Graphics Welder

[Mysterae_]

This is an odd start to a project log as I'm going to have to go backwards before I go forwards; by that I mean that the PC itself is already built but not as I originally planned. I always intended to water cool it but once it was assembled to test the components before water cooling, I started to use it . Of course I did!

Roll on many months later it's now time to finally get the water cooling installed and hopefully before Santa comes, so that gives me 2 weeks. First I have to disassemble it down to individual components, talking of which this is the system specification:

GPU - Nvidia RTX 4090 FE
CPU - Intel i7 13700K
CPU AIO - DeepCool LT520 (with Phanteks T30 fans fitted later)
Motherboard - MSI MPG Z790I EDGE WIFI (ITX)
RAM - Corsair Vengeance DDR5 64GB 6600MHz (32GB x2)
Storage - WD_Black SN850X 2TB NVMe (x2)
NVMe Cooler - ThermalRight HR-09 (x1)
PSU - Thermaltake Toughpower SFX 1000W (ATX3.0, PCIe 5.0, 80 PLUS Gold and SFX-L size)
Case - Phanteks Evolv Shift XT Black (ITX)

I know what you're thinking, that's a lot of power to cram in to such a small case and you'd be right! The 4090FE just about fits in the Shift XT:

The fans of the LT520 AIO had to be changed to Phanteks T30's later on as the DeepCool fans were just too noisy and not quite as efficient. Temperatures at idle were okay (CPU 42C, GPU 36C depending on ambient) but as soon as the system was put any sort of testing load those temperatures would increase (especially the 13700K) and so would the fan noise. The PC was always stable though, just too hot and noisy as I knew it was always going to be with such a case and components.

For example, here's the stats from AIDA64 control panel during a Cinebench R23 multi-thread run, the 13700K reaching 96C at 230W:

Here's the PC as it's been for a while and how this project log got its name, it looks like some sort of compact welder. It's quite apt as it will indeed be welding graphics in a manner of speaking, whether that be game graphics, rendering in DaVinci Resolve or 3D modelling.

How hot does it get in it's stock configuration? Here's some thermal images showing just that during an all thread run of Cinebench R23.

As the AIO at the top of the case is configured to draw the air through the side panels and out through the top of the case it's no surprise that the top section gets the warmest.

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With the top and side mesh panels removed:

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The keen eyed amongst you will have noticed the LED strips at the front of the case produce some heat but more interesting is the temperature delta between the radiator inlet and outlet. The images below illustrate this clearly, look at the temperatures marked as "Cen" (for centre) and it's corresponding white crosshair. The image on the left is the outlet on the left of the radiator, right image is the inlet on the right of the radiator. That's a 3.1C temperature delta between them, pretty good. I should add that these temps were taken with the Phanteks T30 fans fitted to the rad and at about 80% fan speed iirc.

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Perhaps I should have called it Video Toaster ... who's old enough to remember that?!

 

[Mysterae_]

Time to get this rig stripped down.

See the ThermalRight NVMe cooler in the image above, immediately above the LT520's pump cover? It's name plate always annoyed me with it being upside down. Just to note, this NVMe drive being the primary SSD was always hotter than the secondary as it was always in use by Windows. It really needs this cooler.

It was easy to remove with it only being held on with double-sided sticky tape so came off easily. The name plate won't be going back on, I reckon it looks much better without it. The first mod of many .

An image of the components laid out taken way back at the start of the build.

Now to the water cooling plan - the only way to properly water cool this level of hardware in such a small case is with an external radiator to move as much heat out of the case as possible. I'll be using a MO-RA3 4X180 PRO from a previous build (Parallel In The Black) that's now being decommissioned after 8 years of service.

Here's a comparison image showing the size of the Phanteks Evolv Shift XT compared to the previous build's SilverStone FT02 behemoth:

It's what happens when you jump from an E-ATX motherboard to ITX, things shrink!

The peak power consumption of both computer's CPUs and GPUs are surprisingly comparable with 13700K + 4090 = ~750W versus 4790K + 1080Ti SLI = ~780W so I'm certain the MO-RA3 will perform just as well again.

I'll be keeping the SilverStone AP181 Air Penetrator 180mm fans on the MO-RA3 as they are pretty good so no reason to replace them at present.

Instead of using the previous build's pump and reservoir combo (Aqua Computer Aqualis, shown above) I've opted for the Aqua Computer Utilitube 150 Pro with it's D5 Next, which can control the pump and fans without a need for an Aquaero which I don't want to fit this time around.

