Black Hawk
by Gobigorgohome
Thank you Techbay.no for helping me out with 10% off on all water cooling for this build.
Introduction
My computer-adventure took a new turn about six months ago when I finally decided to go with custom water cooling, which I probably should have done a long time ago after buying pretty much every aftermarket aircooling system for my CPU. At the time I was using a i7-3770K with a Asus Maximus V Formula and 2x GTX 660 Ti's in SLI, at one point I got 3-way GTX 660 Ti in SLI, but the performance never got me where I wanted to be, I was also rocking Nvidia Surround with 5760x1080 on some cheap Benq monitors. I decided to build a "new" rig from scratch and got the Asus Maximus VI Gene Z87 and the i7-4770K together with new RAM and that helped a bit, but that time around I was using custom water cooling, very much like the "CM Special Force 500" of Webtourist here on OCN. Things got to the point when I figured out the perfect way of upgrading my system with more watercooling for an upcoming graphic cards upgrade, so I bought 2x Alphacool Monsta 480's I was planning on having on the top of my case.
I got into heavy modifications to a Fractal Design Arc Mini R2, with nickelplated coppertubing and alot of fittings (two loops with not a single soft tube), it looked awesome and did pretty well. I had a lot of working hours on that build, but it seemed like it was pretty much the same as before and when the price of the AMD R9 295X2 got released my plans pretty much crashed. I had ruined one Asus Maximus VI Gene (I do not know how) and my i7-4770K was destroyed during de-lidding, I ordered a new Gene Z87 and a new i7-4770K only to get a poor chip and I ended up returning the motherboard and the CPU to the shop. I hooked up an old motherboard and CPU I got laing around and used that for a couple of months, until I recently got across a pretty cheap i7-3930K which I decided to bAfter picking up the i7-3930K for a great price I kind of wanted to build a quad crossfire rig for 4K gaming and do some heavy water cooling. I had used EK-water blocks before and I was quite pleased with those blocks so I thought I go that way with this build too. The first order was 4x R9 290s, but after a disappointment aircooling solution of those cards I ended up returning them to get something better. Instead I ordered 2x MSI Lightning R9 290X and a Asus Rampage IV Gene, but for that pricepoint the cards was not quite good enough so I ended up returning them too. uy used. The "White Swan" in my rig is the Fractal Design Arc Mini R2 project I was talking about earlier, you can check it out on my profile.
Goals with this build
The "Black Hawk" will be based on the Asus Rampage IV Black Edition, i7-3930K, 16 Gigabytes of Crucial Ballistix Elite 1866 Mhz RAM, four Sapphire Radeon R9 290X and two EVGA G2 1300W power supplies, the main goal with this machine is to get really good framerates together with the Samsung U28D590D. The machine have to be 24/7 stable, with custom water cooling, stealthy and quiet. The end-result will be almost all black when it comes to aesthetics, which I think will be awesome.
I overspent a bit on the water cooling, I had 2x Alphacool Monsta 480s, 2x EK-XTX240s and 2x EK-XT120s and I decided to get a WaterCool MO-RA3 420 LT to be sure of good temperatures for this setup. The MO-RA3 will be used with 9x low rpm 140 millimeter fans so the setup not will be too loud.
Hardware list (may change)
Water cooling parts
Accessories
Update 17.07.14
"Project-start" with cutting out the holes for the radiators on the acrylic plate which will hold 2x Alphacool Monsta 480, 2x EK-XTX240, 1x EK-XTX120 and 1x EK-XT120.
Case arrived together with motherboard and GPU's, the RAM already have the Monarch modules installed (from previous build) and the water cooling is just a "test setup". Running quadfire with one EVGA G2 1300W to test out that quadfire was working properly.
Closer look at the cards, these are all reference Sapphire Radeon R9 290X (2x BF4 editions and 2x "normal" editions). Stock clock on air with fans at 100% when gaming.
- Time for some modding, I did try my cracked XSPC-reservoir in the original 5 1/4" bays and it did not go in, so I threw out the original bays and replaced it with a Fractal Design Arc Mini R2 5 1/4" bay which is "slightly" modified to fit in this case. After this little mod the XSPC-reservoir went right in.
- I also planned out to use dual power supplies in this case (part of the reason I got this particular case), just used a wirecutter to get the hex mesh out of the way for the power-cable and the "on/off switch", drilled holes for the screws and threw it in.
- I did a little test fitting of a SSD-bracket and decided to just mount it above the second power supply, which went just fine. The HDD's will probably be in this position, maybe with some kind of fastening mechanisme, because loose HDD's is no good idea if the case is moved.
A quick picture of the selfmade radiator stand made of 4mm acrylic which holds 2x AC Monsta 480s, 2x XTX240s, 1x XTX120 and 1x XT120 together with 4x Corsair SP120s, 4x Noctua NF-F12, 2x Fractal Design Silent, 2x Phobya G-Silent 700 rpm fans, all painted white. All radiators exept the 120s is painted white by myself, I am no painter so the result is bad, but for my usage it is not to important.
A picture of the front of the radiator stand, I should might have painted the hole thing black before fastening all those radiators, I may do that later though.
Update 21.07.14
This was my only real plan for my day off from work, to make the acrylic cover for the exhaust fan where the tubing should enter the case. It is made like that by a very simple reason, the door (with the window) has a very weird design in the back towards the 140 mm fan in the rear, so I had to make it fit good so I was sure that I would get the side door on when all is completely mounted. It looks a lot better with the door on, it just need a good wash and some holes for the screws and tubing and it is good to go.
A "cool" picture of the RIVBE, Crucial Ballistix Elite with EK-Monarch modules and the EK-Supremacy Clean CSQ with my "test-setup configuration". It seems like my camera is much better in bright sunlight than indoor with poor lightning, it actually makes a lot of sense.
The backside of the case (I love the 8x DVI-ports of the four GPU's and the rear of 2x EVGA G2 1300W PSU's in the same case. There became a few fat fingerprints on the case though, sweaty in the summer. If you are a perfectionist (kind of like me) you notice a few holes over the bottom hole for the second PSU, this is holes I thought would fit to the screw, but it did not. So I kind of hope you guys do not take that all to badly, my mistake. The white "thing" over the second PSU is the SSD-mount with a slightly brushed finish (I should definitively brush that all the way down to metallic and add some frost-like acrylic to the back or something ...).
More cable-mess with the test-setup, the loop is just something I threw together in 10 minutes. But a little "overview picture" before the "teardown" of the test-setup.
A closer picture of the EK-Supremacy with a silver painted bracket (hot temperature paint actually with very poor finish), but it is perfect as a test-setup.
Just a little picture of my white EK-XTX240 (I have actually painted the X-Res, XTX240 and the fans myself and the result became pretty good, the XTX240s had the best result of all the parts I painted actually. Some nature in the background too.
More cable-mess, I have a job to do with my cable management for these many cables, it will be exciting.
The idea with the acrylic panel.
This could work, right?
Aaaaaaaaaaaand ... cut out to fit the top, I still do not know if I should cut out the rest of the "radiator holes" which I do not think I ever will use with this case, pretty much because I do not own any radiator that is thin enough to fit in there with fans.
This was all for now, will upload a few more pictures when I got some more done.
Update 22.07.14
Update 23.07.14
Started the day out with some finishing touches of the top-panels so they would fit a little better, on this picture I am pretty much done with the top of the case when it comes to drilling holes in the acrylic panels.
One shot from the inside of the case (this is the third panel (in thickness) in the top of the case).
This picture give a "feeling" of how this will look when it is done, still have some work left to do.
Second, I got the thermal pads, the vandal switches and the most of the water cooling today. Only missing 9x Cooltek fans and the second PSU connector.
Update 24.07.14
I pretty much started the day with cutting out new bottom for the case (acrylic), because the last cut was too bad and it looked very bad. It took very long time, but it got perfect too.
Just a shot of the front with M6-screws with washers and lock nuts, I think it is dual front plates in that shot.
A little picture of top/front and the "gap" between the two, I have to find out something clever for this to make it look a little better.
A bad shot from inside the case (I had worked at the case for hours when I took these pictures so I might have been a little unstable).
Preview of "kind of" how it will look when it is done.
Just another shot from the front
A shot from the back, I mounted the plate for the hex-mesh x2 and the exhaust fan cover after I took these pictures, but I forgot to photograph it.
