Difficult Case Cooling Project

Part Three

So, with most of the fitting out completed the project is coming to the vital stage of filling and testing out the new water cooling system.........not. The arrival of Danger Den' new range of low profile Maze 4 GPU block has seen the project take one step back before moving on.

Danger Den has long been associated with a quality range of products and there is, in my mind, no better GPU block than the Maze 4. In this case what Danger Den have done to the Maze 4 to warrant the term "new" is to change the barb thread requirements for their new Maze 4 to G 1/4 or 1/4"BSP. This has vastly increased the application of this block to smaller bore tubing something which can only improve the water cooling communities acceptance of lower flow rate systems.

In Part One of our difficult case cooling project we mentioned the addition of a GPU block to our Evolution Two Extreme system so having received the new Maze four blocks its on with the project. First, we fit up the Maze 4 block with our compression fittings. With any new fittings we like to leak test for a period of time to ensure that the system is water tight.

Second, we start sorting our fittings for the Maze 4 blocks application. The thing I do like about the Maze 4 GPU block is the fittings that are included with each block. You simply specify the type of card you have and Danger Den will supply the appropriate clips and fitting screws. Often the fittings supplied will cross over between the various models and it is not unusual to have earlier version fittings being used to mount later version cards. The exception to this are the much older cards but even then you can obtain from Danger Den a specific fitting system for these cards. Fitting the Maze 4 is a simple task and its then on to filling the system and adding our dye.

Filling

It is important to stop here and look at little more closely at the filling procedure with the pumps used in the Evolution Two series of kits. These pumps are of the integrated reservoir type and as with most pumps will not tolerate being run dry. Just to emphasis this point so it is clear running most pumps dry will immediately void any warranty that exists.

It is therefore very important that the filling procedure is correctly carried out (It is beyond the scope of this document to address all pumps so take this information as being specific to this type of pump).

The first priority when filling this system is to have control of the switching on and off of the pump. I use a separate PSU to switch on and off the power going to the pump when I am filling the system for the first time. This is important because it will be necessary, during the course of filling, to switch off the pump quickly when the reservoir empties so that more fluid can be added. Depending upon the amount of fluid required to completely fill the system it may be necessary to switch the pump on and off four or five times.

The second priority is to ensure that there is enough coolant on hand to fill the system and that the container is suitable to pour liquid into the reservoir through the top filler point. I find a small plant pot watering can suitable for the pouring vessel.

The third priority is to have at hand some toweling or other drying cloth in case of leaks.

Okay, so we first fill the reservoir and switch on the PSU to start the pump. If the pouring vessel mentioned earlier is large enough you can keep pouring liquid into the reservoir with the pump going until the system fills. If you do not have enough fluid to fill the system in one go switch off the pump to refill the pouring vessel and so on. Do not allow the pump to run dry. The process should go smoothly until the system is almost filled. At this point with the system running attention should be paid to bleeding out any air trapped in the parts such as the radiator and water blocks. The bleeding of air from the system is time consuming and will require small refills with the coolant fluid. The pouring vessel is usually to large for this application so I use a syringe to complete the final filling. Air trapped in the top of the reservoir can then be removed by tilting the pump housing so that the air is forced to the filler port opening.

Refit the filler cap plug to the top of the pump housing. Do not leave the filler plug off the reservoir or dirt and other contaminants can get into your coolant loop. Leaks may occur if the filler cap is left off the pump when the pump is not in operation during the filling stage. Next the Bling.

Coolant Dyes

We used FluidXP UV Dye concentrate (Midnight Blue) at a rate of 2cc/ml's for the following pictures. That is we added 2 ml's of the dye concentrate to the filled cooling loop to get the UV affect.

First daylight UV tube at the top of the case.

The daylight with the UV tube at the side of the case.

Then simulated darkness top fitted UV tube.

Then simulated darkness with side fitted UV tube.

I think I prefer the top fitted UV tube look myself.

The final fitting out is the installation of the case side to which we have added two 80mm blue UV fans. Only one of these fans will be used to direct airflow onto the mosfets area of the motherboard. The total effect of our UV lighting can then be appreciated in our pre testing case trials.

First at normal daylight level.

And then in simulated darkness.

Having completed our fitting out it is on to the final part of this project which is to test out our new creation. Before doing the it is important to look at the changes that have been made from our original empty discard to the final completed system.

Next...........................Testing the System