Project UnderOverStated - A 900D Watercooling Migration

[Sin_Chase]

Have been wanting to go Custom Loop Water Cooling for a while and the death of the H100, pictured below, prompted me to do so. This will be a first trip into Custom Loop WC for me so a sharp learning curve. Have watched plenty of instructional videos and read guides, there certainly was plenty I had not considered prior to doing so.

Why UnderOverStated? A 900D can never be classed as understated/subtle! And a Single GPU/CPU 2x480 Rad Loop has massive headroom over the current hardware. My part/colour choice is pretty subtle - That is, mostly neutral. Blacks and clears. I like a colour coded scheme but not if it means changing out a whole load of WC parts because my motherboard changes from one colour to another

As a result there is a fair amount of kit going into the 900D, not all of it is extreme, nor necessary and irrespective of that fact - It's all going to be pretty neutral! If I want to accent a certain colour in the future I can do it via LEDs and Coolant colour, rather than swapping out blocks, tubing or otherwise. Big case, pretty big loop and pretty middle of the road hardware in places - Hence UnderOverStated! The case and loop will serve as a platform with headroom for Multi-GPU and bigger CPU/Motherboard (With WC Blocks) in the future.

Parts Already in Situ:

Corsair 900D
i7 2600k / ASUS P8P67
Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSD / 2 x 2TB Seagate 7200RPM HDDs in RAID-0
nVidia GTX 780Ti
ASUS Xonar STX
Superflower Leadex Platinum 1000W
Lamptron FC2 6 Channel Analogue Fan Controller
Corsair SP/AF120s


Parts En-Route:

XSPC D5 Photon 270 Reservoir/Pump Combo
EK Water Blocks EK-FC780 GTX Ti - Nickel
XSPC EX480 120mm Radiator - Black x 2
EK Water Blocks EK-Supremacy - Nickel
Corsair SP120 Performance Series High Pressure x 4
Koolance QD3 Male Quick Disconnect No-Spill Coupling, Compression for 10mm x 13mm
Koolance QD3 Female Quick Disconnect No-Spill Coupling, Compression for 10mm x 13mm
Koolance QD3 Male Quick Disconnect No-Spill Coupling, Male Threaded G 1/4 BSPP
Mayhems X1 Clear Premixed Watercooling Fluid 1L
Primochill Primoflex Advanced Tubing 13/10 - Clear
EK Water Blocks EK-PLUG Fitting G1/4 - Plexi
EK Water Blocks EK-CSQ Fitting 10/13mm G1/4 - Black
BitFenix Alchemy Molex Extension Adaptor 45cm - Black

Parts To Get:
Tube cutter
Distilled Water
Funnel
#6-32 Thread Tap and #36 Drill bit

Pictures

Build as it currently stands

1 x Dead H100

Basement Prepped. That is installtion of the 480 mounting brackets and gutting of all un-used parts. 3 x Lower HDD Caddy Slides / 2nd PSU Rest / Second HDD Caddy / Lower Front Bay 120MM Fan Brackets

Single remaining HDD Caddy (Hotswap one) relocated to upper front position

Pictures of the Lamptron FC2 and Superflower Leadex

Problems

The Superflower Leadex - It only ships with a SINGLE 3 x Molex Plug cable. This presents 2 problems. You only have 3 available Molex power points out of the box. Those 3 points are all in close proximity to each other. This has left me ordering Molex extension leads in order to run Molex to 3 very distinct locations. That being Lamptron FC2, Watercooling Pump, ASUS Xonar STX. All 3 extensions will run to behind the motherboard tray and connect to the cable managed 3 x Molex PSU lead there. That will be my Molex connectivity saturated without using 1 into X converters or somehow sourcing another Superflower Molex PSU lead - Where from?!?!

The Loop and Drain Line Idea

Loop design is pretty standard. An upper and lower 480, a Res/Pump combo and a single GPU and CPU Block to link in. Loop will most likely run as follows:

PumpRes Combo > GPU > CPU > Upper 480 > Lower 480 > PumpRes Combo.

