Project Ignorant Bliss

[Zeeflyboy]

Hi Guys,

I thought I would share my new build, and look forward to going through the overclocking guides on here.

I have built a couple of PCs in the past (nothing special mind you, fairly basic) but it's probably about 13-14 years since I last built one... So I'm as good as a total newbie.

I have designed and built myself a fancy man cave in the garden, and I needed a PC to run my CNC machine. I've been a mac man the last few years and while I do love my rMBP it's not much cop for that sort of thing...

Of course I then thought that if i'm buying a new PC, why not just go the full hog get a decent one that I can use for everything and get back into gaming a bit. That then led me down the path of doing my own build again, and so here I am! The PC is generally going to be an all purpose workhorse and used for CNC control, Gaming, 3D modelling/rendering, and a little photo/video editing.

So the specs I ended up going with:

Skylake i7 6700k
Asus Sabertooth Z170 Mk1
Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3200mhz (8gb x 2)
2 x EVGA Hydrocopper 980Ti
Intel 480gb 730 series SSD
Corsair RM1000x PSU
Alphacool NexXxoS UT60 full copper 360mm Radiator
XPSC 140mm Radiator
Alphacool 13/10mm fittings
Monsoon 13/10mm acrylic tube
Primochill CTR phase II reservoir
Alphacool Laing d5 vario pump
Bitspower 90 degree rotary fittings
Mayhem's Ice White coolant.

And I decided to pop that in a Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ATX case because I think it's gorgeous!

In hindsight I would have gone with a samsung 950 pro M2 stick instead of the intel drive, but remember that ignorant newbie part - I didn't even know what m2 was, and now it's too late... I'll probably upgrade at some point in the semi-distant future.

Anyhow, most of that arrived and I did what any self respecting man would do - made a mess of the living room floor.



On with the build!

 

[Zeeflyboy]

So this was a quick test fit to see how it all goes together and figure out how I was going to do the build.

It was at this point that I decided to add an extra 140mm radiator.



I had a bit of a hard time fitting that reservoir in given the output port actually made it quite wide. I needed to turn it 90 degrees so I whipped up a design and printed it out using Carbonfil filament (a brilliant 3d printer material which is has 20% carbon fibres added - stuff comes out super strong and stiff).












So with the brackets made, it now just slotted in place quite happily:

 

[Zeeflyboy]

I then got to work with bending all the tubes... I have to say it's quite interesting work. Moments of joy and satisfaction when things go right to moments of pure unadulterated rage when that piece you've been working on for the last 20 minutes gets ruined or cut slightly too short.

Anyway, eventually got all the tubes cut and shaped. I ended up adding a couple more 90 degree fittings as some of the curves into the components were a bit tight for the bent tube (or at least my skills).




I then decided that I didn't really like the stock power cables after seeing all those lovely braided cables out there on the interwebby. I went and purchased a load of sleeving, pins, connectors etc and then proceeded to strip the sleeve off my stock corsair wires.

I was then a bit surprised to be greeted with a load of capacitors. Hmm. Things have changed since I last messed around inside a PC.... back to the drawing board. As a side note, the pins are also FREAKING IMPOSSIBLE to get out on the corsair plugs. I thought my pin removal tool was trash but it''s actually the corsair pins that seem to be the issue.

I then came across cablemod's kits and saw they had a kit with the capacitors moved back to a more convenient location... given that I could even extract the pins on my corsair cables I decided to just say screw it and ordered those.

However, once they arrived I wasn't overly taken with the black/white alternating scheme and they are too skinny to fit the cable combs I have nicely. On the plus side my pin extractor tool works flawlessly on the cablemod plugs... whoop.

I therefore decided to go ahead and customise the PCI-E cables as an experiment - I cut them to length and re-sleeved with my choice of sleeving. This dual PCIe 6+6+2 cable took me longer than I care to admit, but I'm very happy with the end result. In hindsight I might have made 2 grey either side of the white, but there's no way I'm messing with it again at the moment lol.







The downside is that now the 24 pin ATX cable is staring at me and asking for the same treatment.... sigh. I think I may have to do that at some point (unfortunately I had to order 2 kits from cablemod to get 4 6+2 cables, the upside of which is that I do have a spare 24 pin to work on outside of the case).

 

[Zeeflyboy]

Having already followed the guides I found regarding using a swimming pool filter to pre-rinse the radiators, I decided to just do one final flush with distilled water and leak test at the same time... Given that this is my first water-cooling project I was a little apprehensive!



