Where did you make the acrylic cover ? How did you pierce the holes for the cables and tubing ?
Looks good mate

You should be able to find hole saw in pretty much any hardware shop

Depends of the quality. But generally to cut through aluminum, you don't need good quality as it is rather soft. I think I bought mine around RM 20 - 25.

haha >.<"
i tot u want holesaw for tubing .
for tubing its either 20mm or 25mm .
20mm would be a nice fit ^^,
25mm if u wanna insert rubber for securing sharp edge .

Here you go:



Yup, the noise was because of the fins as I tested the fan "alone" and they were not noisy at all. But now @5V, it is barely noticeable.
Not a bad idea. Although I would have to make a notch in the acrylic plate as the bottom of the RAM slots is really close to the GC PCB on this board.

Not sure yet for the mobo. As I said in a post earlier, I was maybe thinking of an i5 + P55, but the fact the P55 only allows 2 x PCI-E x8 for crossfire/SLI bothers me. I don't upgrade the mobo often, so I rather take one that is future proof. I could upgrade to i7, but I am not really interested in spending RM3k "only" to get a black PCB mobo. So I might wait for the 32nm westmere supposed to launch Q1 next year or if I find a good bargain for a 2nd hand x48 mobo with black PCB, I might go for it.

My HDD are in the 5.25' bay, I bought some adapters and painted them in black (RM 5 for the pair at All IT LY):


Yup, that's right. Already received the replacement unit. And it works great 

3dmark Vantage HD 5870@stock - Q6600@3.6GHz



Crysis Warhead benchmark:



For the moment, I leave the stock cooler as I have been scared enough by the first one. I'll probably get a full cover block for this card once I feel more comfortable that the card is 100% stable

I also want to upgrade my monitor as 1680x1050 is almost too easy for this card 

One thing that sucks though is NFS shift. Those idiots @ EA programmed the game so that it runs nicely only on NVIDIA card due to PhysX killing the framerate if you have an ATI 
My FPS dips below the 20s in some case and there are lot of micro stuttering which kills the game play. I guess a Quad core @ 3.6GHz and a 5870 just doesn't meet the min. requirements for this game 

My HDD are in the 5.25' bay, I bought some adapters and painted them in black (RM 5 for the pair at All IT LY):


Yup, that's right. Already received the replacement unit. And it works great 

3dmark Vantage HD 5870@stock - Q6600@3.6GHz



Crysis Warhead benchmark:



For the moment, I leave the stock cooler as I have been scared enough by the first one. I'll probably get a full cover block for this card once I feel more comfortable that the card is 100% stable

I also want to upgrade my monitor as 1680x1050 is almost too easy for this card 

One thing that sucks though is NFS shift. Those idiots @ EA programmed the game so that it runs nicely only on NVIDIA card due to PhysX killing the framerate if you have an ATI 
My FPS dips below the 20s in some case and there are lot of micro stuttering which kills the game play. I guess a Quad core @ 3.6GHz and a 5870 just doesn't meet the min. requirements for this game 

Well, I don't think it would change something. It would definitely grow my "Vantage e-peen" but I don't care

In game, I would probably not notice any difference, probably only ~0.5FPS in selected games ... I think I'll wait for the 32nm i9 scheduled for Q1 next year for a mobo / CPU upgrade

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Added on October 23, 2009, 6:06 pmCorrection: NFS SHIFT is still rubbish. It seems to depend of the track. Some I get a steady 60FPS (V-sync on) and some the FPS will dips below 20s and look like a slideshow 

I've been thinking about that. But
1) I am not sure it will fix the problem, I need to some research to see if anyone is doing it.
2) Nvidia already try once to block it and although a workaround as been found this time, I am a bit worry that next time Nvidia manage to block it for good.
3) I am hoping that DX11 physics will send Nvidia PhysX to oblivion 

Although I'd be interested to see if it works. Anyone who lend me a Nvidia card for testing ?

EDIT: me think I have a Quadro in my work PC which is actually a 8600GT, I wonder if I could use that for physx ... ?

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Added on October 24, 2009, 7:48 pmI can't use a Quadro Card for Physx ... However I can fool the system by editing the INF and have the OS think I installed a 8600 GT instead of a Quadro. The problem now is that Vista doesn't allow to use 2 different VGA if they don't use the same drivers => not possible to have ATI and Nvidia working side by side. So now I have to install Win 7 if I want to try the hack ... :/

It seems the PhysX hack work as I am getting 1500pts more in Vantage due to the physics test being a lot better. However, the FPS still sucks in NFS

It doesn't seem to even run slightly better than before ... I guess I'll just have to wait for EA games to release a patch for ATI.

It's an EK (FC5870, you can see the pictures of the block few posts earlier) and It doesn't come with any fitting, only 2 plugs. I am using D-tek high flow fitting ATM.

keke my blocks still with clawhammer waiting for other parts and burn a huge hole in my pocket 

Yup, both are right. If you buy tubing made for WCing, it is much easier to route in your case and their diameter matches the standards used in WCing. They are also tested to make sure that they do not react with the liquid and therefore do not cause any chemical reaction with your block (corrosion, deposit, ...)l.

And frankly, the tube is the cheapest component in the loop. You can find Duralene tubing for RM 10 / foot and you generally needs not more than 8 feet for the loop depending of the case and how your route the tubing. So it is always better to pay a little extra compared to classic gardening hose, and to be sure your tubing won't affect the others expensive components like the blocks and pump.

I would stay away from bitspower. Their design for the  5850/5870 block sucks:




And the temps seems to be awful compared to the EK or Swiftech block:



You can read the posts regarding bitspower block starting from there: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpo...7&postcount=395

That's only one user's opinion though, so it may not be true for everybody, but still the internal of the block looks poorly designed ...

You can check how performs the other block few pages earlier in the same thread.