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[Completed] EmuStation Build - Watercooled Define R5S? w/ Mods

AlanTheEmu
By AlanTheEmu
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Okay throwback time since it is a thursday  ;).

These pictures are the stages of Emustation's progression from being a really bad PC to what it is today. The reason I say progression instead of it being a new build is that 1 component has gone through all these stages I'll leave that for you to figure out though. I will post the specs of each under every photo. From the beginning:

 

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CPU: AMD FX 4100

Cooler: Stock AMD Heatsink

Mobo: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2P

Ram: 8GB of something

PSU: Don't ask it was a 700w Alpine, I think it likes fire

Case: Zalman Z3

HDD: 1TB Seagate barracuda

GPU: EVGA GTX 660 SC

OS: Windows 7

 

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CPU: AMD FX 6350

Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 evo

Mobo: MSI 970-G43

Ram: Kingston Hyper x 8GB

PSU: Corsair CX600M

Case: Zalman Z3

HDD: 1TB Seagate barracuda

GPU: EVGA GTX 660 SC

OS: Windows 7

 

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CPU: Intel I5 4690k

Cooler: Corsair H100i

Mobo: Asus Sabertooth Mark 1

Ram: Kingston Hyper x 8GB

PSU: Corsair CX600M

Case: Fractal Design Define R4

HDD: 1TB Seagate barracuda

SSD: 120GB Samsung 840 Evo

GPU: Asus GTX 760 DirectCU II

OS: Windows 7

 

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CPU: Intel I5 4690k

Cooler: Corsair H100i

Mobo: Asus Sabertooth Mark 1

Ram: Kingston Hyper x 8GB

PSU: Corsair CX600M (was swapped for the XFX XTR shortly after)

Case: Fractal Design Define R4

HDD: 1TB Seagate barracuda

SSD: 120GB Samsung 840 Evo

GPU: Asus GTX 760 DirectCU II Sli

OS: Windows 7

 

After that I sold the 760's and got a 970, upgraded CPU, Ram and case and put it under water. It's taken a long time to get here.

Emustation Build Log: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/307594-emustation-build/

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Update:

 

I spent most of Friday (03/04/15) disassembling Emustation. I was disassembling so that I can mount the D5 pump and reservoir in a place where the D5 pump vibration would not annoy me which was the case with it on the shroud. Anyway I needed to drill into the case to achieve this so I removed everything to not risk components getting shorted from the metal fragments. I also found a cut off of acrylic lying around which was almost a perfect fit for the 5.25 opening.

 

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Here is Emustation back together after leak testing overnight.

 

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From the pics you can see 2 issues I want to fix. 1. The pump top is very close to the end of the 970 and I intend of using SLI in this rig so I will probably have to move it over slightly. 2. I'm not sure about the PSU shrouds grommet placement as its way off, so I might order a new piece and do it properly.

 

Unfortunately the plastic panel I made in the last update had to be removed as the grommet was interfering with the reservoir mounting, however I will order a new one and cut the grommet hole further away. Also I have removed the 1TB HDD I had no room without that back panel to mount it and the 4TB is more of a priority, it will make a comeback but for now the 4TB will take over.

 

I also made the new hard drive mount but I didn't take a pic  <_<. It's simply a piece of acrylic with noise dampening foam underneath it which is then fastened with industrial strength velcro to the case. The result? No vibration whatsoever the only noise it makes is the platter spinning that's it.

 

Major updates will probably slow down now until after June as I am planning a road trip through the Swiss alps with a friend so my money will be channeling towards that so only small things for now.

 

Anyhow that's it for now thanks for looking.

Emustation Build Log: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/307594-emustation-build/

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Hi guys, I was toying around with an idea of painting my fittings in my rig as black nickel looks so out of place  :lol:. So I painted one as a test piece and would like to see what you think. My options are; Black/White, All Black, All White or White/Black. The photo is showing Black/White.

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What do you think?

Emustation Build Log: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/307594-emustation-build/

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Small Update:

 

Look what turned up today.

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I actually like Gigabytes design but EK gives me dem temps.

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I sold my old i5 4690k, H100i and Nzxt Kraken x41 to get it  :P.

The waterblock however came out of my own hard earned money.

No backplate as of yet, I'll probably get one at the end of April when I get paid.

 

It won't be installed into the system at the moment as I need to wait for my sheet aluminium to arrive so I can move the pump and reservoir over to allow the card to fit. I would have used acrylic again but I would have more peace of mind with aluminum.

 

Thanks for reading.

