Monsta 500R - The further adventures of Petey

Uncle Petey · 22 Mar 2013 at 13:18

PICS ADDED:

1st: 240+240 build

2nd: Fun overkill build 360+240+240

3rd: Green Monsta :-D

360+240

4th: Dual card goodness

So, the arch-aircooler finally gets around to dipping a toe in the wet stuff

I honestly don't need to improve my CPU or VGA temps or anything, it's just that building a loop looks like a lot of fun and I can't resist any more, so here goes!

So far, we have:

- Koolance 380i Cpu Block
- EK FC7970 Block + Backplate
- 2x 240mm Alphacool Monsta Rads *giggle*
- Phobya 150 Reservoir
- EK D5 CSQ Pump top
- A bunch of EK compression & rotary fittings.

Soon to come:

- ~~D5 pump~~
- ~~Tubing/coolant etc~~
- ~~Misc stuff + a few more fittings~~

Stay tuned to find out how this all gets shoehorned into a Corsair 500R and expect plenty of pics

EDIT:

Full WC component list

- Koolance 380i Cpu Block
- EK FC7970 Block + Backplate
- ~~2x 240mm Alphacool Monsta Rads~~ 360+240 Monsta Rads
- Phobya 150 Reservoir
- EK D5 Pump top
- XSPC D5 Vario pump
- EK 45° + 90° rotary fittings
- EK compression fittings
- Koolance VL3N-FG Quick Release Connector Female G1/4
- Koolance VL3N-M13B Quick Disconnect Male Barb for ID 13mm (1/2in)
- Phobya Noise Destructor V.1 (the pad under the pump)
- XSPC UV green 7/16 5/8 tubing
- Mayhems X1 clear coolant

+ A couple of LED G1/4 lighting modules and a twin 5mm white LED cable for the reservoir.
Looked great with clear coolant, but the blue dye killed the lighting effect

Edit: Turns out the LEDs just went bad..

Thanks to Tonester (GPU block/backplate, Scythe GT's and rotary fittings), Space Monkey (CPU block and pump top) and Fireisdangerous (Most of the compression fittings) for your MM bargains that made this possible

Uncle Petey · 26 Mar 2013 at 18:04

I hope so

So far, it's looking like it'll be ok. Not epic desktop background material or anything if I'm honest though.

There'll be plenty of case cutting and stuff (which I've already started), but no self braided cables and bitspower lovelies etc.
There will be one particular aspect that'll split opinion though. I'll try to keep that bit as classy as I can. /cryptic

There'll be an update tomorrow when I get the majority of the remaining bits and bobs

Uncle Petey · 26 Mar 2013 at 19:04

lol I'm in love with beefy aircooling, so I have to keep the chunk factor if I'm gonna switch sides

Uncle Petey · 27 Mar 2013 at 17:25

Cheers guys, I'll try to keep up with the pic count.
I've just had a marathon sweat session with removing a huge heatsink from my card (pics in sig). That thermal glue doesn't play ball.
Hopefully, the card still works

Here's a quick pic until later

#

Not a pimp mobo unfortunately... Ah well.

Uncle Petey · 27 Mar 2013 at 18:22

Well, the first one is going in the front bay with the bottom cut out.
The second? Erm, well I guess it won't be IN the case as such, but I will do my best to minimize the ghetto factor

Uncle Petey · 27 Mar 2013 at 20:42

I have a cunning plan my friends

Uncle Petey · 28 Mar 2013 at 12:46

Alrighty then, mostly done! Yay!

Leak test all clear and running sweetly

I bled both rads and a good shake cleared all the major bubbles. There are still some tiny bubbles in the res, but it's not an issue as far as performance goes.

Still need to do the top panel, so I'll post pics of that later.
All I'm going to do is cut a rad shaped hole in the mesh and line the cut with edge trim.

Here's some night time pics from yesterday and I'll do some daylight shots when I've finished the top panel. For a first WC build, I'm very happy with the way this turned out

Pics (and my phonecam) don't do it full justice. I'll try to get some better ones in a bit.
Still need to sort out the cables on the back too.
Oh, and blank the graphics on the PSU.

Uncle Petey · 28 Mar 2013 at 15:38

Cheers mate.
The rads are beefy, no doubt. I do think that pics make them look more massive than they are though.

Btw, if you were planning to do something similar with your 500R, note that I had to cut the top section off the HDD cage to make it fit under the rad.
If you wanted to put a 360 in the front (or a 240 on the floor), you'd have to either drill some new fan mounting holes about 5mm or so higher than the existing ones or cut a section out of the floor.
There was a little cutting needed on the top fan hole section to allow the top rad compression fittings a bit of room.

