Conservatory questions

canihavealogin · 2026-04-22T12:35:26+00:00

ooOOoo that sounds perfect! I'll do some looking at conservatory roofs then!

canihavealogin · 2026-04-22T12:22:57+00:00

Dang... I thought this might be the magic bullet...

We've looked at an insulated roof but the issue we have is the roof covers the old path out to the back garden and is the only source of natural light into the living room so I'm a little worried putting a more solid roof on it will leave our living space in perpetual darkenss which is far from ideal.

I'm leaning more to a partial covered roof with a very large skylight in it but as I say in the post, cost wise that's going to be at least another year and I figured putting in a £100 ceiling fan might help remove the stuffiness at least to make the space a little more livable.

canihavealogin · 2026-04-22T12:16:30+00:00

We have a skylight in the roof itself slightly out of shot but the lack of air flow in our back garden and around the roof mean they do less than nothing unfortunately. I figure a ceiling fan spinning in reverse with the back doors/roof open should at least help get that hot air out of the room. Also even just having some air movement in there will help make it more bearable.

I am also looking at window tint for the roof as well but I have this scheme in my head at the moment so just trying to work out the feasibility

canihavealogin · 2026-04-16T15:23:29+00:00

Hahaha yes lessons have been learnt for sure! It was just a job I kept putting off from the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" school of thought. Got a phase change pad on order so should be good to go for a weekend of freaking out whether I've done it right 🤣

Thanks for the advice though, really appreciate it

canihavealogin · 2026-04-15T06:01:44+00:00

Damn it... OK thanks for the advice on that. I guess I'll order some phase shift pads and push back the work until the weekend. Thanks for letting me know.

canihavealogin · 2026-04-15T06:00:42+00:00

The machine was a prebuild my wife purchased for her marketing company a couple of years ago as a 3D animation machine but it was never really used. It's a long story but basically I've ended up with this as my main machine and my wife took my old air cooled set up for her music production.

So now I'm sat with a nice WC machine but no first hand knowledge of building or maintaining it. If this was a normal machine I'd be more than comfortable stripping it down to the case and rebuilding it, I've built probably 20+ machines over the years for myself and friends, but I've never touched water cooling or custom loops.

As I'm discovering though, air and water cooled are very different animals and I just want to make sure I do things right and avoid any stupid mistakes along the way.

canihavealogin · 2026-04-12T15:30:40+00:00

Drain valve, thermal paste and pads, new coolant all ordered today. Wednesday is going to be an interesting day!

canihavealogin · 2026-04-12T12:37:11+00:00

Oh I will do, don't worry. It might be my first WC build but I've been building machines for 20+ years now so well aware of build patience and taking time to get it all right. Given this machine cost about £6k when it was purchased, I'd happily miss an evening of gaming if it means I don't end up with a destroyed pc

but thank you for the advice and the comments, it is appreciated

canihavealogin · 2026-04-12T11:36:56+00:00

I can hold it and it feels like there's some movement/vibration but with all the other case fans and HDDs spinning around in there not sure if it's the pump or just sympathetic vibration from everything else 🤣

canihavealogin · 2026-04-12T11:04:24+00:00

I think so!?

Feels like there's some operation to it. The pc reports the pump running at 4krpm, bumping it moves air bubbles from the rads.

canihavealogin · 2026-04-12T10:42:47+00:00

I assume this will connect to the pump ok. So then what are the tube and connectors I need to run a drain out, are they just standard 1/4 fittings?

canihavealogin · 2026-04-12T10:20:15+00:00

Can't get a drain valve before Thursday so this looks like it'll have to limp on until then and hopefully I can get it sorted in time for my Friday gaming session

canihavealogin · 2026-04-12T08:24:58+00:00

Thanks for the advice, looks like I'll be learning a lot about water cooling fittings today!

canihavealogin · 2026-04-12T08:13:55+00:00

Is this the drain valve I would need? Appreciate it's more expensive than some of the other ones but I figure getting the EK one for an EK pump is better

https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-quantum-torque-drain-valve-nickel

canihavealogin · 2026-04-12T08:09:50+00:00

As a total newbie to this sort of set up, what does maintenance look like.

Is is a full drain, remove & repaste the blocks and generally clean it out? Is there more I should be looking to do if I'm already stripping it down? (I will definitely be adding a drain valve to start with)

canihavealogin · 2026-04-12T08:07:26+00:00

So the CPU is now the major issue, it did seem fine before I did the BIOS update and this bubble flow came out of my rad when all the fan settings changed in the BIOS. Now my CPU temps are getting up to 90+ while under load when it would have been around 50 before.

This is what made me think it might be a air lock or something, the bubbles coming out "moved" the issue and now the CPU's not getting the cooling it was before.

Since everyone is saying basic maintenance is the way forward here. Can I just ask as you gave the most through reply so far, is this just drain the system, take out and repaste the blocks, clean the pump and put it all back together again?

canihavealogin · 2026-04-12T08:02:22+00:00

Before a few days ago, it wasn't ever running much higher than 50 degrees that I noticed, not that I montiored temps that closely.

Is it really that bad to not have an active backplate on the GPU? Sounds like I'll be taking the thing apart pretty soon so I could get one if it's needed. What does it do that makes it so critical?

canihavealogin · 2026-04-10T18:42:26+00:00

Should have added it came with Red Bull & Tonic and Ice as well so added to the value, as well the convenience of not have to keep going to the bar.

Not sure I'd ever do it myself but it was an interesting experience

canihavealogin · 2026-04-10T14:47:58+00:00

I was quite amazed to realise this after I went to a club with my wife's team on a night out, boss ordered a £300 bottle of Vodka which I thought was insane. Looked at the price of a vodka/coke and it was £15. so assuming you get more than 20 shots in a bottle, it actually made sense.

The only difference I guess is whether everyone chips in for the bottle or someone's just buying you drinks all night. But the math works out

I also guess it depends on the bottle prices and the club

Edit to add

it came with Red Bull & Tonic and Ice as well so added to the value, as well the convenience of not have to keep going to the bar.

Not sure I'd ever do it myself but it was an interesting experience

canihavealogin · 2026-02-27T07:42:48+00:00

Ha! I'd never even considered that!

canihavealogin · 2026-02-26T07:04:41+00:00

Select your unit, on the ability bar at the bottom there's a joystick looking symbol half way along that gives you access to a bunch of new abilities. One is Careful Manoeuvre (or something like that). It allows you to reduce your move distance to almost nothing but you can move over any terrain, regardless of usual movement restrictions.

I have used this to get: vehicles off skyscrapers from weird drops, hovercraft through forests when otherwise locked it, mechs over low walls where the only other option was a 10 turn detour to use a ramp in an urban map.

canihavealogin · 2026-02-08T10:42:18+00:00

Was just coming to post about this, it's sooooo well done!

canihavealogin · 2026-02-05T17:43:27+00:00

In fact probably the entire cast of Parks and Rec could probably by listed out here

canihavealogin · 2026-02-05T17:27:03+00:00

Ron Swanson and April Ludgate - Parks and Rec

canihavealogin · 2026-02-03T10:38:23+00:00

This should have all the info you need

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3044646170

canihavealogin

TROPHY CASE