Corsair 600T watercooled build: "Blue Dragon"

[joxang]

Re-tubed and thanks very much Mr. Bubo . Saved me a hell of a lot of time, troubleshooting and hassle. You hit all three nails on the head - CPU temps now down by 8C with input and output the right way round. After I re-tubed the top GPU to have the correct input, temps dropped by 10C, so I then remounted, and temps dropped by another 20C . The first time I only had about 60% thermal paste coverage on the GPU.

Pics and more detailed benchmarks to come.

 

[joxang]

Both rads now with 7 fans in total running silently.

Room temperature 21C
Idle CPU @ 4.6GHz 29C
Idle GPU 2 (top) 29C
Idle GPU 1 (bottom) 22C
^GPU numbers reversed because of afterburner quirk.

Now running prime95 and furmark at the same time, and monitoring with afterburner and openhwmonitor:

Load CPU @ 4.6Ghz (1.345V) 50C 57C 54C 52C


Load GPUs @ stock 45C 34C


I'm reasonably happy with the gpu temperatures (I've always had an unexplained difference of around 8C between primary and slave card even with stock cooling), though the OCed CPU temps could be lower I guess. Turning fan speeds up lowers temps by up to 5C, but at top rpm there's no further difference to temperatures. Probably as the rads both have a low fpi and are optimised for silence.

Next step is to try and increase the overclock, and still a bit of work left to do on the build itself.

 

[joxang]

The 2 radiators and the size of them with the amount of fans I was honestly expecting high teens or low 20's. Especially the fact the size of the tubing and water flow.

Was it wrong to think that? it just seemed such huge cooling for 30 degrees. Or it's probably because I'm not taking into the account for 2 GPU's in the mix.

Though, I'm assuming it's all whisper quiet?

Seems strange to see GPU's at those temperatures.

Yeh I was expecting slightly lower load cpu temps tbh. But I guess while the rads are big, they are both low fpi and pretty thin. Usually with such low fpi rads, they tend to be a lot thicker for more heat exchange area. You can get high fpi thin rads (e.g. stealth gts) but the trade-off for the better cooling is obv the loud fans.

You're not gonna get temps below room temperature ! Unless you use a water-chiller. So at idle, I guess 8 degrees for the cpu above room temperature is ok. Load temps were recorded running furmark and linx at the same time. Been playing some shogun 2 and the cpu goes to 40-45, and the gpus stay around 30-35 which I'm more than happy with .

Whisper quiet it is though, the advantage of low fpi rads. And the pump is silent on the most powerful setting, which was unexpected!

 

[joxang]

Bish bash bosh. Package arrived today containing fans and ASUS Xonar Essence ST (PCI card, to replace my Essence STX which is lacking for a PCIe slot). Alpenfohn fans are bloomin' nice. Very quiet, not as much static pressure as a GT but excellent airflow. Fans and casing are rubber, come completely braided (best factory braid I've seen on a fan), with a braided extension cable per fan and rubber mounts. They scream 'luxury' at you - I'd put them at the very top of premium fan ladder alongside noiseblocker multiframes. I need them for my VRMs which otherwise won't be getting much airflow. Sadly means I can't have a window .







Fillport and fan controller:



Finally fitted the top out with a complete set of GTs 1850s .



TO DO LIST!!
(1) Internal lighting
(2) Front bay devices (LCD? Flow + temp monitoring? Baybus to control lighting? Undecided)
(3) Second 2TB HDD.
(4) Bit of work with acrylic and mesh on the insides
(5) Dust filter mesh to top (and side?)
Don't want to finish this build too soon, or I'll be bored pooless !

nice build! what tubing and dye are you using?

Primochill 1/2 ID tubing, and Mayhem dye.

 

[joxang]

Probably should have given the insides a bit of a dusting .

 

[joxang]

Heh thanks dude .

Wow that setup looks stunning, really tempting me into a similar setup in my 600t. So is this the end now, or do you have more to do?

Thanks! I got a few things left to do, but I have absolutely no money left now so they'll drag on for a bit. Will post updates anyhow . It's mostly polishing up - list as above:

TO DO LIST!!
(1) Internal lighting
(2) Front bay devices (LCD? Flow + temp monitoring? Baybus to control lighting? Undecided)
(3) Second 2TB HDD.
(4) Bit of work with acrylic and mesh on the insides
(5) Dust filter mesh to top (and side?)
Don't want to finish this build too soon, or I'll be bored pooless!

 

[joxang]

Haha thanks but no chance...the MDPC stuff is just insane (check out the latest build 040!!!). Maybe waynio's mod might get on there if he ever gets it finished.

(but please do rate with starries if you like this thread - top right )

 

[joxang]

Hope the internals don't get filled up with dust after you put in the side intake.

. The outer mesh is already getting dusty. Either need an elegant way of putting a dust filter in there or might need to think of another way to cool the vrms...(tried them as out-takes but they couldn't produce enough targeted airflow).

 

[joxang]

How heavy is your case now with the water? any idea how much water it holds?

Lol heavy as **** mate. Can barely lift it. Tempting to weigh it if I can get my hands on some scales. I got no idea how much water there is...maybe a 1L or a 2.5L? I used about 3L bottles of distilled water but also drained the loop a couple of times.