I've been careful to ensure that the lower rad Upper port will connect to the Res Input to ensure that it can bleed properly. From everything that I have read the most common advice is that loop order makes no difference and it should be designed to ensure minimum tube length. That's what I have gone for here. Any pointers if I have made an obvious mistake or will compromise performance please do shout!


Additionally I want a hassle free loop. As a result a drain line was necessary. OcUK have no stock for making T-Lines or otherwise so I felt I want to go for something a little more fancy. Not cheap, not super expensive but worth it for the ease of use (hopefully). The idea is to run a G1/4 Male QDC in the Lower 480 Bottom port. This will connect to the Upper 480 Output via tube with a Female Compression QDC at the end. This will mate with the lower 480 in the basement of the 900D, right next to the basement door opposite the lower 480 - plenty of room here! The drain loop will be installed by de coupling the loop QDCs and then attaching another separate Female Compression QDC to the lower 480 Male QDC - A length of tubing with nothing on the other end will serve as the drain line out of the side of the case. In my mind it should work, it's hard to explain in words but hopefully when the kit arrives and is installed pictures will clear it up.

Next steps
Removal of H100 / Preparation of CPU Surface
Removal of 780Ti Stock Cooler / Preparation of GPU Surface
Identify mounting point for Photon 270 Res/Pump Combo and investigate possibility of tapping 6-32 thread into the Motherboard tray for direct attachment via screw.
Flush Radiators with Distilled Water
Installation of Blocks/Flushed Rads
Testing proposed Tube route and Drain Line
Final assembly/leak testing

 

[Sin_Chase]

Hmm, did some more research.

- 1x 20+4-Pin ATX12V/EPS12V
- 1x 8-Pin EPS12V
- 1x 4+4-Pin ATX12V/EPS12V
- 8x 6+2-Pin-PCIe
- 10x SATA
- 5x 4-Pin-Molex
- 1x Floppy
- Warranty: 5yr

Description is a little misleading. There are 2 more Molex connections but they are hidden on a SATA power cable!

So you get 5 total across 2 cables.

 

[Sin_Chase]

I'd put that PSU rest back in as it will help your lower 480 rad line up with the screw holes on the mounting bracket (you have screwed this in place too?). They really could have done with supplying three of the PSU's rests as it would have made installing my lower 480 much easier as with a support at both ends all the mount points would have lined up perfectly.

Bracket is screwed in yes. As for the PUS rest, not sure the EX (Slimmer) rads will even reach that far into the case. Will investigate when parts arrive and if it will help then will throw it back in.

 

[Sin_Chase]

All went well, no leaks, everything bled nicely.

No post. 780Ti is dead. 680 works in same slot, systems posts ok so that rules out CPU/Mobo/Memory.

Have never had an issue changing out a reference cooler before now. The one time it decides to kill something it kills a 780Ti.

Project on hold till GPU replaced!

(Unless there is something quirky about 780Tis and fitting waterblocks I don't know about - Doubtful though )

 

[Sin_Chase]

EK recommendation of star method is bad, spread is bad and simply puts too much TIM on. Although the enclosed TIM is ALLEGEDLY non electrically conductive I'm not sure how much I can trust that statement. It's Gelid GC Extreme which, according to spec, should not be electrically conductive.

Did 2 reseats of the water block, same result.

Put reference blower cooler back on, 100% fan speed on power up, system posts but no display output. Definitely dead. Double annoying as it was a decent clocker.

Best part of £470 down the pan, which could have been a whole new Haswell CPU/Mem/Mainboard. Oh well

Will write up the build log pictures tomorrow whilst I wait for Mr DPD to bring a new GPU

 

[Sin_Chase]

Querying that with OcUK. MSI allows for cooler removal, but whether an RMA/Warranty investigation will occur is unknown at the moment. Seems unlikely though.

If OcUK don't want it back it'll go in the bin. Maybe I'll try oven bake it first should that be the case

Also, opened this thread:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18565977

Curious to know why what I think are coils that do not need cooling are the subject of thermal pads in the EK guide AND do not appear to make any contact with the block.