Emustation Build Log: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/307594-emustation-build/

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  • 4 weeks later...
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UPDATE:

 

It's been a while since my last update but a lot has been done. I've made custom panels for mesh that was unfiltered or not used by fans, bought the 500gb ssd, added the 2nd GTX 970, changed the loop layout, got another shroud, got a panel for the pump/res to fit on and finally got some magnets for the door at the front. I see fractals Define S has been released and to be honest it did annoy me a bit as it had pretty much fixed everything I've already modded to the R5 but I've already gone too far to switch cases now and my R5 has pretty much the same layout as the Define S now anyway so that's why I've changed the title to Define R5S. Anyway you're not here for that your here for them pics so here you go.

 

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If I've missed anything from the R4 it was the magnetic door. The clips on the R5 just feel cheaper even though they are made of metal. This was a simple and easy mod anyone can do it.

 

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The interior of the case this is what the Define S should look like why have you not started adding PSU shrouds to your cases Fractal especially since NZXT and Phanteks are and they are in the same price range.

 

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I thought that this panel was a good idea, I've never seen a mirrored panel in a pc case before and I was curious to what it would look like and I quite like it.

 

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This panel was made to stop dust just coming in and it doubles as a filter for the fans. I'm still not sure on the white it looks out of place to me so I will probably end up painting it black.

 

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I saw this mod and instantly I knew what I had to do. The new shroud now holds my drives up and keeps them vibration free.

 

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The back panel which holds the pump and reservoir it has also been vibration mounted to minimize vibrations.

 

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The ssd's and the back of the motherboard tray I'm not too bothered about making it super pretty here as I never see it anyway and I like to leave fan cables loose if I ever need to change them.

 

That's it for now but I do have a mod in the works I'm just waiting for the parts and I've booked a week of work for it. Also I've ordered some vinyl for the SLI bridge even though it matches the colour scheme I would rather just have it one colour I'll probably add it with the other mod I've mentioned. Sorry for the potato pics I don't have access to a decent camera so my S5 is the best I can do it also doesn't help that my room is facing away from the sun so it's quite low light in here anyway.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

Emustation Build Log: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/307594-emustation-build/

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  • 2 weeks later...
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I will once it's finished as the rules state that it has to be completed but hopefully I will have it finished before the end of summer.

Emustation Build Log: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/307594-emustation-build/

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Guys. It's done. The window is done. Say hello to a Define R5 with a full size glass window.  :D Oh and I modded the SLI bridge too but I'm going to make a design for it as plain white looks a bit well boring. Also none of that U-channel here. The pictures seem to make the edges of the window look distorted this is probably because I resized them the lines are straight in person.

 

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Emustation Build Log: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/307594-emustation-build/

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Could you please invest in cable combs?... it looks kinda terrible without them ;D but hey you done a freakin great job!

The Y.E.T.I. is in progress?Whaaat? (modding aproach&build log)->http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/355618-project-yeti-first-build/

[READ THE COC BEFORE POSTING][Check twice cut once][NZXT rules:D][Dremel is Love Dremel is Life][COOKIES ARE GREAT][LOGIC]

 

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Could you please invest in cable combs?... it looks kinda terrible without them ;D but hey you done a freakin great job!

I do have some cable combs in there they are on the PCI cables going to the top 970. I'm not going to get some any time soon though as I'm going to get an extension for the 24 pin in pure white as my PSU is Seasonic OEM so it has 28 cables going into 24 pins so it's kinda hard to comb them and I'll sleeve the GPU cables in white too as I hate the 6+2 pin and I would rather have a single 8 and 6 pin. I'll probably sort the cables out last as I kinda want to get the rigid loop up and running first.

Emustation Build Log: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/307594-emustation-build/

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I do have some cable combs in there they are on the PCI cables going to the top 970. I'm not going to get some any time soon though as I'm going to get an extension for the 24 pin in pure white as my PSU is Seasonic OEM so it has 28 cables going into 24 pins so it's kinda hard to comb them and I'll sleeve the GPU cables in white too as I hate the 6+2 pin and I would rather have a single 8 and 6 pin. I'll probably sort the cables out last as I kinda want to get the rigid loop up and running first.

yeah that at least ;)

The Y.E.T.I. is in progress?Whaaat? (modding aproach&build log)->http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/355618-project-yeti-first-build/

[READ THE COC BEFORE POSTING][Check twice cut once][NZXT rules:D][Dremel is Love Dremel is Life][COOKIES ARE GREAT][LOGIC]

 

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Good work I'm going for a similar setup. Any reason you choose the Define R5 instead of the Define S ?

