Soldato
Entertainment Room PC
This build log will follow the development of my of my garage conversion to my PC/media room and the building of the PC this room will house. The room is currently a small garage with no heating or insulation. I am planning to set up a 3D capable projector hooked up to a console and of course my shiny new PC!
A few Preview pictures of what i have managed so far
PC Build
I am rebuilding one of my 8 core fx builds and putting it under water. I currently own two 8 core Piledrivers and one golden chip 8 core Bulldozer which i have kept for fun. All three systems are used for gaming when friends are round but originally were used for number crunching during my Physics work. I have since decided to install AMDs new R9-290X!
Components:
CPU: FX 8150/8350 (first the 8150 to run some OC benches)
Motherboard: Asus Crosshair V Formula-Z
RAM: Ballistix 1600Mhz 2 x 4Gb
GPU: R9-290x
Corsair carbide 540
Watercooling
I already have much of the kit used for the watercooling but have fallen to temptation to order a 360mm radiator and an extra pump among other bits and pieces to improve cooling. My build will use almost all EK waterblocks components and is a sort of a hommage to EK and their excellent build quality.
I will be using two 4.0 EK pumps to save money. These will produce similar flow to a single D5 but with much more head and all for the same price as a D5 with a pump top. A single pump is to have 800 lph flow rate and 4.0m of head pressure, so going for two pumps instead of one powerful one was an easy decision to make when you already own a single spare EK 4.0.
CSQ or CLEAN? Most of my current waterblocks have the original CSQ design that many dislike. I personally like the CSQ plexi design but for a fresh face, i will be changing the CSQ plexi blocks to a clean design. The clean plexi tops for non EOL EK waterblocks can be bought as spares from EK directly for a fraction of the cost. You might consider this if your blocks are stubbornly stained and don't seem to clean well.
Radiators:
I will be sporting a 240mm and a 360mm EK XT radiators. I also have another spare 240mm but the case will require some modding to add this to the loop, so i will add this at a much later date if i feel that things are a bit on the hot side.
Waterblocks:
Nickel CHVF-Z by EK
Nickel plexi Dominator RAM block
RAM modules
Nickel plexi Supremacy
Nickel plexi R9-290x reference block
Prepping for blocks
You can just add TIM and slap the CPU block straight on and that's the job done for the CPU, the other blocks however need a bit more fiddling. The 290x will come pre-fitted from OCuk, so i don't have to worry about that. The RAM and Motherboard blocks are going to need some attention though.
RAM
If you have ever replaced a RAM heat-sink, you know that it is 40% balls, 40% patience and 20% heat! To get these EK modules on, which look absolutely stunning, they require the original RAM sinks removed. The heat-sinks are glued on with adhesive TIM and can be tough to get off. The easiest way to remove them is to apply heat and to pull the heat-sink off carefully whilst slipping a thin razor blade in between the modules and the heat-sink. You don't need the razor but it makes things quicker and easier because its easier to cut this elastic like adhesive than to just brute force the heat-sinks off (too much force will literately rip the modules from the PCB). To apply heat, use a heat gun on low settings or a hair dryer. I did some memory intensive tests and upped the voltage to get my modules warm enough to get on side off.
After the original sinks are off, you can just apply some paste and thermal pads which come with the EK dominator modules and then screw them together. The finish on these things are stunning and i cannot stress just how much injustice pictures seem to do them. After they are on, a line of TIM on each then the waterblock goes on them.
Motherboard
First we have to unscrew the original NB/VRM heat-sink. Easier said than done i'm afraid. The northbridge screws were thread-locked and a nightmare to unscrew. I recommend starting with these as these are the tightest. Do not completely unscrew before you make sure that the others are loosened enough to make removal easier. Removing this heat-sink took me two hours of fiddling with screwdrivers, pliers and forceps.
Now the heatsink is gone, I can add the VRM/NB block by applying some MX-2 and thermal pads and screwing it on with the northbridge screws first. Don't fully tighten until all the screws are in, as this will prevent even contact.
After deciding it was time for a refresh, the clean plexi covers for the blocks went on. These are only available as spares from EK and are pretty cheap. Also a good way to replace permanently stained plexi tops. Also gave me a chance to clean the channels inside my block to a brand new shine!
Now i need to make the tubing neater between the blocks. All these blocks so close together makes looping the tube messy when there is 4 blocks within several CM of each other. I had to get a few extenders and through trial and error i discovered the correct ones to use to level the fittings. I was desperate for this info but could not find it anywhere on the internet because block heights can vary between different motherboards and block manufacturers. To get my motherboard block even i needed a 10mm extender as shown below. To get the cpu even with the RAM i needed 10mm + 21mm extenders, these however were out of stock and so i will do this at a later date. I settled for a 60 degree to 90 degree connection without extenders for now.
