O11D Clean Monochrome Hardline Watercooled Build

[Heofz]

In the 20+ years I've been building PCs, it was always either an air cooled setup or balls deep in phase change cooling (some of you will remember those glory days), or more recently air + AIO. I had never ventured into custom water loops... until now

Anyways, this time I thought I'd try and attack it head on and do it all, went straight for hard lines as my first go, and also thought I'd have a crack at making my own custom PSU cables.

Had a few hiccups along the way but overall very happy with the end result.

Final Specs:

• Lian-Li O11D White (Not XL!)
• AMD Ryzen 9 5950X
• Nvidia RTX 3090 FE
• MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk WiFi Motherboard
• 32GB (2x16) Samsung B-Die DDR4 Memory
• LINKUP Ultra PCIE 4.0 Riser Cable + Casemod Vertical GPU Bracked (Modified)
• EK-Quantum Velocity D-RGB Nickel + Plexi CPU Block
• EK-Quantum Vector FE Black Special Edition Water Block
• EK Lian-Li O11D Distro Plate G1
• EK Twin 360mm Radiator Setup - EK Coolstream PE top, SE bottom
• EK-Quantum Torque Fittings (Black Nickle) + Hot/Cold coloured inserts
• EK-Quantum Torque Drain Valve (Black Nickle)
• 14mm PETG Hard Tubing
• 6x Corsair QL120 RGB Fans
• Corsair iCUE Commander PRO + 2x Corsair Fan Hub Controllers

Probably worth saying I started with a fairly bog standard air+AIO build, same hardware apart from the GPU which was a 6900 XT Red Devil Limited Edition:

Removed the AIO (sold off), got the side fans out then put the distro plate in immediately:

Behind the scenes bits:

Rads flushed out and installed with the Corsair fans. Also close up of the "hot & cold" fittings:

CPU Block in (had to reorientate it to 'goofy' to align to the distro holes to the right:

Lots of reading up on parts and inserts on the Molex website and prayed I ordered the right parts (shipped from the USA):

Decided to not bother cutting out the tubing until my PrimoChill RFB Bit arrived (who the hell wants to use sandpaper on tube ends? not me that's who ), so I got cracking with the PSU cabling in the meantime.

Rather than trust the internet I got out the multimeter and tested every pin myself to ensure I got it right. The Nvidia 12-pin micro molex was horrendous to do, probably didn't help that I was using 18 AWG wire that barely fit into the terminal ends, and my cheap crimping tool sucked... a lot.

Had to make a "funnel" out of heat shrink tubing in order to fit the braided sleeves into the comb holes. Otherwise it's like threading a needle with a thread that frayed out even if you just looked at it funny:

Starting to question my sanity during all this, especially knowing that I still had to work out the other ends and crimp those too... as well as still having to make the CPU EPS cables next.

"Please kill me, why didn't I just buy these online"...

The RFB bit arrived just before I lost my mind crimping wires. Very much welcome break to try out bending out some hard lines:

Looks like watching all them youtube vids for tips paid off

Carefully transferring the 3090 FE to the new EK waterblock was interesting... couldn't believe how chunky and heavy it is though!

Pressure testing the loop (soft tube bypassing the CPU terminals because I ran out of hard tube due to wasting over a metre learning how to do it right, more en route over the bank holiday weekend):

The plan is starting to come together:

Done as much as I could whilst waiting for the additional tube. 2 power cables done and neatly in, just the CPU EPS ones to go:

A couple of days later, CPU tubes are done and in. Fill her up and let the pump run whilst I finish up making the 8+4 EPS cable

 

[Heofz]

And here she is all done

More "hot & cold" plumbing:

CPU Block & Custom Nvidia 12-pin micro installed:

No corner fittings to be seen anywhere

Lucky coincidence, the graphics card with the riser basically sits on the fans on the bottom radiator so there's no need to worry about it flexing and putting any strain on the water fittings:

Side angle shot:

Will try to take some better pics of the desk setup. Pretty happy with the clean & simple look:

 

[Heofz]

Thanks guys

 

[Heofz]

Thanks peeps

well ain't she just beautiful. Nice job.