A little "fun-job" too, my back was sore after sitting on a bench in seven hours and worked on the case, so I figured I would give one GPU a try. Here pretty much "half-done".
The last picture today, this is just a shot of the waterblock installed (with backplate), I will have to get back with more.
Update 26.07.14
Okay, I actually did this late last knight, but it was after the update here so I figured I take it today instead. It is the EK-FB Asus R4BE Monoblock Acetal+Nickel installed (black washers and the original screws on the top as you can see), I also had to drill up four M4-washers because these was not included in the pack I got. Will e-mail EKWB about this and get the right length of the screws. Second, 2x EK-Dominator X4 Nickel with clean Acetal tops.
A picture of the "original" cards (not the BF4 editions which have Elpida), while these two cards has Hynix apparently. It seemed like the "original" cards had better thermal pads and thermal paste than the BF4 editions.
Then a little picture of my workbench outside, it was so hot that I had to move the hole thing outside.
Done with three cards with Acetal+Nickel blocks (of course).
Just another angle of the cards, looking very good in my eyes.
Took a picture of one of the cards without the single Ek-bridge.
A bad picture of some loop-setup (I might have to change it because the right side inlet on the monoblock is supposedly the inlet and not the outlet, just fun to find a new route then. As you can see there will be used a little copper-tubing in this build.
A little picture of the motherboard inside the case (modded slightly with acrylic glass with windows here and there for better viewing of the hardware and water cooling inside).
Quad-setup R9 290X.
Quad R9 290X's in the case, with the Rampage IV Black Edition "thingy" which looks so good over the IO place or whatever it is called.
The front-view.
The top-view (I will use the original side window for this side of the case).
Bottom-view.
Better picture of the front-view with my fittings-box in front of the case (much goodies in that box).
I need to drill holes for the tubing in the exhaust-fan cover and drill holes for the LD Cooling 19 mm Vandal Switches on the front-panel, then it is the connection of the power supplies and setting up the radiators and reservoir and stuff. Hope you enjoyed this. More to come.
Update 05.08.14
This shot was taken after the first/second round with the painting (freestyle by the way)
I just mounted the rubber grommets, IO and motherboard stand-offs.
Inside the case with rubber grommets installed.
Rear with IO-panel installed.
Behind motherboard-tray with some details.
Star on the front of the case.
Case with the side windowed panel (not mounted).
Update 06.08.14
EK-FB ASUS R4BE Acetal+Nickel and EK-Supremacy Clean CSQ Full Nickel with Elite bracket installed
Some loop-building, could not use copper tubing because many of holes was to near each other.
Another angle.
Close.
I thought this approach was a little cool.
Chipset to GPU's.
From the top.
From the front.
Another picture.
Update 07.08.14
Started out with rough bends and some fittings.
3x EK-PSC 45 degree down low.
Measurement with both RAM --> out and GPU's --> out.
Little bit more detailed picture.
Drilled holes for the bushings with Multi-Link adapters in the "end".
Hard tubing on.
Fitted.
The loop mounted inside the case with the QD3 bushings.
Corsair Carbide Air 540.
Top view (you can see how the paint is visible through the acrylic).
I am very pleased with this, make it worth the while.
Update 10.08.14
Got a good ten and a half hours with leak/bleed testing done tonight, re-filled the loop when I got up this morning. No leaks the first hour and a half, and none leaks after ten hours. Seems like I have done a very good job with my measurements and cuts of the hard tubing.
Today I started out drilling the holes for the HDD-bracket and wire up the rest of the cables inside the computer. Then I just tried to start the computer with the LD-Cooling buttons which did not work (big surprise
), so I guess I have to re-do that (if anyone have a "guide" or whatever how to do that I would like to see it, came with no manual or anything really). I guess red = positive and black = negative, but what is positive and negative on the RIVBE can't be nowhere to find it seems like.
At least the computer started up with the "Start"-button on the motherboard and everything is working properly.
Then I upload a few shots of my system.
One of the shots from before I started on the tubing.
MO-RA3 420 LT and radiator stand.
I started the day out with drilling holes for the HDD-bracket which turned out like this.
Another shot the HDD-bracket, it did not become all too straight, but it is good enough (and it will not be visible).
Hooked up with side windowed door.
My "Black Hawk" is alive.
