Dripping with style or floody disaster?

[OJ46]

Sooooooo, bit of an update at last: Santa came! He even brought gifts, and most of them were still in one piece

This was his first delivery...

...Which as you can see he had a few problems with. Looks like he used the CPU as a wedge to stop his sleigh rolling away

Luckily the MoBo was in better condition, and must say first impressions are very good. If she runs as good as she looks she'll be a beast

Looking good again EVGA...

...Now can't wait to power it up.

She's in! That has now doubled the 'installed component' count

The powerful beating heart is finally living where it belongs, not under the arse end of a sleigh

Block on and ready for some water, and yes, I know it's upside down, it's supposed to be

Don't have any spare plugs, so thought this would be the next best thing for keeping dust out.

Not looking too bad so far...

Yep, this is definitely going to need to be covered, looks hideous!

Happy to say the black RAM looks like it could be all right, and I'm going to whisper this bit, but maybe even better than the red I wanted...

And then, right as I was ready to call it a night...

...Santa did another lap and stopped in with another gift, an XSPC 360 X-Flow

Just time to quickly lob some fans on it...

...Check it all fits

Take a few seconds to admire the as yet un-ballsed-up beast

Then slot this massive chunk of awesomeness into his new home and get back to my proper job, hoping the other rad, res / pump combo and other fans come tomorrow

So, finally things have started to happen! Hopefully another small update tomorrow if the other parts do finally arrive

 

[OJ46]

Cheers mate, think you might be right about being too much red and was actually thinking about swapping the rear fan out for a Phanteks black & white one, but going to see what it's like when the water tubing is in first. Still not decided on a colour for the tubing though, was almost tempted by black but now everything is starting to go in I'm swaying towards white again... All I've learned so far is I'd have been crap on 60 minute makeover

 

[OJ46]

Looking very nice! Can't wait to see how this comes out.

Please tell me you tested all the hardware before you put the blocks on etc?

Cheers Sam, trying to keep it as neat as possible but will see what happens when the other rad & reservoir go in

Tested it? Nah, not got an air cooler for the CPU so just crossing my fingers, but will add a tap to the loop so it can be drained easily just in case

God dammit... Was looking at getting the Gigabyte G7 + 6700k combo, 5820k and the Gigabyte board or the Hero one (guessing you got the Hero + 6700k combo off OCUK?)
But good lord that board looks sick!
Thinking of either watercooling or getting a new gpu (currently have a 290) or scrapping both and getting games lol.
Build looks awesome though so far!!!

Cheers mate, am well happy with how it's turning out so far
Yep, got the combo off here. To be honest I pretty much always stick with ASUS boards when building high end PC's, so I'm probably extremely biased... But really do like the look of this board Just hope she performs well now

 

[OJ46]

Well my dad came in and said he got me the 5820k and the Gigabyte board, still, nothing to cry over hehe
I am sure she will, kinda glad i got the extra cores, but still 50/50 haha!

That's a cool looking board mate, and pretty sure it would be just as fast if not faster than my setup, especially once you overclock it a bit!

It's definitely a case of swings and roundabouts when choosing between 2011 & 1151, seen good arguments for both so don't think it's possible to be disappointed with either!

Can't wait to see more

Cheers Xenon, DPD are delivering more goodies between 13:30 & 14:30 today, so hopefully do it a bit more later if I get time

 

[OJ46]

Damn, that is one sexy mobo and I agree the black RAM looks awesome in situ.

Lucky I chose the black RAM aye Luggs, regardless of the cost

Even better than getting lucky on the RAM, Santa (Jeff from DPD) has been again, and he brought more toys! Will hopefully have em installed in the next day or 2

 

[OJ46]

Right, so I've made a start.

Phanteks fans and XSPC radiator are in

Some good news, fairly nicely lined up with the rad above so should be a short / tidy bit of tubing. Would have been even better but had to push the top rad further forward to clear the rear fan

BUT... It's looking like the pump / reservoir could be a right PITA. Not exactly a lot of room, and nothing flat to mount it on. Oh well, will have to make a new bracket for it when I get some spare time

Well, I guess you could call that progress Looks like mounting the pump / res could be fun though...

 

[OJ46]

good looking build!

would this help your mounting worries...

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ek-water-blocks-ek-uni-pump-bracket-120mm-fan-vertical-wc-890-ek.html

I'm using the same pump/res and have just ordered this bracket for myself. You could mount on the back of teh 120 rad there, provided there's space between that and the gpu!

Cheers mate, it's coming along slowly

Unfortunately not, going to need to mount the pump quite low down and all the fan mounts I've seen are too high up

As a rough guess I need the mounting holes to be somewhere around the red dots on the pic below, so was thinking mount the right hand ones properly, then make an L shape bracket so I can screw the left ones to the floor instead, which should hopefully have the added benefit of making it even more stable than standard... IF it goes to plan Biggest problem is trying to do it without making it look crap!

