Custom RED Infinity Quasar System!

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9 Nov 2011
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Stoke-on-Trent
Hi guys!

I'm Tom, I'm one of the technicians at OcUK, and I'm here to let you into some of the goings on inside OcUK.

I'm going to start off by doing some quick build logs of our Infinity Systems and then some 8pack systems as we sell more of those.

And who knows, I might even be able to leak some teasers of new, upcoming builds that we have planned for the future! ;)

I'll be writing little tips and tricks that I used while building watercooled systems throughout the build log, and I'll be happy to answer any questions regarding our systems, or just watercooling questions in general, so feel free to ask away!

Oh and before I continue, a cheeky little shameless plug for my own personal build log in the ultra sleek looking In-Win 904 chassis.

____________________________________________________________

Now that my little introduction is over, on with the build log! :D
The Infinity Quasar system is usually black and white, but as with all of our systems; they are fully customisable! So if you want to change anything, or personalise it just for you, you can do just what this customer has done and phone our sales team to make any changes you wish*!
* Obviously, we can't break the rules of physics here, but we'll try our best to help you out.


All build logs start off with a photo of all the boxes, and this one is no exception:
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For this build, the customer has chosen a 500GB SSD along with 6TB of mechanical storage.
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Don'd forget that you can customise your storage as much as you see fit with our custom systems! Make sure to contact our sales team if you have any questions regarding additional storage and RAID set ups.

Now on to the main components:
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Maximus VI Formula with a built in water block.

And the part that separates OcUK from the rest: a cherry picked 4770k that guarantees stability at 4.7GHz!!
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And of course, a small blob of thermal paste - no need to spread it.

Now with 100% more watercooling:
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Also with some HyperX BEAST memory.

Onto the graphics cards: 2x EVGA 780Ti's :cool:
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Both of these cards were tested before removing the coolers so that I wouldn't get a nasty surprise once the system was finished.
I'd always advise testing your hardware on air before removing coolers/installing waterblocks!

Speaking of removing coolers:
Warning, the following spoiler contains naked images. Viewer's digression is advised.
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And with new thermal pads and the same blob of thermal paste:
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Installing the waterblock:
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Tip: when installing the waterblock, place the block on top of the graphics card after applying the thermal paste/pads. Next, flip the card and block upside down and place it on top of the waterblock box so that the bracket is hanging off the edge and the card can lay flat.

And here's what the cards looked like all tubed up:
gvDuMF7.jpg
Tip: when watercooling multiple GPUs, lay the motherboard on top of a box and install the graphics cards into the motherboard. Measure the tubing for between the two graphics cards, and remove them from the motherboard before fitting it.
This will make things a whole lot easier, and you won't risk damaging your PCIe lanes on your motherboard.


Next we move on to the pump and reservoir, but first I need to fit the pump top.
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Always make sure you hide the cables at the back of the pump, and have any inlets/outlets you'll be using facing the right direction.
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And, of course, make sure the O-ring is installed!!

If you're not using a pump/res combo, using a male-to-male fitting is the easiest way to connect your tube res to your pump:
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Now it's time to start work on the case: the 750D
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First things first, remove anything you wont be using:
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The only modifications to the case are 2 holes to mount the pump to the HDD cages:
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Always measure twice, cut once.

Added some vibration dampening foam and it's a perfect fit:
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First thing to fit inside the case are the fans & radiators:
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Another quick tip: when installing radiators into your case, screw one corner of each fan using regular fan screws. This will hold the fans in place while you hold the radiator in place.
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It also helps to try and cable manage things as you go:
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I use zip-ties to make sure the fan cables don't come unplugged when I start the cable management.
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Speaking of cable management; if you're using extension cables, it's often much easier to attach them to the motherboard before installing the board, and threading them through any cable management grommets you may have.
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Once the board is installed, I wire it up to the case's front panel and attach any tubing before the case get's too full, making it harder to reach.
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As with the motherboard cables, it's also easier to attach the PCI cables out side of the case if you're going to cable tie them to the card.
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Here's a picture of the cards installed and tubed up:
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and the res back in place:
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Now all of the components are installed, I can finish off the tubing runs.
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Tip: always measure twice and cut once! I always cut an extra cm of tubing just in case. It's a lot easier to cut a little bit off than it is to add a bit on.