My gaming table, Samsung U28D590D, NAD D 1050 and my two lovely Pioneer S-DJ08s with studio monitor stands. The perfect system for me!
One shot with the computer turned on.
Radiator stand hooked up to the rest of the system.
MO-RA3 420 LT hooked up to the rest of the system.
by Gobigorgohome
Thank you Techbay.no for helping me out with 10% off on all water cooling for this build.
Introduction
My computer-adventure took a new turn about six months ago when I finally decided to go with custom water cooling, which I probably should have done a long time ago after buying pretty much every aftermarket aircooling system for my CPU. At the time I was using a i7-3770K with a Asus Maximus V Formula and 2x GTX 660 Ti's in SLI, at one point I got 3-way GTX 660 Ti in SLI, but the performance never got me where I wanted to be, I was also rocking Nvidia Surround with 5760x1080 on some cheap Benq monitors. I decided to build a "new" rig from scratch and got the Asus Maximus VI Gene Z87 and the i7-4770K together with new RAM and that helped a bit, but that time around I was using custom water cooling, very much like the "CM Special Force 500" of Webtourist here on OCN. Things got to the point when I figured out the perfect way of upgrading my system with more watercooling for an upcoming graphic cards upgrade, so I bought 2x Alphacool Monsta 480's I was planning on having on the top of my case.
I got into heavy modifications to a Fractal Design Arc Mini R2, with nickelplated coppertubing and alot of fittings (two loops with not a single soft tube), it looked awesome and did pretty well. I had a lot of working hours on that build, but it seemed like it was pretty much the same as before and when the price of the AMD R9 295X2 got released my plans pretty much crashed. I had ruined one Asus Maximus VI Gene (I do not know how) and my i7-4770K was destroyed during de-lidding, I ordered a new Gene Z87 and a new i7-4770K only to get a poor chip and I ended up returning the motherboard and the CPU to the shop. I hooked up an old motherboard and CPU I got laing around and used that for a couple of months, until I recently got across a pretty cheap i7-3930K which I decided to bAfter picking up the i7-3930K for a great price I kind of wanted to build a quad crossfire rig for 4K gaming and do some heavy water cooling. I had used EK-water blocks before and I was quite pleased with those blocks so I thought I go that way with this build too. The first order was 4x R9 290s, but after a disappointment aircooling solution of those cards I ended up returning them to get something better. Instead I ordered 2x MSI Lightning R9 290X and a Asus Rampage IV Gene, but for that pricepoint the cards was not quite good enough so I ended up returning them too. uy used. The "White Swan" in my rig is the Fractal Design Arc Mini R2 project I was talking about earlier, you can check it out on my profile.
Goals with this build
The "Black Hawk" will be based on the Asus Rampage IV Black Edition, i7-3930K, 16 Gigabytes of Crucial Ballistix Elite 1866 Mhz RAM, four Sapphire Radeon R9 290X and two EVGA G2 1300W power supplies, the main goal with this machine is to get really good framerates together with the Samsung U28D590D. The machine have to be 24/7 stable, with custom water cooling, stealthy and quiet. The end-result will be almost all black when it comes to aesthetics, which I think will be awesome.
I overspent a bit on the water cooling, I had 2x Alphacool Monsta 480s, 2x EK-XTX240s and 2x EK-XT120s and I decided to get a WaterCool MO-RA3 420 LT to be sure of good temperatures for this setup. The MO-RA3 will be used with 9x low rpm 140 millimeter fans so the setup not will be too loud.
