Project: Snowball - White Lian Li V3000 Plus Dual System Build

Fatpizza · 20 Apr 2023 at 04:26

Since I saw the new V3000 Plus case from Lian Li I've impatiently been waiting for the White edition to be available.
I immediately want to do a dual system build, and after jumping from build to build over the last 5 years I just wanted to do something a little extreme that I wouldn't want to touch for a couple of years at least.
As time has gone on, this has sort of snowballed (hence the project name and it's a white build anyway...).
My build will be as follows:

Main System:
CPU: i9 13900K
Motherboard Asus Z790 Apex
GPU: Asus RTX 4090 TUF
RAM: GSkill Trident Z5 RGB Silver 8000Mhz 48GB (2x24GB)
SSDs: 1x Samsung 990 Pro 1tB (OS), 1x WD Black SN850X 2TB (Games), 2x Samsung 980 Pro 1TB(Drives from Previous Builds), 2x Team Group T-FORCE Delta Max White RGB 1TB (Aesthetics)

ITX System:
CPU: i5 13600K
Motherboard: MSI 790i Edge Wifi
GPU: Asus RTX 4080 TUF
RAM: GSkill Trident Z5 RGB Silver 6400Mhz 64GB (3x32GB)
SSDs: 1x WD Black SN850X 1TB(OS), 1x WD Black SN850X 2TB, 2x Team Group T-FORCE Delta Max White RGB 1TB (Aesthetics)

I will be powering these with a Phanteks RevoltX 1200W Platinum Dual System PSU, and then a jumper cable to a second Phanteks Revolt SFX 750 Platinum PSU to actually power the hardware for the ITX System. This enables me to run my Aquacomputer Octo from the main PSU, and my fans/pumps etc. will run regardless of which system is powered on.

The T-Force Delta 2.5" SSD's are pretty much only there because the back side of the case is also tempered glass so I thought it'd look great having the RGB SSDs there.

I chose the 4080 and 4090 TUF GPUs because they use the same Phanteks G40 waterblocks, which greatly simplifies the water cooling loop as I will have both of them using the vertical GPU mount in the main chamber of the chassis. This frees up the room to use a full 480 radiator in the bottom.

I plan on cooling this with the recently released EK FPT Loop fans, and using the Quantum Surface radiators from EK. One 480 for the bottom chamber, one X-Flow 420 for the front and one X-Flow 360 for the top.

I'll be running dual DDC FLT reservoirs, an FLT360 on the side panel and an FLT120 on the rear fan mount.

Looking forwards to starting off this behemoth this weekend...

clone · 20 Apr 2023 at 08:33

White builds are always great to see

qbhatti · 20 Apr 2023 at 14:34

wow thats a lot of hardware!

Fatpizza · 22 Apr 2023 at 14:26

qbhatti said:
wow thats a lot of hardware!

My wallet is very aware of this...

Anyways now that I have the case I've done all my measurements and had to adjust a few plans, plus watercooling the ITX second system's CPU whilst also using the vertical GPU bracket doesn't leave much space for the fittings from the CPU block.

And this is with low profile fittings.

I'd also always planned on fitting some white cast acrylic panels for pass through fittings etc. and to make things look clean and I've cut those today. I do not like permanently modifying cases, so working out how to mount the acrylic panels took a little while but I think I've done a decent job. Working out how to screw them in took a little while but it's all done now. I still have holes to cut etc. so I haven't removed the paper covering on the acrylic but I've done a test fit and they fit as I'd hoped.

My plan for cooling the CPU block on the ITX board is to run use passthrough fittings to the rear section, and then use soft tubing to passthrough fittings on acrylic panel in main chamber.

Fatpizza · 8 May 2023 at 16:25

Some seemingly random pics showing the acrylic panels I've made and how they fit into the build. Plus a photo of the bottom chamber and how some of the plumbing works.

Here's the acrylic panel for the main chamber, the port on the left will go to the GPUs once the main motherboard tray is installed.

This is a panel I cut that screws into the HDD brackets in the bottom chamber. I'll put my fan and RGB controllers on here.

Here's with the fittings connecting two radiators done, with some drain valves installed. Turned out great I think.

And here's the front of the acrylic panel which screws onto the back of the removable motherboard tray. The two ports at the bottom are where the cpu block on the ITX system run through. The cutout at the bottom is for the EPS cable from the ITX system.

And finally...

Here's the back of that panel, which will be visible through the tempered glass on the 'back' side of the case. The ports of the bottom of the small alphacool distro block will run soft tube to ports in the bottom chamber.

I'm getting a couple of things powder coated white, which are stopping me from putting the motherboard tray back in, so I can't finish off the actual loop yet. Plus I'm waiting on some random cables and my cablemod custom cables. I've never made custom acrylic panels before so considering I did them using nothing but saws, dremels and a normal drill I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.

Fatpizza · 9 May 2023 at 17:39

Received my custom length left angle riser cable from LinkUP for the itx system today so I did a test fit. Probably could've had the riser be 1-2cm shorter but overall it's perfectly fine.

