+++++Welcome everyone to mandrix's water cooled Merlin SM8 Build Log+++++
Now with dual pedestals & copper acrylic tubing!
Totally updated with Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H/4790K!
I thought I was pretty much done for the year and had planned to further refine my Switch 810 build. Then I spotted the Case Labs SM8 preorder thread and quickly got pulled in. The case seemed to be pretty much what I wanted: wide, but with a small enough footprint to sit on one of my desks; modular design with r-atx capability which will work perfectly sitting to my left; XL window available to view the goodies; pedestal or extended top to house more cooling without cramming the case to the max; and matte white! Add in Case Labs reputation for quality and customer service, and it just seemed a no-brainer to jump on this case.
The motherboard, cpu and graphics are recycled/swapped from other builds, but otherwise everything else is new and ordered just for this build, sans a few fittings.
There is no timeline for completion of this build, although >90% of the parts have arrived. I will be making up all the wiring and doing all the sleeving myself, so expect delays as I am not the fastest sleever by any means.
The Aquaero 5 Pro and Aquasuite software are totally new to me - so any tips, hints or advice on setup are welcome and appreciated!
My hope for this build is a permanent springboard to house any further upgrades as I decide whether SB-E, Haswell, or IB-E will be my next platform.
!!!!Warning - large pics will be posted and may not plaY nice with slow connection speeds!!!!
Case
*Case Labs Merlin SM8 -reverse ATX - XL Window
*Case Labs Merlin SM8 pedestals x 3!
Motherboard/CPU
*Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H
*Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD5H
*Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H
*3770K {now delidded!}
*4770K delidded!
*4790k
*Kingston Predator Series 16GB
*Kingston Genesis Silver 2400 4x4GB
Storage
*LG DVD burner Model GH24NS95 w/MDISC
*Samsung 840 Pro 256GB x2
*Samsung 840 Pro 128GB x1
*Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 2TB 7200 RPM SATA III
*Western Digital WD Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA III
*Western Digital WD20EARS 2 TB SATA II
Power Supply
*SeaSonic Platinum 1000w Fully Modular & custom sleeved
Graphics
*1) PowerColor AX7950 3GBD5-2DHV4 Radeon HD 7950
*2) PowerColor AX7950 3GBD5-2DHV4 Radeon HD 7950
Graphics Cooling
*EK FC7950 w/Backplate
CPU Cooling
*XSPC Raystorm
Fan/Pump Control
*2x Aquaero 5 Pro
Fans
*AP15's (painted white and metallic blue)
Radiators
*Alphacool UT60 480 x2 (pedestal)
*Black Ice SR1 480 x2 (pedestal)
Fittings/Connectors
*Bitspower Silver Shining compression
*Bitspower White Bulkhead fittings x3
*Bitspower Silver Shining mini valves x2 for drain lines
*Koolance 10mm pipe fittings
*EK-HD adapters (for hard tubing)
Pump
*Swiftech MCP35x2
*Swiftech D5 pwm x2
Pump Cooling
*Swiftech Dual Heat Sink w/Evercool 80mm x 15mm fan
Aquaero 5 Pro Cooling
*Aquacomputer Water Block For Aquaero
Reservoir
*Phobya Balancer 250 Silver Nickel
Monitoring Sensors
*Aquacomputer Flow sensor 'high flow' G1/4 for aquaero x 2
*Aquacomputer inline water Temperature sensor x 4
*Phobya inline water Temperature sensor x 1
Tubing
*XSPC High Flex Hose - 7/16 x 5/8 White
*3/8" copper tubing
*E22 10/12 Acrylic tubing
Sleeving
*MDPC Black/White/B-Magic/Titanium Grey/Shade 19
Operating System
*Windows 7 Pro
ATX/Cabling/Wiring
*All ATX/peripherial/fan wiring custom made by myself