Once everything is installed, it's time for cable management!
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Not everyone's favourite thing, but it helps to get the side panel back on. :p

Now the build is ready to fill up!
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For this, I use some extra tubing and a spare fitting, along with a stop fitting so I don't spill any when rocking the case to bleed the air out of the loop:
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Fill the res up and lay down some tissue paper so that it's easier to spot any leaks.
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In case there are any leaks, I don't want to damage any of the components so I use an external PSU with a bridge on the 24pin cable to power the pump and nothing but the pump:
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And then after several fills of the reservoir, the loop is complete:
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Once the loop is filled, I leave a little extra fluid in the fill line, so that when the air bubbles bleed out of the system, the reservoir stays topped up.
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That will stay leak testing over night, ready to install, overclock, and test in the morning!
Make sure to check back tomorrow for the benchmark results and finished pictures!
 
Soldato
Joined
7 Feb 2011
Posts
6,056
Incredibly neat. Really like the pastel red liquid. What's the rationale behind the layout of the tubing by the way?

I'm not a watercooler, but I would imagine it's the shortest path to connect everything in a single loop while keeping the tubes away from the side of the case and not blocking anything.
 
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pretty nice and clean setup, good job!!!
Just the SLI bridge could look better ;)

If only they came with the cards… ;)

Incredibly neat. Really like the pastel red liquid. What's the rationale behind the layout of the tubing by the way?

JeditOjanen hit the nail on the head. I could've used less rotaries, but with the motherboard being watercooled I have to use 90s to join the CPU to the mobo. From there I wanted to keep everything the same, so used all 90 degree fittings on the board to keep a 2D loop. That pretty much goes for the rest of the loop how everything is in 2 2D planes, with the radiators linking the 2 planes.

Looks great :) Getting me excited for mine now :D
I'll keep an eye out for a build for Homer Simpson. :p
 
Soldato
Joined
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Back in the UK
Looks amazing can't wait to see how it performs, I'm seriously thinking about getting one of these ordered next time I'm due for a major upgrade.
I just don't have the time to spend doing it myself and messing with GCard coolers has always filled me with dread, and lets be totally honest its about 300% neater than my cack handed cable routing.
I wish OCUK all the success in the world with these builds, mainly so they will still be doing this in 18months time when I splash the cash on a new rig.
 
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Had some issues with the 3D mark results. It baffles me as to why you need an internet connection to view your results, but oh well.

In Valley, the average FPS was 133.9 with a score of 5601!! Min FPS 42.0 and Max FPS 234.7.

Here are some pictures of the finished build:

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Apologies for the quality - snapped them on my iPhone.
 
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Looks amazing can't wait to see how it performs, I'm seriously thinking about getting one of these ordered next time I'm due for a major upgrade.
I just don't have the time to spend doing it myself and messing with GCard coolers has always filled me with dread, and lets be totally honest its about 300% neater than my cack handed cable routing.
I wish OCUK all the success in the world with these builds, mainly so they will still be doing this in 18months time when I splash the cash on a new rig.

If this week is anything to go by, we sure will be doing this in 18 months time!

This week alone I've had another customised Infinity Quasar system - this time with a Rampage Black edition:
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2 of our extremely well priced Scimitar systems:
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Along with 2 of our extremely powerful Infinity Eclipse systems:
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And not to forget my personal favourite; the extremely aesthetic Infinity Empress system:
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And if all of that wasn't extreme enough for you, I do believe we may have sold another cheeky little Supernova.

I'll try to get out some build logs of the other systems soon-ish. Though it is quite hard to stop and take pictures of the process all the time. I may just start a gallery of finished systems to show off some of our customised rigs.
 
Soldato
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Billericay, UK
I see you went with the Raystrom CPU block, I remember when I was fitting mine and all the fun I had trying to secure to the board. You have to quite dexterous to installing that block as the sticky tape just isn't good enough to hold it in place long enough.

I like how you've mounted your reservoir/pump and used it to hide the GPU power cables.
 
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I see you went with the Raystrom CPU block, I remember when I was fitting mine and all the fun I had trying to secure to the board. You have to quite dexterous to installing that block as the sticky tape just isn't good enough to hold it in place long enough.

I like how you've mounted your reservoir/pump and used it to hide the GPU power cables.

It can be quite annoying to fit, I never use any tape either which probably doesn't help lol.
 
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Very nice!

One question though, how come you haven't rotated the zip ties on the GPU to hide the locking mechanism? Would look even better if you couldn't see them
 
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Question: I noticed you used non-reference cards and then removed the custom coolers, rationale behind that vs. reference cards with full cover waterblocks?

Those EVGA cards are reference boards, and overclock much better than other reference cards. :)

Very nice!

One question though, how come you haven't rotated the zip ties on the GPU to hide the locking mechanism? Would look even better if you couldn't see them

IIRC, I sorted that out before the system shipped. I noticed them on the pictures too.



The other Infinity build logs are going to be delayed a little bit. Here's why:

axYs9Gx.jpg

That's about half of the build.
 
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