Project: No Name Budget

damov3 · 24 Mar 2014 at 20:28

Project: Thurst

Hello Guys,

Welcome to my first ever attempt at making my PC look anything other than a mess. I doing this on a serious budget so bear with me it may take a while

Spec:

CPU: i5 2500K(Currently clocked at 4.6 on air 24/7)
MB: ASROCK Extreme 4gen3
RAM: 16gb 1600mhz Hyper x Genesis
Drives: 2 x 60GB crucial M4 1 x 2TB WD Black
PSU: Thermaltake toughpowerXT 675W

I already own the above and need to hang as long as I can before I upgrade due to funds.

Watercooling kit so far is below:

YOUR BASKET
1 x asus radeon r9 290 "voltage unlocked" 4096mb gddr5 pci-express graphics card £299.99
1 x ek water blocks ek-d5 vario x-top - acetal (incl. pump) £89.99
1 x ek water blocks ek-fc r9-290x - acetal £79.99
1 x ek water blocks ek-supremacy - acetal £49.99
1 x ek water blocks ek-coolstream pe 360 (triple) £49.99
1 x ek water blocks ek-coolstream pe 240 (dual) £39.95
1 x monsoon 13/10mm (id 3/8 od 1/2) free center compression fitting six pack - white £27.95
1 x xspc razor r9 290x / 290 backplate £24.95
total : £672.40 (includes shipping : £8.00).

i have a phobya res already to go with this lot, just need to decide on fittings and tubing? fluid colour will be yellow thats for sure

so the plan is for the time being, well at least until i have sorted the card issue! to run just a cpu loop with the one rad, then later on add a second 240 rad and gpu water block to match the cpu.

all of this is going in here which turned up today:d

Finally all stripped ready for some work to begin.

Mads1 · 24 Mar 2014 at 21:46

budget whats that. Is there ever one when building a PC, i was like if i get this i might aswell add that, i cry when i add it all up

damov3 · 24 Mar 2014 at 22:57

paulm71 said:
budget whats that. Is there ever one when building a PC, i was like if i get this i might aswell add that, i cry when i add it all up

I suppose budget in the sense I could have spent out on a new MB, CPU and Ram, Im going to have to spend out on a new GPU anyway so it will tally up eventually i suppose

jimbaw · 24 Mar 2014 at 22:58

that case looks so good!!

damov3 · 25 Mar 2014 at 20:06

New name and update

I think I'm going to call this project "Thurst" as its my first :rolleyes:

A few goodies turned today

So test fitted a few bits and pieces 360 rad in the top 240 rad in the front should work ok.

Top 360 holes don't line up on the ends, so only the 4 bolts in the centre will fit! hopefully not to much of an issue.

Res & pump position all sorted marked and ready for mutilation

The tools for the job

I have some White Arcylic on order plus all the sleeving.
Just had some money land so can get on an order the new GPU and water blocks, then need to find some money for the second rad, tube and fittings

damov3 · 26 Mar 2014 at 19:51

The Dremel's alive

So I got the Dremel out tonight

and made a start on the case! cutting a nice hole for my Res, need to make some mounting brackets and clean up the edges, then once my Arcylic turns up i can finish mounting the Res.

Any reason why I can't make a Backplate for GPU? I want to make something out of acrylic to match some other components in the build.

Thanks for looking.

Bart_Hunt · 26 Mar 2014 at 22:56

This looks nice, I love having fun with dremmel as well

How do you like EK PE rads?
I just bough 3 360s and some screw holes are misaligned, makes hard to instal fittings.
Other than that, I think they are great.

damov3 · 27 Mar 2014 at 07:11

Bart_Hunt said:
This looks nice, I love having fun with dremmel as well
How do you like EK PE rads?
I just bough 3 360s and some screw holes are misaligned, makes hard to instal fittings.
Other than that, I think they are great.