Picture of motherboard to CPU (will touch up the paint when i put the next set of extenders in):
Problem Radiators.
The 540 is great for accommodating rads considering the size. Unfortunately 360 has a tight fit if it is too thick due to the hotswaps at the bottom. No matter, i don't use them so i don't mind bending the metal bracket for the drives with pliers to get it out of the way of the fittings and tubing. It looks messy but i will dremmel or sheer it off when this is all done.
The radiator by itself is quite thick and leaves little cable management room if i whack fans on the inside, so they can go externally with some nice fan guards to keep fingers safe.
Rest of the loop is thrown together with no more than a few minor problems that had to be worked around.
Acrylic Tubing!
Updating a tad. proper pictures come when its all dusted and cleaned.
Have just done acrylic using EK fittings for 'between blocks' connections.
Needs a dust and a tidy and some more leak testing but so far so good. After it is all sorted, will take picture on something better than a potato.
Have to say, these EK HD fittings are the best Acrylic fittings i have tried. The Primochill fittings locked together too much and scratched the acrylic when you screwed the compression down. Bitspower ones were good but they are made for SLI and Crossfire links, so they dont require much force to pop the acrylic out of the fitting. The EK ones have two large O-rings which seal the fitting and hosing tightly and require a fair bit of force to separate.
Will update this properly soon and rewrite it to give you more info on how things went!
BTW All i used to cut and prepare the tubing was a cheap £2 hacksaw and some sand paper. Each piece of tube took a few minutes to cut and was arguably as fast and as easy as rubber tubing (easier if you are going for a super clean look).
If you want to give acrylic a go but don't want to pay a fortune, go for EK. Fittings cost less than their compressions and are of great quality and incredibly easy to use. To reduce down time, i cut out a few tubes for each connection with a difference of 4/5mm between them. This way, i can choose the closest fitting tube and sand it down to perfection without spending hours with the PC out of commission. I suggest you dampen the inside of the fittings to help the tubing pass through easier and to prevent damaging O-rings with any jagged edges of tubing that got missed out while sanding.
You have a few millimetres of leeway if your fittings don't completely line up but if that isn't enough, make sure to abuse the use of one or more fitting adapters, as they come in a variety of sizes and in both male and female connections. In this i used 10mm and 20mm adapters on top of the standard EK 90 degree fittings which will raise the height of the tubing by 8/9mm. EK also have adapters to aid the use of long threaded fittings but these can be used as extenders and are 1.8mm hight (Bitspower do a 1mm version i believe). I highly recommend the use of rotary fittings when using acrylic between blocks, as it make lining up fittings MUCH easier.
4770k + Gigabyte OC overhaul!
Time to really put this 290x to the test with some benches not held by by the CPU. To do this, i have scrapped together some funds for a rig change out.
One of my Formula-Z's and mobo blocks are going on sale with my golden chip 8150. I thought that perhaps three 8 core fx rigs with high end motherboards was too much for my current needs, so plan was to swap it out with a nice Z87 motherboard and 4770k.
Manage to grab the Gigabyte OC for just £74.50 from B-grade, an absolute bargain! The 4770k is actually from a trial batch and came from the MM market. It is the 4770k 8pack won in the recent Shanghai Overclocking competition (congrats on 1st and 3rd place 8Pack!). Got this for £200, which sounds a bit higher than average second hand price but remember that this chip is practically new and a half decent clocker.
I was left with a bit of a dilemma at this point. I feared that i was abandoning my love for watercooling by switching to another motherboard, as i would be dropping one of the blocks in my loop. Obviously this wont do, so i had a search around and found these babys:
VRM's and SB blocks for the motherboard. BOOM! I go from one block down to one block up in a single move which costs just £40. This is also a first for me as well, I have never fitted and used a SB block. TBH, it is much like the old Northbridge blocks when they never use to be so close to the MOSFETs (now, most nb blocks are combined with the VRM blocks, as they are close by and usually share a heatsink).
I had to re-do my acrylic block to block set up. Funny, i describe acrylic as the most permanent tubing but have fitted new acrylic in my loop 4 times in the last two months just because of hardware changes.
I decided that my new loop would support my GPU a lot more by using 90 degree fittings on both GPU ports, so the weight is neither pulling or pushing the tubing from/to the block. I really liked the straight peice of acrylic i had before going from GPU to VRM block but now i am on a different board with different blocks and spacing!