 

[joxang]

Great build! How quiet are the Scythe GT 1850? Would it be good for a thick radiator like black ice gtx extreme? Looking for a perfect balance between cooling and silence.

Hey there ! Yeh as ^ the 1850s are lovely fans. Even at very quiet they push a lot of air. On a black ice you'll probably need to have them a bit louder, but they'd still be at a decent levels. If noise is a big factor I'd get noiseblocker multiframes for that rad. On par with the GT 1850s for static pressure, but much quieter at full blast (which is where you'd want them).

Knew it . DEMCiflex sell those magnetic fan filters, if you could get them to cut out a piece of black mesh the size of the mesh on the side panel you could 'sandwich' the filter mesh in between the fans and side panel mesh by having screw holes for the fans. This will be a bit of a hassle to clean though.

Those look bloomin useful!! Seen them in some builds but didn't realise you could have them done to your specifications. I'll think on using one of them. Might get some cheap £2 filters in the mean time.

 

[joxang]

That is stunning, cant believe youve pulled it off. Conisdering the 600T isnt your usual lian li or silverstone "luxury" case you sure made it so.

Thanks .

Nothing major, just got cable management sorted. Because the case sides bulge out (letting you put a quad rad in sideways), there's also tonnes and tonnes of space for cables at the back. More so than any other case I think. Spare molexes on the right for lighting.

 

[joxang]

^ Thanks guys.

THis has probably been asked before but why don't you put a fourth fan on the side panel?

Don't need it, and I think it looks nicer . Switched all three fans to out-take now as with both rads blowing in, air inside was getting very warm. Seems to keep temperatures down by a couple of degrees.

I've started a new project, experimenting a bit with things I've seen on other builds and stuff I've learnt. Will do a new worky-loggy thing in time. Thanks for looking !

 

[joxang]

Hey joxang, you never answered my question. Are your GPU's The Asus matrix 5870's? I'm guessing they are because of the way you cooled them. If they are Asus Matrix 5870's, is the you block alone enough to cool them? I'm wondering because I have a pair of them as well in my skeleton, and am racking my brain on how to wc them because there are not any blocks made for them.

Sorry mate, missed it. Yeh they are. If you take the card apart and remove the heatsink, you'll find a metal plate covering the front, which holds the screws for the backplate. The front and back plates are what cools most of the VRAM. I just dremelled a hole in the front plate around the gpu area so I could fit a generic block, and left the front and back-plates attached to the PCB.

There are four uncovered VRMs which weren't cooled in any way in the stock card, so I left them uncovered. They get quite hot under load, but the cards haven't crashed or throttled in Furmark, or in gaming, so I'm guessing they're fine? Unfortunately I don't think the Matrix cards have any vrm temp sensors...unless you know a way of unlocking them ?

I'm pretty happy with the cooling anyhow. I've got some airflow so hopefully the VRAMs will be fine.

 

[joxang]

So in theory the same method you used in cooling should work pretty well in my skeleton. I had an idea of doing the same thing gpu did, making a spot in the heatsink for the gpu block, but also botching the plastic cover to let the tubes go in and out so that I may still attach the original fan. Do you think that is a possibility as well?

Yep, definitely possible I think. Mind you, with the block in there the airflow would be completely obstructed. Wouldn't take much cutting though as once you remove the LED module, I think there's enough space there for the fittings to come out.

I'm using 45deg fittings on the GPU block as the edge of the bare metal panel is lipped, but you can easily file the lip off and use straight fittings.

Awesome build, but you got negative airflow there you got 1 out rest intake .

You mean positive pressure? Positive pressure is generally considered better for both dust and cooling: http://www.silverstonetek.com/techtalk_cont.php?tid=wh_positive&area=usa. Now though the three side fans are all out-take. Should still be positive as I have 7 intake, 4 out-take, + dust filters top and front.

 

[joxang]

^Thanks mate .

 

[joxang]

Just one problem. That device you were using to measure, is, in actual fact, a RULE.

Lol thanks...will keep in mind .

Joxang, what's the volume of the reservoir you're using?

I think it's a 150 mate.

What's the next project your working on?

Got some bits at the lasercutters...will post when they're back . I've decided not to do any more work on this one (mebbe a video) because the ideas I have for the case would necessitate taking the whole thing apart again. Would rather start again, complete a case in advance before building in it. Anyway...will see what happens .

 

[joxang]

Here we go again .

 

[joxang]

Lighting: NZXT braided white LEDs, with a controller mounted on the back.

 

[joxang]

But these are what I've been waiting for. Well, just one of them, but the guy who did the lasercutting had to delay making them so I guess he made two to make up for it .





And finally got a name for the build now. It's going to be called 'Blue Dragon' .

 

[joxang]

I have a question to OP. I've been eyeing this thread for awhile, and while I know you mentioned that there is only 55mm of room, 25 for the fans, and 30 for the radiator, how exact is this? The Magicool 360 Elegant Radiator is 34mm thick, any chance that there is 4 mm of extra room in there?

thanks! I'm looking forward to your progress!

It's 26mm thick . This is the Magicool Slim, not the elegant. You can fit a thicker rad if you won't mind cutting your ATX power connector a bit (the plastic bit will need sanding down), and if your motherboard doesn't have any big protruding heatsinks in that area.