[Build Log] Watercooled Corsair 240, 4790k, SLI 980, external rads

0ldChicken · May 18, 2016

So the itch has hit me again and its time to revamp my rig! This is my first build log here (sorry it is starting a little late!) and I'm still fairly new to the pc building world but I've been hooked for a bit over a year now. I've rebuilt my loop several times since the first time about 6 months ago and just can't get enough of it! I've spent a overwhelming amount of time reading and learning since then and everyone here has been an awesome inspiration and a huge help! This will be my first time building in a "small" case so I've only got a few changes from my mid-atx case ways. New mobo, ram, and some fittings have all been ordered so things should move along quickly. Sorry this is a pretty long first post since I have already begun working on it, there is plenty more to do still!

Components
CASE- White Corsair Carbide 240- NEW
MOBO- ASUS Z97 Gryphon M-ATX armor edition- NEW
RAM- Klevv Neo 4x4gb 2144mhz CL10- NEW
CPU- 4790k- REUSED. Usually running 4.8ghz at 1.33v, which isn't great but it does fine
GPU- 2x GTX 980- REUSED. Running 1500 core and 8100 memory 24/7 without a hiccup.
PSU- Antec HCG 750M REUSED
STORAGE- SSD-2x 240gb Intel 535, 1x 120gb SP SSD
HDD 1x 1TB WD blue, 3TB Seagate Barracuda

Watercooling>> Pretty much reusing everything that I've got on hand besides a few female-female 90° and a some other fittings. I've also got a hwlabs 360mm I have thought about getting in there but it doesn't fit as nicely as I thought it would and I think I'm doing ok on rad space! Let me know what you think

Radiators:
2x Alphacool UT60 120mm
1x EK xtx 240mm
1x XSPC AX 240mm
1x XSPC EX 280mm
I believe I'll have all of the rads running in push pull but maybe not the AX240 since its rather thin.

Blocks: CPU-EK supremacy mx (EVO plexi top)
GPU-2x Aquacomputer Kryographics copper full cover blocks (1 Stainless Steel, 1 Plexi top)

Pumps: 2x D5 vario in a XSPC bay res

Fittings & Tubing: 14mm XSPC Hardline compression fittings-Black Nickel
14mm XSPC PETG tubing
14mm Bitspower PETG tubing

Reserviors: 2x Phobya Balancer- 1x150, 1x250 Black Nickel

Here is a shot of my build as it is, which should give you a decent idea of most of the watercooling components

Outline
Before I get going on what has happened on the build so far, lets take a look at the general idea. I believe I'll be doing something more like the second photo as far as res configuration.

Ovbiously everything will be a little different, the case orientation will run all of my cables through the table and there are multiple reservoirs. Since it is just for show, I may drop the 200mm res depending on how things fit and what it does to my flow but I think the twin D5's should take care of it. The 2 res's will be connected with ZMT behind the mobo tray

Some parts are here!
Last week I ordered an Asus z97 Gryphon M-ATX mobo, I could only find the non-armor verson at a reasonable price but thankfully I found a decently priced armor kit so I got both. Then imagine my surprise when a fully armored Gryphon shows up at my door! Now I can return the armor kit and sleep better at night because I didn't spend over 200$ on a mobo

At this point I'm getting pretty excited, my deliveries are working out wonderfully! Whats next?

Let's put em together and see how they look!

I've decided to use a table that I already have around the house since its a decent size, fits most of my criteria and is free

It doesn't look perfect but I can look past a few imperfections if I can't fix or hide them.

The Table
I've made all of my rough cuts for the rads and the pc connections. The 2x 240mm rads will be next to each other and the 2x 120 will be one over the other with the top connections bridging the two. The 280mm will be in the top of the table with a black grill over it. There will be 8x 140mm fans running intake somewhere around 1000rpm. And Finally there will be a XSPC dual D5 bay res/pump combo will be fit through the side and there will be a fillport that runs to a bulkhead in the hole above. I've already made some trim pieces for the table res and the fill port although I think I will make my res piece a little bigger to cover the table damage.

Definitely going to have to work on a better filter method! Perhaps another trim piece

However I'm happy with the fan frames for my intake fans. Not perfect but they'll be hidden away

Noctua paintjob!