The paint finish marks really easily but other than that they look great, Ive not noticed any misaligned holes with mine, but I've got to order a 240 version so will check to see if that suffers from the problem!

damov3 · 27 Mar 2014 at 19:39

Small update today my white acrylic turned up so have cut to size and measured up for the Res.

Still waiting on sleeving and other bits and pieces, but have also ordered the GPU and second Rad today.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus Radeon R9 290 "Voltage Unlocked" 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £299.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-CoolStream PE 240 (Dual) £39.95
Total : £349.54 (includes shipping : £8.00).

Bart_Hunt · 27 Mar 2014 at 22:16

Cool stuff

Missaligned holes were only 2 near the ports, but it made middle fan and one next to it very tight fit. I actually had to push the fan hard in order to be able to screw it to the rad. Fan frames were rubbing eachother

Fortunately it's out of sight and I didn't have problems like that with other 2 rads.

damov3 · 27 Mar 2014 at 22:25

Bart_Hunt said:
Cool stuff

Missaligned holes were only 2 near the ports, but it made middle fan and one next to it very tight fit. I actually had to push the fan hard in order to be able to screw it to the rad. Fan frames were rubbing eachother
Fortunately it's out of sight and I didn't have problems like that with other 2 rads.

Must just be a one off or a slightly wonky batch :confused:

hopefully my 240 will be fine.

damov3 · 29 Mar 2014 at 15:26

Some more progression

So I've had some time to do some work on the build today, first off I'll start with the postie drop

Fans fans and more fans.

Sleeving arrived too Thanks Nils.

So still waiting on GPU and few other bits and I'm now ready to order the remaining components.

So i finished the Res mount today just got to get some white silicone O'rings from work for mounting and paint the brackets.

Mounting brakets:

Screw layout:

Test fit:

Finished article:

Ive still got a bit of work to do on the face that includes more Acrylic, but really happy with how its turned out so far, by all means let me know what you think good bad or indifferent?

danewesley · 31 Mar 2014 at 11:00

Excellent, acrylic looks very clean. What did you make the cut with?

GiraffePencils · 31 Mar 2014 at 11:15

That's looking really good

damov3 · 31 Mar 2014 at 14:46

danewesley said:
Excellent, acrylic looks very clean. What did you make the cut with?

I used a Dremel to make first cuts then used different files to smooth it down!

GiraffePencils said:
That's looking really good

Thanks

damov3 · 1 Apr 2014 at 19:36

Little update

Most of the bits are here now so can crack on with the build.

Goodies

Got this in yellow as well

Starting work on the GPU backplate(need to decide whether to keep this painted or make one out of Acrylic :confused:

Also i need some help with the screw colour, as the build is based round white, black, yellow. What colour do guys think?

Hopefully more updates later on this week

MonsterMoshi · 1 Apr 2014 at 19:42

Unless you can get a bright almost neon yellow then I would go white

jimbaw · 1 Apr 2014 at 22:09

I would go for white or black screws. anything else would look tacky to me.

damov3 · 3 Apr 2014 at 23:15

Plasti dip alert

Right guys have made some headway over the last few days, got the top rad in with the mobo which is a mighty tight fit :eek:

and measured up round back for the pump and wot not. Got top rad painted and some detailing on the mobo done.

Top rad painted

Fans surrounds painted

Mobo detailing

All crammed in! rear 140mm fan and rad connections are a small issue at the minute, i need to decide whether to turn the rad round or move to a 120mm :confused:

Round the back, trying to gauge pump position.

Rear 140mm fan removed.

I think I'm going to make something to cover those SSD's as i don't like the label up look :eek:

Soon be the weekend so i can crack on a get finished as i have no PC now until this is done.

Bart_Hunt · 3 Apr 2014 at 23:30

Looks nice.

For ssd cover, you can use some white acrylic. Just go to plasticshop.co.uk and type in the size, thickness and color you want in the calculator. They have good prices and are quick on delivery.