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[Build Log] --- The Liquidator -- 99% COMPLETED.

57K views 523 replies 64 participants last post by  ProfeZZor X 
#1 ·
Okay, I guess this build log is kind of overdue, since I've had the case for over a month now, I've done some minor modifications to it, and I pretty much have all of the hardware parts I need from my existing build, save some new C47 fittings extra angles and extentions, and acrylic tubing which I'll be upgrading to - but here it goes...

I named my build "The Liquidator" because I like the concept of incorporating a name that coincides with watercooling, it sort of has a divisive yet humorus marketing sell to the name, and I wanted a build that I could have fun with, using materials that will set it apart from most typical builds.

I won't bore you with eye candy shots of boxed parts, since you probably want to get to the meat and potatoes of the build. But for sake of curiosity, and the fact that I've already gotten started on installing some of the new things already (for test fitting), I'm working with the following:

HARDWARE:

ASUS Rampage IV Extreme ASUS Rampage IV Black Edition
Intel i7 3960x Intel i7-4960k
EVGA Titan
Soundblaster Live X-Fi
16G Corsair Low Profile RAM 32G Corsair Platinum 2400MHz
3 x Samsung 840 EVO 500 SSD's
1 x 4TB WD Black

WATERCOOLING:

EK Supreme Clear Acrylic, EK Supremacy Clean CSQ - Nickel+Plexi R4BE
EK Supreme Clear Acrylic CPU Block, EK Supremacy full board Clean CSQ - Nickel+Plexi
EKWB R4BE Monoblock Nickel+Plexi, modified with matte black vinyl
EKWB Dominator RAM/Monarch Nickel+Plexi, modified with matte black vinyl
EK Supremacy Titan GPU blocks Clean CSQ - Nickel+Plexi (2x)
Alphacool 360 Monsta Rad
Alphacool 240 Monsta Rad
Alphacool D5 pumps (2x)
Alphacool D5 Clear Acrylic pump tops (2x)
Primochill Vortex Flow Indicators - Clear Plexi (6x)
Monsoon Acrylic Tubing Reamer
Monsoon 13mm Hardline Pro Mandrel Tool Kit
Monsoon Silicone Tubing for Acrylic Bending (2ft)
E22 Acrylic Tubing 36" x 6
Matte black C47 & C48 Bitspower Fittings (30x)
Bitspower Mini Valve
90 Degree Rotary Fittings (10x)
FrozenQ FlexTank Multi-optional Reservoir
Bitspower Low Profile Stop Fittings
Bitspower Case Top Water Fill Port
Koolance G1/4 Threaded funnel
XSPC LCD Temperature Sensor - blue/white

CASELABS CASE:

Outter Panels: White ST10
Inner Chassis: Black
XXL Smoked Window
Other: Black I/O panel
USB 3.0 ready
Standard drop in 120 x 4

Alright, now that that's out of the way, what I had in mind for this build was to think outside of the box by doing something elegant but different. Bold, but conservative. I also have to give credit where credit is due - ZnJ did an amazing build on his ST10 "Julian" build, so that was a part of my motivation for scrapping my current (and first) watercooled PC for something more long term. I also want to recognize K-Lime for his build too, and the rigid wiring he incorporated in his build, which inspired me to do the same in mine.

THE IDEA:

After some careful thought, I've been thinking about ways to set myself apart from the typical water cooled rigs I've seen so far, and try to go for a more memoral build that would get people talking. One of my ideas was to do away with my reservoir and utilize the volume space of several Primochill flow indicators as storage. Originally called "Gears of War", that name sounded too generic for my build at the time, but somewhat worked. Then something changed all of that.