Lighting/Effects
*Light Panel (Acrylite + white + mirror)
*RGB led reservoir lighting
[*]First Pics of the Case - Rads - Fans
[*]Res - Pump - Graphics Block - Raystorm mounts
[*]Test Fitting of AP-15s to the 480 in pedestal
[*]Sleeving the Rad Fans
[*]Aquaero gear comes in - Finished 16 fans' sleeving
[*]Finished Pedestal
[*]Pedestal and a Drain Line
[*]HDs installed - tubing passthru - flow meter/temp sensor mounted
[*]Pedestal rad mounts
[*]Pedestal front panel - Interior/Exterior Case pix
[*]Finished pedestal fan wiring
[*]Case sitting on Ped - full frontal pic
[*]Sleeving sample
[*]White Sleeving coil - Pedestal drain setup
[*]General & Specific Interior Pix
[*]Badly Crimped pin indicates out of adjustment MDPC Crimper
[*]Friday night bling ! - GPU block & Samsung SSD
[*]Mounting the SSD
[*]Aligning the res for a fillport
[*]24 pin sleeving finished
[*]2nd 7950 arrives
[*]Pedestal cabling pass thru & both 7950s installed
[*]Sleeving the 6 pin & 4 pin for the AQ5/PA2
[*]PCIe 16x slot blown, moving the GPUs a slot up
[*]Fabbing fan splitters for the pedestal harness
[*]Four pedestal fan harnesses - done
[*]Plan to move to a new mobo - GA-Z77X-UP4 TH
[*]Front panel view - new black plate for the AQ5
[*]CL tech station in action
[*]The new mobo installed
[*]Mobo side view after new mobo install
[*]1 GPU cable set sleeved
[*]Both GPU cables sleeved and installed - mobo side view
[*]Playing with LEDs in the res and behind the mobo
[*]AQ5 sensors screenshot
[*]Trying a 8 fan harness with single output
[*]Some more AQ5 screenies
[*]Installing the new pedestal fan harnesses - open ped shots
[*]Fragile inline temp sensor
[*]More RED led play & some detailed shots
[*]3DMark11 benchmarks
[*]Considering the FlexBay HDD cage
[*]Shot of the USB 3.0 cable, sleeved
[*]More Aquaero infos & screenies
[*]Newly extended & sleeved HD audio cable
[*]Reworking the SATA power cable
[*]Fabbing the SATA power cable
[*]The business side of the Aquaero controller
[*]Acrylic rod used for res mount
[*]Acrylic sheet as mountable SSD surface on mobo rear
[*]2nd Flow meter installed & some 20 & 22mm heatshrink
[*]Case interior - pedestal interior - res mounted on acrylic rod
[*]Sleeving the USB 3.0 cable connector
[*]Swapping for the Raystorm copper block
[*]Changing things up a bit - new parts list
[*]AQ Powerconnect - 24pin ATX standby power cable
[*]Test paint for fan blades
[*]2nd MCP35x pump and the double pump top
[*]Dual pump top + heatsink and the first Tamiya connector
[*]BP pass thrus + mini-valve + t-fitting
[*]Mini-Tamiya connectors
[*]Painted mini-Tamiya connectors
[*]HDD cage + SSD mount arrive
[*]Planning the Tamiya placement on mobo tray rear
[*]Sleeved mini-Tamiya pumps power cable
[*]Mini-Tamiya power cable installed
[*]Sleeved dual pump cabling
[*]Dual Pump, pass-thru, Aq5 related shots in case
[*]How to tear apart AP-15 fans
[*]Mandrix's Hyundai air tank
[*]A bunch of blue blade painted AP-15 fans
[*]Pedestal rad mount design updated
[*]Punching a pass-thru in the pedestal for a new drain
[*]How Mandrix painted his AP-15 fans & materials
[*]New drain plumbing & open ped shot
[*]How to install 2 UT60mm rads into the pedestal
[*]New flowmeter on the GPU install
[*]New platform with HD casters with a shot of the new drain
[*]Replacement AP-15 clips if you lose the original
[*]Crowning of the King Merlin - top pedestal arrives
[*]Beginning of the Fan Sticker episode
[*]Cpachris and his OU fan stickers
[*]More Merlin fan stickers
[*]Some more ...