Also made sure to connect up the cpu block for the ITX system, and it's certainly a tight fit but it works.

There's actually about a 2mm gap even though it looks a bit tighter in the pic.

Fatpizza · 6 Jul 2023 at 08:34

Sorry for lack of updates. I pretty much finished everything and everything is running great (the 8000mhz ram runs at 72c under stress conditions though...

). But I've had some faulty RGB strips in the GPU blocks etc. and am waiting on replacements from Phanteks. Until I make it look as good as possible I didn't want to take final pics.
I have switched out the EK fans for Lian Li Infinity fans, as they recently released their 140s and they look soooooooooo much better than the EK fans. To be honest the EK fans are actually quite ugly.

Akagi · 28 Jul 2023 at 20:22

Following for final pics. Hop to it!

Fatpizza · 29 Jul 2023 at 04:36

Acme said:
Following for final pics. Hop to it!

Haha, it's been a journey. I've hit a few roadblocks over the last month or so. Had some faulty RGP strips in my Phanteks G40 4090 Waterblock which I had to get a replacement sent out. Then due to circumstances I had to use my Apex motherboard for a friends build. Then I'd noticed that the AsRock Z690 Aqua has been discounted to oblivion on Newegg so I couldn't resist ordering one to use in this build. Will get here monday and I've taken next friday off work so I have a long weekend to hopefully get it all sorted.
In the small amount of time I had everything running the RAM temperatures for both builds were insanely high, as in both of them sitting at 73 degrees under prolonged heavy load due to lack of airflow in those sections of the case.
Ordered some Fractal 50mmx10mm fans to mount under the Vertical GPU mount over the RAM sticks on the ITX board. Also have to replace the Pump/Res combo up the top with an exhaust fan in order to manage the RAM temps for the main system. So I'll only be able to run with one pump, which should still be fine.

At least I know my Revolt X PSU with a jumper to a second SFX PSU setup works perfectly fine, so that no matter which system is booted the Aquacomputer OCTO controller has power to run the fans/rgb etc.

Overall I think in the end these will all result in both improved aesthetics and function. So I'm excited to start work on it again next week.

Fatpizza · 29 Jul 2023 at 11:24

Oh, I switched out the fans for Lian Li Infinity Fans, the EK ones actually looked quite ugly in my opinion.

Jupiter · 1 Aug 2023 at 21:03

Awesome build so far. Impressed with the patience required to wait on all-white parts to come in stock.

Fatpizza · 3 Aug 2023 at 04:17

Small update, I installed the 50mm fans under the vertical GPU mount last night and it worked out perfectly. The mounting holes for the 50mm fans perfectly lined up with the ventilation slits on the mount. I know there's quite a bit of restriction there and I'll run them with a Noctua low noise adapter, but it shouldn't need that much airflow to keep the RAM temps at a more managable level.

PS. Yes I did switch out the RAM, as the TeamGroup kit is a 48GB (2x24) 7200Mhz kit rather than the 64GB (2x32) 5600 kit I had previously.

Fatpizza · 10 Sep 2023 at 16:12

We're finally done...
Enjoy.

First, here's pics of the front side.

Fatpizza · 10 Sep 2023 at 16:14

A couple of the back...

Fatpizza · 10 Sep 2023 at 16:19

And finally, the 'ugly' part. All the cables etc. in the bottom chamber.

Plus as a little extra, I wired both of the USB outputs of the Aquacomputer devices (the OCTO and the Farbwerk360) to a USB 'Output' slot, so I can plug them into either PC or even my laptop. Since they run in hardware I don't need them connected to a PC whilst I'm not configuring them.

Fatpizza · 10 Sep 2023 at 16:25

Oh, and if anyone's curious I made both my desk and the cabinet the PC sits on out of heavily modified IKEA kitchen furniture.

Akagi · 10 Sep 2023 at 17:20

Looks awesome! What is the use-case for this dual system setup?

Monkey Puzzle · 10 Sep 2023 at 20:08

Gorgeous build, really nice and clean! That ikea furniture goes great with it as well. What's with the black chair though?

Fatpizza · 11 Sep 2023 at 10:46

Monkey Puzzle said:
Gorgeous build, really nice and clean! That ikea furniture goes great with it as well. What's with the black chair though?

Haha, technically that chair was the 'white/black’ model. It's pretty old though, so a new chair is definitely on the agenda.

Fatpizza · 11 Sep 2023 at 10:52

Acme said:
Looks awesome! What is the use-case for this dual system setup?

To be perfectly honest it's because I could and I've always wanted to try building a dual system.
The way I will use it though, is that I do a lot of video rendering/encoding, which for the best quality is CPU intensive. And I wanted to still be able to game whilst doing it.
I didn't want either system to be a bottleneck, so I went down the rabbit hole of making both systems a beast...
The way the two vertical GPUs are utilised in the loop was sort of the basis for the build and the reason I set it up the way I did.