No matter which board, due to the way blocks are orientated (either parallel with the motherboard or perpendicular), you can always make the acrylic link connection line up by using multiple 90 degree rotary fittings and spacers, requiring a single 90 degree bend on the acrylic tubing at most to join the blocks next to each other up. This means there is no need for exact measurements in bends. Even the most complicated connection in my loop could have been done with a single L bend and two fittings rotary 90 degree fittings (SB to GPU). I however wanted that one connection to be a little more flash, so i experimented a little on that one.
Here are the results:
The new camera at least does the colours justice. Give me mroe than 20 mins to learn how to use this thing and maybe ill come out with something a little better.
There is also a little cable shield at the bottom to cover up loose rubber tubing used to pull out and drain the reservoir. This one is Cardboard and Vinyl and an awful attempt at a prototype. New one will be made from the light but dense and strong foam that is used to make model airplanes. Currently its undergoing a few paint jobs. Might go Black with florescent orange 'Tron' like lines, as i bought the spray paint for the SP120 rings already.
A proper update will come soon, showing you how i actually did this stuff, rather than walls of text and out of focus pictures following. Still working on a lot of the lighting, and such too, so expect many an update to come (especially now i actually have a camera).
Expanding the watercooling...
...and integrating it into a black frosted glass TV stand. To my current 360 + 240 loop which is housed internally, i will add 480mm worth of radiator, another tube reservoir to feed coolant into another pump mounted externally next to the external radiators and another 290x. Though my current pumps have enough head to make the loop, the drop in flow rate will require another pump to push the extra coolant round the loop. Unfortunately this will likely happen months from now after the room is complete (if at all), because i just don't have the money for it.
Parts i need before i expand the loop:
-PSU able to handle hardcore clocks on another 290x as well as current parts Have (went for 1000w gold superflower)
-R9-290x
-R9-290x EK waterblock, nickel plexi
-240mm EK radiator Have
-480-560mm Rad
-EK bridge
-400mm tube reservoir
-four GT Scythes
-6+ fittings Have
-Angle Fittings Have
-D5 pump with top or EK 4.0 DC pump with two more fittings
-Black frosted glass TV stand (these are perfect depth to hold a carbide 540 on top and the underneath compartment is perfect to house external radiators) Have
-240mm radiator stands
-Acrylic Tubing Have
Since i cannot continue until i have the cash/parts, all i can do is plan the expansion. Thankfully i have the TV stand which the 540 will stand on and the external parts of the loop will be housed in. Lets see what we are working with:
This is done all on the cheap, so i am not dealing with ideal furniture and budgets but i think this frosted glass stand was a bargain at £15 at one of my local charity shops!
The 240 radiators will be on stands, so they are mounted to the lower platform at the back, standing up vertically. Pump will be mounted on some soundproofing foam which was left over after the the Media room was insulated. The 400mm Tube reservoir gets mounted horizontally. There is significance in having such a huge reservoir at the bottom of the loop. It makes draining of the rest of the loop really easy, if i wanted to change a block, i can drain the lower reservoir and after tilting the case a few directions, vast majority of the loop inside the case will be dry.
Here is a diagram of my planned external set up:
I would love to do this external loop extension, however it is on hold until i can gather the money to buy these parts. Given the cost of everything else and my limited funds, its likely that it will mostly come from the MM.
PC room kit!
Currently have a Optoma HD 600x projector i got second hand for £200 and a motorized 70" screen. Pics will be up when the room conversion is closer to being finished, since there simply isn't any room!
The whole thing has a very tight budget so second hand and charity shop is the way to go about it! Have so far netted myself several frosted glass coffee tables on the cheap, one of which will have my 540 on it, so its lovely window is on display.
While clearing the garage out i also found my fathers record player, which is not too far off 4 decades old! It took a fair bit of effort to restore it to working order but while i was working on it, i decided it would make a great addition tot he room. It will have a pair of Edifiers, while the PC will have some Auna surround sound. Walls will be decorated with some of my favorite record covers from my recently commandeered collection of 400 vynls (courtesy of my father). Only thing left to do with the player is give it a good clean, make it match the room and PC aesthetically and find a way to hook it up to the pc. Surround sound will be wall mounted, while the Edifiers will be on a table.
The rest of the build log will feature less to do on PC builds and more on the development of the room. Eventually there will be more PC stuff at the end of the project, when it comes to hooking projectors and lighting up. I am also considering making a Steambox in the future, which is integrated to a glass coffee table, but that wont be till its all finished.
Next up...
Next up will be restoring the aesthetics of the record player to match my PC. A brief few paragraphs glancing over the conversion and the fitting of the speakers, projector and screen. When that is done and i find some cheap but not cheap looking furniture, i will start designing a way to control lighting, projector and other things in the room via my computer or a smart phone connected to the computer by Wifi!
