Project: Was supposed to be a budget build...

[OC2000]

Project Now Completed.

My Goal for this project was to have a system that was moderately equipped to handle todays top games.

My initial thought was to buy a 1080 gtx and stick it in my htpc and be done with it. Unfortunately I quickly realised it would not fit so began planning out a new computer using my previous build.

However I decided on a new case as the Corsair 800D was old and heavily customised for my previous build.

Choosing the ThermalTake Core X9 I soon realised that all my old parts would be not suitable either, so pieced the following build together shown in the specs below, the majority was bought from overclockers, but some were from other vendors. I contemplated a Ryzen Build, but since this will be only for gaming I decided on the 7700K as I wanted something with decent options.

The Build:

Monitor: Asus ROG Swift PG348Q £999
Case: TT Core X9 - £110 or something
CPU: Intel 7700K 5.1 GHZ Pre-binned and tested by 8 pack -£799
Motherboard: Asus Maximus Extreme IX - £599
Ram: 32 GB Trident RGB 4133 Mhz - £53x
GFX: 2x Gigabyte 1080 Ti FE - £1498
HDD: 2x 1TB Samsung EVO 960 - £798
PSU: Corsair AX1200i - £31x
PSU Cabling: - $255
HTC Vive - £750
Additional HTC Vive Satellite for Room scale - £140

Total: £6753

Cooling:

Aquaero 6 XT
10x 120mm NZXT RGB AER
4x 140mm NZXT RGB AER
2x NZXT Hue+ Controllers
3x Splitty7 for fans
1x Splitty7 for Aquabus

Watercooling:

Pump - 2x Aquacomputer D5 w/ EK Dual Serial top
Reservoir - Aqualis 440 XT
1x HW Labs SR2 480 - Radiator
2x HW Labs SR2 360 - Radiators
Flow - Aquacomputer Hi Flow (old model)
16/11 Fittings - Thermaltake Pacific for Hard tubing
16/11 2x RGB TT Pacific fittings for hard tubing
TT PETG - Pacific Tubing
4 litres Diamond Ice Pastel + dyes (not sure if i will dye yet so will test with 1 litre Mayhems White Pastel)
2x Aquacomputer Kyrographics GPU Waterblocks with Active Backplate (when they get back in stock)

Other: The usual stuff

Tubing bending Kit
Heat gun
Soldering tools
4 pin parts to make cables
paranoid + sleeving


I received most of the water cooling parts a week or 2 ago and have begun building it. The main parts will be arriving tomorrow.

 

[OC2000]

My Progress so far:

The Case





I reversed it




Since I got parts in drips and drabs I unfortunately cannot display everything packaged neatly awaiting unboxing. I will do this though for the main parts arriving tomorrow.







Aquaero 6xt (left vs Aquaero 5Xt right)




I then drilled one hole for the reservoir (thats the only thing i needed to mod)



The Radiators:

I blitzed them for 12 hours then went through 6 litres of distilled water cleaning them out to get the PH neutral. Good thing I can make my own Distilled water!







Fans Arrived:

 

[OC2000]

Radiators installed





Small test with the RGB tubing

 

[OC2000]

Cabling is not the best with this case. The front is especially hard due to the complexity of the front panel. So Far so good though. The front panel closes and 90% of everything is in.



I used the top 5 1/4 bay for the aquaero 6 + 2x Hue+



This section will be concealed by the side fan plus rad. The window is on the other side.

 

[OC2000]

Yeah only packs of 6, each pack contains a controller, however 1 controller will support like 20 RGB fittings. Im finding them really difficult to put onto the tubes, however after destroying 2 of them I worked out that slightly heating them with a heat gun and gently inserting them to ensure contact with the o- rings works really well.

 

[OC2000]

Update:

PC Case is finished with a quick leak test. Great thing about this case is, it can be drained and taken apart in under 10 mins. Cabling though a different story...









My Parts have arrived today also, however still in the overclockers.co.uk box. No time to open it just yet. Will send a photo once opened.

 

[OC2000]

Update:

The Main Parts:



Still waiting on:

Sleeved Cables
GPU Waterblocks.

 

[OC2000]

Interesting, The water cooled M.2 is actually completely separate from the block.



I find it strange how Samsung put a sticker over the area that needs cooling though. Do you think this will hinder performance?

 

[OC2000]

Last update until the following arrives allowing me to complete the build.

- Sleeved Cables
- GFX Card water blocks

Still needs complete rigid tubing, sleeved cables and further optimisations including a proper theme. The loose cables are usb needed to configure Aquaero. Once configured they'll be removed.

 

[OC2000]

Looks really nice so far, I like the board water block better than the one on my formula which was a stupid design and needed the plastic hit with a dremmel to allow the fitting of the thermaltake standard fittings and the rgb fittings as the diameter was too big.

I have used the rgb fittings and didn't run into any problems, just wetted the o rings with a touch of spit and made sure the tube was internally coned.

Look forward to more pictures.

Edit... the pastel fluid really hinders the light from the rgb fittings on longer runs. I need another pack to light both ends of only one or 2 tubes. Maybe I can buy a spare single fitting on line at some point.

I think ill be using all mine up, ill be using 2 from Rad to CPU and GFX to Res, plus I destroyed 2 trying to put them on lol.

What is interesting though, which I may do to all the tubes. I bought some Acrylic polish to clean up scratches on 2 of the tubes using 2000 - 5000 sand paper. It leaves a cloudy coating on PETG afterwards which triples the light effectiveness. You can see it on the bottom left compared to the rigid tube connecting the Res to the pump. It good too, like a polished stone effect. I may experiment and do this on all the tubes.

