Dripping with style or floody disaster?

OJ46

OJ46

OJ46

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Joined
22 Nov 2015
Posts
997
Location
Wales
Right, the time has finally come: After a decade or 2 of air cooled PC's I've decided it's time to man up and throw some water into that little black box under my desk. This isn't going to be the most epic of builds on here by a long way, and nor will it be the most interesting, but the one thing I hope it does is show that with a bit of time and effort even a complete noob to watercooling can build something fairly nice to look at, and hopefully not flood the house doing it :)

I'm still waiting on some components (bank account currently says no), but here's what the build will be once the last few parts finally arrive:

Case:
Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ATX Mid Tower Case - Black

Components:
ASUS Maximus VIII Hero Intel Z170
Intel Core i7-6700K
EVGA GeForce GTX 980Ti Hydro Copper 6144MB
Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (4x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz
Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 850W

Storage:
Samsung SM951 256GB M.2 PCI-e
Kingston HyperX Savage 240GB SSD
2 x 2TB Western Digital Green HDD's - Taken From Current PC

Watercooling:
XSPC EX360 Crossflow Radiator
XSPC RX120 Single Fan Radiator V3
EK Water Blocks EK-D5 Vario X-RES 140
EK Water Blocks EK-Supremacy EVO - Acetal+Nickel
XSPC HighFlex Hose 16/10mm - White
Mayhems X1 Clear Premixed Watercooling Fluid

As I said, not the most radical or exciting of builds, but thought I'd share in case any other noobs were interested in seeing how not to do it! Will update with pics once I can start the build, hopefully within the next week or two :)

Edit: Added some badly taken phone pictures of the components I currently have. With the SSD, RAM and a few other parts coming tomorrow & the rads, pump etc currently on order, I'll update with better quality photo's once they arrive :)

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With those components it would be unfair not to watercool the system even if it's just for the aesthetics. I'm liking the parts and the name of this project so I'll be keeping an eye on it as it should look good. :)

So if you're watercooling will you be overclocking the system as well or are you just taking it at one step at a time?

Keep us updated and I look forward to watching this take shape :D
 
Cheers TechMiner, will try my best to make it into a build worthy of the components and not to turn it into a shambles! I'll be leaving the clocks standard for a while until I get the fan speeds etc set how I want them, but might then clock the CPU a bit as long as the temps look good at low(ish) fan speeds :)

Unfortunately (fortunately?) it's also going to be my every day work PC and won't be used just for gaming, so have to look at stability and noise levels as well as outright performance as I really can't afford to break anything! Hoping with the M.2 for Windows / gaming and the SSD for Linux / work it should perform both tasks fairly well. :)
 
Ah, didn't realise that... Cheers theaterix I'll get some up ASAP! Is the XSPC stuff not very good savagesam? Unfortunately I've already got the hosing here, but would obviously change it now than have to drain the system to do it if the XSPC stuff is that bad :)
 
OJ46 said:
Cheers TechMiner, will try my best to make it into a build worthy of the components and not to turn it into a shambles! I'll be leaving the clocks standard for a while until I get the fan speeds etc set how I want them, but might then clock the CPU a bit as long as the temps look good at low(ish) fan speeds :)

Unfortunately (fortunately?) it's also going to be my every day work PC and won't be used just for gaming, so have to look at stability and noise levels as well as outright performance as I really can't afford to break anything! Hoping with the M.2 for Windows / gaming and the SSD for Linux / work it should perform both tasks fairly well. :)
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I know the feeling of overclocking your work/play system. You definitely don't want it out of action for too long. However I doubt noise will be an issue as long as you are using decent fans :D
 
OJ46 said:
Ah, didn't realise that... Cheers theaterix I'll get some up ASAP! Is the XSPC stuff not very good savagesam? Unfortunately I've already got the hosing here, but would obviously change it now than have to drain the system to do it if the XSPC stuff is that bad :)
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No problem mate, look forward to seeing them! Just thought id warn you before they closed it lol, and the XSPC has plasticizers in it, and wears down over time, and gets stuff all stuck in your loop, as far as ive read EVERYWHERE
 
OJ46 said:
Ah, didn't realise that... Cheers theaterix I'll get some up ASAP! Is the XSPC stuff not very good savagesam? Unfortunately I've already got the hosing here, but would obviously change it now than have to drain the system to do it if the XSPC stuff is that bad :)
Click to expand...

