Build Log: Project Rampage II (Caselabs STH10, Tri SLI 780TI, Full WC)

[kaiqi07]

Initially I had planned to house dual Aquaero 5s (XT and Pro) in this Project Rampage II. But recently I found out that my Aquaero 5 XT is bricked and might need to send back to Germany for repairs. So I bought a Aquaero 6 Pro to replace the AQ5 XT. Below images consists of how I mount the dual Aquaero 5s initially with waterblocks.

Aquaero 5 XT and Pro on STH10


Aquaero 5s Waterblock Fittings and Setup


USB Cables and Aquabus Linked to Aquaero 5s

[kaiqi07]

Drain Valve Installed


This is one of the 3 draining valve I be installing. This drain valve is located at the bottom of the res (via rear panel). The other two drain valve will be located at the lowest point of the case which is at the dual Monsta Rads as well as G Changer V2 which is housed at the flexbay.

Aquacomputer Flow Sensor

 

One of my local modder gave me the idea of using panel pass through holes to "float" my reservoir. I adore this idea so much that beside using the same method to hold my reservoir, I use method to mount my rear panel loop as well which can be seen at later posts.

Floating Reservoir

[kaiqi07]

Since this is a new build, I took this chance to change all of my radiators as well. I had replaced all of my EKWB XTX and XT radiators for Alphacool Monstas and Phobya G Changer.

 

Radiators for Project Rampage II





Notice any difference in the radiator beside its thickness? Actually two of them are Alphacool and one is from Phobya.

Phobya G Changer looks exactly the same in terms of built, radiator housing etc with Alphacool. I bet them came from the same factory.

[kaiqi07]

Instead of showing the radiator fins through the hex grill, I had installed 3 X 120mm fan PVC mesh sandwiching between the grills and the radiator. I am happy with the overall outlook of this radiator setup so far.

Sneak peak of my Flexbay Radiator's double stacked hex grill
Flexbay Radiator Mount: Phobya G Changer 360 V2


Phobya G Changer 360 Port Options


I will be installing Red LED Strips into the Flexbay Fans which include my 360 Flexbay radiator mount and 120mm Flexbay fan mount.

These LED strips will be thermal controlled, their brightness will be determine by the system temperature.
 

[kaiqi07]

Below shows one of the bottom chamber's draining solution using various types of Bitspower fittings.

 

This simple drain valve is made up of various fittings. They are Bitspower 90D Rotary, Bitspower Aqualink I, Bitspower T Joint Rotary and Bitspower 15mm Extender.

This is place at the lowest point of the case, draining could be easily done by plugging in a tubing.

Bottom Chamber Dual Monsta Rad's Drain Valve

 

I had installed LED strips which brightness is controlled by the system temperature via Aquaero
FLex Bay Mount LED Test

[kaiqi07]

For the front panel, I had also custom a faceplate for the front panel bays. Since most of the watercooling components' placement had been set and wont be making much changes. So its time to focus more on the aesthetics of the casing.

As i was fixing up the Aquaero 5s power and managing the cables, I felt that I had to do something about the inbetween gaps for the 5.25 devices and flex bay plates. So I came out with an idea. Custom a four bay faceplate with Aquaero 5s cutouts, the remaining 2 slots will have a logo cut out as well.

Since I be cutting out the logo on the two bays, I be creating a mini lightbox as well to lit up the logo. Logo will be lit by using RGB LED strips controlled by my Aquaero 5 LED Amp which is on its way from Germany.

I will be mainly using RGB LED strips which will change color in sync with the casing temps.

Location of RGB Strips:
- Mobo Chamber - 1.5m
- Front Panel Side Vents - 25cm X 2
- Front Panel Logo - 40cm X 1
- Bottom Chamber - 1M X 2
- Top Chamber 60cm X 2

All of these strips will be hooked up to the Aquaero 5 LED Amp which is said to be able to handle 20M of RGB LEDs.

Design of Custom Front Panel Faceplate with Aquaero 5 cutouts

Front Panel Faceplate with Aquaero 5s Mounted and RGB LED Strip Installed.

[kaiqi07]

For the rear panel, I had decided to drop the idea of just mounting a 120mm fan and would custom a panel to cover the rear panel. Initial plan is just to have 2 plys of panel (white and black) with hex shape cutouts. But if I am just going to have hex shape holes, it would look very boring. I gave it a thought, beside just a simple panel to cover the mini hex holes, I want to illuminate it.