 

[Sin_Chase]

Sure, have a sneak preview with a little Xmas cheer in the background

Unfinished of course:

The 900D is a lovely case to work with. Had no issues at all with routing of tubing, but am going to throw some 45 Deg fittings in to ease some of the routes. I'm only using 10/13mm tubing and some places might be prone to kinking, would be careful with larger ID/OD tubing depending on your intended route or go for something with a thicker wall.

 

[Sin_Chase]

New GPU arrived, block installed and all working.

Can finally mess around! Then finish the Project Log after

Sneak Preview - Idle Temps

A quick as you like 1219 Core 3649 mem heaven 4 Run.

Max recorded GPU temp - 34 Deg C. Giggling like a schoolchild to say the least.

Need food now though!

 

[Sin_Chase]

Any reason you didnt go for thicker rads? it looks a bit lost up there.

Combination of stock availability and research.

Primarily I want a quieter system. The EX series is optimised for slower RPM fans, uses split fin design and at lower RPMs performs just as well as thicker rads.

Thicker rads get better performance with higher RPM but marginally so. From everything I could lay my hands on to read rad thickness actually makes little difference to loop performance.

Aesthetically thicker rads might have filled the case up more but not by much.

Performance wise I could not have asked for more. Cannot get the CPU above 58 Deg C (Hottest Core) even in synthetic stress tests and not seen the GPU go above 38.

Will write up the log today I think!

 

[Sin_Chase]

Ok, so, the rest of the project log!

Pre-Work Stuff

Decent Tools. Halfords Pro set has been totally invaluable. Best £100 I spent!

Partsssss, not a big a pile as some people as I have most of what I need hardware wise.

Radiator Flushing

I spent some time in many different shops looking for Distilled Water. Must have been into 5 or 6 Pharmacies and 3 hardware stores, the most I could find was de-ionised water. Finally, in an old-school chemist I found what I needed. Couple of quid for 2 x 5L bottles. A recurring theme in my purchasing decision is "Rather too much than not enough" As such 10 Litres it was!

Was going to use the kettle to boil but the amount of crap which builds up on the elements looked rather incompatible with a clear flush. Decided to boil it up in a nice clean pan. I flushed both radiators 3 times in total. My process was:

Fill rad to brim.
Plug Up
Shake it like Polaroid Picture
Half Empty
Shake again
Empty

Boiled.

Filled.

First Empty Debris.

Not too bad at all. The second flush netted far less debris, and the third was crystal clear.


Continued Case Prep

Cards/PSU removed.

Dead H100 Out.

H100 TIM Spread, not too bad. German Shepard Hair included!

CPU out and cleaned.

900D ships with all required motherboard stand-offs installed. Will get in the way of my tube res, so removed.

CPU and Block

CPU reinstalled with block backplate installed. I found, as with all custom CPU cooling solutions, that the instruction guide is wanting. Backplate orientation is not very clear/detailed in places and some guesswork is involved. 2 sets of stand-off screws are included. One for Socket 2011 and the others for everything else. Not distinguished on the part or in the guide. Have to squint eyes and work it out based on how much of the bolt is threaded and what length. Would be nice to see a 'Parts Included' section with labels and detailed pictures.

CSQ Block assembled with EK Compressions.

Blob method TIM application.

Please remove indeed. I'm not ashamed to admit I have left this barrier on before for a Heat sink application....it was totally clear! Honest.

Shiny....

..but not entirely perfect, no escaping the camera flash!

Installed, clean! Might need to get me some subtle LED lighting for the block. Thumbscrews have lockouts which is a nice touch. Also like how the bolt is obscured by the hollow on the thumbscrew itself.
Can just see the SP140 on the left acting as 900D rear exhaust, coloured ring is removed currently.

GPU and Block

The required T6 Torx Bit.

As sexy as the reference cooler is, off with yah. Standard thermal pads and a pretty decent TIM spread, compared to some I have seen.