While getting my midplates made at my local plastics shop, I came across a piece of acrylic that resembled frozen water. I didn't think anything of it at first, but then after bringing my standard pieces of acrylic home and fitting them into my case, it made my build look just like everyone elses. Plus, I kept thinking about that "water" piece a few times in the days that followed. Maybe it was a sign for me to get it, so I went back to the shop and asked the owner a few more questions about it, pricing, and so on. Needless to say, after several daydreams about adding that material in my rig, I committed myself to incorporating it into my build.

These pics are about as close to final shots as I can get right now. My apologies for the lack of high definition.

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#2 ·
Here is the case itself. I really like the combination of a clean room white on the outside, with a sinister black box as the inside.

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Here is what the rig looked like after installing the plain white acrylic and backcage plate (which is smoked clear acrylic).

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For whatever reason, this just didn't work for me at all, thinking back to my first water cooled rig, and how bland it came out.
 
#3 ·
Here is the infamous frozen water material I've been ranting about. This is just the sample pieces in the showroom that caught my attention while waiting for my previous midplates to be cut.

Once the shop is done creating these for me, I plan on putting them where the two previous arylic pieces are situated in the picture above. I will also illuminate them at some point, but more on that later.

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#4 ·
Now that I've gone with completely new hardware for this build, I will be selling a lot of what I have in my current case.

Here's what will be up for sale once this build is done and running:

3x Black Ice 120 rads
1x RIVE motherboard (untouched, never overclocked, never tweaked)
1x EVGA GTX 590 Hydro Copper (never overclocked, never tweaked)
6x 120mm Enermax blue LED fans
1x EK RIVE clear acrylic/nickel Mobo blocks
1x EK LG2011 clear acrylic/nickel CPU block
1x Alphacool bay res (can house two D5's)
1x Apevia Warlock 1300 watt PSU (used less than 10 hours total, used for testing hardware only)

After spending some time in my kids room and watching them play games on their (slow) PC this past weekend, I've decided to just give them my current water cooled build. No doubt they'll appreciate the quicker boot time of the SSD, the speed of the 590 hydro copper, the ample storage space, and of course the power of the RIVE and 3960 i7 chip. Most importantly, they'll have even more fun seeing the LED lights and knowing there's water inside.
 
#6 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by ZnJ View Post

Great start.
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That blue thing is really interesting. Can't wait to see more
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Seems fitting that you'd be the first person to post here.

I've already started on the flexbay area. I ran into some problems with the studs on the inside of the flexbay, so I'll be removing those, as I won't need them. I'm taking a different approach instead of creating a full frame and using aluminum J-railing I found at the hardware store to mount the smoked plexiglass.

I'll post more pictures this weekend, since my time is limited during the week with the wife & kids, work, and the gym... Kind of like your situation.
 
#7 ·
This weekend I was quite busy. Well, not really. I managed to get my flexbay window installed, and it was a lot easier than I thought. The entire process only took about 2 hours total, but I'm completely satisfied with the end result. My apologies for the bad pictures, as I'm working with a cell phone camera.

First off, I went to Home Depot to see what materials I could use for the frame. I knew that I wanted to make it simple with little to no hassle, so I came across some carpet railing that was the absolute perfect fit:

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Next, I cut it to the length of the flex bays. I had a few smoked acrylic pieces cut out for the flex bay from a few weeks ago, so it was just a matter of creating the frame and installing it.

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#8 ·
I had intentionally left the frame off on the top and bottom to allow air to circulate down to the rad on the bottom of the case. I also didn't want to make the frame even with the acrylic, because I wanted it to fill in any gapping between the acrylic and white cover.

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Here I have the case on it's back, so that you can see how the acrylic just sits right on top of the frame with little to no effort. The acrylic is leaning a bot more to the right in the picture below, so it appears to have a large gap between the edge of the acrylic and white covering. When aligned properly, it looks great.

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#9 ·
In order to get the frame on, I had to shave off the inner case nipples that aligned the flexbay covers. This was the most tedious and time consuming part of the job, but I was able to get them off and ground down the nubs in about 50 minutes. After they were gone, it was extremely easy to level the aluminum J-railing to frame, punch a few holes to bolt it on, and install. After the install of the railing, it was equally as sturdy and solid as the chassis itself.

