[DiGiCiDAL]

Thought I would throw up my log - not expecting to impress anyone - so down the road if I have questions or if someone wants to see a function-over-form build... they can see this one.

I've probably built about 100-200 PC's over the years, but haven't built a water-cooled rig since the first socket-based Celerons were released - and it was a horribly ugly and cobbled together piece of crap.

THE CONCEPT:
Something that is much more overkill in the cooling department than in the actual hardware department - to be used primarily as a ludicrously overpowered work computer (if it weren't for running a VM for compatibility testing... I could use a 486 and notepad for most of my work). However, since it will also be used for gaming when time allows, I also want decent performance that will either allow for multiple screens or a 30" single display - to be determined later because I can run on one or two 24" displays I already have in the meantime or possibly use TB to use my 27" iMac as a display.

I'm not going for 'pretty' although aesthetics will be considered where budget and time allows - but I am looking for good performance with as close to total silence as possible. As you might have guessed by the name... where possible everything will be purchased in black, with black and more black as accents... although I'm not going to replace/paint anything that comes in nickel/chrome or raw copper - I don't have the time or the skill to make this have a good result. Besides that, if I can afford to replace functional parts for pure aesthetics... then I could afford to increase the performance and just leave the appearance as it is.

THE BUDGET & PARTS:
I'm keeping the budget pretty small (at least in comparison to many of the incredible builds I've had the pleasure of following here) but also fairly flexible. I'm going to try to stay under $4K for everything... and the farther under that mark without compromising cooling potential and operational silence the better - i.e. the sooner I can upgrade the display(s).

Parts on hand:

• CPU - 3570K Core i5
• GPU - Diamond 7970
• 16GB Corsair Vengeance 1600 RAM (2X8GB)
• LG BDRW drive.
• 2X Corsair Force 60GB SSD
• 1X WD Raptor 600GB HD

New Parts:

• CaseLabs M8 w/various options
• ASUS Maximus V Extreme Motherboard
• 2X AlphaCool UT60 radiators
• Additional Diamond 7970
• Additional 16GB Corsair Vengeance 1600 RAM Kit
• XSPC Raystorm CPU Block (Black Edition)
• 2X XSPC 7970 Full Copper Blocks
• Swiftech MC35X Pump + HS
• Bitspower Fittings (various) all in Black.
• Bitspower Reservoir
• Corsair AX1200

...and some ??? as they come to me

Since almost everyone posting in this forum has more experience than I do (in watercooling at least) and significantly more experience and talent in modding - please feel free to comment, give advice, and point out where I'm being stupid... I'll try to accept it all gracefully - although I can't guarantee success in that endeavor.

And if you're someone considering something so 'pedestrian' as my build... feel free to ask me any questions and hopefully some of my discoveries and stupid mistakes will help you avoid some of your own down the road.

UPDATES COMING SOON!!!
So it's not really fast, it certainly isn't cheap - and I'm working hard to make sure that it actually is going to be attractive this time around. However still going for performance and silence over beauty if there's a compromise that absolutely HAS to be made in that area!

 

[DiGiCiDAL]

1. UNBOXING

Spoiler: Case Labs M8 Unboxing

2. INITIAL HARDWARE

Spoiler: Hardware Acquisition

3. BUILD UP (PHASE 1)

Spoiler: Getting It All Together

4. ASSEMBLY (PHASE 1)

Spoiler: More Build Up Shots

4. COMPLETED (PHASE 1)

Spoiler: Final Shots of Phase One

5. DISASSEMBLY & REASSEMBLY TESTING (PHASE 2)

Spoiler: Start of Phase Two

6. PEDESTAL BUILD & MODDING (PHASE 2)

Spoiler: Putting It All Back Together Again

7. MB PREP & MIPS BLOCK (PHASE 2)

Spoiler: Last Of An Era

9. LIGHT PANEL & FINAL ASSEMBLY (PHASE 2)

Spoiler: Let There Be Light

10. FINAL PICTURES (PHASE 2)

Spoiler: All Done... For Now

 

[DiGiCiDAL]

The photography will be suffering significantly early on as I don't have my office set up yet (just bought a new house and some furniture - hence the budgetary constraints on this project). There is practically no natural light to speak of in my office and I don't know where my good flash is for my camera so I'm having to use the built-in flash.

