High End Watercooled PC

Sofronis Neofytou · 5 Dec 2019 at 09:01

Hi all, for my first post here on Overclockers forums I wanted to show something special. I have been into building computers for the past 14 years, starting at the age of 12 as far as I remember with an old Q6600 processor which felt great at the time!

So here are the specifications and some renderings for my latest and best build so far; this is a build where no bends are allowed. The pc is made mostly for number crunching in large spreadsheets, and the occasional rendering and gaming. No RGB, but I can cope with less FPS because of this

Main components:
CPU: Ryzen 9 3900x
GPU: EVGA RTX 2080 Super XC Ultra Gaming
Motherboard: ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Hero
Ram: 16GB Corsair Dominator Platinum @ 3200Mhz
Storage: Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500gb
PSU: Corsair RM1000i
Case: Lian Li PC-011dynamic
Fans: Noctua Industrial Fan 2000rpm x6
Watercooling:
EK-Coolstream PE 360 x2
EK-Vector RTX 2080 block and backplate
EK-Quantum Kinetic FLT 240 D5 reservoir+pump combo
EK-Quantum MOmentum ROG Corsshair VIII Hero MonoBlock
A boat load of fittings and angled adapters to achieve no bends loops
Loop order for reference: PUMP->Bottom Radiator->GPU->Top Radiator->Monoblock->Pump

I hope you like it; I would love to hear your comments and any recommendations since this is my first attempt at rigid tubing water cooling, but sure as hell it shouldn't be a rocket science thing to do! I am still undecided on whether to go with acrylic or stainless tubing, both look equally pleasing to my eyes.

Sofronis Neofytou · 5 Dec 2019 at 09:37

I have tried going with MSI only once in the past 14 years, and I had to RMA it, might be just tough luck, but I will stick to the overpriced ASUS once again! As for the SSD, I have tested the samsung ones for some time now, and anyway this wasn't a budget build so here we are! Thank you for the suggestions anyhow

Edit: Sorry this was a Gigabyte board you recommended. Unfortunately, ASUS Rog Hero and Strix Gaming-E were the only X570 with monoblocks available from EKWB, so the motherboard was an easy choice.

Sofronis Neofytou · 5 Dec 2019 at 17:45

Thanks a lot; greatly appreciate your feedback, I think I will go with acrylic for the tubing for now since it will be nice showing the solid white fluid that I plan on filling it with. Pictures of the actual build to follow tomorrow most likely, stay tuned!

Sofronis Neofytou · 5 Dec 2019 at 21:14

Modelled using sketchup, imported to Fusion 360 where the material allocation and rendering took place. The most convenient way I have found in rendering cases so far.

Sofronis Neofytou · 15 Dec 2019 at 15:53

Update: Here is the finished build. I think it turned out pretty nice; let me know your thoughts !

Sofronis Neofytou · 15 Dec 2019 at 17:17

Will post benchmark and temperatures once all testing is done, including stable overclocking results.

Sofronis Neofytou · 19 Dec 2019 at 12:32

Thank you for your kind comments sir ! Indeed the resemblance turned out even better than I expected.

Sofronis Neofytou · 14 May 2020 at 21:54

I apologise for the very late replies but I have been super busy the past 6 months. The PC is an absolute beast, I have upgraded the RAM to 64gb from 16gb, added two 1TB ssds just for pure silence since the rattle of mechanical disks always bothered me!!
Temps are as follows (no OC on Ryzen 9 3900x since it didn't really provide any real difference proportionally to the temps):
GPU: max recorded under 100% load: 42C
CPU: max recorded temp under stress load: 71C

GPU is running an overclocked Vram of +800MHz which proved quite beneficial for heavy rendering scenes, but I think I should upgrade to 2080 Ti soon or maybe wait the new architecture to come out by the end of the year.
Thank you all for your nice comments, really appreciate it!

Sofronis Neofytou · 14 May 2020 at 21:55

MikeTimbers said:
Being super critical (of a very nice build), the run from the bottom rad to the RTX is unnecessarily complex adding three 90 degree bends that don't need to be there (and do affect flow in a small way). The brown corners would be better in monochrome and I would have gone with clear fluid to make the tubing seethru purely for aesthetics.

But it's a clean build. Nice job

I agree buddy, but the whole point was to make it as sexy as possible, flow of the liquid has not been a problem at all so who cares? ;p I will replace the clear acrylic to stainless tubing sometime next month. Thank you for your nice comments!

Sofronis Neofytou · 14 May 2020 at 21:57

ANDARIAL said:
That looks good
I can only guess that the psu is `behind` the mobo?
Does not look like enough room to fit one to my eye but cannot see where else it could be

Yes mate, the PSU is behind the motherboard. I would argue that out of all the countless builds I have done in the past, splitting the compartments into two should be a standard in all cases, it is absolutely amazing to work with, route the cables, and of course from an aesthetic perspective!

Sofronis Neofytou · 14 May 2020 at 22:00

I will build another WC build in an Phanteks Evolv Shift X in the weekend for a friend (cheap ******* will only watercool the CPU for now) and post the process as well most likely, but I am terrible at taking photographs. Stay tuned guys !