First time using H2O!

[benji182]

Well It is unfortunately another TJ07 haha.

I've owned it for about 20months with the thought of watercooling and I've finally got everything together below is a my current Progress.


RX480 with all 4 fans braided and attached:

The Case back from powder coating:

Rad installed:

Rad installed (2):

Res installed:

Max6Formula finally arrived after 2 months of waiting for a release!!

I have plumbed in the hoses but awaiting two fittings for the motherboard which I didn't order due to the fact I forgot and partly down to not knowing if I was going to get this motherboard or not.

Will get the power cables all routed tomorrow and braid the SATA cables which I'm not sure how it will go as I've failed each time previous lol.

 

[benji182]

It sure is!! Worth the wait I can. hopefully I'll have it finished by Friday as I'm now playing the waiting game on a Samsung EVO hahaa

This is looking like the start of a fantastic build, I'm definitely subscribing to this Did you fully dismantle your case in order to get it powder coated. As I'd like to get my whole case done, but don't really know the best way to go about doing it...

And I just sent the case off as a whole in its original box and the guy did all the cleaning/prep/coating etc and then shipped it back to me. I'm really pleased with the finish.

I had contacted loads of companies in my area and they either thought I was joking or said it wasn't a large enough order but its done now

 

[benji182]

Today's progress was slow, tedious & painful (burns from stupid lighter).

PSU isn't mounted in place as I still have sort out a few more cables for soldering/sleeving but I'm happy~ish with the way the SATA power cables came out.

Never again though, I don't know if all PSUs are the same but cables designed to come from a top mounted PSU and so had to remove the connects, sleeve, turn connector around, sleeve... and repeat (too many times).

 

[benji182]

It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.

I bought this XSPC Rad stand

+ Blue masking taped the lower compartment roughly where the stands would go.
+ Attach to the rad and put at least one fan on or take the fans depth into consideration.
+ Put the rad&fans in the place you want it and draw around two edges of the stands base.
+ Take out the case, remove the rad, place the rad stand back in on its own and then finish off marking the outer edge and mark up where the slots for screw holes can go. Repeat for other one.
+ Drill holes where you marked it up and then install.

 

[benji182]

Thanks guys, hopefully the two monsoon fittings (I forgot to order) arrive tomorrow allowing me to fill and leak test until my Samsung EVO SSD arrives.... the 500Gb versions didn't land today so hopefully I won't be waiting too long.

Noob question but how hard was it to drill the holes in the base and what diameter drill bit do you need? Doesn't sound too awfully hard!

4mm Nut/Bolt came with my radiator mount so used a 4mm drill bit to go through where I had marked. Just make sure your drill bit is for metal and not wood/masonry or you'll ruin your case lol.

One thing to note is if your case as feet on the underside. Two of my bolts were very close to the feet.

If you're not feeling up to drilling into your case then just use some super strong double sided scotch tape. Of course be cautious if moving the case.

 

[benji182]

A little help/advice please:

I've just filled up the loop and so far so good. Filled the Res up, turned on (spare PSU for pump not the actual PSU for system). coolant went down, repeated.

I can't top the Res up anymore as its now at the top but there are a few bubbles on the last tube/hose returning to the Res/pump. I will be leaving this for at least 24 hours for leak testing but will they likely go?

Pics to be uploaded soon.

 

[benji182]

SATA & power/HDD/reset switch cables braided:

Just before filling the loop:

Loop filled and leak testing has commenced:

No drips so far but a fair few static bubbles =/ hmmm

 

[benji182]

Did you rock the case as you filled and bled the air out?

I have tilted it to 45' to each side and not as much forwards and backwards.

Do get a noise every now and then which sounds like air going through the pump. Not done that for a while now though.

 

[benji182]

Thanks guys =)

No leaks and no more bubbles or gluging sounds from the rad/res/pump when I tilt it or turn off and on again which is good news.


I'm still waiting for my SSD so won't be doing anything more with this until that comes as my main boot drive however; can anyone recommend me some (cheap if possible) lighting solutions?

I had red cold cathods previously and they were more pink and got very warm which wasn't great.

Rather than flooding the case and over powering it with light I was thinking something a little more subtle but no idea when it comes to LEDS or lights. Any advice?

 

[benji182]

SSD is finally here now to get it installed and turn this beetch on

 

[benji182]

Now get another 7970 when they are cheap!

I was semi tempted to but I don't really know if my system is good enough to cool 2 cards and a CPU and the motherboard.

It's been really warm today and my room must be at least mid 20's but CPU cores are idling around 35-40'C with the GPU idling around 37'C


The four GT fans are just 800rpm as I've gone for silence rather than uber overclocking/cooling etc.

I won't be overclocking the GPU as I don't have a clue how and I've got my CPU currently running 4.6Ghz @ 1.344V

I haven't run any stress tests but it won't boot into windows with anything less. I just need to figure how to make it drop down from 4.6Ghz when idle lol.

 

[benji182]

Old silverstone front panel switched for a USB3.0/internal SSD mount
Also the HDDs mounted with a Sharkoon 1000 rpm fan giving them some air flow despite about to be covered up. (40mm between fan and back of drive bay covers)

Prior to having side panels back on:

Side Panels on:

New OcUK mouse mat:

Next step is a backplate for the the GFX card and some interior lighting (not just yet though).

 

[benji182]

llovely looking build mate!!! what is braided cables by the way? im still very new and trying to take in everything lol

Braiding is just the Red & Black sleeving I have used to cover each wire from the PSU so no more black, yellow, green, blue plastic wires on show

Some very neat and patient braiding has gone into this!

A credit to you sir, keep up the good work!

A question for you; did you have to cut any of the connections out of the PSU connectors? I found when I braided my 24-pin and 8-pin that some would just not budge. I snipped them and crimped on some new connectors in the end!

It was possibly the most bored weekend of my life lol but I'm happy with the result.

There were 4 or 5 in total that REALLY gave me agro. I often left them and came back to them later and a few did eventually come out. One of the pins/crimps on the 24pin ATX power cable snapped leaving the crimp inside the plastic connector. It happened to be a double where a fat and a thin black power cable were in a single crimp.

I was able to free the crimp out of the connector once I'd unfortunately pulled the wires out of it

I was able to use some pliers to open the knackered crimp, put the fat wire in and pinch it back together. Then used a soldering iron to seal it in with some solder. The thin wire that was in there I had to solder into the fat wire by splicing the fat cable closer to the PSU and soldered it into that.

Used some electrical tape around it and then covered with the braiding. There is a slight bulge in the cable but its behind the motherboard tray so I'm not too fussed.

 

[benji182]

great stuff, thank for taking the time to reply to me mate, totally stunning build, i can only wish for something like this in my dreams lol

love how you have your monitor setup!!! do you use them as 2 individual ones? and love your screen saver clock lol i love the whole shabang lol

The screensaver is 'Fliqlo' if you wanted to google it and the monitor orientation makes it handy for many things.

I have firefox open on the right monitor with my BF3 stats up etc when I'm playing BF3 on the left monitor so I know which gun to use to get next unlock etc.

I think BF4 have said something about a dedicated mini-map out of the game so that will fill that monitor quite nicely ;D