Project: Whoops did i just spend that.....

[bigdave2k9]

Greetings.....

Long time lurker, random poster....
I did a quick user search and couldnt find my build log from years and years ago as a comparison to what im building now..

Where did this project come from?

Well it initally started with me buying just one 980ti Classified around crimbo, it lasted about 5hrs... **popped** sigh.. I did think at first it was my motherboard, as it is 4 year old, i thought the new card had quickly finished it off.. That's when i started looking at components in the OCuk store, i started compiling a basket of parts to replace it all, chatted with some of you nice folk.. eventually had a nice new build in mind...
Given i'd found out that it was the card that died and not my motherboard, i was a little gutted, i wasnt getting a new build.. 2 weeks later i said stuff it, i'm having a new build.. the moneys there so why not.. i spend it or the wife does lol

What parts have i chosen?


Case - Corsair 900D
PSU - EVGA SuperNova P2 1200W, 80 Plus Plantium
Mobo - Asus Rampage V Extreme
CPU - Intel i7 5930k (Haswell)
RAM - 32GB Corsair Dominator Platium 8x4GB @ 3000mhz
GPU - 2x EVGA 980ti Hydro Copper
M.2 SSD - Samsung 950 Pro, 512GB
SSD - 2x Samsung 250GB 850 EVO
Cable Mod's Black and Red
Windows 10 Pro 64 bit.
12x Corsair SP120 Fan's

Water Loop:
EK-FB ASUS R5E Monoblock - Nickel
EK-RES X3 250
EK-XTOP Dual DDC 3.2 PWM (incl. 2x pump)
EK-XTOP Dual DDC XRES Upgrade Florian Link
2x EK-CoolStream XE 480 (Quad)
EK-AF FillPort G1/4 - Black Nickel
EK-DDC Heatsink Housing - Nickel

ColdZero Case Parts:
900D Mid Plate
900D Back plate with fan cut out
900D ATX Motherboard Cover
900D Back plate for a double hard drive cage
900D Side Cover with mountings for 2 SSD's


You will notice that there are various parts missing from this list, ie: piping, fittings, fluid... I'll be choosing them at a later date once i have things in place..

I do, need to give a big shout to KillSwitch73, who's build log of Project MSI Osiris gave me sufficient information and ideals to go about building my own. https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18695930&highlight=900D

What am i aiming to achieve?

I'm after at the bare minimum, a 1440p machine with some damn good FPS.. If i can go into the realm of 4K then let it be..
I've build 5 water cooled pc's in 10 years.. not a lot i know, but with each build, my knowledge has grown and how adventurous i get increases.. This one given the scale of things to do, will be my most adventurous one to date.

Incoming hardware.... This is kinda graphic..

Spent a good chunk of today working on the case, removing parts i dont require, fitting all the panels from ColdZero. I havnt uploaded the photos of test fitting the rad yet, but they will come on the next update, as i'm trying to work out where would be the best place for me to cut a hole to fit the fill port, without it being in the way..

Will be a lot more to come over the coming weeks... i say weeks, as there isnt overly a lot i can do in a 2 day window when im home lol

Hope i've caught your interest

 

[bigdave2k9]

Quite a parts list there. I felt the same when I built mine lol. When I realised how much in total I have spent so far .

I'd always go 144hz 1440p over 4k 60hz any day aswell. If your planning on either try both out and pick to your liking. If you havent already that is!

Good luck, Surely will be a very nice machine once finished .

I've not personally experienced either.
As it stands now, i have 3x 1080p monitors, which have prob never seen full 1080p, as my 7950 seems to stick around the medium - high settings..
I'm tempted to de-bezel them and stick with them a little longer.. but the Predator Z35 has my interest, i just keep hearing bad things about them, dead pixel, epic panel bleeding etc etc..
If the right monitor came up, i'd snap it up

Thanks for the mention and glad to have inspired you . I'm draining mine to swap the cards over as i need to put the 2nd card down to the 4th pcie slot to get the 16x/16x and not the 8x/8x . i might get a M.2 and stick that in too .

what you going to be using for fan control ?

A bit of warning , you be be removing those plates a hell of a lot as its such a pain fitting things down there and i went for soft tubing down by the pump and drilled a few holes for the pump and the hard drive cage . put some masking tape on the mid shelf if you dont intend on wrapping it as it scratches really easy and use a stepping drill to make your through ports on mid shelf as you know they feel brittle and really are brittle as i snapped 2 rear back plates lol . if you got any questions just give us a shout .

subbed

The fan i have, came out my present pc last year, i ended up lending it to my father in law, so need to ensure it works first >_>

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x NZXT Sentry LX LCD Fan Controller= £47.99

Total: £57.89
(includes shipping: £9.90)
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//img.overclockers.co.uk/media/image/thumbnail/CM000NX_6545_105x105.jpg
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Fingers crossed it still does.. Given i have 8 fan's between 2 rad's, i'd rather have a controller with nobs on >_> go on laugh it up lol...
I've had my eyes on a Corsair Link, but there triple priced over here, and i aint spending well over £100 on a controller..

