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[Build Log] *Red RoGgy* Corsair Air 540, i5 6600k & Strix 1080 OC under water with TWO 360 rads and one 240

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stocksux

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Parts in this build include;
Corsair Air 540 Case
Intel i5 6600K
ASUS Hero VIII Motherboard
ASUS Strix 1080 GTX OC
G.Skill 8GB DDR4 3200
Samsung 500GB 950 EVO
EVGA 750w P2 Power Supply
EK PE 360 Radiator x2
EK Strix Waterblock
EK Strix Back Plate
EK Motherboard/CPU Monoblock
EK PE 240 Radiator
EK Vardar 1850rpm PWM Fans x10
EK 140mm D5 Vario PWM Pump/Res Combo
Corsair Air Series 140mm Quiet Edition Fan
Primochill PETG tubing
Primochill Revolver Fittings
Bitspower Fittings
EK Fittings
Swiftech Fan Controller

Let me start this off by saying it's my first try at water cooling and my first build log! I had a lot of fun in this process. I had this case configured with air cooling and an AiO cooler for the CPU only. At this time I had a GTX 970 installed and an older Corsair HX 650 PSU.


I decided I wanted to venture into water cooling with a full custom loop after playing around on this forum for awhile. I placed a few order and ended up with a desk full of components.


The thing I struggled with the most is trying to figure out how much cooling I needed. I couldn't decide if I was going to SLi, which really made it more difficult. I settled on going single GPU for various reasons and started designing the loop. After I got the design generally mapped out it was time to tear down and start modding.


 
Discussion starter · #2 ·
I played around with a few ideas of how I wanted to tidy up the bottom of the case and possible ways to mount the GPU. I really like the wall mount PCs that people are building to really showoff components and thought about how I could bring some of that to this build inside a case. What I came up with was to try and use a riser cable to run under a false bottom panel to keep some of the ribbon cable hidden then create a mount point for the GPU. The idea was to have the GPU sit sideways to show off the bottom of the GPU block so the liquid would be viable. Such a shame we never see the hard work put into GPU blocks. First thing that had to go was the hump on the bottom of case.


After a bit of Dremel work, I ended up with a surface to work with.



Then I started on a mock up for a bottom panel that would be raised to allow for cable management underneath or possible tubing. I used cardboard and came up with this.


Next I looked at how to mount the GPU. I grabbed an old 470 for mock up purposes as my 1080 hadn't shipped yet. I liked the sideways orientation but didn't really care for the laid flat upside down orientation as much. Both still I think would be great mods and showcase the liquid well. ***SPOILER ALERT*** I didn't end up going with either
biggrin.gif




This battle in my head proved to be tiring so I decided to work on something different and fixed the EK monoblock to the CPU and motherboard. I run an Intel i5 6600k and the ASUS Hero VIII motherboard here.




Next was time to fit the fill port. I measured and taped off where the fill port would go and went back to the garage and used more power to tools to cut a perfectly good case.




Then I fitted the EK pump/res combo unit in the backside of the case so it would mate up with the fill port. This idea was awesome in my head and frustrating in practice lol. Trying to tighten up everything without rotary fitting was anightmare. And making mistakes and havin to pull it all apart multiple times was even worse!


This was the point of the build where things came to a screeching halt! I felt like this was like other builds out there and wanted more out of it and also because I thought I may need for cooling. So I decide to place more orders for more fans and more radiator space. Why not toss another 360 in the back I thought!
 
Discussion starter · #3 ·
So now with the idea to move forward with another 360 going in the back, I again ended up with more parts on the desk.


Next problem to tackle was how to mount the radiator. After trying a few different ideas, which failed bad, I ended up in talks with a friend of mine who is a CNC operator by trade. He came up with an idea to take some measurements from the EK web site and then measure clearance in the case and create mounts for me on a 3D printer. This sounded awesome! Two days later he shows up with these.




They looked great, but did they fit???? YUP!! Like a glove! They have slightly different openings to allow for the fittings to pass through on the one end which was hard to show in the pics.




Next was to get the radiator fitted and mounted inside. This wasn't to hard, but we did forget to account for one thing. First though I used a basic self tapping screw to mount the brackets. Maybe a nut and bolt would have been a better option but for now this is what I'm going with. I also had to cut a hole to pass water from this 36 in the back to the 360 in the front. What was unaccounted for was the slight slope towards the front of the case at the top. The tabs tha stick out on the side of the 3D printed mount are flat. This eventually cause a slight shifting of the radiator/fans in the end so they aren't perfectly straight when looking a them (see later pic)







Once I had fitting attached and tubing installed I moved on to the drain and fan controller. I went with an eight way controller connected to the CPU header for the 8 radiator fans and installed with the included nut and bolts it came with and mounted it behind the radiator. I had to notch the front part of the case, which isn't seen from the outside, to allow for the front rad fans to reach the controller. The drain was well thought out in my head but works poorly lol. In my defense I originally had planned for it to go in the front part of the case coming off the rad port before the loop goes up to the GPU. But due to what I put there instead I had to move it and there was only one other place I could fit it. The problem is...it pretty much only drains the res
frown.gif






That pretty much finished up the component mounting part of the backside so I went back to the front to work on the bottom panel some more.
 
