Project: Viper (rebuild with EK Predator)

Project Viper - Predator Loop






Welcome to my thread,

Intro

This project log is actually starting part of the way through - it should really have been documented from August 2015.
Before I get into where I'm at with the build, I think that it's relevant to give a bit of background and a timeline of upgrades made from August to present.

Background

I've been a forum lurker for about 4 years and only started posting back in May 2015.
This was because I was about to buy a new machine and complete the build myself.
I've built from scratch in the past, but not really overclocked or done anything except basic and vanilla projects (mobo, find suitable ram, cpu and then add a gpu etc. - simple stuff as I say).
Before this computer I bought a full system from OCUK that had an overclock already applied.
It was also my first computer that had an AIO CPU cooler.

Current build

This brings me to August 2015. Having researched options, I decided that a 5820k was going to be the best option for a solid new machine that would allow for upgrades down the line.
Not having the experience of doing my own OC in the BIOS (just oc on graphics card through software), I ended up purchasing one of the OCUK bundles.
It would also have been rude to not have picked up a few other items:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x DEFCON 2x - MSI X99A SLI Krait - Configurable Overclocked Haswell-E Bundle = £771.77
  • Memory:Kingston Fury Black 16GB (4x4GB) DDR4 PC4-19200C15 2400MHz Quad Channel Kit - Black (HX424C15FBK4/16
  • CPU Cooler:Asetek 570LX 240mm High Performance CPU Cooler - 2011
  • Processor:Intel i7-5820K 3.30GHz (Haswell-E) Socket LGA2011-V3 Processor - OEM (CM8064801548435)
• 1 x Super Flower Leadex Platinum 750W Fully Modular "80 Plus Platinum" Power Supply - White= £112.99
• 1 x Phanteks Enthoo Luxe Full Tower Case - Black= £119.99
• 1 x Samsung SM951 256GB M.2 PCI-e Gen3 8Gbps x 4 AHCI Solid State Drive (MZHPV256HDGL-00000)= £125.99

I retained my 1tb Samsung usb3 external hard drive and used my existing GTX970 Strix GPU.
I had a blast getting back into the building and found that my interest had been reignited in trying to push my abilities further.

Since the initial build, I've made a fair few modifications and upgrades:

• 1) Changed out the GTX970 for an MSI GTX980ti G6.
• 2) Changed the Phanteks case fans for 2x140mm/3x120mm Noctua NF-A pwn fans.
• 3) Changed the Noise Blocker rad fans for 2x120mm Vardar F4's.
• 4) Changed the stock GPU cooler for a G10/H55 AIO combo (with 1x120mm Vardar F4). This allowed me to get the GPU to around 1520/2000 stable OC.
• 5) Added an 850 500gb SSD as a gaming drive.
• 6) Added some Silverstone braided cable extensions for the 24 pin and 2 8 pin GPU connections.
• 7) Added in 2m of additional Phanteks led strip lighting (gotta love some bling).
• 8) Added a MSI case badge.
• 9) Set up my own OC profile in the BIOS and got the system to a stable 4.5ghz clock.

Current build up to date

Looks fairly understated without the power on!



As you can see, I am in need of a few more cable combs for the braided cables. Don't worry they are on their way!
Right now the GPU rad is bringing air into the case, the CPU rad is exhausting along with the Noctua behind it.


The rest of the Noctua's are on the front and bottom bringing air into the case.


The CPU rad is currently sneaking into the optical bay as I don't use it.


Proposed rebuild

As you can tell by now this isn't a project log like some of the high level water cooled custom builds that others have shared.
I would certainly like to think that at some point in the future I would attempt something at such a skill level.
What I want to achieve now is something that will allow such upgrades in the future.

I've learnt a lot in the work I've done to date and wanted to offer some insight and feedback on my journey for others either at my level or considering moving into a water cooled loop.
I've gained a much better understanding of the principles behind optimal building (mostly down to the great information and help that I've received in these forums) and want to give something back to the community.

