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my first build log [COMPLETE]

3K views 34 replies 7 participants last post by  Deedaz 
#1 ·
Hey guys, working on my first liquid cooling build. This will be a slow process as i dont have the money to buy everything at once, and im still researching and learning as much as i can.

I have my parts all picked out and ive gotten a few already. The parts i have already are:
Thermaltake core v71 case (picked this for the removable drive bays and huge window)
swiftech MCR240 rad
2 bgears b-ice 140mm fans (may not be the best fans but they will look good lol)
AeroCool CoolTouch-R fan controller (picked this because of the card reader/usb combo)
6 pack of monsoon free center compression fittings, blue 1/2 x 3/4

parts i plan to get:
Swiftech MCP655 pump
Bitspower Water Tank Z-Multi 200 V2 (not really set on this one yet...)
modular PS (dont really NEED this but it will be easier to work with)
EK-Supremacy Clean cpu block
PrimoFlex Advanced LRT Tubing (i hear good things but if theres a better option let me know)
Aurora 2 (Blue) coolant. (Im building this rig to showcase this coolant, at least at first. I may change it next year when i upgrade my graphics and add to the loop)
I still need another 200mm fan for the top of the case, 2 more blue 120's for the bottom and another for the rear. also a splitter to rig the top fans together into the built in fan controller.

i got the rad all rinsed out tonight, it wasn't too bad...hopefully i did it well enough, used about a gal of distilled water. i put the fans on the rad and installed it in the case. Broke a molex connector in the process of trying to test the fans
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god i hate those things lol

heres some pics so far, sorry about the blurry one...
i got angry...

testing one at time as a result lol

rad and fans installed
 
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#3 ·
just ordered my pump/res. went with the xspc photon 170/d5 combo. I've also decided to go with the bitspower block and polish it clear. That's the next item on my list to buy, after that its tubing and coolant and im ready to build!
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testing the second fan


got these on the marketplace, great deal
 
#5 ·
ok so i got impatient and ordered the rest of my stuff lol. went with primochill tubing and mayhems aurora 2. Also got a couple fans for the bottom. The res and block should be here in the next few days, should give me time to get the block all polished up and ready to go. I'll post more pics when i get everything.
 
#6 ·
got my cpu block today! either i screwed up and ordered barb fittings with it or they just threw them in lol. I'll get the block polished up tomorrow night and post more pics.

edit: it looks like the barbs just come with it as i wasn't charged extra. Theres an option at the bottom to choose between 3/8" and 1/2"

making sure my fittings fit next to eachother. Its really close


the block with the chrome barbs lol
 
#7 ·
heres a bunch of pictures as promised!
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heres the pump/res. Its smaller than i expected but fits perfectly.


i was hoping that with so many holes on the drive cage support i could get them to match up, but of course i couldnt so i ran velcro down the whole thing.


I'll probably run a zip tie or two around it so its stable but that velcro is strong


got the block all polished and clear now, it looks sweet! it was really easy and only took about 20 minutes
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#8 ·
ok so it seems i was not very careful and broke my mobo at some point in the installation and had to get a new one
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i was planning to upgrade it eventually but was hoping to upgrade some other stuff first, oh well i guess. it wouldnt have been so bad if i had figured it out BEFORE i put the mayhems in it
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with the coolant already running through it i really didnt want to drain the loop if i could help it so i managed to take everything out, still connected and back in on a new board. Not something i want to try again lol

when i got my bitspower block it came with an extra o-ring. Then when i got my pump/res combo it came with what i thought was an extra o-ring too....i was mistaken. luckily the res was not over anything critical and i had paper towels in place.
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ok its picture time and theres lots of them!

getting the block installed on the mobo i broke...


everything installed, no tubing yet on the broken board


i quickly learned what people meant by the photon res having a bad fill port, what a nightmare. I had to build a custom ghetto funnel with hot glue and a BK straw!
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i had to shove the straw down past the anti turbulence thing or the water would just pool up on top and go everywhere.



this tube was a real pain, had to remove the fan to get the compression ring on, unfortunately i scratched the hell out of one of them
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got the tubing all finished (still broken board)


leak testing on the broken board, just before i discovered the missing o-ring, nothing else leaked though


drained the water and put the aurora in, still got paper towels just in case
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now at this point i think ive got it all done and i go set it back up and it wont boot. i troubleshoot it til im certain its the mobo then do some shopping, got a great deal on an asus sabertooth board with one day shipping. i found some of these liquid neon lights that just fit this "warp core" build perfectly. Im thinking about putting one of THESE star trek decals on the window, what do you guys think? (i can cut the center part out, doesnt really look right to me)
I didnt really take any pics while assembling this thing for the second time lol but i got finished product pics for you! Sadly my camera doesnt show the detail of the neon lighting, it is so freakin sweet
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fully assembled and testing with the new asus board


same thing no flash


sitting on the desk (flash)


sitting on the desk (no flash)


front views



well thats it for now! I'll update with more pics as i upgrade things. let me know what you guys think or if you have any questions! thanks for checking it out!
 
