Project Empire: First Rigid Tubing Custom Loop

[Jacknm2]

Hey guys, As I promised on my watercooling thread here is my build log

Before I start, after 3 weeks of waiting on the 3900X I jumped ship and went for the 3700X. Now I suppose the main reason was E-peen, other reaosn was trying to get into streaming and also doing work programming at home but really....who wants to bring work home lol. So I settled on this setup:

Project Empire: Darth Vaders Personal Rig
CPU: Ryzen R7 3700X
CPU Cooler: EK Velocity D-RGB CPU Block
Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master
Ram: 16GB 3600Mhz Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB
Graphics Card: Gigabyte Aorus Gaming GTX 1080 Ti 11GB GDDR5X
GPU Cooler: EK Waterblocks Nickel/Plexi Block for Aorus 1080ti
PSU: Corsair AX1000 - 1000W Titanium Rated PSU
Cables: Cable Mod kit for Corsair PSU's (Black & Red)
OS SSD: 250GB Samsung 970 Evo M.2 SSD
Storage: 1TB Samsung 970 M.2 SSD + 1TB Samsung 850 Evo SSD + 2TB Seagate Barracuda HDD
Case: Corsair Crystal 680X RGB High Airflow Case (Black)
Fans: 3x Corsair ML120 120mm & 2x ML140 140mm RGB Fans + 3x LL120 Fans
Fan Controller: Corsair Commander Pro Fan controller
Radiators: EK Coolstream SE 360mm + 240mm Slim line Radiators
Pump: EK 140 Revo D5 Resevoir / Pump Combo
Coolant: EK Cryo-fuel Blood red



I thought I'd do the whole youtube show piece with my items before I started, I added in some Corsair boxes to complete the corsair fanboy look, these were gifts for Christmas and birthdays, i had a corsair strafe keyboard so when I decided I wanted less bloatware and multiple programs to control LED's and fans I decided Corsair Icue will be the way to go. So I call myself and accidental fanboy haha, I like their products and haven't had a bad experience yet but there is always time.

As a side note, I'd like to thank the OCuK employee who gave me all this:

Lmao

So I took a aprt everything to see if things would fit, also to move the fans around as I will replace the 3 front LL120 fans with ML120's and use the others elsewhere.


It's a fairly spacious case and I love having this secondary compartment as well.

Started moving the fans and checking rads:


And heres where the issues started!
I ordered a 280mm Standard radiator and a 360mm slimline radiator as using a configurator told me these were compatible. However after not looking at the boxes properly and opening them up I soon found that OCuK were kind enough to send me a free upgrade:

This is an EK Xtrreme overclocking rad and clearly not a slim one! The 280mm Rad was also already opened and missing the screws its meant to come with!

So I had to RMA them and order the slim one, which wasn't a hassle with OCuK, lukcily I had funds to buy extras and wait on the refunds to come through. Before I packaged up the 280mm I test fitted it and seen thast I might have an issue with that one fitting as well, so As a precaution I ordered 3 rads in total, A 240, 280 and 360mm all slimline rads to cover all scenarios just in case and would return items that I didn't need as discussed with an OCuK employee on the phone, at this time I wasn't aware I'd have to cover return shipping costs for "unwanted items".

So i did indeed find that even the 280mm slimline would not fit in with the 360mm, no matter which way I oriented the 360mm ports top or bottom the 2 rads would not fit once one was screwed in, so it had to be a 240mm at the top instead. I knew there would be issues which is why I planned for this, I'm not too disappointed in using a 240mm rad.

Took a look at the PSU as well before mounting it. Comes with these lovey magnetic strips to go with a colour coded build which is nice, limited but thankfully mine is a black and red Sith design. I chose this AX PSU over something like the HX1000i as I doubt I'll really need the digital interface (yet) and I can already control fans through corsair software, the titanium rating is also factor of course and the fact its based of a Seasonic design, which are frankly some of the best PSU's around.


Whilst planning this build I fell in love with the case, but the case is designed more around airflow but.... it can still house an open loop and the configurator shown me the pump would go in the secondary chamber, a bit of a bummer as you can't show off the RGB Res but it will add some back glow to the machine and in the end It's going to work all the same! I had to bugger around where to place the Reservoir it wouldnt fit where the config said it would...so this was my second issue. I ended up McGyver'ing it to this place.

Now, whilst this isnt the right mounting place and the holes I've clamped too are just to allow passive airflow at the front of the case it was near enough the perfect size for the standard bracket/clamp that comes with the pump. So here it lives!

