Hello OCN
Firstly before I start here there are a few things I want to say.
Cheers to all of you guys (and girls) here on OCN you have been so fantastic and welcoming to me since I have joined this site, this really is a great community and this worklog is a one way I would like to give back.
I would like to say thank you to a few folks who have helped me immensley, You should all know who you are
Now this is my first watercooled build, in fact it's my first full build I have ever done, so I have certainly jumped in the deep end here. I have had months to research this very thoroughly however we shall see how theory translates to practice so If you spot anything that I could improve (or something doing completely wrong
) or have any pointers/tips I'll be very grateful for them
Lets start with a little story
Ahem...
Now once upon a time a young lad walked into a local PC store to put together his first PC as he yet knew hardly anything about computer but liked to think that he did. Well, he left, computer in hands feeling quite chuffed. He thought this computer was very powerful. He much later learnt that by OCN standards a flattened loaf of bread would to be able to run a game faster than his rather half baked PC. This PC survived off kind donations and other hand-me downs as upgrades. Now by this point it could probably perform as well as the flattened loaf of bread, maybe even as good as an intact loaf if it wash pushed!
Specs of that PC as of now:
Well to be fair I actually got it to play Crysis 1 and GTAIV at playable Rates so it's actually pretty reasonable
Specifications of Build and Parts used in this Build
Enough talking let's get started with the building; here are some pictures for your patience
Enjoy
I only took a photo of one of my shipments:
Who likes math? 20 layers of black plastic and sore fingers later we have this:
Everything minus a few parts still in a parcel somewhere over the pacific:
The Fabled 900D
It's quite massive
You could probably fit your average family home in this box, your murder victims.... or whatever other illegal contraband you please
in this instance however we just have a 900D so no suprise there.
Turn it upside down
Wow!, I was looking at the box thinking that's got to be at least %50 foam but the case is nealy as big as the box itself
If anyone is thinking about getting this case I would say hands down you won't regret it, It's stunning and I must say quite large and from the limited time I have already spent with it it's extremely well made with some pretty smart features. I had heard about issues with the Plexi window getting damaged during shipping but I am pleased to say mine seems free of any defects so far.
Some more shots of the case:
I saw some nice macro shots on the 900D thread and I was pleased to find a macro function on the camera so I tried a few of my own.
I thought they came out pretty well
Feel free to comment, I would love to know what you think.
Firstly before I start here there are a few things I want to say.
Cheers to all of you guys (and girls) here on OCN you have been so fantastic and welcoming to me since I have joined this site, this really is a great community and this worklog is a one way I would like to give back.
I would like to say thank you to a few folks who have helped me immensley, You should all know who you are
1) The fantastic chaps over at Heatkiller/Watercool who sent me over a whole new set of bolts all the way from Germany for free after I discovered that some of the bolts were not usable due to being formed incorrectly. You guys have absolutely amazing service
2) The awesome guys over at Performance PC's who put up with my endless (and most probably annoying) emails for several weeks and responding to every one of them very quickly and answering all my questions, I know I would have gotten quite annoyed if I were on the recieving end of those emails so I think a sincere thank you is in order here
3) My local PC store TMG for setting my up with my hardware and fantastic service over the years (remember that tired old pc years ago
) Thanks Guys, you have been so awesome.
4) The entire time my pile of parts was sitting on a shelf (5 months) I had been fretting over which PSU I should buy, I annoyed many people with myriads of very specific and annoying questions but I sincerely thank those people that I pestered for helping me with my PSU selection and for setting me straight when I got my silly ideas.
5) Also if anyone who I borrowed a camera off (or who took some pictures for me) is reading this I thank you very much for your kindness.
6)And a thank you to Corsair (and corsairgeorge), for just being awesome and making awesome things
No this is certainly not a corsair fanboy here, nothing to see, move along everybody, oh hey everybody look over there it's is a juggling dog in a tophat, how interesting.
2) The awesome guys over at Performance PC's who put up with my endless (and most probably annoying) emails for several weeks and responding to every one of them very quickly and answering all my questions, I know I would have gotten quite annoyed if I were on the recieving end of those emails so I think a sincere thank you is in order here
3) My local PC store TMG for setting my up with my hardware and fantastic service over the years (remember that tired old pc years ago
4) The entire time my pile of parts was sitting on a shelf (5 months) I had been fretting over which PSU I should buy, I annoyed many people with myriads of very specific and annoying questions but I sincerely thank those people that I pestered for helping me with my PSU selection and for setting me straight when I got my silly ideas.
