My Journey Thus Far (In Watercooling)

[sikotik13]

As inspired by tutor, smicha, glimpse, and several others in various posts, this is akin to a build log (I forgot to take pictures at every step, and lack a decent camera, but I'm making do).

Back-story for the bored/curious:
I am a non-traditional college student, just finished mid-terms in my third semester. I have been using computers since I was in kindergarten, but didn't build my first until about 2007. I enjoy learning, and prefer to do so by doing after seeking nuggets of wisdom I deem pertinent to my goal and then diving in head-first. I got into 3D art related things sometime in 2008 during my first deployment, as it was an excellent way to pass time. It is thus far strictly a hobby, but I am attempting to work on taking it more seriously, while also slowly teaching myself the (very) basics of programming with Unreal Engine 4. I consider myself something of a nerd, in as much as I enjoy the ever changing field of technology (there's always something new to learn about). This particular build is something of a personal crusade to push my limits and teach myself things while facilitating the ability to get things done in my art and programming journeys in a timely fashion. As a result, it is incomplete at this point, but by far the most complex (and freakin' expensive) build I have attempted to date. Before I forget, the primary goals (aside from self-education) were to build a semi-professional quality rendering machine on a college-student's budget (because that is my current budget), preferably as a self-contained unit (for ease of moving it with me in a few months when I transfer schools), and in steps, since I was unsure of the learning curve. I also liked the idea of some expand-ability, and am open to suggestions that keep the above in mind, or general commentary/critiques. I'll include what pictures I did remember to take so far, and will include more as I continue expansions/replacements.

My greatest find was this case, as I had been sort of considering it, but it was out of my budget, until someone cancelled a custom order, causing a roughly 60% discount in price. Given that, at the end of the day, what one can afford is what one can afford, I sacrificed my choice of color for a case that met the above needs:

FrozenQ Double Wide

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I had already purchased two of the EVGA 780 6GB cards for Octane and thrown them in my gaming computer, so they went into the new case. They were (as of about 0100 this morning) supplemented by two more purchased by my brother-in-law on ebay. I'll leave out the pointless box pictures here, as I'm sure they are commonly seen.

In my efforts to be more forward thinking, I finally decided it was time to switch from AMD to Intel. The price hurt, but AMD lacked any significantly better offering, and given their new direction, seemed unlikely to anytime soon, so my two big (read: I accepted the fate of many, many nights of Ramen) purchases were an Asus X99 E-WS motherboard, and an i7-5960X. (I purchased the RAM in smaller quantities, though they added up to a significant sum of their own)

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Sadly, the Processor was one of the things I forgot to take a shot of individually, and it didn't occur to me until I had it on the board and in the case, along with the hard drives purchased (2 TB and 4TB SSHDs in addition to a Samsung 850 100GB Pro for the OS that was waiting on a bracket to install).

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I also acquired a Corsair 1500i power supply, as it seemed ample for my needs (overkill most likely, but I was unsure of power draw needed for watercooling two separate loops, and the 7 year warranty seemed like a good idea. Plus, it was on sale, meaning I could even manage a few sandwiches)

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I summarily failed to take any pictures of the watercooling components, really, which was quite an oversight on my part, and one I plan to rectify when I convert to hardline. Essentially, 3 360 radiators and one 120, all in pull configuration. All 20 1200RPM fans, CPU, GPU, and RAM waterblocks, and radiators are XSPC (again, on sale).
I did manage to remember to take a picture somewhere in the RAM waterblock unboxing. Of course, it's the least useful component (I know, completely useless, really), and mostly just because I didn't see any need to not make it look neat, but at least it's a picture of something outside of the case. Go me.

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Oh, the two reservoirs in the first picture are Monsoon Series Two D5 Basics, each with Swiftech-665 PWM pumps mounted. Running Primochill deionized water through Primochill advanced LRT something-or-other flex-tubing. This will be converted to Monsoon hardline, and the Bitspower flex compression fitting will be swapped for Monsoon Hard-Lock fittings. I've had no issues with this fluid, and can't see a reason to change it, so I'm glad I bought a gallon, though I'll likely get another, just in case it runs low. The tubing isn't really bad either, I just prefer the look of hard tubing, and this was just so I could make the computer functional until income tax refund time. It'll likely go into my gaming rig, whenever I decide to give up food to switch that over to water.
And here's a shot of the original "complete" build, with one of my trusty 670 FTW+ cards as display card (I later had the brilliant notion to move the power supply to the back section, improving airflow over the motherboard).

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In my excitement over card expansion, I again failed to take pictures until performing a leak test after installing the RAM waterblocks and the two new cards. I also opted for UV leds, as I thought a little light would look nice, and the insanely bright blue, while one of my favorite colors, did not compliment the build much at all.