------------------
Update!
Finally got some time to move stuff to the new room. I Havant updated since it wasn't going to be worth the read until the room insulation and inner walls were done.
The Room!
The room was an extension with no insulation and proper flooring or ceiling to replace the converted garage. It was only ever used to store stuff in as the size and shape of the room made it too awkward to fit a car inside. The room is has one wall at an angle due to the property line, but this works in my favour as a projector room, as the screen wall ends up being easily big enough to take up to a 92" screen if i wanted to go that big.
The plan was to put a inside wall to divide the room into a small utility room which will house a freezer and dryer and my PC/media room. The walls/ceiling needed insulation and the flooring needed to be err...built? One of the cheaper and easier ways to do this was to use wooden support beams for the walls and then put insulation between the wooden slats. Then double plasterboard can go up in front and screwed into the wooden slats, a bit of plaster to smooth the walls out. I will say though, i did not do any of the building work, as it was beyond my DIY skills but i am sure many of you can do this easily.
Here are some plans for the room, followed by building pictures:
Flooring complete:
The ceiling gets a similar job tot eh walls except that wooden boards are added to support the mounting of projector and motorised projector screen! Am sure you understand that i don't really want my budget to fall from the ceiling and smash in a million pieces.
Then a similar development with the walls. Plaster needs to go over the screws to even out the dents they made and make the wall smooth and paint-able.
Brilliant, it is practically done!
Now paint job lights and power and we are good to go. Due to the double thick brick wall separating this room from the house, wireless signal is poor, so have set up internet via power lines. Result was stunning and am getting the full 70mbs of my connection.
I took lighting and colour scheme to be very important, as i was afraid that i would have too little or too much light for the projector. I ended up painting the walls and ceiling a lovely deep but rich red which matched my desk and carpet. Snagged a real comfy sofa too which was not far off the colour mark! Lights are movable spotlights, with three above the screen wall and two above the sofa side of the room (each set on a different dimmer switch to control screen light and seating light separately). Lights cost me about £20 and dimmers was just short of a tenner for both, which is a bargain considering how versatile the outcome was!
So lets see the progress so far!
(excuse the potato cam, i only have my phone to take piccies with
)
Thanks for following guys, have much MUCH MUCH more to come. If i wasn't so short on cash (damn you pc building) i would have filled this room with some odd gadgets by now.
For those of you interested: T
The room has turned out to be nice and warm when the PCs were up and running. If i mine on all my PCs the room gets toasty but a controllable vent makes temperature management easy.
Cost of the things so far (without PC and actual building work, as many of you probably have spare rooms they can use and wouldn't need to convert a garage)
-Projector £200
-Sofa £65
-Edifiers for turntable £50 new
-TV stands to take turntable and other things (two) for £15 each!
-Lights £30
-Projector screen at an absolute steal price of £80
-Surround sound £75 from a friend second hand
-Old desk + chair was free
-Turntable was free from my dad and was fixed with little effort
Total @ £515!!! Essentially the cost of my R9-290x + waterblock, well worth it for the entertainment value, wouldn't you say?
UP NEXT!!!!
PC modding:
-Fancy lighting ideas, no spoilers yet
-290x crossfire (when i win the lottery
)
-External loop addition to watercooling
Room modding:
- Have some mad ideas on lighting and decoration but unfortunately i cant give away spoilers until it is nearer completion.
-Floor, ceiling and wall speakers for a true surround sound!
-Lit up room seems with EL strips/panel
Much more to come too, so stay tuned!
This project may not be particularly neat, good looking or expensive but i think that's sort of why i decided to do a log for it, its an ambitious project done on the cheap by someone which is likely to be far less capable than many of you reading this.
This build log will follow the development of my of my garage conversion to my PC/media room and the building of the PC this room will house. The room is currently a small garage with no heating or insulation. I am planning to set up a 3D capable projector hooked up to a console and of course my shiny new PC!
A few Preview pictures of what i have managed so far
PC room Preview
AMD Flagship build Preview
Benchmarker PC preview (4770k, Gigabyte OC, 290x)
AMD Flagship build Preview
Benchmarker PC preview (4770k, Gigabyte OC, 290x)
PC Build
I am rebuilding one of my 8 core fx builds and putting it under water. I currently own two 8 core Piledrivers and one golden chip 8 core Bulldozer which i have kept for fun. All three systems are used for gaming when friends are round but originally were used for number crunching during my Physics work. I have since decided to install AMDs new R9-290X!
