TROOPER | PC Build Log - Mar 7 - New photos

[sivispacem]

Wouldn't a Peltier element create a lot of condensation, though?

Peltier coolers tend to be able to do about 15°c below ambient temperature AFAIK. I think it's phase change coolers which result in -50°c temps and lots of condensation.

Peltier stuff is mega inefficient.

[yoječ]

Didn't Cooler Master offer a Peltier CPU cooler in the past? V10 or whatever?

 

I remember it was awful in pretty much every aspect - huge, super heavy, inefficient, loud, expensive, difficult to mount and used ~70W (!) even in idle...

Edited December 4, 2014 by yojo2

[AZAZEL]

CANDY CANE

 

Feeling festive, I decided to fashion a candy cane out of acrylic tubing.

 

 

I needed to produce a 180 degree bend that was as close to 30 mm as possible. Had this piece of aluminum pipe lying about, which fit the bill. Didn't have any helping hands available, so I used a few hundred yards of painter's tape.

 

 

Doesn't that look delicious?

 

 

In case you were wondering, this is going to be the tube connecting the MOSFET block to the GPU block. 90 degree bend straight out the MOSFET block, into another 90 leaving it parallel with the graphics card, and then the 180 degree "candy cane"-bend straight into the GPU block. I wanted it to come straight down perfectly parallel with the RAM modules, but the MOSFET and the GPU fittings didn't line up, so to get a perfectly straight line, I had to tweak the 180 just a bit, which was a pain. Had to heat it up again and adjust it afterwards, but it ended up being pretty spot on.

 

 

Not that you can see that much in this picture, but I'll snap another one straight on at a later date, so you can see the struggles.

 

That's all for now. Officially ran out of tubing, and the new piece I got from Germany was scratched to sh*t, so I ordered another batch, which will arrive later in the week.

[GreatGig]

Damn, that tubing looks gorgeous. Really hope my future build looks that neat and tidy.

 

Nice work, man.

[AZAZEL]

Damn, that tubing looks gorgeous. Really hope my future build looks that neat and tidy.

 

Nice work, man.

Thanks man. The bending work's quite fiddly, but definitely worth it in the end, when everything finally starts lining up the way you want it to.

 

I've been doing some cable management while I wait for the extra tubing to get here. People often sleeve their wires in colorful braiding and what not, but I like it better when it's as discreet as possible, so I'm keeping everything black to have the wiring I can't hide blend in as much as possible. If you want clean wiring, it's really helpful to be able to fashion custom cables to any length, and any configuration you desire. Here's an example:

 

The fan controller I'm using has a regular molex connector, but it's in a really tight spot, sandwiched between the mounting bracket and the heat sink on the back of the unit. I already had a spare SATA connector from the cable I use to power the lone hard drive, and SSD, so I made this out of a SATA-to-SATA extension cable I had lying around:

 

 

 

[El Dildo]

guy I know recently finished his own pride and joy...

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1DfSm5xfs0

 

"Intel 5960x 8-core (16thread) CPU, 32GB RAM, dual GTX 980.

water cooled, rigid hardline tubing."

Edited December 16, 2014 by El Diablo

[AZAZEL]

Hope everyone had a marvelous Christmas.

 

Ok, so a bit of a sob story coming up. As I mentioned earlier, I ran out of tubing as I had one final piece of tubing left to bend before the loop was completed. It has to be very specific 13/10 mm acrylic tubing to properly fit the fittings I'm using. I wanted to order the same pack of 4x 60cm tubes I got the first time around, but they were out of stock, so I ordered a 90 cm piece of the stuff, but it wasn't packaged as well as I'd hoped, and seemed to have been lying about their storage facility for quite some time, as it was badly scratched. So I ordered another pack of four.

 

The first attempt at bending didn't go as well as I'd hoped, as I applied a tad too much heat doing one of the bends, and some blisters formed, which looks really bad. As I grabbed another piece of tubing, I realized that the rest of the batch had a, albeit very slightly, smaller inner diameter, making it impossible to use the same silicone insert for the bends. I tried with the two other types I have lying around, but one is a bit too small, causing the tubing to flare out and look like sh*t, and the other is too hard, resulting in cloudy bends, scratching the inside of the tube slightly.

