Project, make it fit.

[hyperst]

Well I have started to put together my PC with a full water setup for cooling.

I am using mostly my rig in my sig but updating the GPU

So I should start with a list of components

PC consists of

MSI GD80 Motherboard
i5 750 CPU
4GB of Corsair xms3
Corsair Force series SSD 60GB
500GB hdd (this might have to go if I cannot fit it in, bring on the 500GB ssd's for £90,,,,,one day)
Corsair TX 650w PSU
Asus GTX480 courtesy of OcUK (well I bought it from there,in the post)
Asus D1 Sound card
1 DVD-rw
Case, Lian-Li PC50b Armoursuit
6 120mm fans, 2 140mm fans all xigmatek orange blades and white led
Lamptron FC2 fan controller (still to buy)
Cable brading of main wires in the case will be done or I get the ready made versions, not too sure which is most cost effective yet.

Well thats mainly the pc sorted, now onto what has got to be fitted in my Lian-Li pc50b armoursuit, not the biggest of cases with it being a mid tower and have had to do a little dremeling in place's Window side panel comming soon

Lighting is coming from the fans, a set of 4 sharkoon UV 12 inch tubes and thats about it really

The water cooling I picked consists of

1 EK XT 240mm Radiator plus 4 120mm fans
1 EK XT 120mm Radiator plus 2 120mm fans
1 EK Supreme HF Plexi copper CPU block
1 EK GTX480 plexi copper block (in the post)
1 EK DDC X-Res 140
1 Laing DDC 1T pump (Unsure if this will be enough maybe someone in the know could advise)
1 Pump mounting plate thingy
12 Bitspower G1/4" Matt Black 1/2" Fitting - BP-MBWP-C01 so far they are so epensive and it's looking like I need a couple of the real expensive triple rotary fittings, unsure yet though
Muskaleer 7/16" Tubing UV Orange , was unsure what colour but I think blue has been done a lot so thought would make a change and went with orange, I have xigmatek orange fans so it should go nice
1 Fillport (unsure wether to use it though)

Here are some pics of my progress, I think maybe another 1-2 weeks and it will be done, and like I say all this is going into my pc50b Armoursuit,somehow(maybe it will fit no problem but all ready I am not sure where my 500gb hdd is going to go)
Also this is my first try at water cooling my rig

enjoy and do say if I have done something completly noob

 

[hyperst]

GTX 480 has arrived, thanks OcUK for a good delivery, same carn't be said about the block for it, have been let down by the online store (not OcUK) where I purchased it from, apparently they don't know what happened to the one I purchased from them last week and they have refunded me, oh well

heres a couple of pics, very very close fit, about 1-2mm spare to the res

 

[hyperst]

thanks, from the reading I have done so far it seems it's possible to get away without using clips on the piping size I've used and larger barb size, well thats what I am trying for as it looks more cleaner and am trying to get it to look clean and tidy and not too cluttered if possible

have now stripped the heatsink off the 480, there was about 3/4mm thick thermal paste on it

 

[hyperst]

480 in with block attached and backplate, have now rearanged the tubing some and repositioned the pump, not really happy with the amount of piping in the middle, it's mainly the return to the res from the back radiator, I think it would be better with a 90 degree fitting at the output of the rad and drop the pipe straight down the back of the case and across to the res in more of an L shape, when funds allow I will look at it again

A few pics to show what I mean

 

[hyperst]

Even with 7/16 tubing over 1/2 barbs i found it slipping off once the warm weather kicked in.
Nice project so far.

hhmmm not good that, didn't really wanna put cable ties round, is there any other method of clamping them without being tacky looking

edit, think I may get compression fittings when funds allow, didn't realise ek did them and they are not as expensive as bitspower

 

[hyperst]

I like your blue/orange theme, works well with the copper blocks

Thanks, I am thinking of adding a couple of blue leds to the cpu block as it has the holes for them

 

[hyperst]

Kudos mate, looks fantastic so far!

Thanks, at last a bit of leak testing now, still lots to do but at least it's all plumbed in

As you can see, loop has changed somewhat from above, a lot less tubing is in use now than before and I think it looks a lot neater, what do you think, anything need changing around?

