Cross Fingers, Power On
With the cooling system tested for leaks and the essentials reassembled in the case, it was testing time. This was done using the standard (and, just like the R80, shockingly noisy) CoolerMaster fan running at full pelt.
At first I watched the Temperature Monitor reading creep up. And up. And up. It got right up to the high fifties and was heading for higher, while the radiator stayed cool. Taking a slightly panicked look inside the machine I searched for leaks, gaps and... disconnected power cables. Always check that your pump is plugged in! I attached the pump power to a free socket, felt hot water rush into the radiator and saw the temperature drop. Phew!
As you might be able to see on the picture above, I also made a rubber gasket for the radiator to keep fan vibrations down, which seems to work pretty well. Next on the list after the test run was to sort out the tangle of electrics and pick some more permanent and peaceful fans.
Which is how it ended up looking like this. Back when this machine was air cooled, I swapped out the big Papst fan for a more peaceful Panaflo. It did the business, but in this setup the Papst is fine in it's original position because it is only powered at a permanent 5V. At this speed it makes no real noise to speak of, but still moves a decent amount of air, so I was left with a spare 120x38mm fan. Would the case close with it on the radiator?
Well, yes!. And with a little room to spare, believe it or not. It looks cramped, but with this arrangement there has never been so much air in the CPU section, which helps cool not only the processor chips, but the rest of the module as well. At this stage I didn't have the right SATA cables for the drives though, so there was still a fair bit of cable tidying to be done.
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