Summary of the water cooling parts:

External Radiator - Watercool MO-RA3 4X180 PRO
Reservoir & Pump - Aqua Computer Utilitube D5 Pro Combo (D5 Next)
GPU Block - Watercool Heatkiller V Pro RTX
CPU Block - EK Quantum Velocity2
Hard Tubing - Corsair XT Hardline 10mm OD
Soft Tubing - EK Loop Soft Tube 13mm OD
Quick Disconnects - Koolance QDCs Bulkhead Male x2, 10/13 Female x2
Various fittings

The CPU retention bracket/contact plate fitted before installing the EK Quantum Velocity2 CPU block.

This water block looks massive when installed on an ITX motherboard, and probably doubles it's weight.

The fittings loosely fitted to see what they look like. I should really remove the protective film on the CPU block, trying to keep it smudge fee as I can .

 

[Mysterae_]

A slight detour from the water cooling to my intentions with the case.

The front of the Evolv Shift XT is okay with it's infinity mirror and LEDs but I reckon it was always meant to have some sort of screen. I contacted Phanteks a while ago asking if they would ever release a screen mod for this case and they said they were "working on it". This case has been released for over a year now and as it gradually fades from the peoples minds the chances of a screen mod from Phanteks seems ever so unlikely.

I've seen other modders put screens in this case and they definitely look brilliant and I researched my options and decided not on a 3.5" or 5" screen, but instead to replace the whole front end with a 10" 1920x1080 IPS panel.

Some bits removed from the front of the case shows the glass for the infinity mirror and power on button.

The component parts of the infinity mirror.

I'll definitely be reusing these LED light strips later in the build.

Putting the shell back together.

This is my intention but with the case sitting on it's feet as usual.

 

[Mysterae_]

Turning my attention back to water cooling, the motherboard and it's block are test fitted in the case.

Not quite sure if this will be the blocks final orientation, it all depends on where I mount the quick disconnects on the vented back panel and the best routing for the hard line tubing.

We've all seen images of a 4090 disassembly and water block installation, so here's some more .

A slight modification to the case as the sponge padding gets in the way of the blanking plugs of the waterblock. A bit of dusting required too from where the 4090 drew in dust when being used before.

The 4090 and it's block and fittings installed.

I did consider modifying the case and fitting bulkhead passthrough fittings to use the ports at the back of the Heatkiller, but even then I think it would be too tight with the PSU installed so discarded the idea.

Now I need to carefully consider where I'm going to install the bulkhead quick disconnects on the back panel, paying close attention to the inlets and outlets of the CPU and GPU blocks.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Mysterae_]

Lets goooooo looks smashing so far! Reminds me of my now retired Dan A4 H2O build, this looks way better though. I love the Aesthetics of this case with the display at the front.

Don't you wish Heatkiller put ports at the bottom of the block instead of exiting out of the side like that. Would be so much cleaner.

Told you I'd eventually get my finger out of my bum and install the Heatkiller that was sat on my shelf for ages .

I'm not sure if the ports on the bottom edge of the block would help me here, certainly would keep the profile lower but make a longer card. If you had the hardware (3D printer, G1/4 thread tap) you could make your own "end cap" for the block. In fact, that would be a good idea for Watercool to provide the option but would add to the cost of an already expensive block.

 

[Mysterae_]

Really interesting build, looking forward to seeing it come together. That before setup really was cramming a lot in a small space. It's no wonder the fans had to work hard.

I'm gonna have to go back and have a read through the previous build log as well. Looks really well done in the background there.

I've just had a look at my other project and see that all the images are missing, doh! Give me a little time and I'll restore them.

 

[Mysterae_]

Haha this legit looks like a welder! I lioke I lioke Once the screens displaying the knobs/gauges it really will look 1:1 like one haha, amazing!

More so with a handle installed .

The handle is a metal kitchen drawer/cabinet handle from B&Q and fits in perfectly, however the weight of the PC is just too much for the plastic lugs of the case top, I think they'd give way at some point. I won't be fitting the handle in the final build.

 

[Mysterae_]

Not much progress has been done lately <insert life excuse here> but a little few bits that may be of interest.

Since I'd decided on clear hard tubing instead of copper tubing that I've used on past builds, I had to learn the ropes. It's much tricker than I thought it would be and in some respects working with copper is a bit easier - no need to heat it up and judge the right time to bend, doesn't mark as bad as plastic and relaxes differently after bending. After a bit of practicing I worked out the best heat gun temperature (320C), when to decide the tubing is pliable enough and to chuck those bending gauges away and just bend by hand with the silicone insert. I'm getting there....

I made many quick and dirty plans in Sketchup to determine the best routing for the tubing.

Originally I wanted both QDCs to be on the same vertical plane such as the image below but in reality it wasn't ideal.

Later I found the best way would be to have the CPU block rotated 90 degrees and have the inlet and outlet QDCs on either side.