Case Labs M8 arrives (won't do a ton of un-boxing pics... there are already so many on here and it's not a new-model case from CL)...

Packed so carefully... this is really the nicest case I've ever owned... not the nicest looking - but by far the nicest working/to work on!

Bubble-wrapped 'football of goodness' tucked inside.

Test fitting my AX850... but will be putting an AX1200 in for future proofing purposes.

Oops... what have we here... something not on the list (figured I needed some larger/faster SSD's to go with the other stuff).

That's it for now... more to follow as I progress.

 

[Sogi]

Awesome, this is going to be good, although if you keep deciding you want larger and faster that 4K budget will disappear lol

 

[DiGiCiDAL]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sogi

Awesome, this is going to be good, although if you keep deciding you want larger and faster that 4K budget will disappear lol

Thanks, and don't I know it... I was originally hoping to be at or under budget with the monitor(s) included... now I'm just hoping to keep the system itself under that mark. Hopefully my wife doesn't read this thread.

 

[DiGiCiDAL]

More parts arrived and assembly started... I have to change up the radiator mounting eventually - screws are just about 1mm too long for the rads so I had to use some ghastly nickel washers which really stand out (even under the top grills) but it's fine for the time being as aesthetics are going to be addressed later on anyway. Also had to change up my plans for the fans... due to some really stellar stupidity on my part. I had planned on using the PWM headers on the mobo along with some 3-1 cables to have fan speeds handled without a fan controller - but then I ordered the AP-13's for fans... DOH! So had to order a Lamptron FC-5V2 and 4 3-1 3-pin cables so I can run the fans from it.

Goodies Arrive:

That's a big pile of money no longer in my wallet...

CPU Block unpacked and ready to go...

And fitted to the board.

GPU prep and cleaning...

Followed by TIM & Pads

And more parts ordered... good job on the planning there.

Good thing my new desks are huge... I've got crap everywhere now (but rads are ready and fans are sleeved)!

Sleeving isn't as pretty as some - but good enough for my purposes...

CPU & GPU blocks fitted and rads installed...

Don't know if you can see it, but the link between the two rads JUST BARELY fit... took 3 tries to get the tube length correct.

Back side (rad #2) of that tricky link...

Less than half of the wiring in and it's already a mess... this isn't going to be quick.

Have some family in town visiting so there was a 2yr old nephew running around the house at 100MPH which means no building for the next little while... I'll update when it matters.

 

[Georgeker]

I like this,love the case and mobo.

Good luck and subscribed.

 

[DiGiCiDAL]

I got asked a question about the fans so in addition to answering that PM I figured I would post everything here so if others were having questions (or if I've made a stupid mistake in my calculations somewhere) it would be here for reference.

I'm going to have 12 Scythe Gentle Typhoon AP-13's in the case (D1225C12B3AP-13) - for reference later, these fans are very easy to power - they are spec'd at 34mA @ 1,150RPM 12V - so a simple calculation gets us to .41 Watts... (.408 actually). Granted that's once it's running - all fans require somewhere between 2X-4X as much current during startup... so to be safe I'm calculating based on a startup of 5W ea... and I know it won't draw nearly that much. Therefore it shouldn't be a problem to run as many as 6 fans on each channel of the fan controller...

(I definitely wouldn't recommend this with just about any other fan however - and I'm only going to put a max of 3 per channel on mine). For a comparison, the Corsair SP120 HP fans are spec'd at 180mA draw so 2.16W once running, and as much as 10W (again way conservative and probably closer to half that) to start up. So at least as far as the fan controller is concerned.. running three AP-13s is easier than running two SP120s - and even those would be way under the 30W mark during startup.

I also picked up one of these to be used for lighting and additional fans if necessary so there are a couple of setups that I may try.

RAD1 (MB SIDE) - 3 AP-13s - Channel 1 on Lamptron FC-5 controller [Temp probe- GPU1].
RAD2 (PSU SIDE) - 3 AP-13s - Channel 2 FC-5 [Temp probe- GPU2].
PSU FRONT INTAKE - 3 AP-13s - Channel 3 FC-5 [Temp probe-CPU].
MB BOTTOM INTAKE - 3 AP-13s - Channel 4 FC-5 [Temp probe-VRM].

