Project Smurf

[Smffy]

Hello.

So I'm new to posting on the forum but trust me I've been reading a lot of it recently while I (over) research this build. I figured since I learnt a lot and got good inspiration to not chicken out and just use closed loop cooling, I should attempt to give something back*. In short i've built a lot of machines over the years for myself or friends but as yet I haven't ventured in to the full water cooling custom world... That my friends is about to change.

*Getting something back is not guaranteed, terms apply .

So what the hell am I building?

The end goal is to build something pretty powerful, I intend to overclock quite a bit, which is able to facilitate amazing gaming and also video/graphics editing. The project will be under the colour scheme White/Blue, Smurfs are the only White and Blue thing I could think of... Might be a little hungover today . I'm a fussy man so clearly I'm going to obsess over making it a truely custom build but those ideas are not yet finalised. I've already ordered pretty much everything for the build, i'm sure i'll have missed something, some has arrived now and more coming next week - hoping to get the thing build this side of Xmas.

The parts...

Stuff I already have being used in the build:

3 x 500GB Crucial MX200 SSD (I have 5 SSDs in total so a few of the smaller older units will remain in the old machine which I intend to sell on). Yes I purchased these before M.2 was a thing, yes I'm annoyed .

Stuff that has already arrived:

1. Intel Skylake 6700k (4.0ghz)
2. Asus Z170 Deluxe Mobo
3. 4 x 8GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 (3000Mhz) in Blue
4. Corsair HX1200i PSU
5. 1 x EVGA Nvidia GTX 980Ti SC ACX 2.0
6. NZXT Noctis 450 (White/Blue) Case
7. 1 x 24 Pin replacement 1200i PSU Cable (White, not massively keen on the black heat shrink so it might be going back...)

Tasty photo of some of this swag which is currently sat waiting patiently in my cupboard:

The case arrived looking like someone had kicked the crap out of the box, it was basically open almost entirely and my fears confirmed once I inspected the package (not from OCUK I might add)... The box had been so badly squashed the front had actually popped off:

And you can see how stressed the side panel is, well take a look at just how crushed it must have been - the metal had actually split:

The guys who supplied it were pretty good about it and immediately collected it so I should have the new one Monday, then its time to start planning the important stuff! Which brings me to my next order...

Parts arriving soon...

1. EK-AF Extender 12mm M-M G1/4 - Black x 2
2. EK-AF Ball Valve (10mm) G1/4 - Black x 1
3. EK-CSQ Plug G1/4 (for EK-Badge) - Black x 1
4. EK-AF T-Splitter 3F G1/4 - Black x 1
5. EK-Ekoolant EVO UV BLUE (premix 1L) x 3
6. EK-HDC Fitting 16mm G1/4 - Blue x 13
7. EK-RES X3 250 - White x 1
8. EK-XTOP Revo D5 PWM - Plexi (incl. pump) x 1
9. EK-CoolStream SE 360 (Slim Triple) x 2
10. EK-Supremacy EVO (Original CSQ) x 1
11. EK-FC Titan X - Nickel (Original CSQ) x 1
12. EK-FC Titan X Backplate - Blue x 1
13. EK-HD PETG Tube 12/16mm 500mm (2pcs) x 4

So as you can see keeping with the blue theme to compliment the rest of the build in white, I'm also planning to order PSU extension cables in white but haven't got around to it just yet! I can also predict people will be a bit sad that this GPU is going to be so lonely... But my plan so far is to hold off and see what the next gen Nvidia looks like next year with a view to dropping in a few of those. Which sadly means I'm not parting with the cash to get two 908Ti's just now, but the main purpose for me getting the pretty over kill PSU is that I fully intend to add at least two cards next year.

So what do you think, it's my first build of this kind so feedback or suggestions very welcome - i'm also interested in mounting the res in view of the window on its side... So expect a lot of questions on the logistics of doing that and whether its just a painful idea. More updates to follow, hopefully i'll get the case Monday and i'm currently burning left over hols from work so you might get some early pics/feedback on the case Monday.

Hopefully I didn't break to many of the log post rules but i'm sure someone will let me know if I did!

Cheers!

