[Aussiejuggalo]

So seeing I got my CaseLabs MS5 I thought I may as well start a build log. This is my first build log and first time doing watercooling so please dont be expecting some high end crazy clean build.

What to expect:

A half assed job.

Little to no updates.

A hell of a lot of questions.

What not to expect:

Quality work.

A lot of money being spent.

Crazy water loops

A lot of drawings and diagrams

The Rig

My current rig

CPU: Intel i5-2500K Intel i5-3570K

RAM: G Skill Trident X DDR3 8Gb

MOBO: Asus Maximus V GENE

GPU: Gigabyte GTX 670 Sapphire Radeon R9 290 Tri-X OC

PSU: SilverStone Plus 850w ST85F-P

Hard Drives: Crucial M4 64Gb, F3 1Tb, Samsung Evo 500GB, Samsung 830 256GB

Lighting: NZXT HUE NZXT Sleeved LED Cable 200cm White

Water Parts List

Fans: x6 Scythe 120mm Gentle Typhoon 1850RPM Fan ✓

CPU Barbs: 2x Bitspower G1/4 Black Sparkle 1/2 Fitting ✓

Rad/Pump Barbs: 6x XSPC G1/4 Black Chrome 1/2 Barb Fitting ✓

Tubing: PrimoChill PrimoFlex Advanced LRT Tubing Black 7/16ID 5/8OD 3m ✓

Pump: XSPC D5 ✓

Res: Bitspower Dual/Single D5 Top Upgrade Kit 150 ✓

CPU Block: Ek Supremacy CPU Waterblock Full Nickel ✓

Rad 1: XSPC AX240 Radiator Black ✓

Rad 2: XSPC AX360 Radiator Black ✓

Tubing: PrimoChill PrimoFlex Advanced LRT Tubing Black 7/16ID 5/8OD 3m ✓

This stuff: PrimoChill Liquid Utopia Clear Additive 15ml ✓

Other Parts Im Considering

360 Rad: DEMCi Flex Triple 120mm Magnetic Fan Filter ✓

240 Rad: DEMCi Flex Double 120mm Magnetic Fan Filter ✓

Back Fan: DEMCi Flex Fan Filter 120mm Black ✓

Fan Controller: NZXT Grid Fan Hub with 5v mod ✓

Bridging Plug: Phobya ATX 24 Pin Bridging Plug Black ✓

Tube Cutter: Phobya Hose Cutter Aluminium 3-19mm ✓

Graphic Card: PC Case Gear 780 List Sapphire Radeon R9 290 Tri-X OC 4GB ✓

The Plan

Basically my plan is to do a slightly different build then the typical ROG red everywhere build, Im going to do a kinda mono tone black and white build with slight bits of red, that being the whats on the motherboard and the cables Im sleeving everything else will be black or white with maybe the LEDs being a very light red

Step One

The Desk

Right first thing first, this is my current computer desk.





Yep it sucks, I have my tower sitting on a $10 shelf with a piece of pine screwed to the top, also as you can see I have little to no room to access my case easily and it sucks so I think I need to do something about this.

The plan for my desk is to replace the shelf to the left with another desk, this is gonna be for the SM5 and my little fridge, Then as for my main desk Im going to replace all the crappy black plastic coated MDF with Pine and stain it to match the other wood stuff in my room (I think its all walnut), Then also paint all the metal (legs, shelf leg things etc) satin black.

Step Two

Cable Sleeving

Sleeving my whole PSU, basically Im gonna be doing about even red to black on each lot of cords with the red being in the middle like so



My only problem atm is this stupid ugly capacitor Im thinking I might cover it with some black heatshrink and be done with it, I know its still going to look ugly as hell but Im not buying another PSU so I'll deal with it

Im using 7 strand 550 paracord and going with a shrinkless sleeve. (small note the red cord is slightly thicker then the black so its much harder to get into the connectors)

I also think I might try sewing the cables together, if not small black dulled zip ties are gonna be the way.

Step Three

Watercooling

So once the desk and sleeving is out of the way I think its time to get down to business, the watercooling

The Loop & Placement

Well placement should be simple, 360 in the roof, 240 in the front, pump on the bottom of the case, res above the pump, CPU block on the CPU... yeah you get the idea

As for the loops its self I was thinking this

Res > Pump > CPU > 360 > 240 > Res

For the fan set up I was thinking the top 360 as intake then the back and front rad as exhaust. The reason Im thinking this set up is I want it easy to filter the fans without having to pull the case apart.