Components:
CPU: FX 8150/8350 (first the 8150 to run some OC benches)
Motherboard: Asus Crosshair V Formula-Z
RAM: Ballistix 1600Mhz 2 x 4Gb
GPU: R9-290x
Corsair carbide 540
Watercooling
I already have much of the kit used for the watercooling but have fallen to temptation to order a 360mm radiator and an extra pump among other bits and pieces to improve cooling. My build will use almost all EK waterblocks components and is a sort of a hommage to EK and their excellent build quality.
I will be using two 4.0 EK pumps to save money. These will produce similar flow to a single D5 but with much more head and all for the same price as a D5 with a pump top. A single pump is to have 800 lph flow rate and 4.0m of head pressure, so going for two pumps instead of one powerful one was an easy decision to make when you already own a single spare EK 4.0.
CSQ or CLEAN? Most of my current waterblocks have the original CSQ design that many dislike. I personally like the CSQ plexi design but for a fresh face, i will be changing the CSQ plexi blocks to a clean design. The clean plexi tops for non EOL EK waterblocks can be bought as spares from EK directly for a fraction of the cost. You might consider this if your blocks are stubbornly stained and don't seem to clean well.
Radiators:
I will be sporting a 240mm and a 360mm EK XT radiators. I also have another spare 240mm but the case will require some modding to add this to the loop, so i will add this at a much later date if i feel that things are a bit on the hot side.
Waterblocks:
Nickel CHVF-Z by EK
Nickel plexi Dominator RAM block
RAM modules
Nickel plexi Supremacy
Nickel plexi R9-290x reference block
Prepping for blocks
You can just add TIM and slap the CPU block straight on and that's the job done for the CPU, the other blocks however need a bit more fiddling. The 290x will come pre-fitted from OCuk, so i don't have to worry about that. The RAM and Motherboard blocks are going to need some attention though.
RAM
If you have ever replaced a RAM heat-sink, you know that it is 40% balls, 40% patience and 20% heat! To get these EK modules on, which look absolutely stunning, they require the original RAM sinks removed. The heat-sinks are glued on with adhesive TIM and can be tough to get off. The easiest way to remove them is to apply heat and to pull the heat-sink off carefully whilst slipping a thin razor blade in between the modules and the heat-sink. You don't need the razor but it makes things quicker and easier because its easier to cut this elastic like adhesive than to just brute force the heat-sinks off (too much force will literately rip the modules from the PCB). To apply heat, use a heat gun on low settings or a hair dryer. I did some memory intensive tests and upped the voltage to get my modules warm enough to get on side off.
After the original sinks are off, you can just apply some paste and thermal pads which come with the EK dominator modules and then screw them together. The finish on these things are stunning and i cannot stress just how much injustice pictures seem to do them. After they are on, a line of TIM on each then the waterblock goes on them.
Motherboard
First we have to unscrew the original NB/VRM heat-sink. Easier said than done i'm afraid. The northbridge screws were thread-locked and a nightmare to unscrew. I recommend starting with these as these are the tightest. Do not completely unscrew before you make sure that the others are loosened enough to make removal easier. Removing this heat-sink took me two hours of fiddling with screwdrivers, pliers and forceps.
Now the heatsink is gone, I can add the VRM/NB block by applying some MX-2 and thermal pads and screwing it on with the northbridge screws first. Don't fully tighten until all the screws are in, as this will prevent even contact.
This picture is from before i replaced the CSQ plexi design.
After deciding it was time for a refresh, the clean plexi covers for the blocks went on. These are only available as spares from EK and are pretty cheap. Also a good way to replace permanently stained plexi tops. Also gave me a chance to clean the channels inside my block to a brand new shine!
Now i need to make the tubing neater between the blocks. All these blocks so close together makes looping the tube messy when there is 4 blocks within several CM of each other. I had to get a few extenders and through trial and error i discovered the correct ones to use to level the fittings. I was desperate for this info but could not find it anywhere on the internet because block heights can vary between different motherboards and block manufacturers. To get my motherboard block even i needed a 10mm extender as shown below. To get the cpu even with the RAM i needed 10mm + 21mm extenders, these however were out of stock and so i will do this at a later date. I settled for a 60 degree to 90 degree connection without extenders for now.
Picture of motherboard to CPU (will touch up the paint when i put the next set of extenders in):
Problem Radiators.
The 540 is great for accommodating rads considering the size. Unfortunately 360 has a tight fit if it is too thick due to the hotswaps at the bottom. No matter, i don't use them so i don't mind bending the metal bracket for the drives with pliers to get it out of the way of the fittings and tubing. It looks messy but i will dremmel or sheer it off when this is all done.
The radiator by itself is quite thick and leaves little cable management room if i whack fans on the inside, so they can go externally with some nice fan guards to keep fingers safe.