Took me a whille to get them plates in, given the only one with some form of instruction was the mid plate and that was a youtube video they made..
Apart from the obvious places to screw them on, its been guess work, but i'm happy with how it looks.
Will agree on the brittleness, as i've manage to put a small crack in the large top plate that goes on the back of the mid plate, but its hidden and holding..
Masking tape is going on tomorrow once ive bought some, thought i had some, apparently not.
Ordered some more things from them last night, as i was happy with the initial order, quality is better than i expected..

Love it, and more so the thread title.

What monitor you going for?

The Asus Predator Z35 is tempting, but i keep reading bad things about it.. so i'm going to give it a little longer..

 

[bigdave2k9]

Only a small update, was late getting up, but hey what are day off's for

That moment when your still in the process of waking up, random things happen.... like fan towers and pryamids

Dont ask 0_o

Manage to secure the XK 480 rad in the top, and placed the motherboard in before the phone rang with the time i need to be at work today... So i left it at that.. Will be back at it on Wednesday

and had a nice final delivery this morning
What good is all the hardware without some quick storage at match.

 

[bigdave2k9]

Which PCI-E slots will you be using for your cards, 1 and 3?

Yup, slots 1 and 3. Which should give me x16 x16 in Sli..

Going to RAID those SSD's?

Indeed, got the M.2 for the OS, and the two 250Gb's will be in Raid, for all my games. With a couple of mechanical drives for everything else.


I got home Tuesday night, been working away for the last two days, got tomorrow to go then another update coming along before i go again

 

[bigdave2k9]

Back once again XD

Had a nice two days marking, cutting, wrapping, assembling... with the standard issue swearing and tantrums to suit..

Was in two minds weither or not to take a dremel to a £300 case, but took it to it anyway.. and i'm rather happy with the results. Just needs a wee bit more to finish it off..
Need to go and find my jiffy bag full of fan hole gasket, to tidy up some of the cut's i've made, so i know they will never cut any of the wires that will be running...
And yes, i'll permit you to call me a case butcher... i kind felt bad as it is a well made case..

Started off with some hardware fitting, given it was early hours, from past experience i've come to realise its never good to disturb sleeping beauty.. **cough** the wife.. to early.. it aint worth the hassle.

The only issue i have, is the fact that everything is untested.. i dont physically have the means to test this until its built..

Wasnt overly impressed with the original heatsink, i did expect the copper pipe to be a little stronger than it was.. was hoping to pull it out of the other block put it had other ideas...

Given the living dead had now risen, i could safely let the butchering commence..

My aim was to cut and fit the fill port, extend a couple of the original case holes, to allow for piping and cables to be routed without the use of multipul extenders. Relocate the USB panel from the top down 2 bays to allow for the fill port.. Cut a couple of little tab's out so the washers and nuts can go on the screws for the res without me having to find and order longer screws.
Overall a good day, everything complete.

A bit of masking tape to help mark up..

After butchering.. round 1.

Slap bang infront of the original hole is the rad and fan's. meaning it needed extending 25mm to allow me to run the flexi pipe from the fill port down the back of the case..

Another hole extended, as i didnt want to use extenders on the fan cables to take it to the fan hub im going to be fitting.

Two little notches, where the washers need to be.. A quicker alternative to spending more money..

Moving on to the fill port... Had multipul ideas on where to situate this.. this one was the more complicated idea, but i think its going to have the best effect and its easy access..

I think that looks rather well

Due to the fillport going on the front, i had to relocate the usb panel. I moved it down two slots, to allow for a 90 degree bend to be fitted to the fill port.

Had to take a little bit of one of the covers, so it sat flush against the fill port.

Connected up some of the original holes on the bay, to feed the cable bundle through.. This will be getting gasketed up, so safety and presentation..

I dont think it looks to bad at all... Only require my fan controller and blue ray drive.. I might put water temp readers into one of the upper panels but thats for another day..

Took another delivery this morning... Ordered this while i was away working, it had been plaguing me for days about wrapping the panels.. So i ordered some black brushed aluminium wrap so it all matched the case.

Spent most of this evening wrapping the panels... To say i've never wrapped anything in my life.. no bubbles so im impressed.