Design of the Panel


Since Project Rampage II core design revolves hex so I had decided to create hex shape holes on the panels that will illuminate.

It is a 4 layers panels design. The whole setup will be secured using the 4 X 4mm holes on the 120mm

I had choose to use 5050 LEDs to illuminate the whole panel. Brightness will be in sync with my lightbox.
After finalizing the design and measurements of the rear panel. I sent for the acrylic to be laser cut.

As the rear panel is going to be mount onto a mobo tray, so the panel will have to be a few millimeters smaller than the mobo tray itself.

The whole panel itself is divided into 4 different panels, Base, Frame, Lighting Panel, Cutouts.

Total thickness of the whole panel is 11mm for the 4 panels.

Below is the image of the panel mounted into the casing itself. Perfect fit.

Rear Panel Test Mounting



After test mounting, I went ahead to spray paint the sides of the panels as all of them are of different acrylic. I used matt black to cover the border to prevent light to leak out from the sides before using acrylic glue to blue the pieces together.

As the whole panel is lit by 5050 LEDs which are known to be very bright. Like I predicted, there bound to be hot spots could be seen very clearly. Increasing of the thickness of the lighting panel is a must. So I used some remaining acrylic to elevate it. The sweet spot is additional 8 or 9mm. But if I were to go that thick the whole panel would be close to 20mm. So I chose to go for 6mm instead.

I will order two more pieces of lighting white of 3mm each to send for cut tonight.

Rear Panel LED Lighting Test

[kaiqi07]

Partial Bitspower Fittings (rest of half in two other rigs)


Bitspower 90 Degree Rotaries


Bitspower T / L / Q Joint Rotaries (9 more in my rigs)


Bitspower Triple Snake Rotaries


Bitspower Compression Fittings and Multi Link Adapters

[kaiqi07]

Since I be overhauling the whole build, I took the chance to upgrade my GPUs from Project Rampage's 680GTX SLI to 780TI GTX Tri SLI.

Here are my glory images of my new beasts.

Gigabyte 780TI GTX Tri SLI in boxes


Gigabyte 780TI GTX Tri SLI Lined Up


Gigabyte 780TI GTX Tri SLI






 

[kaiqi07]

I removed both my Bitspower Universal Galaxy DIMM4 blocks (Nickel) and Aquaero 5 blocks (Copper with Stainless Steel plate). I found out that my Bitspower DIMM Blocks, started to flake, which explains the reason why I have to go for removal of nickel and nickel plate them again.

As most of my blocks in my loop are nickel, so I decided to plate my Aquaero 5 copper blocks as well.

Do note that one of the Bitspower Universal Galaxy DIMM block has nickel flaking appearing various spots. As I had painted one of the Aquaero 5 stainless steel cover plate before, I had used dremel to remove the paint (bad move) which explains the uneven surface.

Before Plating Process


Bitspower Universal Galaxy DIMM4 After Plating


1

Aquaero 5 Water Blocks After Plating


Leak Testing the blocks


After running the simple setup for 30min, no signs of leaking. Glad I had made the choice and went ahead to nickel plate the blocks. As these blocks have screw threads, so plating thickness can't be too thick.

[kaiqi07]

Updates:

Today received 3 items from Performance PC for my 3rd D5 pump setup.

- Bitspower D5 Mod Kit (Matt Black)
- Bitspower D5 V2 Pump Top (Clear Plexi)
- Bitspower Mini Valve (Silver Shiny)



I also tried to brainstorm for different mounting areas/ style/ position for my dual D5 which are located in the mid chamber.

 

In total I have 3 sets of the D5 with Bitspower kit for this build which one of them are running my current rig. I had also applied carbon fibre film on all of my pump's mod kit as well.

D5 with Bitspower Pump Top and Mod Kit


Rear view of the D5 pump with Bitspower kit


Close up of D5 Mod Kit with Carbon Fibre Film Applied

[kaiqi07]

After all sleeving of cables for all fans/ PSU/ custom aquabus/ LEDs. I started to work on cable management as well as redoing the rear panel loop design.

Here are the results, do note it is still in progress. Will be doing some simple mods at the rear panel for mounting of SSDs and cable routing panels.

