Liquid Art: From Mini P180 to infinity...

Jay85 · 30 Nov 2012 at 16:55

Just ordered a pair of these to replace the top rad fans. I noticed today that they weren't pushing much air through the radiator and ontop of that, a lot of air was being forced back through the fan instead so hopefully these will do the trick

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-008-CS&groupid=701&catid=2331&subcat=4

Jay85 · 30 Nov 2012 at 21:44

Entered CooledPC competition!

http://www.cooledpc.com/build/313

Please vote!

Thanks!

Jay85 · 30 Nov 2012 at 22:20

IC3 said:
Jay85, looking towards your next upgrades!

Yep, but I like big cases! haha Any way I keep the PC under my desk.

Same! It's gonna take awhile though since it's being shipped from germany

, hate waiting cos im impatient lol.

I've never ever had a big case and even my first mesh pc was in a small case. I don't think i have room for one on my desk either.

Does having it under your desk keep your feet warm in winter

?

Jay85 · 1 Dec 2012 at 00:53

Apem said:
Jay the link does not work m8

The site is down, i can't get onto it either. Think it's down for maintenance, try again later and i'll post back too when it comes back online

Thanks btw!

Jay85 · 1 Dec 2012 at 09:12

the site is back up and running

Jay85 · 6 Dec 2012 at 19:10

Thank You Everyone! You guys are the best!

Just like to thank everyone who's voted for me! Means a lot because i know how much you guys appreciate my work and effort that's gone into the system. I promise you there will be more to come yet and defo more mods in the near future to continue to make this one of the best small tower gaming machines around!

My fans arrived yesterday and installed them but not had chance to take some pictures yet. Let me have my dinner first and i'll get some up

Also my Watercool Heatkiller Backplate arrived this morning... however! I was asleep and didn't hear the door bell go so only noticed when i got up at 9 for work that i realised he had been and dropped off a note. Will pick this up tomorroww and take some pics too

Lastly, the Koolance 370SI blocks came into stock today so i just couldn't resist waiting anymore the 380 waterblock to come into stock and bought one of these instead.

Should hopefully be getting that next week on monday or tuesday and get cracking on the build!

It's a shame that the CooledPC page won't let me add more pictures or modify my existing pictures so i can update them after the rebuild.

Jay85 · 7 Dec 2012 at 22:55

Incoming Hi-Def Pics!

Front shot with Corsair SP120 quiet edition fans

Low Light Shot

White Light Shot

The shine on this thing is just

Next update will be with the new Koolance 370SI waterblock installed! Was shipped today so expecting delivery on monday or tuesday

! It's like Christmas but not! :rolleyes:

P.S i know i'm missing 2 screws on the back plate, i'm just missing 2 nuts so i can mount them on.

Jay85 · 8 Dec 2012 at 01:40

IC3 said:
Nice!
WC is so tempting, but I'll stay with air.
Any plans for next upgrades or is the build finished?

It's addictive once you start, messing about with different configurations and testing out new hardware to lower temps and overclocking, all good stuff

Next upgrades will be new cpu waterblock, then after christmas i'm looking at getting a new psu and another gtx 680 for SLI in this mATX case! It's gonna be a beast!

Just not sure if i have enough rad space to cool all that though.

Jay85 · 8 Dec 2012 at 09:05

snips86x said:
What are you running that needs SLI, or is it just for the look?

Purely just for looks and fps overkill!

I think the only game that my 680 will struggle slightly with is farcry 3 with MSAA turned up.

Jay85 · 8 Dec 2012 at 22:41

Koolance 370SI CPU Waterblock:

First impressions of this waterblock is it's weight for a Delrin top waterblock it weighs a fair bit! Must be the internals that add all the weight to it as i doubt the top can weigh that much especially compared to my old EK Supreme LTX waterblock it feels more sturdy and better built. The top also has a few marks on it, though im not sure if this is due to handling at the manufacturer or if it's just meant to be like this but it didn't put me off one bit, plus you can barely see them anyway unless you look up close.

Now for the best bet! The SHINE on the contact plate on this water block is... IMMENSE! I haven't had a waterblock yet that reflects this well and looks this good! I couldn't believe my eyes, it was like looking into a mirror :eek:

. Kudos to Koolance for the great shine on this block! Well done!

Temps so far... well i haven't tested it fully yet but i can tell you idle temps have dropped around 6c from 39c to 33c but have yet to put any load on it as this will be the biggest deciding factor. I have read that the internals of this block is identical to that of it's bigger brother 370 cpu block that's quite restrictive but so far running on my DDC 10w pump it doesn't feel like it's that bad and if anything it feels better than my old EK LTX waterblock for flow rate as well.

Now for some Juicy Pics!

Fitted Shots :cool:

I will post some results for this block since online there doesn't seem to be any at all for this particular waterblock for whatever reason... maybe it's not as popular but i would sure like to prove that guy wrong on youtube that it's a crap block and is unable to keep temps down on ivybridge (i'm sure that guy is a noob)

Jay85 · 9 Dec 2012 at 00:00

IC3 said:
They look very stylish and match your build perfectly.
I seem to get temps 29-30-36-28 the spec in sign

I'm quite heavily overclocked so would explain my higher temps too and not to mention ivybridge does run hotter.

Have you got any plans for christmas to add to your Rig?

Jay85 · 9 Dec 2012 at 00:31

Jamsames said:
looks awesome there jay.

im going for a similar wc setup as you for my build, same motherboard but with a 2500k, 7970 and an arc mini
are you still thinking of sli?

look forward to your updates

Thank you!