#9 ·

I decided to redo my tubing and run a return line into the top fill port using a valve. Unfortunately i cross threaded one of my compression rings when i first installed it so i had to replace it with the spare barb fitting for now
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i used a male to male rotary thinking it would be easy to disconnect it from the res, but it turned out to be a huge pain in the ass lol. I had to use vise grips and some regular pliers to keep it from unscrewing from the vale while i unscrewed/screwed it into the res.

heres the updated pics

i had to drill some holes in the top of the case to get the rad to work the other direction


the fitting that got cross threaded, hard to tell from the pic but the blue finish is gone on half the threads


heres the valve connected to the rotary and an extender (they were out of the black chrome so got the silver one)


a close up of the valve installed in the rig






i know, the white zip tie is sooo ugly and i will replace it, but its all i had on hand
 
#11 ·
heres a small update. I replaced the 2x4gb cheapy ram i had with a stick of g skill 8gb. I will add another 8gb stick later. I also added lights to my cpu block and tried a "spotlight" to help light up the res and show off the aurora....but the spotlight is kinda fail. Oh well, the block lights make up for it.
Too bad i dont have a fancy camera like some of you guys do
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#12 ·
I added another swiftech radiator, dual 120 and put it up top and I moved the 280 rad to the front.
I went with blue enzotech fittings and they look great
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i will probably replace all the fittings with them eventually.


Unfortunately i wont get my new fans until tomorrow so i will have to post some finished pics on friday. Went with the LED corsair sp 120/140's they should give off more light than my current fans.


here it is all finished, except for fans


And finally, I thought i would share my "cable management" lol. Originally my plan was to upgrade my psu much earlier in the build so i was just going to tidy things up with the new one....still havent bought one yet
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#14 ·
I added my current graphics card to the loop today. Went with the EK thermosphere universal block and some heatsinks for the ram chips. I hadded some 45 degree fittings and a fill port to the loop and swapped the rest of my b-gears fans for the corsair led fans.

heres the new block and heatsinks next to the card


i got the block and heatsinks installed. I had to break the pins off 4 of the heatsinks to get them to fit


close up of the block installed


i got the tubing all finished and fill port added in, it barely fits


heres a close up of the block with aurora running through it


and the final pic of the whole rig. I think the corsair fans really make it look good
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Hopefully the Aurora will be ok with this setup, i may have to try the aurora booster or just switch to pastel later on, but so far so good
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#15 ·
Ok I finally have an update! Got an R9 290, EK waterblock/backplate with the plexi terminal, new psu and some blue cable extensions. I got the block installed on the card tonight and i will get it all put in the system tomorrow. going to be flipping the front rad around and redoing some of the tubing.







 
#16 ·
Lovin' that blue
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Sometimes I do wonder if I went overboard with the fittings in my build, because whereas most builds show a lot of tubing (which really highlights the WATERcooling aspect), mine shows more fittings than tubing lol.

Btw have you tried using that rear fan as an intake instead of exhaust? It would feed the top rad fans better, and also provide some cooling for the mobo VRMs.
 
#17 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by magnek View Post

Lovin' that blue
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Sometimes I do wonder if I went overboard with the fittings in my build, because whereas most builds show a lot of tubing (which really highlights the WATERcooling aspect), mine shows more fittings than tubing lol.

Btw have you tried using that rear fan as an intake instead of exhaust? It would feed the top rad fans better, and also provide some cooling for the mobo VRMs.
Oh thats an interesting idea, I'll have to get a filter for that fan first though, it gets enough dust already lol
 
#18 ·
pfffft what true blue enthusiast (pun intended) doesn't de_dust their rig every week?
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But seriously those AF120s really choke when there's a lot of restriction, such as a fine dust filter. My rear AF140 runs without a filter in my Enthoo Primo, and the airflow already feels like it got cut in half.
 
#19 ·
I got everything put together and looking good!
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Sadly, one of my liquid neon lights somehow died during the process though
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Oh well, guess it's better than killing another motherboard lol

My cpu block had a bunch of crap in it, guess the rads weren't as clean as i had hoped.