 

[OJ46]

Will definitely be keeping an eye on this one mate, should look pretty sweet when it's all screwed together
That's **** news about the case though, did they use Yodel by any chance?!

 

[Smffy]

Will definitely be keeping an eye on this one mate, should look pretty sweet when it's all screwed together
That's **** news about the case though, did they use Yodel by any chance?!

DPD... In fairness it was delivered just after Black Friday so i'm guessing it was a little frantic at the warehouses

 

[ukxenon]

yodel delivering packages by steel toecap for years lol

 

[Snookums]

That's gonna look very nice once done.

Just a word of warning I've read a lot of bad reviews surrounding EK's coolants, not sure if they have updated in the past few years or not. Might want to have a quick google, if you do decide to change it go mayhems but don't get their pastel/nanofulid range get the normal range.

 

[Smffy]

That's gonna look very nice once done.

Just a word of warning I've read a lot of bad reviews surrounding EK's coolants, not sure if they have updated in the past few years or not. Might want to have a quick google, if you do decide to change it go mayhems but don't get their pastel/nanofulid range get the normal range.

Thanks for the tip! I'll have a look into it that, no real reason for choosing EK coolant other than convenience of it being in the same order. I think once the rest is in I'll also have a better idea on colour.

In other news the new case arrived today, quick inspection before I had to jump in the car it looks in one peice. Should have some pictures up tomorrow evening then more on Monday of the core components.

 

[Snookums]

Thanks for the tip! I'll have a look into it that, no real reason for choosing EK coolant other than convenience of it being in the same order. I think once the rest is in I'll also have a better idea on colour.

In other news the new case arrived today, quick inspection before I had to jump in the car it looks in one peice. Should have some pictures up tomorrow evening then more on Monday of the core components.

The clear EK coolant is fine, it's just the coloured ones.

Good to hear about the replacement case though.

 

[Smffy]

Ok, just to be sure this is the UV Blue... Doesnt that count as one of the problematic fluids?

Edit, looked around and generally its thought to be ok with hard tubing. I'm going to be using PTEG so I think it should be ok, I'd imagine EKWB have changed the mix since then anyway... You'd hope.

 

[craig_t]

Good that the new case it there, will look forward to more pictures

 

[Smffy]

So because my case arrived early and because I was bored out my mind after a 3.5 hour drive I decided to do some tinkering a bit early... Still awaiting the EK order so my hands are a little tied but some pics and thoughts on the new case etc below.

The new case, arrived safe and well packaged this time around!

Nice and snug...

No dents this time!

First impressions of the case are pretty good, the build quality feels pretty solid mostly. If I was being picky I feel like the plexi window is very light/flimsy - not sure if anyone has the same view on other NZXT cases? Now taking a look under its funky exterior it looks pretty good, there is a lot of space in the base (behind the PSU cover) and the cavity behind the motherboard seems room enough for a lot of cables. One thing which I noticed before ordering but others may not, you can remove the 3.5" drive bays BUT you cannot remove that section of the case body without modification. Its quite restrictive in terms of mounting your cooling kit in view so do keep that in mind. See below, this section is held in by rivets but I reckon you could easily remove it and replace once modified if required:

The drive bays behind simply unscrew, this leaves a huge space to mount the res BUT i'm still hoping I can get it in view of the window. Drive bays, these are all coming out as it will have SSDs only...

The case comes prefitted with the fan hub, i've already got one of these in my current machine... It does look pretty crap without the plastic casing but you will never see it. Quick snap below, note the pre-wired LEDs in the base of the tray, there is also a connection to those near the top of the case.

Moving on to the PSU, the case comes with a nifty feature whereby you unscrew a plate from the case and mount that directly to the supply. The whole thing then just slides in over a nice dust filter and screws in to the back.

Now this might seem a bit sad but I was pretty impressed with how insanely well packaged the PSU was. Kudos to Corsair, premium supply and it really felt it when I opened the box... This thing wasn't going anywhere:

Tucked up asleep inside...

Oddly the branding is seen in a few different orientations on the supply, presume its for some strange mounting options but just incase it matters for anyones future builds be aware they are a little interesting:

Comes with a tidy bag of cables, the cables themselves feel VERY solid - they are pretty heavy so again it feels very good quality, very impressed and I am happy I splashed out on it.