To do this I used a separate 12v PSU that will later be driving the water-cooling pump in my CNC machine.

Happily, nothing came spurting out and nothing dripped... so I drained the loop through the drain plug at the bottom of the 360mm radiator (I had to cut a hole prior to installing everything in the bottom of the case for this with my trusty dremel) which worked well with a ball stop valve screwed in and some pipe to the water container.

And now we've caught right up to today - filled the loop with Mayhem's pastel Ice White and have been busy bleeding all the air bubbles out of the radiators... I think it's now pretty much all gone.

 

[Zeeflyboy]

Nice reservoir mount and lovely tube bends you've got there. It's going to look great.

And you keep your CNC machine (I guess that's what it is) in your living room?

Cheers!

And no, it was just sitting there while I finished off the worktops in the man cave

 

[Zeeflyboy]

Radox - actually it's a 140mm in the back, not that it changes much lol.

I haven't actually switched it on yet though! I will let you know temps once I do... I thought discretion was the better part of valour and ordered a little PSU tester to make sure my custom cables were all hooked up correctly rather than risk frying so much moolah. I could check with a multimeter but I figure the PSU tester is a more foolproof method and less open to error.

OJ - thanks, just looking at yours at the moment, nice choice of case

 

[Zeeflyboy]

Would love to know how it performs with a pair of 980Ti's in it, especially as it's the same card as I'm using (mine being non SLI ) and with the same CPU and RAM speeds. Custom cables were definitely worth the effort, the PCI-E cables look stunning and really do finish it off nicely. Only trouble is you're making mine look crap now, as that's the one regret I have is using standard cables They really are a stunning case to build in though aren't they, seen tanks that weigh less though!

Yes they are, I'm very happy with the case... Looks great, build quality is top notch and the fact that it all comes apart without tools or fiddling with thumbscrews is just the icing on the cake.

Given the similarity between our setups, any tips on getting it up and running at top performance or is it really just pretty much plug and play?

Thanks for the kind words guys - any comments on what I could have done better at all? I'm always eager to learn and I admit I'm not at all knowledgeable on this stuff. I'm also eying up LED options after seeing OJ's - anyone using the Hue+ v2?

FL630 - when you have a 3D printer, you'll wonder how you ever made stuff without one! I've had this one a couple of years now and it still amazes me

Trying - It's a makergear m2


Edit - here is another part I 3D printed for this build - it's a small little stand off for the 140mm fan to help improve efficiency of the radiator... Its still a little damp in spots after its rinse off which is why it's a bit blotchy. I actually also had to print a fairly large (15mm) standoff at the back too in order to allow the radiator to be fixed there, but I didn't take any pics of it unfortunately. You can just about make out the edge of it behind the 140mm rad in some of the pics.

 

[Zeeflyboy]

Oh and just in case anyone was wondering about the big external case I've built for it (i.e. the man cave), this is what I came up with... it's not yet finished inside but it's getting close. The "monitor" is a 40" Samsung UE40JU7000 4K tv - Took quite a while for me to hunt down a respectably priced 4K tv that can do 60fps 4k 4:4:4 chroma and with a reasonably low latency.

 

[Zeeflyboy]

Well we don't know that it actually even works yet! It's not guaranteed lol.

Thanks guys!

So quick question - is it worth popping two exhaust fans running at low speed in the top (as per some of the earlier pics) or do you think there will be enough airflow through the case without? The dual 140's are a little tight, but dual 120's would fit fine...

Cheers OJ - I'll bear that in mind.

 

[Zeeflyboy]

Ok I think I'll do that then. I would guess that it could really do with a blanking plate over the non-fan covered parts of the upper tray otherwise a lot of the air will probably just push back down rather than be forced out... Should be easy to whip something up on the CNC.

I just had a thought regarding that cable grommit at the bottom - I think that would look great with a custom grommet with holes for the wires like a cable comb (if you understand my non-sensical ramblings).

The only question - once I've designed it do I machine it from aluminium or print it in the same carbon grey as the other parts?

Orrrr... I could machine it from aluminium and then machine the central cable comb part from carbon fibre.... Which would look awesome by maybe out of place with the rest of the system?

Pete - thanks. If anyone is desperate for 3D printed parts but doesn't have easy access to a printer I can probably help out if time permits, don't mind doing stuff now and then only problem is it is often tricky when you don't have the part/case at hand for the design, and it occasionally takes a couple of iterations to get things absolutely spot on.

