This is my second ever custom pc build and first ever watercooling build! so go easy lol. I had my fx8350 with a h60 v2 with this motherboard and ram in a case that only supported 2 x 120mm rads and was really cramped as i had to remove all the hdd cages and no cable management.
I then posted in the cases section as i have limited space betweeen my keyboard shelf and bottom of the desk and i wanted as much watercooling potential as possible. In the end i went with the Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 and really glad i did. It was a decent price with some excellent features usually found on higher end cases and space for 2 x thick 240mm rads.
Specs:
Rig: Asus M5a99fx pro r2.0
Amd fx8350 @4.8ghz
Evga gtx770 sc acx @1358mhz
Corsair Vengeance Blue 8gb 1866mhz running 2133mhz
Corsair cx750m psu
Corsair ax series blue custom braided cables, blue sata data cables and bitfenix alchemy black/gold 8 pin and 24 pin power extensions
Toshiba 128gb ssd for win7 home prem 64bit, drivers and rfactor
Seagate barracuda 2tb hdd
Phobya 6 fan controller
Dvd rw drive
NZXT braided blue leds 1m
Creative sound blaster pci sound card
Watercooling: Koolance cpu380-a cpu block (going to change to xspc raystorm when i upgrade to intel)
Xspc Razer gpu block and xspc titan backplate
2 x ek pe240 rads with corsair sp120 performance.
1 x fractal silent 140 case fan in the front of the roof
1 x corsair sp120 quiet in the rear
Bitspower 80mm water tank plus rad mounting bracket (see later photos)
Ek Liang ddc pwm pump with bitspower acrylic top
All monsoon 16/10mm fittings in gold with blue accent discs in the 45 and 90 deg fittings. Gold plugs in all plugged holes.
Mayhems x1 uv blue coolant
Xspc t-piece with ball valve for draining.
Primochill primoflex tubing
Ok so here goes. First of all a pic of the new case with my modified hdd cage. The mounting options wernt suitable so i had to drill my own holes and pretty much mounting in between the 2 factory mounting options.
Next i set to work installing components. Here it is with the mobo, ram, cpu and block installed:
One feature i like about this case is the ability to offset mount the radiator in the roof so it gives you extra motherboard clearance. Im running sp120 performance fans and the rads are ek pe240 @38mm thick but you could fit slightly thicker in there. Note tho you have to fit the motherboard before the rad as i had a job plugging the 8 pin power connector in due to lack of space for the pinkys to work.
Next i fitted all the other components no other modding needed and ran all my pipes.
The next pic is after id leak tested it, then installed all the modular cables. At this point there was still air in the system as you can see.
And now the finsihed, cable managed with the res moved to the rad mounting bracket. Also didnt have the sound card at this point.
And with side panel and leds on:
Overall i thoroughlly enjoyed building this machine and i am going to make a couple of changes. Im going to paint the pcie brackets and the hdd cages as the white doesnt look right, but not until i fit my upgrades at the end of the year beginning of next year as im thinking of going 4690k plus one of the maximus vii boards ranger, hero or formula budget dependant so im going to change it to a union jack colour scheme. The white hdd and pcie brackets might fit in then. Keep the blue cables, red motherboard and maybe fan rings as you can change the sp120's. Then im thinking mayhems pastel white coolant and ram avexir core 4x4gb 2x white and 2x blue with the leds on them.
Please share your opinions good or bad and what you like, dont like, what i could have improved etc. Also it needs a name but based on the union jack theme as that will be for the long term.
Thanks for looking.
I then posted in the cases section as i have limited space betweeen my keyboard shelf and bottom of the desk and i wanted as much watercooling potential as possible. In the end i went with the Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 and really glad i did. It was a decent price with some excellent features usually found on higher end cases and space for 2 x thick 240mm rads.
Specs:
Rig: Asus M5a99fx pro r2.0
Amd fx8350 @4.8ghz
Evga gtx770 sc acx @1358mhz
Corsair Vengeance Blue 8gb 1866mhz running 2133mhz
Corsair cx750m psu
Corsair ax series blue custom braided cables, blue sata data cables and bitfenix alchemy black/gold 8 pin and 24 pin power extensions
Toshiba 128gb ssd for win7 home prem 64bit, drivers and rfactor
Seagate barracuda 2tb hdd
Phobya 6 fan controller
Dvd rw drive
NZXT braided blue leds 1m
Creative sound blaster pci sound card
Watercooling: Koolance cpu380-a cpu block (going to change to xspc raystorm when i upgrade to intel)
Xspc Razer gpu block and xspc titan backplate
2 x ek pe240 rads with corsair sp120 performance.
1 x fractal silent 140 case fan in the front of the roof
1 x corsair sp120 quiet in the rear
Bitspower 80mm water tank plus rad mounting bracket (see later photos)
Ek Liang ddc pwm pump with bitspower acrylic top
All monsoon 16/10mm fittings in gold with blue accent discs in the 45 and 90 deg fittings. Gold plugs in all plugged holes.
Mayhems x1 uv blue coolant
Xspc t-piece with ball valve for draining.
Primochill primoflex tubing
Ok so here goes. First of all a pic of the new case with my modified hdd cage. The mounting options wernt suitable so i had to drill my own holes and pretty much mounting in between the 2 factory mounting options.
Next i set to work installing components. Here it is with the mobo, ram, cpu and block installed:
One feature i like about this case is the ability to offset mount the radiator in the roof so it gives you extra motherboard clearance. Im running sp120 performance fans and the rads are ek pe240 @38mm thick but you could fit slightly thicker in there. Note tho you have to fit the motherboard before the rad as i had a job plugging the 8 pin power connector in due to lack of space for the pinkys to work.
Next i fitted all the other components no other modding needed and ran all my pipes.
The next pic is after id leak tested it, then installed all the modular cables. At this point there was still air in the system as you can see.
And now the finsihed, cable managed with the res moved to the rad mounting bracket. Also didnt have the sound card at this point.
And with side panel and leds on:
Overall i thoroughlly enjoyed building this machine and i am going to make a couple of changes. Im going to paint the pcie brackets and the hdd cages as the white doesnt look right, but not until i fit my upgrades at the end of the year beginning of next year as im thinking of going 4690k plus one of the maximus vii boards ranger, hero or formula budget dependant so im going to change it to a union jack colour scheme. The white hdd and pcie brackets might fit in then. Keep the blue cables, red motherboard and maybe fan rings as you can change the sp120's. Then im thinking mayhems pastel white coolant and ram avexir core 4x4gb 2x white and 2x blue with the leds on them.
Please share your opinions good or bad and what you like, dont like, what i could have improved etc. Also it needs a name but based on the union jack theme as that will be for the long term.
Thanks for looking.