Hardware list (may change)
- Asus Rampage IV Black Edition X79
- Intel i7-3930K X79 --> Intel i7-4930K X79
- 16 GB Crucial BallistiX Elite 1866 Mhz --> 16 GB Corsair Dominator Platinum 2400 Mhz CL9 RAM
- 4x Sapphire Radeon R9 290X (2x BF4 edition, 2x normal)
- 1x SanDisk Ultra Plus 256 GB
- 3x Seagate Barracuda 3TB
- Corsair Carbide Air 540 --> new case (of some sorts)
- 2x EVGA G2 1300W
- Samsung U28D590D
- Pioneer S-DJ08
- NAD D 1050 DAC
Water cooling parts
- 1x EK-FB ASUS R4BE Monoblock Acetal+Nickel (returned) - EK-FB ASUS R4BE Acetal+Nickel
- 1x EK-Supremacy CLEAN CSQ - Full Nickel with Elite bracket
- 4x EK-FC R9-290X - Acetal+Nickel
- 4x EK-FC R9-290X, black
- 1x EK-FC Terminal, Quad, Semi-Parallell, black
- 2x EK-RAM Monarch X4, (Nickel CSQ), Acetal+Nickel CSQ
- 2x EK-RAM Monarch X4, Clean CSQ, Acetal
- 5x EK-ZMT Matte Black 3/8"ID-5/8"OD
- 20x Bitspower Compression Fittings (Silver Shining)
- 15x Bitspower Multi-Link Adapter 12 mm Silver Shining
- XSPC Dual D5, 5 1/4"
- 2x Swiftech MCP655
- 2x Alphacool NexXxos Monsta 480 - 1x MO-RA3 420 LT (ordered 26.08.14)
- 2x EK-XTX240 - will be replaced with the 420 LT.
- 1x Bitspower Minivalve Silver Shining
- 4x Phobya G-Silent 700 rpm - 9x Cooltek 140 mm 900 rpm
- 4x Corsair SP120 High Performance - same as above.
- 4x Noctua NF-F12 - same as above.
- 1x WaterCool MO-RA3 420 LT
- 9x Cooltek 140 mm
Accessories
- 2x Swiftech PWM-fancontroller
- 2x LD Cooling Silver Vandal Switch (one white, one blue) 19 mm
- EK 45 degree fitting
- EK 90 degree fitting
- Fujipoly Ultra Extreme 0,5/1,0mm thermal pad
- 2x Gelid GC-Extreme
- Nickel-plated copper tubing
Update 17.07.14
"Project-start" with cutting out the holes for the radiators on the acrylic plate which will hold 2x Alphacool Monsta 480, 2x EK-XTX240, 1x EK-XTX120 and 1x EK-XT120.
Case arrived together with motherboard and GPU's, the RAM already have the Monarch modules installed (from previous build) and the water cooling is just a "test setup". Running quadfire with one EVGA G2 1300W to test out that quadfire was working properly.
Closer look at the cards, these are all reference Sapphire Radeon R9 290X (2x BF4 editions and 2x "normal" editions). Stock clock on air with fans at 100% when gaming.
- Time for some modding, I did try my cracked XSPC-reservoir in the original 5 1/4" bays and it did not go in, so I threw out the original bays and replaced it with a Fractal Design Arc Mini R2 5 1/4" bay which is "slightly" modified to fit in this case. After this little mod the XSPC-reservoir went right in.
- I also planned out to use dual power supplies in this case (part of the reason I got this particular case), just used a wirecutter to get the hex mesh out of the way for the power-cable and the "on/off switch", drilled holes for the screws and threw it in.
- I did a little test fitting of a SSD-bracket and decided to just mount it above the second power supply, which went just fine. The HDD's will probably be in this position, maybe with some kind of fastening mechanisme, because loose HDD's is no good idea if the case is moved.
A quick picture of the selfmade radiator stand made of 4mm acrylic which holds 2x AC Monsta 480s, 2x XTX240s, 1x XTX120 and 1x XT120 together with 4x Corsair SP120s, 4x Noctua NF-F12, 2x Fractal Design Silent, 2x Phobya G-Silent 700 rpm fans, all painted white. All radiators exept the 120s is painted white by myself, I am no painter so the result is bad, but for my usage it is not to important.
A picture of the front of the radiator stand, I should might have painted the hole thing black before fastening all those radiators, I may do that later though.
Update 21.07.14
This was my only real plan for my day off from work, to make the acrylic cover for the exhaust fan where the tubing should enter the case. It is made like that by a very simple reason, the door (with the window) has a very weird design in the back towards the 140 mm fan in the rear, so I had to make it fit good so I was sure that I would get the side door on when all is completely mounted. It looks a lot better with the door on, it just need a good wash and some holes for the screws and tubing and it is good to go.
A "cool" picture of the RIVBE, Crucial Ballistix Elite with EK-Monarch modules and the EK-Supremacy Clean CSQ with my "test-setup configuration". It seems like my camera is much better in bright sunlight than indoor with poor lightning, it actually makes a lot of sense.