Rear Panel (In Progress)


Front View of the Rear Panel Cable/ Fittings Routing


Mid Chamber



As for my pumps. I had decided to place the pumps in front of my flex bay radiator with the rear mod kit facing outwards.

My next plan is to create a mounting plate for my SSDs which also acts as a cable cover to hide all of my PSU cables routing to various components (Mobo, GPUs, SSDs)

[kaiqi07]

I had custom made more stuffs. These clips are meant to help in my cable management and had done a few prototypes to archieve the end results.

- Cables (24p/ 8p/ 6p Panel Pass Through to be mounted on the mobo plate.
- Mobo plate rear panel with cover
- SSD Mounting Plate
- Cable Clips (24p/ 8p/ 6p/ 14p)
The cable clips are designed and cut. The goal for these cable clips are to replace my previous method of using zip ties to cable manage the cables. Using these comb like clips, I just have to snap the cables into place and it will be held tightly and firmly in place. I am very pleased that this method works and I will get more cut as the Seasonic 24pins for CPU are actually leading out to 27 cables. So will have to create the 27pins design for the 24pin cables.

Custom Design and Laser Cut Cable Clips


Different Sizes Cable Clips


Cable Clip Installation on 8Pin ATX


Installed the 8+6 Pins Cable Clips to my GPUs

 

I will take the pictures of the Cable Pass Through Panel for the Motherboard Tray within these few days as I need to do some changes to the dimension and adding more holes before I could mount it in.

[kaiqi07]

For the motherboard rear panel, I had design the rear panel in various layers.

- Base Plate
- Routing Plate (For routing cables)
- Cover Plate Base
- Top Plate (SSD Mounting)

Rear Panel




 

[Commander_Z]

you're not waterblocking those 780Ti's ?????

[kaiqi07]

For Project Rampage II, I had bought two different CPU blocks which I will decide to use either one of them.

Aqua Computer Cuplex Kryos XT


Bitspower Summit


Both are great looking blocks. But I have to comment that AQC Cuplex is indeed very very well built. Very solid and felt it was made with quality workmanship and materials. Thumbs up AQC!

Bitspower Summit on the other hand, is a lot lighter in terms of weight due to plexi top but the sexiness lies on the top itself. Huge and clear plexi. So each of them has its pro and cons.

As I am doing some importing of custom cables, I had also ordered a set for myself. Here are some samples of the cables I have on hand.

Custom Seasonic Cables


Heatshrinkless Sleeving


Flexibility Test


Personally I love the custom cables, not only its very very flexible, heat shrinkless and also there are no text imprinted onto the cables!

I had also did a very very simple mod. I added installed a pair of RGB LED strips to the front panel vent holes. These vent LEDs are hooked up to my Aquaero 5 and will lit different colors according to the system temperatures.

Front Panel RGB LEDs


 

[kaiqi07]

I custom made a Cable Pass Through Panel for my build and I am very happy that it works perfectly. Had slowly and painstakingly removed each cable and sew through the panel yesterday and the results are very nice.

Cable Pass Through Panel


Cable Pass Through Panel with Custom Cable Clips


Cable Pass Through Panel Mounted


Cable Pass Through Panel Mounted with 24pin and 6 Sets of PCI E



Dual D5 with Bitspower Mod Kit and V2 Clear Plexi Top





From the above photos, The cables were all tied with my custom clips and were pass through the cables holes on the panel. This had helped to cable managed my huge chunk of cables a lot as just the PCI E cables alone have a total of 42 cables and if include my seasonic 24pin (it has 27 cables in total). it has a total of 69 cables.
 

[kaiqi07]

Migration started. After removal of the RIVE and the components from the previous setup, I decided to do a very simple mod to cover the I/O panel as well.

I/O Panel Cover


Motherboard Blocks with Rigid Tubing

[kaiqi07]

Loop is all done. All cables are also tidied. Now what is left is to fill the loop up and start leak testing. As this is my first venture into hard tubing, I am eager to see the end results. Sadly, that the Aqua Computer 780TI blocks and backplate yet to arrive.

To prep for the arrival of the blocks, I had decided to install QDC to enable me to add in the GPU later.

Here are some images of the end product after 4 months of hard work, planning, manufacturing custom parts, and also new components. Come January 2014, the blocks will arrive and the whole build will be complete. Hope by then my sponsored caselabs window and kingston SSD will arrive as well.

