[BUILD LOG] (Nov/Dec 2011) No Salary Cap X79 Full Water-Cooled Craziness

Overview
Ok, so I am finally breaking down and doing one of those insane, over the top, completely unneeded builds to see how much i can overclock the 580 GPUs and the new 3960X processor. This build is going to take a month roughly due to some of the lead times some components have. I would love to hear input regarding some of the component choices, and any input on my water cooling choices (first time i'll be doing a water cooled system).


System Name: TintedSun


Goals:
To acheive the highest overclock I can on the new 3960X Intel, highest overclock on the eVGA 580 GTX's, and make a really sweet looking custom system.


Visuals

• Internal Color Scheme: Red/Black
• CPU Block LEDs: Tailed Dual 3mm Red LEDs
• Case LEDs: undecided, but something Red
• Water Line Color: Clear Red
• Anti-Kink Color: Black
• Fitting Color: Matte Black
• Coolant Color: Clear
• Cable Sleeve Color: Black
• Heatshrink Color: Black

Build Plans

System Features:

• Quad SLI
• RAID 0 SSDs on SATA III
• Dual Water Loops (2 pumps per loop in series)
• Dual PSUs
• Cooling system controls on front of case

Cooling:

• System will have 2 seperate water loops
• Radiators will be on both top portions of the case
• Each radiator will have 4 high pressure Scythe fans
• Each Radiator will have a dedicated 4 channel fan controller with RPM display and RPM Adjuster
• Each Radiator fan can be controlled independantly via the bay mounted controllers
• Each fan will be in a push configuration and will feature a 40mm plenum

Water Loops:

• Loop 1 - 4 Video Cards
• Loop 1 - to use PSU mounted Radiator
• Loop 2 - CPU/RAM/Mobo
• Loop 2 - to use mobo mounted Radiator

Planned Water Loop Layouts:



Front Option Renderings:




Hardware:

PC Centric Parts:

• CPU: Intel i7-3960x LGA 2011
• Motherboard: ASUS Rampage IV Extreme
• Memory: 32 GB (4 x 8 GB) Corsair Dominator GT Quad Channel
• GPUs: 4 x eVGA 580 GTX 3GB Hydro Copper 2 FTW in Quad SLI
• PSU: 2 x Corsair 1200AX's
• SSD 1: 4 x 256GB Samsung 830's (2 in RAID 0 on SATA III, 2 as single drives on SATA III)
• HDD/SSD 2: 2 x Western Digital 2TB RE4's in RAID 0 on SATA II
• Blu-Ray Writer: 2 x LITE-ON 12X BD-R
• Case: CaseLabs TH10
• Monitors: 3 x Samsung 27" 1ms Rose Black P2770FH
• Battery Backup: 2 x APC Smart-UPS SMT2200 2200VA LCD 1980 Watt LCD UPS's

Water Cooling Parts:

• Motherboard Block: Koolance ASUS Rampage IV Extreme Waterblock
• CPU Block: XSPC RayStorm High Performance Acetal CPU Liquid Cooling Block - Intel
• GPU Block: 4 x Damger Den Black Chrome Top and Nickle Base GTX 580 Waterblock
• RAM Block: 2 x EK Corsair Dominator X4 RAM Waterblock
• Pump: 4 x Danger Den D5 Variable Speed Pumps
• Pump Mod 1: 4 x Bitspower D5 Extreme Pump Mod Top V2
• Pump Mod 2: 4 x Bitspower D5 Body kit
• Radiator: 2 x HW Labs Black Ice GTX Xtreme 480 Radiators
• Resevoir: 2 x FrozenQ Liquid Fusion Dual Bay Red Helix Reservoir
• Tubing: Clear Red PrimoChill PrimoFlex PRO LRT 1/2" ID 3/4" OD Tubing
• Fittings 1: 9 x Bitspower Matte Black Ultimate G1/4 Thread Compression Fittings
• Fittings 2: 13 x Bitspower Matte Black Ultimate G1/4 45° Thread Compression Fittings
• Fittings 3: 13 x Bitspower Matte Black Ultimate G1/4 90° Thread Compression Fittings
• Fittings 4: 10 x Bitspower G1/4 Matte Black Male to Male Rotary Extender
• Fittings 5: 3 x Bitspower G1/4 Male to Female Extender - 20mm - Matte Black
• Fittings 6: 8 x Bitspower G 3/8" to G 1/4" Convert
• Fittings 7: 7 x Bitspower G1/4" Matte Black T Adapter
• Fittings 8: 1 x Bitspower G1/4" Matte Black Quad Adapter
• Fittings 9: 3 x Koolance Dual VID Connectors - Black
• Fill port: 4 x Danger Den Fillport - Black
• Temp Sensor: 4 x Bitspower G 1/4" Temp Sensor Stop Fitting
• Coolant: EK EKoolant Premium Liquid Cooling Premix Coolant