AAAAAND that is it for tonight! This took a lot longer than I thought it would to write up! Tomorrow I will be draining my current pc and giving everything a cleaning so that I can begin fitting components and seeing how many things actually line up how I think they will

Thanks for reading, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

0ldChicken · May 18, 2016

UPDATE POST! I'll copy all the updates with pictures here to make them easier to find
Update 2

Quote:

Originally Posted by Radnad

Subbed

Quote:

Originally Posted by emsj86

Subbed

Thanks! I'm excited to have you guys here!

Quote:

Originally Posted by KaffieneKing

Really embracing the sick and turd noctua colour scheme! Subbed!

If the fans don't match the computer then change the computer!

Glad you're here!

Quote:

Originally Posted by PedroC1999

Subbed!

Great concept! Will you be using PETG or rubber for the bottom connections?

I believe I'll be using EK ZMT for everything in the bottom and 1 run behind the mobo tray, provided I planned right! If not then Mayhems Ultra Clear will take up the slack. Thanks for coming in! I really hope everything turns out well!

A little mini update for you guys before I tear my current rig down. My performance-pcs delivery came today and this is everything that I need except my Kryoconnect SLI connector and some res mounts coming from Mod My Mods

I'm really pleased at how these BP "L" fittings look with my XSPC compression fittings, I was pretty nervous about it!

aaaaand I'll probably chicken out on the Aurora since this build is obviously not ideal for it, even with the two pumps I just don't see it going well. There is always that part of me that just wants to do it anyways and deal with it later

I never learn

OH and an adorable little baby Noctua to replace the one on the mobo that ventilates the "armor"

Awwwwwww!

Also got some replacement D5 vario speed knobs in case I mess up doing @Benjiw's thumb screw mod

Alright, that's it! Drain time! I'll steal my lady friend's computer for an update, tomorrow at the latest!

Update 3

Quote:

Originally Posted by TTheuns

From no log to two pages, nice going.
Will be following this closely.

I like the Noctua colour scheme, especially with white. I had a point in my build planning where I wanted to do that.
Also +1 on recycling the old furniture, I like using stuff like that.

Thanks! the thought crossed my mind after I already ordered the case and then I just got giddy about it! It was insanely easy and I'm very glad I did it!

Quote:

Originally Posted by bluej511

Im just subbed cuz i seriously dig that Noctua color. The 3 colors actually go really well and its quite unique. I just wanna see how the interior will look with all the rads, all the visible tubing should look super sweet.

ya I kinda adore the colors

I'm hoping it will all look good together!

A small update for everyone... (even though I said it'd be a while ago)

The good news
Old loop is broken down. I've harvested all the fittings and the old case is now holding the mobo/cpu/ram in a state of purgatory (no longer living, but not yet on to the next life)

I got rads fitted into the table! They fit great and I was able to get all the screws I needed at my local hardware store for under 10$, I was afraid I might need to order some since I needed both 3mmx50mm and 6-32x2" and I didn't think I'd find them!

Did some test fitting with the mobo and W/C components, this almost went really well and I'd love to chalk it up to proper planning

well..... Its probably a coincidence. Almost everything here fit as good as I could imagine and better than I thought it would! As you might could see, I made a new panel for the "top" of the case to make the res easier to mount.

The bad news
The backplate for the gtx 980 Kryographics DOES NOT PLAY NICE with the armor on the asus

Its is tough to see in the pic above but I had to completely remove the backplate to get a good fit due to it hitting both the armor over the I/O AND the ram slots. I cannot justify sacrificing my backplates!! My sli connector requires the use of the active backplate since it has a hole for it and I JUST LIKE EM!! soooo dremel it is!

(we really need a chainsaw guy emoticon)

not the best shot but you can see the spots that I've marked on the far side of the plate, unfortunately I let my brother in law borrow my dremel and now he is out of the country so I'm off to the store to buy a new dremel

The SLI connector also hits the side panel pretty good. I haven't measured it yet but its a least a few mm. Perhaps kryographics aren't a great block to use with the 240 lol

What's next
After cutting/sanding/priming/painting the backplate I have a few spots I need to trim up on the table for a few reasons. One, one of the doors hits the 280mm rad when closing and won't fully close, should be easy. Two, The fillport behind the res needs to be moved over a CM or so, no biggie.