 

[Jacknm2]

Time to look at the motherboard!

I wanted the Gigabyte X570 Aorus Xtreme, I was prepared and ready to buy it even at £750, but there was no stock for it at the time and no ETA, I ended up saving myself £300 getting the next one down, It has a true 12 phase VRM compared to the 14 phases on the Xtreme and doesnt have passive chipset cooling which I wanted, it also doesn't look as good, its a nice looking board in it's own right. Was the extra £300 worth? I'm doubting it but just like the 3900X I'm dreaming of what could have been..... lol

Take a look at the Ram next along with the CPU

​

 

[Jacknm2]

Got the CPU and Ram in the motherboard and fitted it into the case so I could fitting other things around it, the below pic is before I sent the rads back and me test fitting the standard 280mm Rad


Moved on to the GPU next. Took the heatsink/cooler off and give it all a good clean, I tried to keep the original backplate on as it looks better than the EK one i got but the way its mounted means the screws from the plate would interfere with the block itself not allowing the block to touch the VRM's so it had to go.

Wasn't intentional but there's a noble name drop for you.... lol

I replaced the thermal pads with the ones provided in the EK waterblock kit and used Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut compound, probably should have gone with hydronaut but there wasnt any in stock at the time of purchase iirc, and when i changed my 3900X to a 3700X i forgot to mention it over the phone as they flabbergasted me with whilst you were waiting Your chosen ML120 fan triple pack and K95 Cherry MX Brown Keyboard had gone out of stock I was more annoyed at the fact they had sold items I had already paid for! But I didnt shout at the guy, he was just the messenger.

 

[Jacknm2]

From here you will see my progression on each tube placement and bends.

Now before you look on I know things could have been better, I know I should be doing 90 degree clean turns and such, after all, that's why I went rigid tubing. But after a few failed attempts and then going with a few eyeballed bends things started to work, so I went with it lol.
1 2 3 4

After doing this, I didn't see at the time that in image 3 the tube going from top rad to the GPU was not going into the rad straight, I thought I just took the pic at a weird angle at the time of looking so I proceeded to add the distilled water ready to prime it.

Now I had 2 leaks during this phase, 1 was caught fairly early on, the return tube from the 360mm rad was not fully tightened, so I caught this, tightened it and moved on. The other I caught later on after I ran 1 pump cycle, This numpty making the build..... Decided to forget to put in a blocking screw on the back 4 way square block which has my drain port attached, how I managed this I don't know but I caught it luckily only after 1 cycle and thankfully the design of the case and location of the port meant that the water missed the fan and also couldnt go near any cables or the PSU, it all ended up going between the 120mm fan fins and into the mesh filter for the bottom case fans and pooled there, nice and easy clean up!

Once I sorted out those issues above I continue to fill up, I'd fill the res, turn on pump until just before the res was empty, repeat till reservoir stays somewhat full, I gave it a practice shake around after every cycle and left it going with the intake left open to bleed the loop and just let it get around the system properly, gave it a few hours whilst regularly checking on it. I then drained the loop and had the crooked tube point out to me and decided to take it out and straighten it up, as I did that I realized that the tube was too short as I could move it up and down slightly with the fittings still on! so it was on again, make a new tube for that area and make it right this time! lol

To the left is the tube used, to the right is the new tube. I cut up a longer length and as I was doing the 45 ish degree bends and checking positioning by eye I could see I had more than necessary, so rather than cut more off I gave it more aggressive bends.

 

[Jacknm2]

Finally I started adding my coolant.


This is currently where I am up to as the 12th. I'm running the coolant through now, no leaks thus far, trying to get rid of the last bit of air so going to give it a few more hours with the intake open if I'm impatient, overnight if I'm not. The intake is covered under the chassis and is a horizontal opening in a Revo Multiport top so I'm not too worried about dust and such getting in there.

I know I could have done a few things better, I plan to do things like properly make the tubing and have it go through places that won't impede cables or access but I wanted to at least get it running and in the future I plan to make better bends and properly route the tubing as it is all a bit of a mish mash at the moment. But for now its running, I've not had any leaks since the previous ones so as is my company motto "**** it It'll be Reet"

I know it's no gone down to well with some of the hard cores by the downvotes on imgur lol

 

[Jacknm2]

I'm having some trouble getting an air bubble out of the CPU block, its not a large one, but I've tried everything short of putting dish soap in the loop

May just run it as is for tonight to install windows and then when finished I'll Put the jumper back on and leave the pump going overnight.