Well its early hours now, so im going to call it a night... Tomorrow i'll be re-cleaning the case, to remove any last pieces of debre. Fitting the panels, and hopefully getting some components into the case..

Thanks for reading

 

[bigdave2k9]

Great job with the wrapping on the pannels, they look like they were manufactured like that. Also how was the process of wrapping the pannels?

Also nice work on the fill port as it appears to be dead center (At least thats what my OCD tells me) and it fits rather nicely from what I can see in the photos. Again it looks as if it was designed when the case was made

Wrapping the panels was a lot easier than what i expected it to be, ive seen and heard people go on about bubbles of trapped air and creases, i can say i had one crease which i managed to get out.. it prob comes down to the wrap itself.
I just cut the wrap 1 inch bigger all around the item i was wrapping, pealed the backing of slightly, and used a clean dry dish cloth to smooth it whille slowly pulling the backing off..

The results speak for themself.

A wee update, its been a few weeks.. Had to slow down a little, the joys of being self employed, works slows down the funds slow down..
It dosnt help, suppliers cant get the parts in i need to progress nor can they seem to provide a date to when they will arrive..

I started off playing with my water pump.. I bought the twin pump, so i have a redundant if one goes down.. Choose the "upgraded" nickle bottoms to help get rid of the heat as i know these can run rather warm.

As in the last update i mentioned gasket.. took a whille to find but i knew i had some, some where..

Looks a lot cleaner, and no chance of the wires being damaged now.

Top rad back in, 140AF Corsair fan in the back, 2x 120AF Corsair fans in the front intake.

The bottom rad had me scratching my head a little, as it dictates where i put my drain valve.. I've seen a lot of builds where they fit the rad so everthing comes out the back.. I'm special so i've done mine to the front

I've positioned mine to the front, as i've 4 fans pushing air in from side, i wont be requiring a bottom front fan, as that will only cause air turbulance..

So rad facing forward, means more access to do everything as i dont have to keep it compact with a PSU mear inch away..

I've bought a piece of acrylic, i'm going to fashion a blanking plate out of and mount the ball valve into it.

Now then a few simple pictures, i put aload of the hardware in.. to try and move things along..

I did plan on putting the last two fans i had in the base to help draw the air out of the case..

but due to the lever of vibration that the pumps give of, i've been advised to screw them down in the bottom instead of one the mid shelve. So i took them back out again..

The remainder of my res parts finally appeared of EKWB..

So res assembled, and seals tested for leaks..

This where i left it just over a week ago..

You would think, its nearly done
Thats not the case..

I had a build request come to me, nothing fancy, ordered and built within a couple of days.. Used the usual Artic Silver thermal paste.. never had an issue with temp's.. but the temps on the build were high, so i re-did it with Arctic Cooling MX-4, and the temps were a lot better, guess where else i had used the same compound.... my build.. So i need to re-move the mono-block and re-do the compound before i can do anymore..
I then found out that the fan hub i wanted to use, will not allow me to do what i required, so i've bought the gear to extend the cables, so i need to remove both rad's and extend all the cables, sleeving them all at the same time.. Pictures all to follow on the next update.

Last but not least.. some more EKWB goodness..

 

[bigdave2k9]

A small update.

I've not forgot about this thread.. Just ran into a supply issue.

To complete all the pipe work, i require 6 of these fittings:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

• 1 x EK Water Blocks EK-AF Angled 90 Degrees G1 / 4 inch - Black nickel= £5.99

Total: £13.38
(includes shipping: £7.39)
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OCuk has none, EKwb has none. ETA's come and go and stock dosnt appear..

As soon as i get these parts, there will be another update It's gutting just looking at it in the corner feeling sorry for itself.. Its screaming use me..

 

[bigdave2k9]

Apart from having my last run cancelled on me this week, making it a nice 4 day weekend

I also come home to find these beauties sat here waiting for my arrival....

So guess what im off to do for the next 2-3ish days..

If time permits, i'll update prior to going back out to work, if not will be a weeks time.

 

[bigdave2k9]

A small update, bits and bobs done last week, been working on it today... swearing at the pipe bending.. ordered more pipe... these bends take practice.. and lots of extra pipe..

Started off last week doing the flexi pipe work for the fill port, so i could get the front re-assembled, and if i had to cut anything else i didnt have to re-move as much..

Out came the drill, pilot hole then stepped drill bit, then first problem..
The hole came out lovely, right size with a little extra space for a bit of movement to help line parts up..

Only issue was that i couldnt fit the retaining ring on the back side of it, due to the initial case being in the way of the threads.. so out came the dremel to win the battle..

battle won, and through port fitted..