Next stop the memory, now I ordered the blue variant in the hope it matched the highlights on the board well. The actual blue colour seems pretty different to the online pictures but I think it looks ok next to the board - especially once its in the slots.

What do you think, looks quite a light almost cyan colour:

Looks OK to me once its in place:

At this point I noticed that the 24pin on the board does not really align to the cable management slots in the case... I knew this was going to annoy me but also I wanted to check the Corsair PSU cable in white which I ordered as a bit of a punt. A reminder I really think the black heat shrink looks ***, I was right but also the angle of the cables is annoying so i'll have to think of a way to manage that - any suggestions on better PSU extensions which are coloured up to the plug?

Annoying black heat shrink is far too visible:

So that was about it, so far now the board is in i'm really happy with the choices (visually!). The components seem to fit the case well in terms of colour, I was initially worried about the colour of the RAM but seems to look pretty slick in the case. There were a few ridiculously coloured serial number stickers on the board (i'm talking bright pink) but they were easy to remove and stuck to the paperwork in case I need them... The build so far:

I can see already i'll want to mod my SSDs to fit, i've never tried to do this before so could anyone confirm that something like 3M Di-noc will be happy living inside a PC case? Thinking a carbon or white carbon would look nice:

Might have a few mockups of my loop tomorrow... Any feedback or suggestions/potential snags for the loop let me know!

Cheers

 

[craig_t]

Case looks very nice, I have been in the market for a white case to do a white and black themed build, so I will keep this one in mind

 

[Luggs]

Great progress mate, RAM colour looks very slick on mobo.

 

[harvey.l12]

Loving the White with hints of blue theme on the MOBO

 

[Smffy]

Just received an email from EK telling me the pump is out of stock until the 10th

Plenty of time to plan the rest I guess!

 

[Smffy]

Update!

Was a little excited today to receive an email from EK telling me things have been despatched . Not much I can do at this point but plan the loop, i'm about to start doing that... While I was day dreaming about my loop I remembered I still had some 3M Di Noc Carbon left from wrapping the trim in my car so set about a quick and dirty test to see what carbon wrapped SSDs would look like.

Old unused SSD:

Professional wrapping hair dryer

Not perfect but just a tester, this stuff is really easy to use and you get a great finish when you put some effort in. I wrapped the trim in my BMW with this, even the dealer thought i'd splashed out on a full carbon dash.

Here it is in the case, what do you think? I'm torn between this and using the white carbon which I think might glow a bit better with the case LEDs...

 

[theaterix]

Think it would look cool if you remade the sticker on the top to match your build and put that over the carbon maybe? That would look sick

 

[Dunny774]

This looks awesome, is that carbon look on the ssd like a sticky back?

 

[Luggs]

+1 for white carbon, will react much better to your lighting I think

 

[Smffy]

This looks awesome, is that carbon look on the ssd like a sticky back?

Yes, its pretty freely available on eBay etc. Its a 3M product 'di-noc vinyl'. You can get virtually any colour/finishm - essentially a fairly stiff sheet with an adhesive on one side, what you do is heat it with the hair dryer and it becomes super supple so you can (slightly) stretch it over.

Dries pretty solid, like I said i've wrapped my car trim (over brushed aluminium) in this and it looks pretty good and lasts for years. The great thing is that even though its really solid once its on, it just peels off leaving no residue... It also protects what was underneath so its like new once you remove it.

Might take a snap of it in the car this weekend so you can see it on a bigger scale.

+1 for white carbon, will react much better to your lighting I think

I'm gonna order a sheet and see how it looks... Its so cheap given the size I need, I was also thinking it might be interesting to wrap the inside (or even outside!!) of the case with it. Given the shape of the case its probably a pain in the ass but kinda think that a white carbon exterior and black carbon interior could be nice. Will see how the white looks up close...

 

[Smffy]

UPDATE!

So to my surprise this little lot arrived at the office today...

Bit busy this weekend which is annoying but i'm hoping to get cracking soon, i'll hopefully have time to post up a plan of the loop tomorrow for you all to tell me how i've got it totally wrong

Looking forward!