[BUILD LOG] STH10 - Worm Smasher - 560 RADIATOR x 3 W/C BUILD - Page 4

Progress is finally returning to the "Worm Smasher" (thinking about changing the name) build. I'm very happy to see this abomination possibly up and running before December hits. I made some changes to the original posts by making it easier to follow and read w/o scrolling through a bunch of pics. Notes were also changed and updated to reflect what is going with the build today (as opposed to earlier this year.)

Here is the progress so far. (The first 3 original posts have also been updated easier following.)

To mount 2 GTX 560 radiators on top, I had to remove the floor of the top chamber. For some reason, Caselabs decided to design the top chamber an inch or less shorter than the bottom one, thus preventing the use of anything higher than a 480 rad up there. It worked out well without compromising the stability of the case structure overall.

The idea of mounting the pumps from Singularity Computers on YouTube. I really liked the setup and decided to adopt it. The Top Upgrade from Bitspower saved me from alot of headache trying to mount it directly to the case while trying to work with 1/2" x 3/4" tube routing. Also saved me from the possibility of going to a Bay Res setup. I wanted to stick to a Cylinder Reservoir so it would be easier to get rid of air bubbles in the system. With Bay Reservoirs, you have to tip the whole case around to help work it out. I would not be happy doing any of that to a case this size.

Also I decided not to mount the last GTX 280 into the bottom chamber so I have more room to work with. I ran out of m4/35mm screws anyways and I have yet to deal with the possible nightmare of cable management in regards to the radiator fans.







I'm also going to dump the EK Supreme HF for the new Koolance CPU-380I. Supreme HF is old and the new design for Supremecy looks like the condom markings on my old wallet back in the days. Very tacky.



I need to make a couple more orders. Waiting for the nickel plated Watercool Heatkiller GTX 690 "Hole Edition" to come to the US. If I buy it directly from Germany, I'm going to be paying $200+ w/o shipping and possibly waiting til next year to get the package based on how long it took the last time I made an order from the Watercool website.

Other possible upgrades off the top of my head....
- 4 HDD's for RAID Storage
- Aquaero Fan Controller
- Samsung 840 Pro SSD upgrades (128GB for boot & 256GB or 512GB for programs and games)

Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Steam's Autumn Sale took alot of time from updating the rig. Here are some updates.







I love the Watercool Heatkiller block. Even though the copper sort of goes off the matching scheme, I couldn't be happier. Although I was a little disappointed after the local sites finally got the nickel version a couple weeks later..... Would you pay $189+ so that your GPU block matches the build? lol





I had the rig powered up awhile back. The fan filters are working great! At 1700 RPM, the NB's are sucking in alot of dust. I have all the fans blowing into the case so there is a tremendous amount of postive airflow to keep most of the dust out. Its also a little bit louder collectively than I wanted them to be. But I have a solution for that so stay tuned!





The wire management was also a bit of a mess. I will be cleaning it up with more orders on the way.


$149.99 a piece from Microcenter







Here is how my rig looks like now with the upgrades. Installed the 2 Seagates to replace the 4 smaller HDDs and was able to move the SSD boot drive up front. This is needed so I can arrange for some wire management behind the scenes where the VelociRaptor and SSD were prior.


Package from PPC's came in. I'm very excited to try out the Aquero. However, PPC was one short a PowerAdjust 2 Ultra and none of the other e-tailers had them in stock. This is going to push its installation a bit further... However I have another 2 packages coming in from MDPC so I can sleeve and make my own power cabling to clean up the BTS wiring.

On a side note, it seems that my iPhone's camera is getting worse. Perhaps, with the Mrs.'s approval, that will be remedied before the next update.

More to come!

Oh its big... The RIVE doesn't even take half the space in the motherboard chamber. If you have this case, you can forget going to LAN events though. Unless you drive a Suburban and have a couple of good pals help you load it. I made a futile attempt one time trying to put this thing on my desk with all the coolant still in it and I'm surprised I didn't throw my back out.

I hope you weren't one of the folks that made off with an i5 3570K that day. I was so looking forward to scoring one of those after a long drive down to Tustin and the last couple happened to be on hold or some BS like that.


Thanks

I usually only go down to Tustin if Fry's in Burbank doesn't carry the item for price match. Either that or if I don't feel like being hustled by a Fry's employee to buy some crappy hardware with insurance like they know what they are talking about.

Although I don't mind the distance, the traffic gets so retarded around the Commerce area til the OC border. Other than the avacado, SoCal has another vegetable and they always drive on the left lanes. And don't get me started with the service trucks.

They said they will get some more in this week. I saw 4 in stock yesterday I think, but the wife just approved the new camera deal as long as its the Sony one in the Taylor Swift commercials and if she gets it for Xmas. I also gotta buy more fittings and SSD's/HDD's... argh! I'm getting sick of spending money on this rig and I don't have a triple monitor setup yet haha!

Here is a small update. Put together the AC PowerAdjust II - Ultra's in the 5.25" bay mount and the black faceplate on the Aquaero PRO. I was a bit disappointed that the faceplate for the PowerAdjusts had a scratch on it. The plate, screws and mounts were all in one ziplock bag so they were all swimming against each other with the faceplate unprotected during shipping. But I am still amazed how beautiful the presentation turned out. If you spend hundreds of bucks on your rad and fan setup, no ordinary cheap fan controller can do it justice like the Aquaero. I just wish it didn't cost alot lol.






Missing one of the PowerAdjust Ultra's really sticks out like a sore thumb so I'm going to hold off installing them for now.


LUCKILY FrozenCPU just got some in today!

I gotta check if I really need to install the waterblock for the Aquaero PRO. If I do, it is going to make the loop a bit more complicated than I wanted it to be. Perhaps incorporating Bitspower Crystal Links in doing so, but at this time I would rather spend money on replacing my SSD for either two OCZ Vectors or Samsung 840 Pro for RAID 0.