Ok, so now everything is 3/8" ID but 2" of the short tube in the res. I used 3/8" ID ClearFlex 60 tubing upon advice from Danny at DTek. Just had to heat up the ends and stretch them over the fittings on the various parts. While some may say that you have to use 1/2" ID tubing, the blocks and pump and all are using 3/8" ID bore. And 3/8" tubing is a hell of a lot easier to tame, routing-wise.
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I had some issues with my video card and the DTek GPU block. I had the MSI 8x AGP Ti4200 but the hole pattern was nowhere near the nVidia reference holes that the GPU block was looking for. I swapped a 4x AGP MSI Ti4200 I had at work that did have the reference holes.
However, DTek did not design the GPU block specifically for GF4 cards (they're working on one). GF3 works fine, but I had to come up with my own methods to get it to mount. It was nowhere near mounting properly (there was a 1/2" gap) with the provided mounting hardware.
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I got the block to mount with two motherboard style standoff studs, a couple of ceramic washers and the rest of the hardware provided from DTek. The DTek screws that go into the provided standoffs are just too long really. I used the nuts and the ceramic washers as spacers to get the fit right and it attached just fine. I also put some washers between the PCB and the standoff to keep it away from the GPU die (it's really close)
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I run Azza motherboards at work and of course I'm going to run them at home. They just work. However, the KT33-bv is the last motherboard that has the four holes around the socket. It appears that they've even changed the design on new revs of the board to not include them. : (
Guess it'll be back to Asus if I have to get a new board.
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I wanted to put the radiator above the power supply mainly to exhaust out the back and further make the box quiet. However, even though I measured, it was juuust too big. Damn tolerances... : \
So I took out the 3.5" drive bay (very easy on this case) and molded plastic fan holder etc in front and my dad and I cut out a hole on the front and mounted the radiator to exhaust out the front.
It keeps the center of gravity lower and does also help get air out of the loop.
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I wanted everything to be inside. I don't do LAN parties every weekend, but I still wanted an all contained box so that I could and without fear of part of my cooling system getting torn off. This case is somewhat unique in that it has this space already provided and was just the right width. The clamps for the res also are long enough that I can still get to the screws for the cards underneath! And I can also check the level of the water without opening the case.
I would definitely get a reservoir for every watercooled system! Much easier to fill, empty, and catch air from the system.
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To make it easy to prime and also keep the all-in-one design, my dad (Señor Mechanico / electronic wizard) added a 12vdc relay to my power supply. He then added a 4 pin molex (using black, green, and white standard 110 AC coloring) and put a 4 pin molex on the pump AC lead. There's a manual bypass switch (hot glued to the side) so as long as the power supply is plugged in, I can run the pump without turning on the machine. Under normal operation, when the power supply turns on, the relay kicks and sends AC to the pump. This way I only have one power cord to the machine.
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So after throwing all this together, getting the tubing installed, water filled...
"Hmm, that pump sure does make a lot of racket..."
Google returned that there's a Via 1300 quiet mod.
Ok, so a little bit of super glue later, refilled the system and... "ahh, that's more like it."
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And then we found that the pump had a slight piddle from the intake housing. Sigh. Drained the system again. There were two injection mold flaws/creases that were just enough to let a little bit of water get by the o-ring. Time to heat up the hot glue gun again. A quick bead of hot glue and it's sealed up nice and waterproof.
And who says you need 1/2" tubing? This pump moves some water around I tells ya!
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The Sunon fan I had laying around and while not designed to for ultra quiet operation, it will run at 5vDC. Won't at 4.5v, but it will do 5v. We added a 3 pin fan plug so that I can run it from my Zalman FanMate to variably adjust the noise/CFM balance.
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The box is much quieter and running cooler as well. I might look at getting a specific fan for higher CFM while still staying quiet.
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