I've got the blues

s innes · 11 Feb 2015 at 22:08

First time doing a build log
also first time water cooling
hopefully i don't give you the blues

still waiting for the res tube,radiator,
cpu, gpu cooler to arrive

Parts list:

Phanteks Enthoo Primo Full Tower Case - White Edition
Gigabyte X79-UP4
Intel I7 - 4930K
64GB - Crucial Ballistix 1600 VPL Sport
Powercolor Radeon R9 290 PCS+ OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
SuperFlower Leadex Platinum 1000W Fully Modular "80 Plus Platinum" Power Supply - White

Water Cooling :

EK Water Blocks EK-D5 Vario X-TOP Incl. Pump - Plexi
EK Water Blocks EK-Supremacy EVO
Aqua Computer kryographics Hawaii for Radeon R9 290X and 290 acrylic glass edition
Phobia Balancer 400 silver nickel
Phobya G-Changer 480 V.2 - Full Copper
Monsoon Hardline Acrylic Tube 3/8 x 1/2 (13mm) 4 Pack - Clear - 4x24”
Monsoon Free Center Hardline 3/8 X 1/2 (13mm) 6 Pack - Blue X2
Parvum Systems F1.0 Performance Pressure Optimised Fan - White X4
Aqua Computer Double Protect Ultra 1l - Blue
Shoggy Sandwich

Modding parts :

4mm triple dense weave Braid in baby blue,Royal Blue and white
heat shrink in same colours as braid Monsoon silicone bending insert
various tools and connectors for making my own custom braid cables

delivery from OverClockers today

some other parts from OC

some of the other parts going into this build

s innes · 12 Feb 2015 at 13:05

thanks guys should be fun
i've built systems before but this is my first attempt at water cooling
and a few other mods i have in mind

first up will be the case going to paint the internal with candy blue (hence the name)
i'll keep this thread up to date with how the build is progressing and ofc lessons learned in how not to do it :eek:

s innes · 13 Feb 2015 at 20:24

so still waiting for water cooling parts got an email that they shipped today so hopefully
these should arrive early next week as well as 20 meter of cable, the paint for the inside of the case

also hit my first snag i bought the full modular psu thinking that it would simplify the braiding process. in a way it should however not one of the connectors on the psu side used the same amount of cables/pin connections
the 6+2 pin pci-e goes in to 7
the 5 cable sata goes into 6
the 4 pin molex goes in to 5
the 8 pin mobo and 4 +4 pin mobo go into 7
and the 24 pin goes to 28 so thats one job that just got a whole lot harder
and the original wires are in two grades although thats not really a problem as i will be making my own cables just borrowing the psu plugs

so i've made a pin out list in excel. checked double and triple checked it can't afford a simple mistake here

ready to label the wires on the original cables before i remove the pins from the sockets i will only be doing this for the cables i actualy need at the moment the rest can be done if and when needed

as the psu will be behind the mobo tray the cable reduction or spliting will be done at these sockets

s innes · 13 Feb 2015 at 20:55

GiraffePencils said:
Yeah. That's one of the annoying things about super flower. It's why I'm using extentions and not sleeving the real cables. I'm Lazy like that

the original cables are pretty badly tangled at both ends before they are covered in the sleeving i think it would be even more hassle trying to individually braid those

aye had thought about using extensions as you say it easier possibaly slightly cheaper (not sure as i haven't totaled up the cost for the braid,wire,pins,crimp tool,connector blocks and of course the time it's going to take me to actually make these cables)

but i'd prefer to make my own then i can make these to the exact length needed and should hopefully make for a cleaner build

s innes · 15 Feb 2015 at 09:09

some more goodies arrived in the post yesterday

i put the PSU in place in order to get a quick measurement for the 24pin cable
then as I looked at it I thought that I might have to reconsider the pump mount

so I tested out the placement and using the original 24 pin cable it would appear that there is sufficient space without moving the pump bracket

placing the mobo inside the case the 24 pin socket sits is right in the middle of the cable managment holes so i'll have to choose carefully which one i am going to use in order to keep the cable as tidy as possible.

time to start making some cable up i guess

s innes · 16 Feb 2015 at 18:53

water cooling parts

jacob1995knight said:
Just to note, on the bottom of the case where the pump bracket sits, you can move it foward an inch, there is another set of holes that can be used, this might help your situation with cables???

thanks but i think there will be sufficient room

the water cooling parts have been delivered

** Image removed. It was over 1,280 pixels wide and spoiler tags aren't allowed in Project Logs **

(sorry should have checked images size it's now fixed)

the radiator and masked up ready for paint

going to paint it and the black mesh on top of the case in white

i have also just realised the acrilc tube i bought won't be long enough to go from my desired pump location up to the rad so i'm left with a couple of choices i can join two sections of tube or buy a longer tube i managed to get 1meter lenght of tube from feabay i'd prefer to keep the joints/connections to a minimum

s innes · 18 Feb 2015 at 07:24

case stripped and painting begun

had a slight problem with painting the radiator
only place i have with enough space and decent ventilation is in the attic i put the first coat on and left it for 12 hours to dry.
when turned the radiator to put a base coat on the other side and i can only assume that due to the cold conditions in the attic ( it was 7am when i tryed to put this coat on) that the original over spray hadn't quite dryed on the paper sheet i was using the result was that upon checking this second coat i found that the radiator was stuck to this paper.

so i'll need to sand it back and i might have to look at putting some temp heating in the attic to help cure the paint

and the other parts that i am painting i've removed all the black mesh this will be blue as you can see from the over spray bottom center.

