Got around to doing part of the final run-through and testing on the actual PC today.

Gotta keep that CPU cool.

Installed this, because I apparently didn't install it before.

ModArchive dump and the other files work just fine after formatting on Win10 and copying files over. Still need to load up the second drive.

Happy that everything still works and didn't decide to die on me since I last turned it all on. 😎

Busy over Christmas, haven't had time to do much. Got around to flushing radiator today in preparation for assembling the loop and filling it.

I present to you - the importance of flushing radiators before putting them into a loop.

Flush #1:

Flush #3:

Flush #8:

Flush #14:

Don't want that shit floating around and clogging up stuff. 🤣

I flushed my radiator with phosphoric acid and HCl 5:1 with the pump for 1 hour and 2 water flushes to be clear. Total flush time 3 hours. Try this when you flush your system next time, it also prevents future corrosion. Copper and the phosphate will react and leave a anti corrosion layer on top of the copper, while not affecting heat transfer 😎

Interesting, didn't know about that. Thanks for the heads up!

Not many updates lately. Family, working, more important things. But I've been doing things quietly in small chunks here and there.

I've all but finished the case mod parts. Here's a few small pics of what I haven't shown yet.

Case backplate design.

That powder is pigment, and not something I've talked about in this thread at all. It's the last part of the case decoration. I'll show my prototype, though the final thing will be thicker and larger.

It's basically a mixture of PVA glue & the pigment on the right, cheap super glue and pigment on the left.

Apply it to some fishing line or something else, and you get nice fluorescent drips.

I'll use this to make a sort of "leaking" effect coming out of some strategically chosen fittings, possibly to fill in the drip area on the case backplate and have it ooze down onto the PSU shroud, as well as stringy bits dangling from the case roof or something. Just to give it a bit more of a 3D effect. The top of the case looks very sad.

The most likely fittings are the ones sitting above the top GPU, so it can drip down onto the GPU plate and then sort of hang off the edge of it which will hide the messed up paint job on it 🤣

My plan is to form it with some spare fitting and spare tubing I have onto double sided tape, so I can then place it into the case without it being permanent.

It was easy enough to get the effect I want, it just required some experimenting with different materials.

Hardware News:

I finalised the setup of all the drivers, games & software. Made an image of that installation so I can revert to it if I have to. The 4th hard drive is now partitioned and filled with both ISOs and a Slackware installation.

I plan to install more games as I collect them, but all the main games I play are already on it.

I can FINALLY give a final hardware list. After so many revisions, here it is:

Case: Modified Corsair 570X RGB Tempered Glass Case
CPU: Pin-Modded Tualatin Pentium III 1.4GHz
Motherboard: AOpen AX34-U
RAM: 2 x Micron 256MB SDRAM PC133 CL2
AGP Graphics Card: Canopus Spectra 8800 (GeForce2 Ultra, non reference design)
PCI Graphics Card: 3dfx Voodoo5 5500 PCI
Sound Card: Guillemot Maxi Studio ISIS
SATA Controller: Promise SATA150 TX4
SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 120GB
HDD 1: Samsung 80GB 7200RPM
HDD 2: Seagate 80GB 7200RPM
HDD 3: HGST 120GB 5400RPM (2.5")
PSU: Corsair CX850M

Stay tuned for further updates, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Man that is awesome, Great job!
Just found this thread after googling water cooled Pentium 3.

Doing something similar right now, Watercooling a Dual P3 1GHz system.

D3FEKT wrote:

Man that is awesome, Great job!
Just found this thread after googling water cooled Pentium 3.

Doing something similar right now, Watercooling a Dual P3 1GHz system.

Welcome to vogons, D3FEKT. You should start a thread in System Specs and share your build progress like x0zm_!

D3FEKT wrote:

Man that is awesome, Great job!
Just found this thread after googling water cooled Pentium 3.

Doing something similar right now, Watercooling a Dual P3 1GHz system.

Welcome to the site!