 

[OJ46]

I'm sure it will look great, a bit of a shame that the pre-designed mounts aren't in the right place though. I had a similar issue in the Enthoo Luxe and had to resort to a radiator pump mount. It seems my system and yours fall into the percentage not covered by the current mounting positions

Still though, the system looks fantastic with the red ring Corsiar fans and radiators fitted

It's extremely easy to fit a 240 rad in the front and have room for the pump and reservoir in this case mate, but the trouble is you have to remove the HDD cage to do it... No biggie for a lot of people I know, but I've got 2 x 2TB HDD's to go in it and definitely can't afford to replace them with 4TB's of SSD's! Oh well, there's always next years Black Friday

Which reservoir/pump combo is that mate?

It's an EK-XRES 140 REVO D5 PWM mate, I wanted the Vario rather than PWM but couldn't find one so this will have to do, and this one does look nicer...

 

[OJ46]

Well I mounted the pump & reservoir in temporarily to check it would fit OK...

...And SUCCESS! Not a massive amount of room to play with but enough to get it mounted somewhere almost flat, and also makes it easy enough to botch a bracket for the other side

A finger, to show how tight she is

Would have liked to have mounted it nearer the radiator to get it more central, but those cut-outs where extra drives can be mounted killed that one off!

 

[OJ46]

Hoping the cables will do a 180 under the card and then exit through the hole where my finger is, never like the look when they go straight down unless there's a couple of cards in SLI to close the gap a bit... Sooooo, if you want to send me another 980ti as a free sample OcUK?!

 

[OJ46]

She's in! Reckon those cables will look alright once I get a comb to tidy the GPU ones up a bit

A 90° off the top of the reservoir and a 45° off the far radiator top and she'll be sorted (This was taken before I'd washed out the radiators, fan cables are now hidden)

Always look so messy when they're WIP, but will definitely have to tidy this side up even if it doesn't show

 

[OJ46]

Cheers mate, must admit it has actually turned out better than I was expecting... At least until I attempt the tubing runs

Unfortunately it's looking like another delay before the next update as I'm waiting on parts that are out of stock again I'm getting impatient now, want to get it finished and put it to use! Never mind, as long as it's up and running before new year

 

[OJ46]

Well the new tubing arrived and I must say a massive thanks to those who said to ditch the XSPC and go with PrimoChill instead. Not only does it look better, it's also a LOT tighter on the barbs and also tighter to get the compression fitting on, so I'm a lot happier with it

Definitely made the right choice sticking with white tubing I think, not sure the fittings would look right with anything darker. I've tried to keep all the tubing runs as short as possible using the X-Flow in the top and a multi port top on the reservoir for the inlet, now just need to wait for the 90° and 45° angles to get it finished and see what it looks like

Also need to decide whether to leave the water clear, or to go with a red dye to make the reservoir look a bit more interesting... Leaning towards red atm

 

[OJ46]

That's one thing that was worrying me with the white tubing, don't want it going pink a week after I've finished it and have to drain the system to re-do it all. Might chuck some red dyed fluid in an offcut and plug the ends, see if it shows through or not
Good news: Your eyes are working fine! I've just stuck the plastic plugs in as a temporary dust blocker, will have proper stop fittings in when it's finished... As long as I don't forget to swap them

 

[OJ46]

It's the little details that make all the difference

 

[OJ46]

Damn, I need to get some cable combs as they look much cleaner and tidier when fitted and you can barely see the comb. You're definitely right about the little tweaks making the build look much better

For the price of em it's mad not to mate, especially after splashing out on nice cables

Superb project. Looks lovely with clean lines. Be interested how quiet those fans turn out to be.

Cheers mate, will let you know once it's up and running! Hoping to be able to run them all at a fairly low RPM, especially when using it for work

I don't think that system looks good in your romm but would look amazing in mine lol
Great work look forward to more

Haha thanks for the kind words, but I think it'll look pretty nice in its current home once it's finished

 

[OJ46]

The 45° and 90° fittings arrived today, so finally time to do a bit more plumbing

The aim was to get the tubing runs as short as possible... Think I've done OK

Never realised some of these really short runs could be so ******* awkward!

Hoping this one doesn't leak, wanted to get it as straight a possible but still on a bit of an angle
Edit: Just ordered an 8mm extension, so hopefully get this one looking a bit better...

Yep, fairly happy with that.

And all closed up. Think it'll look OK once there's some lighting in there

 

[OJ46]

Looks very, very tasty...
Maybe a bit of holly to finish the decoration off?

Cheers mate, will add a bit of tinsel to it just for Christmas

Looks great, I think some white fluid would look great just to see in the res.

Thanks Sam, was thinking along the same lines once the tubing was finished... Now have clear fluid, pastel white fluid and red dye on order... Oops! Oh well, sure one off them will look good

 

[OJ46]

Strawberry Milkshake coolant!!!

Haha don't tempt me, don't think I can afford much more fluid when I change my mind again

Looks stunning

Cheers dude, just a few more bits to finish off and it'll be ready to fire up

 

[OJ46]

Cheers Luggs, it's getting annoying now just waiting on tiny things like a tap for drainage, internal tube for the reservoir etc to finish it... I JUST WANT TO PLAY GTA!!!