My First OCUK project

CraigRobbo · 11 May 2013 at 23:21

Hey guys.

So here is my first build, I am sorry its already part-compleate I had started building it before I was a member here!

Here is what I have so far, The only difference is i am not using the MSI board in this system anymore, I have 2 systems.
I have an X58 P6T and an MSI Z77 and decided the Z77 is going into the HTPC case for gaming and the P6T is going in the new build which is used for CAD.

I also changed out the red tubing for clear with red coolant instead.

Specs of this build are:
i7 920
6GB ram
560Ti Graphics card (may upgrade to quadro when funds allow)
Asus P6T
Full custom water loop

CraigRobbo · 12 May 2013 at 09:37

Thanks for the compliments guys.

For the case, the Good: I would say its very solidly built for sure, The cable tidy is nice (although it is lacking cable mountings/ties on the rear) Its quite easy to work with as a whole, plenty of space, I like the fan control on the front for quiet and performance, it really makes a difference.
As for bad point, I would say - It has 4 5.25 bays but only 3 are actually useable (only 3 facia on the front)
The case doesn't naturally support a 240mm Rads on the floor, I had to do some faffing / modding to get that to fit,
The plexi glass does seem a bit feable (although it is thick)
Improvements:
I would have liked a Mobo tray and maybe some proper tool-less PCI clips rather than thuumb screws.

Overall, would I buy it again if I had the choice - I think I would! Although it was a touch call, this or the stryker

CraigRobbo · 12 May 2013 at 22:51

Layout mocked up before cabling and finishing my WC loop.

CraigRobbo · 15 May 2013 at 11:35

Got her finished now:

CraigRobbo · 29 May 2013 at 12:28

Sorry for the lack of updates, I have had a catastophic failuire!

I came home from work after leaving my PC on to find 3 tubes had popped off the barbs, almost 2 liters of water all over the Mobo & Cards.

I have finally rebuilt her and thank fudge she works still!!

I used almost 100liters of compressed air, WD40/water displacer and put the mobo in the oven over night on 60oC.

I have just finished rebuilding her with a new tube layout to hopefully put less stress on the tubes.

My only concern is the tube connecting to the CPU is quite long and sags, I may have to find an alternate mounting/holding system for it.

CraigRobbo · 29 May 2013 at 16:24

Hey guys.

Yeah the system was turned on at the time, it must have been leaking for a while though since the whole system was empty and quite hot (it had gone into thermal shutdown!)

I think my luck just ran out though, Been using the PC for a while today and the graphics card has given up on me!

It artifacts real bad, from boot and when windows loads it just bluescreens with a graphics error. Damn!

Fortunaatley about 98% of the water went onto the Graphics card so I am hoping the Mobo should survive.

I am going to purchase a new graphics card later on today and hopefully it should be okay now.

As for barbs I was using 1/2" barbs and 1/2" tubing, Really odd as everything seemed like a super snug & tight fit.

I will keep my eye on it this time I think a bit more.

CraigRobbo · 30 May 2013 at 12:41

Hey guys, Thanks for the help - The Barbs I am using are the ones recomended to me, they are a very very very tight fit onto the tube so they feel correct.

That aside, now the water system is all up and running smoothly (for now at least) I have another REALLY odd problem.

So i have 2 PC's, The watercooled one and my HTPC one.

Now the Problem one is the watercooled one, which has a 560TI graphics card in, when I boot the screen artifacts and just genreally weird on screen glitches compleatly unreadable from boot(almost look like tetris) and then crashes on windows login.

So to go through the process of elimination I the 560ti graphics card in the HTPC and weirdly enough it came on without any problem, ran a quick stress test and nothing.

Okay so it must be the Mobo, I took the GTX660 from my HTPC and put it into the watercooled rig, everything works, I fired up a stress test and ran for 30 minutes...stable.

So whats the problem? to sum-up the GTX560ti WONT work in watercooled rig but works in HTPC rig, the GTX660 works in both.

Please bear in mind for all testing I reinstalled stock air cooler onto the 560TI in BOTH rigs.

How odd is that?

Now I don't want to leave the 560TI in the HTPC because i do all my gaming on the HTPC. My Watercooled rig is considerably lower spec and is used for CAD work so its a waste of card leaving the GTX660 in there.