I'm with CkRtech, post yours in a thread as well! 😀

Reason for lack of updates: I wasn't happy with the loop. I was building it and putting a lot of stuff together, putting velcro and magnets on things and getting everything nice and neat until I realised that I had no good way to see temperatures, and wanted a 5cm shorter res tube to make the RAM -> Res run simpler.

To solve that, I ordered a few more parts direct from Barrow in China.

The 5cm shorter res tube.
A couple more fittings.

And this:

Probably one of the nicest in-line temp displays I've seen. Cost me $30 AUD. For comparison, Thermaltake's much uglier (imo) looking one cost almost double. I know it's liquid temp, but it's better than nothing. It'll sit just above the PSU shroud on the pump to rad run, so I can run the cable right down through it and direct to the fan header for power. I'll take it apart when I get it and see if I can flip the internals around so the cable is facing downwards instead.

Should be arriving in the next couple of days. Depends how fast it gets through Customs.

Aside from that, everything else is done. All my acrylic is painted, dried and ready to be attached. Drippy stuff works and is made - a mix of silicone, PVA glue, superglue and pigment, though I'm unsure how much I'll use. All drivers are installed. Games installed. Software I like installed. Made room for it on my desk.

I really wanted Primochill's "Vue" fluid for this. But it turned out to be a total flop. Still got my eye on Cryochillz though. Too bad it isn't sold locally. 😠

Package arrived today.

Just some quick pics, likely won't be using it until Wednesday or Thursday.

Shorter res.

Blue thumbscrews for holding pump/res to rad. They are lighter in colour than the picture shows.

In-line temp display.

Also some other boring stuff like fittings for the sensor, etc.

Some pre-loop pics for the final assembly:

New res, so it can go RAM->Res directly.

I never tested this before. It works. That's a relief.

Cable management hell. That's what happens when all the cable runs go exactly where the case wasn't designed to put any of them. Bonus velcro'd SSD.

Putting in lighting and stuff.

Some pics from todays loop assembly work. Had other stuff to do today so I couldn't finish it all.

Lighting cabling wrapped in the old UV cable wrap I got my hands on.

The temperature fitting installed. This took about 1 hour to get right and even. Good times.

The new RAM-> Reservoir run. Worked perfectly.

And this is where I got to before finishing up for the day. Hope to continue tomorrow.

Very nice! You definitely need to find a way to squeeze that biohazard fan grill in, classic old school case mod item right there. 😀

phosgene wrote:

Very nice! You definitely need to find a way to squeeze that biohazard fan grill in, classic old school case mod item right there. 😀

I've been keeping my eye out for an oldschool 120mm fan grill for the back fan (which I'll plug into CPU fan). Just a matter of finding one that isn't $30 shipping for a $2 item 🤣

AWFUL photo, but completed loop.

It's just a matter of case decoration, leak testing now 😀

Busy couple of weeks ahead of me, but finally, the real work is done. 😎

Just some better photos with everything plugged in. Also pictured, my amazing leak test tube and fill port in the reservoir. Blow into it - does it hold the air under pressure? It's probably good enough. 🤣

I'm actually pretty nervous about filling it since it's a huge pain to go back at that point. I think I'll do one last hardware check and leak check before I do.

I'm sad.

Everything was going great. I was preparing to fill the loop tonight and post some awesome build finished pics over the weekend, but now the GF2 Ultra was playing up in my pre-fill final hardware test. Missing/incorrect characters in text mode/BIOS. Didn't bother going into Windows. I hope it's just something simple like dirty contacts or my molex extensions being dodgy, since it worked fine w/o extensions when I last tested it and nothing changed hardware wise. There's also the possibility I just never noticed it before. 😢

V5 5500 still works like a treat though.

I'll test it on my current main retro system later, and without extensions in this build.

Damn it. Ugh.

Oh man, that's bad news!

Hope its nothing a good clean and reseating/reconnecting can't fix.

slivercr wrote:

Oh man, that's bad news!