Cutting some holes for pass throughs in the case "bottom" should get me close to being done with custom work and I can get started building this beast!

Not slowing down yet!

Update 4

This is where I'm at right now, I've got all of the tubing ran and holding air overnight (I usually don't test that long but it worked with timing)

this cable management makes me want to cry! BUT I'll be ordering a fan controller soon so there is no point in making it all look pretty just yet! I'm thinking about an aquaero 5 LT, but a 5/6 pro would look awesome through the table! I'll probably think about it this weekend and order whichever one Monday night. I was thinking about just getting a Lamptron 6 channel and doing a set-it-and-forget-it deal but I just don't think that is me

Do I REALLY want to dip into the aquaero world though? Seems like a whole separate addiction

the back is a little better but I need to get some better shots after I add in some lighting and fan controller to make things even more crowded

decided to refresh my liquid metal for my delid since I had everything apart anyhow, hoping for good temps since its a huge pain to remount

so now I'm thinking I'll toss in nearly a gallon of distilled (with a bit of biocide) and hope she boots! I decided not to didn't do any system prep for the motherboard change so I'll just be plugging in my boot drive and hoping for the best! Will probably do a clean install after that. I'll get some shots with the panels on soon!

Update 5

Sorry its been so long everyone, by the time I got everything filled I had to leave town for a week and haven't had time for anything! So I've got everything in a working state now but I've got several things that need attention. side panel still needs to be reworked although honestly I'm kinda digging it with no panel on the side at all.

Also I need to expand a hole in the tabletop since some of the I/O ports are blocked since someone didn't measure very well... yeah right I eyeballed it

but for now I can plug my keyboard into the "front" USB ports and use it that way until next weekend (IF I get time then to work on it)

I also need to get a fan controller for my rad/intake fans in the table, I could get lots of extensions and splitters and run them all to the motherboard but that makes more work to remove the pc from the table and I think that I won't be needing to play with fan speeds as much as I'm used to since I've got much more radiator space to play with now. That reminds me, temps have been fantastic! I haven't really done much testing yet but Doom can't create more than a 4° water temp ∆T after running 12 hrs straight but I'll run some other tests and see what she can do! Everything is a bit noisy right now since all of the table fans are running 100% off the PSU but it still isn't bad.

Other than that I was very pleased when everything worked after just swapping my boot drive to the new motherboard, I even tried a few firestrike comparisons after reinstalling drivers and they are really close to each other so for now things are performing great! I'll probably just make the jump to W10 soon instead of doing a fresh W8 install but I was expecting more issues

edit: Also that "gryphon armor edition" sticker has GOT to be turned over lol

Update 6

Whew, its been a long night...

A couple iffy phone pics and a screenshot of my 5.0 Cinebench OC

*it doesn't really look that yellow

My terrible phone camera is even worse in a dark room so I'll get some soon with the cannon.
There are still a lot of things I need to do, like
-Customize cables in the table area because it's still way too messy down there
-Redo the front table "filter" to overlap the front of the door to hide the damage
-Get a bigger PSU/different GPU setup since I'm cutting things pretty close with a 750w and everything OC'd

-Flip the ASUS armor sticker
-Shorten up CPU to RES1 tube by about .75cm.
-Reapply LM under my CPU IHS since my temps seem to be increasing a bit perhaps, still not sure, I need to find my reference benchmarks from when I initially delidded.
-Get a sexy SLI bridge
-Get a 24 pin extension so I can use my 24 pin cable break for the Aquaero
-Get a flowmeter
-MAYBE... just MAYBE try and cram an E-ATX mobo in this 240..... sideways... errr something like that

^that probably isn't going to happen^

Thats all for tonight but I'll get some better pics soon, Thanks to everyone that has stopped by so far! I truly appreciate it

Update 7

a few "better" pics

The camera really brings out the table's inperfections. Usually it looks great to me since I live in a dark hole...

the table is still a mess...