With this in mind I decided to purchase the EK Predator AIO 360 (rev 1.1) radiator.
Aside from being a premium quality AIO set up, I liked the options for it to be expandable by one of the pre filled GPU blocks.
Also, that it allows customisable options by bespoke tubing and coolant.
Finally, that I would be able to use the parts when I want to take the next step for a custom loop with independent pump/reservoir/hardline tubing.

Alongside the AIO, I've purchased an additional set of Vardar F4's - I'm not sure if I am going to be able to get them on the rad in push/pull due to space limitations
Worst case, they will be usable down the line as I may want to add another rad when I expand the loop to get the GPU off the G10/H55.

Shots of the new loot

One could never accuse EK Waterblocks of not having premium design with their packaging.


This is revision 1.1 of the AIO and the 2011 socket connection is way better than the original.


Having a drainable reservoir and the pump in the unit is a nice touch to keep the build clean and offer options down the line (aka something to satisfy the upgrade itch)!


The radiator is satisfying sturdy as is the total feel of the product.


In essence I am only really making a change to the AIO cooling right now.
I will be keeping this log going as further options become available and I build on the loop.

I have seen a lot of threads about the EK Predator, so hope that sharing my experiences will be helpful.
I expect to have this 1st stage completed in the next few days.
I will also post relevant benchmarks once everything is in place.

Looks like a good upgrade from the current cooler, must admit that after seeing photos and renders of the Predator AIO it looks beefier than what I would have expected it to (Very different from Rajintek and Corsair liquid coolers).

Looking forward to seeing the build progress and seeing the finished product

To the moderators: I have noted that my original post should have had better use of [enter] on some of the paragraphs to make the post easier to read. Are you able to allow me to edit the post so that I can tidy it up?

Where's the LED's? Really need pics of PC in full bling mode

Nice upgrade!

The predator looks fantastic... It's great that you can just expand it whenever you want with another rad and a custom loop.

Luggs said:

Where's the LED's? Really need pics of PC in full bling mode

Nice upgrade!

Click to expand...

I'll have something for you tonight Luggs

Petelock said:

I'll have something for you tonight Luggs

Click to expand...

Good man

Petelock said:

To the moderators: I have noted that my original post should have had better use of [enter] on some of the paragraphs to make the post easier to read. Are you able to allow me to edit the post so that I can tidy it up?

Click to expand...

Bottom right of your post is an edit button, looks nice so far by the way

Update 1

Okay, update number 1.

Getting the old gear out was obviously straight forward and the first job was to clean down the CPU with a 70% alcohol cleaning solution.



Firstly I can say that it was a b***ard to get this into the case with the mobo already in place.
There is very little room to work with a 360mm rad that has the fans installed already.
As there is the extra gear (pump etc) linked to the actual radiator, I would advise extra checking to ensure that your case will fit this cooler.

My original plan was to have seen if I could have removed the fans and then affixed them as per my old set up


However, once removed there was not space to allow the pump and pwm header part of the rad to fit through the top section.
(without cutting of the case at least)



This meant that the radiator fans had to be affixed beneath the roof fans bay on the case


A few shots of me trying to defy physics and get the rad into a fixable position (Much Tetris from the 80's and early 80's helped me here!)






The issue here was that there was no longer room for the additional fans to be added to allow for a push/pull configuration

Oh and the necessity to pull off the locking clips from my mobo 4 pin power connections.


Had this not been done the radiator would not have fitted into the case - a few more mm's and I would have looked pretty stupid


Yes, this was a dicey moment before I realised I could get rid of the locking pins to make it work!


Next thing was to get the water block on.
Thankfully rev 1.1 of the Predator means that you don't need to take off the existing CPU backplate from socket 2011-3 mobo's. Major improvement!
A little Thermal Grizzly Hydronaught applied and one water block inserted.


Things are looking way better than the boring pump from before.


The option to change to a custom block down the road is also a nice option.


Note the QDC fitting on the tubing to allow for a QDC GPU prefilled waterblock - yes, I will be doing this as a future upgrade.


Next it was the case of reattaching the GPU and H55.
At least one of the F4's could be used to upgrade the GPU rad to push/pull.