 

[Mcthommo]

good to see this build as I am about to start a new build in this case so seeing your gives good info- looking good btw

 

[Jacknm2]

good to see this build as I am about to start a new build in this case so seeing your gives good info- looking good btw

I just finished the rough cabling and windows install last night, all up and running now. Going to add more steps and pics soon

As for the air bubble, I turned off the system after I was finished and put the jumper back in the 24 pin to leave the pump going overnight, to my joy the air bubble is now gone

All systems up and running. will provide more pics as for the steps I took, though I won;'t be pictuing the cable management just yet, thats a job for next weekend lol.

 

[Mcthommo]

did you get the chance to finish the build as I've just got the final few parts today and looking to finish this build in the next few days and would love to see how youve done yours

 

[Jacknm2]

did you get the chance to finish the build as I've just got the final few parts today and looking to finish this build in the next few days and would love to see how youve done yours

I have, I'll post the pics tonight when I get home from work. Just been a hectic week so not even had a chance to play with properly lol.

Have you gone with a water cooling build for this or Air?

 

[Mcthommo]

water cooled with all/mostly Corsair stuff- 360+ 280 rads, LL120 fans, cpu & gpu block. using soft tubing for rear connection to pump/res, hard line for rest. Debating to use Commander Pro for fans& pump or my preferred Aquaero 6XT for it but not sure if it will run the pump via PWM- something I need to check out

 

[Jacknm2]

water cooled with all/mostly Corsair stuff- 360+ 280 rads, LL120 fans, cpu & gpu block. using soft tubing for rear connection to pump/res, hard line for rest. Debating to use Commander Pro for fans& pump or my preferred Aquaero 6XT for it but not sure if it will run the pump via PWM- something I need to check out

I went with the pro and its a nice bit of kit. However at the minute I can't use corsair icue software as it keeps my 3700X at near constant 1.46v core voltage, for some reason its constantly waking and parking cores so until thats fixed... lol

I had to use a 240mm rad in mine as the EK ones wouldnt fit together but if you are using corsair rads it should be different as their configurator says you can fit a 360 and 280mm in together.

I'll put the pics up in about 3 hours time.

 

[Mcthommo]

I only got both rads to fit by having them in front of fans- not the best way in my experience but hey ho- client wants that

 

[Jacknm2]

Here's the final setup of the entire build - Please excuse RGB madness on keyboard and such but without icue I can't get them to stay a solid colour or at least I've had a brain fart and forgot lol.

Here's my artistic shot



The build turned out great in my opinion, not had any leaks or issues. It was a bit of a faff around to get the cables in around the tubing, I plan on remedying that by using the provided holes at the bottom, that involves more bends and more tubing. I have plenty of tubing left over so I am going to do that sometime near christmas when I decide if a new GPU is necessary for my resolution and refresh rate. I've discovered the 1080ti I have isnt a shiner, can barely hit 1999Mhz without crashing and the memory doesnt want to clock much higher either, I was able to get +420 on the memory in MSI afterburner . At least its running cool, GPU idles at 28C in a 22C ambient room. CPU idles a little higher at 35C but this is due to the new CPU itself and perhaps the Carbonaut tim cloth I used rather than kryonaut or hydronaut, I plan on testing this out when I change the tubing round.

I can give results of my 3dmark tests if any one would like to see that? Or if there are any shots in particular you would like to see?

Commander pro with its temp senmsors is pretty good, I have 1 by the intake, 1 by the GPU, 1 resevoir and another in the back by the drive cages / PSU.

I only got both rads to fit by having them in front of fans- not the best way in my experience but hey ho- client wants that

Yea its deffintely a struggle to fit rads in, could get a 140mm rad at the rear and bottom but thats it really. I thought about putting the rads elsewhere like outside the case but I'm happy with what I got in the end. Really love this case, didnt think about using soft tubing to go between chambers but it wasnt that hard in the end with hard tubing.

 

[Alan1969]

nice. I got fed up of waiting for a 3900x too and opted for the 3600 for the mean time. Like me, you could upgrade to the 16 core when the 4th gen comes out in 18 months?

 

[Alan1969]

that mobo is a nice shade of matt black.

 

[Mcthommo]

I gotta say, this corsair 10/12mm hardline is not playing ball tonight with this routing- it just doesnt work as well as previously 16/12 EK tubing bit what the boss wants to use I gotta use
hopefully have it done by later tonight

 

[orbitalwalsh]

Looking really good !

