[DNMock]

The Plan

Projected Schedule:

Oct 24 - Finish collecting Materials and fine tune design and drafts.

Oct 31 - Finish wood and acrylic cutting

Nov 7 - Finish painting and Desk assembly

Nov 14 - Finish plumbing of loop

Nov 21 - Finish Installation of components

Nov 27 - Finish fine tuning and completion (lighting and such).

The Goal:

Assemble a desk with components housed in a cabinet on one side and radiators on the opposite side. Built in a manner that will be completely future proof with two big 1080 radiators for 2160 mm of radiator surface for enough cooling no matter what components go into it and a components area large enough to house the largest of motherboard and GPU set ups.

extremely rough concept drawings via MS paint:

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Parts I've ordered or have so far:

2x Phobya Nova 1080 Radiators
http://www.performance-pcs.com/phobya-xtreme-nova-1080-9-x-120mm-radiator.html

2x Phobya Nova 1080 Radiator Boxes
http://www.performance-pcs.com/new-phobya-nova-1080-box.html

4x Phobya 180mm fans (Note I have 4 Silverstone 180mm fans for the other Radiator already)
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/16104/fan-1008/Phobya_180mm_x_25mm_G-Silent_18_Black_Edition_PWM_Fan_-_900_RPM_79123.html?id=KEaGY9hP&mv_pc=154

Lampron Fan Controller
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/8482/bus-181/Lamptron_High_Wattage_6_Channel_Rheobus_-_Black_FC-2.html?id=KEaGY9hP&mv_pc=153

Mountainmods HPTX-SR2 Motherboard Tray
http://www.mountainmods.com/modular-hptx-sr2-motherboard-tray-assembly-p-567.html

Background Information

I've just recently gotten into system building. Always been a fan of tech and just put my first loop together, so this will obviously be the most ambitious project I've tried with a PC, although I do have a lot of experience with other, larger projects (Rebuilt a Car, built a shed etc. etc.). For this particular project I've recruited my Father and my Brother-In-Law who are both much more skilled and experienced in carpentry to help with the wood and acrylic work. Between my father and I the tools I have access to are massive so there shouldn't be any issues with having to ad lib anything.

I do want to make sure anyone who reads this knows only the component installation and tubing are going to be done by me solo, and that I will have the help of a pair of skilled craftsmen helping me on the building of the desk itself.

Any questions, comments, ideas, suggestions are all very welcome. I'll be updating soon with a basic set up scheme.

Version 2.0 Updated images (more to come still)

Moved to another room, added Wall mounted Wasabi Mango 4k 42" IPS monitor:



New Components: SLI Titan-X, EVGA SLI Pro v2, Asus X99 Deluxe Motherboard, EK GPU Terminal, Samsung SM951 m.2 drive, Mayhem's 1/2" id 3/4" od tubing among others. Still needs a bit more wire management changes:



Here is where the real changes came into play. Changed the airflow direction to one rad as intake 2nd as exhaust instead of both as exhaust. Replaced the Phobya 180mm fans with 9 GT-15 fans. Replaced the old fan controller with an aquaero 6, moved the pump to this side instead of the component cabinet and built a box lined with noise dampening foam to contain the mcp35x2 pump which now has a small 80mm fan cooling the heatsink attached to the pump to help keep it cool enclosed like that. Again cable management needs to be addressed.



Added a Marantz nr1402 receiver for true 5.1 surround sound power. Tried to get it to fit inside the desk, but wasn't meant to be, so had to settle for a secondary shelf to support it. Still, cable management needed (seeing a trend of laziness on cable management by now):



All in all definitely closing in on my intended final goal.

