It was dead easy to install the radiator as the Thermaltake water cooling kit is designed to be installed into the Thermaltake Armour case. I reused the exiting 120mm blue led fan which was located in the rear of the case where the new radiator is to be fitted and mounted the 120mm fan that came with the radiator onto the rear of the case. The internal fan pushes air through the radiator whilst the external fan pulls air from the rear through the radiator.
The mounting of the CPU water block was a little more tedious, as it required the removal of the motherboard to install the mounting bracket underneath. This required the removal of all the cards cabling etc and ended up taking an hour or so to complete and to put everythin back in again neatly.
Next i installed the Thermaltake AquaBay M1 which provides a liquid level and flow meter mounted in 2x 5.25" drive bays this was a straight forward install except the mounting screws dont quite align with the case and required a little bit of creative cross-threading.
The Thermaltake AquaBay M2 is a second radiator which installs into 2x 5.25" drive bays, this required the removal of the cute little draw that comes with the case and moving the hard drive bays down to the very bottom of the case. I then mounted the radiator directly above this so that the fan at the base of the radiator is provided with clean air from the front hard drive fan.
The Swiftech VGA water block and RAM sinks was a right pain in the arse not because of the product itself just the way things panned out. Removal of the stock Ati cooler was easy enough and the mounting of the waterblock a breeze but those pesky RAM heatsinks! I mounted the heatsinks onto the memory modules and reinserted the card but the slightest flex of the card and the ramsinks would fall off. This of course required the removal of the graphics card and firmly pressing the ram sinks back on. But once the ramsinks came off they never really stuck again and after the upteenth attempt i promptly gave up uttering a complete smorgasboard of profanities. Note: I resolved this the following day by purchasing from Jaycar some doubled sided themal tape.I also struggled routing the hose to the GPU waterblock it would consistantly kink an the bend i resolved this by sliding heatshrink over the tube where the pipe kinked.
Bling-Bling Specs: | ||
CPU | CPU: | AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4200+ |
Interface: | Socket 939 - Manchester Core | |
Default Speed: | 4.2GHz (2200) | |
Overclocked to: | 5.0GHz (2640) | |
Motherboard | Model: | DFI LanParty UT nF4 Ultra-D |
BIOS Version: | (704-22V6) BIGTOE TWEAKED 704-2a | |
RAM | Model: | Corsair XMS4400 (CMX512-4400c25) |
Size: | 512 MB | |
Current Speed / Timing: | 240 MHz @ 2.5-3-3-7 | |
Model: | Corsair XMS4400 (CMX512-4400c25) | |
Size: | 512 MB | |
Current Speed / Timing: | 240 MHz @ 2.5-3-3-7 | |
Video Card | Model: | Gigabyte X1900XT |
Core: | R580 | |
Memory: | 512.00 MB GDDR3 | |
BIOS Version: | ATI.X1900XTX.512.Samsung11_051221.bin | |
Default Engine Speed: | 625.00 MHz | |
O'clock Engine Speed: | 650.00 MHz | |
Default Memory Speed: | 725.00 MHz | |
O'clock Memory Speed: | 775.00 MHz | |
Hard Drives | Manufacturer: | SEAGATE |
Model: | (ST3160827AS) Barracuda 7200RPM | |
Size: | 160.00 GB | |
Interface: | Serial ATA | |
Manufacturer: | Maxtor | |
Model: | (6Y080PO) 7200rpm, 8MB Cache | |
Size: | 80.00 GB | |
Interface: | ATA133 | |
CD Drives | Manufacturer: | Liteon |
Model: | DVD-ROM (LTD163) | |
Manufacturer: | Liteon | |
Model: | DVD-RW (SHM-165H6S) | |
Sound Card | Manufacturer: | Creative |
Type: | Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS | |
Speakers: | Dell ADA995 Altec Lansing 5.1 | |
Case | Manufacturer: | Thermaltake |
Model: | Armour Black w/ Side Panel Window (VA8000BWS) | |
Size: | Full Tower | |
Power Supply Unit: | Ultra X-Connect 500W - Blue w/UV Orange | |
Cooling | Manufacturer: | Thermaltake |
Model: | Bigwater 735 Water Cooling Kit | |
Manufacturer: | Thermaltake | |
Model: | AquaBay M2 12cm Radiator - 5.25" Bay | |
Manufacturer: | Thermaltake | |
Model: | AquaBay M1 Liquid Level & Flow Indicator | |
Manufacturer: | Swiftech | |
Model: | MCW6 VGA waterblock | |
Monitor | Manufacturer: | Mitsubishi |
Model: | 22" Diamond Pro 2070SB | |
Mouse & Keyboard | Manufacturer: | Logitech |
Model: | Cordless Mx3100 | |