The pump is PWM controlled via the Motherboard tied to the CPU fan header - note: it is NOT powered by the motherboard... that would be ridiculous... it's powered by a separate Molex 4-pin connector (for those that aren't familiar with the MCP-35X).

Down the road I would ultimately like to add inline temperature probe fittings so I could use the FC-5 to display: 1. Res Intake 2. PostGPU/PreCPU 3. PostCPU/PreRads 4.VRM or if I got a block for the motherboard (when released) between CPU block and chipset block do another one. The problem with that setup at this point is that I'm not totally sure that I could run all of that extra restriction on a single pump, so I'd probably have to upgrade to the MCP-35x2 (so in other words... that setup would have added at least another $500 total to the build once I included all the extra fittings etc... (assuming the MB block runs about $125-150).

I might add a higher speed, PWM controlled fan for the rear of the MB side at the back and tie it to the VRM temperature and fit it with some kind of shroud to direct all the airflow to the VRM heatsinks. But since I'm not going for maximum overclock on this system and I'm using the 3750 I seriously doubt it would matter.

So probably more than anyone wanted to know... but there it is. If someone can see a major problem in my idea... please let me know where I'm being stupid so I can stop.

 

[Hanoverfist]

I just love Pics like that! Looking good

 

[corysti]

Sadly I'm never able to get that much stuff at once...I normally run out of money before I can. Build looks good

 

[Buska103]

what size is that Bitspower compression fitting?
I'm currently working on a little case mod of my own, I also have the UT60 radiator, but my XSPC 1/2x3/4 compression fittings are 1mm too large... I'm considering cutting out a semicircle on the edge of the fan.. but I can also get 2 different fittings?!

 

[DiGiCiDAL]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Georgeker

I like this,love the case and mobo.
Good luck and subscribed.

Thanks and welcome! I haven't worked with the MB yet so I can't really comment... ASUS has been a mixed bag for me over the years... but more good than bad so I went with it because the specs were great and I wanted TB to play with (and a red/black color scheme if possible). As far as the case is concerned...

I seriously fall in love with it every time I start working in it... I can see it being the foundation of at least 4-5 more builds over the next decade or more! I really can't imagine ways to improve it other than custom finishes... but then it would be way more than $500 too

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hanoverfist

I just love Pics like that! Looking good

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Thanks! Yeah it looks both impressive and daunting when it's all amassed in a pile.

Quote:

Originally Posted by corysti

Sadly I'm never able to get that much stuff at once...I normally run out of money before I can. Build looks good

Thanks and welcome! It's been a looong time coming. I was planning on waiting a little longer and upping my budget even further but my wife said she thought I should get going on it now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buska103

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

what size is that Bitspower compression fitting?
I'm currently working on a little case mod of my own, I also have the UT60 radiator, but my XSPC 1/2x3/4 compression fittings are 1mm too large... I'm considering cutting out a semicircle on the edge of the fan.. but I can also get 2 different fittings?!

They're 3/8" x 5/8" - I don't think anything larger than 5/8"OD fittings would be workable at least with the ports on the same side (as the fans that is... if you did them on the opposite side or the end then they would work fine). There's a decent amount of separation with these fittings (even with two straight ones on) but they're very close to the fans... I actually had to put the fans on the MB side rad after mounting it in the case because getting my fingers to the fittings after the fans were on was simply way too tight. With your fittings I'm thinking you'd have to either use a G1/4 threaded extension or drop down at least one size.

 

[DiGiCiDAL]

Finally was able to get some serious work done on this build... unfortunately, the major reason for that is that I got a bad cold right as our guests headed back home.

Few additional parts needed...

Getting the SSDs prepped...

And the pump HS fitted...

Drives all ready to go in now.

Hmmm where should this BD drive go?

And I don't like the GPU cable positions...

First tubing runs going in...

Backside is getting unruly...

Fan controller isn't helping with the backside unruliness...

Exit air temp probe (intake will be attached to front filter of front fan.

Test fitting the pump and res position (don't want to drill into this case)!

OK backside getting better - yep those white anchors look like crap... but no window so no care.

Problem solved... drill into a cheap accessory for this case... case remains virgin.

Just going to run the tubing and then I'll post up another update once I'm leak testing...

 

[Hanoverfist]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DiGiCiDAL

Finally was able to get some serious work done on this build... unfortunately, the major reason for that is that I got a bad cold right as our guests headed back home.

