Nearly finished my Sandy Bridge water upgrade - need advice from the experts...take a look?

hughythomas

hughythomas

hughythomas

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(Sorry for double thread - could a mod possibly delete the duplicate from "General Hardware" please as I stupidly put original thread in wrong place?)

Hi guys!

Spent this weekend upgrading my main rig to Sandy Bridge and wondered if you might wanna take a look? Any advice is welcome as I am still learning and am aspiring to put together something decent.


My main is mostly for general gaming and mastering in my recording studio. I have about 20 builds under my belt now (both air and water based) and whilst I wait for some coolant (and replacement resevoir brackets as they broke - see pics), was wondering if any of the experts on here could lend a hand in making my rig more professional looking?

I don't have a lot to spend (as the upgrade was so god damn expensive!) but the hardware is:

ASUS P8P67 Motherboard
Intel i5 2500K (Heatkiller 3.0)
8GB G.Skill Ripjaw 1600Mhz DDR3
NVIDIA GTX 580 (EK full cover)
Crucial C300 64GB SSD System disk (Sata 6GBps)
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB Data disk
M-Audio Firewire Solo audio interface
Corsair HX850
Dell Ultrasharp 24" 2407WFP
Monitor Audio BX-2 speakers
Apollo A6 speaker stands
Sony STR DH-800 home cinema receiver
Silverstone TJ07
EK 150 Res
XSPC RS360 Triple in roof of TJ07 (S-Flex fans)
Thermochilll PA120.3 in bottom compartment (Yate Loons)
M-Cubed T-Balancer Big NG
Laing DDC Ultra (XSPC top I think? Cant remember)
XSPC UV Green 7/16" - 5/8" Tubing
Sharkoon UV Lights


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High-res linked (same images):

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I'd appreciate some constructive feedback into how I might improve the build?

I am currently awaiting some coolant and replacement EK resevoir brackets (as mine broke which I'm sure you've noticed already!!). :(

Look forward to hearing from you guys

Tom

 
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I would swap a couple of pipes around, the one coming out the res and going into the top rad I would swap it on the rad to the right hand one on the top rad, also the one coming from the bottom of res looks like it would be better to go behind the one coming from the graphics card, for starters.

Next I would consider is going from CPU into top rad and then to graphics card, maybe better if the rad was the other way around in the top.

Oh and tidy them cables up lol
 
think you have done a great job hughy but if i were to change anything it would be the long tube from bottom rad up to cpu block......it looks alittle unsightly....try and re-route it so its not just fastest way from a-b....have a look at what bends are available like bitspower and even if the tube is abit longer if its routed nice it will not affect performance and be asthetically pleasing if you have a perspex window on your case...other things maybe would be plastic snap clips instead of jubilee clips or even better bitspower compression fittings but these can be expensive....one last thing i would say is tuck that ballast in for the cathodes.....all in all great spec and a great looking machine id say bar those few things
 
Thanks for the replies guys!

In regards to fittings - I actually have loads of spare compression fittings of the right size it's just that on the Heatkiller for example, there is not enough room so I opted to use 1/2 barbs which frankly don't even seem to need any clips to secure them with the 7/16 hose I am using.

As for the graphics card - I have had issues in the past with the compression fittings not being deep enough to thread properly on the EK waterblocks due to the risers which have to be employed. I'll give this a go tonight though!

I will take some more shots of her actually powered up tonight too so you guys can see what she looks like with side panel on etc.

I'm thinking I may move that blasted sharkoon UV controller as the white leads are extremely unsightly. Perhaps there is room where my Big NG is mounted (just inside the front panel at the bottom below the HDs).

Tom

P.S I have edited my original post with updated specs as I omitted hard drives and soundcard before!
 
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BTW, my graphics card seems to have bent quite a lot after installing the EK block - is this normal? I was careful not to tighten the screws too hard...
 
there can be a certain degree of bend on the graphics card with a block on it
can you over tighten the block on the card? my 5970 danger den block it was impossible to overtighten and break the card but a few years back the 8800gtx dangerden block i had i overtightened it and broke the card.....
thought all manufacturers would have sorted the overtightening issue by now......
 
hughythomas said:
Haha yer I'm starting to think that myself too...

Wait till you see it all lit up when it's powered on though!
Click to expand...

to be honest mate you would be better with a silver kill coil and some de-ionised pure water....i learned that the hard way when the die in the feser fluid i was using seperated from the liquid and started to clog up my blocks :eek:
 
Sorry - I should have been more specific in my original post.

I am in fact the victim of the Feser dye seperation clogging myself. For this build, I used Nanoxia Hyperzero ReadyFluid (Clear Protect) and there is a silver kill coil in my reservoir.

The colouration is inherent within the XSPC UV green tubing. It was a total biatch cleaning my Heatkiller out because of Feser One. Won't ever buy the stuff again.

I could really do with cleaning my Thermochill out but I really can't be bothered at this stage ha ha!

Gonna take some piccys now for you guys.

Tom
 
Still awaiting the replacement EK res brackets and some more coolant although I moved the Sharkoon light controller out of sight:

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