Air Cooling Parts:

• Radiator Shroud: 4 x Tecnofront Airbox 240 Acrylic
• Radiator Fans: 8 x Scythe Gentle Typhoon 120mm 5400 RPM Fans
• System Fans: 13 x Aerocool Shark Red Edition 120mm Fans

Bay Electronics

• Fan Controller 1: 2 x Lamptron 30W - 4 Channel Aluminum Controllers
• Fan Controller 2: 1 x Lamptron 50W - 4 Channel Aluminum Throttle Style Controller
• Pump Controller: 2 x Koolance Dual 24V Pump Controller
• Temp Monitor: 4 x XSPC LCD Temp Sensor

Random System Items

• Cable Sleeving: Kobra High Density Cable Sleeving
• O-Rings: Bitspower Deep Bold Red O-Rings
• Thermal Strips: Fujipoly Premium System Builder Thermal Pads
• Thermal Compound: Phobya HeGrease Extreme Thermal Compound
• 4 x Phobya Quad 480 Radiator Grill Hex
• Dual PSU Convertor: Lian-Li Dual Power Supple Adapter

Completed System Pictures:

(soon to come)


Completed System Video:

(soon to come)


Benchmarks:

Single Samsung SSD on the additional controller (SATA III)


2 x Samsung SSD's in RAID 0 on the regular X79 controller (SATA III)

Edited by Hyperlite - 6/11/12 at 6:31pm

Component Pictures


Asus Rampage IV Extreme Pic 1


Asus Rampage IV Extreme Pic 2


Intel 3960X


32GB Corsair Dominators


Corsair AX1200s Pic 1


Corsair AX1200s Pic 2


Black Ice GTX Radiators


Dual Lamptron Controllers


Caselabs TH-10 Pic 1


Caselabs TH-10 Pic 2


Caselabs TH-10 Pic 3


Caselabs TH-10 Pic 4


Caselabs TH-10 Pic 5


Caselabs TH10 Pic 6


Crucial M4s


5400 Gentle Typhoons


Aerocool Shark Red Fans


eVGA 580 GTX Hydro Copper 2 FTW 3GB Cards


Lite-On Blue-Ray Writers


Koolance R4E Block


Danger Den GPU Block Pic 1


Danger Den GPU Block Pic 2


FrozenQ Helix Resevoir Pic 1


FrozenQ Helix Resevoir Pic 2
Edited by Hyperlite - 1/5/12 at 12:30pm

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Edited by Hyperlite - 5/30/12 at 7:12am

Ok, first things first. I have to figure out which case I want to use. Here are the 2 cases im looking at currently:

Corsair Obsidian 800D
Pros

• Sleek Looking
• Roomy
• Window on Left Side of Case
• Tons of Grommeted Pass Through Slots
• Board mounts traditionally
• Cables conenct to back of tower

Cons

• Not sure if it will take dual PSU's
• Limited on Radiator Choices (or so i've read)
• Pretty standard case for builds (i'm wanting something that stands out and is different)

Silverstone Temjin TJ11
Pros

• Dual PSU Ready
• Removable Motherboard Tray
• Awesome Looking
• Takes all radiators amazingly well
• Beefy interal airflow design
• Full Aluminum
• Awesome Filter Design

Cons

• Window on Right Side of Case (my current rig sits on the right side of my monitors)
• Not a big fan of the reverse 90 degree turned Motherboard Layout (although it looks cool)
• All cords come out of the top of the case

Case Labs TH10
Pros

• Dual PSU Ready
• Insane Amount of Space
• Fully Customizable
• Takes all radiators amazingly well
• Full Aluminum
• Looks pretty cool

Cons

• Very Wide (not really a con as what you get with it is worth it)

if theres any other cases anyone thinks would be good for a full watercooled system please feel free to let me know, I am completely open to suggestions right now.



edit:

Thanks.

I wasnt going to do a full blown new build, but a buddy of mine is doing a full water cooled build and i haven't built a new rig for a bit, so i got jelous and decided to do one as well lol. Hopefully i can get the case sorted out this weekend and get some of the hardware ordered that I know I will be using to get things rolling while i wait on my 580's to come in.
Edited by Hyperlite - 1/3/12 at 2:00pm

i like what i see so far, this is going on the considered list. and you are right, it does solve a lot of the issues that I am disliking on the Obsidian and Temjin.

Quick update, going to return the 3930k and get te 3960x instead. After thinking about it, the price difference isn't that big when looking at the big picture, and the whole point of the build is to be the highest end stuff :-D