5) Also if anyone who I borrowed a camera off (or who took some pictures for me) is reading this I thank you very much for your kindness.
6)And a thank you to Corsair (and corsairgeorge), for just being awesome and making awesome things
Now this is my first watercooled build, in fact it's my first full build I have ever done, so I have certainly jumped in the deep end here. I have had months to research this very thoroughly however we shall see how theory translates to practice so If you spot anything that I could improve (or something doing completely wrong
Lets start with a little story
Ahem...
Now once upon a time a young lad walked into a local PC store to put together his first PC as he yet knew hardly anything about computer but liked to think that he did. Well, he left, computer in hands feeling quite chuffed. He thought this computer was very powerful. He much later learnt that by OCN standards a flattened loaf of bread would to be able to run a game faster than his rather half baked PC. This PC survived off kind donations and other hand-me downs as upgrades. Now by this point it could probably perform as well as the flattened loaf of bread, maybe even as good as an intact loaf if it wash pushed!
Specs of that PC as of now:
PSU: Coolermaster Silent Pro M 1000W
CPU: AMD Phenom X4 9550 CPU
MOBO: ASUS M2N MX-SE PLUS
RAM: 4GB Generic DDR2 800Mhz
HDD: Western Digital 650GB Blue
CASE: Generic
GPU: Sapphire HD4870 (was originally a nVidia 9500GT)
CPU: AMD Phenom X4 9550 CPU
MOBO: ASUS M2N MX-SE PLUS
RAM: 4GB Generic DDR2 800Mhz
HDD: Western Digital 650GB Blue
CASE: Generic
GPU: Sapphire HD4870 (was originally a nVidia 9500GT)
Well to be fair I actually got it to play Crysis 1 and GTAIV at playable Rates so it's actually pretty reasonable
I sort of forgot about PC's for quite a while. Then a good friend of mine built a pretty decent rig (what most of us on OCN would call a mid ranged build), that convinced me to get back in the scene so I started in january with buying a rather modest $600 Mobo/CPU/RAM upgrade. I then started looking at getting a closed loop cooler and bigger case to go with it (the Cosmos II). Then around this time I joined OCN and then I caught the custom watercooling bug, there was no turning back.
I did much research, I looked up chemistry charts, looked at the metals and design of waterblocks, Looked at what would be compatible, tube sizes, flow rates, temperatures, I researched almost everything there was to find out about watercooling.I must say that I now know infinitely more about watercooling and other related subjects than I did before. In fact completely coincedentally some of my research on galvanic corrosion for this water cooling loop appeared a month later in one of my exams. Winning
I then started aquiring WC parts, and visualising the build in my mind. To arrive at what we have now
Soooooooooooo that is how a $600 upgrade has turned into this monster PC that we now have here.
I did much research, I looked up chemistry charts, looked at the metals and design of waterblocks, Looked at what would be compatible, tube sizes, flow rates, temperatures, I researched almost everything there was to find out about watercooling.I must say that I now know infinitely more about watercooling and other related subjects than I did before. In fact completely coincedentally some of my research on galvanic corrosion for this water cooling loop appeared a month later in one of my exams. Winning
I then started aquiring WC parts, and visualising the build in my mind. To arrive at what we have now
Soooooooooooo that is how a $600 upgrade has turned into this monster PC that we now have here.