 

[Zeeflyboy]

Hey, that Carbonfil / carbon fibre stuff for 3d printer looks great. Never saw it before. Have been using aluminium. [EDIT] acutally the aluminium is one of the heaviest parts of my PC, other than the PSU with its steel case. Makes you wonder how much lighter it could be.

I love it, but it does destroy a standard brass nozzle in very short order - you won't even make it through a couple hundred grams before print quality noticeably goes down hill. If you are interested in this filament I can strongly recommend the special hardened steel nozzle sold by e3d specifically designed for this purpose. Well worth the investment.

It is amazingly light, which isn't really a priority for PCs I guess but I generally print this at 30-40% infill and it's as strong as you could wish. Given its 60-70% air at that setting you do end up with extremely high strength to weight ratios. I've been suitably impressed that I'm now using it for most of my actually meaningful prints. Overhang ability is great, it bridges well and doesn't warp at all in my experience (I print it with a 75 degree bed just for info).

The militant - wouldn't know where to post the build of the man cave! Not really PC related!

 

[Zeeflyboy]

Cheers - yeah I liked the white radiators as soon as I saw them... I actually had to paint the XPSC one because the white it comes as is matt (almost like a primer actually) and didn't match the more satin finish of the alphacool. Got some decent satin white spray paint and problem solved!

On the first iteration I tried (before I added the 90 degree fittings on the CPU block), the tube couldn't get low enough to the board for a straight run to the rad at the front so I had to put a small kink to line things up. Wasn't very happy with that!

However, after I changed my plan and went with the 90 degree fittings, I just had to use a small G1/4 extender under the 90's on the CPU block and it then lined up very nicely height wise off the motherboard and the front rad (and conveniently, also with the outlet of the 140mm rad using the same size g1/4 extender). It looks pretty spot on regarding being parallel with the case, certainly as far as you can see it's a totally straight shot. Could be off by a mm or two perhaps but over that distance it's hard to tell.

Given this is my first build, I don't really have any frame of reference to compare the Evolv to anything else... so hard for me to say really! It is naturally going to be a bit tight compared to a full size tower case I suppose, but it is very well laid out in my humble and un-informed opinion. I didn't struggle with any of the fittings personally, but I guess if I had another larger rad up top it would have got a bit more claustrophobic.

 

[Zeeflyboy]

Just lucky

So I just quickly made up this design to explain what I was talking about with the bulkhead grommet for the PCI-E cables.

This would replace the rubber cable grommet for a super clean look:







I'm just not sure what to make it out of - On the one hand it'd probably look quite nice and subtle if I print it out of the carbonfil (plus it's the easiest option), or alternatively I could mill it out of aluminium for a bling tastic time.

Decisions decisions....

 

[Zeeflyboy]

Cheers

Done deal then - got the part printing out now. I'm also making some small spacers for the fans at the front which will then be combined with some foam gaskets.... I figure I'm not exactly massively over-radded (I was going on the rule of thumb that I saw thrown around which said 120mm per block plus another 120 for headroom), so I want those radiators working as efficiently as possible. To that end the fan spacers will help to eliminate the dead spot under the fans, and the gaskets make sure none of that pesky air is leaking around the sides.

Probably won't make much difference but hey, why not try

 

[Zeeflyboy]

Hah thanks but I think you'd be surprised... I didn't know any of this stuff until I taught myself a couple of years ago. If you have the wherewithal to put together a PC, I think you can most likely figure out all this sort of stuff.

So done a bit more:

Printing out the Cable grommet and a 120mm fan spacer:




Finished parts:




Quick test fit (like a gloooooooove!)




And after a fair old bit of cable plugging/unplugging to get the thing fitted onto the cables, I'm pretty happy with it. Helps keep everything all nicely aligned.






And as for the fan spacer... here it is with foam gasket fitted:




Fitted to the top fan (you can also see where I put my loop temperature gauge in the outlet end of the rad)




And the important part I wanted to check - the filter still fits without fouling:




So now I just need to do another 2 fan spacers and order some more 35mm screws to fit them.

 

[Zeeflyboy]

The cable routing looks stunning with the new grommet replacement, they look better fitted than I expected them to

Also, can you explain what the fan gaskets are for as I'm not sure if it's to do with the SP120s funny shape?

