Dripping with style or floody disaster?

[OJ46]

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

 

[OJ46]

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.

 

[OJ46]

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]

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!

 

[OJ46]

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

 

[OJ46]

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??

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]

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

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

For the watercooling gear, sorry i must have removed it and thought i put it in and i didn't!

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]

Bit pricey, but I just love watercooling.. Considering it myself, either that or a rig overhaul...

I'd say go for it mate. Took me months of thinking about it before finally deciding to jump in and have a go, but came to the conclusion that a couple months delay building the rig whilst saving more cash was far better than spending the next couple years wishing I'd done it!

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

There's always one jammy one, but with my luck I probably would have been sent a 750 instead

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

When you've got a media PC with an unlimited supply of films it's always good to pair it with enough red to keep the lady happy. Her choice of film + a few bottles of red can work wonders

Well, this what happened with my xspc tubing after being used in a couple of different builds over the course of a year or so.

Spoiler

Funnily enough, it only gathered in the GPU's for some reason.

Damn, well I think that has settled it! Bye bye XSPC, hello PrimoChill! Big thanks to all for flagging this up before I used it, might just have saved me a massive PITA further down the line

 

[OJ46]

A small update as a few more shiny things have arrived, so will do a log of the main components so far, minus the case. Hope my photography skills don't blow any of you off your seats Don't worry though guys, my computer building skills are at least half a notch above the photography skills on show here

Samsung 256GB M.2 Worried the green board will look stupid, and ideas on hiding it? can I just put a matt black sticker over it or could it damage it? Stupid question I know, but might look daft green!

240GB HYPERX SSD

32GB of Corsair DDR4 RAM I actually wanted this in red, not black, but black was £80 cheaper in the sales... Sure it'll be fine! Those stickers are gonna have to go though, make it look cheap.

EVGA GTX 980ti Hydro

EK Supremacy Evo

Corsair SP120 Quiet Got 3 High Pressure & 1 High Airflow, just hoping they're quiet...

Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut Didn't see the point in spending a lump of cash on watercooling and then using cheap thermal paste

Monsoon Chain Gun Fittings Probably not to everybody's taste, but personally I think they look awesome with white tubing

EK-RES X3 Multiport Top Yes, some brilliant planning means I'm now the proud owner of a top for a reservoir I don't yet own!

You know what all of this actually means though don't you? I ACTUALLY GOT TO FIT A COMPONENT!

I know in this case you can hide the SSD's around the back out of sight, but I reckon with black braided cables that will look pretty tidy sat there. Certainly goes with the theme so we'll see, and looks even better with the side panel on as the bottom third is hidden. Need to sort the metal clip on the cable though... *gets black paint*

Hopefully the radiators, reservoir and pump will arrive in the next few days / week so I can finally make a proper start on it.

 

[OJ46]

Cheers guys The cables are BitFenix Alchemy's but I think I may have a slight problem... A very slight one... Approximately 3cm's worth of slight problemness on the SATA cable... Think it's going to be too short so I may have to use something else

 

[OJ46]

Looks like it could be another week or 2 before the reservoir / pump combo come back in stock In the mean time, have a photo of my last build, the media PC that I wanted to blend in with the PS3 and Sky+ box

Low power core i3 in an XBox 360 case. 60GB SSD mounted inside the case, with a 1TB laptop HDD in the clip on HDD cage

 

[OJ46]

You have some very nice components there. I'm liking the look of the red and black colour scheme you've got as well. As for the Samsung SSD I suppose if you got a thin piece of metal cut and sprayed black you could put it on the front of the SSD.

Looking forward to more updates

Now that's sounding like a plan! Think I've got an old case knocking about here somewhere I could cut a lump out of

 

[OJ46]

wow, do you have a build log for the xbox 360 pc build?

Unfortunately not, think I might have a few pictures kicking around somewhere but this was built years ago, so could take some finding! Will have a look later when I get 10 minutes

You titled a picture as 32GB ram but the packaging says 16GB, are the another 2 sticks hidden?