Specifications of Build and Parts used in this Build
SPECS:
CPU: AMD FX-8320 8-Cores 3.5Ghz
GPU: Two Sapphire HD7950's 21196-00-20G Model with 7970 reference PCB
MOBO: ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z
RAM: 32GB G.Skill 1600MHz Ripjaws-X
HDD 1: Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB (Apps and OS)
HDD 2: Western Digital Green 2TB (Storage)
PSU: Corsair AX1200 1200W
CASE: corsair Obsidian 900D (well worth the wait)
WATER COOLING PARTS
2x MCP655 pumps (Laing D5)
Bitspower POM (Acetal) Dual D5 pump top
2x Bitspower Shining Silver Mod kits
4x Bitspower Double Rotary 90deg Shining Silver adaptor
24x Bitspower 3/8"-5/8" Shining Silver Compression Fittings
4x Alphacool G1/4 Bulkeads (not used as I forfeited the midplate)
2x Bitspower Shining Silver 45deg adaptors
4x Bitspower Shining Silver 90deg adaptors
1x Bitspower Shining Silver T-Block
4x Bitspower Shining Silver Stop Fittings
5x Bitspower Shining Silver Extenders of various lengths
1x Bitspower Shining Silver Small Adjustable SLI Link (Connect Reservoir to Pump)
2x Bitspower Shining Silver male to male Extender (well one is black nickel actually because they ran out of stock)
1x Bitspower Shining Silver rotary male to male extender
1x Phobya Valve
1x EK X-RES 3 250
1x EK Supremacy CPU Block Nickel and POM(Acetal)
1x EK C5F-Z Motherboard Block Nickel and POM(Acetal)
1x XSPC RX480 Radiator
1x XSPC RX360 Radiator
2x Heatkiller 79X0 Nickel GPU-X3 Waterblock
2x Heatkiller 79X0 GPU Backplate
1x Heatkiller GPU-X3 SlI/X-Fire Bridge
7x Corsair SP120 Quiet Edition Fans
OTHER
2x Bitfenix 30cm White LED Strips
1x Mod my toys Red Reservoir LED
2x mod my toys 8-way Molex to 3-pin Splitter Boards
1x Custom X-Fire Bridge Cover
CPU: AMD FX-8320 8-Cores 3.5Ghz
GPU: Two Sapphire HD7950's 21196-00-20G Model with 7970 reference PCB
MOBO: ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z
RAM: 32GB G.Skill 1600MHz Ripjaws-X
HDD 1: Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB (Apps and OS)
HDD 2: Western Digital Green 2TB (Storage)
PSU: Corsair AX1200 1200W
CASE: corsair Obsidian 900D (well worth the wait)
WATER COOLING PARTS
2x MCP655 pumps (Laing D5)
Bitspower POM (Acetal) Dual D5 pump top
2x Bitspower Shining Silver Mod kits
4x Bitspower Double Rotary 90deg Shining Silver adaptor
24x Bitspower 3/8"-5/8" Shining Silver Compression Fittings
4x Alphacool G1/4 Bulkeads (not used as I forfeited the midplate)
2x Bitspower Shining Silver 45deg adaptors
4x Bitspower Shining Silver 90deg adaptors
1x Bitspower Shining Silver T-Block
4x Bitspower Shining Silver Stop Fittings
5x Bitspower Shining Silver Extenders of various lengths
1x Bitspower Shining Silver Small Adjustable SLI Link (Connect Reservoir to Pump)
2x Bitspower Shining Silver male to male Extender (well one is black nickel actually because they ran out of stock)
1x Bitspower Shining Silver rotary male to male extender
1x Phobya Valve
1x EK X-RES 3 250
1x EK Supremacy CPU Block Nickel and POM(Acetal)
1x EK C5F-Z Motherboard Block Nickel and POM(Acetal)
1x XSPC RX480 Radiator
1x XSPC RX360 Radiator
2x Heatkiller 79X0 Nickel GPU-X3 Waterblock
2x Heatkiller 79X0 GPU Backplate
1x Heatkiller GPU-X3 SlI/X-Fire Bridge
7x Corsair SP120 Quiet Edition Fans
OTHER
2x Bitfenix 30cm White LED Strips
1x Mod my toys Red Reservoir LED
2x mod my toys 8-way Molex to 3-pin Splitter Boards
1x Custom X-Fire Bridge Cover
Enough talking let's get started with the building; here are some pictures for your patience
Enjoy
I only took a photo of one of my shipments:
Who likes math? 20 layers of black plastic and sore fingers later we have this:
Everything minus a few parts still in a parcel somewhere over the pacific:
The Fabled 900D
It's quite massive
You could probably fit your average family home in this box, your murder victims.... or whatever other illegal contraband you please
Turn it upside down
Wow!, I was looking at the box thinking that's got to be at least %50 foam but the case is nealy as big as the box itself
If anyone is thinking about getting this case I would say hands down you won't regret it, It's stunning and I must say quite large and from the limited time I have already spent with it it's extremely well made with some pretty smart features. I had heard about issues with the Plexi window getting damaged during shipping but I am pleased to say mine seems free of any defects so far.
Some more shots of the case:
I saw some nice macro shots on the 900D thread and I was pleased to find a macro function on the camera so I tried a few of my own.
I thought they came out pretty well
Feel free to comment, I would love to know what you think.