And here's the final results!


HERE is a quick video of the fluid in motion.
 
#20 ·
Well the universe is clearly against me having white lighting in my case lol. The first time I ordered a white light bar from ppcs it had actually been discontinued, so that got removed from the order and skipped for the time. Second time I tried to order some LED's for my cpu block from sidewinder. Turned out they couldn't find the item in their warehouse so that order got cancelled. I finally ordered another light bar from ppcs with this last shipment i got but the light was just dead lol. Not a big deal, it was cheap and I didn't really like it once i got a close look at it anyways. And just this Sunday i placed an order for lights with frozencpu.....This whole mess is clearly my fault for trying to get white lights again, sorry OCN community
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I sent them an email saying there's no rush at all and just wanted to make sure they still had the lights available. Hopefully there's some kind of an update in the next week or I may have to just order some darkside lights from dazmode to go with the darkside rads i just ordered...hopefully he won't shut down too lol
I have big plans for this rig...hopefully it won't take too long to get all the components together.
On that note, will a single D5 be enough if i add 2 more rads (120 & 240) and 2 blocks?
 
#21 ·
I finally got the lighting all done and it looks great! But as payment, the universe has claimed my mobo (dont even ask how) so the system is out of commission until the new board arrives. Paid $30 for overnight shipping and got screwed by newegg as the item wont get here until monday, even though fedex does deliver saturday. Probably not going to order from them for a while. SOOOO mad at myself and newegg i'm on fire!
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heres a few pics for you guys

Darkside lights (2 12" LED strips and a dual 3mm led for the cpu block) and rads (future plans) @Dazmode These rads look amazing! and the led strips are crazy bright lol





Lights installed



top strip is hidden behind the radiator



swapped the black stop fittings with blue ones



 
#22 ·
The new motherboard arrived today, transplant was a success!....mostly. Somehow busted the speed control knob on my pump so i guess i'll be running it at full speed now lol. Really didn't want to mess with fixing it while everything was attached and outside the case (including the graphics card). Newegg refunded the majority of my shipping charge for the new board after I filled out their little survey. I was definitely not expecting that so
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to them and their customer support.

Heres a couple final pics with the new board installed.



 
#25 ·
Thanks guys! I'll be adding a second card to the loop hopefully next week if everything arrives in time. I have plans to add a universal ram block and my Darkside radiators in a month or so. Plans are moving faster than i expected, would be a shame to replace the aurora before its dead though.
I tried using some window tint that was supposed to be mirrored on one side but that didn't really work out like it was supposed to. Now i have stupid residue all over the plastic window on the case. I've tried using the novus polish on it but that did nothing. Anybody have any suggestions to get that cleaned up?

Ok, newegg had a really good deal on ram so i ordered another 16g for a 32g total....I'm running windows 7 HOME which turns out to have a limit of 16g usable ram
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Really just wanted to avoid windows 8 but i may just have to upgrade to it or switch to linux completely.
 
#26 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Deedaz View Post

Thanks guys! I'll be adding a second card to the loop hopefully next week if everything arrives in time. I have plans to add a universal ram block and my Darkside radiators in a month or so. Plans are moving faster than i expected, would be a shame to replace the aurora before its dead though.
I tried using some window tint that was supposed to be mirrored on one side but that didn't really work out like it was supposed to. Now i have stupid residue all over the plastic window on the case. I've tried using the novus polish on it but that did nothing. Anybody have any suggestions to get that cleaned up?

Ok, newegg had a really good deal on ram so i ordered another 16g for a 32g total....I'm running windows 7 HOME which turns out to have a limit of 16g usable ram
doh.gif
Really just wanted to avoid windows 8 but i may just have to upgrade to it or switch to linux completely.
91% isopropyl alcohol works well to remove residue from plastics. Be sure to use soap and water after the residue has been removed. Use vegetable oil instead, be sure to clean it all up afterward. It can be tricky to wipe up.

You'd have to upgrade to Windows 7 Pro or skip it and go to Windows 8.1. I'll be honest, I held out for a long time but ended up upgrading to Windows 8.1 from Windows 7 Pro and I'm actually quite happy with it. I used to be a hater before I started using it all of the time. It is leaps and bounds better than the original Windows 8(non-8.1). Many things were addressed to make it better.

If you do decided to upgrade, I highly recommend using the Windows Easy Transfer utility to transfer your profile(s) and files over to the new OS. It is a rock solid utility that keeps it fast and simple.
 
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