# Mini-Log: Finishing 'Raisin'. From test bed to case.



## infrared (Jan 17, 2018)

I almost didn't post anything but thought it'd be cool to have a mini-log of this build.

So I finally got around to getting the waterblock fitted to my 1080Ti, and swapped out two of the shunt resistors to raise the power limit. It's some of the most butt-clenching soldering I've ever done! I haven't powered the card up yet so I'll keep my fingers crossed it works.

Tomorrow I'll clean out the cpu block and res and assemble it all into the case (phanteks enthoo, was gonna be a temp solution but it actually looks pretty decent). I'll just be using soft tubing for speed, but may re-do it in petg tubing in the future.

Here's pics of the 1080Ti, pics of case and rest of components will follow tomorrow.


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## jaggerwild (Jan 17, 2018)

Those 2 4MO'S are what you swapped out? Looks clean  Are they directional?


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## infrared (Jan 17, 2018)

Yep that's the ones, cheers!  I was bricking it while doing the top left one, there's a couple of tiny smd components right next to it and I was shaking like a leaf lol. 
They're just very low ohm resistors so you could put them round any way or upside down even and they'd work the same.


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## Deleted member 67555 (Jan 17, 2018)

Took a minute to figure out where you did what. Nice work!
You did that free hand?


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## infrared (Jan 17, 2018)

Thanks  Yeah, the tricky part was getting them off, I've got a basic hot air solder station but didn't fancy heating up a £600+ pcb to crazy temps! I'd bought a tweezer type soldering iron but it was a bit weak despite being 48w, I ended up using them to grip either side of one pad and used my weller iron to melt the other side. From there I just cleaned the pads with some solder wick, put some fresh lead solder on 1 pad, held it in place with tweezers, melted down the first pad, double checked it was laying flat, then just wicked some solder onto the other side. I was going to get ocd and try to draw some of the excess solder off, but thought it best to leave it as is.

Looking forward to turning up the volts and seeing how this beast clocks now that it's not power limited. 

Edit - this is the fluid I'll be using, opaque vivid green. Hopefully it doesn't stain everything.


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## jaggerwild (Jan 17, 2018)

Great work, I get like that shaky when I need steady hands. Then I'll need my right hand when I'm left handed, but then you can turn what your working on. If I'm worried about something I have to do(like yours)I'll pratice on a parts board, heating up then pulling still good parts(practice makes perfect). You get into a rythum  when doing it, then all of a sudden you did what you needed to get done. If your worried, I wouldn't be(but if you are you can cover the solder with electrical tape)so they don't get touched. I wouldn't worry, it isn't IPC standards but it will fly. I have a heat gun, I try to do micro soldering you got to see me shaking.........I just walk away then come back latter.


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## infrared (Jan 17, 2018)

haha yep you get me exactly. I was practicing on my poor old 8800gts beforehand, building up the courage to do do it for real. It went smoother than I was expecting so the practice paid off thankfully. The poor 8800GTS will never play crysis again 

actually i killed the 8800 back when learning soldering with the hot air gun. I was nudging a 16pin chip with a screwdriver to see when the solder had melted and on the next nudge it slipped much easier than expected, it went about an inch and wiped out about 8 _freakin tiny_ resistors


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## infrared (Jan 18, 2018)

Update: I thought I'd have had it together by now but cleaning all the wc stuff, and dusty parts took forever!  
I need to find 1 more compression fitting but other than that I think it's ready to go together.


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## infrared (Jan 19, 2018)

Almost there. I had to do a couple of bodges, the res is strapped in with foam and cable ties! I'll make a 90 degree bracket to bolt it to the psu shroud when I'm more motivated. Also I was short 1 compression fitting, so made a makeshift barb fitting with an offcut of petg, looks surprisingly legit! 







Last jobs:
Make another fan Y-cable for front fans
Finish routing the cables around the back
Find somewhere for coolant temp sensor
Block off open spaces around radiators so air isn't recirculating.

Jobs for the future:
Install white led strips 
Un-bodge res mount and fitting.


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## infrared (Jan 23, 2018)

Uhhhhhh, when am I gonna learn eh? Coloured coolants = bs hassle! That vivid green stuff turned gross in only a few days!

 (stuff in bottle is diluted already)



I drained it and filled with distilled water, I'll do another flush tomorrow.

I got the front fans working, baffled open areas around the radiators to stop it recirculating warm air, and I've got a ML 140mm fan to replace the weak exhaust fan.
I have a white cabpemod led strip coming too, even though it's not rgb I'm going to try to connect it up to the rgb header on mobo so I can dim or turn it off. I'll get some proper pic when those little bits are done and coolant sorted


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## ne6togadno (Jan 23, 2018)

question (may be it is dumb but i have to ask)
why instead of removing resistors you didnt just soldered copper wire to short their pins. wire have lower resistance even from low ohm resistors so current would flow (hm is this correct verb  in english) through the wire and effectively lines with those 2 resistors will work like resistors arent there?


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## infrared (Jan 23, 2018)

Not a dumb question at all  I've seen some people do that and have success, but it's important to get the wire guage right. If you go too low on the resistance the card realizes something's up and goes into something like a 'limp home mode'. Putting in resistors with 20% less resistance gets me exactly where I want the power target. What was 120% (300W) is now 100%, 120% is now 360W. Firestrike ultra can actually get it to just touch that limit (which is good, I know the card is still protected). In games with the voltage and clocks wound up (2100mhz, 1.092v) it runs between 90-110% without ever throttling back.

I could have done it that way, but I trusted my soldering skills enough to do it a more 'legit' way I suppose. A bit of wire soldered across the top would work, it's a hell of a lot better than the liquid metal way lol.


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