They are indeed, got 4 sticks of the stuff to throw into it

I put heat sinks on my M.2 stick. I thought it might help with cooling along with the added bonus of it blending in with the board.

Spoiler

Spoiler

Now that's a cracking solution mate. might just have to steal that one!

 

[OJ46]

Wait what. You built a PC in an xbox 360 case? :O

Yeah, the Xbox 360 did its usual trick and RROD'd the first time the temperature outside got above freezing, so decided rather than bothering to fix it I'd put the case to better use! Only a low spec system as it's only really used for media streaming etc. Currently running:

Gigabyte Z77N-WIFI Intel Z77 Mini ITX
Core i3-2120 3.30GHz
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz
Intel 520 Series 60GB SSD
Samsung SpinPoint M8 1TB HDD

Oh, and also left myself a subtle reminder whenever it's turned on to never buy another one!

 

[OJ46]

Cheers Snookums From what I remember it wasn't too bad, although the inside of the case was far from flat which made it a bit more of a PITA than it needed to be! I also didn't need an optical drive so that left enough space to mount the SSD, freeing up the clip on cage for some proper storage.

 

[OJ46]

Pico PSU used I assume?

It was indeed, I hate power blocks though so had to stick it to the wall behind the TV to keep all the cabling nice and hidden

Spoiler

I don't suppose you would be interested in doing a little type up of how you managed to fit a PC inside the Xbox 360 case and wire it up as it sounds like a nice little project.

That's something I'd definitely be tempted to do after the current build is finished if there's interest. Will pull it apart when I get time and post pics of the insides

 

[OJ46]

I like that... I really need some braided cables as I would like to do this on my pro m. I know it wont be seen when the sides on but will look good when the sides off

Just don't make the same mistake I did and order a BitFenix Alchemy SATA cable, it's a couple of cm too short! Going to have to switch it for a longer Silverstone one when the MoBo arrives

That's class mate! Best thing for a 360 is to convert to a PC

Cheers Luggs, its certainly been more reliable!

 

[OJ46]

Just wondering, what's the consensus on the Aqua Computer Farbwerk for lighting? Looking at using a couple of their 25cm strips to get a dim glow in the case, and then 2 separate RGB LED's for some temperature monitoring of CPU & GPU. Does the aquaero work with the CPU & GPU temps provided by the MoBo, or would I have to use separate temperature sensors? Cheers guys

 

[OJ46]

Just an extremely small update: I have more shiny things! But in sadder news, they're currently in the possession of the girlfriend, and she won't bring them near my house until Christmas...

Package contains:

1 x Aquaero 5 LT USB Fan-Controller
1 x Colour Work USB
2 x RGB LED strips, 25cm
2 x Connectors for RGB LED strips

I'll also be adding 2 RGB illumination module's, which will be used to display rough temperatures of CPU & GPU, and an inline temperature sensor to monitor water temps

And in even better news, it looks like I should be getting the pump / res combo, one of the rads and some more fans in the post tomorrow Unfortunately had to get the PWM version though and not the Vario I wanted, not that it really matters.

 

[OJ46]

I take it that they are part of your christmas pressent and your girlfriend is not evil?
You can't tease us with these fancy photos of fabulous hardware only to unveil it fitted at christmas . Still though I look forward to seeing it fitted at any time of the year as you have some nice bits of kit for your build. Also is there any significant difference in the vario/PWM versions as surely the PWM versions are better as they can be controlled through the Aquero/Motherboard fan headers?

Can I go with 'both' for the first answer? I'm not religious so should be allowed them now
Hoping to have everything apart from the lighting done before Christmas, just waiting for the Mobo / CPU combo to come back into stock and I'll be putting the order in, along with the PSU (which I've now decided won't but a Be Quiet!, but will be EVGA instead)
From what I've learned in my very short time on here, the PWM is more of a PITA when it comes to getting air out of the system and once it's set up you're better off leaving it at one speed anyway, so no real benefit in it from what I can see. Never mind, doesn't look like there's any real downside either so I'm happy to go with it