Rest of the loop is thrown together with no more than a few minor problems that had to be worked around.
Acrylic Tubing!
Updating a tad. proper pictures come when its all dusted and cleaned.
Have just done acrylic using EK fittings for 'between blocks' connections.
Needs a dust and a tidy and some more leak testing but so far so good. After it is all sorted, will take picture on something better than a potato.
Have to say, these EK HD fittings are the best Acrylic fittings i have tried. The Primochill fittings locked together too much and scratched the acrylic when you screwed the compression down. Bitspower ones were good but they are made for SLI and Crossfire links, so they dont require much force to pop the acrylic out of the fitting. The EK ones have two large O-rings which seal the fitting and hosing tightly and require a fair bit of force to separate.
Will update this properly soon and rewrite it to give you more info on how things went!
BTW All i used to cut and prepare the tubing was a cheap £2 hacksaw and some sand paper. Each piece of tube took a few minutes to cut and was arguably as fast and as easy as rubber tubing (easier if you are going for a super clean look).
If you want to give acrylic a go but don't want to pay a fortune, go for EK. Fittings cost less than their compressions and are of great quality and incredibly easy to use. To reduce down time, i cut out a few tubes for each connection with a difference of 4/5mm between them. This way, i can choose the closest fitting tube and sand it down to perfection without spending hours with the PC out of commission. I suggest you dampen the inside of the fittings to help the tubing pass through easier and to prevent damaging O-rings with any jagged edges of tubing that got missed out while sanding.
You have a few millimetres of leeway if your fittings don't completely line up but if that isn't enough, make sure to abuse the use of one or more fitting adapters, as they come in a variety of sizes and in both male and female connections. In this i used 10mm and 20mm adapters on top of the standard EK 90 degree fittings which will raise the height of the tubing by 8/9mm. EK also have adapters to aid the use of long threaded fittings but these can be used as extenders and are 1.8mm hight (Bitspower do a 1mm version i believe). I highly recommend the use of rotary fittings when using acrylic between blocks, as it make lining up fittings MUCH easier.
4770k + Gigabyte OC overhaul!
Time to really put this 290x to the test with some benches not held by by the CPU. To do this, i have scrapped together some funds for a rig change out.
One of my Formula-Z's and mobo blocks are going on sale with my golden chip 8150. I thought that perhaps three 8 core fx rigs with high end motherboards was too much for my current needs, so plan was to swap it out with a nice Z87 motherboard and 4770k.
Manage to grab the Gigabyte OC for just £74.50 from B-grade, an absolute bargain! The 4770k is actually from a trial batch and came from the MM market. It is the 4770k 8pack won in the recent Shanghai Overclocking competition (congrats on 1st and 3rd place 8Pack!). Got this for £200, which sounds a bit higher than average second hand price but remember that this chip is practically new and a half decent clocker.
I was left with a bit of a dilemma at this point. I feared that i was abandoning my love for watercooling by switching to another motherboard, as i would be dropping one of the blocks in my loop. Obviously this wont do, so i had a search around and found these babys:
VRM's and SB blocks for the motherboard. BOOM! I go from one block down to one block up in a single move which costs just £40. This is also a first for me as well, I have never fitted and used a SB block. TBH, it is much like the old Northbridge blocks when they never use to be so close to the MOSFETs (now, most nb blocks are combined with the VRM blocks, as they are close by and usually share a heatsink).
I had to re-do my acrylic block to block set up. Funny, i describe acrylic as the most permanent tubing but have fitted new acrylic in my loop 4 times in the last two months just because of hardware changes.
I decided that my new loop would support my GPU a lot more by using 90 degree fittings on both GPU ports, so the weight is neither pulling or pushing the tubing from/to the block. I really liked the straight peice of acrylic i had before going from GPU to VRM block but now i am on a different board with different blocks and spacing!
No matter which board, due to the way blocks are orientated (either parallel with the motherboard or perpendicular), you can always make the acrylic link connection line up by using multiple 90 degree rotary fittings and spacers, requiring a single 90 degree bend on the acrylic tubing at most to join the blocks next to each other up. This means there is no need for exact measurements in bends. Even the most complicated connection in my loop could have been done with a single L bend and two fittings rotary 90 degree fittings (SB to GPU). I however wanted that one connection to be a little more flash, so i experimented a little on that one.
Here are the results:
The new camera at least does the colours justice. Give me mroe than 20 mins to learn how to use this thing and maybe ill come out with something a little better.
There is also a little cable shield at the bottom to cover up loose rubber tubing used to pull out and drain the reservoir. This one is Cardboard and Vinyl and an awful attempt at a prototype. New one will be made from the light but dense and strong foam that is used to make model airplanes. Currently its undergoing a few paint jobs. Might go Black with florescent orange 'Tron' like lines, as i bought the spray paint for the SP120 rings already.
