Build Log: Lian Li PC-O6SX

BornEvil · 29 Jun 2016 at 21:03

Small update:

Decided to ditch the MSi 1070 for a Founders Edition as the EK block is not full cover, plus too much work to fit in my case.

Don't feel like returning it as I paid £385 for it, and don't think I will get another at that price anytime soon.

Also, a heads up, the EK 1070 block is sold for just £75.95.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ek-water-blocks-ek-fc1070-gtx-nickel-plexi-wc-9ao-ek.html

That's not bad considering 1080 version is the same thing (with different engraving) is £89.99. I've got my order in

BornEvil · 30 Jun 2016 at 14:32

Update

Managed to get a few hours in before work

More holes drilled:

Did a bit of messing about:

In all honesty, it does not look bad at all, just not cool as chrome hard tube.

One pipe nearly cut. Might have screwed up one end, at least I have a fall back plan (above).

BornEvil · 1 Jul 2016 at 15:39

More shopping arrived

Decision time: Hard for soft tubing for the front?

Pros/Cons for soft tubing:

+Easier to implement
+Easier to maintain, change CPU etc.
+Much more secure/safer imh (passthrough is directly over open vented PSU :eek:

)
+Gives more balance of clear plastic around the case (tube res and GPU block)
-I loose a 'focal point' of the build

Pros/Cons for metal tubing:

+Bling Bling
+Looks clean
+Expensive and too late to return it
-Maintanance
-Chrome tube can be considered out of place, not a perfect match with the nickel CPU block

Also more shopping arrived:

Just waiting on a batch of black fittings then should be near completion

Cenedd · 1 Jul 2016 at 16:04

All those points are valid but I'd probably go chrome as long as that pipe fits or you have a replacement that's a bit longer. It looks nicer and as long as you leak-test, shouldn't have any particularly greater risk of leaking than soft tubing. You could always fashion some sort of drip-tray to cover the PSU - something that looks like a shroud or a feature rather than just a rain-hat.

If you go soft tubing, it still looks good. Maybe some coloured tube if it would help or some coloured coolant.

BornEvil · 2 Jul 2016 at 15:00

Leaning towards soft tubing now... the thing is, I seemed to have f'ed up one of my cuts with the brass, as my £4 B&Q tool keeps spiraling. And I slightly shredded the captive O-ring on one of the AC fittings.

I do already have the parts, and may tackle the brass tube later.

The amount of money i wasted on extra fittings and water cooling parts, I really could have bought a 1080 instead of a 1070. That I am quite gutted about. Oh well, excuse for daddy Pascal I guess...

Already built up with soft tube, (took 5 mins

), to see how it looks. Will post an update post in a sec.

BornEvil · 2 Jul 2016 at 15:20

Update: GPU Block fitted, test fit with soft tube

GPU stripped on day 1:

That too longer to dismantle as I can't find my 4mm Hex driver bit. Used pliers :eek:

. Typically, I find the hex bit after i am done :mad:

All done, and reference cooler package away. It's a shame, dispite it's noise, it is a very pretty cooler, has really grown on me.

And, all test fitted:

1mm gap

SLI maybe:

Back, yeah, screwed up when trying to make a hole bigger, luckily I am a evil genius and did it from the back :rolleyes:

Proposed final look:

Sorry those are the best angles I can get, without the tampered glass reflecting my naked body.

BornEvil · 4 Jul 2016 at 14:26

Tried Black fittings, not too sure about it:

Black vs Nickel

And more work done on GPU:

heh, hard tube is overrated

Sorry for mix and match fittings, I'm short of EK-AF Fittings, nowhere has stock, anyone that has MM access is welcome to help me out

Link

Cenedd · 4 Jul 2016 at 14:36

I like black fittings and have them in my build....but in yours, I think I prefer the silver. Mainly because I think it goes better with your full nickel CPU block.
I ought, therefore, to be argueing the reverse case for your GPU block...but actually I think the silver goes with the acrylic and contrasts against the delrin terminal and the black PCI-E power socket.

Soft tube is certainly more forgiving...flexible even!

If you wanted to make that less of an awkward angle, you could use a non-rotatable 90° fitting such as this Bitspower fitting. Barrow do a cheaper version if that's an issue. The lack of rotatable bit should get your connectors more or less in line and you can make sure it points in the right direction by rotating the pass-through in its hole and then retightening it.

Legend · 4 Jul 2016 at 14:40

This is nice. You've done well to work within the limitations of the case, which they didn't make very custom loop friendly. For the price that it is, this surprised me.

BornEvil · 4 Jul 2016 at 16:13

Legend said:
This is nice. You've done well to work within the limitations of the case, which they didn't make very custom loop friendly. For the price that it is, this surprised me.

Thanks.

There is 2 ways of looking at it to justify the price of the case IMO.

I can easily have used a Define S i have lying around. And building it with PETG will probably take me 4 days max to finish it.

But this Lian Li, I pay for the building experience. I enjoy sitting and staring at it, to think of ideas to make things work. That I also see as value, I'm possibly a minority but each to there own

But an expensive case does not automatically mean water cooling friendly

. But in all honesty, for it's size, an un-modded PC-O6S is not too bad. I just went (drill-)trigger happy on it

.

P.s. I paid £215 B-Grade for it

BornEvil · 4 Jul 2016 at 16:25

Cenedd said:
I like black fittings and have them in my build....but in yours, I think I prefer the silver. Mainly because I think it goes better with your full nickel CPU block.
I ought, therefore, to be argueing the reverse case for your GPU block...but actually I think the silver goes with the acrylic and contrasts against the delrin terminal and the black PCI-E power socket.

