My Corsair 600T Watercooling

[Roverno]

Project: Ice

Welcome to My 600T Watercooling Project

Hi all,

This is my first attempt at putting up any form of lengthy build log so i will give it my best shot and hope it turns out well. My camera is far more capable than i am but it is only a compact, will do my best to portray the work but don't expect the amazing arty shots that you can find elsewhere.

I'm not going to blabber on too much about what and why because i know you just want to scroll through pictures really , but here is a brief overview.

EDIT: I need good name for the project and case but im really bad at names, suggestions welcome.


Why?
Loud Coolit Vantage ALC
Loud fan grills in 600T
not done WC before.

What?
Rig in Sig
Raystorm CPU Block
Magicool 360mm Radiator
Bitspower fittings (inc T-Block for draining)
Laing DDC 18W
EK DDC X-Res 100
Mayhems Pastel White Coolant

Added to the project:
Phobya 200mm Rad
HD 7970
EK 7970 Waterblock +Backplate

Aim:
Easy draining and filling for when i move the case about on a fairly regular basis.
Super Cool CPU temps
Nice and quiet

So lets Begin!

Here is my rig as it sits at the moment, the only difference is that the Scythe GT fans have been died white.

Here is the kit I plan to put in with an additional image for the coolant because I forgot it initially. Oops (I do have more fittings, but didn't want to unpack them all.

Temp sensor (not decided where to mount yet. Fill port perhaps?)

Bitspower T-Block, this will give me an easy port for emptying, not sure how it will affect my flow rate though (answer on a postcard please)

Couple I questions I have:
What is this? (Is it radioactive? LOL)

For mounting my Laing DDC, I have heard they tend to rattle the case a bit. I have some foam tape and a velcro sheet. Not sure how to use/mount (more answers on postcard appreciated. Posting a reply might be easier)

Since I move my case around fairly often, it is key that I try and maintain the strength of the case, so I need to prevent cutting out huge holes. I went through a couple of designs but ended up on this:
Top

Back

Front

Once cut it all looks a little bit like this:

That's all for now. More updates on the way...

Up Next, filing down the sharp edges and some slight modifications i made to the holes.

 

[Roverno]

I think your rig looks nice as it is at the moment so gonna be interesting seeing what you do to improve on that

Thanks, took a little while to get it all tidy. Problem is the noise though, it is really far too loud.

 

[Roverno]

UPDATE

So here is the next stage of the process.

I don't even want to count the hours i have spent filing this all down, more edges than you can imagine. I also had to do some of it twice because i didn't want the edges as sharp, wanted a rounded finish.

The next stage is to get some black paint and cover up the areas where i have filed. (and also the bits where i have slipped...)

A beautiful edge:


The top:


Top side close up:


My best attempt at something a bit different:


A horrible gash out the top of my beautiful case:


Ye Olde Top down shot:



Next, painting! Fun

 

[Roverno]

Mistakes are being made. apologies

Spoiler

I don't know how to delete a post

 

[Roverno]

Anti cyclone, lovely. Thankyou. Just tried to fit it and i can see no logical place for it to actually fit, will have to investigate further.

As for the temp reader, i have no spare holes, only spare is where i plan to put the extra tube for the drainage part of the loop on the Tblock. i could put a Y fitting on the hole into the res, and mount on that. But could either be very expensive or look rubbish. Will have to do some thinking.

 

[Roverno]

looks good i'd like to do the same sorta thing with my 600T white

Thankyou, don't know if i would recommend. Filing did take literally days. Do it the fast way and cut the lot out unless your moving your rig lots like me.

 

[Roverno]

IMAGE

If i put mine in that way round it just rattles all over the place... I played around with it for about 40 minutes and couldnt find any way that it would fit snuggly. Not even close to being a tight fit. Thanks for this image though, help always much appreciated.

Looking great so far! You putting your GPU under water too?

Thanks Vect0r, im not sure what im doing with GPU at the moment. I am torn between three options.

1) Get a new generation Black PCB 680 or 7970 and put under water

2) Get a new Gen custom cooler and keep on air

3) Watercooling current blue pcb and get a backplate that would hopefully cover the horid blueness.

I am yet to decide


UPDATE

I am getting my fans ready for the top, three 1850RPM Gentle typhoons. As you may have noticed, i am a little OCD on the colour of my rig. (Even sprayed my keyboard and headphones to match) So quite simply grey fans with a blotchy plastic shell wouldn't do.

I did do two a while ago but i have done most of the third today, more details later. Used a white die for the blades, and a black enamel for the shell.

Started life like this:


And then i ripped it apart (carefully of course), and masked up: (lots of images, not sure why, i must have liked it.)





Masking Finished:


Rather embarrassingly i ended up ruining my black spray can nozzle so i got half way through and had to stop the black spraying. But all was not lost as i had forgotten to cut the edges where i am going to be mounting the fan on the extra holes i made at the end.

Cuts looks a little like this:


(not ideal because my cutting disc kept melting the plastic on lowest setting and that put a covering on the blade making it blunt, useless... So i used a glass etching tool instead. Bit rubbishy but it does the job. Will paint over it again to make it a little neater.)

Anyway, here is one i made earlier. I love it (Cables also braided but forgot to do pictures, some more may come later for that.)

 

[Roverno]

Treat
I have decided to share a little treat as well, my custom paint job peripherals! I do quite like white as you can probably tell by now. And black... well you cant go wrong with black.

On the keyboard, as well as painting, i replaced the green LEDs with some superbright white ones which look pretty fancy imo, and braided the cable.
Together forever:


Final Shots:



Hope you like


Fancy LEDs:


On the headphones i simply stripped them down and painted some parts white. Easy peasy lemon squeazy

All in Parts!

Possibly the hardest thing in the world to mask:



Pretty pictures:

 

[Roverno]

Lol your alittle OCD i think. Howd u pull apart the GT fans? There some sorta screws behind the sticker?

There is a small clip on the fan shaft called a circlip. You just pry that off then the fan pulls out the front. Just got to be careful no to lose the clip

 

[Roverno]

UPDATE

Been pretty short for time with a metric tonne of revision to do so here is my little update for the day:

The grill in the front of my 600T for some reason causes a huge amount of noise when i have a 200mm fan installed and spinning, even when i have cut a huge amount of it out, it still makes the sound. However, it doesn't happen when it is moved back from the grill. to overcome this little problem i have hacked apart another 200mm fan i had as seen below:

From this:



To this:


This basically allows me to mount the spectre PRO fan i have to one side, and then screw it to the case on the other side. Damped with these and the normal case grommets:



I will be painting the hacked apart fan black to blend in, but i ruined my black spray can while doing the fan so painting is currently on hold.

 

[Roverno]

Looking good so far mate, keep them pics coming

Your very demanding! Going as fast as i can.

 

[Roverno]

Haha, don't rush, doing a great job so far.

Thanks

 

[Roverno]

Wow this looks sick, cant wait to see what happens, especially with what you done before

When have you seen what i have done before?

 

[Roverno]

UPDATE

I have now cut the top white plastic par that covered the hole i cut in the steel section. This is stuff was surprisingly easy to cut well with a Dremel, and with a couple of minutes of sanding turned out pretty smooth.



This is what the top looks like at this stage, pretty nice im sure you'll agree



Had a go at fitting my rad and fans as well just to see how it all fits.

Because of the way i wanted to keep strength in the case, i have to mount the end fan in such a way that it will support the radiator. This rather ugly picture shows the layers i am using to mount the fans.

The red layer is the radiator.
The yellow layer is the full fan grommet that you can see (just about) in the picture already.
The blue bit is where the fan corner will sit.
The green layer is the rubber washer/grommet that fits to the holes in the other fan mounts.
I will cut down one of the supplied screws to fit through the lot without cutting into the rad.
This currently a proposed idea an may change a little.




Here you can see that the second pair of holes for the third (special mounted ) fan don't quite fit. I am going to cut the red lines so i can screw through the hole (blue.)




Doing this took literally two seconds as i decided to use the Dremel grinding attachment instead of a file. Turns out just as well and took a fraction of the time. Wish i had thought of it sooner!

Here are some slightly prettier pictures of the fans partially mounted:

 

[Roverno]

UPDATE

It's that time again. That time when I blabber on about what I have been spending my precious free time on and you just scroll through the pretty pictures, scanning over the occasional line of text because a certain picture seems to make no sense at all!

Look what arrived with the postie!


This is the black paint i am using to cover the scythe GT fans and also the shroud that i cut for what is effectively a front fan silencer. Also included are some tube cutters from OCUK, they just about cut straight if you do it slowly, for the price compared to other places, very good. Also i bought some extra tube fittings so i can play around with how i'm going to start connecting all these bits and bobs together. The white electrical tape is for going under the white braid that i have from that sell braiding and have rigs worth a million dollars (supposedly). It will be for braiding the front i/o connectors, like in my current setup.

Now i have the paint, behold my black fan silencer installed and triple 120mm White Scythe GTs

Notice what looks like an extra fan


Notice large gap




I have now got to the point (without having yet painted over the cutting areas) where i want to start playing about with mounting of the pump and routing of the tubes. I always had the idea in my head that having the holes for the rad in the 5.25 bays as it would be the most tidy. Makes sense right? but it actually made the tubes look fairly ugly because they were wrapping round the bays. It just didnt work out right. So i will be having the rad in/out at the rear of the case.

Rad at rear of the case with fitting trials from the future


So at the same time i had a look at pump mounting. There was only really one option here. At the front by the fan where the hdd cages are when the case is new. I wanted to mount on the plastic i cut from the top (after painting black) because i didnt want to stick anything permanent to the case but still wanted a secure fit.

With or without the standard plastic block?



See foam pads for damping.



Pretty ugly i'm sure you'll agree. Plus with only two screws holding it down, it had a tendency to lift very easily from the back, not good.
I had also forgotten about where the HDD cages sat so i had to move the pump closer toward the fan to stop them colliding.

Second idea was to use a small piece of mesh that i stole from a project where i put a PS3 and Xbox 360 into a PC. (I plan to upload pictures of this another time. let me know if you're interested.)

Focus on the Mesh




I was fairly happy with using the mesh. It is not perfect but it will be screwed down with rubber washers and some of that foam tape with one side left un-sticky. This will heavily dampen the apparently shaky DDC pump that i have chosen.


Next onto tubing:

This what happens when i try and be creative, a massive mess but lots of ideas.


And a creative picture for good measure.


I tried to avoid cutting the tube because i didn't want to make a decision then change my mind and not have enough.

So you can see here that i have the tubes going out of the pump, into the cpu (into cut out for now) then into the rad. CPU will be 45degree fittings along with one 45 degree fitting on the closest rad fitting.

Then here is the complicated bit. Because of the position of the rad, it would normally be a very ugly, long, saggy tube coming all the way across my beautiful rig. Instead i have tried to stealth it. It goes all the way round the sides of the inside of the case, which will be completely hidden but held in with zip ties. Not very classy, but it will be invisible.



Please excuse the shot of the toilet, i didnt mean to do that!








This will obviously go into the res/pump rather than around it, but i didnt want to cut the tube just yet.






A nice little benefit to this is that you should be able to see a little of the tube from the top of the case next to where the triple rads are. This will only be proven later on.

I have ordered a couple more fitting as well to get everything fitting snuggly. plus a tube plug from bitspower that i should be able to put my temp sensor in and also use as an emptying tube. might get some black tubing for this too.

More updates coming soon! hope this one wasn't too wordy, i get a little carried away

 

[Roverno]

UPDATE

Thanks to lrlcr, i have had some second thought about having the loop return to res/pump at the front side of the case, or the back side behind the motherboard.

This is what it could look like from the res/pump to the radiator:

 

[Roverno]

This looks like it's coming along nicely. I ended up having to buy loads of 90 degree angled fittings to "stealth" my tubing, and all I that did was make a feature of it, because I sent it the wrong way round my rad - see:

IMAGE

I mention this because if you think about doing the same, a word of warning - it's a pig stopping the hose getting twisted. As you're trying to hide the hose it might be worth looking at a 90 degree male to male fitting so that you can snug it in the corner a bit more, rather than having a sweeping bend in the hose - that's purely cosmetic though...

Do you know what colour liquid you will be using yet?

Just cooling the CPU? Not the GPU(s) too?

Are you not able to rotate the radiator 180 degrees to get the fittings nearer the pump?

Wonderful work - would love to incorporate some of the features you've done in this into mine, especially the cuts to the "mesh" - classy!

1:
Fluid im using is mayhems pastel white, everything has to be white or black, and i think im running a little short on white at the moment so im adding more white!

2:
I am indeed just cooling cpu at the moment. I hate that my GPU has a blue PCB, it ruins the whole look of my pc so i need to get a new gpu. I haven't decided how im going to go about doing this. I might get another 6970 reference with black pcb, or i could got new gen and WC, or just new gen and keep it on air. Because i move my pc a few times a year i want to be able to remove the pcb easily for transport so staying on air is fairly appealing form that point of view.

3:
I have tried rotating the rad 180 but then both cpu hoses come out one side and the route from rad to pump either ends up coving all of the 5.25 slots by cutting a hole in the bottom of the cage, or it just has to go around it which looks silly. I can try doing it later and upload some snaps.

 

[Roverno]

Im doing Mech Eng here now, in my second year so living in a house off campus. About 200million has been spent on developing the uni, mostly in sports and politics, sadly all the engineering department got left behind in development i feel.

Only a little off topic there

 

[Roverno]

I am planning to touch up the areas i have cut with some black humbrol paint that i ordered about 3 weeks ago and now having another sent out. This should suffice for a good finish. I would consider a complete re-powercoat if it wasn't expensive, how much is it??

EDIT: Powercoat lol. I meant powder coat!

 

[Roverno]

UPDATE

Well this isn't so much an update as a couple of questions I would like some of your thoughts on.

Graphics Card
As stated earlier in my log, i am aiming for having pc my as quiet as possible. With my current GPU that is impossible, i couldn't hate it anymore than i currently do. The only thing stopping me burning it right here right now is that it is actually worth some money. My plan at the moment is to get one of these:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-297-SP
The colour, power and OC ability are all appealing on this case.

The Phantom 680 would be very nice, but i simply dont know how to justify that price.

Because i need to be able to take my GPU out for moving the case (as i think they damage fairly easily dues to the weight) i don't want to WC my card. Maybe in the future when I don't have to move so much.

Fan Control

Sound obviously is going to come from fans, cant to nout about that but keeping the sound down is imperative. I am not sure whether to go the dialled fan controller on the front to manually control fans, use the motherboard options to control flow, or get a separate temperature controller.

Your thoughts would be much appreciated.