Project HADES: A rebuild (All but completed)

Frubeling · 28 Nov 2020 at 17:09

BEFORE:

I had been using this case, a Corsair Obsidian 800D, since 2013. I still like its monolithic slablike appearance, but it started to show its age

AFTER:

View attachment 2PiOfXO.jpg

I've been working a much better paying job than any I've ever had the last year or so now, and felt it was finally time to start making my dream PC. This build will be loosely themed based on HADES, the rogue AI from Horizon: Zero Dawn

Back in March I replaced my old Maximus V Formula motherboard and i7 3770K with what you see here, a ROG Strix X570-F and a Ryzen 3600x. This did mean stripping out my old custom loop and since then I've been on some bare bones air cooling.

I'll cover some other bits in the following posts and will update as and when bits come in for it.
Also I apologise I'm not a good photographer. When I finish the build I may consider hiring my cousin in law, a professional photographer, to take some shots of it.

Frubeling · 28 Nov 2020 at 17:14

So the GPU is relatively new, obviously. An ASUS ROG Strix 3090 OC, replacing my old Zotac 1080ti AMP!
This was part of what has pushed me to go ahead with the rebuild. If I'm to have this GPU powering the build, it should have a system as nice as it is.
Alongside this card I also fitted an 850W PSU as my old 650W just wouldn't cut it anymore.

Way in advance of actually being able to use them I've also bought the following

10 Lian-Li UNI SL120 fans. You can see 3 of them in my PC currently. The other 7 remain boxed ready for the new case

An EKWB Quantum Momentum monoblock as I'll be going back to watercooling on the rebuild. This time will be my first attempt at hardline tubing (I'm thinking borosilicate glass)

Frubeling · 28 Nov 2020 at 17:16

This one just came in today

I'll be moving my operating system and all software onto this drive and will potentially have some space left over for a few games, although I have a 1TB 970 Pro which will remain my primary game installation drive

Frubeling · 19 Dec 2020 at 16:54

Another step closer to actually being able to do something with this
Tempted to go ahead and order the distro plate now. Money is burning a hole in my pocket now that I'm done with christmas shopping

Eliagon · 19 Dec 2020 at 20:59

Holy RGB fans batman. Congrats on the new job.

I hate having limited-life components sitting around. Are you saying you have a 3090 that you are not using ATM?!?!?

Interesting re borosilicate glass. I had not considered this at all. TO GOOGLE!

Frubeling · 22 Dec 2020 at 02:49

Eliagon said:
Holy RGB fans batman. Congrats on the new job.

I hate having limited-life components sitting around. Are you saying you have a 3090 that you are not using ATM?!?!?

Interesting re borosilicate glass. I had not considered this at all. TO GOOGLE!

I'm using the 3090 at the moment, just air cooled for now
Borosilicate just looks so much nicer than any plastic imo

Frubeling · 30 Dec 2020 at 13:45

Nothing too exciting this time, just filling out the last two DIMM slots and bringing myself up to 32GB of RAM

Frubeling · 11 Jan 2021 at 09:35

This may end up taking a month or two longer than I initially hoped. Stock availability on parts is way worse than I thought it would be
That said I have ordered my new case and should see that before the end of the month.

I'll give you a hint as to what it is
Nobody ever uses it and you totally won't look at it and groan because you never want to see one again /s
EDIT: Seems the case has been delayed by almost a month. Owch, this makes taking measurements before buying other parts a little harder

Frubeling · 5 Feb 2021 at 22:24

SURPRISE! It's another O11D XL build!

Slapped the side and rear exhaust fans in because why not. Had an issue with the rear being so snug that the plastic strip on the side of the fan has been pushed out of place and the adhesive would probably need heating to reset but with the window on it's completely covered so no biggy

And these arrived yesterday

Unfortunately constant stock issues on a variety of products are majorly slowing this down. I wanted to be building by the end of the month but that's looking unlikely
When it comes to the finished build I'm going to ask my brother to take some photos with his expensive camera because my phone shots are horrific

EDIT: Said screw it and ordered everything else I still needed. Probably all arrive by the end of the month. I can't wait to mess up on the hardline tube

Frubeling · 17 Feb 2021 at 19:36

Fittings arrived from Slovenia, excuse the magazine.
Final required parts are on order from OCUK but the 90deg glass tubes are out of stock and not enough 24pin Lian-Li Strimer extensions came in to fulfil so I'm now tossing up whether to wait another month or simply drop the aforementioned from the order, buy alphacool 90deg tubes from elsewhere and leave the Strimer for another day so I can at least build the PC. Adding extension cables in after the fact can't be too hard can it

Adam Tench · 18 Feb 2021 at 09:58

Frubeling said:
Fittings arrived from Slovenia, excuse the magazine.
Final required parts are on order from OCUK but the 90deg glass tubes are out of stock and not enough 24pin Lian-Li Strimer extensions came in to fulfil so I'm now tossing up whether to wait another month or simply drop the aforementioned from the order, buy alphacool 90deg tubes from elsewhere and leave the Strimer for another day so I can at least build the PC. Adding extension cables in after the fact can't be too hard can it

Hey bud. Just noticed you're in Plymouth too! Good luck with the build. Looks like it'll be a good one

