EK Quantum Kinetic FLT Evolv'd

[0121danwilliams84]

Hey @Jay85

I got some more Alphacool Quick Disconnects.

The same as yours again. They were the best available when I searched, so I thought I'd give them another try!

I noticed they drip a small amount when disconnecting, which I expected.

One of the connections dripped when I connected them back together though. It was a fair amount but I dried it up and it has not leaked since then.

The pump wasn't running and I was pretty careful.

Is that what yours are like?

I am worried about using them. But the PC is currently running with no water currently under the paper towels by the QD's!

Let me know what you think.

Thanks, Dan.

 

[Jay85]

Hey @Jay85

I got some more Alphacool Quick Disconnects.

The same as yours again. They were the best available when I searched, so I thought I'd give them another try!

I noticed they drip a small amount when disconnecting, which I expected.

One of the connections dripped when I connected them back together though. It was a fair amount but I dried it up and it has not leaked since then.

The pump wasn't running and I was pretty careful.

Is that what yours are like?

I am worried about using them. But the PC is currently running with no water currently under the paper towels by the QD's!

Let me know what you think.

Thanks, Dan.

I'm gonna be honest, mine never dripped when reconnecting them. I align them up and push them together thoroughly and hard and there are no leaks coming from the fitting. If you misalign it, it will squirt out especially if there's pressure in the system. Once they're connected though they are solid and i have never ever had a leak or any issues with them, infact best investment watercooling wise as its saved me so much time draining the system.

I think you'll be okay, if you're worried, disconnect and reconnect again and see if it still leaks when you reconnect it. The drip when you disconnect them is normal though.

 

[0121danwilliams84]

I'm gonna be honest, mine never dripped when reconnecting them. I align them up and push them together thoroughly and hard and there are no leaks coming from the fitting. If you misalign it, it will squirt out especially if there's pressure in the system. Once they're connected though they are solid and i have never ever had a leak or any issues with them, infact best investment watercooling wise as its saved me so much time draining the system.

I think you'll be okay, if you're worried, disconnect and reconnect again and see if it still leaks when you reconnect it. The drip when you disconnect them is normal though.

Thanks a lot for the info.

I thought it was a good idea to ask someone who actually uses them.

Yes, hopefully I should be OK.

The QD looks correctly lined up and I pushed them together pretty firmly and quickly.

Perhaps a little fluid came out when the connection reopened when I pushed together before it was completely sealed again.

Maybe there was pressure in the system as I am still bleeding the air out after replacing fluid. Perhaps I should have waited a while.

Fingers crossed it stays secure!

Thanks for the help.

 

[Jay85]

Thanks a lot for the info.

I thought it was a good idea to ask someone who actually uses them.

Yes, hopefully I should be OK.

The QD looks correctly lined up and I pushed them together pretty firmly and quickly.

Perhaps a little fluid came out when the connection reopened when I pushed together before it was completely sealed again.

Maybe there was pressure in the system as I am still bleeding the air out after replacing fluid. Perhaps I should have waited a while.

Fingers crossed it stays secure!

Thanks for the help.

You're welcome mate, if you have any issues give me a shout im sure i can help on this end having the same parts and all. Once they're connected though they are solid, theres no way you can physically pull them apart without releasing the locking ring.

 

[0121danwilliams84]

You're welcome mate, if you have any issues give me a shout im sure i can help on this end having the same parts and all. Once they're connected though they are solid, theres no way you can physically pull them apart without releasing the locking ring.

Will do thanks.

A day later and there has been no more leakage from the QD. Must have been pressure issue or slightly misaligned as you said. I lined them up a bit straighter by moving the locking mechanism without detaching the QD completely. Looks pretty flush to me.

I'm going to leave it as it is and should hopefully stay OK.

I noticed the flow rate has dropped significantly. Almost half that without the QD!

Temps are amazing though now, so hopefully still enough flow.

I finally reseated my GPU after reading high hot spot temps.

I'm now running in the low 40s after 6 months! Oh well. I am still learning.

 

[Jay85]

Will do thanks.

A day later and there has been no more leakage from the QD. Must have been pressure issue or slightly misaligned as you said. I lined them up a bit straighter by moving the locking mechanism without detaching the QD completely. Looks pretty flush to me.

I'm going to leave it as it is and should hopefully stay OK.

I noticed the flow rate has dropped significantly. Almost half that without the QD!