[*]Somoah to choose from ...
[*]Yet some more stickers
[*]The OCN flame Merlin sticker
[*]Re-size of the OCN flame sticker
[*]Sticker on a blue bladed AP-15 fan
[*]Slightly darker Merlin text sticker on a fan
[*]HDD mount on an acrylic base
[*]HDD cage with fan installed to top ped
[*]Finished HDD cage install cabled up
[*]Overall Case interior & mobo tray shots
[*]Night shots of the CPU block and Res - leds ON
[*]XSPC 480mm radiator gaskets
[*]Re-visit of the AQ 24 pin standby power connector[/url
[*]Older AQ schematic showing shutdown wiring options
[*]Cpachris' AQ shutdown diagram
[*]Adding a D5 pump to the bottom pedestal w/ revised loop order
[*]Fabbed power cables for the D5 pump + PA2s installed & wired
[*]CF the stock SLI connector
[*]Revised AQ5 relay wiring shots
[*]Interior case shots + the entire case with both pedestals
[*]Thinking of re-installing the interior pedestal fans
[*]Sleeving the NZXT 2 meter led cable
[*]Resleeved D5 pump with female molex to 3 pin extension
[*]PSU relocated to TOP
[*]Rework GPU & SATA power cables for new psu location
[*]Delidded 3770K
[*]More pics!
[*]Torn down and reborn taller.Three pedestals!
[*]Pneumatic fitting test and triple pedestal superstacker
[*]Fan harnesses revisited:Fabrication & one connector with rpm wire
[*]Hard tubing & Koolance pipe fittings
[*]Some chromed tubing installed pics
[*]Aquaero 5 Pro #2 & more chromed tubing pics
[*]Hard tubing tools and dual USB 2.0 cables sleeved for the Aquaero's
[*]Wiring in a replacement pump for the dual MCP35x
[*](pics) All copper tubing in case finished!
[*]Changes to copper tubing and dual pumps
[*]Connecting two Aquaero water blocks
[*]Pics updated after adding some copper color fittings
....and much, much more!
Now with dual pedestals & copper acrylic tubing!
Totally updated with Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H/4790K!
I thought I was pretty much done for the year and had planned to further refine my Switch 810 build. Then I spotted the Case Labs SM8 preorder thread and quickly got pulled in. The case seemed to be pretty much what I wanted: wide, but with a small enough footprint to sit on one of my desks; modular design with r-atx capability which will work perfectly sitting to my left; XL window available to view the goodies; pedestal or extended top to house more cooling without cramming the case to the max; and matte white! Add in Case Labs reputation for quality and customer service, and it just seemed a no-brainer to jump on this case.
The motherboard, cpu and graphics are recycled/swapped from other builds, but otherwise everything else is new and ordered just for this build, sans a few fittings.
There is no timeline for completion of this build, although >90% of the parts have arrived. I will be making up all the wiring and doing all the sleeving myself, so expect delays as I am not the fastest sleever by any means.
The Aquaero 5 Pro and Aquasuite software are totally new to me - so any tips, hints or advice on setup are welcome and appreciated!
My hope for this build is a permanent springboard to house any further upgrades as I decide whether SB-E, Haswell, or IB-E will be my next platform.
!!!!Warning - large pics will be posted and may not plaY nice with slow connection speeds!!!!
Case
*Case Labs Merlin SM8 -reverse ATX - XL Window
*Case Labs Merlin SM8 pedestals x 3!
Motherboard/CPU
*Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H
*Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD5H
*Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H
*3770K {now delidded!}
*4770K delidded!
