[SiamBeast]

Hello everybody! I will be publishing the build log for "Blue Pearl Project", a water-cooled computer that I'll be building using only the world's strongest gear. I'll make a dual Windows / Linux system in a single box and we'll watercool the whole thing. I am writing this to help anybody who would want to build a similar machine in the future. I hope everyone reading this log will find good advice and ideas from it.

I will be posting 1 time per day in this thread in order to show pictures and updates of the build. I anticipate a total time of around 10 days until completion since I have other things to work on.

The English version will be posted here, and the Thai version will be posted on Pantip, right there: https://pantip.com/topic/36159228.

I am not sponsored, so I will use my imagination along with ideas taken from various builds that I came across, in order to have my own custom machine.

- Day 1 -

I greeted Fedex this morning, who brought me my missing gear so I could finally get started with building all that. So here's a picture of what all the gear looks like:



I'll be building a Windows gaming system, and an Arch Linux workstation system in the same box. I just want the strongest machine, so I'll make no compromise on that. I'll be running a set of nVidia Titan X Pascal cards in 4-way SLI for Windows gaming, and dual Xeons for Linux workstation for a total of 44 cores / 88 threads, coupled with 4 nVidia Quadro M6000 GPUs. Everything will be hooked to a 6-screen setup of Dell P2415Q 4k monitors.

Here is all the gear, along with the current prices (in USD):

[Windows]
Motherboard: ASUS Rampage V Edition 10: $500
CPU: Intel Core i7 6950X: $1,200
RAM: Gskill 128 GB: $1,000
GPU: nVidia Titan X Pascal (4x): $5,500
HD: Samsung 850 Pro 2TB SSD (5x): $3,500
PSU: Corsair AX1500i: $500

[Linux]
Motherboard: ASUS Z10PE-D8 WS: $600
CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2699 v4 (2x): $9,500
RAM: Samsung ECC 256 GB: $1,600
GPU: nVidia Quadro M6000 (4x): $20,000
HD: Samsung 850 Pro 2TB SSD (3x): $2,300
PSU: Corsair AX1500i: $500

[Used in both]
Box: Thermaltake W200 + P200 pedestral: $600
Custom sleeved cables (moddiy.com): $1,500
Controller: Aquaero 6XT + front plate (2x): $400
All watercooling gear: $5,000
Monitor: Dell P2415Q 4k 24-inch (6x): $3,000
UPS Power Supply 2000W (2x): $2,000
Misc (cables, extenders, combs, etc.): $1,500

TOTAL: $60,700

On the above picture, I have a bit more gear than necessary for the build - such high-end gear is hard to find here in Thailand and I have to place a Newegg order + use Fedex Crossborder to have the stuff reshipped to me here (10 days), so it's better to play it safe and get a little bit more. Plus, it'll give me a good excuse to build a new rig after this one.

I try to purchase locally to avoid shipping delays, so a lot of the stuff comes from JIB and InvadeIT.
I ordered the rest of the gear on Newegg.
All sleeved cables come from ModDIY. I tried sleeving them myself, but I suck at doing that.
Watercooling gear comes from performance-pcs.com. All fittings are from Bitspower, radiators are from Phobya, and the rest, including water blocks, is from EK.
I had to make around 5 trips to HomePro because I constantly forgot to buy a tool.
And much thanks to Fedex Crossborder for allowing anyone in the world to purchase from US retailers.

I'll also adhere to a set of rules when building this project. This is my first hard tubing rig, so I'll try to:
1) No tube bending. Fittings only.
2) No soft tubing for any reason.
3) No loose part - everything must be rock solid.

While hard tubing is harder to work with, it is better in the long term as most dyes will not stain it. Plus, it looks way better on every build.

Now that we cleared this, I'll start building the machine tomorrow and I will detail every step to let everybody learn how to do that.

 

[moldyviolinist]

That might be the largest budget I've ever seen for a build. Consider me subbed.

 

[Sulfatron]

Wow!! Amazing!

But I can't help thinking that all this hardware deserves a Caselabs case

 

[Sand3853]

Absolutely crazy hardware there! Interested to see where this goes

 

[PMan007]

WOW...Just WOW!!!!

Just out of curosity, and feel free to answer , why so big? Gaming purpose? Work? Both? Just because you can?..

Anyway, subbed. can't wait to see the final result.

 

[claes]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sulfatron

Wow!! Amazing!

But I can't help thinking that all this hardware deserves a Caselabs case

Ditto on the chassis but suuuuuuubed

 

[OCDesign]

A truly incredible stack of hardware you've got there, I'm in awe. Looks like it's going to be a brilliant build.