Temps are amazing though now, so hopefully still enough flow.

I finally reseated my GPU after reading high hot spot temps.

I'm now running in the low 40s after 6 months! Oh well. I am still learning.

Yes QD's are pretty big restrictions, they hammered my flow rate by around a 1/4 making me run the pumps a little harder than usual, wasn't quite half though.

Was you seeing your temps through hwinfo? What were your memory junction temps and hot spot temps?

 

[0121danwilliams84]

Yes QD's are pretty big restrictions, they hammered my flow rate by around a 1/4 making me run the pumps a little harder than usual, wasn't quite half though.

Was you seeing your temps through hwinfo? What were your memory junction temps and hot spot temps?

To be fair, I did put a few more angled fittings in and make a few other changes, so it's not identical.

I now have a total of 11 angled fittings (90s and 45s) ! I only started out with a few at first.

It just worked out that I ended up needing to use them as nothing else seemed to work, how I had the loop set up.

Yes, hwinfo.

Previously: gaming temps were mid to high 50's with hot spot temps in the mid 80's. Memory junction was usually in the mid to high 70's.

Now: gaming temps in the low to mid 40's with hotspot of around 60. Memory Junction seems the same as above so far.

I have only run a few games and Heaven benchmark.

The results seem to point to a much more reliable gpu mount. I read 10-15C higher than core is expected.

When I looked at the thermal paste, it seemed to all get pushed away from the die and missed the middle.

I presume I haven't really done any damage running higher gpu temps. Those hot spot temps are around what the card runs with the stock cooler from what I read.

 

[Jay85]

To be fair, I did put a few more angled fittings in and make a few other changes, so it's not identical.

I now have a total of 11 angled fittings (90s and 45s) ! I only started out with a few at first.

It just worked out that I ended up needing to use them as nothing else seemed to work, how I had the loop set up.

Yes, hwinfo.

Previously: gaming temps were mid to high 50's with hot spot temps in the mid 80's. Memory junction was usually in the mid to high 70's.

Now: gaming temps in the low to mid 40's with hotspot of around 60. Memory Junction seems the same as above so far.

I have only run a few games and Heaven benchmark.

The results seem to point to a much more reliable gpu mount. I read 10-15C higher than core is expected.

When I looked at the thermal paste, it seemed to all get pushed away from the die and missed the middle.

I presume I haven't really done any damage running higher gpu temps. Those hot spot temps are around what the card runs with the stock cooler from what I read.

yeah thats normal haha unless you're confident with doing multi bends in hardline. I've removed a lot of angled fittings on mine purely because it looked messy but the number of turns hasn't really changed so my flow rate is more or less the same.

Seems that way, if theres no contact in the middle i would question whether the surface of the block is flat as well.

The temps before were well within spec still anyway, you're miles off from high temps. I've seen guys running mining 24/7 with much higher temps so you'll be fine.

 

[Jay85]

@0121danwilliams84 Are you near your rig at the moment?

Can you do me a favour and measure the width of your QD fitting please? Need to buy a hole saw but im at work at the moment and can't remember for the life of me the width of the widest part of the QD fittings.

 

[0121danwilliams84]

@0121danwilliams84 Are you near your rig at the moment?

Can you do me a favour and measure the width of your QD fitting please? Need to buy a hole saw but im at work at the moment and can't remember for the life of me the width of the widest part of the QD fittings.

Hi Jay. What are you using the saw for?

The QD is right against the wall behind the PC, so not that easy to measure!

I got a ruler in there and it looks about 2mm to me as a rough estimate.

Dan.

 

[Jay85]

Hi Jay. What are you using the saw for?

The QD is right against the wall behind the PC, so not that easy to measure!

I got a ruler in there and it looks about 2mm to me as a rough estimate.

Dan.

I'm downsizing, mini itx incoming! However i want to maintain the external rad support so will need to make some modifications to the case using pass throughs and QD's again. Will attempt a dual loop in a mini itx form factor... should be fun lol.

20mm you mean?

 

[0121danwilliams84]

I'm downsizing, mini itx incoming! However i want to maintain the external rad support so will need to make some modifications to the case using pass throughs and QD's again. Will attempt a dual loop in a mini itx form factor... should be fun lol.

20mm you mean?

Sorry I did mean 20mm

That sounds cool. Lian Li O11 mini?

Sure it will be great whatever it is. Look forward to seeing the results!

