Welcome to Tom's Hardware- New Watercooling Forum!

[rubix_1011]

Welcome to the new Tom's Hardware watercooling forum! This is simply a welcome thread; we will be working with the Tom's moderators to get existing watercooling and liquid cooling threads so we have the current base of knowledge to work from going-forward.

I'd like to see some things added with this new space; more stickies (information posts/how-to's/etc) as well as some work logs of builds, modding, concept ideas and even some well maintained 'specials' links to current sales items or new gear coming out.

Again, welcome to the New Tom's Hardware Forums Water/Liquid cooling forum!

 

[d0gr0ck]

First order of action: Turn your sig into a sticky?

 

[rubix_1011]

I think it's worthwhile...or even add/update the one that is currently used that was created by Conundrum. He really doesn't visit here much anymore; usually hangs out over on XtremeSystems Forums...I don't post much there; just pop in once in a while and keep up on what's going on across the board.

A new sticky is in order...I can work on getting it created. Let me know who wants information to be included and I will add and give credit to everyone involved.

 

[4Ryan6]

Along with my other duties, I'm occasionally moving water cooling threads into this new section, if there's any thread you need moved faster, PM.

Other moderators can move threads too, but I'm one that has volunteered to help this transition.

 

[rubix_1011]

Thanks 4ryan6. This is a huge help.

 

[lowjack989]

Glad we got this new spot....Now to start shopping for WCing parts Feeling Fresh...

 

[rubix_1011]

It's really nice to have a dedicated spot to call our own...and not get lost in the shuffle.

 

[d0gr0ck]

Everybody can get nice and cozy now

Also: Flang-nabbit! I just rebuilt the loop last week to have a 4870 conk out on me. It's just balancing in there right now since I don't wanna tear everything apart again so soon.

 

[rubix_1011]

What happened?

 

[d0gr0ck]

Brother visited yesterday, tried a round of Crysis 2. On the third crash my PC refused to boot. After a day of swapping everything around I noticed that if my second GPU is in the PCIe slot Windows doesn't start and the display driver startup hangs. I'm going to fiddle some more but seems like it just gave up the ghost.

 

[rubix_1011]

Every once in a while, on login, Windows 7 has an issue with my SLI cards. It doesn't happen with a single card and it never happened when I used to run WinXP.

Personally, I think it's a glitch (in my instance) where the display driver doesn't completely initialize; it only happens once I enter user/PW and the spinning ring starts...now and then...it hangs and I reboot.

I'd try safe mode first, uninstall/reinstall video drivers..maybe run CCleaner in between to see if you have any Registry remnants. Remove the driver directory so its a clean install..you don't want old .dll's hanging around that might not get overwritten or might still be called by a Reg string.

 

[d0gr0ck]

I rebuilt my Windows installation from scratch while troubleshooting (SSD needed a secure erase anyway). Nothing changed.

 

[rubix_1011]

Hmmm...well rules that out.

Bad PSU lead?

Swap the 2 cards to see if both work in the single slot...that would rule out it actually being the card or not.

 

[d0gr0ck]

That's the only thing I haven't done (slot switch) as they are very tightly bound together in the water loop. That's today's fiddling plan when I get to it.

 

[rubix_1011]

Yeah, unfortunately I've had the same thing and it was PSU for me.

It's worth bypassing that part of your loop with some extra tubing (if you can) and then slapping the stock coolers on...or even pulling the 1 card from the loop and leaving the other. If you are careful, you won't have to drain your loop and would only lose a few drops of water.

Again...slow and steady. Good luck- keep us posted.

 

[d0gr0ck]

Well, I pulled it off without having to modify the loop. I officially am in love with my rotary connectors now.

The red card is the one that is pretty much dead. When switched from the secondary to the primary my computer will not even POST, swap in blue and everything fires up like nothing happened.

 

[rubix_1011]

Damn...seems like a dead card.

 

[d0gr0ck]

Yeah, shame. I was slating for end of summer upgrades too, I only wanted a few more months out of it.

On the other hand I'm now way over rad'd for what I'm cooling. (7x120mm spaces for a GPU and CPU )

 

[rubix_1011]

Whoa, wait. Did you just ninja-hijack this thread?

 

[d0gr0ck]

Yup, I'm awesome like that sometimes.

 

[rubix_1011]

I almost feel violated.

No, that was just gas.

 

[wolfram23]

WC forum. Win! It's something I plan to do in the future, although first and foremost I think I need a bigger case lol. Internal rads ftw.

 

[rubix_1011]

Not necessarily, but some folks prefer it. Depending on what your plans are, you'll want to make sure you can fit the rads needed to cool what you want. You can always get creative if you have to.

 

[wolfram23]

Oh I know, I previously planned out a WC system for my PC but I'd have to attach two rads externally and aside from being a PITA, it would look kind of silly to me. Anyway, I'm happy enough with my air cooling for now, but when I build a new PC in a year or two I'll consider budgeting for WC as well.

 

[rubix_1011]

You mean like this?