A proper update will come soon, showing you how i actually did this stuff, rather than walls of text and out of focus pictures following. Still working on a lot of the lighting, and such too, so expect many an update to come (especially now i actually have a camera).
Expanding the watercooling...
...and integrating it into a black frosted glass TV stand. To my current 360 + 240 loop which is housed internally, i will add 480mm worth of radiator, another tube reservoir to feed coolant into another pump mounted externally next to the external radiators and another 290x. Though my current pumps have enough head to make the loop, the drop in flow rate will require another pump to push the extra coolant round the loop. Unfortunately this will likely happen months from now after the room is complete (if at all), because i just don't have the money for it.
Parts i need before i expand the loop:
-PSU able to handle hardcore clocks on another 290x as well as current parts Have (went for 1000w gold superflower)
-R9-290x
-R9-290x EK waterblock, nickel plexi
-240mm EK radiator Have
-480-560mm Rad
-EK bridge
-400mm tube reservoir
-four GT Scythes
-6+ fittings Have
-Angle Fittings Have
-D5 pump with top or EK 4.0 DC pump with two more fittings
-Black frosted glass TV stand (these are perfect depth to hold a carbide 540 on top and the underneath compartment is perfect to house external radiators) Have
-240mm radiator stands
-Acrylic Tubing Have
Since i cannot continue until i have the cash/parts, all i can do is plan the expansion. Thankfully i have the TV stand which the 540 will stand on and the external parts of the loop will be housed in. Lets see what we are working with:
This is done all on the cheap, so i am not dealing with ideal furniture and budgets but i think this frosted glass stand was a bargain at £15 at one of my local charity shops!
The 240 radiators will be on stands, so they are mounted to the lower platform at the back, standing up vertically. Pump will be mounted on some soundproofing foam which was left over after the the Media room was insulated. The 400mm Tube reservoir gets mounted horizontally. There is significance in having such a huge reservoir at the bottom of the loop. It makes draining of the rest of the loop really easy, if i wanted to change a block, i can drain the lower reservoir and after tilting the case a few directions, vast majority of the loop inside the case will be dry.
Here is a diagram of my planned external set up:
I would love to do this external loop extension, however it is on hold until i can gather the money to buy these parts. Given the cost of everything else and my limited funds, its likely that it will mostly come from the MM.
PC room kit!
Currently have a Optoma HD 600x projector i got second hand for £200 and a motorized 70" screen. Pics will be up when the room conversion is closer to being finished, since there simply isn't any room!
The whole thing has a very tight budget so second hand and charity shop is the way to go about it! Have so far netted myself several frosted glass coffee tables on the cheap, one of which will have my 540 on it, so its lovely window is on display.
While clearing the garage out i also found my fathers record player, which is not too far off 4 decades old! It took a fair bit of effort to restore it to working order but while i was working on it, i decided it would make a great addition tot he room. It will have a pair of Edifiers, while the PC will have some Auna surround sound. Walls will be decorated with some of my favorite record covers from my recently commandeered collection of 400 vynls (courtesy of my father). Only thing left to do with the player is give it a good clean, make it match the room and PC aesthetically and find a way to hook it up to the pc. Surround sound will be wall mounted, while the Edifiers will be on a table.
The rest of the build log will feature less to do on PC builds and more on the development of the room. Eventually there will be more PC stuff at the end of the project, when it comes to hooking projectors and lighting up. I am also considering making a Steambox in the future, which is integrated to a glass coffee table, but that wont be till its all finished.
Next up...
Next up will be restoring the aesthetics of the record player to match my PC. A brief few paragraphs glancing over the conversion and the fitting of the speakers, projector and screen. When that is done and i find some cheap but not cheap looking furniture, i will start designing a way to control lighting, projector and other things in the room via my computer or a smart phone connected to the computer by Wifi!
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Update!
Finally got some time to move stuff to the new room. I Havant updated since it wasn't going to be worth the read until the room insulation and inner walls were done.
The Room!
The room was an extension with no insulation and proper flooring or ceiling to replace the converted garage. It was only ever used to store stuff in as the size and shape of the room made it too awkward to fit a car inside. The room is has one wall at an angle due to the property line, but this works in my favour as a projector room, as the screen wall ends up being easily big enough to take up to a 92" screen if i wanted to go that big.
