Please help spec me a £4k gaming rig

That looks significantly better mate. I am even surprised how well the q/r connections fit the build.

The connections between the GPU's is great and certainly holds the cards much better.

Could I be cheeky and ask for a picture with the side on and straight on to the window? Just want to see the full finish.
 
Hey Curlyriff, thanks a lot mate. I'm pleased with how it's gone so far and yeah I'll get that image from the front tomorrow. I tried to get some today but the light keeps bouncing off the perspex window and you can't see inside when it does so I'll try darkening the room tomorrow and grab some more, see how it comes out.

Those attempts today were slightly off centre too so I'll turn the pc around to the camera and get it straight on. I'm sure I'll figure it out.
 
Here you go buddy, it's not the best pic as there was a bit of dust on the window and the rads need a bit of a clean but you can see the cards are sitting a lot better now.
The lighting is way more than it actually is too, I used a manual mode on my camera to over expose the image in order to capture the darker areas a bit more so that makes the LED's a bit bright.
I'll be adding a small mask around the outside right and top edges of the window to hide the light gleam a bit more and the LED temp thingy will be incorporated into that so only the numbers will be seen. I'll likely be doing that in a minute as I've gotta mask up a painting anyway.

bluspc_5.jpg
 
Papablu said:
The lighting is way more than it actually is too, I used a manual mode on my camera to over expose the image in order to capture the darker areas a bit more so that makes the LED's a bit bright.
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Depnding on your camera, you can also change the white balance to make darker things seem brighter, while keeping the light things as they are.

...I think...
 
Ucof said:
Depnding on your camera, you can also change the white balance to make darker things seem brighter, while keeping the light things as they are.

...I think...
Click to expand...

Thanks Ucof, You're right and I can also edit the images in RAW mode which changes the white balance etc like it's still on the camera. Thankfully I had that because the pics just weren't coming out the way the PC actually looks. It's quite subdued in real life, understated but the camera just doesn't get it right.

Although I must admit it's not the camera at fault, it's my use of it that's faulty. It's been a while since I read up on the instructions or looked at any photography tips because I had the camera purely for one purpose and I only needed to know one set of settings if that makes sense.

I use the Canon EOS60D and I've got 3 lenses for it but taking pics of lit up PC stuff is just beyond my expertise. :D :(
 
This is more like how strong the lighting is in the PC with a darkened room. It's not as in your face as it appears in the above pics.

I've also added a black mask around the edges as mentioned previously to get some of the glow off the edges where the led's are and to frame the led temp readout.

bluspc_6.jpg


It took me about 120 pictures to get the image that reflects real life environment colours. Well at least I've learnt a bit more about my camera now, although I don't know which settings I was using when I took this picture :)
 
Looks beautiful my friend. Makes my system seem rather boring now, haha.

In regards to your water chiller. What are your thoughts/plans on that then?

Makes me want to redo my whole rig and a) only got it and b) haven't even paid for it yet lol.
 
Curlyriff said:
Looks beautiful my friend. Makes my system seem rather boring now, haha.

In regards to your water chiller. What are your thoughts/plans on that then?

Makes me want to redo my whole rig and a) only got it and b) haven't even paid for it yet lol.
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Thank you very much buddy.

For the chiller I just need a fairly low wattage unit, maybe a 350-500W size and I'll add some more cupboards up the corner of that wall and put it in there. I know it needs a bit of air around it but as this will be a permanent position I'll get it vented through the wall to the outside so there should be enough air circulation around it.
Being close to the PC should mean I'll be able to hook it straight up to the pump and then back to the normal loop.
I've read that it's pointless having rads as well as a chiller because the rads will make the coolant room temperature but that's fine by me. I don't need to drop it to icy levels and I just want to maintain that room temperature.
These three cards heat up the coolant a lot especially when playing the hungry games so if it stays around 25-30° that would do perfectly. Do you think it would achieve that ?

Under load at the moment it pushes up to over 60° with a couple of games.

EdGey said:
Looks great, nice job with the build.
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Thanks very much EdGey , I appreciate it. Although it's not entirely my build, it feels like it is after stripping it down numerous times and redoing quite a lot of it. It's been fun though and I have learned a lot from it especially with Curlyriff's guidance.
 
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A bit more modding today with a false floor from acrylic sheet sprayed black on the bottom to reflect the lights and some 5mm hole aluminium sheet, shaped and cut to fit around the back to protect the kids from sticking their little fingers in or to protect the pc from them, that's more likely. :)

bluspc_7.jpg


That's almost it now until I get the chiller, which will be hopefully at the end of the month when I get paid, and then hard tubing to be done which I'll likely wait for a couple of months when I get bored with the current stuff.

bluspc_8.jpg


Time to try to enjoy it although we were told today that the baby will be here by the 15th of this month so I better make the most of these 11 days.
 
