- 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
While waiting for the overnight order to arrive, I took advantage of the fittings I did have to see if I could get tubing bent for the two runs I wanted to clean up. Everything is to be torn apart eventually anyway, so this provided a slight bit of practice. Beyond that, having tubing already measured, cut and fit before the fittings arrived would speed up the process immensely.
I had some scrap tubing left over that I was able to straighten and use to run some test cutting and fitting. The line connecting the pump to the SLI bridge I was able to get fitted, so that’s one line down. Unfortunately that one came about from overcutting the line I was attempting to fit from the CPU to the front radiator: I was trying to run the tubing to the top port out of the radiator as opposed to the facing port. But in overcutting it I was at least able to salvage it to get the line for the pump to the SLI bridge.
The tubing that originally came from the CPU to the front radiator was repurposed as well. I cut the 90-degree bend off it and shaved it down to create a new 90-degree bend coming off the radiator to feed into the reservoir. In trying to undo that original connection, I’m definitely glad I redid it. I also decided to leave the fittings in place till the order arrived. It’ll need to come out for the polishing, but I’ll wait till then to take it down.
Getting the last line run would require more tubing, and as this was done on a Sunday when Home Depot closes early, I would have to wait till the next day to pick it up.
Earlier in the day before deciding to try the tubing, I managed to finish up the cable management for everything except the pump and get the back onto the case. This pretty much means that the only thing left is to plug the pump up into the rest of the system once the water loop is done.
* * * * *
I also had a re-think about the loop. One thing that I was pleased to discover when I initially tubed up the loop was how well the outlet on the top radiator lined up with the CPU block with just a Swiftech 90-degree single-rotary fitting. And given that the front and top radiators are both aligned similarly in the case, I kept wondering if I could get a similar alignment to avoid having to make complicated bends in the loop.
In making some test measurements, I observed that the facing ports of the front radiator about line up perfectly with the lower clips on the memory slots.
So I’m thinking that having a 90-degree single-rotary fitting on the outlet for the CPU block going down and across – a single 90-degree bend in the tubing – should get me in the ballpark for lining up with a port on the front radiator. What should allow me to hit home on that is two more 90-degree single-rotary fittings to make an S configuration. I have a Swiftech extension fitting if necessary.
Basically I’m hoping to use fittings to avoid multiple bends in the tubing like I tried previously (and failed). All of the other lines in the loop are single 90-degree bends, so figuring out how to get it so all lines are that way would make things look a little more uniform, and it’ll be significantly easier to build out. This also meant taking advantage of a feature Performance-PCs has on their site to amend an order to add two additional Swiftech 90-degree single-rotary fittings to the order I already placed for three of them.
It also means changing the outlet for the radiator to the other side, but that’s only a minor concern with probably some minor adjustment to the copper tubing.
And that is where I’ll have to leave this iteration, as there isn’t much to do until the order arrives. The cabling is virtually done, most of the tubing is already cut and ready to go, though I’ll need to get more for the last tubing run, which can’t happen until I have the fittings. About the only thing I could do in the interim is move the radiator outlet to the other side, but as that’s a minor thing, I’ll wait till later to do that.