EK supplied thermal pads. There were lines in the protective film but I could not get them to separate, could not tell if they were pre-cut...so I cut them along those lines anyway.

SKhynix VRAM modules.

Cleaned up and pads applied.

EK 780Ti FC block installed.

Res/Pump Combo

The Photon 270 with D5. Cables could use a braid and it would have been nice to see this out of the box for a product of this price/quality. For me not such an issue as I will be mounting the lower out of site. Seen next to the it is the removed rubber cable grommets from case in the location the Photon will go.

Where to put it.......

HERE! I was going to go for the drilled holes and bolted attachment. In the end I decided to KISS (Keep it simple stupid) and went with Velcro. Rated for 25KG and cheap, reversible and easy to install. Once that tube is on it is VERY VERY VERY hard to pull off. As you can see the pre-installed motherboard stand-offs were going to foul this placement. The tube clears the cable management clips however.

and stuck on:

Rad Install

480 with SP120s up top. Fans pulling from inside the case and exhausting out top. Not making use of the top air filter drawing in but wanted to work with natural convection rather than against it.

480 with SP120s down below, on the windowed side of 900D. Pulling air from outside of the case/filter and out the other side. Note: the compression fitting installation seen on the base of the res will change:

Tubing

Photon Output to GPU Input:

GPU Output to CPU Input:

Very quickly decided to soften the tubing ends with boiled water. Without doing so it's very hard to get them over the compressions fully. Also seen to the left is my rubber PSU noise/vibration dampener. How effective it is? No idea. but for £3 is worth a punt. Sits between the case and PSU when bolted on, a little thin though.

Tubing finished. CPU Output to Top 480, Top 480 down back of motherboard tray to Bottom 480 then back up to Photon Input (with revised fitting placement)

Tube down the back of the motherboard tray. Cable tied down and fed to the Lower 480. The Lower 480 is orientated so that the fittings are at the front of the case. Be careful not to tighten the cable ties too tightly as it will pinch the tubing. Can also see the 2 into 1 3 Pin fan cabling that runs back to the Lamptron FC2 Fan Controller. Each rad has 2 banks of 2 x Fans into 1 Controller Channel. 2 front mounted 120MM fans and the single rear 140MM into 1 Controller Channel each. 4 channels dedicated to rads, and 1 each for the front/rear fans.

Filling/Leak Test

Polyroll to the rescue. Lots of! PSU left outside of the case to be extra careful.

Funny, loads of my packages came with PSU Bridging Tools! Stripped cable tie with bent over ends, works fine! Lack of coloured wire makes this interesting though. Had to pull up a 24 Pin ATX Wiring diagram and work out which pins to short.

Liquid Coolant! The Mayhems bottles are perfect for filling the res using the nozzle ends. The Photon has anti turbulence baffles at both ends, if you fill too fast with a funnel you are asking for troubles with spillage. The fine stream and controlled pouring the Mayhems nozzle provides is ideal.

Mhhhm, glass.

The system bled pretty quickly but had some trouble spots. Most notably the GPU block and the upper section of the CPU block. Moving around a full 900D is a workout in itself but eventually can get the bubbles to clear, the major ones anyway. I found bleeding the rest of the systems first before trying to work out those CPU block ones the best way. The Photon res is not the best in helping with bleeding. The lower baffle can sometimes trap bubbles which then get moved straight back out of the Output of the pump.

QDCs and Drain Lines

On the left is the front of the case. Here you can see the Female Koolance QDC3 on the end of the rear of motherboard tray tubing. In the background you can see the Male G1/4 threaded QDC3 direction in the Lower 480 Rad in the bottom most fitting thread. Once these two are disconnected I can connect my drain line to the lowest point of the loop in the rad, and from tubing run behind the motherboard tray.

One of the drain lines with the sexy sexy QDC3s.

Lower Rad QDC3 Threaded fitting close up. Illustrates why the front lower 120MM case fan and brackets needs to be removed.

