I did not initially plan to do a log so only took snaps here and there for my own benefit initially. I did not take the best of pictures throughout what has become a hobby or sorts, and an expensive one at that, so apologise in advance.
Anyways this is my adventure to complete my first build and first watercooling attempt as it goes. For some background info on this,I started planning this first build a few months back and initially put together whatever in terms of components really being a total noob. The first initial attempt at the build was only completed back in Mid-March centered initially around the NZXT 820 case (so big its ridiculous!) and a placeholder R9 280x while these mythical R9 300 cards come out to power the LG 34UC97-S.
Anyhows I put together the the key components for what lasted a total of 2 hours Which looked like:
However it seemed the GPU did not work properly so needed to be RMA’s. Fortunately this was the lats thing I brought so was still returnable. This is when things changed for the worse (at least for my wallet). While sending it back I came across the picture of the In Win Tou. Now bare in mind I still technically did not finish my first build, I knew I had to buy this case!.
However I knew some of my components such as the noctua cooler, and red MSI board would not go with this new buet so also like any sane person splashed out on buying new components.
This means effectively I have loads of duplicate parts which have been relegated and 1 day after taking the NZXT 820 out the box for the initial shot at my first build, its now back in the same box and in the garage taking up a majority of the space.
So I knew from the start that I needed to watercool the build so joined these lovely forums to get some information on drain ports etc, thanks for the help. Anyways its still work in progress but these are the parts to date:
Parts in build
Water Cooling components
Relegated parts - Parts I still own and were used for a sum of 2 hours
To be honest I could easily put something together and get a fully functioning second PC as most the parts are already there. so will see what I can do there
Okay so to start with Phase 2 of build one I received the case, its extremely hard to photograph a case which is essentially a mirror when its off so apologise for the awkward pics.
Next I drew up my my highly detailed masterplan for the case and was kindly informed how metal tubing works and need for a drain port which I ran through here for advice.
Next it was a matter of cracking on and receiving the parts:
Baby steps of putting the parts together and into the case to see how spacing and fittings worked.
Initial attempt with the 140 mm res at which point I realised a slighty larger 240 mm would look better. also for whatever sad reason one of my favourite parts is the mounting of the SSD's in the case. Its so simple yet my one of my personal highlight, but loved that once the stickers were of the SSD's they blended in perfectly with the case, mounted being the red.
Anyways it now comes down to cutting the pipe. This was absolutely brutal. I simply assumed the stuff would bend fairly easy having watched some videos and me being Popeye (
) it would be fine. Sadly I neglected to factor in the stuff I brought was Chrome plated copper pipe which seemed to make bending process ridiculously hard, well impossible really, I went out and brought some “heavy duty” tools from B&Q and still it would not bend! I am sure there are better tools, but could not faff around and elected to just buy a shedload more Bitspowered parts and use them rather then bends. Still happy with how it turned out, but very annoyed at my lack of research for this which made the whole water cooling part cost far more than expected. In hindsight I may have gone for Acrylic, but hay ho.
Also I found that using the pipe cutting tools and being chrome plated (the root cause issue) meant each cut took about 30 mins to do. In the end to cut all the pipes took me about a week as I was getting serious friction burns so the process was stretched out over a couple of weeks.
For the pipes I also had to cut them to size and freeze them so they would shrink ever so slightly and heat up the compression fittings as it was a very tight fit in most cases.
Anyhows it was a matter of slowly and methodically working, testing and trying the various parts for the best part of 2 weeks, trying to find the best way to route cables set up the watercooling etc. tweeking fittings etc:
After that, managed to get it to the current stage which I am happy with.
I used some of the chrome piping filled with soft sponge as a base of sorts for the d5 pump and it works fairly well.
My next plan is to create a PSU shroud which will stretch all the way along the bottom to compartmentalize the PSU, pump and drain port. At the moment as I say I am waiting on the R9 300 / 980Ti. but the current plan is to go crossfire / SLI, not sure if the 360 mm rad would be able to sufficiently cool the CPU and GPU??? That's the route I would like to take, but doubt 1 360 mm Rad can cool 1 CPU + 2 GPU's.
Anyways still some work to do over the next few weeks or so, but fairly happy with how things stand at the moment, and more importantly, nearly there with my first complete build!
Cheers
Radox
Anyways this is my adventure to complete my first build and first watercooling attempt as it goes. For some background info on this,I started planning this first build a few months back and initially put together whatever in terms of components really being a total noob. The first initial attempt at the build was only completed back in Mid-March centered initially around the NZXT 820 case (so big its ridiculous!) and a placeholder R9 280x while these mythical R9 300 cards come out to power the LG 34UC97-S.
Anyhows I put together the the key components for what lasted a total of 2 hours Which looked like:
However it seemed the GPU did not work properly so needed to be RMA’s. Fortunately this was the lats thing I brought so was still returnable. This is when things changed for the worse (at least for my wallet). While sending it back I came across the picture of the In Win Tou. Now bare in mind I still technically did not finish my first build, I knew I had to buy this case!.