Hope its nothing a good clean and reseating/reconnecting can't fix.

Hope so.

Can't see any physical damage. Will clean the slot in the morning and give it another go. Then test extensions, then another board. If it's still buggered, I'll put it aside for and may just put in an AGP Voodoo5 until I can figure it out. That's my absolute last resort though since I love that card more than the V5, and having it die after hunting it down for 10 years would be very depressing indeed.

At the end of the day it is 18+ year old hardware. Things go wrong and things fail over time. It would just be a shame if it happened before it was even finished. 😢

I never actually bought it in a working condition. It was just sold to me "as is", from Japan, in a Japanese listing, without talking to the seller. The fact it even turned on originally was a bonus. I was just happy to have the card I was after for so long.

Update on GF2 Status:

I pulled out a known working PC. S478 board. Another sexy black AOpen PCB motherboard.

Seemed to work fine in here.

Boot #1, #2 and #3 where I checked BIOS & boot screen for any incorrect characters as that's the issue I was noticing last night. Didn't see anything.

Since this PC was a Netware server in a previous life (and I'll write a thread about this large group of PCs another time), I unplugged the HDD and put in my trusty Hiren's Boot CD and loaded into partedmagic to check on a GUI. Seemed fine here too.

So at the moment I'm suspecting a bad connection, or a bad power connection in the actual PC. Going to clean the contacts and the slot and hunt around for some different molex extensions to try. If that doesn't work I'll put it back in this P4 PC with a spare HDD, load up W98/XP and run some 3D apps and see how it goes, then do the same in the original.

I'm cautiously optimistic about it being an issue outside of the card. The motherboard is easy to replace in this build and I have plenty other ones I can use, even if they don't look as nice. My original CUSL2 in all its brown glory is solid as hell. Molex extensions are even easier to replace.

Anyway, no point speculating. Back to testing when I have more spare time later today I guess 😕

____________

Update #2:

Seems to be a power issue and nothing more. Works fine in the build w/o extensions, and flaky with extensions. Works fine with different extensions. Will either make or purchase new extensions. Just going to do further testing to make sure that is the case.

Loose Molex extensions, splitters, and connectors on fans are the bane of my existence I swear. Glad it wasnt anything more difficult! This is by far one of THE coolest builds iv seen yet.

ODwilly wrote:

Loose Molex extensions, splitters, and connectors on fans are the bane of my existence I swear. Glad it wasnt anything more difficult! This is by far one of THE coolest builds iv seen yet.

Oh for sure. It's one of the new things I love on newer PCs. Lack of cable clutter. They have no charm, but they are certainly earlier to work with.

After further testing, this still seems like the case. I cleaned the contacts & AGP slot for good measure as well.

I used a different extension - the spare I had laying around that I bought for a few dollars each for the bitspower power hub - on both the V5 and GF2 card, though separately.

Excuse the awful angle, I was holding a fan directed at the CPU block while balancing a keyboard and taking a photo at the same time.

Booted into Windows without a problem.

Was detected in system info without issues. I don't want to run any 3D apps without proper CPU cooling in place. I might just open an older game for a few seconds to make sure 3D works. Do some more text mode testing, and if I find it's fine I will consider it good to go, buy some replacement molex extensions and go from there. After that's sorted, I'm confident I can fill without any issues. Finally. Was really hoping to have it done this weekend though 🙁

I believe all GF2 Ultra issues have been solved. Re-pinned and crimped both my molex cables and it seems to be working just fine. Ran as much 3Dmark99 as I felt comfortable with without liquid in the system.

I've run into one final problem. Possibly the biggest problem.

I got another sound card. The Diamond Monster Sound MX300. I don't know which to use now. MX300 for that sweet A3D (Games I play the most support it), or the Guillemot Maxi Studio ISIS for those soundfonts.

Both, perhaps? There is a spare PCI slot afterall, though it sounds (no pun intended) like potential IRQ and DMA hell.

But hey, what hasn't been hell in this project, and what could even more overkill hurt? 😎