Also, all the cuts I made were done with a nibbler as I don't own a dremel.

There's also a modified demciflex filter on the front panel which I'll show pics of later.

Next on the list (after the mesh mod), I'll be doing a big window on the side panel.

Uncle Petey · 29 Mar 2013 at 09:38

Daylight shot to show up all the nasties

Still haven't done the mesh mod... :rolleyes:

At least got around to blanking the PSU.

Uncle Petey · 29 Mar 2013 at 13:15

Thanks man

The rads have a port at the bottom.
If I slide out the HDD cage and put a dish underneath the rad, I can pump everything through from the top rad/blocks/res, disconnect the QDC and then just tip what's left in the tube into the rad, which then comes out of the bottom.

It worked well when I did the initial fill/flush.

If I got a big SSD and/or an external caddy for the HDD, I'd remove the cage and put a 45° or 90° fitting and a drain line on the bottom of the rad to make it easier.

Hope that all makes sense

Uncle Petey · 30 Mar 2013 at 00:57

Thank you, sir

I'm not done yet though. Still room for improvement without getting too anal about it

Uncle Petey · 31 Mar 2013 at 21:53

ThaReaperGuy said:
Looks very nice and clean!

skylineboy said:
great 1st build Petey.

Cheers guys

Antony101 said:
...read the OP you utter fool...

Are you in the right thread Ant?

Uncle Petey · 31 Mar 2013 at 22:01

Ah. Didn't realise it was a comment to self

That reminds me, I should do a full component breakdown for anyone that might be interested.
I'll update the OP shortly.

Uncle Petey · 31 Mar 2013 at 23:11

Thanks man. It's all about the beef

Btw, if there are 2000AD/ABC Warrior fans here, is it just me or...?:

Uncle Petey · 4 Apr 2013 at 06:40

Well, I've had a stroke of madness and decided to upgrade the front rad to a 360 monsta :eek:

Since I'll have the existing 240 going spare, I figure what the hell, I'll hang it off the back and route it between cpu and gpu

The SSD will be tucked away around the back and the HDD will go in an esata enclosure.

Yes, it's overkill. It's also bloody good fun and will involve a bit of drilling and cutting on the floor of the case plus a bit at the rear.

You have until this afternoon to talk me out of ordering stuff I don't need to improve temps that don't need improving

Uncle Petey · 7 Apr 2013 at 15:47

Since nobody felt like talking me out of it...

Overkill is fun

Sorry, I accidentally left my cam on min settings...

Thing is, it didn't really do much in the way of dropping temps.
I'll be removing the rear rad and will 'just' stick with 360/240.

You'll also note that I cut out most of the bays as they were never used and can now show off the monolith (as well as get it in there to begin with).
Push/pull isn't really needed on there tbh. It's just that I had the fans anyway and they look good. Helps with case airflow I suppose.

Now, how to get those fingerprints of the rads....

Uncle Petey · 7 Apr 2013 at 16:10

It's ok, I can't stop giggling at it either

Uncle Petey · 8 Apr 2013 at 19:44

That rad'll be coming off in a couple of days and I'll be reverting to the previous tube layout with the cpu-gpu-res.
I was wondering if anyone wanted to offer any opinion on colour schemes for fluid/tubing?

I was thinking about some UV green tubing (with or without UV lighting) or something... Can't make my mind up.
Blue fluid looks nice, but it's done to death imo. White would look good and fit with the current scheme... Clear fluid looks nice and clean...
Not a major fan of opaque pastel, but I'm open to options.

What say you, chaps? Any thoughts on these or other options?

Uncle Petey · 8 Apr 2013 at 22:50

Haha, you probably won't be surprised to hear that I actually thought about it

Even I have limits though.
Liking yours too. We should start a Monsta club

Any ideas on tube/fluid colours?

Uncle Petey · 8 Apr 2013 at 23:32

Nickolp1974 said:
Monsta club, cool

Tubes, black apart from the vertical one from gfx to res?
Fluid, white pastel
Lighting-green?

Bold! I like this kind of thinking.

I was looking at having the tubing be a bright contrast to the sea of black boxes though. Was thinking bright green tubes and white pastel maybe. Perhaps both UV with some UV leds/cathodes. Might be a bit much though.

Btw, the gpu to res tube will be going back to the curved shape in the original 240/240 incarnation.
Not sure if I'll keep the current straight res to pump line or go back to the slight curve.

beasty6 said:
that is sooo cool!!

I see what you did there