The backside of the case (I love the 8x DVI-ports of the four GPU's and the rear of 2x EVGA G2 1300W PSU's in the same case. There became a few fat fingerprints on the case though, sweaty in the summer. If you are a perfectionist (kind of like me) you notice a few holes over the bottom hole for the second PSU, this is holes I thought would fit to the screw, but it did not. So I kind of hope you guys do not take that all to badly, my mistake. The white "thing" over the second PSU is the SSD-mount with a slightly brushed finish (I should definitively brush that all the way down to metallic and add some frost-like acrylic to the back or something ...).
More cable-mess with the test-setup, the loop is just something I threw together in 10 minutes. But a little "overview picture" before the "teardown" of the test-setup.
A closer picture of the EK-Supremacy with a silver painted bracket (hot temperature paint actually with very poor finish), but it is perfect as a test-setup.
Just a little picture of my white EK-XTX240 (I have actually painted the X-Res, XTX240 and the fans myself and the result became pretty good, the XTX240s had the best result of all the parts I painted actually. Some nature in the background too.
More cable-mess, I have a job to do with my cable management for these many cables, it will be exciting.
The idea with the acrylic panel.
This could work, right?
Aaaaaaaaaaaand ... cut out to fit the top, I still do not know if I should cut out the rest of the "radiator holes" which I do not think I ever will use with this case, pretty much because I do not own any radiator that is thin enough to fit in there with fans.
This was all for now, will upload a few more pictures when I got some more done.
Update 22.07.14
FINALLY, time for some modding! (This was not the plans with this build though). Anyways, let the fun begin!
Started out with a picture of the "before" of the case, a pretty normal Corsair Carbide Air 540 completely stripped for all plastic and other accessories. The case is placed on my "workbench" outside in the sun!
Wow, look at that some of all that metal is gone, is it for water cooling?
Cut-out in the bottom
Cut-out on the top
Cut-out in the front (both sides)
Testfitted some acrylic panels (just red tape, the glass is shiny)
Dual-panels in the top, there will also be a acrylic piece on the inside for the right look
Some of the pieces I cut out
The rest of the pieces I cut out
The most of the acrylic pieces in one shot.
The measurement, cutting and finish work took me nearly four hours with an angle cutter and some patient.
Tomorrow there will probably be some final work like drilling holes and fit the acrylic panels so they are a perfect fit.
Started out with a picture of the "before" of the case, a pretty normal Corsair Carbide Air 540 completely stripped for all plastic and other accessories. The case is placed on my "workbench" outside in the sun!
Wow, look at that some of all that metal is gone, is it for water cooling?
Cut-out in the bottom
Cut-out on the top
Cut-out in the front (both sides)
Testfitted some acrylic panels (just red tape, the glass is shiny)
Dual-panels in the top, there will also be a acrylic piece on the inside for the right look
Some of the pieces I cut out
The rest of the pieces I cut out
The most of the acrylic pieces in one shot.
The measurement, cutting and finish work took me nearly four hours with an angle cutter and some patient.
Tomorrow there will probably be some final work like drilling holes and fit the acrylic panels so they are a perfect fit.
Update 23.07.14
Started the day out with some finishing touches of the top-panels so they would fit a little better, on this picture I am pretty much done with the top of the case when it comes to drilling holes in the acrylic panels.
One shot from the inside of the case (this is the third panel (in thickness) in the top of the case).
This picture give a "feeling" of how this will look when it is done, still have some work left to do.
Second, I got the thermal pads, the vandal switches and the most of the water cooling today. Only missing 9x Cooltek fans and the second PSU connector.
Update 24.07.14
I pretty much started the day with cutting out new bottom for the case (acrylic), because the last cut was too bad and it looked very bad. It took very long time, but it got perfect too.
Just a shot of the front with M6-screws with washers and lock nuts, I think it is dual front plates in that shot.
A little picture of top/front and the "gap" between the two, I have to find out something clever for this to make it look a little better.
A bad shot from inside the case (I had worked at the case for hours when I took these pictures so I might have been a little unstable).
Preview of "kind of" how it will look when it is done.
Just another shot from the front
A shot from the back, I mounted the plate for the hex-mesh x2 and the exhaust fan cover after I took these pictures, but I forgot to photograph it.
