[Project Black hole] - CaseLabs TH10A

Hardware in the house!

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The little white box contains my 8Pack Binned 5960X :D
Air cooler to test everything once the Titans arrive.
Some Mayhems Pastels to test colours and adjust with dyes.
The memory is the G.Skill F4-3000C15Q-16GRK kit, was hard to get hold of this kit as I wanted black not red that everywhere seems to sell.
1TB 850 Pro will be the only system drive, all my other drives are NAS.

I have also finished making all my custom cables, the pumps now have the Aquabus connections with an extra connector for flow meter all on the same harness without using any splitters. The other flow meter is the non Aquabus version which I also braided.
I will obviously take pictures of all that once everything is installed and I have a go at tidying them up around the back!
 
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A few more bits ;)

My Titans just turned up so I will be doing some updates later today!

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I did fancy the EVGA cards but since they are all the same and I am told Gigabyte have a good UK RMA if I have any issues it doesn't really matter what box they come in.

I will be thoroughly testing everything on air cooling before any water action and will post some pictures of the Caselabs tech bench "mode" later on.
 
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It's alive!

In the process of installing everything and only one GPU out the box so far.

Couple of pictures showing how the Caselabs motherboard tray slides out and has rubber feet you attach to use it in a test bench setup.
And yes, I may have put the heatsink on the wrong way round so the fan wouldn't fit the other side due to the memory being in the way :rolleyes:

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Much nicer than my normal way of resting the motherboard on a box :D
 
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Managed to test all three cards now

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Temps are fine but I have been running 100% fans!

Just need to work out which order to put them in for any times I need to disable SLI when playing older games or if there are driver issues with new ones.

CPU is still stock bar XMP memory settings, the HSF is not exactly doing a great job so I am not going to play around with that until I have the water cooling done.
 
Actual overclocks, the three cards have sequential serial numbers ending 13 14 15 and ASICs of 73 79 72, so far the 73 card seems to clock the best.
Just trying to work out the correlation between boost clock, power target and voltage.
If I can get 10/20/30mhz more out of one of them that my as well go in the top slot for any SLI disabled gaming to get that little bit extra.
Although as soon as I get blocks on them and the temps all come down the voltage and boost clocks will probably change and mess all that up! :rolleyes:
 
I will run them 24/7, stock voltage at 50mhz lower than whatever I can max them out at, good stability and no extra heat or degradation risk from extra voltage.

So far with a little extra voltage I have had them all at 1500mhz boost or high, the best does 1530 with 1.255v.

So I think with stock voltage (which appears to be a shade under 1.2v when boosted) they should all be good for at least 1400mhz boost clocks 24/7.

Performance is crazy even with stock CPU and air cooling :D

As for the tubing, I have already posted some pictures of my fittings.
I tried to like the look of the hard stuff but I just don't, too much like some kind of "my first plumbing set", I prefer the more traditional look of flex tubing.

I know that view won't be popular but each to their own :p
 
Thanks guys!

I will do a few benchmarks once up and running again, already taken everything apart.

Getting the blocks on now and then the finger ripping job of compression fittings, may not get it all done tonight :p :D

With so many fittings I will be doing a long leak test also, so probably Sunday at the earliest before any results.
 
Ahh blisters :(

PrimoChill Advanced LRT and Bitspower fittings in 7/16 are not friendly!

Can hardly get the collar over onto the threads then may be half a turn to one turn it is so tight.

Leaves a bit of a bigger gap than I am used to but I tried pulling the tube out with a lot of force and it wouldn't move so at least it is on there!

My last system I used XSPC tube and EK fittings in 1/2 size and doing them up was a breeze that stuff was so soft and kinky :eek:

Pictures to come later :)
 
Block and Tubes = Watercooling :D

A few progress pictures!

The Nickel Plexi EK Blocks look so nice with the WS board.

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Not 100% sure on the looks of the SLI bridge, may change it, loving the Plexi link bridge though and the Nickel backplates reflecting the block above looks really good.

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Getting the tube on was the worst in over 15 years of watercooling!
The In port on the CPU block being the wrong side was a pain, should have just taken it off and flipped it around but at least I have plenty of tube for removing the block without draining the loop.

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Rear side getting measured up, I used 4 meters of tube in total, no need to make it as short as possible, a bit of slack is good in my opinion and I am glad I had it for when it came to installing the power cables!

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Bit of a jump now as I forgot to take pictures while in the zone :cool: :rolleyes:

Filled and purging air bubbles!
I need to tweak the colours a little, already added quite a few drops of dye to each loop but getting close to a good match.
Cables are great, just a bit of a pain to tidy them, I have some combs but I don't like the look of them, too stiff and straight. So will adjust until I like it without them.

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Really happy with all the other custom cables I made, quite tidy on both sides for me at least!
Pump cables are unplugged beneath the PSU as I run them from another PSU while leak testing.
The black boxes are the flow meters and I have temperature sensors on the ends of each rad (4 port rads) with a drain port ball valve on the front of the lower two.
Also don't worry about the neoprean over the radiator, I use that just to protect the fins while working, always used to bash things or my hands against them in the past so do this to keep them nice.
And the blue tube going in front of the PSU, there is loads of room for it with the side panel on.