 

[DNMock]

Building the Desk

Hardware, Lumber, and Acrylic cost: $500

Tools used: Nail Gun, Table Saw, Hand Grinder,
So it begins:

Early Stages

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Radiator cabinet:

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Front view of door and fan controller



Left side showing first radiator housing



Back side showing second radiator housing, air inlet port holes, with cameo of Bob, the director of Quality Control



Inner side showing PSU bracket made from Lian Li PSU extender



Top down view showing air filter built into floor and general internals

Component cabinet:

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Front view showing power and reset buttons, also a Lian Li part, Blu-ray player/burner, and front door with view port



Right hand side showing 2 120mm fan ports



Inner side showing 2nd (primary) PSU bracket, again Lian Li PSU extender.



Top view showing General motherboard tray placement (will be cut into the desk top) of a Mountain Mods SR2 Motherboard tray.



Inside view of Motherboard tray (old crappy MB and video card installed to help make sure it's mounted appropriately)



View with and without removable shelf showing 2 HDD mounts, 2 SSD mounts, and PSU placement

Both Cabinets and Desk Top:

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

General Placement of reservoir which will have it's inlet filled by the radiator cabinet and outlet going to the component cabinet and a pvc pipe that will be attached below the desk to protect the tubing that will be sending the water from the component cabinet to the radiator cabinet.



Desktop which still needs motherboard tray cut into it.


Close up of reservoir attached to the desktop

The Quality Control Team:

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

 

[DNMock]

 

[DNMock]

The Final Product (sort of)

 

[Lucas Bezerra]

Subscribing

 

[DNMock]

Updated with crappy concept drawing and my purchases preparing for the build.

The radiators and motherboard tray have been shipped. Once I have those in and can get some precise measurements on them I will break out the graphing paper and scaled ruler and begin the drafting for precise measurements and positions. Should have that available by Saturday and the epic Home Depot run finished on Sunday. Then when I get home from work on Monday the real fun will begin.

 

[DNMock]

Update: cabinet framing completed. Sunday to bring more pictures (with measurements) and some more work.

 

[DNMock]

Question, The GPU's and CPU are going to be under water with the rads obviously being in a different locale, will a single 120mm fan be enough to keep the MB chipset and ram cooled off or should I add a 2nd 120mm fan to the component casing?

 

[BradleyW]

I love the QA team!

 

[DNMock]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BradleyW

I love the QA team!

I can tell who the stars here are so here is a member of my Quality Assurance Team inspecting our Mountain Mods motherboard tray and braided PSU cables that just came in, he begrudgingly gave it a passing grade:

 

[Ninhalem]

Why not put the RAM underwater with EK's Monarch Series RAM module?

You haven't defined a parts list yet on the rest of the components so I cannot give a recommendation on cooling the rest of the motherboard components.

 

[DNMock]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ninhalem

Why not put the RAM underwater with EK's Monarch Series RAM module?

You haven't defined a parts list yet on the rest of the components so I cannot give a recommendation on cooling the rest of the motherboard components.

For the time Being I'm just going to transplant my current rig:

Gigabyte z97 Gaming GT (I may upgrade this to a Black edition that comes stock with a waterblock attached to the chipset)
32gb PNY XLR8 DDR3 Ram 2133 1.5v (OC'ed to 2400)
I7 4790K
Crossfired R9-290x
EVGA 1600 Watt Gold PSU
2x Samsung Evo 840 SSD
2 TB HDD (forgot the brand, Seagate possibly.

The PSU and the HDD's and SSD's are going to be on a separate compartment from the main MB. The PSU/Disk drive compartment will have a 120mm inlet and 120mm outlet fan.

With that said, by the time I get done, I don't want to have to touch the desk itself again, totally future proofed. So when Skylake comes out and whatever comes out after that, I want to make it's just a simple part swap and don't have to worry about cutting new fan ports in at a later date, Although I have no intentions of running any of my GPU's or CPU(s) on air from here forward but, like my current motherboard, there is no available aftermarket chipset waterblock and ram blocks, especially with the ever dropping voltage requirements may go extinct someday too.

Basically imagine the biggest baddest XL-ATX Motherboard with a ton of RAM passive air cooled chipset and a couple PCI-E SSD's. With the CPUs and GPUs all under water. Would a pair of 120mm fans be enough to keep that cool?

