Hardline beginner build

r3br3l15

r3br3l15

r3br3l15

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Joined
20 Jul 2015
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34
hi guys

thought it like to share my experience as a novice builder with water cooling, first off, hats off to anyone who has used hardline tubing as i found it a lot harder than i thought however very pleased with how it has turned out so far.
(the build is almost finished, just a few more fittings then flush and fill)

so what are the stats,
MB - Maximus hero VIII
CPU - I5 6600K
Ram - 16GB (2x8gb) Dominator Corsair 3000Mhz
PSU - Corsair RM650
GPU - AMD R9 390x
Case - Thermaltake core P5

Watercooling
RAD - EK 360 Coolstream XE
CPU - EK Supremacy EVO
GPU - EK-FC TF5 Nickel
Res - EK-RES X3 250
Pump - EK revo D5 PWM with EK-XTOP Plexi

having already built a watercooled rig using soft tubing (which was a doddle) i wanted to challenge myself with this build and go with a more professional look (i hope this comes across)

it certainly was challenging, the tubing itself wasnt the hard part, the hardest part was getting the correct fittings in the correct orientation (as you will see in the pictures)







**note - i am aware of the blue liquid in the GPU, it is leftover as i was using it in my previous build, im going to flush the system before filling and running

if you guys have any advice please go ahead as i said im new to this so any comments are always welcome,

with regards to the fluid well i havent picked a colour yet im thinking bright orange or green, but i will probably run it on distilled water for now and for testing etc.
 
The case is brilliant, although some holes had paint in the threads which meant some of the screws were tight etc, the only other issue I can see is that the space behind is quite small so once you have all of your drives and cables fitted and then add the back plate on I don't see much room or very little air flow (especially if you have SATA drives mounted)

Other than that I love the open air look to the case having on show etc
 
Looking very nice so far.

I would change the stop fittings in your GPU block for nice black ones. But that is a personal thing :D

Do you also have a more zoomed out photo?
 
Cheers guys will definitely put some more pics up when it's complete

Yeh mostly used the EK-HDC 10/12mm fittings with some alphacool 90 degree

Decided to try and keep the black theme in the hope that it allows the vibrant colour of the coolant to stand out
 
See you've cheated a bit by not bending any of your tubes........

....... and its exactly what im considering doing for my build if I redo it in 6 months! It just comes off so damn clean looking.

Lovely job man!
 
Cheers m8 Haha yh I kinda chickened out bending, altho I will admit having not done hardline before it has taken longer to build than I thought as I was learning as I was building

It might of looked cleaner with because you would have more tube than fittings etc but I like the right angles and straight lines
 
so the last of the parts arrived today,

all fitted now and the loop is under test using distilled water for now,

anyone recommend any ideas of getting bubbles out? ive got a huge bubble in my GPU and a small bubble in my CPU block,

i am using a small 400w PSU atm just to power the pump for testing, but does it matter i.e do i needed more power to the pump to increase the flow? (the OS isnt installed yet so cant control via PWM)

on a side note im loving this pump is it almost silent, very impressed
 
r3br3l15 said:
anyone recommend any ideas of getting bubbles out? ive got a huge bubble in my GPU and a small bubble in my CPU block,
Click to expand...

Rock the case to a 45-90 degree angle (if you can, get a mate to help to keep it smooth) Do make sure that you have an open port on your res to give the air somewhere to go. Just make sure you dont tilt it in in the direction of where that open port is :p
 
You need to put a piece of wire from the molex into the PWM connector as shown to make the pump run at 100%, otherwise the pump will only run very slowly without PWM control and won't force the bubbles back to the reservoir.

Nice build by the way, looking extremely good for a 'beginner' build! :)

Hot%20wire%20pwm%20pump_zps7veeaodj.jpeg
 
cheers guys

suffered had quite a setback unfortunately, since completing the build i then ran the PC and installed windows etc and long story short i couldnt do any sort of gaming at all, the screens would flicker then go black.

initially i suspected it was driver issue so i went through a few drivers even the drivers from the discs etc downloaded some, also installed them in safe mode etc and still nothing worked. i reached out to this forum again for help and they suggested either getting the card tested or removing the riser cable and plugging the card direct into the motherboard.

as this is a hardline tube build its a lot easier said than done, i didnt really want to drain it all to remove the card however i had no choice, so drained the loop and removed the card, and i was going to ask a friend of mine to test it in his pc, but i decided whilst it was already drained and in pieces i may aswell try and fit it to the board,

this however meant that none of my exsisting tubes would fit etc so i then had to go about cutting new tubing to complete the flow, anyway refitting it all together and ran the PC (thankfully windows was being friendly that day), i left all the software and drivers the same and i just opened steam and ran ark (which wouldnt run before) i didnt have high hopes at all however low and behold it ran, i couldnt believe it. :D

so for anyone who is thinking about the thermaltake Core P5 case be aware that the GPU riser cable that comes with the case can be faulty, i did a quick google to find more info on the cable and there are a lot of people with the same issue.

next step is to find a riser cable that works and then refit the components back to how i originally set it up.

very much relieved to say the least that i havent ruined my GPU and that i dont have a very expensive paper weight haha
 
Yep it's because thermaltake decided to ship the riser cables folded in half which kills some of them (nice one thermaltake), the shorter rev 2 cable is available on the rainforest here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thermaltake-x16-Riser-Card-Cable-Black/dp/B01AXZV2IA

Only 1 left and they're expensive as hell also some of them still don't work... you could get a cheaper one elsewhere it's really up to you.
 
Very nice first watercooled build, done a good job there. And yeah hardline can be a pain but everyone has to start somewhere and as always it will click with you after further experience for sure.

Sucks with that riser cable aswell. Nothing worse than a potential dead GPU.

Watercooling can be a pain in itself but its part of the fun I guess. Always tinkering with mine. But hopefully wont need to touch it for the next 9-10 months.

Anyway enjoy :)
 
Thanks again guys Just took the last 1, hopefully should solve the issues,

I was going to look into other riser cables but I might aswell stick with thermaltake, also like the black colour
 
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