 

Adding to that, this specific tubing is completely sold out all over Europe. I've tried everywhere, but it could be as much as a month before it's in stock again. I do not want to compromise something as visible as this, this late in the build process, so I haven't quite figured out what I'll do yet. But yeah, will be a while before there's any more updates.

[GG14876]

If the outside diameter is the same (or is strong enough to handle it), it may be possible to grind/shave away enough of the interior for it to fit without bulging/flaring. I'm thinking a "Rotary tool" (I call it a Dremel...) would fit/work for this. If you're stuck with the tubing and happen to have/can borrow the tool, it's worth a shot...

 

Rather interesting that the tubing is sold out all over Europe... I wonder why that is; the new X99 systems, a factory fire/closure, holiday sales...

[aStiffSausage]

How's the project going? Been checking every so often.

 

I've been wondering, what's the toughest job when it comes to a project like this, not including money? Measuring acrylic tubing, choosing the right pieces..?

[El Dildo]

yeah, gee whiz, what's taking so long?

this guy is a total slacker

[AZAZEL]

How's the project going? Been checking every so often.

 

I've been wondering, what's the toughest job when it comes to a project like this, not including money? Measuring acrylic tubing, choosing the right pieces..?

 

Spending the money is the easy part. Getting things exactly the way you want them to be, and accepting that you have to make compromises along the way that divert from the original idea, is what's difficult for me. I originally used the release date of V PC as my motivational deadline, and as that got pushed back I sort of lost focus. Started considering redoing some aspects of the build entirely, making plans for changes that I'm not really comfortable doing with my skill set and tools at hand when it comes down to it. Then there was the whole business with the inconsistent measurements of the tubing, and it getting sold out all over the world (eta on the new shipment is the 20th), which I wasn't really expecting.

 

Enough with the excuses, though. Onward! It's good to see that you guys are still somewhat excited about what I'm doing here. I'll do a picture update later today.

[AZAZEL]

FINAL TUBING LAYOUT AND VOIDING ALL DEM WARRANTIES

 

First off, a slight flaw in the production of my Corsair 760T case:

 

 

This is the left side panel. It's quite pretty in its own right, but it was supposed to be a solid black, so not really what I, or Corsair for that matter, were expecting. Seems like some mishap with the casting or whatever it's called when it's plastic?

 

I contacted Corsair support, and received a new side panel not two days later, which was pretty awesome. In my haste, I had ticked the wrong box in the process, and got an all black panel in stead. Contacted them again, and they were really understanding, and two days later again, bam, proper white side panel. Awesome support from these guys.

 

Anyways, in my little hiatus I actually did get a bit of work done on the case. I got these nifty fan cable splitters that makes everything a bit neater, and gives me the option of plugging more fans in later, should I ever have the need. I also shortened the cables of the fans so there was less clutter.

 

 

This is for the fans on the front rad, one splitter for two two front fans in a push configuration, and the other for the two rear ones which are pulling air. I opted for a push/pull setup because the place the radiator is mounted is quite restrictive primarily being designed for 120mm fans and radiators.

 

 

The top one for the two fans on the top radiator, and a vacant plug if I choose to use a rear exhaust fan along the line.

 

 

I'm not a big fan of stickers, and you don't really own anything properly until you've voided the warranty. I removed ugly stickers from the back of the case, the power supply, the RAM and the mobo. Looks much cleaner now.

 

 

And finally, a shot of all the tubing in place.

 

 

Until next time.

[AZAZEL]

No pictures this time, but there's been progress. Here's a short checklist of what I did today:

• Took the whole thing apart.
• Flushed the radiators with a water/vinegar mixture, let it sit for a few hours, and rinsed with pure distilled water.
• Dressed up the remaining dodgy looking cables (USB connection for the Aquaero, cable for the flow meter, etc.)
• Applied some top of the line thermal compound from Prolimatec to the CPU.
• Rotated the EK-logo on the CPU block 90 degrees (picture of this tomorrow).
• Put everything back together.
• Tightened all fittings (and went over them all three times afterwards - we don't want any leaks).
• Did a bit of cable management.