90 degree fitting fitted to the back, as there is no room for pipe otherwise, i checked that the back of the case still fitted, and it does... just.
another 90 degree on the fill port, and 2x ekwb compression fittings with the PrimoChill piping.

I'm not a lazy person, but i've done builds that have used bay res's and to put it simply, i think there a pain in the arse... The theory here fill up through the fill port and drain out of the drain port.. simple, no taking the front off, sliding the res out and all that hassle.. unless you want to get in there and give it a good clean..

Two more pass through's in the mid plate, to allow the coolant from the res down to the pump and rad, and one to allow the cooled coolant up to the GPU's

Test fitting the dual pump, prior to drilling the base of the case to allow me to screw it down securely to stop any noise whille in use..

I did end up moving the pump and re-drilling the holes, as when i came to connect the fittings and pipe work up, the sharpness of the angle caused the pipe to compress..

Drainage port and one of the two temp sensors in place..

Now it started to get interesting again, i went back to the PETG pipe work, i managed to get all but 2 of the pipe's done, as both these pipes are over 300mm i only got 1 per length and i messed them both up and its multipul bends.. If you have any pointers i'd love to hear them..

Last one, need to decide where to fit the lcd read outs for the two water temp sensors that are in the loop. I dont want them in the front, as the case is going to be in an angle they wont be in sight of where i will be sat..

More to come shortly, aswell as some extra pictures from a little side project..

 

[bigdave2k9]

That pipe work to the graphics and to top rad is a carbon copy of mine like and the pump lol .

Unfortunately so, i looked at doing it in the reverse order, running a flexi line up the back into a 90 degree and through port, then realised it would affect the cables, causing them to overlap.. meaning i couldnt get the case panel back on..
I got the twin pump, as i have had a pump fail on me in the past, which nearly did take the system out with it..(which is why when i did a i5, it ran on air) but that it also why i bought a visual means of watching if the coolant is flowing as a 3rd back up. (pic to follow)

Credit where credit is due, that route of piping is the most efficient and less invasive way.

This build is looking good
I was just wondering though, how hard is it to drill through the acrylic and fit the pass through ports to make sure they fit in with your tube runs as it looks much better and I plan on doing a similar style with my new build.

Keep up the great work and I look forward to more updates

An absolute doddle mate, a small pilot hole so you have your centre, then using a stepped drill bit, gradually work the hole bigger until the port fitted nicely.

Looking good but I'm trying to work out why you didn't move the pump further back. You'd lose the 90 degree bend, the curved pipe and you'd come through the mid plate in the right place to go straight up to the graphics card. Is something going to occupy that space? Pipe looks good though - especially like the route from top graphics to rad.

I'll have to pass on that one, what you see there apart from the psu cables, is what is going there. I think i did it, based on what looked right, kink free piping and room to work on it if required..


Update:

More piping have been aquired, and got a nice 3 day bank holiday, hopefully will get all the piping in place ready for leak testing.

 

[bigdave2k9]

nearly a month between posts... ouch!

Long story short, worked away for two weeks, had a day and two nights at home, then ended up in A&E with pains, landed myself on the emergency surgery table... epic!

My father in-law was nice enough to nip by yesterday and lift the tower back onto the table so i can crack on with it whille im layed up recovering..

anyway the build! it goes one...

First of all the last few bits have arrived, i now have everything! The only thing i forgot to photo was the 3 packs of extra pipe, which i think im definetly going to need..

Finally found a new fan controller i liked. Went with the NZXT Sentry.
A Barrow flow meter for a visual fail safe.
2x XSPC led displays for the water temp..

Ended up kitting myself out with a lot of electrical gear, i went looking for some braided fan cable extensions to connect 2x fans per channel and came up empty handed due to the length i require, so i'll be making my own.

Right then, you know where im upto, PETG piping.
This has to be the hardest thing i've done in along time, it makes getting my class 1 licence look easy XD

First thing i did, was re-fit my RAM and swap the 90 degree pipe and fittings around, as it just would not go with the RAM in place.
As you can see by this picture its tight even swapped around.

Found my mock up pipe from my last failed attempt at the next pipe, coming down the from rad into the monoblock..

a bit of faffing around and toasty fingers, i got it to go nicely..

Now things get interesting, and i would like people opinion on this, as im not convinced at all..
Looking at the next 3 photos, the pipe that comes out of the monoblock and goes into the res..

Surely there has to be an easier way than that...
I thought about coming up, 90 bend on the top going straight across then bending it back on itself straight into the res.. but i thought would that last bend cause the pump to work harder with it being a tighter bend..

If you have a suggestion, it is very welcome.

It isnt much but its progress, will be all done very soon
Will run it initially on de-ironised water before draining and filling with a more premium coolant.