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Next up is the install of the acrylic on to the frame. After painting the frame rails black, I drilled a few holes in the acrylic to install quick access screws. Ironically, I used the same screws that bolted the flexbay covers on the inside. In addition to those screws, I also bought a couple of packets of small nuts and bolts that fit perfectly with the CaseLabs screws. So if I wanted to secure the CL screws permanently, I could.

The other thing that crossed my mind is that I could have just made the window install a lot easier and seamless by skipping the screws and used double sided tape (which I can still do with the extra window piece that I have), but I wanted to make the window more functional than just an aesthetic piece. I may revisit that idea again further down the line if I have any snagging issues with the screws, but let's hope not.

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My little helper installed the acrylic piece in the wrong direction, but as I've discovered, it doesn't matter which direction the acrylic and frame is installed on to the case, because the screw holes still aligns perfectly, regardless of which direction the entire frame/acrylic piece is installed.

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Although it appears that the acrylic is protruding away from the white panel, it's not. The gapping turned out just right, and it sits perfectly flush.

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Now that I've gotten the front window installed and out of the way, my next install will be the custom acrylic water piece that I had made, and the side window to close off the front window compartment. I ran into the shop owner that's working on it, and he showed me what he has done so far. And so far the midplate is partially done - they just need to polish the acrylic. As for the backplate for the front compartment, I instructed them to try and simulate water flowing downward. I'm really excited to see how they'll turn out, but as expected, I'll be sure to post pictures when they're done.

I also ordered a strip of LED lights and a couple more Primochill flow indicators to put on display in that compartment on Thursday, but if they don't work out for this build, I may end up using a different idea as a back up.
 
#10 ·
Wow, I ordered these on Thursday and it arrived today. Geesh that was fast. At least now I can get to work on testing the lighting effects on the custom acrylic midplate pieces that I ordered without having to wait for these to arrive.

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#11 ·
subbedarooney, lets get the cl and pubber crowds into this log
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great ! I have read your posts thruout OCN, but I like not knowing where you're going with this build.... it'll be interesting to see how that wave texture acrylic plays with the st10.
 
#13 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Barefooter View Post

Subbed for this one. Can't wait to see how you incorporate that frozen water looking acrylic into the build.
I wanted to get more pieces made, but it was getting to be too pricey... Fortunately, I can always have him make more on a later date if I needed him to.

I wanted to get it done in an aqua/swimming pool color a few days after placing my order, but it was already too late, because they had already started on the project. I'm a big Miami Dolphins fan, so I could have ran orange coolant in my tubes during football season if I had the aqua plates instead. But, I ended up getting it done in the same blue as what you see in the picture above...
 
#15 ·
Update: As of this morning, it looks like the Acrylic shop needs few more days to finish the custom acrylic plates, so I won't have them until the middle of next week. In the mean time I guess I can fit the rads back in, reconfigure the fans, and create some support brackets inside the case for when I do get those plates. I already have some mocked up pieces of those plates, so that should make my task easier.
 
#16 ·
Great news... I got the midplate and back plate back from the acrylic shop and they look great. They're really thick (about an inch) and heavy, but they look amazing. Just yesterday while looking in the Acrylic Bending thread, I saw some tubing with a unique squiggle to it, and thought it would be cool to do the same thing to my midplate, but A) it was too late in the project to suggest that, and B) it would require an expensive oven to get the kind of wavy curve I'd want. Lucky for me, I'm not the kind of guy that easily takes no for an answer. And lucky for me, I also live in Southern California where there are lots of types of businesses that might be able to facilitate my request. So, I'll shop my idea around to a few other places to see if they can do that kind of exotic bend in thick acrylic. If not, then I'll still be equally as happy with what I have now...

Hey, if it can dream it I gotta at least try, right?

I'll post pictures of the new plates in the next few hours. Sorry for the wait, I'm still at work.
 
#18 ·
Okay so here we go... Over the weekend, I had the idea of creating a lower vent on the front acrylic piece to let some air circulate in/out of the lower radiator. I wasn't trying to make it perfect, so bare with me. If anything, I created it for visual confirmation on how it would actually look. And to be honest, I'm not happy with the result. Sure it's functional, but it looks a little ghetto in my opinion... I ended up getting another smoked acrylic piece when I picked up my midplate yesterday, so you won't see this monstrosity on my build by the time it's done.

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#19 ·
Alright, here's what some of you guys have been waiting for... While running errands at lunch yesterday, I happened to stop by the plastics shop to ask him about the idea for making these acrylic pieces with a wavy pattern, but he couldn't. Ironically, he had sent me an email just minutes after I had left for lunch to come pick up the pieces I had ordered. So I guess you can say it was perfect timing.

Here are some shots I took of the smaller of the two pieces in my car. It's resting on the center console.

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And here you can see where the thin blue slab of acrylic is glued on the bottom of the thicker clear piece.

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Here's a close up of the surface. In a nutshell, the crafter carved out bits and pieced of the top layer of clear acrylic to give it a watery look.

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#20 ·
Here they finally make it home. I attempted to put them in the case for fitting, but it looks like the lower midplate is a tad bit bigger. It fits, but barely, and it requires a little bit of force. So, I'm going to see about getting it shaved down a bit to allow for a better install. Besides, I think the crafter over compensated for the amount of chiseling he was going to do, so he cut the actual pieces larger than he was suppose to to get the measurements I gave him. But, he probably realized he had more left over. Either way, I'll get it fixed to fit inside the case properly.

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And here's a visual idea of just how thick these pieces are. I also want to point out that besides the top surfaces being chiseled, I also had two of the sides chiseled to carry that watery look on the edges. I left one side smooth, so that I can align the LED strip against it to illuminate it on the inside. Because of the transparency of these pieces, I'm not so sure I want to ruin the look by putting a solid mirrored panel on the bottom to light it up, so I'll have to improvise and use as many lighting strips as possible... Stay tuned, as I get these panels shortened, and align them for fitting. Once I get that done and they're installed (with lighting), I'll move to my next phase, which will be the multiple flow indicators to go in the flexbay compartment. ...Thanks for subscribing.

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#22 ·
Holy crap!

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Quote:
Originally Posted by ZnJ View Post

Are you planning on putting some light under, would be interesting to see how it reacts to LEDs.
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If you do lighting I vote white, that should bring out that beautiful blue best (just my
personal taste when it comes to these sort of things).
 
#23 ·
Ask, and ye shall receive... I took your advice last night ZnJ and ran some tests with the LED strip that I bought a few weeks ago. And all I can say is WOW. These things lit up like a Christmas tree. I initially had my doubts on how illuminated they would be, because of the density of the top layer of acrylic, but seeing this in all it's glory was like being a kid watching a Disney Electrical Parade.

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Here is it with the LED lights sandwiched between the midplate and backplate panels.

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Here's a side view looking inside the clear acrylic.

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And here's looking into the chiseled side.

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Top view with the lighting on the smooth side (which is where it'll be installed).

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This is the light strip under both pieces. That's about 2 and a half inches of acrylic.

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Here's the money shot.

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#26 ·
This weekend I managed to cut into the Midplate block, using a Dremel. A part of the motherboard tray was causing the block to be off centered and tilt downward, so I shaved a sliver of that area off in order for it to fit. It seemed to work out just fine, and I'm glad I didn't take it back to the shop to have them cut off an inch. That would have definitely ruined it for sure. At this point I don't know if I should either sand down that cut section to repolish, paint it black, or leave it as is...

Pictures to follow soon.
 
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