You can't resist the itch to change things like me.

I played RDR2 today and got into the low 50c on gpu core for the first time, with the high ambient temps.

Water temp was 41c after 2 hours!

 

[Jay85]

Sorry I did mean 20mm

That sounds cool. Lian Li O11 mini?

Sure it will be great whatever it is. Look forward to seeing the results!

You can't resist the itch to change things like me.

I played RDR2 today and got into the low 50c on gpu core for the first time, with the high ambient temps.

Water temp was 41c after 2 hours!

Haha yeah i can't the itch overwhelms me and i have to tinker. No not the Mini O11, im going for something a little older, the Phanteks Evolv Shift X. Always wanted to build in one and i think if i don't scratch this now i'll never get round to it.


Same! I was seeing high 52c on the core and nearly 72c on the vrm with heatsinks and fans on it. This heat is driving temps right up there.

 

[0121danwilliams84]

Haha yeah i can't the itch overwhelms me and i have to tinker. No not the Mini O11, im going for something a little older, the Phanteks Evolv Shift X. Always wanted to build in one and i think if i don't scratch this now i'll never get round to it.


Same! I was seeing high 52c on the core and nearly 72c on the vrm with heatsinks and fans on it. This heat is driving temps right up there.

Nice.

I had the Phanteks Enthoo Evolve ATX original case.

They are good quality cases.

I want to build in a bigger case one day with room for massive radiators.

I will try and stay with the current set up as long as possible though.

When new tech comes out I always get the itch.

It's a big effort doing a water cooled build.

 

[Jay85]

Nice.

I had the Phanteks Enthoo Evolve ATX original case.

They are good quality cases.

I want to build in a bigger case one day with room for massive radiators.

I will try and stay with the current set up as long as possible though.

When new tech comes out I always get the itch.

It's a big effort doing a water cooled build.

Think my next venture after this into bigger cases will be in the O11 Evo if and when it gets released. No sign of it yet so im gonna concentrate on this one for the time being.

Yup... hardline redoing all over again... Do enjoy it when it goes right. Proper ball ache when it goes **** up.


New parts list is as follows so far:

Phanteks Evolv Shift X (Gun metal) - Used

Gigabyte Aorus Pro ITX Z390 - Used

Corsair SF750 Platinum SFX PSU - New

Couple of EK Pass throughs to link up with external radiators, will follow the previous theme of externally mounting.

CPU cooling capacity might be slightly reduced but i'll be downclocking from 5.1 to 5.0ghz requiring a lot less voltage to run so hopefully will offset the temp increase.


Running the passthrough will be the most challenging part, finding the right area and making it look clean. The case in enclosed on all 4 sides, 2 by glass panels so thats a no go and the only other option is the rear aluminium panel.

Will attempt a dual loop but with such little space i highly doubt it will be possible and may resort back to tube reservoirs which i have plenty of, its just a matter of finding one that fits neatly.

 

[Alan McFall]

Wicked build

 

[Jay85]

Wicked build

Thanks mate


First of the bits i've ordered have arrived, PSU to start!

This thing is tiny but reeks quality, wasn't expecting braided cables to come as standard but damn thats a nice bonus!

Just hoping the cables will be long enough to reach the 24pin and EPS 8pin on the motherboard. Not so worried about the gpu as its relatively close.

Waiting on the board and case to arrive yet.


Brackets have arrived to mount the dual res and pump and tubing as well. Still planning and measuring to see if it will fit but i think with some tweaking it will fit just fine.


Biggest challenge as previously mentioned is finding a clean exit for the pass through for external rads.

 

[Jay85]

First of the updates tonight, prepping the case, giving it a good clean as the previous owner left it quite dusty prior to posting it but no biggie. Some compressed air, wet wipes and a micro fibre and its good as new!

Unfortunately some of the SSD sleds are missing so i will have to improvise for now until the seller can find the others. Contacted Phanteks as well just incase they still stock these somewhere in a warehouse, fingers crossed!


Tasks for tonight:

• Clean and prep case
• Test fit Radiator and psu
• Measure room for Dual 120 FLT's
• Drill out holes for pass through on both internal frame and external panel

Not to my surprise, i can't fit the FLT's without mounting the fans externally which means slim 15mm 120mm fans or a custom front panel with standoffs to be able to fit 120x25mm fans outside of the case. Ordered the front panel with standoffs, hopefully be here soonish but will use slim fans in the time being.