Soft tube is certainly more forgiving...flexible even!

If you wanted to make that less of an awkward angle, you could use a non-rotatable 90° fitting such as this Bitspower fitting. Barrow do a cheaper version if that's an issue. The lack of rotatable bit should get your connectors more or less in line and you can make sure it points in the right direction by rotating the pass-through in its hole and then retightening it.

Yeah, I like black fittings too, I am regretting splashing out on a Full nickel block, originally wanted the plexi-nickel.

Already thought of that regarding non-rotary fittings

. need to buy some anyways, as the pass-though(s) on the back is longer than I thought, cutting very close to side panel if i used taller fittings.

I don't really like the big golden logo on BP, same reason i'm contemplating swamping out the EK-AF/ACF. I'm obviously stuck with EK if i want nickel.

The barrows seems ok for the price. Black barrows is starting to grow on me.

Legend · 4 Jul 2016 at 16:59

BornEvil said:
Thanks.

There is 2 ways of looking at it to justify the price of the case IMO.

I can easily have used a Define S i have lying around. And building it with PETG will probably take me 4 days max to finish it.

But this Lian Li, I pay for the building experience. I enjoy sitting and staring at it, to think of ideas to make things work. That I also see as value, I'm possibly a minority but each to there own

But an expensive case does not automatically mean water cooling friendly . But in all honesty, for it's size, an un-modded PC-O6S is not too bad. I just went (drill-)trigger happy on it .

P.s. I paid £215 B-Grade for it

£215 is a good price... what was wrong with it?

I certainly agree that if you have the skills and ability to create something more unique it's the way to go. There a ton of Define and Evolv builds out there, and while they are fine looking cases and relatively easy to work in, it's harder to have something stand out from the crowd and that you can really call unique. Yours certainly achieves that.

Question... do you need to have the feet on the case to have it standing vertically? I noticed you don't have them on yours.

BornEvil · 4 Jul 2016 at 17:17

It was open box, seemed perfectly new to me. £215 made it much less scary drilling it.

It is more stable with the stand but fine without, ruins the look with the stand/feet. I'm going to wall mount it when done, possibly bury it into a plasterboard wall, but i'll think about that later.

Legend · 5 Jul 2016 at 18:32

I am curious on a few things... why did you switch the PSU position? Was it not possible to have the pump/res in the lower position, or was it more of an aesthetic decision?

Do you find the PSU with it's fan facing the glass creates any issues with heat buildup... there are no extraction fans after all.

How do you find the case for dust, what with the front having no dust filter?

BornEvil · 5 Jul 2016 at 20:42

My seasonic is semi passive, I have never seen the fan spin up during any load. There is about 7mm gap before it touches the glass. It's obviously not ideal but it's not much worse than standard ATX cases with the PSU facing the floor. I'm not that concerned about that.

Regarding dust, I'm using the top triple 120 rad fans (Noctua) as intake for 100% positive pressure, and those are filtered.

In theory, i will have one dead spot at where the res/pump is if the PSU spins up, hence I relocated the PSU lower. but the res/pump will block most air flow anyways, if I'm lucky, air gets directed towards the vented holes at the front.

This is all theory as it is not finished yet. if temps completely suck, then as a last resort, I'll drill a hole Directly under the GPU to mount a 120mm fan as exhaust.

@simpleMr · 8 Jul 2016 at 19:51

Love the case, reminds me of a hardcore server setup.

killswitch73 · 10 Jul 2016 at 08:28

I like this ..smart .

BornEvil · 10 Jul 2016 at 13:38

Thanks, I have put a bit of thought into it.

There is not much update as I kind of stalled waiting for watercooling fittings to be in stock:

EK-AF Passthrough nickel x2
Barrow non-rotary 90 elbow x4
Barrow 40mm extender x1

I have thought out the rear tubework, and will post plans later.

BornEvil · 21 Jul 2016 at 19:23

After waiting 2 weeks for some fittings to arrive from China, the loop is now complete

Swaped out chrome for black fittings:

GPU gets installed as an asembly, pretty easy to do, also swapped out blank end caps:

Much more consistant:

PWM fan splitter wiring, flat and out of the way:

This is how the radiator is fed without tubing:

[1] 90 elbow => 45 elbow => 40mm extension => 90 elbow
[2] 90 elbow => 90 elbow

Rear pipeworks, (PSU cables not in yet)

There is a mix and match of black and nickel fittings, this is so I can switch the black fittings on the front with the nickel fittings on the rear if I get bored.

Also swapped out the C13 PSU plug for a right angle one, with a removable wall socket so i can thread it though plaster board walls.

And another shot of the front:

Leak tested with plain DI water.

I don't like that the opaque coolants refracts the 24 pin PSU cable, so I once again have to abuse free shipping with OcUK

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x Mayhems Pastel - Ice White Coolant 1L= £14.99
1 x Mayhems Dye Red 15ml= £5.48
1 x Mayhems Dye Emerald Green 15ml= £5.48

Total: £25.95
(includes shipping: £0.00)

Going for grey pastel (maybe with a blue hue) to match the motherboard heat sinks

ChrisLandin · 21 Jul 2016 at 20:29

Absolutely tremendous job on this mate. Its fantastic.

I'm currently ploughing my way through a dremel inspired hack a thon on an old lian li v351b to add a custom loop into it and ive seen this and thought

"Jeez I got to get one of those cases"

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