From what I've heard it leaves stuff in the blocks and it blocks them up. I used it and never had a problem, but this was for about 2 weeks so probably not the best to comment.
 
Hopefully not too bad TechMiner, I'll be using 3 x Corsair SP120 Quiet Series High Pressure Low Noise fans for the 360 Rad in the top and 3 x Phanteks PH F120SP 120mm's in the front for front induction / 120mm Rad, plus a Corsair AF120 Quiet Edition Low Noise High Airflow for exhaust.

Cheers guys, looks like I better chuck some Primochill stuff in with the next order then... D'Oh!
 
Cheers Snookums, I've never had EVGA before as I usually go with ASUS but fancied a change for this build, and also thought their Hydro card looked nicer than some of the other blocks available :)
 
theaterix said:
As a question of interest, if you think im being cheeky or anything just say, how much did the build cost you minus the parts??
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I'm not sure what you're asking tbh mate, minus which parts? With what I have here now + what's due tomorrow + rads, pump etc on order I'm probably in for about £1600 atm, with another £800ish left to spend on PSU, Mobo, CPU and a few other small bits n bobs.
 
OJ46 said:
Cheers Snookums, I've never had EVGA before as I usually go with ASUS but fancied a change for this build, and also thought their Hydro card looked nicer than some of the other blocks available :)
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Their customer service level is up there with OcUK themselves. Literally flawless.

Yes the hydrocopper is a very nice card, EVGA cards as a whole tend to be quite good clockers too so you can ramp that thing up.

Look forward to seeing you're progress :)
 
OJ46 said:
I'm not sure what you're asking tbh mate, minus which parts? With what I have here now + what's due tomorrow + rads, pump etc on order I'm probably in for about £1600 atm, with another £800ish left to spend on PSU, Mobo, CPU and a few other small bits n bobs.
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For the watercooling gear, sorry i must have removed it and thought i put it in and i didn't!
 
Snookums said:
Their customer service level is up there with OcUK themselves. Literally flawless.

Yes the hydrocopper is a very nice card, EVGA cards as a whole tend to be quite good clockers too so you can ramp that thing up.

Look forward to seeing you're progress :)
Click to expand...

That's cracking news, nothing worse than spending a lot of cash and then having awful service when something goes wrong. Main reason I use OcUK to buy all the components tbh, cheaper elsewhere but often have far more hassle than the price difference is worth :)

theaterix said:
For the watercooling gear, sorry i must have removed it and thought i put it in and i didn't!
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Cool, I'd say the watercooling including compression fittings, tubing etc was about £320 of it, so certainly not cheap but hopefully going to be worth it :)
 
OJ46 said:
That's cracking news, nothing worse than spending a lot of cash and then having awful service when something goes wrong. Main reason I use OcUK to buy all the components tbh, cheaper elsewhere but often have far more hassle than the price difference is worth :)



Cool, I'd say the watercooling including compression fittings, tubing etc was about £320 of it, so certainly not cheap but hopefully going to be worth it :)
Click to expand...

Bit pricey, but I just love watercooling.. Considering it myself, either that or a rig overhaul...
 
OJ46 said:
That's cracking news, nothing worse than spending a lot of cash and then having awful service when something goes wrong. Main reason I use OcUK to buy all the components tbh, cheaper elsewhere but often have far more hassle than the price difference is worth :)



Cool, I'd say the watercooling including compression fittings, tubing etc was about £320 of it, so certainly not cheap but hopefully going to be worth it :)
Click to expand...

Honestly, I had to RMA my card, it had to go to german, i sent it friday got it back the following friday. A friend of mine got lucky RMA'ed a 780ti (same as mine) and got a 980 back :p
 
Nice list of components. I also have never had the cahoonas to get my box wet... so really interested to see how you get on.

I see you have a good stock of the most important fluids in the background of the first pic ;)
 
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