Still looks stunning. Floor finishes off nicely. Grill is a compromise I guess. I think it would look better if you created a boxed shape that matched the front of the case. Of course much more work but would finish it off.

In regards to the chiller. I would say if you went for something like this;

** Do not mention or link to competitors **

Then you would be looking to get the temps down by around 50%. With that you could drop the numbers well. You would probably hit your OC barrier before temps made an ounce of difference anyways.

The main problem will be noise. You will need to sound insulate the cupboard really well and vent direct outside as you stated as a minimum. The second problem although minor depending on how you see it is the electric cost. This will eat around 400w of power itself.
 
harry5522 said:
Hold on to them days and enjoy the system looks great, seems like ocuk really don't hold back with customer service.
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Thanks a lot Harry and yeah the customer service has been excellent from ocuk, there was never any doubt that they would sort out the issue in some form or other. Them days seem to go way too fast so I totally agree, a special time.

Curlyriff said:
Still looks stunning. Floor finishes off nicely. Grill is a compromise I guess. I think it would look better if you created a boxed shape that matched the front of the case. Of course much more work but would finish it off.
.
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Thanks buddy. I did think about the squared off grill but when I get the extra cupboards in then it's likely that I'll need to think of something else anyway. I didn't want to spend too much at this point as I'd need at least two or three sheets of the mesh to go with the squared off finish.

Curlyriff said:
In regards to the chiller. I would say if you went for something like this;

Then you would be looking to get the temps down by around 50%. With that you could drop the numbers well. You would probably hit your OC barrier before temps made an ounce of difference anyways.
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Yeah the HC500 was the one I was looking at. OCUK used to sell chillers but it looks like they don't any longer, sadly.

What sort of temps should I be reasonably expecting under heavy load with my setup at the moment ? Does the current 67° (Max so far) sound about right and can I carry on gaming at these temps ?

To me it seems a little too hot and I can barely touch the back of the fan outlet when it hits these temps.

Curlyriff said:
The main problem will be noise. You will need to sound insulate the cupboard really well and vent direct outside as you stated as a minimum. The second problem although minor depending on how you see it is the electric cost. This will eat around 400w of power itself.
Click to expand...

The noise is my main concern for sure but I do like to game with either headphones on or the speakers loud so that will make it a little easier. But the last thing I want is some intrusive buzzing and fan noises detracting from the experience.
Do you have any other ideas for bringing down the temps buddy ?
 
Well ignore that last question as I'm going to try to put together something more personal. I'm thinking 2 quad fan rads each in a 2 up 2 down config rather than 2 single width lengths of 4 if that makes sense ?

So 2 separate units like this, joined at the centre on the horizontal line

[][]
[][]
----
[][]
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Instead of the more common rads that would be 2 strips of 4 and joined vertically.

[] []
[] []
[] []
[] []

These would give me 4 inputs on the left hand side to add fittings and tubing directly lined up to the pc as it would stand on the right hand side next to the TV. Mounted onto the wall.

So I'd need 8 good 120mm fans which I'd go for the same as the one in the rear of my PC, the red cloverleaf as they are superbly quiet.

I then want to add a twin res and pump setup onto the front of this. So two reservoirs that would take up a good length of those rads with the fans sucking air through the reservoirs and pushing it through the rads.

Does that sound like a legit thing to do, would it work ?
 
Forget all that rad stuff as I've opted to go with the Chiller again. Pricing up all the rads, fans, connections, reservoir & pump it all came to around the same price as a chiller and the chiller will be more likely to give me the lower temps I need.

I ordered the HC-500A and the required adaptors plus two more female and male quick disconnects. I should be able to get the job done on Tuesday this week. I just hope I have enough coolant to get it done.

EDIT : Well that was a pointless post as the chiller purchase fell through after a mess up by an auction site and paying friend site.
 
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PC's finally finished and my temps are down to 34°c under heavy load gaming so I'm really pleased now.

I did end up having to replace four 90° fittings as they were totally useless and dripping coolant. I replaced all my system fans and they simply weren't up to the task of cooling this pc and that alone without the exterior setup brought my temps down to 48°c max. Some of the choices made for the initial build were questionable to say the least especially when it was rebuilt with 3 cards as the standard to work from.

The expense of getting this on the wall cooling solution has been pretty substantial, much more than I imagined but worth it. Now I can concentrate on using it and getting on with my house renovations. I'll get pics sorted in the daylight tomorrow if anyone's interested.

Cheers for looking,

Mark.
 
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