Oww my back

Sound Card and Capture card re-installed and case MANHANDLED(TM) back to it's home on the desk. Cheap and cheerful but effective additional noise dampening is seen under the case feet. Some power tool sound/vibration dampening mat cut up and placed under.

Bubbles still slowly working their way out.

Wanted a way to keep an eye on my loop levels to make sure I am not losing coolant somewhere. Packing Tape Coolant Level Meter, Patent Pending.

And a couple of complete shots, The Man Corner.

 

[Sin_Chase]

I'm not a fan of lighting. But I think I just have to put some white LEDs in the GPU and CPU blocks.

 

[Sin_Chase]

Quick Heaven 4 Benchy.

1270 Core and 3746 Memory. Max GPU temp 40 Deg C. Happy with that.

 

[Sin_Chase]

Buttons up top, or push F9 to benchmark?

The real time FPS meter is not the same as the benchmark FPS, which is a calculated average.

 

[Sin_Chase]

Yes, lose top optical bay, for a full length device but my Fan controller still clears.

If you wanted to drills holes for the res you could drill 4 in total should you wish, but would likely get away with 2. I drilled no holes.

I bought the sticky back velcro from B&Q, turns out the width I bought was perfect for the res mounting plate.

 

[Sin_Chase]

Some braided cables ad coloured coolant will add some great looks to this build

Cheers, holding off on committing to any colour yet. I might upgrade from the 2600k once Haswell-E makes an appearance. Then would be the time to possibly go from neutral to a coloured scheme depending on what hardware I get then.

 

[Sin_Chase]

Do you actually need the fans running with 2 x 480's

Dunno, not tried passive yet

 

[Sin_Chase]

Was it difficult to fill that reservoir, did you use a funnel and tubing?

There is a baffle at the top so the actual opening beyond the fill port is much smaller. If you use a big funnel into the fill port and pour too much it will just over flow. I used the very fine opening of the Mayhems Premix bottles and it was fine. The bottle gives fine control of flow itself and the fine tip just made life easier.

Took my time and had plenty of kitchen roll scattered around the res.

I think you would find it hard to do with a funnel in all honesty. There is only a few MM of available space from the top of the fill port and the start of the baffle. You can get adapters that turn the M20 (I think?) threaded fill port into a G1/4 so you could in theory attach tubing on a fitting directly then fill with tube + funnel.

Edit - One of these:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-264-XS

 

[Sin_Chase]

Today I swapped out my analogue Lamptron FC2 for an Aquacomputer Aquearo LT. Oh dear.....I started at 10am, knowing full well it was going to require a few hours. Initially I felt the passive heatsink was enough, but decided that rather than have to re-do work should it not be - I got the waterblock instead.

As part of the Aquaero LT and the waterblock I got the following addons:
RGB LED Module
5.25" Mounting Kit
G/14 Temp Sensor

The first job was plugging in the Aquaero alone over USB and 1 - Ensuring it was not DOA and 2 - On latest firmware.

With that done the next job was stripping out the current Lamptron and draining the loop. All easy enough. Dusted out the case. Then realised that since the initial custom loop the fans on my lower 480 rad have been pulling air from the case and pushing it outside....DOH! Quick reverse of fans and that was sorted.

I then physically installed the block/fittings and mounting kit on the Aquaero and found a suitable position, checked all cabling reached and then fixed it in.

I decided that for my water temp sensor I did not want to fix it to any blocks or radiators directly. I felt the radiation of heat from those items themselves would increase what the water temp actually was. Instead I opted to install on the return port of my Photo pump/res combo.

The G1/4 water temp sensor is very simple, but the o-ring comes separably in the bag and it seemed a little too big and loose once put on the thread.....I was initially suspicious of this part...more on that later.