Reality looks so much different .

I think the tube routing I've finalised on is the most ideal and now I'm just perfecting the tubing to get the best finish. The piece with five bends is tricky!

 

[Mysterae_]

No thought about moving the gpu out 1 slot and running the tubes round the back with double 90's?

Would look a lot cleaner too.

Great job so far, looks a beaut!

I hadn't looked at moving the GPU, not sure if the riser would have enough length. I've come to a final solution anyway, just about to post it.

 

[Mysterae_]

So Christmas has been and gone, as had any hope of having this completed by the time Santa had eaten all the mince pies. Life got busy over that period and I ran in to an issue that caused me to delay progress.

That delay was caused by the tubing going from the output of the CPU block to the input of the GPU block, I just wasn't happy with it. That single bit of tubing had 5 bends in it - 90*, 135*, 90*, 100* then an in-turned 90*. It was a pain to make and once I'd got it dialled in it was a pain to fit without putting a lot of stress on the acrylic.

The more I looked at it the less I liked it.

I decided to scrap this approach and try something different which meant ordering some new fittings from OCUK and with it being just a few days after Christmas I didn't get the parts until after the New Year.

While waiting for the parts to arrive I decided to have a play with making the tubing out of some 10mm chromed copper tubing and numerous fittings I had left over from a previous build. Who knows, I might actually like it and keep it that way (spoiler, I don't ).

First, the input to the CPU block using a 90* rotary fitting - too close to the IO of the motherboard.

Using a straight fitting - too close to the edge of the case.

Using a 90* rotary fitting with a slight kink on the tubing - works but will need to be centred a bit better on the back of the case.

The 90* rotary fittings for the 4090's Heaterkiller block. These fittings just don't look all that nice do they?

After a lot of bending and cutting of scrap copper tubing I arrived at what would almost be my desired tubing routing.

Not bad, but the fittings are heavier than you'd expect and cause a degree of sagging due to the way the copper tubing is held inside them. See if you can spot my anti-sagging device in the picture below .

I didn't have enough chromed tubing for the GPU outlet to make the end so I cheated with some couplings.

It was fun working with copper tubing again. I find you can be quite precise with it and it's not as brittle as acrylic tubing and doesn't need to heated up to 300C just to bend it. I might look in to copper again in the future if I can find better 10mm push fittings. Until then, it's time to make the move to acrylic.

 

[Mysterae_]

Some shiny new Phanteks fittings, bending block and (more) tubing arrived from OCUK I could start to finalise the water cooling.

The bending station. I should have learned sooner not to put the silicone insert so damn far in to the tubing, just makes it more difficult to remove.

The kinky feed to the inlet of the GPU block. These Phanteks fitting are so much nicer than the push fittings I was using for the copper. Shiny!

Bang on target.

As a normal 90 degree rotary wouldn't be tall enough for either fitting I decided to couple a normal fitting with a 90 elbow fitting with a small bit of tubing between. This way I can control the height offset and add a little bit of colour to the chrome once the coolant is in.

Next, the tubing from the outlet of the CPU to the 90 degree elbow then to the GPU.

 

[Mysterae_]

I really prefer this routing of the tubing. There's symmetry in the CPU block's fittings and also in the tubing of the CPU and GPU elevations.

The outlet of the GPU block, resembling how the CPU block's outlet tubing.

GPU elevation.

CPU elevation.

The tubing between the 90 degree elbow and the GPU inlet could do with a bit of a tweak as it's not ideal. Then it's drill the holes for the quick disconnects and this side of water cooling will be done.

 

[Mysterae_]

This is going to be so nice once done!


Great attention to detail.

Now you are giving me ideas for the next build...

Thanks, and if you do decide to go copper tubing, chose your fittings wisely!

Fantastic jobby mate! Bends look super clean too.

Thanks, it was a bit of learning curve, no pun intended .

 

[Mysterae_]

Looks awesome, I'd be too scared to leave that compression fitting hanging above the PSU though! I'd have to re-route it somehow.

I did think about that fitting in particular because if it leaks on to the PSU it would probably take everything out! However, that elbow has 4 vitron o-rings (2 per outlet) and it is such a tight fit that I'm happy that the risk of a leak is quite low. The odds of a pipe being knocked loose is low also due to the way they are routed and held in place.

I did consider changing it though as I may need to redo the tubing from the CPU outlet to gain a little height anyway - the tubing rests on the cables from the PSU and I don't like that. If only Phanteks did a 12mm coupling in the same styling then I could do the tubing run differently to mitigate the problem above.

I could have used a 45 degree coupling (or two) and make the connecting pipe a bit differently as shown below.

Note sure, but one part of it may still be over the PSU, definitely would be if I were to use two.