One thing I forgot was to fix the kill coil in place, filled it all up and then thought about the kill coil, have just curled it and dropped it in the res now though, was going to wrap it around one of the tubes in the res but I ain't draining it now

Another thing is the pump was a little temperamental at first, it was refusing to start without giving it a tap on the side a few times, is this down to trapped air bubbles in the pump, it seems fine now and it does start after being switched off, just wondering if it's normal for the pump to stall.

 

[hyperst]

looking great, but only a 120 rad?

there's 120.2 in the front as well

nice project, i used to have orange hose on mine, looks the bees knees

yeah thats correct, 120.2 in the front as well, just testing the fans now and all seems good, total of 9 fans in there now, 4 on the front rad, 2 on the back rad, two in the top of the case and 1 in the PSU.

Have ran out of braid now so got to order more to cover the fan cables and need to do the 8 pin as well and going to order a pre made 24 pin braided cable as I don't fancy doing that one and cost wise it's about the same.

Hoping it will be complete by the weekend

Fill port looks a no go at the moment as space is a little too tight in the top of the case.

 

[hyperst]

Thanks guys, it's nearly complete, am posting from it now after a lot of time spent with the cables it is all but done apart from the side panel which I am hoping to get cut out at the weekend.

It may need a little more UV lights but I have got 2 in so far and it's looking OK.

I may look at changing my front fans to the Cooler Master sickle flow one's as I have them in the rear and they run quieter than the Xigmateks do and they push more air and if I do change them can see me changing pipe colour

Temp's are great, low 30's on the CPU idle and mid 50's under load

GTX480 installed fine, no problems with swapping from ATI to NV, not tried any gaming yet though, temp's are looking good though, idling at 36c, my prevoius 5770's used too idle a lttle higher than that

Here's some shots of it, sorry about quality as I don't have a brilliant camera.



Here's 8 hours of cable management lol

On the desk

A couple of closer look's

I will upload some without the flash next as well.

Here's the temp's

 

[hyperst]

Some without the flash.

 

[hyperst]

Whoah, that's a hell of a light show! Nice build

thanks, it's not as bad as the pictures without flash, it is overly bright in them picture but IRL it's not that bad lol

 

[hyperst]

Side panel window done, not brilliant but it will do till I get a new case.

 

[hyperst]

Just a dremel to cut it out, bit of a pain and caught the case in a couple of places but it's not really noticeable, used some rubber u channel for trim and then stuck the window on with some double sided foam tape, it's a bit of a tight fit getting it back on, I left some double sided tape exposed at the back edge and think it sticks to the case when putting it on, will sort it out when I next take it off.

 

[hyperst]

thanks guys, all change soon though, got a new case and a bigger rad to add

 

[hyperst]

well case swap is nearly complete, just awaiting a couple of fittings, heres a few pics

 

[hyperst]

well it was a bit of a mismatch on the orange, in the end i didn't really like it with the blue of the motherboard lights so decided on a complete change of colour and went with white to go with the fractal case, cables I did myself.

 

[hyperst]

now up and running, only an hour or so to leak test as these compression fittings are real tight so I have faith in them

 

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Bit of an update, have now got a few new part, namely an Asus Z77 motherboard and 2500k cpu, changed to clear pipes and blood red coolant.

Some pictures

Thinking of updating the fans to some red led ones and maybe a new pump in the near future, missing all the bling of led fans lately

 

[hyperst]

I was very interested in reading your first build from 2011 (see my thread project Galileo) as my case is pretty much the same as yours and i'm going to using almost the same sort of placements. Since yours is so good though I'm going to step have to step up my game and put a window in the side or do somthing different.

Yeah I need to do my window, few more things to do as well, but it cost money which i'm short of, wanting a PSU, pump, new cable's, new fans, lighting the list goes on and on, oh and also a side window in the panel with a grill for the bottom fans, I don't think I've seen yours, I'll take a look for it now.

 

[hyperst]

What brackets did you use to mount the rad into the 5.25" bay? I hit a snag tonight with the build the brackets I have are no good for me only one fits the rad and the case at the time but the on it's own it can't support the weight and two it stops me from putting in the drive bay covers back in.

They were Lian Li Radiator Brackets 5,25", I put them at the back of the radiator, attached the fans to the front and then placed it in and bolted it up, then the front covers will fit