Frubeling · 18 Feb 2021 at 17:40

Just realised I somehow accidentally ordered colour rings for soft tube fittings. These don't fit on the hard tube fittings at all.
Not the end of the world but kinda spoiled my day. Now I either have to somehow source the HDC ones or just go without. Just got done amending an order from OCUK and all but hoping I can tack two packs of the correct rings onto the order

Adam Tench said:
Looks like it'll be a good one

I'm hoping so after all this. Only my second PC build, second watercooling loop as well. First time using hard tubing and to top it off it's glass.
Fitting the GPU block and working with glass tubes are my main worries for the whole thing

Adam Tench · 18 Feb 2021 at 19:08

Frubeling said:
Just realised I somehow accidentally ordered colour rings for soft tube fittings. These don't fit on the hard tube fittings at all.
Not the end of the world but kinda spoiled my day. Now I either have to somehow source the HDC ones or just go without. Just got done amending an order from OCUK and all but hoping I can tack two packs of the correct rings onto the order

I'm hoping so after all this. Only my second PC build, second watercooling loop as well. First time using hard tubing and to top it off it's glass.
Fitting the GPU block and working with glass tubes are my main worries for the whole thing

what did you do with the old graphics card?

Frubeling · 18 Feb 2021 at 19:45

Just got the order shipped email from OCUK so no luck in being able to add those rings to the order.
Shame. Don't think I'll be ordering them separately.
Now I just need the place I ordered the alphacool glass tubes from to ship and that's the works until I can get hold of some nicer cables and a Strimer 24 pin

Adam Tench said:
what did you do with the old graphics card?

Sold it to a friend who builds computers for people he knows. Although I think it may have ended up in his computer instead

Frubeling · 20 Feb 2021 at 23:20

5800X, straight glass tubes and scoring jig, angled adapters, pump tester and distribution plate arrived today
It took me 5 attempts to finally score and snap a tube without chipping off excess

Frubeling · 27 Feb 2021 at 11:20

Another delay as some stuff I bought expecting it to ship from the UK is shipping from Germany and hasn't moved in days because of brexit related issues while the stuff I ordered from OCUK hasn't shipped and now one of the items is out of stock although I am 100% certain they had 3 when I completed my order

EDIT: Sods law just as I was to contact this other business and have my delivery intercepted and returned to them it started moving AND the stuff from OCUK shipped. Looks like this is the weekend I get to finish it at last. Kinda scared of running the leak test as I do have at least one tube that when breaking it didn't snap cleanly and despite my best efforts sanding I can't lose any more length so while it passes the first O-ring it doesn't make flush contact with the second. Got a spare coming just in case.

90deg tubes have arrived in the most ridiculous packaging I've ever seen. Probably just going to dive into building the whole thing and running the leak test after work tomorrow. Then strip it all down and put the colour rings and some braided cable extensions in. Still a long wait for my cablemod kit and Strimer

Frubeling · 9 Mar 2021 at 06:27

So I kinda forgot to update this thread completely since I was so engrossed in the building process

Loop is filled and leak tested for 5 hours. Going to give it some more time with the tissues in just in case though.
The entire process was made much easier with the purchase of a diamond tile cutting blade for my dremel. Just roll the glass tubes on the blade as it spins and it cuts through clean as anything. Can even use the flat edge to deburr and chamfer the ends

Ran into an issue while booting whereby windows wouldn't launch at all. Had to knock up some installation media and try to fix it, only to get more errors saying I couldn't put windows on any of my drives. Eventually managed to sort it by formatting an old Samsung 840 I had sat around, but in the process accidentally wiped a partition on another drive which just happened to be the one with all my software on. So now I'm sat with a fresh installation of windows and I need to try and remember what I actually had installed and all my settings. Until I can get L-connect and Armoury Crate back on I'm stuck with this awful rainbow.

I have a feeling I'll be waiting a long while on my cablemod order and also have no idea how I'm to get the CPU cables in without disassembling the loop. Strimer 24 pin should arrive by next week, but I've realised I desperately need a dRGB splitter cable because I can't accommodate all my lighting as is

Frubeling · 10 Mar 2021 at 07:01

IT LIVES

I'll take better photos eventually but like I've said I'm still waiting on a Lian-Li 24 pin Strimer and custom braided cables for everything but the motherboard. That said I forgot to take measurements before ordering the cables so I really hope they don't clutter the case like the stock ones are. Thankfully this case has a panel to hide the cables but knowing there's a bulging mass of them behind it has me uncomfortable.

I have run into some issues regarding the fans. They keep reading speeds like 350000 and even as much as 700000 + I can't seem to control their speeds at all. Definitely can't through L-Connect and will need to try again in BIOS when I get home. I did try to unplug all cables from the UNI HUB to tidy them up but couldn't seem to remove any except the RGB cables so I took a pair of pliers to try and pull one of them and I may have damaged it at this point. Even that wasn't enough to pull the plug. It seems impossible to remove

Frubeling · 13 Mar 2021 at 15:56

Fixed my issue with L-connect not working. No amount of uninstalling and re-installing would help but I happened to have to wipe Windows 10 and re-install Pro because I'd forgotten I only have a license for that version. Now L-Connect is suddenly working. Fans are under control and windows is activated. I also got photo viewer and my dolby atmos back after the microsoft store broke on my last build