Final pictures here
Midnight Express on IMDB
The infamous Giorgio Moroder track CHASE, from the soundtrack
So I fractured my spine in a couple of places, other bits of back related damage here and there, spent some time in hospital and have been on and off work for months. Finally I was fully signed off not so long ago, at least until Feb next year. I've always wanted to build a boutique style PC but never had the time to do it right, but now I do, when I can tolerate the pain.
So what have I been doing with all that free time, apart from feeling sorry for myself? Learning about watercooling of course! Buying bits and bobs, designing and ordering my dream case from CL. I have a long way to go, fair warning that this one will go on for quite some time but here's how things look so far.
The Spec
Colour Scheme
The colour theme is navy blue (the custom painted Caselabs case), red and white (internals and fittings)
Case - Mercury S8 with Pedestal, Two tone white and misty midnight blue:
The flexbay will be replaced with a 120.2 flexbay to make room for an Aquaero 6.
Rads - 4x Alphacool UT60 matte white - 2 for the roof, 2 for the basement. I considered some monstahs but felt that the 60s left pushpull as an option whereas things would get complicated and impact the aesthetics. Will be purchasing Blitz Pro kit to prep the rads. Since each UT60 is 450-500ml, Mick at Mayhems has sent me some extra Blitz Part 1 so I can get these rads prepped.
Fans - Gentle Typhoons AP15 spec from Coolerguys
CPU 5930K
Motherboard - Asus x99 Deluxe - going with the white theme
Memory - Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB DDR4 Quad kit
Storage - Plextor M6e PCIe m.2 256GB, Samsung 850 Pro 1TB, WD Green 6TB
GPU - 2x GALAX GeForce GTX 980 "Hall of Fame Edition"
PSU - Cosair AX1500i
Blocks
CPU - EK Supremacy EVO, Red Acrylic
GPU - Diamond Cooling blocks - natural finish copper, white acetal, fully custom backplate, custom red caphead screws
Aquaero 6 Pro with Red heatsink and Black faceplate
Pumps/tops
2x Aqua Computer D5 with USB and Aquabus interface
Bitspower Dual D5 Mod top - acrylic, bracket set and abrasive red dress kits (block extensively polished)
Reservoir
Primochill 120mm CTR Phase II in Blood Red (straight knurled white compression rings)
Fan control / monitoring
Aqua Computers Aquaero 6 Pro
Flow meter - AQ High Flow usb MPS flow sensor
Fluid temperature sensor - AQ
LEDs
Aqua Computer's new product or modified Tingkam led controller and RGB reel
Fittings and tubing
13/16mm hardline - Monsoon
Presentation fittings - Monsoon Hardlock - Matte white
Utility fittings - Bitspower and Alphacool fittings for bulkheads, drains and other under-the-hood (unseen) purposes.
Cabling and sleeving
Planning to build myself courtesy of Lutro0's excellent youtube series
Chosen sleeving - LC Telios Black/Dark Red, Dark Red, Red/Dark Red, White
Wiring harnesses - all custom built from scratch to match exact fan configuration.
Cable training
I have both e22 and Modbunker combs. Will probably go with stealth Modbunker combs.
Component placement -
Floating reservoir (as in no reservoir bracket, it will hang off the Monsoon fitting as its a small res) sitting center of front viewing window
Dual pump and top combo sitting below, using full length side window
Two rads in the roof, push fans in extended top:
Two rads in the pedestal, both pushpull into the pedestal and naturally aspirated through front and rear of pedestal.
Dual drainage using the drain ports on the UT60s running out the bottom of the case via a bulkhead:
Flexbay fan configuration - 2 Gentle Typhoon
Exhausts - None. Entirely naturally aspirated.
Final pictures here
Midnight Express on IMDB
The infamous Giorgio Moroder track CHASE, from the soundtrack
So I fractured my spine in a couple of places, other bits of back related damage here and there, spent some time in hospital and have been on and off work for months. Finally I was fully signed off not so long ago, at least until Feb next year. I've always wanted to build a boutique style PC but never had the time to do it right, but now I do, when I can tolerate the pain.
So what have I been doing with all that free time, apart from feeling sorry for myself? Learning about watercooling of course! Buying bits and bobs, designing and ordering my dream case from CL. I have a long way to go, fair warning that this one will go on for quite some time but here's how things look so far.
The Spec
Colour Scheme
The colour theme is navy blue (the custom painted Caselabs case), red and white (internals and fittings)
Case - Mercury S8 with Pedestal, Two tone white and misty midnight blue:
The flexbay will be replaced with a 120.2 flexbay to make room for an Aquaero 6.
Rads - 4x Alphacool UT60 matte white - 2 for the roof, 2 for the basement. I considered some monstahs but felt that the 60s left pushpull as an option whereas things would get complicated and impact the aesthetics. Will be purchasing Blitz Pro kit to prep the rads. Since each UT60 is 450-500ml, Mick at Mayhems has sent me some extra Blitz Part 1 so I can get these rads prepped.
Fans - Gentle Typhoons AP15 spec from Coolerguys
CPU 5930K
Motherboard - Asus x99 Deluxe - going with the white theme
Memory - Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB DDR4 Quad kit
Storage - Plextor M6e PCIe m.2 256GB, Samsung 850 Pro 1TB, WD Green 6TB
GPU - 2x GALAX GeForce GTX 980 "Hall of Fame Edition"
PSU - Cosair AX1500i
Blocks
CPU - EK Supremacy EVO, Red Acrylic
GPU - Diamond Cooling blocks - natural finish copper, white acetal, fully custom backplate, custom red caphead screws
Aquaero 6 Pro with Red heatsink and Black faceplate
Pumps/tops
2x Aqua Computer D5 with USB and Aquabus interface
Bitspower Dual D5 Mod top - acrylic, bracket set and abrasive red dress kits (block extensively polished)
Reservoir
Primochill 120mm CTR Phase II in Blood Red (straight knurled white compression rings)
Fan control / monitoring
Aqua Computers Aquaero 6 Pro
Flow meter - AQ High Flow usb MPS flow sensor
Fluid temperature sensor - AQ
LEDs
Aqua Computer's new product or modified Tingkam led controller and RGB reel
Fittings and tubing
13/16mm hardline - Monsoon
Presentation fittings - Monsoon Hardlock - Matte white
Utility fittings - Bitspower and Alphacool fittings for bulkheads, drains and other under-the-hood (unseen) purposes.
Cabling and sleeving
Planning to build myself courtesy of Lutro0's excellent youtube series
Chosen sleeving - LC Telios Black/Dark Red, Dark Red, Red/Dark Red, White
Wiring harnesses - all custom built from scratch to match exact fan configuration.
Cable training
I have both e22 and Modbunker combs. Will probably go with stealth Modbunker combs.
Component placement -
Floating reservoir (as in no reservoir bracket, it will hang off the Monsoon fitting as its a small res) sitting center of front viewing window
Dual pump and top combo sitting below, using full length side window
Two rads in the roof, push fans in extended top:
Two rads in the pedestal, both pushpull into the pedestal and naturally aspirated through front and rear of pedestal.
Dual drainage using the drain ports on the UT60s running out the bottom of the case via a bulkhead:
Flexbay fan configuration - 2 Gentle Typhoon
Exhausts - None. Entirely naturally aspirated.
Final pictures here