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  • 1 month later...
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It's been a while since I've updated this post but to be honest not a lot has changed PC wise, I've mainly been focusing on peripherals recently (new non crappy headphones and 144hz monitor) I will get round to finishing up its mainly just the rigid tubing left and to change my 120GB SSD to a 250GB one. There are some changes though which the pics will show down below onwards!

 

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As you can see I've scrapped the Black/White cables as they looked terrible and now have nice shiny white ones instead I've also put a pattern on my custom made SLI bridge apart from that not a lot has changed though.

 

Could you please invest in cable combs?... it looks kinda terrible without them ;D but hey you done a freakin great job!

 

Oh and I've also added some more cable combs so I hope your happy now  ;).

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Emustation Build Log: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/307594-emustation-build/

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  • 2 weeks later...
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Not much has happened again but I have now upgraded my 120GB 840 evo for a 250gb 850 evo and I have also upgraded Windows 7 for Windows 8.1 Pro (I got a good deal on it). I was playing around with my LED controller today since it responds to music and thought I would record it for you guys if you want to see the LED's in action.

Spoiler

Emustation Build Log: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/307594-emustation-build/

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  • 1 month later...
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Hey Guys,

 

It's finished... I mean the system is actually complete. I started this post in February as just a show & tell kind of thing but I decided to keep posting the progress of this build to how I wanted the final product to be. Which I am posting today this is EmuStation

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Final Specs:

CPU: Intel Core i7 4790k

GPU: Nvidia GTX 970 Gigabyte Windforce 3X x2

Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth Mark 1 Z97

RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4x8) DDR3 1600Mhz

PSU: XFX XTR 750W 80+ Gold

SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB Samsung 850 EVO 500GB

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB Seagate SSHD 4TB

 

Thank you to everyone that followed this post and complimented the build as it progressed, I may still give an update now and then if I change something major but I think I'll post a video of the complete build in all it's glory.

Emustation Build Log: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/307594-emustation-build/

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  • 1 month later...
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Wow this is gorgeous!

 

Can you give a little insight into your PSU Shroud? Not sure if I missed it somewhere in this thread.

Main ||  i7-4790K @ 4.4GHz || Corsair H90 || Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H-BK || HyperX Fury 16GB || Samsung 840 EVO 500GB || WD Green 4TB || EVGA GTX 750 Ti FTW || Fractal Core 3500 || Corsair CX 500M ||


 


Wiseplex || i7-4790 @ 3.6GHz || Corsair H50 || Gigabyte GA-Z97N-WIFI || HyperX Fury 16GB || Samsung 840 EVO 250GB || WD Green 6TB || EVGA GTX 750 Ti SC || Fractal Node 605 || Corsair CSM 450 ||

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Wow, rigid tubing makes it look so much cleaner, nice work.

CPU: I5 4670k @ 4ghz Motherboard: MSI z87 G45 Gaming RAM: 2x 4GB Avexir and Corsair 2x4gb ddr3 @ 1600mhz GPU: MSI GTX 1080 SeaHawk EK PSU: EVGA SuperNova P2 750w Boot SSD: Intel 320 120GB Storage: Crucial 256gb ssd and Samsung 250gb ssd

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  • 2 weeks later...
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Hey there, Just checking out your build, looks great!

 

If I'm wrong please let me know, but won't your GPU's run a bit warm if water can just go straight through the "Left" Terminal on both cards straight to the CPU? If I were water and picking the path of least resistance, I would choose to run through that most of the time! I would recommend moving the inlet to the right terminal on the bottom card.

 

Other than that, great work, I really like the evolution of the build!

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Hey there, Just checking out your build, looks great!

 

If I'm wrong please let me know, but won't your GPU's run a bit warm if water can just go straight through the "Left" Terminal on both cards straight to the CPU? If I were water and picking the path of least resistance, I would choose to run through that most of the time! I would recommend moving the inlet to the right terminal on the bottom card.

 

Other than that, great work, I really like the evolution of the build!

Thanks.

 

They both stay at roughly the same temperature with around a 3-5°c difference so this configuration is fine, the liquid will be moving that quickly that it wouldn't make much difference if I swapped the terminals.

Emustation Build Log: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/307594-emustation-build/

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Thanks.

 

They both stay at roughly the same temperature with around a 3-5°c difference so this configuration is fine, the liquid will be moving that quickly that it wouldn't make much difference if I swapped the terminals.

 

Well hopefully its a non issue then, it just seems like the water in the blocks would be stagnate.

 

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