[Buildlog] 900D My 1st watercooled rig

[Blame]

Hi guys

This will be my 1st watercooled rig. Been building pc's for years and decided to give water a go after looking at so many rigs on here.

Hardware wise i will be sticking with my current i5 setup. as i have spent too much on the watercooling gear. ( got out of hand )

Will probably upgrade later in the year after people has had a chance to play around with haswell 1st.

So the original idea was to get a Fractal XL, and then i saw the 800D and thought that was the case. i then purchased a EK H-30 360 HFX watercooling kit.



But then i came across prototype pics of the 900D and fell in love! and that is how it escalated into a custom loop instead!

 

[Blame]

Pic of 90% of the watercooling stuff. jsut waiting for 8 more SP fans and 2 distribution pcb's

 

[Blame]

Thanks guys! The build wont be finished in one go. cant afford to do everything. So will slowly upgrade and change parts as i go. Plus i find it more fun to be able to change or upgrade every now and then

Heres a pic of the koolance QDC. Will be connecting these so that i can remove the motherboard from the loop when the time comes to changing the hardware. all il hav to do is top up!

 

[Blame]

those are VL4N or VL3N?

Those are VL4N mate

 

[Blame]

more fans!!



900D should be here tomorrow!

 

[Blame]

Right time for some update

took the HD cages, front fan, and all sorts or brackets that i either dont need or thats in the way for now





Also got my radiators out for a flush and fan mounting. Rads are Alphacool UT60 and XT45

 

[Blame]

Rad and fans mounted in the case and fans tested! all is good!





and a peak at my pump top and mod kit and EK 205 res

 

[Blame]

It is indeed a clear V2 extreme from Bitspower. But was ordered in uk. mated with a chrome Bitspower mod kit.

A alphacool Vp655 / D5 pump will be used.

 

[Blame]

bit of a setback

Only just noticed OCUK sent me the wrong male Koolance QDC

Below is the item i ordered.

and this was what i got:





totally different fitting. So build bwill have to be on hold til its sorted

 

[Blame]

Well seems like i cant do anything now. Even though the incorrect image was put up, turns up its still my own fault and they wont do anything about it and also wont take a return/refund because of its 14day policy even though it was all caused by 900D delay. bit ****ed off to say the least.

Worse thing was after 6 mails saying i have to get a refund/return i went to buy the correct male VL4n fittings they went and told me the 14 day return policy :/ didnt occur to them to tell me at the beginning. so i have 2 males sitting here when i could have brought another pair of female and try to use them, but i will have to waste more money on shipping for another pair.

Feel abit shafted by OCUK. Shame really, will be using a different retailer for all my other bits now.

But enough of that, now back to the build.

Fitted the pump. mounted the res and connected half the pipes.







Added a tap at the bottom so system can be drained pretty easily. the front dust cover jsut about fits!





Also connected the top 8 fans using a 8pin PCB for tidiness and used corsair 7v adapters. then tested to see if it all runs and no problems! very quiet indeed!





And a shot of the back. There is so much space to work with it really is a great case!

 

[Blame]

Is your pump just placed on ?

Yes the pump is just placed on, because of the way its connected to the res its very sturdy, unless i get vibrations i wont hard mount the pump.

Check out Singularity computers on youtube for guides and inspiration.

 

[Blame]

Thanks for comments guys!

I will see if the pump causes any vibrations before i mount it sturdy. there is a rubber base on the bottom of the pump, so might get away with it.

The 7v connectors came with the corsair fans. And the fans are normal 3pin ones , not PWM.

I got most of the parts that i need to finish the build off, so will probably start transfering the hardware from old pc to the 900D and get the loop finished!

 

[Blame]

Nope, havent put anything on the forum. Brought the correct parts now, but have a pair of useless male connectors jsut sitting here.

After so much hassle, im just at the point of wanting to finish it.

 

[Blame]

Blame, is it some fittings that were listed incorrectly on the website? - I can sort a refund for you.

hi 5UB

The image used on the koolance VL4 QDC male fitting was a VL4N QDC male fitting. so i assumed i brought the correct one

 

[Blame]

Decided to start transfer in the stuff from old case to 900d. But 1st some comparison shots to the Fractal.

As you can see there quite a size difference!

And looking at the inside things are pretty cramped! And the back has very little width for the cables which I hated! Had to force the side panel in order to close it.

 

[Blame]

uPDATE:

After taking the old pc apart, it was time to put the new one together!

CPU block





so shiney!



Installed



With Bitspower shiney silver 1/2IC 3/4OD fittings

 

[Blame]

Went to put the GPU block on and came across a problem!



The block did not fit! i then found out that i needed a different mounting plate to fit the 560ti

So after ordering one 2 days later i got it! the difference between the two



Adn heatsinks on the ram

 

[Blame]

Then everything was fitted and all tubed up!

 

[Blame]

The tubes are slightly long, but i wanted to avoid any form of kink or slight bend, so i was playing it abit on the safe side. especially this being my 1st watercooled build.

I did want it to be res>pump>UT45 rad>UT60 rad>CPU>GPU>RES

But the QDC is too big. and i didnt want the tube to bend too much. so i decided on this config and i actually quite like it, becuase it looks pretty neat and uniform.

The hardware will be changed maybe end of the year or early next and an extra 240 rad will probably added to the loop, so things will change and hiopefully then i can sort the tubing to the way i wanted it to

 

[Blame]

Prior to leak testing