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Back to getting bubbles out and leak testing, more tomorrow with some better pictures :)
 
Thanks! GTA 5 was a bit of a deadline for it :D

Just did a quick boot to windows, ran some Valley benchmark and checked temperatures to satisfy the demon inside telling me I had broken something!
GPU temps are within 1 degree of each other so perfect there and the CPU was idling at 5c above room temp so pretty happy with my block applications.
I will now leave just the pumps running overnight, check for any drips in the morning and then get going on load temps, some benchmarks and sorting out my Aquaero settings.
The mounting of the D5s is perfect, so isolated and dampened that 100% speed is barely noticeable, compared to my other D5 in an XSPC bay res that makes all kinds of noise no matter what setting.
 
R-TYPE said:
Thanks JP. Can you describe your pump mount setup method and isolation?

XSPC res doesn't sound like a good bet then...
Click to expand...

The XSPC bay res with D5 combo is fine, I have run one for ~3 years now.
It is just nowhere near as quiet as my new Aqua Computer Aqualis combos because the XSPC is directly attached to the PC case in the drive bay and the pump resonates the case no matter how much I adjust the speed, it is a tight fit and no room for any rubber grommets or dampening material.

With the Aqualis D5 combos there is a mounting bracket which I have bolted to the case then the pump tops are attached with 4 rubber bushings.

I posted some details a few pages back of what it looks like : http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=26805290&postcount=80

That is what I mean by isolation, almost no direct contact with any case surface so next to no vibration.
 
Thanks, the colours are a bit different to the norm but that is what I was going for.

As far as I can tell EK have no plans as most people go for the Rampage board they only focus on that.

Liquid Extasy do a full cover block and separates that look really good but I will see how I get on without before thinking about changing.

https://www.liquidextasy.de/mb-wass...er-nl-nsb-asus-x99-e-ws-fullcover-detail.html
https://www.liquidextasy.de/mb-wass...wasserkühler-nl-nsb-asus-x99-e-ws-detail.html
https://www.liquidextasy.de/mb-wass...rkühler-nl-sw-asus-x99-e-ws-spawa-detail.html

I would buy that full cover block but only after seeing a review or user results of full cover vs an EK block and the separate blocks.

Will have to see how hot everything gets once overclocked, don't really want to be thinking about taking it apart to change things already :p

Yes I warm the tube in some microwaved RO water, goes on the barb very easy but I think the tolerances are very small with some of the fittings and the heat expansion made it difficult to screw the collars on.
 
NoNameNoNumber said:
Get a firestrike score uploaded then :D
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First try here http://www.3dmark.com/fs/4568146

That was CPU 4625mhz and GPU Boost 1480mhz.

It is crazy that during the run the GPUs only went to 37c and the CPU 60c on Physics test.

And Ultra on the same settings http://www.3dmark.com/fs/4568220

Disabled SLI to try Single card, best clocking one on the air settings was 1530mhz so I stuck with that for now, will try higher later!

Normal http://www.3dmark.com/fs/4567886
Ultra http://www.3dmark.com/fs/4568333
Suffice it to say I am very happy with the system performance :D
 
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Hah yeah, the Asus Workstation boards are very nice! They do cost a bit more but you get advanced rma which is a next working day door step replacement service.
Hope I never have to use it but nice to know I have it :)

Still bleeding some air out, went and inverted the case trying to get air out the rads and then the pumps ran dry and sucked more in :(

Once I am happy I will take some pictures with the case sides on and a few better shots of the interior.
 
Thanks guys, really am chuffed to bits with it!

Now I have the Aquasuite software setup for the Aquaero it is just perfect, set both loops to try and hold 30c water temps with a maximum fan voltage that is acceptable to me (may adjust that with headphones on) and then I can just forget about CPU and GPU temps (I do have both overheat and low flow alarms).
Leaving both D5s on full speed as I can hardly hear them, getting 270LPH on the CPU loop and 215LPH on the more restrictive GPU loop.

With the side window panel on and low room lighting shining through it really does look good, the colours are are spot on.
I want to try and get some good pictures with a DSLR camera as I can't get good enough pictures with my phone, just doesn't do it justice.
 
Thanks guys, I couldn't get hold of a DSLR but have a decent compact so should get some better than phone pictures today before I move it.

As for the tubing, I just don't like the look of hard tube, I did think about it but look at some of the spans of flex I have used, over 4 meters in total.
Really couldn't be bothered with all the effort for something I am not into. As I said in another post, I like the "traditional" look of flex.
My first water cooling build was in the late 90s and I used a pond pump, green pond hose and plastic barb fittings with jubilee clips, moved on a bit since then just not to hard tube :p
 
Another picture that shows the colours off!
Pretty much impossible to get one with the side window on without a filter for reflections.

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Thanks everyone :)

1kiwi said:
Been trying to find the exact pump and res combo you used? I think the res you're using is this one?
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-192-AQ&groupid=962&catid=2133

Managed to find the pump but the bracket which is connecting it to the res is square whereas the one's which I could find a round :confused:
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Yes that is the res, then this "base' or pump top http://shop.aquacomputer.de/product_info.php?products_id=2925 with the optional mounts http://shop.aquacomputer.de/product_info.php?products_id=2811
Then you can use any D5 pump but I have the USB Aquabus ones for full monitoring and control http://shop.aquacomputer.de/product_info.php?language=en&products_id=2901

Square base of res mounts on the square top of the pump base with o-rings between them (very strong seal and hard to press in) then the pumps are mounted in the round hole underneath.

OcUK don't list everything that AquaComputer sell so best to email part numbers to RJK or sales if you want specific items.
 
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