*4790k
*Kingston Predator Series 16GB
*Kingston Genesis Silver 2400 4x4GB
Storage
*LG DVD burner Model GH24NS95 w/MDISC
*Samsung 840 Pro 256GB x2
*Samsung 840 Pro 128GB x1
*Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 2TB 7200 RPM SATA III
*Western Digital WD Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA III
*Western Digital WD20EARS 2 TB SATA II
Power Supply
*SeaSonic Platinum 1000w Fully Modular & custom sleeved
Graphics
*1) PowerColor AX7950 3GBD5-2DHV4 Radeon HD 7950
*2) PowerColor AX7950 3GBD5-2DHV4 Radeon HD 7950
Graphics Cooling
*EK FC7950 w/Backplate
CPU Cooling
*XSPC Raystorm
Fan/Pump Control
*2x Aquaero 5 Pro
Fans
*AP15's (painted white and metallic blue)
Radiators
*Alphacool UT60 480 x2 (pedestal)
*Black Ice SR1 480 x2 (pedestal)
Fittings/Connectors
*Bitspower Silver Shining compression
*Bitspower White Bulkhead fittings x3
*Bitspower Silver Shining mini valves x2 for drain lines
*Koolance 10mm pipe fittings
*EK-HD adapters (for hard tubing)
Pump
*Swiftech MCP35x2
*Swiftech D5 pwm x2
Pump Cooling
*Swiftech Dual Heat Sink w/Evercool 80mm x 15mm fan
Aquaero 5 Pro Cooling
*Aquacomputer Water Block For Aquaero
Reservoir
*Phobya Balancer 250 Silver Nickel
Monitoring Sensors
*Aquacomputer Flow sensor 'high flow' G1/4 for aquaero x 2
*Aquacomputer inline water Temperature sensor x 4
*Phobya inline water Temperature sensor x 1
Tubing
*XSPC High Flex Hose - 7/16 x 5/8 White
*3/8" copper tubing
*E22 10/12 Acrylic tubing
Sleeving
*MDPC Black/White/B-Magic/Titanium Grey/Shade 19
Operating System
*Windows 7 Pro
ATX/Cabling/Wiring
*All ATX/peripherial/fan wiring custom made by myself
Lighting/Effects
*Light Panel (Acrylite + white + mirror)
*RGB led reservoir lighting
[*]First Pics of the Case - Rads - Fans
[*]Res - Pump - Graphics Block - Raystorm mounts
[*]Test Fitting of AP-15s to the 480 in pedestal
[*]Sleeving the Rad Fans
[*]Aquaero gear comes in - Finished 16 fans' sleeving
[*]Finished Pedestal
[*]Pedestal and a Drain Line
[*]HDs installed - tubing passthru - flow meter/temp sensor mounted
[*]Pedestal rad mounts
[*]Pedestal front panel - Interior/Exterior Case pix
[*]Finished pedestal fan wiring
[*]Case sitting on Ped - full frontal pic
[*]Sleeving sample
[*]White Sleeving coil - Pedestal drain setup
[*]General & Specific Interior Pix
[*]Badly Crimped pin indicates out of adjustment MDPC Crimper
[*]Friday night bling ! - GPU block & Samsung SSD
[*]Mounting the SSD
[*]Aligning the res for a fillport
[*]24 pin sleeving finished
[*]2nd 7950 arrives
[*]Pedestal cabling pass thru & both 7950s installed
[*]Sleeving the 6 pin & 4 pin for the AQ5/PA2
[*]PCIe 16x slot blown, moving the GPUs a slot up
[*]Fabbing fan splitters for the pedestal harness
[*]Four pedestal fan harnesses - done
[*]Plan to move to a new mobo - GA-Z77X-UP4 TH
[*]Front panel view - new black plate for the AQ5
[*]CL tech station in action
[*]The new mobo installed
[*]Mobo side view after new mobo install
[*]1 GPU cable set sleeved
[*]Both GPU cables sleeved and installed - mobo side view
[*]Playing with LEDs in the res and behind the mobo
[*]AQ5 sensors screenshot
[*]Trying a 8 fan harness with single output
[*]Some more AQ5 screenies
[*]Installing the new pedestal fan harnesses - open ped shots
[*]Fragile inline temp sensor
[*]More RED led play & some detailed shots
[*]3DMark11 benchmarks
[*]Considering the FlexBay HDD cage
[*]Shot of the USB 3.0 cable, sleeved
[*]More Aquaero infos & screenies
[*]Newly extended & sleeved HD audio cable
[*]Reworking the SATA power cable
[*]Fabbing the SATA power cable
[*]The business side of the Aquaero controller
[*]Acrylic rod used for res mount
[*]Acrylic sheet as mountable SSD surface on mobo rear
[*]2nd Flow meter installed & some 20 & 22mm heatshrink
[*]Case interior - pedestal interior - res mounted on acrylic rod
[*]Sleeving the USB 3.0 cable connector
[*]Swapping for the Raystorm copper block
[*]Changing things up a bit - new parts list
[*]AQ Powerconnect - 24pin ATX standby power cable
[*]Test paint for fan blades
[*]2nd MCP35x pump and the double pump top
[*]Dual pump top + heatsink and the first Tamiya connector
[*]BP pass thrus + mini-valve + t-fitting
[*]Mini-Tamiya connectors
[*]Painted mini-Tamiya connectors
[*]HDD cage + SSD mount arrive
[*]Planning the Tamiya placement on mobo tray rear
[*]Sleeved mini-Tamiya pumps power cable
[*]Mini-Tamiya power cable installed
[*]Sleeved dual pump cabling
[*]Dual Pump, pass-thru, Aq5 related shots in case
[*]How to tear apart AP-15 fans
[*]Mandrix's Hyundai air tank
[*]A bunch of blue blade painted AP-15 fans
[*]Pedestal rad mount design updated
[*]Punching a pass-thru in the pedestal for a new drain
[*]How Mandrix painted his AP-15 fans & materials
[*]New drain plumbing & open ped shot
[*]How to install 2 UT60mm rads into the pedestal
[*]New flowmeter on the GPU install
[*]New platform with HD casters with a shot of the new drain
[*]Replacement AP-15 clips if you lose the original
[*]Crowning of the King Merlin - top pedestal arrives
[*]Beginning of the Fan Sticker episode
[*]Cpachris and his OU fan stickers
[*]More Merlin fan stickers
[*]Some more ...
[*]Somoah to choose from ...
[*]Yet some more stickers
[*]The OCN flame Merlin sticker
[*]Re-size of the OCN flame sticker
[*]Sticker on a blue bladed AP-15 fan
[*]Slightly darker Merlin text sticker on a fan
[*]HDD mount on an acrylic base
[*]HDD cage with fan installed to top ped
[*]Finished HDD cage install cabled up
[*]Overall Case interior & mobo tray shots
[*]Night shots of the CPU block and Res - leds ON
[*]XSPC 480mm radiator gaskets
[*]Re-visit of the AQ 24 pin standby power connector[/url
[*]Older AQ schematic showing shutdown wiring options
[*]Cpachris' AQ shutdown diagram
[*]Adding a D5 pump to the bottom pedestal w/ revised loop order
[*]Fabbed power cables for the D5 pump + PA2s installed & wired
[*]CF the stock SLI connector
[*]Revised AQ5 relay wiring shots
[*]Interior case shots + the entire case with both pedestals
[*]Thinking of re-installing the interior pedestal fans
[*]Sleeving the NZXT 2 meter led cable
[*]Resleeved D5 pump with female molex to 3 pin extension
[*]PSU relocated to TOP
[*]Rework GPU & SATA power cables for new psu location
[*]Delidded 3770K
[*]More pics!
[*]Torn down and reborn taller.Three pedestals!
[*]Pneumatic fitting test and triple pedestal superstacker
[*]Fan harnesses revisited:Fabrication & one connector with rpm wire
[*]Hard tubing & Koolance pipe fittings
[*]Some chromed tubing installed pics
[*]Aquaero 5 Pro #2 & more chromed tubing pics
[*]Hard tubing tools and dual USB 2.0 cables sleeved for the Aquaero's
[*]Wiring in a replacement pump for the dual MCP35x
[*](pics) All copper tubing in case finished!
[*]Changes to copper tubing and dual pumps
[*]Connecting two Aquaero water blocks
[*]Pics updated after adding some copper color fittings
....and much, much more!