As this rad is pulling air into the case (for now) it means that the Vardar logo is on display



Next post will be a gallery of finished set up (including the additional cable combs to tidy up the overall look.
I will also run some benches. I hear Aida 64 is the best for CPU (happy for other suggestions).
I've got Firestrike for the GPU. I'm hoping to be able to push the numbers a bit from the previous cooling set up.

Just to add to my previous post - does anyone know if the pre filled QDC GPU water block from EK is available yet in the UK?

I've seen mention of it in builds from US forums, but not been able to see any options to buy from OCUK nor direct from EK's website (possible vendor response here - hint hint )!

*Edit* Fyi for anyone else interested in this I have noted that the water block can be ordered and then the option to have it QDC'd for a small additional cost. I believe that rjk was mentioning carrying out this service for some popular blocks so +1 for the 980ti so I can progress this log!

Really interested to see what temps you get with aida64 or real bench.

Wow, you didn't have much room to spare there! Looks very tidy though mate. Good job! As mentioned, keen to see what your new temps are with new cooler.

Update 2:

Not really had the chance to run any benches last night as I was kickboxing.

Still, I have the gallery of finished shots and will look to bench this evening.

A colour temp edited version to show the guts of the beast


One for Lugg's to give an idea of the LED version (in person this is more white than blue, but I left this as is for some extra bling^^)


A couple of shots with the extra cable combs in place - the GPU braids are still a touch unruly!




The obligatory cable management shot - this can actually be tidied up further as the SATA pwn 5 way I was using for the case fans no longer needs to have a connection to the roof.
I think that this will be part of the GPU water block upgrade in a month's time.


Finally, a few final shots of the PC back in the office (only space for this under the desk unfortunately)






So, benching tonight to see what temps do. Iirc it was floating around 65c while gaming on the old rad.
Real bench or aida64 will be used. I will also have the GPU fully oc'd and run Firestrike extreme.

The main reason for the Firestrike bench is to prepare for the GPU water block upgrade that I will make in about 4 weeks time.
I've seen a suitable EK block that I will buy with the QDC adaptor installed.
The 360mm rad should be fine for the CPU and GPU in the loop.

I am also going to explore options to modify the case to allow the current fans to be removed and then refitted into the Luxe roof area. This will allow the push/pull configuration to be implemented.

Thanks for reading so far.

I like the braided white cables I have the same in my evolv atx with asus x99s and nzxt blue led lighting only ocd to 4.2 but then I am only using one of the narrow profile phanteks coolers ph tc14s
Look forward to your results.

I've had the chance to carry out a few simple benches (will likely need to do some more detailed stresses over the weekend.

Here's the results:

1) Real bench Stress test for 15 minutes @4.5ghz using 8gb of available ram.

I monitored the CPU temps in MSI command centre whilst the stress was running.
Once this span up I was seeing CPU temps hovering around the 70c mark (variance between 66c and 73c during the stress cycle).
The GPU was also fully oc'd during the test.





I also carried out a FireStrike Extreme test @1440p/144hz:





Now I want to run a bit more of a real world test aka spend an evening playing The Witcher 3 using the above settings and overclocks.

I would be the first to admit that I've not a great deal of experience with benching.
If there is anything that I've missed, or if there are any different bench/stresses that I should run then please do let me know.

This is probably the end of the upgrades and feedback for the time being.
I'm please with the change to the EK Predator and feel that my system is the better for it's addition.

The next steps will be as follows:

1) Buy a pre filled GPU waterblock with QDC fittings to get a quick full watercooled loop in place.

This is expected to be purchased at the end of Feb 2016.

2) Explore the possibility of modding the top of the Luxe case to allow the Predator fans to be removed and remounted in the roof fan bay.

This will mean that I can install my additional Vardar F4's into a push/pull configuration on the Predator.

3) Carry out additional customisation to the loop:

• change the tubing to something clear with coloured coolant
• Change the CPU waterblock
• Consider a more powerful pump

Thanks for reading and for the feedback and kind words in your responses.

Following with interest

Orch said:

Following with interest

Click to expand...

Thanks.