Discussion starter · #4 ·
Back to the front and I had a lot of work to do and decisions to make. Sooooo, instead of mounting that GPU in a crazy way I decided to leave it where i goes. Instead I wanted to mount some fans to the bottom. I had seen this done in this case before, but not like this. What i wanted was something a little different. So I took that cardboard template and laid it over a piece of aluminum and cut out my panel to start with. After cleaning that up I got a sheet of acrylic and cut out holes, based off MNPCTECH's websitte. The idea was to mount LEDs under the plate which would light up the acrylic and shine through the fans and be controlled by a controller from outside the case to allow for any color I want! For the LEDs I used the cablemod LEDs which work in conjunction withe the ASUS AURORA system. (Yes I know my motherboard doesn't support that. But the next one might) Then I cut the same holes out of the aluminum plate I made and screwed it all together. To keep the plate from sagging I had to drill and mount long thin bolts held in place with a nut. Here is what it came out like.





















As you can see cutting acrylic is messy and it took a couple tries to get it without breaking the thing center between the two holes. Once that was done my GPU and EK block and back plate showed up! I disassembled and got it all mounted up and that completed the last piece for the loop which meant it was time to learn to bend tubing. I used a Wagner heat gun and the Monsoon bending kit to do the bends. This took some time and isn't perfect, but came out really great I think for someone who has never done it before. And one bend was pretty crazy! the one that snakes down from the 240 rad in the front and goes into the back section behind the custom mounted 360 and into the res. All in all I had a blast bending! Here are some shots of the GPU with the block and the bends.


















Once I had all the bends complete and the loop assembled I laid down paper towel and filled the loop with distilled water and began testing for leaks. On a side note; I couldn't locate my extra cables for my Corsair HX PSU and I needed a molex connector for the pump/res combo unit. And due to not being able to find the cables I ended up replacing the entire PSU with an EVGA 750 P2. Luckily I did not have a single drop over a twelve hour period and removed the towels and drained what I could. When I have to maintenance the loop I'm gonna have to do something about the draining so I can get more out. Anyway I used EK concentrate pastel red and mixed it with the proper amount of distilled water per the bottle and filled the loop up with some color. It sadly wasn't very red. In fact over the course of two says or so of being in the loop it has become a bit of a raspberry kind of color, maybe even a maroon kind of color. It's not what I expected for sure and will try another brand next time. I actually ordered Mayhems pre mixed pastel red but due to incorrect stock info and improper shipping (shipped Aurora Red instead of Pastel Red) from FrozenCPU I ended up with the EK pastel cause it's all they had. Even that came in a ziplock back and was leaking. After the loop was filled I let it work out any air bubbles then closed the fill port and this was the final product.




























Well that's the end of the build for now. Is till have to make some cuts to the back outer panel to alow for the fans to exhaust the air. I'll be having that done on the CNC when my friend has some time that he can sneak it into work and cut it for me. Hope you guys enjoyed it. I did. Thanks for taking the time to get through this long build log.
 
Discussion starter · #8 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by badrobit View Post

Could you pose your measurements for your baseplate? I am looking to do something similar and it would really help me out!
Click to expand...
I'm sorry I didn't write any of that down. I just took a piece of cardboard and measured in the case then transferred it to the card board for every cut I needed to make
 
#10 ·
Very nice build
 
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#11 ·
No problem just finishing painting my case now so gonna figure out what works for my setup
smile.gif
Cannot wait to see more of your build!

EDIT: Actually how tall were you able to make your mid-plate? I am wondering if I can fit an Aquaero 6 in there (^^)
 
Discussion starter · #14 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by We Gone View Post

Very nice build
Click to expand...
Quote:
Originally Posted by badrobit View Post

No problem just finishing painting my case now so gonna figure out what works for my setup
smile.gif
Cannot wait to see more of your build!

EDIT: Actually how tall were you able to make your mid-plate? I am wondering if I can fit an Aquaero 6 in there (^^)
Click to expand...
If you look at the motherboard tray, the mid plate I made is even with the top of the oblong cutout to pass wires trhough
 
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