- Water cooling build in my wife’s computer – Part IX
- Project Absinthe
- Project Absinthe – Part II
- Project Absinthe – Part III
- Project Absinthe – Part IV
- Project Absinthe – Part V
- Project Absinthe – Part VI
- Project Absinthe – Part VII
- Project Absinthe – Part VIII
- Project Absinthe – Part IX
- Project Absinthe – Part X
- Project Absinthe – Part XI
- Project Absinthe – Part XII
- Project Absinthe – Part XIII
- Project Absinthe – Part XIV
- Project Absinthe – Part XV: It’s alive!
- Project Absinthe – Intermission and future plans
- Project Absinthe – Part XVI
- Absinthe – Part XVII
- Absinthe – Part XVIII
- Absinthe – Part XIX: Valentine’s Day
- Absinthe – Part XX
- Distilling another batch of Absinthe
- Distilling Absinthe – Part II
- Distilling Absinthe — Part III
- Another glass of absinthe
- Another glass of absinthe — II
- Adjusting the recipe
- Absinthe to Amethyst
Project Absinthe started life as an upgrade from an AMD X2-3800 system running Windows XP. Here are the current specs on the system (PCPartPicker.com list)
- CPU: AMD FX-8350, running at stock speed with stock cooler
- Mainboard: ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0
- Graphics: Zotac GT 620 2GB
- Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro DDR3-1866
- Power: Corsair GS800
I chose the name Absinthe for this project due to the green CCFLs lighting up the inside of the Corsair 750D case in which this system has been built. The coming upgrades include:
- Graphics: 2xEVGA GTX 660 SC in SLI
- Power: Corsair RM1000
I’m also considering adding a hardware SATA RAID card to the setup as well rather than relying on the “fake RAID” that is built into the mainboard. And yes there is a rather important difference between the two, especially when we’re talking about RAID 1 setups.
Once the system has been adequately broken in with the new graphics cards and power supply, it’ll be getting a water-cooling upgrade. Here are the planned parts (not including fittings):
- Koolance CPU-380A
- 2xEK FC-660 GTX
- AlphaCool XT45 360mm
- AlphaCool XT45 240mm
- AlphaCool VPP655 pump with AlphaCool HF D5 clear top
- Bitspower Z-Multi 150mL reservoir
It already has a Phobya TPC fan controller, and will be getting a Koolance temperature sensor plugged into one of the radiators – likely the bottom one unless the cable isn’t long enough to run to the fan controller, in which case it’ll be plugged into the top one. The other temperature sensors for the fan controller will be put at the top of the case above the top radiator, beneath the bottom fans, and in front of the front fans – currently they’re not installed. This’ll provide a good idea of the intake temperature from the front and bottom, coolant temperature and exhaust air temperature.
I’m not sure yet if I’ll be doing video build logs on the various parts. We’ll see.