 

[Quantum Reality]

Whoa!

I am very curious to see what the final build looks like.

 

[czin125]

You could go further with 4x PNY P6000s from newegg... might need to get waterblocks from somewhere though.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133636
4699 USD

Are you using both at the same time?

Koolance HXP-193 plate heat exchanger between the two loops?

 

[fragamemnon]

Holy ....

 

[IMI4tth3w]

This is like one of those builds you make on pcpart picker for fun. This will be insane.

For the 4x titan x are you planning on messing with the custom drivers to get them to work? Are you planning on using all 6 monitors on each system or 3 for one system and 3 for the other?

 

[czin125]

The M6000s cost more than the P6000s? 1.25 shaders and 1.50x from mhz but youd need custom or universal blocks for these?

5000( not sure from where) vs 4700s(newegg)

 

[Barefooter]

Oh I'm in for this one!

 

[CroyAlore]

That is a insane list of parts haha, this is going to be a fun build, subbed.

 

[SiamBeast]

The W200 case from Thermaltake is in design very similar to most Caselabs cases - I checked some pictures online and it was looking pretty alike.

You are right about the P6000's - I wanted those instead but I actually ordered the hardware over 2 months ago and it got stuck in customs for almost a month - during that time, the P6000's became available on Amazon and Fedex Crossborder discontinued their service.

Obviously, no shop here in Thailand carries that - the so-called "high end" shops carry GTX 1080's at max, and that's if you are lucky.

The Titans will be used for Windows, and the Quadros will be used for Linux. For some reason (*cough* corporate greed *cough*) using 6 monitors with compositing on Xorg with those cards on Linux isn't supported. I have another build that uses 4 GTX 1080 cards and I was never able to get it to work. The nVidia documentation says that we need Quadros for that. I wasn't comfortable enough to try the hard card mods that can supposedly transform GeForces into Quadros. With that setup, it's supposed to work right out of the box - we'll see about that.

There will be only 6 monitors. All Windows cards will be connected to the DP input of the monitors, and the Linux ones will be connected to the mini-DP. A simple press on "switch signal" on the monitors changes the OS.

 

[SiamBeast]

- Day 2 -

Thanks for following this log. Today, my main focus will be to assemble the RAM stick coolers, and the GPU coolers. I'll be using G.skill 16GB sticks. Here is a picture of the stock memory stick:



As you can see, there are no screws on the stock cooler. How can we remove the cooler? I've seen this question many times, and the answer is quite simple: use a heat gun to melt the glue holding the cooler in place, then use a flat screwdriver to pry the heatsink off. You will end up with a naked RAM stick just like this:



The next step is what takes the longest: cut the thermal pads in small pieces and place a piece on every memory chip on the RAM stick. Once this is done, take the 2 halves of the EK RAM Monarch module, and use the 3 screws to sandwich the RAM stick between the 2 metal pieces. Don't be afraid to screw hard, but don't go overboard. You'll end up with this:



Then repeat this process for every stick (8 in total). It might look easy, but it took nearly 15 minutes per stick. I have to tell you, this was a real pain to do. I then had to do the same for all Samsung memory sticks that'll go in the Linux system, so that's 16 sticks in total.

Next, I'll install the water blocks on the video cards. I am impressed by how many screws are holding the nVidia Titan X Pascal stock heatsink in place. I had to google how to do this because I couldn't locate some screws. Here's a picture of the stock card:



The first step is to remove the backplate, by removing all the tiny screws on the back. Once the backplate is out, removing the heatsink implies removing the screws on the PCB holding it in place. It's easy to do, but it takes a while, especially when you forget one screw. This is the naked PCB:



It looks very plain but we'll quickly remedy the situation. The first step is to put the thermal pads on the card, and put thermal paste on the GPU. Once this is done, we have to place the waterblock on the card, and screw it firmly in place. Then we put the EK backplate on top of the card. This will ensure that you get a rock solid card.



The same process goes on for Quadro cards. I forgot to take pictures of this part, but it's pretty similar.

And... that's all for today. Tomorrow I will start assembling the system in the box and it'll start to take shape.

 

[czin125]

I believe Alphacool can make a custom waterblocks for quadros on request or it seems like it on their site?

 

[DrockinWV]

Definitely...

 

[JackCY]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sulfatron

Wow!! Amazing!

But I can't help thinking that all this hardware deserves a Caselabs case

But why when you can cheap out with a copy case when building a $60k machine.
The whole thing is ridiculous waste of money, but hey if someone has so many to waste it's good to waste them.

 

[mmonnin]

Looks like it'll be one heckuva build.