A little "fun-job" too, my back was sore after sitting on a bench in seven hours and worked on the case, so I figured I would give one GPU a try. Here pretty much "half-done".
The last picture today, this is just a shot of the waterblock installed (with backplate), I will have to get back with more.
Update 26.07.14
Okay, I actually did this late last knight, but it was after the update here so I figured I take it today instead. It is the EK-FB Asus R4BE Monoblock Acetal+Nickel installed (black washers and the original screws on the top as you can see), I also had to drill up four M4-washers because these was not included in the pack I got. Will e-mail EKWB about this and get the right length of the screws. Second, 2x EK-Dominator X4 Nickel with clean Acetal tops.
A picture of the "original" cards (not the BF4 editions which have Elpida), while these two cards has Hynix apparently. It seemed like the "original" cards had better thermal pads and thermal paste than the BF4 editions.
Then a little picture of my workbench outside, it was so hot that I had to move the hole thing outside.
Done with three cards with Acetal+Nickel blocks (of course).
Just another angle of the cards, looking very good in my eyes.
Took a picture of one of the cards without the single Ek-bridge.
A bad picture of some loop-setup (I might have to change it because the right side inlet on the monoblock is supposedly the inlet and not the outlet, just fun to find a new route then. As you can see there will be used a little copper-tubing in this build.
A little picture of the motherboard inside the case (modded slightly with acrylic glass with windows here and there for better viewing of the hardware and water cooling inside).
Quad-setup R9 290X.
Quad R9 290X's in the case, with the Rampage IV Black Edition "thingy" which looks so good over the IO place or whatever it is called.
The front-view.
The top-view (I will use the original side window for this side of the case).
Bottom-view.
Better picture of the front-view with my fittings-box in front of the case (much goodies in that box).
I need to drill holes for the tubing in the exhaust-fan cover and drill holes for the LD Cooling 19 mm Vandal Switches on the front-panel, then it is the connection of the power supplies and setting up the radiators and reservoir and stuff. Hope you enjoyed this. More to come.
Update 05.08.14
This shot was taken after the first/second round with the painting (freestyle by the way)
I just mounted the rubber grommets, IO and motherboard stand-offs.
Inside the case with rubber grommets installed.
Rear with IO-panel installed.
Behind motherboard-tray with some details.
Star on the front of the case.
Case with the side windowed panel (not mounted).
Update 06.08.14
EK-FB ASUS R4BE Acetal+Nickel and EK-Supremacy Clean CSQ Full Nickel with Elite bracket installed
Some loop-building, could not use copper tubing because many of holes was to near each other.
Another angle.
Close.
I thought this approach was a little cool.
Chipset to GPU's.
From the top.
From the front.
Another picture.
Update 07.08.14
Started out with rough bends and some fittings.
3x EK-PSC 45 degree down low.
Measurement with both RAM --> out and GPU's --> out.
Little bit more detailed picture.
Drilled holes for the bushings with Multi-Link adapters in the "end".
Hard tubing on.
Fitted.
The loop mounted inside the case with the QD3 bushings.
Corsair Carbide Air 540.
Top view (you can see how the paint is visible through the acrylic).
I am very pleased with this, make it worth the while.
Update 10.08.14
Got a good ten and a half hours with leak/bleed testing done tonight, re-filled the loop when I got up this morning. No leaks the first hour and a half, and none leaks after ten hours. Seems like I have done a very good job with my measurements and cuts of the hard tubing.
Today I started out drilling the holes for the HDD-bracket and wire up the rest of the cables inside the computer. Then I just tried to start the computer with the LD-Cooling buttons which did not work (big surprise
At least the computer started up with the "Start"-button on the motherboard and everything is working properly.
Then I upload a few shots of my system.
One of the shots from before I started on the tubing.
MO-RA3 420 LT and radiator stand.
I started the day out with drilling holes for the HDD-bracket which turned out like this.
Another shot the HDD-bracket, it did not become all too straight, but it is good enough (and it will not be visible).
Hooked up with side windowed door.
My "Black Hawk" is alive.
My gaming table, Samsung U28D590D, NAD D 1050 and my two lovely Pioneer S-DJ08s with studio monitor stands. The perfect system for me!
One shot with the computer turned on.
Radiator stand hooked up to the rest of the system.
MO-RA3 420 LT hooked up to the rest of the system.