The plan was to put a inside wall to divide the room into a small utility room which will house a freezer and dryer and my PC/media room. The walls/ceiling needed insulation and the flooring needed to be err...built? One of the cheaper and easier ways to do this was to use wooden support beams for the walls and then put insulation between the wooden slats. Then double plasterboard can go up in front and screwed into the wooden slats, a bit of plaster to smooth the walls out. I will say though, i did not do any of the building work, as it was beyond my DIY skills but i am sure many of you can do this easily.
Here are some plans for the room, followed by building pictures:
Flooring complete:
The ceiling gets a similar job tot eh walls except that wooden boards are added to support the mounting of projector and motorised projector screen! Am sure you understand that i don't really want my budget to fall from the ceiling and smash in a million pieces.
Then a similar development with the walls. Plaster needs to go over the screws to even out the dents they made and make the wall smooth and paint-able.
Brilliant, it is practically done!
Now paint job lights and power and we are good to go. Due to the double thick brick wall separating this room from the house, wireless signal is poor, so have set up internet via power lines. Result was stunning and am getting the full 70mbs of my connection.
I took lighting and colour scheme to be very important, as i was afraid that i would have too little or too much light for the projector. I ended up painting the walls and ceiling a lovely deep but rich red which matched my desk and carpet. Snagged a real comfy sofa too which was not far off the colour mark! Lights are movable spotlights, with three above the screen wall and two above the sofa side of the room (each set on a different dimmer switch to control screen light and seating light separately). Lights cost me about £20 and dimmers was just short of a tenner for both, which is a bargain considering how versatile the outcome was!
So lets see the progress so far!
(excuse the potato cam, i only have my phone to take piccies with
)Screen + spotlights above it!
Comfy sofa with 5.1 surround sound (sofa is almost new from charity shop at £65, 5.1 cost me £70 and was bought off of a friend)
This picture shows the spot lights above the sofa, nothing exciting. Oh and projector is there too, which was £200 second hand!
Oh and the record player! I still have to sort out the finish but i thought i might as well move it here and clean it, or it might go back into storage. This was essentially free as it was my fathers and had been sitting in the garage for longer than i have been alive and was found when i cleared it for the building work to start. Took a while to get things working but i must say it sounds stunning with my edifiers (£49.99 from OCuk deal of the day!).
Picture from my desk, located to the left of my sofa. (Desk is old and in need of replacing but it will do for now. Price: free)
The pictures from my phone does not do the projector justice, but here is a shot of the screen.
Comfy sofa with 5.1 surround sound (sofa is almost new from charity shop at £65, 5.1 cost me £70 and was bought off of a friend)
This picture shows the spot lights above the sofa, nothing exciting. Oh and projector is there too, which was £200 second hand!
Oh and the record player! I still have to sort out the finish but i thought i might as well move it here and clean it, or it might go back into storage. This was essentially free as it was my fathers and had been sitting in the garage for longer than i have been alive and was found when i cleared it for the building work to start. Took a while to get things working but i must say it sounds stunning with my edifiers (£49.99 from OCuk deal of the day!).
Picture from my desk, located to the left of my sofa. (Desk is old and in need of replacing but it will do for now. Price: free)
The pictures from my phone does not do the projector justice, but here is a shot of the screen.
Thanks for following guys, have much MUCH MUCH more to come. If i wasn't so short on cash (damn you pc building) i would have filled this room with some odd gadgets by now.
For those of you interested: T
The room has turned out to be nice and warm when the PCs were up and running. If i mine on all my PCs the room gets toasty but a controllable vent makes temperature management easy.
Cost of the things so far (without PC and actual building work, as many of you probably have spare rooms they can use and wouldn't need to convert a garage)
-Projector £200
-Sofa £65
-Edifiers for turntable £50 new
-TV stands to take turntable and other things (two) for £15 each!
-Lights £30
-Projector screen at an absolute steal price of £80
-Surround sound £75 from a friend second hand
-Old desk + chair was free
-Turntable was free from my dad and was fixed with little effort
Total @ £515!!! Essentially the cost of my R9-290x + waterblock, well worth it for the entertainment value, wouldn't you say?
UP NEXT!!!!
PC modding:
-Fancy lighting ideas, no spoilers yet
-290x crossfire (when i win the lottery
)-External loop addition to watercooling
Room modding:
- Have some mad ideas on lighting and decoration but unfortunately i cant give away spoilers until it is nearer completion.
-Floor, ceiling and wall speakers for a true surround sound!
-Lit up room seems with EL strips/panel
Much more to come too, so stay tuned!
This project may not be particularly neat, good looking or expensive but i think that's sort of why i decided to do a log for it, its an ambitious project done on the cheap by someone which is likely to be far less capable than many of you reading this.
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) to cut it in half, so the tubing can slip in and out after it has cooled down and has hardened.