So yeah, everything's a go for the final leak testing.

[AZAZEL]

LEAK TESTING!

 

These are the final preparations before filling the loop for the first time. Moment of truth.

 

 

Got all the fittings screwed in properly and tightly. They're compression fittings, where you slide the cap over the end of the tube, apply a thick o-ring, and then tighten them down so that the cap is compressing the o-ring, and thus making a really snug seal.

 

 

As I rotated the CPU block 90 degrees to make the routing of the tubing a bit more harmonic, I also made sure to rotate the EK-logo, so it sits level again.

 

 

I laid tissue under all the fittings and other spots prone to leaking, so it's easy to pinpoint any potential problems.

 

 

Lacking a proper filport, as I decided it wasn't worth drilling holes in the chassis to install one, I use this to fill the reservoir. Very handy.

 

 

This is the coolant I'll be using. Pre-mixed Mayhems Pastel Blue Berry, which is a non-transparent nano coolant. Really going to pop against all the blacks and grays and whites.

 

AAAAAND, DRUM ROLL PLEASE...

 

 

No leaks!

 

It's been running for three hours or so, and it seems solid. I'm having a bit of trouble bleeding the loop, and it sounds like there's a lot of air trapped in the front radiator, which is hindering the flow a bit. Hopefully a bit of tipping and shaking will get the job done. Until next time.

[LiniArc]

Azazel, You have awesome skills.

What have you studied? Engineering?

[AZAZEL]

Thank you.

 

Nah, studied sales and marketing. This is pure hobby.

[uNi]

That last pic looks amazing dude, does the coolant react to the uv light? That would be very tron looking right there.

[AZAZEL]

That last pic looks amazing dude, does the coolant react to the uv light? That would be very tron looking right there.

Thanks mate. The coolant isn't UV reactive, no. I did consider this, but decided against it. I quite like the regular, solid color.

[Ryan]

Looks awesome but I can't help but think it would have looked better with white coolant than the blue.

[AZAZEL]

Milk cooled?

 

Would end up looking too bland and monochrome for my liking. I'm glad it has some pang to it, to make it stand out more.

[AZAZEL]

THE BEAST IS ALIVE (a quick update)

 

It's sitting right here next to me on my desk, humming solemnly. Got it booted on Windows 8.1, and everything seems to be in perfect order. Most of the drivers are installed. The pump was quite noisy at full kick, but I dialed it back a bit from the default 4500RPM, to about 3800RPM, and it's whisper quiet now. Running it via the PWM header on the mobo, so I have full control from the BIOS or Asus software.

 

Initial temperatures are awesome, with a CPU idle around 29-32C and GPU around 30C.

[El Dildo]

so like, are you done?

[yoječ]

With water cooling you're never done.

[AZAZEL]

With water cooling you're never done.

 

Indeed.

 

I do have some ideas for the aesthetics, though, and considering a rear exhaust fan that I want to modify - and then a spot of overclocking. But yeah, big stroke wise I'm just about there. I'll throw up some pictures of the finished set up tomorrow.

[aStiffSausage]

Did you get a set of those EK logos or did you manage to take it off and replace without problems? I've heard about people making scratches or similar on theirs.

[AZAZEL]

Did you get a set of those EK logos or did you manage to take it off and replace without problems? I've heard about people making scratches or similar on theirs.

I had EK send me a little pack of five new logos with my blocks. Might have been able to reuse the old one, but I didn't want it falling off later or the like (it's almost impossible to get your fingers or some tools in there now, without draining the loop).

 

Teaser:

 

[El Dildo]

ok yeah.

 

solid blue looks way better than white

[AZAZEL]

yolo

 

[Ryan]

Does money grow on trees where you live Az?

 

You've got have like at least 5 grand invested into your rig by now.

[yoječ]

Maybe monitors do