My drilling skills were abit off tonight , the front panel needs some work and a good tidy up but works as intended for now. The pass through was a nice fit, no issues there.


Onto some pics:

Tomorrow's work includes:

• Stripping current system
• Testing the ITX board and make sure it will post
• Assemble the hardware and plan tube runs.

 

[Jay85]

BIG UPDATE!

Finally completed the internal build so it actually runs, tested and setup! Initial testing was a nightmare due to not detecting hard drives, the warehouse deal was a flop... it was returned for good reason! On inspection i noticed a few bent pins and a missing pin! No wonder it was playing up. The second board which was the same Z390 Aorus Pro Wifi ITX, was perfect and from a decent seller. Thankfully it arrived safely despite it being sent by Hermes and was nearly a week late... Good ol Hermes.

Any way up and running and it detected everything on post and in Bios. As noted by the seller it has the latest Bios and was only bought as a spare so had very little use which i could tell straight away, little to no dust on the board. Managed to apply the same OC from my previous board onto this one with it being a Gigabyte board it was fairly straight forward running a more modest 5.0ghz all core at 1.28v. Thinking running a 5.1ghz at 1.31v maybe abit too much for this chassis especially while only cooling the CPU with a 240 30mm thick radiator. I'll do further testing to see if i can push it but i think a 5.0ghz at a lower voltage is a safer option to keep temps down.

Other snags included not being able to fit the GPU in the orientation i wanted which may actually have been for the better... I would have needed extremely short 90 degree fittings to stop the fitting from contacting the glass. With the gpu orientated to the backplate is facing outwards i could just about manage to fit some slim 90 degree fittings despite the fitting still contacting the glass at least i could still slide the panel on. May need some even shorter fittings which OCUK sell for future improvements or if i take the system apart again i'll make the changes but for now its acceptable.


After 4 days of a gruelling build, twisting and pushing working in this confined space i finally managed to get it how i wanted it. Fingers are sore, very sore but well worth it! Cable management was the hardest part, having had to redo it several times due to forgetting to install some components i needed. The case would have been even more perfect if it had a few more cable management holes at the bottom and sides. It definitely needs a few more cable tie down points in particular around the edges to hold things in place although with some tension it works perfectly fine though not ideal.

Fitting the PSU was fun, getting psu in there while ensuring there's enough room for the reservoirs was the trickiest part... literally not a mm spare! I have some proper brackets coming which should help me pull the reservoir further in towards the radiator and give me that needed space to fit the 3D printed psu cover made by a good friend of mine @RexAlba . The 24pin and 8pin EPS were nowhere near long enough to reach, the 8pin EPS i decided to use an extension but the 24pin extension is way too bulky so in the end i resorted to routing it through the centre of the case and using straps to keep it neat and tidy, giving it a cyberpunky muscle fibre effect.


Onto some pics with a brief description:


Mocking up the Radiator and Reservoir fitment.

PSU fitment, pushed right up against the res. It slots in perfectly, with some slight adjustment to the res bracket was is adjustable.

Installation of the board and block with some work starting on the cable management.

GPU installed but you'll see later i rotated it so the backplate faces outward. There was no way of fitting it this way without the fittings interfering with the glass side panel. Shame really but in retrospect it worked out better this way as i forgot how hot the backplate gets!

Finishing up the cable management, front and back looks tidy despite the lack of space.

Installing the first bit of tubing, this was a troublesome bend! Had to wing it and due it by hand to get the desired angle.

"Easy Bends"

GPU side Tubing.

Resorted to using some soft tubing for this bend from the back of the gpu to the passthrough. Way too many turns and bends needed to get it in there, would have been a nightmare. Made things a little easier for myself with some satin black soft tubing.

COMPLETED! TEARS OF JOY!

Next to do:

• Front panel is on the way with the 3D printed risers to fit over the full size 25mm fans. It's also Machined at the front to allow for better airflow.
• Powdercoat or plastidip the front and back panels to match the theme, thinking a strong Yellow will do the job but undecided on paint or plastidip yet.
• Couple of custom decals to match the theme. Have some spare from the last build as well.
• Install the PSU cover and tidy up cables a little bit more internally.
• 3D printed Magnet cover, the stock one is abit scratched from the previous owner.

 

[Alan McFall]

Tidy job so far, going to look excellent finished !