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I am aware the whole processor/Ram area is a hot mess.The loops at the top radiators also bother my OCD something fierce, they were put in because I failed to cut them long enough the first time (learning curve), and the shorter pieces made up this snakes nest. Again, primarily so that once I get the hardline, all I have to do is measure, bend, and install (measuring kit should be here between today and Friday, hardline will be ordered once I am sure my daughter has everything she needs and I finish paying my brother-in-law back for the cards).

Future plans as of this particular moment:
1. Switch to hardline so that said OCD will stop nagging me about everything it considers wrong with my flex-tubing failures.
2. Switch out to higher RPM fans. These particular fans do an excellent job, but I only got them because that particular retailer (who is now out of business to my knowledge) only had enough of this particular speed, I plan on swapping out to 2000 RPM. The noise doesn't bother me as I've been gaming on air for years, and I'm surprised by how quiet these are really, since they are at max at all times, and my tower fan can be heard over them easily while it sits 15 feet on the other side of the case from me.
3. Lighting will likely be adjusted. I am a fan of more ambient and accent lighting, and the case really is a show case, so I might as well splurge a little on some kind of lighting. It's unfortunately also mostly translucent, which makes my preferred effect harder to achieve, but I do love a challenge.
4. Likely another SSD, so I can load some more of the programs I use onto one without feeling like I'm suffocating the OS

In summation, full component list, for the curious that managed to trudge this far through my rambling:
FrozenQ Double Wide fully acrylic case ~360 USD incl. shipping
Asus X99E-WS motherboard ~ 510 USD
Intel 5960X processor ~too dang much USD
64 GB of G.Skill DDR4 2400 RAM ~975 USD
4x EVGA 78 6GB cards ~2400 USD total
Hard drives ~200 USD including bracket
Watercooling components ~800 USD
=
A build that is probably worth more than my car, but it has been a blast so far.
Realizing exactly how much food you gave up over the last three months... priceless.

Edit: On a side note, I'll also make an effort to figure out exactly what setting on my phone makes some of these appear sideways here but correctly oriented on my computer. Rather odd, since normally they would appear sideways on my computer as well.

[glimpse]

I'll leave this to read in the evening for desert! =)

Now that's insane build =) Thanks for Sharing Sikotik13.

[sikotik13]

Thanks to you and the others I mentioned for a great deal of those nuggets of wisdom. Of course, I read smicha's awesome power needs formula after I bought too much power supply.

[smicha]

Sikotik13,

First of all - congratulations! I am really happy seeing new users on water-cooled machines. You'll benefit from extra power surely.

Your motherboard and cpu is top notch.

Here are my remarks: your tubing needs extra simplification works. On one photo I see the bent tubing - this is critical and never should happen. Pumps shall be on bottom right below reservoir. This will increase flow and will allow you to reduce pump speed. I had a mess in my previous lian li case and a single d5 pump hardly worked.

I am not sure why you want to go with 2000rpm fans - there is no need to do it. With so many rads 1000-1500rpm is enough.

Upload more photos and I'll respond to all your questions with pleasure.

Cheers,

s

[sikotik13]

Thanks, smicha, and indeed, the improvement has been noticeable already.

I am well aware of the tubing faults. As I said, it was a learning experience, and one where I kind of ran short on tubing so made do with what pieces I had left. Thus far, the kink has not affected temperatures nor had any noticeable effect on the pump at all, but I am keeping a close eye on it. The intent from the outset was that the flex-tubing would be temporary I certainly won't need a case anywhere near as large for gaming, so the flex-tubing can be recycled, after a fashion.

The 2000 rpm was my original purchase plan, but they didn't have enough of them at the time, and it was more for curiosity as to whether or not it would even have any effect, really. Certainly not a high priority, but part of me just really wants to know if it would have any effect on temperatures. Probably the inner hardware enthusiast in me, I suppose.

The pumps are mounted directly to the reservoirs (they are designed this way), so I'm not exactly sure what you mean by the location of them. They are set on an aggressive PWM fan curve, and rarely go above about 1700rpm (when the processor hits 50C). At idle, they sit at about 950-100, and my idle temps are 33C for the processor and 26C for the hottest card. Are they working harder than they should be? I had vaguely considered moving them to the bottom openings, but would have to work out how I'll bleed the lines if I do that.

I suppose it's worth noting that I have no desire to install any sort of optical drives, and was considering adding two more bay reservoirs solely for visual effect and to fill up the empty spaces. I was thinking of just having them sit with fluid for no reason other than to look pretty, but I could perhaps move the pump/res combos to the bottom and install the extra reservoirs up top to fill them, allowing me to bleed the lines pretty much the same way I do now, but I'm unsure how that would affect the flow rates and if it would strain the pumps. I'll try to get some more pictures later, but the project is kind of at a standstill while I wait on funds. Thanks for the input so far