I'm expecting to carry out the next wave of upgrades at the end of Feb.
A summary of what I've currently got planned is as follows:

1. Add in the EK full GPU water block with QDC connection.
2. Turn the Predator around so that the tubing is at the back.
3. Cut into the case roof (for the pump/res clearance) so that I can remount the existing fans.
4. With the extra space gained in the case add 3 further F4's on the rad in push pull.
5. Run the Predator pump off it's own header so that it can stay at 100%
6. Split the existing Predator fan headers so they can managed 2 fans each for the push/pull configuration.
7. Replace the existing H55 fan with a decent 140mm exhaust fan. This will be on the same splitter header as the rest of the case fans.
8. (Possible) respray the top metal mesh white.
9. (Possible) respray the front metal mesh white.

Hopefully all will go well! I'm guessing that I will need a primer for the respray if I decide to go ahead?

Gear was ordered when the TF5 waterblock went up for pre order:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x BitFenix Spectre PRO PWM 140mm Fan - White= £11.99
• 1 x Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut High Performance Thermal Paste - 1 Gramm= £4.99
• 1 x EK Water Blocks EK-FC980 GTX Ti TF5 - Acetal & Nickel - Predator Pre Filled= £119.99

Thought that I may as well update from Hydronaut to Kryonaut to get the best possible temps from the TIM.

I've also got a few custom vinyl stickers ordered (SuperFlower and the Krait snake), but will need to see how these turn out to check whether I ant to include them.

Finally, ordered a deathadder chroma to match my anansi keyboard with a white led theme.

When this round of upgrades has been completed I will also get a few shots of the whole office set up.

Hoping that the loot will arrive next week.

Okay. Build finished. I had to take a saw to the luxe and one of the vardar' to get the radiator in push/pull, but it was worth it. Photos and comments soon. Also, benches with the GPU water block on.

Sorry for the lack of update - I've had a super busy period with RL.

I have just had the vinyl stickers turn up today that I got bespoke ordered. I'm going to get them applied before I post the photos of the finished article and the build log.

In the interim I wanted to share some experience I had with the GPU block itself. I got this fitted (it's the standard non pre filled TF5 full cover block with QDC connectors and coolant prefilled) and then added a full nickel backplate. Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut was the TIM of choice. When I had this connected and all set up I got straight to benching and monitoring temps/adjusting fan curves etc.

Initially I was a bit disappointed as I was seeing idle temps of 33c and load temps in the mid 70's. Clearly not right and certainly not what I was expecting. For reference this matched the stock cooler and the G10/H55 cooling I used previously was only peaking around 55c.

Yesterday I took the card out and reapplied the TIM and put back together. I had thought that a bad application of paste/seating of the block may have been the cause. Put everything back together and ran a bench. Temps were now peaking at 90+c when in Firestrike. Even worse!

I took apart again (having been not super aggressive with the tightening of the screws for the block and backplate) to investigate further. When I checking the screws connecting the block over the GPU I noted that the heads were not screwing flush to the back of the GPU board (but were fully tightened). Turned out that EK had supplied 2 size screws and I had used the slightly longer threads for the GPU. These reached the end of the thread and prevented a tight contact between block and GPU. I used the shorter threads, connected everything back up and got the below in a Firestrike Extreme bench:

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If you check the OC you will note that this is reaching a 1530mhz and 2008mhz ram boost. Pretty tidy. This is not even hitting the ceiling and I will be pushing further. At this oc the temps are now coming in at 26c idle on the gpu and only 40c under bench load. Very happy with the new temps and better OC potential.

I've certainly more updates and piccies to post, as I'm pretty proud of the novice yet decent mods I've had to make to the case to achieve my goals.

A final thought. In one day I had to take out the GPU to check 2 times. QDC meant that this was a simple case of unplug and remove, check and amend, then plug back in. A custom loop is clearly a better end result for performance and aesthetics. Also from a position of achievement. However, for someone starting out with a full loop, this would have been a nightmare for me with draining and suchlike if I needed to make the changes I had to.

Hoping to have photos later this week when I get a spare moment to upload from the DSLR and edit in PS.