New tubing was run to integrate the Aquaero into the loop and all the sensors placed. I've got the following configuration:

Channel 1 - Intake Fans
Sensor 1 - Temp probe on intake

Channel 2 - Lower Rad Fans
Sensor 2 - Temp probe on external of Lower Rad

Channel 3 - Upper Rad Fans
Sensor 2 - Temp probe on external of Upper Rad

Channel 4 - Exhaust Fan
Sensor 4 - Temp probe for ambient internal case

Sensor 5 - G1/4 inline water temp probe

RGB illumination module inserted into Photon tube res


Everything installed, cables tidied - Leak test time! Filled the loop and started leak testing. The position of the Aquaero in the drive bays leaves VERY LITTLE room to work. It's hard to see and hard to tighten fittings. This was my primary focus of attention for leaks. It was going to be hard enough to see even if there was one. Happily all appeared fine, dry kitchen roll + no feel of water on a fingertip test = good times. I left the loop running for a good 10 minutes while visually checking for leaks.

Leak......return port of the tube res....balls. Mopped it up with paper towel, initial thought was it was some beaded water left over from swapping fittings around for the inline temp sensor. once dry kept an eye on it...water egress....definite leak! My initial concerns about the inline temp sensor and it;s o-ring arrangements had been realised.

Drained loop again (THANK GOD I use quick disconnects for this) inline temp sensor removed. I crossed my fingers and hoped it was just a bad fit between res and sensor and that a different configuration would be suitable. I put my EK compression 45 Deg fitting directly into the res, THEN the inline water sensor and finally another EK regular compression fitting after to attach tubing. Tightened up and re-filled.

Hurrah...no leaks. I am not sure why the inline sensor leaked here but I suspect it's the less than perfectly flat surface afforded by the Photon tube res. The compression threads/o-rings fit snugly in the somewhat recessed area of the res. The inline sensor is much happier attached to other fittings and, I suspect, would have been fine on a radiator or large flat area block. Something to keep in mind if you plan on using one!

With the system back up and running I spent some HOURS messing with the Aquacomputer Aquasuite. Oh my, what a LOVELY piece of software. I have configured a number of software sensors to pull in CPU and GPU temps and also some virtual sensors which average out my CPU and 2 x GPU temps.

I have configured a fan curve for my Intake/Exhaust fans based on temp reported by the ambient case sensor. Another fan curve is configured on the average temp reported by the CPU+GPUs virtual sensor - this controls my 8 radiator fans in isolation of the case fans.

The RGB illumination module is hooked up to my Water temp values and the threshold temps set. I might need to play with these thresholds but so far they seem good.

Low (Blue) 25 Deg C
Optimal (Green) 35 Deg C
High (Red) 40 Deg C

The RGB module works lovely, and transitions between colours with some amount of radiance, rather than fixed solid colours. It also blinks red in colour when there is an Alarm on the system - Be that temp, fan speed or whatever other warning you configure. Very sexy stuff.

The overview pages take a little while to get to grips with, but once you crack it then you will be throwing meters and graphs out like a pro. once configured I was very pleased to learn that you can overlay it onto your desktop, mine is now affixed to my secondary monitor alongside my Rainmeter arrangement.

All in all, many hours, not the cheapest of solutions but VERY VERY powerful, customisable and best of all - Badass.

I am glad I went for the LT. The front panel display just seems all bling. I do not see the point of faffing with a hardware touchscreen/buttons when the software is so powerful and fully featured. Stealth hardware install with full software control/automation - Excellent.

Some pictures of the Aquasuite software:

Spoiler

Installed in the drive bay, can just about see the copper block! Very messy...but completely hidden
Surprised how much discolouration the Primochill Advanced LRT has sustained. Very noticeable when you put next to fresh tubing!

Photon Res > 45 Deg Fitting > in-line water temp sensor > standard fitting. Leak free config.

Money shots!

Back to a totally clean 900D. I must admit, I never, ever used the manual controls of the LC2....too much hassle. Automation is king

Video of the Res with RGB module. The changes are very quick as I set it to CPU Temp and ran Intel Burn Test, just to demonstrate. Normally the change is far slower/subtle with more gradient points

 

[Sin_Chase]

I should also mention, I had a huge hardware refresh some time ago but never put it here.

Basically a 4970k and 2 x 780Tis on a Gigabyte Z87X-OC now