Return to the Fold.

[Matutu]

Well its time to return!

My last PC building was circa 2005 when World of Warcraft was my go to game. The rig was a watercooled system using Radeon Crossfire which had only just came out and was still having a lot of teething issues. However it increased the E-Peen!

Fast forward until 2010 I quit Wow, I had no time on my hands and work ruled. I dabbled in some Xbox and PS gaming, however nothing major.

Now in 2021 I run my own company therefore a lot of stress and I find if I don't have some sort of side project, I get overwhelmed, so I thought after watching a few Youtube Videos, why not build another PC.

So jumping right in and 3 weeks later this lot arrived.....



Needless to say having never done hardline this will be abit of a challenge but I wanted something to keep me busy.

First issue was that I wanted to keep the theme of white/grey/dash of blue from the custom cables from Cablemod (due soon). The GFX was all black the backplate and all, really upset me, I thought I could ignore but I couldnt. So this opened a can a worms....




Removing the backplate I found this to my horror, there was no thermal pads but this awful putty stuff, which had worked its way into every nock and cranny of the circuits. The front was all normal pads so nice and east. The rear took 3 hours of tooth picks, isopropyl alcohol and a lot of patience, however was pleased how it finally came out.




This then allowed me to spray the parts white and the backplate im happy with, the front block is being re-done as it wasn't as nice as I wanted.


So overall not bad, dabbled abit with tube bending, however the major problem I have is from the front Rad down to the pump return, its to far for a 90 elbow but not far enough for a radius turn.... FFS. Therefore something needs to be done here, unsure what yet.


Will try and keep this updated.

 

[Jay85]

Nice this is gonna be a serious build! Lots of top end hardware there!

Watercooling gets expensive really fast even if you plan it well. There's always something extra you need or something you add in just because... You don't need a reason to do it, just because you can lol.

 

[Matutu]

I keep ordering new fittings all the time, they certainly add up! I find also the fitment of the 14mm into the sockets extremely tight, even with deburring.

Pleased with how this came out after all really.


Going to re-build later today.

 

[Jay85]

I keep ordering new fittings all the time, they certainly add up! I find also the fitment of the 14mm into the sockets extremely tight, even with deburring.

Pleased with how this came out after all really.


Going to re-build later today.

Dont force or jam them in, you have to lube either oring or the tubing before inserting or you'll tear the oring inside and it'll get stuck in your pump, blocks etc.

Just abit of soapy water around the tubing usually does the trick.

 

[Matutu]

Really pleased with how the graphics card came out.

Now working on some tubing, im thinking of a pass through in the base just because I love self torture it seems!

CPU pipework, im happy with the intake, however the outlet unsure, something just seems off, maybe a few degrees on the mid turn? Unsure. So hard turning when you have to guestimate etc.

 

[D1craig]

I've never liked hard lines builds but the frosted tubes are making them grow on me, they look amazing.

 

[Defy Belief]

Frosted tubes look ace!

 

[Matutu]

Okay some more work done today. God hardline is frustrating, I now have a box called the tube grave.....

Pretty happy with things currently, I ended up doing a pass through as a feature which I'm really pleased with, think it will look quite cool.






Majorly not happy with this though...


Cant think of any other way of doing it, if I try and throw it out into the case then dog leg back on itself, its to tight radius bends which looks like a curve and im going to right angles......

 

[LePhuronn]

Cant think of any other way of doing it

A few suggestions then

The simplest one is to have the radiator to res top a single 45 degree angle rather than a pair of 90s. Will look much tidier.

Alternatively, rethink the entire pump/res assembly. In its current position, have that first bend from the outlet 45 degrees (or even 60) down so your tube can clear the inlet port. That will give you a nice and clean vertical run from the front rad to the pump inlet. An alternative would be to have the pump outlet drop down vertically, rather than looping around, and just have the tube pass through the PSY shroud via a rubber grommet, rather than a bulkhead fitting. That's a good 20mm saved right there to accommodate the bend. Or don't bend and use a 90 degree adapter on that bulkhead fitting too.

Or mount the pump/res combo to the front rad, not the side bank of fans. That way it's an easy run from the radiator into the res, and the pump out can be routed similarly to what I said above. Hell, you could even drop the pump all the way to the floor then so the pump out connects directly to the PSU shroud bulkhead with a tiny horizontal tube, or even some extension fittings. Aesthetically you might need a much taller res though to fill the space in the case.

