to look over. There are a couple of things I want to bring to your attention first.. Just some personal things about the build and a few "Just so you know" points on many of the parts.
The XSPC dual pump single RES assembly..........
This was a far better quality product than I expected. It is clearly not a first draft, and has many solid ideas built in for the long haul. One small item to point out is they do have the bottom "Outlet" connection at a little up angle. I bring this up for one particular reason. Most items I purchase for building seem to bee built on a computer design bed, then sent to production. This subtle feature proves they actually built a few models first and tried them. What this does is give us an angle that allows for adequate spacing when using large compression fittings and/or limited bay space due to the individual builders placement.
Also as a fun feature is has three pre-drilled holes for LED's of your choosing.
I had anticipated this unit being loud. It is not. In fact once the air is out of they system I have to turn off all the fans to hear it, and even then the DB's do not register on the meter! Keep in mind this is in an MM case all bolted up and I am running two pumps!
Bleeding was not needed (The old fashion way). The pumps and setup is self priming. It took me a few minutes and attempts to figure that out. All I had to do was fill the RES, run a few seconds, turn off and do it again.... After running for about five minutes and tilting the case all over all the air was gone and away it went...
On this one thing to mention is the "Cap" on this unit. It has four bleeder holes in it... Yep.. You guessed it. I found out the hard way.. Tilted the case and spots of water came out.... All is well though....
One last item... My box came with no instructions. This is bad. Had this been my only computer this would have kept me from successfully installing it until I got online to see the instructions. I am sure I would have figured it out, and once a person reads the well written instructions they have online.... It is easy as pie and I can say "Yeah, that's what I thought"
On a side note... Until I find a better product or this unit fails for some reason... I will be using this Dual pump RES Assembly for now on an all my builds with two loops....
Upper left front fan.......
OK.. Just wanted to bring this to your attention.... In addition to specifically placing my RAD's a certain way, this fan has a purpose. Even though I am running water I think we can never have to much airflow in a system. This fan's job and placement allows for it to push fresh air right at the two cards. This actually changes my temps by a solid 1c at idle and 2c at full tilt. This was just a simple idea I wanted to try since non of these cards have back plates (Even thought they do not need them)
Now I ran out of fan filters so one is on the way... but I have no plans to stick my finger in there anyway!
One other note on this fan.... I made a shroud for it... It is hard to explain but it actually cut the noise of the fan A LOT! At full tilt it sounds like 3/4 tilt for example...
RAD placement and fan decision......
OK.. I made some "Real time" changes to this build.... My Feser 120.3 will not get to me until next week..... And after feedback and much thought I decided I would not use it anyway. SO I re-used my Swiftech Stacker RAD's. They work as well as the BIX does at full tilt. Same exact temps with my parts....
Now.. On the fans..... I went with the Push/pull as Swiftech says to on the Stackers, but decided on the RAD-Shroud-Fan (Pull). I am very happy I did. The performance is as good as the push pull was before, but I am using half the wattage and it is half as loud!!! That is a solid win in my book!
This is how I will do the BIX RAD's from now on....p
As for the placement... Well the idea was to take advantage of the three KAZE fans air output.... They are right in line with the HDD's under the MOBO and at the same time blow right on the MOBO and RAM.... Free cooling! This also means I can run the fans at a lower RPM as a whole...
The Stackers are cooling the CPU and the BIX is cooling everything else... So far so good!
A fun fact... The RAD's ended up taking the same amount of "Space" inside the case... Found that to be kind of cool!
EVGA ECP.....
As much as I like it.... I took it out of this build.... However I did use the heartbeat output on the MOBO to light up the Pump/RES!!! Looks cool having the whole Pump/RES pulsate like that!
Hose Color....
I went blue.... I figure it must be because it is summer and it reminds me of cooler times!
The GTX 285's.....
My goodness am I glad I dumped the 2Gig horrors... These are solid cards and to tell you the truth, the best looking Thermal pasted units I have ever seen.. Can it be that EVGA has stopped slopping the paste!!!
Test runs to follow... SO far they clock past the FTW clocks and this was before the Water Blocks....
Danger Den GTX 285 V2 Blocks.....
OK.... Look.. I only got these because no one has any others.. I know for a fact Sidewinder will have the EK "Bling bling" versions next week, and the Heat killers are in route all over... But that was not this week... I wanted them now...
I am happy to report that they perform great! As I am typing this the cards are crunching 472's and 768's and the temps are @ 47c... & 52c.... Been running solid for four hours or so now...
I will also say the packaging, Instructions, and fit/finish is actually quite good! I like the "Bling" factor of the Heatkiller much more than these, but in the end I care much more about performance than bling....
So here we go!!!! I hope you enjoy them!......
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O'l Blue gets a Nip and Tuck (Build Log)
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