Build log: Boredom Struck

Well I've finished off the tubing that doesn't require the graphics card to be fitted. But I don't think I'll get a chance to do much more on it for a few days now. I'm going to redo the tube going from the cpu to the motherboard block because I'm just not happy with it. It's almost right but I think I can do it a bit better.

I find it quite difficult to photograph it to show the shapes nicely, but here's a couple of quick shots of how it stands now. There's still a bit of condensation in the tubing because I've been rinsing it out before fitting.





I'm hoping the tube from the bottom rad up to the gpu works the way I'd like it to, got an idea of what I want to do but it might not work in practice.

So that's all I have for a few days. Any comments or suggestions are welcomed. I've ordered vastly too much tubing it seems as I haven't even opened the second pack and I'm nearly done. So any changes that might work well can definitely be investigated.
 
I've spent two hours on it tonight, and it looks much the same as last night you'd think. I tweaked the top radiator to cpu tube because I realised it wasn't quite plumb, and then spent over an hour trying to make a better tube from the cpu to mosfet block. Four attempts later and I'm finally happy. It looks like the second pack of tubing was a good idea after all.

I've bought some red dye to put in the coolant, I know it's been done to death but I've never had this colour scheme in a build myself and it's sort of unavoidable with the colour scheme Asus have used on the board. I've never used clear tubing and a dye before so I'm looking forward to seeing how it looks first hand. I've always used coloured pvc tubing or coloured acrylic.
 
Wow, some excellent bending there pal, I think you have come up with the best layout in that case and it shows your plumbing skills off nicely too ;)
 
Haha!

I'm unbelievably anal, I got all those bends done first time but redid the cpu to mosfets a few times since those pics. I think being a furniture maker helps somewhat because I'm well used to having to measure carefully and rod out everything I do to minimise expensive disasters.

I've been delaying finishing the build because I've had a rekindled love affair with bf4 these last two weeks and don't want to liberate the graphics card from my working computer.

I've also been struggling with coolant colour choice. I've bought a mayhems red dye but now with the white noiseblockers on full display in the bottom of the case I'm wondering if I shouldn't go with a white coolant like the ice dragon nano...

I'm off on holiday for a week on Friday anyway so reckon I'll hold off doing anything until I get back. I'm apprehensive about the gpu block but also excited about doing the tubing for it. More 180's on the way!
 
grim. said:
Haha!

I'm unbelievably anal, I got all those bends done first time but redid the cpu to mosfets a few times since those pics. I think being a furniture maker helps somewhat because I'm well used to having to measure carefully and rod out everything I do to minimise expensive disasters.

I've been delaying finishing the build because I've had a rekindled love affair with bf4 these last two weeks and don't want to liberate the graphics card from my working computer.

I've also been struggling with coolant colour choice. I've bought a mayhems red dye but now with the white noiseblockers on full display in the bottom of the case I'm wondering if I shouldn't go with a white coolant like the ice dragon nano...

I'm off on holiday for a week on Friday anyway so reckon I'll hold off doing anything until I get back. I'm apprehensive about the gpu block but also excited about doing the tubing for it. More 180's on the way!
Click to expand...

Looking forward to seeing the finished results :)
From the photos the bend looked fine but I can relate to being OCD over the looks. Good luck with the GPU :D
 
So I took this massive beast and stripped the cooler off.


Enough thermal grease on there MSI?


Used this combo and it worked wonders, really breaks down the thermal grease


Got the chip nice and clean but there were some odd marks on that I couldn't buff out


I couldn't decide what tubing layout to go for on the gpu, what I was planning to do wouldn't work because there wasn't enough clearance from the blocks inlets and outlets to the side window. I trialed this one out with an offcut and decided it looked ok, but still not sure I'm sold on it.


But unable to contain my excitement I went ahead with it and got it filled.


And this is the stage I've got to. It's up and running, quickly wired up which will need tidying when I get the fan controller.


It's all bled now, fans are just running off the mobo headers for now but I've got a Corsair Link mini commander on the way. That will control the fans and possibly lighting too. I haven't decided on coolant colour or lighting yet. Any suggestions welcome for both.

I have some old bitfenix led strips from my last build but they're too long and I really hate how short they make the wires to a stinking great molex plug.

Coolant colour wise, I do have red dye on hand which I'm tempted to chuck in there, but I'm not sure about it. I was thinking maybe doing an opaque pastel blue to match the psu and alphacool logo. Those two just don't blend in as it is.

I'm relatively pleased with how it's turning out, but I do want to redo one tube when I get the remaining bits and pieces together. Let me know your thoughts, I'll try and get some better photo's later today now that it's finally up and running.

One more thing I did discover, the M.2 SSD I bought doesn't actually work with my motherboard :rolleyes: More research was required on that, I didn't realise the mobo I have only supports a certain type of M.2 which isn't the one that I have. So if anyone wants this one, I've left it too long to return it :mad:
 
That looks excellent, I'm not sure which bend you want to re-do as they all look perfect. As for coolant I think a pastel blue would look nice providing the cables are changed to a blue/black.

It's ashame about the M.2 SSD not working with your board but so far the system looks amazing :D
 
Thanks for the kind words, I'm really pleased with how it's coming along. I'm going to pop the red dye in now though. I can't control myself any longer.

Just been having a quick fiddle with some overclocking and already pleased with it. Putting the 290x lightning underwater is proving to be a hell of an improvement. It used to generate so much heat with that whacking great air cooler firing up.

Got a modest stable overclock on the cpu, at remarkably low voltage as well. Plenty more to be done though.
 
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