However I knew some of my components such as the noctua cooler, and red MSI board would not go with this new buet so also like any sane person splashed out on buying new components.
This means effectively I have loads of duplicate parts which have been relegated and 1 day after taking the NZXT 820 out the box for the initial shot at my first build, its now back in the same box and in the garage taking up a majority of the space.
So I knew from the start that I needed to watercool the build so joined these lovely forums to get some information on drain ports etc, thanks for the help. Anyways its still work in progress but these are the parts to date:
Parts in build
- 4790k
- Corsair 4 x 4GB 1600 Mhz Ram (to fit under what was to be the noctua cooler)
- Asus Z97 - AR board (primarily for the aesthetics)
- HXi 1000W PSU
- Sleeved graphite cabling kit + Additional silver sleeved cabling for IO ports/ USB etc
- 2 x Crucial MX100 512GB SSD’s
- Some cheap CD drive (not actually in the case itself, only for initial installation of windows)
- Wireless card
- In Win Tou
- LG 34UC97-S
Water Cooling components
- EKWB D5 PWM pump
- EKWB Coolstream PE 360mm rad
- EKWB Supremacy Evo CPU block
- 120mm Primochill Clear Res
- 240mm Primochill Clear Res (when I found out 120 looked too small, but still kept)
- Alphacool Hardtube Black Metal Chrome 13/10mm tubing
- 20 x Primochill Black Shiny Ghost Compression Fittings
- Shedload of Bitspower Black Shiny components for the rest of the connectors
- Couple of Leds
- 3 x Noctua Redux fans for the Gray colour really, included fans were ridiculously loud.
- Loads of tools which I found out were utterly useless (apart from the gloves and one ruler)
- Mayhems Aurora 2 Silver (which I gather may actually be a no no now, but can get away with as the loop is fairly simple)
Relegated parts - Parts I still own and were used for a sum of 2 hours
- NZXT 820 Phantom
- MSI Gaming 5
- Coolermaster V850
- NH-DH15
- Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro 3 (reused the 135 mm fan, and long story why I have 2 air towers)
- 3 additional 140 mm Noctua NF-AF FLX fans
To be honest I could easily put something together and get a fully functioning second PC as most the parts are already there. so will see what I can do there
Okay so to start with Phase 2 of build one I received the case, its extremely hard to photograph a case which is essentially a mirror when its off so apologise for the awkward pics.
Next I drew up my my highly detailed masterplan for the case and was kindly informed how metal tubing works and need for a drain port which I ran through here for advice.
Next it was a matter of cracking on and receiving the parts:
Baby steps of putting the parts together and into the case to see how spacing and fittings worked.
Initial attempt with the 140 mm res at which point I realised a slighty larger 240 mm would look better. also for whatever sad reason one of my favourite parts is the mounting of the SSD's in the case. Its so simple yet my one of my personal highlight, but loved that once the stickers were of the SSD's they blended in perfectly with the case, mounted being the red.
Anyways it now comes down to cutting the pipe. This was absolutely brutal. I simply assumed the stuff would bend fairly easy having watched some videos and me being Popeye (
) it would be fine. Sadly I neglected to factor in the stuff I brought was Chrome plated copper pipe which seemed to make bending process ridiculously hard, well impossible really, I went out and brought some “heavy duty” tools from B&Q and still it would not bend! I am sure there are better tools, but could not faff around and elected to just buy a shedload more Bitspowered parts and use them rather then bends. Still happy with how it turned out, but very annoyed at my lack of research for this which made the whole water cooling part cost far more than expected. In hindsight I may have gone for Acrylic, but hay ho. Also I found that using the pipe cutting tools and being chrome plated (the root cause issue) meant each cut took about 30 mins to do. In the end to cut all the pipes took me about a week as I was getting serious friction burns so the process was stretched out over a couple of weeks.
For the pipes I also had to cut them to size and freeze them so they would shrink ever so slightly and heat up the compression fittings as it was a very tight fit in most cases.
Anyhows it was a matter of slowly and methodically working, testing and trying the various parts for the best part of 2 weeks, trying to find the best way to route cables set up the watercooling etc. tweeking fittings etc:
After that, managed to get it to the current stage which I am happy with.
I used some of the chrome piping filled with soft sponge as a base of sorts for the d5 pump and it works fairly well.
My next plan is to create a PSU shroud which will stretch all the way along the bottom to compartmentalize the PSU, pump and drain port. At the moment as I say I am waiting on the R9 300 / 980Ti. but the current plan is to go crossfire / SLI, not sure if the 360 mm rad would be able to sufficiently cool the CPU and GPU??? That's the route I would like to take, but doubt 1 360 mm Rad can cool 1 CPU + 2 GPU's.
Anyways still some work to do over the next few weeks or so, but fairly happy with how things stand at the moment, and more importantly, nearly there with my first complete build!
Cheers
Radox
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