Great work though

Basically from what I've read, you can increase the efficiency of a radiator by moving the fan further away - this allows air to flow a bit better behind the dead spot of the fan centre... With the fans right up close against the radiator grill you have a large area of low airflow directly behind that section of the fan.

The foam gasket itself is just forming a seal against the radiator - the front one especially would always have some small gaps where the fan is fastening to the rad through the case. Again it's small stuff but it just ensures that all that lovely high pressure generated by the high static pressure fans has nowhere to escape but through the radiator. It certainly doesn't help that the fans don't have a normal edge to seal against the rad either!

It's not so much a question of why, more a question of why not lol.

Yeah the 24 pin is now screaming out for custom sleeving and a special bulkhead grommet too... Not quite sure exactly what to do with that as there are a couple of pins that have two wires smooshed in there (corsair RMx has voltage sense lines in addition to those pesky capacitors). Need to see if those wires can still fit through a 4mm comb if I run them both inside a single sleeve until the exit the back of the case.

 

[Zeeflyboy]

Cheers, time to throw up a help flare though!

So I need some help lads - the ignorant part is starting to show.

I decided to pop the stock cables back in while I wait for my PSU tester so that I could get it all up and running.

First things first, when I turn on the plug the standby power light that Asus says should be green appears to be amber. Hmm...

So, push the power button and it all kicks into life - the pump starts up, the fans (powered through the mobo) turn on and the graphics cards light up but I got no video and no beeps, nada. If I leave it running then I get all the POST error leds lit up in amber.

Oh, also perhaps someone can tell me if this is normal - both GFX cards light up initially, but the SLI bridge LED is off. Then after a few seconds the first GFX card goes dark but the bridge turns on. Then the GFX card comes back on again.

Anyway, after a bit of fiddling around I have very carefully just bumped the GFX cards out of their slots and disconnected them, running the hdmi into the onboard connector. After doing that, the thing posts and I managed to install windows. The funny thing is the power led is still amber and every single POST led is still showing amber, but the computer appears to work absolutely fine without the GFX cards installed - I am infact writing this very post from the new computer.

Asus says this about the POST leds:

The POST State LEDs provide the status of these key components duringPOST (Power-on-self test): CPU, memory modules, VGA card, and hard disk drives. If an error is found, the critical component's LED stays lit up until the problem is solved

Now call me dim, but how am I managing to write this post from a seemingly fully functional (albeit with my GFX cards currently disconnected) computer with CPU, Boot device, Ram and VGA all showing errors on those LEDs?

Any ideas as to what the badger's beard is going on here would be much appreciated.

 

[Zeeflyboy]

Fine is relative...

With the cards shunted out the slots and disconnected it works as you would expect, BUT the Q-LED lights are all lit, which according to the manual means there's a problem with each of them (the CPU, the VGA, the HDD and the RAM), but I don't see how they can all fail POST and yet the system works.

I can't shunt one card out while the other is in, the bridging piece won't allow it... although maybe I could get both out, then manage to put one back in actually - i'm off to try that.

 

[Zeeflyboy]

Hey guys...

Well I'm a bit down in the dumps - no one has been able to diagnose thus far why it's not working.

General feeling is leaning towards a defective motherboard, just on the basis that it's statistically less likely to have 2 GPU's that are both DOA.

Is there anyone in the Horsham/west sussex/Gatwick area that has an old spare GPU lying around who would be kind enough to loan it to me to try out just to confirm whether the Mobo PCIe slots work at all?


edit - or maybe I could buy something like this? https://www.overclockers.co.uk/pali...file-pci-express-graphics-card-gx-019-pl.html

Do you think it matters whether it's pci 2 or 3 for diagnosing where the problem lies?

 

[Zeeflyboy]

Haha thanks dude.

A friend of mine has an old rig (in fact my "most recent" 14 year old build!) which is barely used. Anyway he's going to bring the gfx card round maybe tomorrow with a bit of luck.

I'll have to drain the system and make a temporary bypass from res to 140mm rad, then refill... Which is a pain. But at least that will give a bit more info.

I'm really hoping it's a motherboard fault to be honest. That is the simpler explanation and the cheapest to resolve if the manufacturers don't come through for me.

I've actually gone and got the hots for the maximumus VIII formula, so if it does look like a motherboard issue I'm either going to try and get credit towards the maximus or just get the maximus, have the Sabertooth replaced and then sell it.

But knowing my luck the damn thing will boot up with the old gfx card and confuse me further.