Few additional parts needed...

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

Getting the SSDs prepped...

And the pump HS fitted...

Drives all ready to go in now.

Hmmm where should this BD drive go?

And I don't like the GPU cable positions...

First tubing runs going in...

Backside is getting unruly...

Fan controller isn't helping with the backside unruliness...

Exit air temp probe (intake will be attached to front filter of front fan.

Test fitting the pump and res position (don't want to drill into this case)!

OK backside getting better - yep those white anchors look like crap... but no window so no care.

Problem solved... drill into a cheap accessory for this case... case remains virgin.

Just going to run the tubing and then I'll post up another update once I'm leak testing...

Some Excellent work there.. Love the Roof Shots..

 

[DiGiCiDAL]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hanoverfist

Some Excellent work there.. Love the Roof Shots..

Thanks... yeah the UT60 look good from almost any angle

OK, I've got the tubing run and just started leak testing / bleeding - OMG I've got way too much flow!

I'm not even going to be able to do a proper bleeding of the system until I can use the MB CPU PWM header to scale the pump down to 60% or less... because as it stands right now the return shoots all the way to the top of the res and churns all of the air up so much that the pump sucks it back in and shoots bubbles through the loop! Although it's a nice problem to have I suppose... don't have to worry about running my pump on full anytime soon. May have to look into a sponge/filter for the bottom of the res.

Oh also got the pump sleeved (in black of course)...

Full CPU side...

Front together... had to lose the BD drive... oh well...

One more 'roof shot' for good measure...

Full PSU side...

When I get a chance I'll take a pic or two of the turbulence nightmare this pump creates at max... on the upside the heatsink stays cool to the touch and there aren't even fans blowing on it - so I don't have to mess with a smaller, louder fan in my case! YAY! Also it's pretty quiet (other than the massive waterfall noise from the flow in the res) so at 40-60% PWM I know the pump will be absolutely silent as well as very cool.

 

[ceteris]

Beautiful setup, bro! Did you drill the holes yourself into the plate for your reservoir mount?

Kind of jealous. Went to Frys today to pick up a M5E and have them price match, but they were sold out lol

 

[DiGiCiDAL]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ceteris

Beautiful setup, bro! Did you drill the holes yourself into the plate for your reservoir mount?
Kind of jealous. Went to Frys today to pick up a M5E and have them price match, but they were sold out lol

Yes, it's much less stressful when you can order a new one in case of mistakes for less than two lattes at sbux.

One of the holes didn't line up but I will fix that on next upgrade... Since both brackets are still held by at least two screws.

Sucks about Frys, but I've had a very mixed history with them too... I actually picked up my M5E at the Frys here.... and managed to score the PSU there on clearance. Most of the time when I need something for work... they look like a grocery store in disaster zone. Too bad they never keep much inventory any more. They were fantastic in the late 90's.

 

[ceteris]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DiGiCiDAL

Yes, it's much less stressful when you can order a new one in case of mistakes for less than two lattes at sbux.

One of the holes didn't line up but I will fix that on next upgrade... Since both brackets are still held by at least two screws.
Sucks about Frys, but I've had a very mixed history with them too... I actually picked up my M5E at the Frys here.... and managed to score the PSU there on clearance. Most of the time when I need something for work... they look like a grocery store in disaster zone. Too bad they never keep much inventory any more. They were fantastic in the late 90's.

Frys seems to be having some problems perhaps due to the economy.

http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/28849-frys-electronics-upon-hard-times

They are still stocking up some decent hardware. I was tempted to get a Corsair AX1200i too and have them price match it with Newegg and Amazon @ $299, but I guess I didn't feel like getting anything with the M5E out of stock. I guess I'll just have to get it online. Just be nice to actually pick up some hardware nearby once in awhile instead of doing everything through the internet lol

I asked about the holes because I think I'm going to have to do it myself as well to mount a Bitspower Dual Pump Top. However, I'm a bit nervous about possibly screwing up though. I guess I'll have to pick up some extra plates just in case.

 

[ZuuligaN]

Looking damn sweet bro! I know it's a bit late now, but had you considered the Swiftech Komodo 7970 full cover blocks? They would have fit the overall aesthetic perfectly: Swiftech Komodo 7900 series full cover water block.

 

[eskamobob1]

looks awsome... sub'd