I welcome any suggestions about the watercooling parts and loop set up, remember Im a n00b at this

So hopefully this isnt gonna turn out totally crap and I dont stuff up something chronic or Im gonna look like an idiot

 

[Aussiejuggalo]

Quick Links, Table of Contents, Index Thingy

Work finally begins

The moment I screwed up

One table in, pc in SM5

Ordered some stuff

Desk done, sleeving & stitching started and most watercooling delivered

Watercooling in & PC back together

Overclocking results

The small update

New graphic card arrives

Small Update

Another boring update

Pathetic Update

Small disaster update

Watercooling Woes

Small update and hopefully the last of my watercooling troubles

The beast lives... kinda

It's ALIVE!!!

 

[Aussiejuggalo]

Final Desk Pics

I will update these again once I fully finish and the cables are neat

 

[Aussiejuggalo]

Reserved For Final Case Pics

 

[deafboy]

Really looking forward to all the non-half assed work, plenty of updates, and all sorts of detailed explanations, lol.

Really though, I look forward to seeing this

 

[Aussiejuggalo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by deafboy

Really looking forward to all the non-half assed work, plenty of updates, and all sorts of detailed explanations, lol.

Really though, I look forward to seeing this

haha

well I plan to get all the stuff I need for the desk tomorrow and hope to have it done by Monday

Its the only thing holding my back from using this case, I have already built it tho

 

[deafboy]

Can't wait

 

[junzo]

Subbed really excited !!

 

[cpachris]

I'm subbing....in a half-assed sort of way.

 

[Aussiejuggalo]

Little bit of an update, went to Bunnings today to grab all the stuff I need for the desks

500ml of Walnut stain & varnish, 2 340g engine satin black spray cans and the circular saw



I spent just a little bit today

Getting the wood delivered tomorrow as I dont drive lol

 

[geek2 21]

Hey another Queenslander! Great to see, do us proud!

 

[Aussiejuggalo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by geek2 21

Hey another Queenslander! Great to see, do us proud!

Im gonna try

 

[Aussiejuggalo]

Ok so today I ended up getting off my lazy ass and getting down to business, the desk



So I have 3 pieces of laminated pine paneling 2 are for the 2 desktops and the other will be cut down to make the shelves above my main desk. Theres also another piece of pine that I will be using for a backing board thing between each leg for this other desk

Now is where the real fun begins, the 3 panels are 1800x600mm but I need them down to 1200x600 and I also need the other piece down from 1200x300mm to 1000x200mm

So I pulled out the big guns...



My brand new bright green Ryobi circular saw

, as you can see I have a very professional set up, the wood at the back is on a crappy old beat up outdoor table and the wood clamped down is on what will soon be my other desk, hence the white protective stuff this was for protecting the wood more then anything.

It took me about 30mins to clamp, cut etc but I didnt think to take pics in between sorry lol

Heres the finished result...






Your probably wondering "why in the hell is there letters/numbers taped to it"

I will tell you why.. I dunno what sides look better to use as the top of my desk

What do you guys think? Its gonna have a stain walnut stain/varnish on it

Im not gonna start the varnish until I work out the top and bottom lol

 

[Aussiejuggalo]

So bit of an update...

I painted the legs for one of my desks and it turned out great, looks awesome, then i started doing the wood...

The varnish went on one side more or less fine, some bristles came out of the crap brush I was using but that was fine seeing its the under side, bought myself a much better one now

This is where things went wrong, after the varnish i let it dry... as you do, when it was dry it was slightly bowed in, only about 5mm not much at all I guess due to how humit Queensland gets, so I thought "oh I've fixed this kinda thing before not a problem" So I grabbed some pretty much dry paper towel, put it on top then put a bunch of weight on it



This is the end result... it bowed the OPPOSITE!!!! way into the floor with over 30kgs of crap on it (the pic above was when I first did it, I evened everything out later on)

Now as you can imagine Im at a point where I dunno *** to do, Im trying to fix it with over 100Kg of crap on it and no wet paper towel, humiditys probably high enough anyway stupid ******* QLD

So that was my little bit of an update, Im deciding now if it can be fixed or not, what do you guys think?

 

[Aussiejuggalo]

I've been working my ass off today, got up at 9am and been working till about 20 mins ago (5.10pm)

So I pulled my whole setup apart to move this new desk in, which took me the best part of 2 hours



The monitor in the middle was still on its stand, had to pull everything out to get to it

After doing all that and pulling apart the desk ready to get working on it maybe tomorrow

This is roughly how its gonna be when Im done

After I got the desk in and done some cleaning I got to work on the best part... my rig



I still need to sleeve a lot of the cords but for now thats how shes set up

.



I knew there was heaps of room in the SM5 but I didnt realize how much room, I have my whole 8 pin cpu cable crammed into a small corner not a problem and its not even tied into play

Just a small pic on how I have it set up atm, its good but the cables are already annoying me

 

[Aussiejuggalo]

So I was thinking... my 8 pin cpu header on the mobo is so close to the psu maybe I should remake it seeing the cable thats on there now is 60cm long and I only need at most 20cm

Also with the red paracord Im using its much thicker then the black so Im having a really hard time getting it into the mobo side of the connector (the 6 & 8 pin pci etc), is there any other headers that have slightly bigger holes for the cables? Im about 0.5mm to small

If any one knows of any Aussie links to the stuff I need that would be great

Thanks

Iv been slack and a little busy lately (playing 7 Days to Die) so I havent gotten any work done but Im getting started on this other desk today

 

[Aussiejuggalo]

Thought I should update this seeing its been a while.

Bought this stuff a little while ago but didnt bother posting till now

4 extra AP-15 fans and all my DEMCi fan filters, MX-4 and a cool little USB hub

I also finally ordered my watercooling this is what I got

CPU Block: Ek Supremacy Full Nickel

CPU Barbs: Bitspower G1/4 Black Sparkle 1/2 Fitting

360 Rad: XSPC AX360 Radiator Black

240 Rad: XSPC AX240 Radiator Black

Rad/Pump Barbs: XSPC G1/4 Black Chrome 1/2 Barb Fitting

Pump: XSPC D5 Vario Pump with Front Cover

Res: Bitspower Dual/Single D5 Top Upgrade Kit 150

Tubing: PrimoChill PrimoFlex Advanced LRT Tubing Black 7/16ID 5/8OD 3m I wanted clear but they I couldnt find a shop that had any in stock

Tube Cutter: Phobya Hose Cutter Aluminium 3-19mm

Fan Hub: NZXT Grid Matte Black Fan Hub Going to mod a cable for 5v then connect it to this

Anti Crap: PrimoChill Liquid Utopia Clear Additive 15ml

Bridging Plug: Phobya ATX 24 Pin Bridging Plug Black Only got this to make life easier

Grand total was $557 & about $35 shipping

I also ordered some stuff from Lutro0 on the first and it came this morning



25ft 18AWG thin walled wire, de pinning tool, paracord threading tool, 2x PCI 8, 2x PCI 6, 1 24 pin and 1 8 pin CPU connectors and 20 ATX pins

So now I can finish sleeving and re build my 8 pin for my CPU

And last but not least Im still working on my desk

Its getting there slowly, I need to get creative with these stands I bought tho if I leave it like this my right monitor will be going into a wall

 

[Aussiejuggalo]

Right so its been a while since I updated this, been busy trying to get stuff done so I can watercool this bad boy already

so without further ado heres a photo dump

This was my little set up for running my new D5 for 24hours or so, wanted to make sure it worked right


Then I pulled it apart and sleeved it in black para

Stitched the 2 molex power cabled to keep them nice and neat


All sleeved and stitched

Im happy but the stitch could of been better


Resleeving my PCI cables to hide the capacitor, may end up taking it off tho its annoying me


Capacitor covered in black electrical tape and the sleeved glued in place, neater then the ugly ass heat shrink I had on it


Had a lot of goodies arrive

gonna be a fun build just missing some barbs, adapters and a plug for the res


Stitched the 6 pin PCI with the capacitor still on it, looks good but a pita to get in the case


Cables are all wonky, did my best to straighten them but kinda failed


Finally finished my desks off and got them all back together

Left and right monitors, from the desk top to the bottom of the bezel is 14cm so yes they are set very high


Dont mind the cables gonna be cleaning them up over the next few weeks


Thats all I got for now, gonna be remaking the rest of my PSU cables and maybe taking the stupid annoying capacitors off but that will need to wait till next pay so will the rest of my watercooling stuff

Hopefully by the end of the year she might actually be watercooled if everything goes right

 

[Aussiejuggalo]

Damn been ages since I updated this

Well been busy working on getting the right watercooling parts etc and today I got it all in

Its been filled just bleeding it overnight and tomorrow she goes back together

, been since the last update 3 weeks ago

I will do some benchmarks and everything tomorrow against what I saved from my old set up a Coolermaster Hyper 212 Evo... should be interesting

Also for anyone wondering the 4 screws in the front of the rad are for the PSU, easiest place to put them

 

[NYMD]

Set the bar low and then deliver high... nice work, slacker. The case interior looks great.