the now silver pannels are also going to be blue

the drive caddy's are also going from black to white as is the top mesh rad cover i had thought about painting this blue but i feel it would be to much i wan't to try to keep the outside of the case simple and i feel that the smaller peices will add a nice touch

s innes · 21 Feb 2015 at 23:05

case panels

sorry it's been a few days since i updated this build log

so here is where i am at the moment the panels are painted just letting them cure a little before i reassemble the case

here is a picture of the outside panels with the new mesh colours
not easy to capture the blue candy colour it looks much darker in this picture

i was tempted to paint the top mesh blue as previously mentioned but looking at the completed paint job the smaller panels i feel add a nice touch and the rad filter in white should give a nice clean look

s innes · 22 Feb 2015 at 09:08

case motherboard tray

just fitted the motherboard tray

the front

the rear

these pictures give a bit better idea of the candy colour
the panels are far from perfect but for rattle cans as good as i can get them

i may redo them in the summer when the weather is better and use the compressor for better results

s innes · 22 Feb 2015 at 09:47

GiraffePencils said:
It's looking good
Keep it up

thanks once the case has been put back together the rest of the build should go a bit quicker at least till i get to the water :cool:

s innes · 22 Feb 2015 at 09:52

cable braids

almost completed the cables

i had hoped to do these without the heat shrink but i just couldn't get the cables to fit looking at the pics one or two could do with the braid moving closer to the socket i'll sort that out before i stitch the cables up

s innes · 23 Feb 2015 at 04:55

radiator with fans

test fitted the fans to the radiator and ran in to a couple of problems
the heads of the bolts supplied with the radiator are small and disappeared into the fan mounts
also had the same problem with the case screws for mounting the radiator.
looking on the net for washers that would fix the problem I couldn't find ones that were thin and had a suitable diameter.
Then I remembered I have a box of slim line dvd covers so I decided to make my own using the plastic from the dvd case as you can see from the attached picture they turned out ok
I have also cut the fan cables and rewired these so the cable will run just behind the bolts and will give a much cleaner look

also starting to think the 450 res was a bad idea that thing is monstrous i had a look at mounting this at the rear but would only fit if i remove the rear fan i'd rather keep this to help with air flow i am currently thinking that i can extend the res away from the back by using longer bolts and i have some white pvc pipe i could use as a spacer or as a second option buy the smaller tube and convert it to 250mm res instead. looking at the rad and top panel there should be sufficient space at the rear for a fill port however the longer res with the acrylic tube could prove difficult for fitting so this will be my next job

s innes · 27 Feb 2015 at 11:10

playing the waiting game again

build has stalled a little while I wait from more parts hopefully I'll get these early next week.

I have had to get the 250mm tube after all. the only way I could have used the 450mm was if I mounted it to outside the case didn't consider the space available once the rad and fans were in place.

also didn't order enough wire for psu cabels and braid to complete the build
still have the sata power cables to make.

I've moved the pwm fan hub to the top of the case as I noticed a mounting point for it. some of the case fan cables will need shortened because of this but it means that I can rout the fan cables along the top of the case away from the psu ones

the case usb, power, headphone cables still need to be braided and the cables for the pump then the wiring should be complete

and as soon as the new res tube arrives I can start sorting out the acrylic tube

the gxf card that i bought for this build comes with a black back plate i am currently toying with the idea of modifying this. its held in place by screws from the heatsink side if i drill out the threads and use longer screws to hold the waterblock in place it should help take some of the stress off the pcb for the added weight

s innes · 4 Mar 2015 at 15:08

quick update

new res tube has arrived still going to need to make a couple of spacers if i wan't to keep the top fan. i have some 15mm white pvc pipe i can cut down for this.

bought some 1mm royal blue wax cord for stitching the cable. i tryed some blue thread but wasn't strong enough. i had bought some blue fishing line but it never arrived (didn't realise it was coming from china when i purchased it)

i have tested the mobo,mem,gfx and cpu to make sure they are working used the orignal cables for the psu as well before i strip down the gfx card and mount the water block to it i have decided to use the backplate with it so i still have to modify this to fit

didn't have a proper cooler for the cpu so i used the water block figured that it has a decent lump of copper on it to keep it cool enough for a quick test just wanted to make sure the mobo would post plugged the fan controller in to the cpu header and while i ran the test the case fans hardly spun up so i knew i wasn't cooking the cpu

used some old tim (at a guess i'd say it's got to be atleast 12yr old but still works as good as the day i bought it) for the cpu with the recommended pea size blob when i removed the block this had a nice even coat however there was a bit more excess than i'm used to so when i refit this i'll use about half the amount
took next week off from work as i'm finding it hard to spend the time needed to complete this build

s innes · 8 Mar 2015 at 20:57

pipe bending

I had to modify the pump mount to fit the pump as the holes didn't line up

so I figured that since the pump was now in place this would be a good place to start running the pipes for the first tube.
this will run from the pump to the res as this is probably the most complex to make
first bend went well as did a few others then i started to wonder who to remove the tube insert
so i put a small amount of washing up liquid into the tube with some water and with an old wire coat hanger i was able to extrac the insert.

safe in the knowledge that I can now remove it i proceed to make the next bend when disaster struck

and a closer look

I think perhaps there was still some water in the tube and it cause an air lock when I made this next bend I noticed that the tube had a slight bulge so I tried to reheat and remove this but only succeed in making matter worse as you can see in the close up I over compensated and cooked it hence the small bubbles

so i cut the tube and binned it here is another tube showing how it should have looked

also been a bit lazy as both tubes have been bent and shaped without taking mesurements just judging by eye it needs cut down to proper size but will line up :cool: