My Corsair 600T Watercooling

Update

Quick actual update on my current thoughts.

Pump/res is a bit of a pain because the i/o don't both sit facing the same way. The options i have are to have 90degrees rotation like in the other photos, or to go with a 180 degree setup like below. Some benefits when considering stealth-ing behind the mobo tray.

(think my photography skills are getting worse by the day, sorry about this)


So with the pump in that orientation. I have been considering this:
(notice i have also been looking at using the initial drive bay support thing that comes in the case originally to mount the pump. Not too sure on this yet.)

(pump would sit straight not slightly crooked, didn't realise as i took the photo.)






With the picture above, and this one. You can quite easily see how much of my beautiful case i may have to cut away. Not the end of the world. I may also need a special fitting to get it from the rad to the vertical journey back to res, using lots of fitting or short sections of tube are not enticing options.





Sorry about all the tubing updates, it will get more exciting soon i promise! Help me decide on a GPU and that will be a nice upadate :p
 
Update

I have come to the conclusion that an air cooled Card just wont cut the mustard in my new system. I plan to choose on watercooled graphics card THIS EVENING, please go here to help me decide on what to get.

Will be getting a 200mm Rad to go with it too so make sure temps are extra special :D

Since I now plan to have a GPU watercooled, there will be somewhere for me to bring my tubes back towards the res so no need for stealth-ing which was getting a bit ridiculous to be honest. Also the 200mm rad means my efforts of making a special fan bracket are wasted, but it looked fairly naff anyway, like this it will be lovely! :D


So here is a little log of what else I have been doing recently.

Painted the shiny parts of the case where I had to Dremel the nice shapes in, pretty good colour match I think, very happy with it:





These arrived today:


The stopped was planned for two things. Putting the temperature sensor in instead of the stopper and then replacing the standard stopper on the top of the res with a lovely bitspower one:


This is what I am considering for the temperature sensor, one connection will accept the return from loop, the other will be an extra short tube for emptying and the temp sensor.









Plus this!


A beautiful Xonar DG with headphone amp so I can make the most of my Beyerdynamic DT770s :D

 
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Update

Today's work was not at all planned. But i had everything i needed so i thought i may as well get on with it. I didn't take many photos because i was working fairly fast as i have revision to do as well.

In my original build, pic in post #1, the front i/o connectors were braided white. To do this i taped over the current cables which were very thick, and then put the braid over that. This stopped the cables showing through the white braid like this:


For this rebuild i wanted to make my cables more flexible as before they were about 8mm thick. Tape instantly reduced flexibility so i decided just to go for black.


Im Pretty happy with the overall result. will need another dab of paint on the ends but apart from that, all good imo.

To start i cut off all the rubber and shielding (hope it doesn't affect it too much). Used my little knife by sliding the blade most of the way in thus allowing me to cut the rubber and not the inner cables.

Sample USB braiding


And a closer shot


My front i/o connectors, done in pairs and only about 10 inches up the cable.



A fairly awful picture of the final result during testing. It is very difficult to take a picture of something black in low light without a ghastly flash.


I have no idea what my next update will be, because im just doing things in a random order now...
Enjoy.
 
UPDATE

I have made the decision to go with watercooling my graphics card, not only that, but to purchase a whole new graphics card and cool it, exciting stuff :D I made the decision to go with a 7970 because the price point compared to the 680 seems much more competitive and i hear they overclock fairly well, so i went ahead and tried not to mess around too much and ordered the OCUK value card. I decided to send a little message in the customer support to make sure i get a BLACK PCB. I received a prompt reply telling me there was no stock and that if it was ok with me, i would get an HIS card instead. Pfft, its card, and i asked for black PCB, great deal! right?

This is what happened...

So it all started with an unopened box and lots of excitement, nice new shiny always a good thing!



Ooh a 7970, and a waterblock to go with it how exciting!


I began opening the box and taking pictures for my log. I must say at this point i was fairly impressed by the packaging for a company that i considered to be on the low cost side.





Got the card and things started to go down hill because I caught sight of this...



OH EM GEEE, a BLUUEEE PCB, NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!:eek:



At this point it was fair to say I was steaming from the ears. I asked specifically for black, and i got blue :( For most people i understand this would not be the end of the world but matching the black to the rest of the build was most of the point of getting to so to have blue was, as i put it, "more than a little annoyed". I had planned to block this up today as a nice break in my revision but that was not to be, instead i wrote a note in the customer support section for which i now have an RMA. hopefully then get a black one like originally planned...

For those that are more observant, the block came to which was rather nice to say the least. I didn't get any decent pictures as i left it in the box but here it is an all its glory!





 
I am planning to get a black plate anyway. But you can still see a bit of the PCB through the Gap and where it says EK cut out. For me, even knowing that i didn't get what i paid for is irritating enough, knowing that it doesn't match in my rig is even worse for me.

It is a little picky i know, but when you spend £400, you expect to get what you ask for...
 
UPDATE

So I'm afraid there is no build progress at the moment. Just an update on purchases for the project.

I have exams at the moment for the end of my second year in Mechanical Engineering and a couple of my lecturers have not taught as anything relevant to the syllabus the whole year and now we are having to revise like crazy to try and learn all we need to know. Crazy hard work...

So I'm not getting any time to do anything other than revise, eat, and sleep. And I'm only doing this because thermodynamics was starting to drive me a little crazy.

I thought i would let you know I have sustained a sever injury too! Ok well i only stabbed myself with the spanner from my Dremel but it had to get infected and now it kinda hurts, but sorting it out and getting better. (Don't know why i bother with a picture, but hey ho)




I received this a couple of days ago but it was such a minor update I thought I would wait for this big shipment too. Here is my lovely new anti cyclone fitting that fits my res/pump combo like a glove. No shots in situ but trust me, it fits perfectly. Lush. (took the white coversheet off of course)







So here is what you wanted to see, a box from the postie!




And just because im really nice, here are the contents too. :D







Ok well lets just go ahead and open everything...

OH EM GEE, what is with me not getting what i pay for?? This is a rubbishy version of the DDC anti-vibaration mounts that i ordered. *Sends Email immediately* Again, not the end of the world, but i am seriously unlucky at the moment.




Nice big Phobya 200mm Rad for the front of the case.







I went ahead and added the bracket as i knew what i needed.



Lovely backplate for my 2nd (on its way soon) HD 7970




In typical fashion i have got the sticky tape on the plate as i opened it



Got this odd mark on the inside of the letters too, what do you think i should do?



A small bit of isopropanol and a steady hand cleaned it off and now its as good as new.









Now for some slightly less interesting bits and bobs but relevent none the less. Black tubing, may or may not use for the temp sensor and emptying port.



Some Clips



Single slot i/o shield thingy. Going to be black before long probably. :p



Thermal pads etc for the backplate



So there you have it.
A lovely list of more STUFF. Exams end 18th May and after that i will have FREEE TIME!! So plenty of gaming and PC building going on after then, can't wait. Until then, enjoy the picture by picture un-boxings.

More soon...



.
 
Tattysnuc said:
You do seem to have some bad luck with wrong items arriving.

Good luck with those exams too! I can;t remember what the thermodynamics lecturer's name was, but the guys first language was not English, so to get around this he used a microphone. It just amplified the accent.

I guess the nearest description to it was like calling talk-talks helpline... :)
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With no intention of being offensive, quite a few of my lectures are like that, its not easy :(

Scryus said:
Agreed, the attention to detail is unbelievable. Hope your hand gets better soon :)

Scryus.
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Thanks so much, it is recovering quickly now. To begin with i wasn't sure if was infected or something else so i left it for a bit. Antiseptic sorted it out. To much information i know, oh well... :p

joxang said:
Damn, this is looking really good. Fantastic attention to detail on the cutting :D.
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Thanks, appreciate it. Good news from someone with such a nice 600T themselves.



UPDATE

First off i had a look at fitting the 200mm rad. Thought it would be a breeze because there is a 200mm fan mount on the front. Turns out it wasn't. The main issue was that the spectre pro mounting holes dont seem to actually be the same diameter apart as the case and rad holes. I had to make some slightly dodgy cuts in the fan holes to expand them a little so they would fit.

Here you might be able to see how all the bolts have to lean out slightly to be able to go through the fan holes, little bit odd.







The next problem was the air vent hole at the top of the radiator. I had to cut apart the drive bays a little to get it in.












Got a litte painting to touch it up, but its fairly subtle so im fine with it.

Eventually Got it fitted!






Next i had another go at tubing the system up. But without a motherboard or GPU it was fairly pointless and going nowhere fast so i decided to get my system to pieces so i could work things out more effectively.

Came up with some fairly complex arrangements without motherboard or GPU.



I was hoping that this would allow me to run a black tube behind the motherboard but it didn't quite work. I have decided i am going to get a ball valve and paint it black since i cant get a black one.





Ran A bench test before taking out my GPU and pulling my system apart so i had something to compare to. Scored 780, which seems terrible for a 6970, not sure why. Was with 4x AA.



Dust Ring
While taking it apart i found this dust ring on the top grill fairly interesting, it was formed by the apache black fans that were sitting there. I had never noticed it before because i had time to clean it, but during exams and revision, i dont have the time. So yeah, thought it was interesting.

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Next, this is the water system i removed from my board. Look like i might have put a little too much paste on but the coverage looks good, if a little thick. Little bit of overflow over the edge too, so i will try and limit this next time.

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So i have had another look at tubing after my thermodynamics exam today and i think it is looking good.

Decided i will probably got without having the HDD cage as i only have one SSD and one 3TB drive.





Motherboard in testing before i send it back for RMA.

IMAGE

Hopefully i will be able to mount the pump straight into the radiator, not got the fittings at the moment but i will do soon if i make a final decision. I have seen similar things in the second pic in other builds and because the flow doesn't fully develop in the short distance, it causes turbulence and heavily restricts flow.

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IMAGE

Temp sensor mounted in the T block. This is very restrictive so i want a valve instead. That should give me all the flexibility need.

IMAGE


And now the Grand tubing design. Ignore tube colours, lengths etc. Just the approximate route is important.

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IMAGE

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(apologies for missing images. Upload took hours since there were so many pictures for this update and sadly some uploaded in full res for no reason... Will try and get some ASAP)

Well thats it for today. Please continue to leave comment especially on the route of the loop.

Thanks :D
 
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Tattysnuc said:
It's really starting to come together nicely now. Are the fans on the top going to be in a pull configuration? Also, what fan are you using with the 200mm rad at the front?
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Yep, top fans are pulling through the rad and out the top of the case. Front fan is a Bitfenix Spectre Pro with no leds.

My only slight concern at this stage is my air pressure. I think i may end up with a low pressure inside the case with three 120s on the top. Resulting in dust coming in through the gaps. Might have to have the rear as an intake to stop this. plus get a filter for it.
 
UPDATE

Just a quick update as to what is happening so you all know whats going on.

I have been purchasing braiding and other small items for finishing touches that shall get added after my exams finish on friday.

My motherboard RMA should be delivered today so i may not bother with a Z77 upgrade, thought on this?

Just to show that i am truly unlucky with bad deliveries the following events have happened recently.

1) Bought 4 alpenfohn wing boost fans from OCUK, got delivered purple LED ones...

2) Bought 25 LEDs for X4 sidewinder light mod. Only delivered 15...

3) Bought 100ft of Black paracord for braiding, got delivered green...

How does this always happen to me :(

No pictures this time im afraid as i am literally in the middle of doing 3 exams in 4 days and it is hectic to say the least. But i promise there will lots of good stuff happening in the next week. Subscribe for updates! :D
 
UPDATE

So here we are, time for an update on my progress.

Exams went well, longest and hardest period of work in my life so far but it can only get better from here and i think i did alright in my exams so it all looks good.

Saw a video on YT which was a tutorial on braiding cables with paracord, and since i owned bitfenix alchemy cables i have always wanted a full set of cables like that so that is exactly what i did.

Started by buying about 400ft of paracord which was only about £20 so great value for money, bought black and white but only really used white in the end.

White Paracord Mess


Then i set about sleeving each and every cable. It took several days in all and my thumb is now utterly ruined after touching molten nylon repeatedly and then pulling out the razer sharp pins and cutting my fingers... Sacfices were made in the learning stages but now i can do it much more proficiently.

Cut Thumb



I must mention at this point that i made a fatal error while doing this. Since all the cables are black, i thought it would be best to only remove a single cable at once, sleeve it, then replace it. But as i got tired one night at about 2am, i pulled out two in a row. I decided that since i could do nothing about it immediately then i would just guess and continue. I tried to get the wiring plans from corsair but they said they couldn't help. I contacted OCUK customer service and, low and behold, Bailey managed to get me exactly what i needed, the wire diagram for the AX850W PSU (which is different to normal as it is 24pin on one end and 18+10pin on the other.) Massive Kudos to OCUK for their efforts here so i thought i would mention that :D Thanks again OCUK.

If anyone is wondering quite how you do this, you basically have to remove then pin and slip the paracord over the end like normal braiding but use a still wire to help. Then just melt the paracord at the end over the thin part of the clip so it doesn't slip back over. Then just put it back in. Could do a more detailed tutorial if there is demand but i imagine videos on YT are just as useful.

Melting the End


Part Done


The Final Results














Done Front I/O Connectors too




As well as braiding a metric tonne of cables, in 2 days i have painted a couple of screw ends so they dont show up like beacons on the rad fans. Very simply just painted, im sure they might chip a little when i put them in but its better than them being bright shining silver like before.






Up next will be blocking up my GPU and then fitting and testing. Exciting times for me! :D
 
UPDATE

So i have finally decided i may as well drill holes in the bottom of the case as it is the best way to mount my pump using the metal bracket with damped screws that i bought. Only had a 3.2mm drill bit so i used that an then filed out the holes to make them slightly bigger. Not the best, but works just fine.





A quick test fit of the rad and pump combo, attached by the bit power double rotating fitting.





Finished the hacking apart of the case so i put the grommets and stuff back.





Fitting the GPU waterblock... Not much to say. Never done it before but it was fairly easy apart from the very limited amount of thermal pads and thus no chance to make a mistake. Everything came out fine i think, only testing will decide.










Shiny!







Just realised i bought the wrong backplate so had to wait for a new one.




And here is my new motherboard plus the block fitted. Again, very easy process and worked out a treat.











Next will be fitting to the case and filling!
 
UPDATE

Firstly, apologies for all these photos. I was using a slightly different setting on my camera and they looked much better on the camera screen but now they are uploaded, they look much worse. But oh well, they are just progress pics and i will try and get some true beauty shots in the last post.

Lining up the fans to get the right orientation.



Radiators in. Good progress!



In goes the motherboard. Very tight fit!





Looks like this screw could be a little difficult.



Oops... too close. The clip on the 8 pin (4+4) was actually pushed in when it was fixed in place and this also caused some weird bending on the motherboard so I now need to take out the top rad and remove the grommets that i was using. This will give more space as it will more the rad up a couple of mm.



More Space.


Powersupply in, and i do so love these cables!





Take a step back to enjoy for a few seconds... ahhh



A quick bit of admiration for my work on the 24 pin cable



Put my PCI Cards in. Definitely worth spraying the backplate i think as it makes the back look so much tidier.



Quick shot of the 6 and 8 pin. I love so much :D


Put in my fan controller and checking it works fine.



Midway through i received my new ENORMOUS boogie bug. I had no desk space so just draped it over my case, lol.





Cables getting messy already but will tidy up at the end.



In goes the tubing. Without the GPU backplate for now as i made a mistake and it was due to be delivered next day so i just sorted myself out ahead of time.

















Another shot of the rear I/o in black. So smooth...





Filling!
Stupidly didn't have quite enough fluid to fill the loop first time so i sent in a special request to the customer service at OCUK on thursday at 4:50 and 5UB sorted me out personally to ensure i got my second bottle of fluid next day :D Thanks again OCUK! (especially 5UB)





...And leak testing. For hours...







So many cables!



Now tidied to the best of my ability and the SSD hidden behind the optical bays with some double sided foam tape. Foam is unnecessary i know, but it works.








Summary
It is all up and running now and i am using it to write this post. Needless to say i am very happy with it. The next update will hopefully bring OC results and beauty shots. :D
 
Stinger53 said:
looks great :) rly wanna do some thing like this with my 600t
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Thanks very much. All i can say is make sure you plan everything fully and try not to scrimp on things otherwise you will be putting in a lot of effort and money and it won't be quite as good as expected. And above all, enjoy it! :D

TheGhostToast said:
Looks good! How many metres of cable braid would you say you used to do all the cables?
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OH jeees... about 130ft i think. If you plan to do it i'd go for 100ft +50ft. If if you have the same cables. Or just go for 200ft. It really isn't expensive stuff at all. Cost me about £20 :D
 
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