Update 8 (latest)

Sorry for the awful video quality! Everything was coming out wavy due to the LED and camera refresh rate

I tried everything I knew how to do (not much) but I couldn't get great pics or video of the Aurora and of course I put it in right before a busy week at work. It's basically falling out now, comes back a bit if I disconnect and reconnect the QDC's due to the small amount of air. I'm thinking I'll pick up some billet cable combs from MNPCtech because they're straight gorgy and match my mobo/ram perfectly

0ldChicken · May 18, 2016

Reserved

0ldChicken · May 18, 2016

Reserved

emsj86 · May 18, 2016

Subbed

PedroC1999 · May 18, 2016

Subbed!

Great concept! Will you be using PETG or rubber for the bottom connections?

KaffieneKing · May 18, 2016

Really embracing the sick and turd noctua colour scheme! Subbed!

Radnad · May 18, 2016

Subbed

0ldChicken · May 18, 2016

Quote:

Originally Posted by Radnad

Subbed

Quote:

Originally Posted by emsj86

Subbed

Thanks! I'm excited to have you guys here!

Quote:

Originally Posted by KaffieneKing

Really embracing the sick and turd noctua colour scheme! Subbed!

If the fans don't match the computer then change the computer!

Glad you're here!

Quote:

Originally Posted by PedroC1999

Subbed!

Great concept! Will you be using PETG or rubber for the bottom connections?

I believe I'll be using EK ZMT for everything in the bottom and 1 run behind the mobo tray, provided I planned right! If not then Mayhems Ultra Clear will take up the slack. Thanks for coming in! I really hope everything turns out well!

A little mini update for you guys before I tear my current rig down. My performance-pcs delivery came today and this is everything that I need except my Kryoconnect SLI connector and some res mounts coming from Mod My Mods

I'm really pleased at how these BP "L" fittings look with my XSPC compression fittings, I was pretty nervous about it!

aaaaand I'll probably chicken out on the Aurora since this build is obviously not ideal for it, even with the two pumps I just don't see it going well. There is always that part of me that just wants to do it anyways and deal with it later

I never learn

OH and an adorable little baby Noctua to replace the one on the mobo that ventilates the "armor"

Awwwwwww!

Also got some replacement D5 vario speed knobs in case I mess up doing @Benjiw's thumb screw mod

Alright, that's it! Drain time! I'll steal my lady friend's computer for an update, tomorrow at the latest!

bluej511 · May 18, 2016

Looks good so far but ive gotten ask. Why not just run dual 480 rads instead of all those. Seems like its going to be quite restrictive with the extra tubing and bends and runs to the rad. Educated guess is that these are all spare rads haha.

0ldChicken · May 18, 2016

Quote:

Originally Posted by bluej511

Looks good so far but ive gotten ask. Why not just run dual 480 rads instead of all those. Seems like its going to be quite restrictive with the extra tubing and bends and runs to the rad. Educated guess is that these are all spare rads haha.

Nailed it! I've got a 360 here but it is a hwlabs nemesis gts so it is probably more restrictive than all of the rads in there put together haha. I did seriously consider buying a couple 480's but I just couldn't bring myself to do it with so much rad space here already! Plus I have 2 D5's and a twin d5 bay res sitting here just begging to be used lol

Perhaps I shold've titled the build "Spare parts"

bluej511 · May 18, 2016

Quote:

Originally Posted by 0ldChicken

Nailed it! I've got a 360 here but it is a hwlabs nemesis gts so it is probably more restrictive than all of the rads in there put together haha. I did seriously consider buying a couple 480's but I just couldn't bring myself to do it with so much rad space here already! Plus I have 2 D5's and a twin d5 bay res sitting here just begging to be used lol

Perhaps I shold've titled the build "Spare parts"

Im just subbed cuz i seriously dig that Noctua color. The 3 colors actually go really well and its quite unique. I just wanna see how the interior will look with all the rads, all the visible tubing should look super sweet.

TTheuns · May 19, 2016

From no log to two pages, nice going.
Will be following this closely.

I like the Noctua colour scheme, especially with white. I had a point in my build planning where I wanted to do that.
Also +1 on recycling the old furniture, I like using stuff like that.

0ldChicken · May 21, 2016