Little tip in case the 12-pin heatshrink funnel annoys you (because it's setting my teeth on edge): MDPC-X sleeving is never small enough to do the job. Even the XTC stuff is too thick. I've not properly tried myself yet, but you can get other PET-based sleeving that is about 2mm diameter (try Shakmods on eBay). Combine that with some slim wall 18AWG wire and you should be in a much better place to do proper heatshrinkless wires. It's also not quite as thick a "spray" of cabling coming out the top then either.

Forget the name of the modder now, but I was chatting with the guy on Facebook when he showed his heatshrinkless 12-pin. Looks so much better.

Cool I'll check it out, yeah the 12-pin is not ideal, you're right the heat shrink tubing was indeed too thick and I couldn't get it into the card properly. Probably doesn't help that that was the first job I tried with the tiny terminator pins rather than the bigger easier regular mini-fit molex pins for the other cables I made. I'll probably have another crack at it when I can summon the energy.

BTW, what's the part number of the 12 pin connector you used? It's not actually a Molex Micro-fit 3.0 apparently.

Nah it is, fits perfectly - Molex 43025-1200, ordered directly from Mouser along with all my other molex and wiring bits.

 

[Heofz]

Ah, so the PCB header Nvidia use isn't a Micro-Fit product, but the actual pitch and hole geometry is so Molex can still supply parts to PSU OEMs. Got into a bit of an argument when the 12-pin was leaked last year because Nvidia's diagram for connectors was identical in every respect to Micro-Fit 3.0, but people were swearing blind it's a bespoke thing.

I guess we were both correct

Yeah from what I've seen, there's a few little differences, such as a couple of the pins look like the plastic is bridged etc, but ultimately the standard molex connector fits perfectly fine

That's gorgeous. Do you have a hidden drain port?

Thanks Drain port isn't super "hidden" but it's definitely tucked away (using an EK-Quantum Torque Drain Valve):

 

[Heofz]

So, when are you going to be replacing that tubing with glass?

Chrome... that would look so good with those chrome tubes.

Never. At least not without using corner fittings cos I'd need the flexibility to actually insert the tubes haha

 

[Heofz]

thank you chaps/chappettes

 

[Heofz]

Really appreciate all the comments guys, thank you!

How are the QL120's? I've a Corsair 280x with 2 LL120's but debating on replacing all the fans with the QL's. More expensive but the RGB on both sides is a plus They fine on the AIO?

No complaints with the QL120's (especially not the RGB aspect) but to be fair I've not had much to compare them to. When I had the AIO I just used the standard white RGB Lian Li fans it came with, which were controlled by the mobo ARGB header. The RGB colouring and LED's on the Lian Li's definitely did not match the QL's (Lian Li's "white" looked a bit more blue/cyan in colour) so I had to make some adjustments to make them all match. Now that the whole AIO unit is gone though, and all I have left are the QL's, that's not a problem anymore

super clean wow! Not sure if you said earlier, how long did it take. Am thinking someday to watercool an o11D

Built over a few evenings, probably would've completed it all in a couple of days if I ordered more PETG tubing at the start. The most time consuming parts by far were making the custom power cables. Don't think I'll ever do that again unless I really have to (e.g. Replace the PSU for a different brand/model and pinouts need changing etc).

 

[Heofz]

Just got my QL120's today, annoyed me that I can't use 2 LL120's and the 3 QL120's on the same hub

that's surprising tbh, i've got all my EKWB running off a second hub (using ARGB-to-iCue adaptor cables) and it seems to work just fine despite the fact that they aren't Corsair products.

 

[Heofz]

hi can you show how is the gpu mounted .. I am interested with the vertical mounted gpu
I have cooler master one but it interferes with the radiator

I bought a Casemod Parts one but then dremelled off the top bit so I could move the GPU up by 1 slot to make room for the bottom rad: