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[Build Log] An old man's first blinged out water build.

87K views 2K replies 138 participants last post by  Bart 
#1 ·
Semi-old man here, age 42. I've been building systems for years, but never did the "pretty lights" thing before, nor ever touched water cooling. So when I built my most recent PC, I got the water/bling bug about 2/3rds of the way through the build (DOH). This won't be pretty or professional, in any way. The stuff you guys do here AMAZES me, and since I'm not even cutting on my case, it will be a crap build in comparison. Plus, it will most likely be overdone with gaudy lights, blingy reservoirs, UV tubing, LEDs, etc, and I'll be embarrassed for posting it within weeks.
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Oh well, it'll be good for a laugh!! Feel free to chime in with ANY advice, don't be shy. I'll do 10,000 things wrong, but I'll learn, and I'm not afraid of criticism. Let it rip if need be!
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Enjoy!

So once upon a time, not so long ago, in a galaxy not very far away, an old nerd bought some stuff:


Very pretty stuff:


Some reasonably quick stuff with big boobs:


Some of the stuff was on sale & would later turn out to be a pain in the ass:


Some of the stuff was very big stuff:


Some of the stuff was cool stuff:


The old nerd assembled some of the stuff, and was happy:


The stuff lived:


Then, disaster struck. The old nerd logged onto Overclock.net, to find out how to properly overclock his new 3820. To his shock and amazement, the old nerd discovered that OCN had a section dedicated to some voodoo magic known as "water cooling". He then made the worst financial mistake of his life: he started to read other people's build logs. This created movement in the old nerds pants (a sensation long thought dead), and his credit card. The old nerd did some research, but his nerd boner short-circuited his brain and shortened his patience, resulting in disaster!!

Being a Canadian nerd, research uncovered some great (and very helpful) YouTube videos done by a local guy named Daz, who also happened to sell water cooling parts:


He then ordered more pretty stuff from Dazmode.com, and a lot of wet stuff:


Then he figured it he was going to put his rig underwater, he might as well do it right with this funky stuff:


When searching for a GPU block, the old nerd discovered how much headache a non-reference video card can be for a noob water cooler! He spent hours looking at pics of water blocks and comparing them to his video card. He never wants to see this picture again:


Thanks to the helpful bunch of gents in the Dazmode.com forums, the old nerd located a GPU block for the non-reference hemorrhoid in question. He also wanted some bling, so he ordered the GPU block, a FrozenQ blood red UV helix reservoir, and some red UV tubing from his American neighbors down south, PerformancePCs.com:


My precious!


Oooooo, shiny yet black, and hard as hell to get a proper picture of:


The old nerd fired it up dry in the dark to test the UV light / inverter. He then realized taking acid in his teenage years gave him an appreciation for pretty glowing things:


He test-fitted the XSPC dual bay reservoir, only to find it a VERY tight fit, a common issue with the 800D case. Case rail sanding/filing will be needed:


Tight fit, but perfectly flush:


The old nerd prepared for leak testing:


He then realized he needed a proper tube cutter:


He persevered without one, because he was too lazy and/or drunk to leave the house:


Thankfully, the old noob nerd did SOME things right. He bought an external power supply so he could leak test without needing to jump his only power supply. Thus, we had BUBBLES:


More importantly, the XSPC kit was leak free! The old nerd then realized one of many noob mistakes: NOT ordering more compression fittings! DOH! He only had enough fittings for the XSPC custom Raystorm kit he bought (6). So to leak test the other components, he improvised and started substituting the other parts that needed leak testing in place of the CPU block. First, the precious:


Then the GPU block:


XSPC rad balanced on an empty power supply box (I mean EMPTY, not even the cardboard shell inside. DUMB:


The old nerd then made his first disastrous error while trying to adjust pump speed. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU:


The old nerd did not realize both his D5 variable pumps came set to max speed (5) from the factory. The foolish old nerd had ASSumed they were set to power 2, because the slit for the screwdriver adjustment was pointed at the number 2. He did not notice the rather LARGE RED ARROW pointing in the opposite direction to the number 5! Therefore, the old nerd twisted the damn stick right off. Thankfully, he didn't break the resistor on the pump, so it's now set to speed 5 for all eternity. Or at least until the old nerd can get a proper fan controller to throttle down his pumps!

Yes f**khead, that's an arrow. Pretty obvious don't you think? The old nerd felt awful stupid about this one:


The good news was: ALL PARTS WERE LEAK FREE! Woohoo!

So he started planning the layout and figuring out what would fit where:


The old nerd had to be told his FrozenQ reservoir was UPSIDE DOWN in this pic! NOOB:


While he waited on fittings, the old nerd did some noob heat shrinking in an attempt to clean up the clutter of the XSPC Raystorm LED mounts:


Being a BMW E46 fan, the old nerd decided to attempt to make his own ///M colored power supply cable. He didn't realize you can't simply whip up a replacement for MODULAR cable sets, and that the pin layouts can be power-supply specific. Therefore he ordered the wrong stuff (2 female ATX end caps). He also didn't realize that the single pre-sleeved pretty cables he ordered had both male AND female ends. You can also see in the pic below that the old nerd thought he was being clever by ordering a pre-made ATX power cable in UV red, in case his ///M cable didn't work out. He expected that cable to be a straight modular replacement, not an extension! Once again, the old noob nerd learned something! Double FUUUUUUUUUUU:


The old nerd then broke something else, due to cheaply made reservoir clips. He won't blame himself for this one, as the clips provided with the res were el cheapo junk. Wine was not a factor, as the old nerd is a professional alcoholic:


So that's where it stands as of tonight. An order of fittings is on route, and I just placed another order for a ball valve / fittings to set up a proper drain, as well as slim 140mm rad, just because.
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The part list is as follows:

Asus Rampage Extreme Gene motherboard
Intel i7-3820 CPU
Corsair Dominator Platinum 1866 (4 x 4GB)
Corsair Obsidian 800D Case
Corsair AX750 Pro Gold modular Power Supply
Corsair H100 CPU cooler (about to be ditched)
ADATA S510 120GB SATA6GB/s SSD x 2 (RAID 0)
Sapphire Radeon 7950 Dual X 3GB
Carried over 5 x 1TB of storage from previous system, but due to lack of SATA ports, only 4 x 1TB is inside.
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The water cooling stuff is below.

Dazmode custom XSPC Raystorm kit including:
XSPC Raystorm CPU block (includes 3mm blue LEDs, replaced with red)
XSPC dual bay reservoir with dual D5 pumps (in serial for redundancy, includes 5mm blue LEDs, replaced with red)
EX360 radiator (comes with 3 XSPC fans, replaced)
6 x 120mm Coolermaster Red LED SickleFlow 2000 RPM Case Fan R4-L2R-20AR-R1 (doing push / pull IF I have the room)
10ft Primochill red UV tubing (main stuff) + 10 ft clear XSPC tubing (for leak testing and measurement)
Indigo Xtreme phase change TIM
UV cathode kit
Darkside red UV ATX / PCIE extension cables
Light blue UV / dark blue UV / red lava UV single Darkside cables

More to come! Once I get more fittings, I can start putting it all together. Thanks for playing along!

Bart
 
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36
#2 ·
Bravo!! Bravo!!
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Loved the commentary to go along with a very nice build!! Look forward to the rest of the story!
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#4 ·
sub'd
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#5 ·
I love the candor. The words you are using are pretty close to the thoughts that go through my mind when I am doing something. I do have grand delusions that my first water cooled build is going to be flawless. I know it won't. I know I am going to have to ask a lot of questions myself even though I have read through a lot of build logs myself. I'm sub'd. I think it is going to turn out great. I look forward to seeing the finished product.
 
#7 ·
This young nerd approves of this old nerd thread!

Subbed!
 
#10 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevdog View Post

Bravo!! Bravo!!
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Loved the commentary to go along with a very nice build!! Look forward to the rest of the story!
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I'm reading this now and laughing at myself. I was a bit buzzed last night when I put that post together and got carried away with the 3rd person narrative.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tsm106 View Post

Nice, revised Alphacool gpu block with vrm cooling and a 3820. Did you already choose your fittings?
Sort of. I bought an XSPC kit that comes with black chrome XSPC 3/8 - 5/8 fittings, so I have more of those coming in. I couldn't find matching ones for a ball valve / angle fittings, so I'll be getting some black Bitspower pieces as well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Curious Andre View Post

I love the candor. The words you are using are pretty close to the thoughts that go through my mind when I am doing something. I do have grand delusions that my first water cooled build is going to be flawless. I know it won't. I know I am going to have to ask a lot of questions myself even though I have read through a lot of build logs myself. I'm sub'd. I think it is going to turn out great. I look forward to seeing the finished product.
I freed myself from those delusions.
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I just KNOW I'm going to mess up and make many noob mistakes (already have). But hopefuly by documenting the mistakes here, other people will learn from my errors and do it right.
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Even when you do a lot of research, you tend to make assumptions that bite you. I've been bitten by DIY cabling mistakes, tubing planning mistakes because I'm using 2 reservoirs, etc.

Hell I still have no idea how I'm going to hook up my fans yet! I don't know how you guys run 12 fans. Fan controllers are obvious, but how do you cable all those things?!? 4-pin Y-splits? It seems a bit hard to find Y pieces for more than 2 fans. I found these, but they'll take time to arrive:

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=8_128&item_id=045724

I hope that will work. Or a professional WC nerd gets in here and sets me straight! Thanks for the kind words guys! Hopefully I'll be installing the bulk of this within 3 days, as soon as the fittings land. Then I'll add the slim 140 rad later on. That will give me practice draining / filling a loop inside the PC. It's pretty easy on a kitchen table.
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#11 ·
Quote:
Sort of. I bought an XSPC kit that comes with black chrome XSPC 3/8 - 5/8 fittings, so I have more of those coming in. I couldn't find matching ones for a ball valve / angle fittings, so I'll be getting some black Bitspower pieces as well.
If you should ever go compressions, use xspc. I've used many brands and they all leaked except for the xspc. At this point in my watercooling journeys, I'm done with all other brand fittings. I just want something that will not leak on me cuz that = fried parts and downtime, lost investments, etc.
 
#12 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by tsm106 View Post

If you should ever go compressions, use xspc. I've used many brands and they all leaked except for the xspc. At this point in my watercooling journeys, I'm done with all other brand fittings. I just want something that will not leak on me cuz that = fried parts and downtime, lost investments, etc.
That's what I did. Forgot to mention that the custom kit came with XSPC compression fittings. LOVE these things so far, even though they're the only ones I've tried.
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But so far, no leaks at all. Quite happy with the fittings. I'm actually quite happy with the entire XSPC kit, even though I haven't actually put it in the PC yet.

P.S. does the TSM in your nick stand for Tivoli Storage Manager by any chance? I ask because I'm a TSM admin.
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#13 ·
He then made the worst financial mistake of his life: he started to read other people's build logs. This created movement in the old nerds pants, his credit card.
and
Being a BMW E46 fan

sir you got my respekt and sub
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#15 ·
Very nice, Bart! Looking forward to this.
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#16 ·
I must say, that reservoir looks mighty sexy! I am definitely going to look into getting one myself.
 
#17 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by barkinos98 View Post

He then made the worst financial mistake of his life: he started to read other people's build logs. This created movement in the old nerds pants, his credit card.
and
Being a BMW E46 fan
sir you got my respekt and sub
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Another E46 driving sucker eh?
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Mine's in the garage needing a ton of work and I'm driving a Hyundai. I decided to piss away money on nerd things instead!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by d33r View Post

Whoa that hemmroid looks amazing!! some very high end hemmroids in that build!! i will give you my address pls send me your hemmroid computer when you are finished building it . thanks
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Hopefully the ass pain is over! Although I haven't tried to fit that GPU block yet...
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dalastbmills View Post

I must say, that reservoir looks mighty sexy! I am definitely going to look into getting one myself.
Just be careful when taking it apart. The end caps screw off, and they are TIGHT, and more importantly, SHARP on the outside edges. I'm not sure if I have an old version of the res, but I sliced my finger open pretty good on one of those acetal caps. A nice razor-thin paper cut too, OUCH! I ended up using some rubber coated mechanic -style gloves to unscrew the caps. They should really be slighty rounded on the edges.
 
#19 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bart View Post

Another E46 driving sucker eh?
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Mine's in the garage needing a ton of work and I'm driving a Hyundai. I decided to piss away money on nerd things instead!
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oh i wish, i dont even have a license :/ but i just love BMW, especially E39 and E46. i would love a E46 M3 in laguna seca blue
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#20 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by deafboy View Post

Very nice, Bart! Looking forward to this.
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Thanks Cole!
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I somehow missed you in the mutli-quote from work. That's what I get for multi-tasking!!

So I got another order in today and was all excited!!! Until I opened the box and saw 4 barbs instead of the 4 XSPC compression fittings I was expecting. DOH!! Man did that ever deflate my happiness. I was all gung ho to tear the system down and get to work! Damn it!!
 
#22 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by B NEGATIVE View Post

Old nerd indeed,im only a couple of years younger than you!!
Any particular reason for the dual res setup?
My noob logic was this: I wanted 2 pumps for redundancy (no illusions about better performance). I was worried about space in the case for pumps too, so I thought the dual pump res was a nice space-efficient solution. I also thought it would be an easier fill point than the tube res. I just wanted that for bling, no other reason.
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Plus I liked the idea of getting all of that in a kit, to simplify my first build.

Now that my order got messed up and I can't build the loop, my H100 is making AWFULLY loud noise. Arrrrrrgh, I'm cursed!
 
#23 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bart View Post

Quote:
Originally Posted by B NEGATIVE View Post

Old nerd indeed,im only a couple of years younger than you!!
Any particular reason for the dual res setup?
My noob logic was this: I wanted 2 pumps for redundancy (no illusions about better performance). I was worried about space in the case for pumps too, so I thought the dual pump res was a nice space-efficient solution. I also thought it would be an easier fill point than the tube res. I just wanted that for bling, no other reason.
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Plus I liked the idea of getting all of that in a kit, to simplify my first build.
Dual pumps does give a performance benefit.i use dual D5's myself but mine are both hooked up to one res in series.

 
#25 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by B NEGATIVE View Post

Dual pumps does give a performance benefit.i use dual D5's myself but mine are both hooked up to one res in series.
Good for me then!
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That's a fantastic looking rig. I almost wasn't going to bother posting a build log since mine will be utter JUNK compared to that.
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Originally Posted by trulsrohk View Post

hilarious and fun!
Just one question though, obviously it IS very pretty but why run the Frozen Q resevoir if you are using the XSPC bay resevoir/pump mount?
I just answered above, for the bling.
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I wanted front bay bling and case window bling.
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Bought it completely on impulse.
 
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