I am, will probably do it over christmas or just after. I'm hoping OCUK will hear my calls for a good offer on the Nvidia GTX 680 *hint* so i can buy one and go SLI. Problem is i'll have to wait another week for another backplate if i do from germany and with it being over christmas i'm not sure how long that will actually take!

The Arc mini was one of the cases i considered moving to, it has a ton of potential for watercooling if you remove the hdd caddies. What water cooling parts are you going to go for? Mix or a fixed brand?

Jay85 · 10 Dec 2012 at 00:23

Jamsames said:
ill be going for a mixed, i selected the koolance 370 block you chose, before i saw it in your log, im thinking of going for 240 for the roof of the case and a thick 240 for the front. im going to remove the hdd caddies and place them on a custom mount next to the motherboard tray with the spare metal from a window im cutting into the side panel soon.

it will be a lot of work but its going to be fun

You'll be surprised with the results from the koolance block, its truly one of the best i've had. Would have liked the 380 block as said but i just cant wait lol. Are you going to do a project log for your mods? I like the sound of the hdd caddy! Would do one in mine if i had the room to.

IC3 said:
GPU for sure, new speakers and currently waiting for my ram to come back from RMA. I do have the cash to wc, but air seems as better deal I think 120hz monitor would be a good buy since I play FPS games quite a lot

What ram did you have? And are you considering 3D gaming with your 120mhz monitor?

Jay85 · 14 Dec 2012 at 00:08

zx|muppet said:
jay all i can say about this build is <3

just stripped my watercooling out my tj07 for a bit of a rebuild but doubt i will ever get anywhere near your quality!

Thanks a lot mate

, glad you like it. Keep an eye out cos theres still more to come after christmas. Just need to work through this busy period next few weeks so hopefully will get things going again once it's over.

Have you got a build log of yours?

What's the Tj07 like to build in?

Jay85 · 28 Dec 2012 at 00:01

Creative SoundBlaster Z Sound Card!

I decided to go against gtx 680 SLI as it was just too much and i wouldn't be benefiting from it much unless i was going 3 way monitors. Instead i decided to invest in an expensive sound card to complete the system.

I just need to tidy up the bottom bays now and replace the SSD with a bigger one and possibly a more silent psu (seasonic X series sound good?)

Also got a new Corsair AF fan today to replace the Gelid fan supplied by the EK Rad i got ages ago.

Ontop of that i did a slight mod to the soundcard cos the LED's are just too damn bright and drowns out the rest of the lights in my system. Nothing like a bit of electrical tape to cover up one of the LED's to dim the lights abit lol. Anyway it's done the trick and now as you can it's much better.

The joys of having a reflective floor means i can see the window on the soundcard and see the actual processing chip

Jay85 · 28 Dec 2012 at 00:24

Somthing Else said:
blood gorgeous jay.

ive got a seasonic x850 and its fantastic. it runs fanless when not underload.

my only gripe is the cables, they dont look as nice as the stock corsair ones but if your using braided extensions then its not an issue

what do you do for an optical drive? do you have an external one or do you just not use one?

I was looking at the Seasonic X750 but then noticed the X850 was only a little bit more but since i just got the soundcard it'll have to wait for now. Also like you say i use extension cable so it's not problem if the cables look ugly

.

I use an external one which i just plug in when i need to use it. Dont really see the need for one unless im watching a movie in bed otherwise i just store the movies on my hard drive.

Jay85 · 28 Dec 2012 at 01:10

Somthing Else said:
how is the case for dust? do you run any filters?

I do, i run 2 filters which usually sit at the front of the case as intakes but they're off at the moment with the cold weather i dont need to turn the front fans on at all. I'm currently running the front radiators passively.

Jay85 · 28 Dec 2012 at 14:31

Monkeyspaz5000 said:
Quick question as I have the same board.

Can you fit two gfx cards (watercooled) and a soundcard??

What SE said, if you run 2 gpu's one would need to be a single slot card to enable the sound card i/o to fit in. This pretty much rules out high end cards cos most are dual slot from what i have seen.

Alternatively maybe you could do a pcie extension using one of those slot extension cables but it would make your internals look ugly.

Do you use the mini pcie adapter at the top of your motherboard for anything like wifi or ssd?

Jay85 · 28 Dec 2012 at 16:02

Monkeyspaz5000 said:
No - don't use it. Didn't even know there was one there!

Well you do now!

Somthing Else said:
i had a look at the mini pcie adaptor for an msata ssd drive, ocuk sell crucial m4 msata ssd's so it could be worth a look but i think the msata connector on the board has limited bandwidth making the ssd redundant or somthing.

i havent seen anyone use one on this board yet except on a youtube reveiw video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZsEGXgrSJA

6:50

Would it? I mean surely a pcie slot would give much more bandwidth than what a sata connection could give due to the number of lanes? Even a mini pcie slot would give greater bandwidth i would imagine?

Will have to look out for some benchmarks.

Jay85 · 28 Dec 2012 at 16:45

Somthing Else said:
well looking at the msata ssd's that ocuk offer the crucial m4 msata can do 500mbs read so it should be a decent speed for the os. i wonder if you could raid 2 msata ssds on the little adaptor, wonder what performance that would get?

Good question, i would love to know this too! If it's doable i would get 2 and raid them on that thing.

Shame they look so ugly though lol but i suppose when they're slotted in you can't really see the SSD's