 

[DNMock]

Update, added a couple pictures of the reservoir mounted to the desk.

Things are coming along pretty smoothly, haven't bothered with any real pictures though since I figured no one wants to see pictures of touch up painting and sanding and such.

If everything goes well should have the desk itself completed by the weekend and have the components installed and ready to roll my the weekend after.

 

[DNMock]

Huge picture update on progress! Should be able to get a pretty damn good idea of what the final product will be. If something looks amiss in the assembly now is definitely the time to point it out to me, since I plan on having it finished and beginning to install the real components by sunday.

 

[lightsout]

This looks pretty sweet. Love desk builds and love the concept you have here.

 

[DNMock]

Got the Desk to the house and assembled and started in on installing all the components.

On the motherboard I removed the heatsinks, used a bit of masking tape and painted them to get rid of the ugly ass red.

This is the Motherboard I have:

Gigabyte-Z97X-Gaming-GT



And this is what I ended up with after painting it up.



Kind of a mixed bag on the results. Chipped the paint while putting the video card in and had a bit of over-spray on the other.

Painted them using engine block paint from Autozone, and replaced the thermal pads with some spare thermal pads from my GPU waterblocks (used fujipoly on the waterblocks, so I used the spare EK thermal pads) and some Gelid extreme on the PLX chip.

The wiring is a mess but I wanted to see how the braided cables looked with the board so I plugged em in before doing any leak testing (where the picture came from). Will begin the leak testing tonight and hopefully a bit of wire management.

Edit: I tried doing the same paint on my sticks of RAM (painted 2 white and 2 blue), but I had a little bit of paint dribble down into the masking tape on the connection points. I was able to get it off using some Isopropyl alcohol but I am worried I may have ruined my RAM... So while painting the MOBO heatsinks wasn't bad at all, I'm gonna go ahead and say painting RAM is a really bad idea.

 

[DNMock]

New problem: having 2 pumps spaced this far apart requires 2 fill ports.

Too many open air pockets in the restrictions to allow the first pump to push the water to the second pump in order to get it running.

Even though the reservoir on top of the desk is filled to the brim, the air inside the radiators and such is too much to allow it to drain into the system and obviously with a project this size, it's too big to just pick up and move around.

So tonight I'm gonna be cutting into the PVC housing for the water line and T into it just in front of the pump and try filling it from there. Reason for that location is, it's the farthest location from the top reservoir in the line from either direction.

If anyone has an idea on how else to go about this please let me know.

 

[vaporizer]

found your log. subbed. thats a lot of water to move around with lots of vertical lifts. D5's are great for flow, but can be hancuffed by it's head pressure. have you thought of putting the pumps right after another or use a dual pump top. if thats not an option with your set up, i have used quick disconnects to fill components like rads first then install in the loop already filled. i did it HERE in my old scratch build. a fill tube (or another res)in the right spot (before the pumps) might help you fill as well. sorry if nothing helps you here, but i am still interested in this log. look interesting so far.

 

[DNMock]

I could easily swap the other pump (identical D5 variable pump but without a reservoir like the one I cannibalized from my old set up) over and put them side by side, I was just worried that by the end of the row it wouldn't have enough pressure to push it back up into the reservoir by the time it got all the way back. Although now that I think about it, where the 2nd pump is irrelevant in a closed system.

After what you are saying and what I'm seeing I'm half worried it won't be enough with 2 pumps and may need to add a 3rd or get a larger pump even with the all the air finally worked out of the set up.

With the difficulty I'm having filling it I want to make sure the process is much simpler in the future for when I have to drain it for upgrades, maintenance etc. etc. especially with this much water. Counting the 800ml reservoir, based on the 2 liters I have in there right now and how far that's gone, I'm gonna guess it's gonna take at least a gallon or maybe even a bit more to fill it up all the way.

 

[vaporizer]

you might want to hit up ITDiva here on ocn. she has great knowledge of how to run pumps and what you can do to get that water flowing.