Personally, I wouldn't even use what you bought. Moving aside my utter disdain for Corsair's pump/res combos, I wouldn't use a pump/res combo at all here. I'd be inclined to get a massive tall multi port tube res and mount that to the front radiator. The radiator out can then drop easily into the top of the res, and any of the underside ports in the res can then line up and feed your bulkhead fitting on the PSU shroud. Then run the pump separately placed inside the PSU shroud out of the way. You can also use soft tubing then inside the PSU shroud to connect up the various ports and bulkheads.

It's also a shame the terminal block cover on that GPU is so ridiculously large because I'd also be inclined to have the CPU and GPU in parallel flow and then route the GPU out in a nice sweeping 90 degree up into the top rad (although you could still achieve that with a snake fitting on the radiator port to give it sufficient offset to get the tube up).

 

[Matutu]

Thanks dude.
Did consider changing the pump etc. However want to keep to this for now as I know I’ll be most likely changing the motherboard etc soon. So I’ll change it then

Think I’m going to try and throw it out into the case and then back around and see how it looks.
So far I keep making pipes which fit. Then changing my mind as my OCD kicks in and it’s 2mm out lol

 

[Mcthommo]

Majorly not happy with this though...


Cant think of any other way of doing it, if I try and throw it out into the case then dog leg back on itself, its to tight radius bends which looks like a curve and im going to right angles......

I had a similar issue and tried a few ways but what to me looked the best was a 90 degree fitting from the res top and a single 90 degress bend in pipe- will post pics when I get to office

 

[Matutu]

I had a similar issue and tried a few ways but what to me looked the best was a 90 degree fitting from the res top and a single 90 degress bend in pipe- will post pics when I get to office

Cheers dude

 

[Matutu]

Well I have spent the last few days having the odd 30minutes here and there between work, mainly I have been making a section, finishing the section. The realising my OCD couldnt stand that the spirit bubble in the level was ever so slightly off and then remaking said bit.....

Result..........


However finally I am happy with the loop, for the return I ended up going with the option to throw it out into the system, I did this as I think it goes well with the left hand side and adds abit of symmetry to the system. Everything is spot on level and lined up.




Then I did a pressure test tonight.... over 30mins it lost 0.1bar...... FFS So its now going to be a long task of trying to track down the issue.

 

[LePhuronn]

losing almost 1.5 PSI over half an hour is going to be a loose fitting or ill-seated tube. But it might just be quicker to actually fill the loop up and see where the water leaks from. PSU jump starter costs peanuts if you don't want to do the old fashioned paperclip trick.

 

[Jay85]

losing almost 1.5 PSI over half an hour is going to be a loose fitting or ill-seated tube. But it might just be quicker to actually fill the loop up and see where the water leaks from. PSU jump starter costs peanuts if you don't want to do the old fashioned paperclip trick.

Do it the old fashioned way and stick a paperclip in, been doing this for the past 10 years lol.

 

[LePhuronn]

Do it the old fashioned way and stick a paperclip in, been doing this for the past 10 years lol.

I personally like to pulse my pumps with a momentary switch before switching on fully, so made my own jump starter

 

[Matutu]

Well after 2 hours of checking every O ring, using soapy water etc etc I found nothing..... Couldnt understand it.

Then I thought I would do a test, I just plug'd the end of the test regulator and tiny bit of pressure and low and behold, it start to drop.

Submerging the whole unit in water showed a pin leak on the regulator connection. Getting all my tools out, cracking the item open and abit of PTFE tape etc, all perfect.

Tested this morning for 2 hours and not a single PSI drop

Pleased however would prefer EK's QC be abit better!

Now to test boot the system and then wire control, considering there is 11 fans, pumps and RGB's, 2 ICUE controllers, there is a lot!

 

[Matutu]

Well that was a panic!

Test boot, plugged in all cables, including the some of the custom ones for ease. Pressed power.... red light VGA error, no display no boot.

Oh FUC*, the GFX card is the item I had to scrubbed and scrapped all that crappy paste off, needless to say I was immediately filled with dread! I checked everything same issue, I then got my current PC ripped the 8 year old GFX card out and tried that.... booted first time.

I was already on the XFX website looking at returns, however as I had already taken the card apart to paint, I was unsure if I could even pay for a repair! or if they would just say buy another.

Was just about to sign up when in the corner of my eye I noticed the BIOS selector switch was in the middle...... switched it to the left and plugged all back in and it WORKED! Thank the lord, literally have had beads of sweat dripping from my brow.

So all now unplugged and now comes the fun cable management side.

Think I am going to flush the system before filling just to ensure all trace debris is gone, have gone for EK solid.

 

[Matutu]

Well looking good so far, leak tested etc. Cable management however, just send help lol.

Front all wired up.

However rear..... So many that I need to spread them to allow the door to close.

 

[mingey]

Looking good, learn to love those cables