Sneak Peek: Project Rampage II Mid Chamber



Sneak Peek: Project Rampage II Rear



This marks a milestone for my Custom PC building. I had pushed myself pretty hard in terms of design, and planning. A lot of details and thoughts were put into the minor details. Putting my ideas into reality. I could not had done this without lots of friends from various forums as well as my local PC/ WC community.

[kaiqi07]

After months of waiting, my Aqua Computer Kryrographics 780TI blocks and backplate finally arrived.

Went to pick them up and was eager to open the packages. Once again I am impressed with the built quality of German stuff.

3 Sets of Aquacomputer Kryrographics 780TI Nickel Acrylic Glass


Aquacomputer Kryrographics 780TI Nickel Acrylic Glass


Aquacomputer Kryrographics 780TI Backplate


Aquacomputer Kryrographics 780TI Blocks and Backplates


Finally, all of my stuff arrived. I just need to find time to drain the loop and mount the blocks onto the 780TIs.

I had took some images of the motherboard loop as well as the cable pass through panel

Motherboard Loop


PCI E Cables Pass Through Panel

[kaiqi07]

I did a fairly simple mod to my new Kyrographics Backplate. As Rampage IV Extreme top PCI E slot and I/O panel gap is very slim (3mm). I will have to do some modification to the new backplate (4 - 5mm) in order to be able to slide in the GPU with backplate to the first PCI E lane.

What I had done is simply saw the edge off. Using a saw to saw off a 25 X 30mm piece off and file the edges down. After filing the edges, I used my matt black spray paint and coat the edges.

Here are some images of the end results of this fairly simple mod.

Modification to Kyrographics 780TI Backplate


Top (original), Bottom (modded)

[kaiqi07]

Updates:

I found some time this week to start to work on my 780TIs. I had ordered a canister of Plasti Dip matt black for my PCI bracket.

I wish to paint my PCI bracket to black to be able to fit into the theme and yet be able to remove the paint easily if RMA (Touch Wood) is needed.

So the solution is Plasti Dip, not cheap but well worth the money.

This is the end result of Plasti Dip on my PCI bracket.

Painted PCI Bracket with Black Silicon Dust Caps


Before Mounting AQC Kyrographics 780TI Acrylic Glass and Backplate



780TI Stock Cooler Removed


AQC Kyrographics 780TI Block Mounted (Closeup)


AQC Kyrographics 780TI Block Mounted


AQC Kyrographics 780TI Block Mounted with Backplate

[kaiqi07]

Updates:

After installing 3 sets of 780TIs blocks and backplates. It it finally time for me to mount them into the rig. This is one of the major phase of my build which marks my build really close to completion.

But upon installing the GPUs into the rig, I found out that due to the GPU port's height gave me some issues. I am unable to mount the GPUs with 2 Slots options and had to use the 3 Slots due to the height of the GPU ports. This means I can only run the GPUs at 16X 8X 8X, but it will cost minimal frame rate lost.

I am using parallel flow for my GPUs, this will ensure a normalized temps for all of the GPUs. Flow rate will not be affected as I am running a single loop with triple D5 pumps. I had observed my flow rate and 5% decrease in flow rate after mounting the 3 sets of 780TIs.

For the changes in PCI slots, it also means the custom SLI cover cant be used in this build. I will have to redesign a new SLI bridge cover.

But on the positive side, due to the increase space in-between the GPUs. I will have a clear view of the beautiful acrylic glass of the blocks and also able to show more of the crystal links for the SLI links.

GPUs temperatures are great. Idle temperatures are hovering 26 - 31 degrees Celsius. I had yet to test my temperatures on load, but so far during gaming it never hit 40 degrees as far as I observed.

Here are some of the sneak peaks of how the setup looks like.

Overall Shot of the Mid Chamber Loop (Motherboard and GPUs)


Inlet to GPUs from D5 pumps


Inlet to Bitspower Universal Galaxy from GPU

[kaiqi07]

More Sneak Peaks
ASUS Rampage IV Extreme Loop Order


Dual D5 Pumps with Bitspower D5 Mod Kit and V2 Pump Top (Mid Chamber)




Tri SLI 780TIs

[kaiqi07]

Updates:

Here is the image of the modded Ducky Shine keyboard.

White Top with black caps Ducky Shine White LED



Before modification


This simple modification was done to have it goes with my rig color scheme.