 

[Alan1969]

Here's the final setup of the entire build - Please excuse RGB madness on keyboard and such but without icue I can't get them to stay a solid colour or at least I've had a brain fart and forgot lol.

Here's my artistic shot



The build turned out great in my opinion, not had any leaks or issues. It was a bit of a faff around to get the cables in around the tubing, I plan on remedying that by using the provided holes at the bottom, that involves more bends and more tubing. I have plenty of tubing left over so I am going to do that sometime near christmas when I decide if a new GPU is necessary for my resolution and refresh rate. I've discovered the 1080ti I have isnt a shiner, can barely hit 1999Mhz without crashing and the memory doesnt want to clock much higher either, I was able to get +420 on the memory in MSI afterburner . At least its running cool, GPU idles at 28C in a 22C ambient room. CPU idles a little higher at 35C but this is due to the new CPU itself and perhaps the Carbonaut tim cloth I used rather than kryonaut or hydronaut, I plan on testing this out when I change the tubing round.

I can give results of my 3dmark tests if any one would like to see that? Or if there are any shots in particular you would like to see?

Commander pro with its temp senmsors is pretty good, I have 1 by the intake, 1 by the GPU, 1 resevoir and another in the back by the drive cages / PSU.

Yea its deffintely a struggle to fit rads in, could get a 140mm rad at the rear and bottom but thats it really. I thought about putting the rads elsewhere like outside the case but I'm happy with what I got in the end. Really love this case, didnt think about using soft tubing to go between chambers but it wasnt that hard in the end with hard tubing.

I have heard that others have been getting better results with carbonaut than kryonaut. I have just bought a 3600 for the wife and built it a couple of weeks ago and a couple of days ago bought a 3600 for myself. I have just tried to buy some 38x38 carbonaut for the am4 but cannot get any supply from the UK! I would be very interested to hear your comparison (as I still have some of that sticky kryonaut left).

Also I notice that you have a curved monitor - what do you think of it vs a flat one?

 

[Jacknm2]

nice. I got fed up of waiting for a 3900x too and opted for the 3600 for the mean time. Like me, you could upgrade to the 16 core when the 4th gen comes out in 18 months?

Thats my plan as well, already got the pot started saving up for it with the money i saved on the 3700X lol

that mobo is a nice shade of matt black.

I have agree on that I originally wanted the X570 Aorus Xtreme but at £750 it was a huge investment and also out of stock at the time haha!

I gotta say, this corsair 10/12mm hardline is not playing ball tonight with this routing- it just doesnt work as well as previously 16/12 EK tubing bit what the boss wants to use I gotta use
hopefully have it done by later tonight

Please post some links to the build if the customer/boss agree's. Want to see how that corsair stuff works out as that was my original plan, however since they didnt support my GPU I opted for EK.

Looking really good !

Thank you! I've had a few negative posts on imgur about my tubing paths etc... but I think it looks great! I'll be adjusting the tubing at a later date and adding a riser cable for the GPU so I can show it off xD

I have heard that others have been getting better results with carbonaut than kryonaut. I have just bought a 3600 for the wife and built it a couple of weeks ago and a couple of days ago bought a 3600 for myself. I have just tried to buy some 38x38 carbonaut for the am4 but cannot get any supply from the UK! I would be very interested to hear your comparison (as I still have some of that sticky kryonaut left).

Also I notice that you have a curved monitor - what do you think of it vs a flat one?

I'll start with the monitror first

I previously had an iiyama 40" 4k 60Hz monitor, it was large and great for racing sims and such but for shooters and general gameplay is was a bit too big. I also felt restricted on the refresh rate as I was using HDMI 2.0 so couldnt overclock the monitor not that it would overclock any at that resolution lol, I made a huge investment with this LG 34" Nano IPS curved ultrawide, it has Gysnc and 120Hz. At first I was blown back by the screens curve and noticed it all the time. however now i find it makes a difference without me really noticing it lol The biggest impression is the higher refresh rate and gysnc. My eyes have adjusted to the curved screen and I think it helps with my peripheral vision.

As for the Carbonaut vs Kryonaut, I haven't tested this nor plan to for a while due to the level of disassmbly required lol It's something I plan to tesdt when I make new tubing for better angles and straighter lines. But I will post it none the less when it's done. At the moment I idle at aorund 35C and I've seen the CPU hit 68C whilst playing Far cry new dawn at 3440x1440 ultras 100 FPS (down clocked the monitor back to its panel original refresh rate).