I will also be experimenting with Dyed Pastels, since I would prefer not to use an LED strips, except maybe under the case.

Just waiting now for the Aquacomputer Krygraphics to come back in stock. I had originally pre ordered the Phanteks, however with the way this layout is positioned, it would have been pointless as you wouldn't see the RGB. I think the Active backplate will look a lot better than the stock backplate added to the Phanteks blocks.

 

[OC2000]

Had to RMA my AX1200i today due to coil whine. Drove me nuts. Really hope the next doesn't do this as I have ordered cables specifically for this model.

 

[OC2000]

My original idea was to have 4x 140mm drawing air in, however could only do 3 140s drawing air in and the back 140 now drawing air out due to a whine it caused sucking the air in. The plan now is to have the 120mms running at slowest speeds possible maintaining decent temps with the 140s running a bit faster to equalise the pressure. Whether it will work or not, i'll know later.

I'll only be running this at full speed for benchmarks, but everyday use, I'll be optimising for moderate overclocks at the lowest possible volts. Ideally under 1.3V for the 7700k 1.3 for the Ram and the GFX cards most likely at stock since i'll be limited to either a 60hz 4k monitor or 100 hz ultra wide 1440p monitor.

I unfortunately wouldn't know what a good or bad filter looks like so cant really comment there. Able to suggest what to look for in a good filter?

Cheers.

 

[OC2000]

Ah, yes it does except the rear exhaust, which is performing as one so I won't be putting one there.

 

[OC2000]

RMAed my AX1200i today due to coil whine when powered down. Replaced it with the 1500i as theres reported less problems with it, plus its newer and Titanium certified and should hold its fanless state longer due to its larger capacity (at least I hope it will).

Have also cancelled my sleeved cables as I have read para cord is not the best for PSU cables + the cable combs where not inline , and ordered some from Birmingham which are firmer and include inline cable combs. Will hopefully receive those before the end of the week.

 

[OC2000]

UPDATE:

Received the Corsair AX1500i. Tested and working great. No coil whine. The problem however, it doesn't fit the case!



Additionally the bracket to support the other end only goes unto 220mm.

So...

A quick fix to sort the above problem out



and simply removing the screws from the bracket and allowing it to sit freely (but firmly) solved the problems





The best thing, this PSU has also reduced the coil whine from the Graphics cards too. Well anything under 300 fps. Anything over it starts again. Testing 3D Mark 03 some of the tests reached 4000 fps which caused the highest pitched coil whine I've ever heard.

Gaming though will be mostly under 200 fps so there won't be any coil whine at all. Unfortunately with the Corsair AX1200i I got coil whine with the graphics cards the entire time.

 

[OC2000]

UPDATE:

Monitor arrived today



Quick setup





And a quick comparison next to my Dell 5k 27 inch monitor. Great to see exactly the same vertical dimensions. Nothing on the net was totally clear about this.



A quick check for dead pixels resulted in a 100% dead pixel free display.

Just finished testing the back light bleed now, It seems to be more inline with IPS glow which is normal. In any case this photo looks a lot worse that what it actually looks like, plus I don't use the computer in the dark, so it is 100% unnoticeable. Overall I'm very happy with this monitor and glad I won't need to be returning it. (Seen a lot of posts about people sending this and the ACER X34A back.)



Just waiting on 2 more sleeved cables (the 24 pin I bought was too short) and the new EK GTX 1080 ti water blocks with back plates. Oh and Alphacool 17w thermal pads to finish this build. It should all be arriving by the end of the week.

 

[OC2000]

Last Update this week.

Peripherals arrived too.

 

[OC2000]

r

...turns round and drops £800 on just a cpu

It was originally £445 for the 5.0ghz, then I read most get there, so thought, ok, i'll go the 5.1 pre bin for £599, and then lots of horror stories about bad performing ones and improperly delidded , so paid an extra £200 to get 8 pack to do a custom build, test and optimise to ensure I'd get a decent one without doing an RMA process. Worked out in the end, but as always the cost kept going up

 

[OC2000]

Last thing will be a new desk got a carpenter coming over today to measure up. Needs to fit this and my work PC on it.

 

[OC2000]

Update:

Graphics Water Blocks arrived, as did the 17w Thermal pads.

I have now added the blocks and routed them into the system. It is currently undergoing a Blitz 2nd stage for 24 hours before the loop is finally complete. Still waiting on 2 cables to complete the system. Will hopefully get those on Tuesday now unless they are lost in the post....

Graphics Card read for disassembly



Heat sink off and cleaned



Thermal Pads and a generous amount of Thermal Grizzly Paste added



Water Block Attached





And Now ready to be added to the system



First Tube added




Quickly tested and managed to sustain a 3D Mark Time Spy Score of 10086 (also managed a 10105, but iGPU was on) Temp never rose above 32C and sustained a 2101 mhz at +200 +500 using MSI afterburner. I have seen it go up to 2114 however it crashes passed +200.

Prior to water cooling the cards, the max I could get was brief peaks of 2050 mhz at +175 in Time Spy. with a score in the low 9000s. Temps would be hitting 70C+ with fans on 100%



With the quick test out the way, the PC is now going through a 24 hour Blitz stage 2 before I will consider the setup complete (minus 2 cables which seem to have gotten lost in the post.)



More to come tomorrow.