I'll probably stick with the 90 degree fitting that I have. The system will be thoroughly leak tested with air (pressure tester) and then run with coolant from the Utilitube at max speed before any power is applied to the PSU. I'm definitely not ignoring the possibility of that fitting (or any others) leaking.

 

[Mysterae_]

If you're using something like PMMA tubing, the chances of it coming out of the fitting is next to none plus with your skills and confidence i'm pretty sure you're not gonna have any accidents unless you threw it down a flight of stairs .

Thanks, I currently have no plans to test it's bounce resistance . The tubing is PMMA (Corsair Hydro X series XT) and it's quite tight in the Phanteks fittings but as like coupe69 said, the ramifications of a leak did pass through my mind.

 

[Mysterae_]

It was time to get the quick disconnect bulkhead fittings er, fitted and these needed 18mm holes drilled in the case, 19mm if I wanted a bit play in them.

Time for the big drill bits, starting small and working up. Reduced shank drill bits are great, the only way you'll get an 18mm drill bit in a 13mm chuck.

The hole required at the vented part of the case needed tackling differently, the drill would have just caught and minced the case. Some finer fettling required by way of some carbide bits for the trusted Dremel.

Case chassis stripped down off all parts, holes cut and chassis washed to get rid of any swarf that may be lurking. Thoroughly dried after.

Quick disconnect bulkhead fittings mounted in place.

The quick disconnects with the 12mm hardline fittings. I wonder how precise I got the holes, will the tubing line up okay?

 

[Mysterae_]

Before I start what will hopefully be final assembly, I need to look at my options for mounting the front screen.

I bought some 180 degree adaptors for the HDMI and USB port but the were a bit bulky and needed trimming down.

All the plastic moulding removed.

The screen is going to be held in place by utilising the magnets that are already present on the Evlov Shift XT. The top face panel has these two metal discs that stick to the two magnets (silver in the image below) that are in position on the top cover. The plan is to glue or screw the metal discs to the back of the LCD panel, the magnets are more than strong enough to hold it in place.

However, even after trimming down the HDMI and USB adaptors it's a bit tight and I think it'll look crap.

I'd much prefer to keep the original grill fins untouched like below (without the masking tape holding on the screen protector ).

Time to open the display up to see what my options are.

Is all that's inside it?! This opens up a lot more mounting options.

I could move the LCD control board down and cut new slots in the back of the case.

There's plenty of space at the back to run cables, may not need 180 adaptors and just run 90 degree ended cables.

The business side of the LCD control board.

There's quite a few options like not using the case for the LCD at all but I think it frames it well with the case and makes it easier to mount. I could put the LCD control board on the outside of the case, remove the speakers as they aren't required. Going to have a little think about it .

 

[Mysterae_]

TLDR: was there a question in all that?
and, is there any aluminium in the loop along with the copper?

TLDR?! Maybe there was but you'll never know unless you read it....

There is no aluminium in the loop, the MoRa has a copper core.

 

[Mysterae_]

Some more progress.

Stripped the LCD screen to mark up for the steel discs for the magnets to attach to and the holes for the HDMI and USB ports. I've rotated the screen 180 so it's buttons are at the top and the holes for the afore mentioned ports are unseen at the bottom.

Discs fitted and holes for the ports crudely cut out. The image shows the 180 degree adaptors but I've changed this to 90 degree adaptors.

I extended the power button PCB at the front of the case out a few millimetres so that the LCD screen just touches it. To power on the computer you simply press the screen at the bottom as the magnets allow it to pivot a little.

Test fit, perfect. I must have gouged the edge of the LCD's case with my Dremel or hot glue gun - right at the top of it too!

Finally time for some assembly. I relocated the control board and buttons for the D-RGB of the Evolv Shift XT as the LED strips need to be a bit closer to where I want them. The buttons are redundant any way as the motherboard's D-RGB (MSI Mystic Light) overrides it.

Talking of D-RGB, had to cobble together and modify the wiring for them as there was a bit of a mismatch between products. The MSI MPG Z790I Edge allows up to 240 addressable LEDs and I'm no where near this limit yet, not sure if I'll be fitting any more in the future.

I'll skip all the refitting of parts and cable management....

You'll notice I've turned the PSU around. This is so it takes air from inside the case, more on this later.

All the tubing lined up nicely with the quick disconnects.

Some short custom cables for the 4090 would have been nice, but alas.

 

[Mysterae_]

I'm waiting on some screws so that I can mount the two fans you see here.

The top plate that the fans mount on to.

This is the problem, the fans need to be higher so the 4090's power cable isn't damaged but also to move them closer to the top of the case.

I couldn't resist posting a few images of it assembled....but not quite finished.