Modding 888x

I recently did the upgrade of my 8887 to the 8890 because I primarily wanted the HT for my usage with Photoshop & Illustrator (or at least thats what I told the company when I put the expenses through) AND because I wanted the new ATI card plus 2Mb of Memory for obvious gaming reasons... But to the point

Sager was kind enought to return the OLD motherboard and all the unused peices from the upgrade. Basically I have my old 8887 back sans hard-drive and monitor.

My intention is to build out a modded system using these guts (transportabilty no and issue). The system will function as a media PC, dvd player, music server, AND let me play a few games/surf general geeking @ home on my 52" plamsa from my comfy chair with a wirless kb etc...

SOOOO... I am lloking for a few suggestion not on the aesthetic part of the mod (though suggestion are welcome and feel free to PM me) but suggestion hints etc on:

1) OVERCLOCLOCKING the CPU/Mobo/GPU/Ram

and

2) And most importantly COOLING (probably Watercooling) and the possibility/feasibility of attaching a WaterBlock to CPU, GPU & chipsets. I am really wonderinf if anyone knows if the mounting holes etc.. og the 888x is standard to desktops. (Obviously part 2 making part one feaseable)


lemme know & thanks in advance

wow, still no intrest on this thread?

I will keep document & photo as the project develop. Yes most products out there are are for standard Mobo's, I still need to decide if the mod is fgoing to be an eye-catcher design or a design that simply melds direclt in the furniture and is basically disguised as something else (say an stack of books, flower pot, stereo component, built directly into a wall etc..) my main concern is goint to me quiet cooling so that i can over clock the gpu so that I can get decent gaming and dvd viewin on the 50' plasma.

Thanks for the input and keep the ideas and suggestions coming....

I have been trying to find and antique Catherdral or Tombstone Radio that I will mounti everything into.

Slowly been assembling everything...

Its a little bit of a hassle geting all the connectors and boards because everything is non-standard, but I found both Sager and Goldenstar (www.goldenstarusa.com) quite helpful (read cheap). Goldenstar USA is the cheapest but english is not a good language for them, and you need to know exactly what parts you need and have the part numbers - they prefer not to talk and simply ask you to email them instead of phoning them...whatever

The Mobo is "dry mounted" i.e. I have everything up and running (AAMoF I am using it right now to write this). I have it sitting open in peices, wires and peripherals spread out on the workbench. I decided to go with Zalman's Resorator.

Its soo beautifully silent ... Just looking for a good method to monitor temperature I cannot seem to find any software that works well. I tried Henrik's program but, beyond the pain of having to regedit and reboot to get a reading, I got a reading of 274 degrees, so I do not know... Then still no GPU info .. so I will continue to look...

I have photos of the proccess and will post the play by play.

My current endeavor is now finding a way to extend (or custom make some kind of) connectors to connect the additional Drives in the drive bay connectors. As well as extend most of the peripheral cabling. My form factor is obviously a little more spread out than a laptop configuration.

I have been trying to find and antique Catherdral or Tombstone Radio that I will mounti everything into, but with the immense size of the radiator of the Zalman, I am getting limited (I was originally going w/ a smaller form factor Cooling system).

As you know I went with Zalmans Resorator for the silence…

The first thing to note is that since this is a Laptop MOBO, almost nothing is standard so I will go over how I overcame this as basically no water block unit will beable to use the standard mounting system

I received a CPU, and two GPU water blocks in my Kit, I will use the CPU and a GPU to cool their respective pars, and the third will Cool the MCH.

THE CPU: Since I cannot use the mounting kit included I used the CPU Bracket on the back of the MOBO as my mounting point for the waterblock. The hole alignment across the diagonal more or less match those of the thumbscrews of the tension bracket for the water block kit



Obviously there was no way anyone would be lucky enough that the threading would match so I needed to re-thread that bracket using a simple threading tool avail at most hardware stores…



As the thread is larger, best thread the MOBO too (to avoid cracking). Here you have a choice I recommend option two.

1)use the same thread size
2)use a larger thread size

I like (2) because then you do not need to hold the MOBO and bracket perfectly together to screw everything together and the weaker circuit board is simply wedged between the screw and the bracket.



Then with a little Arctic Silver Thermal Paste, you can attach the block:




THE GPU: The MOBO conveniently has two homes on it that the Zalman supplied screws and mounts screws into, but I recommend screwing through the holes and using a nut on the other side.



Again with the Arctic Silver Thermal Compound I attach the water block




THE MCH: Without making a custom bracket and retention method, this proved to be a difficult decision, but in the end I opted to us ARTIC SILVER THERMAL PASTE to attach the water block to the MCH…the trick here I found was
1)take your time
2)do not be sloppy
3)find something that will hold everything in place with a little pressure without you needing to be there
4)let everything dry before fiddling

Then I started connecting the tubing, which was a very easy process (NOTE: Check tubing connections and integrity by connecting everything together at least once before mounting and running with water for a 1-2 day period (see manufacturers recommendations)).



Connect the GPU waterblock



And there you are with the radiator in the background to see scale




And a close up



What next?

Well a hard drive and and a power switch and you are ready to go …

POWER SWITCH: The power switch needs to be ordered from one of the parts guys mentioned above, and it consists of a board that has the Power/HD/CapsLock/NumLock LEDS and the Power Button, and 3 hot keys.

It attached to the bottom of the MOBO using a little bit of cabling




Part Numbers:
43-8880S-031Wire Cable For Hot Key
77-88804-D04 Switch Key Board

Primary HD

This is an awkward little part that the main HDD is attached not just via a cable but a small board that attaches to the MOBO that sticks out of the main MOBO (more customization of enclosure will be needed).

Incidentally this piece doubles the attachment point for the MP3 Player to the mobo



See?



Part Numbers:
71-880N-D07 HDD & MP3 Coverter Board
43-88800-010 Ribbon Cable


With Everything place… The system is ready to go (Preliminarily)

I installed WINXP OS, Mozilla Firefox & Thunderbird, a few tweaking/performance tools, BFV and BF1942 played a few hours and now am writing this post on it…

WOHOOOOOO!.

Will keep everyone up when I find that enclosure and mount everything up proberly

So what CPU do you have in it? And the GPU has to be the original M9000? And you used BOTH water blocks from the kit, one on each side of the MOBO? I'd guess the potential for OC'g is good? CPU is 2.8MHz.. Had three waterblocks 2 VGA(large and small-Zalman includes two in their kit), 1CPU, Cooled the CPU, the GPU and the MCH.

Here are a few enclosures I was considering on ebay.. Missed a few auctions already... Anyone out there have something similar out there 4 me?



and



or



I figure everyone has gone hi-tech, so I would try something retro...

Or does any one have any other suggestions?