t r o o p e r │ arctic white 760T › X99 › custom hardline › pastel blue #FIN

[Hasle]

WELCOME!

This is my very first water cooling adventure, therefore everything has been logged and photographed, and I would very much like to share this with you guys. Hopefully this will be helpful to people considering a hardline loop for their next build, or those who, understandably, find it a more than daunting task for their very first water cooling system - it can be done!
 

• "Is that a long reservoir, or are you just happy to see me?"
• CPU & MOSFET blocks, multiculturalism & voiding warranties.
• GPU block.
• Pump with abusive Linus-level-soldering. Success.
• All tubing finished. Candy canes inside!
• Coolant is in, and it POPS! Leak testing and neat tissues.
• Fin. Lots of blue. Temps and final thoughts.

• ASUS X99-S
• Intel® Core i7-5820K
• EVGA GTX 980 Superclocked ACX 2.0
• CORSAIR Dominator® Platinum Series 16GB (4x4GB) DDR4 2666MHz
• CORSAIR HX850i
• SAMSUNG SSD 840 EVO 120GB
• SAMSUNG SSD 850 EVO 1TB
• SEAGATE BARRACUDA 7200RPM 1TB

BLOCKS

• [CPU] EK-Supremacy EVO - Nickel (Original CSQ)
• [GPU] EK-FC980 GTX - Nickel (Original CSQ)
• [MISC] EK-FC980 GTX Backplate - Black
• [MOSFET] EK-MOSFET ASUS X99 - Nickel

RADIATORS & FANS

• [FRONT] EK-CoolStream RAD XTC (280)
• [TOP] EK-CoolStream PE 240 (Dual)
• [FAN] 2x Corsair SP140 High Static Pressure (white LED)
• [FAN] 2x Corsair SP120 PWM Quiet Edition

PUMP

• [PUMP] EK-XTOP DDC 3.2 PWM - Acetal (Original CSQ)
• [MISC] EK-DDC Heatsink Housing - Black

RESERVOIR, FITTINGS, TUBING & COOLANT

• [RES] EK-Multioption Reservoir 400 (50mm diameter)
• [FITTING] BITSPOWER Matte Black
• [FITTING] PrimoChill Revolver Compression Fitting 13/10mm (diamond, black)
• [TUBING] PrimoChill Acryl Tube 13/10mm (transparent)
• [COOLANT] MAYHEMS Pastel Blue Berry

CONTROLLING & MISC.

• [CONTROL] aquacomputer aquaero 5 PRO USB
• [MISC] aquacomputer Flow Sensor "High Flow" G1/4

TOOLS

• PrimoChill Rigid Bender
• Old Bosch Heatgun
• Black marker
• Soldering iron
• Hack saw
• Gloves
• Lots of patience

[Laputacake]

Shiny

[Poster]

Want to see more pics!!!

[A.D.A.M]

I almost thought this was spam due to the the weird format of the title (the trooper). Fortunately you're not baba-ji, so I'll give this a follow.Very nice looking build.

[ERSCreeper]

Subbed! Going to look amazing

[Hasle]

Thanks guys.

#reservoir #radiators #pump #mockup

Starting up slow, with a few pictures of how the pump, radiators and reservoir will be mounted.

n o t e  │  The 280 rad JUST fits in the front. While the specifications for the 760T does state that it allows for a 280 rad in the front, I couldn't get it to line up with all the pre-drilled holes, no matter the orientation. But I got it to line up well enough to secure it properly.

n o t e  │  There were holes in the motherboard tray, that fit perfectly for the reservoir brackets, so no drilling required here, either. The pump isn't actually fastened in any way, it just sits atop the rubber standoffs of the EK heatsink housing. The loop is RES > PUMP > FRONT RAD > FLOW SENSOR > TOP RAD > CPU > MOSFET > GPU.

n o t e  │  Could've gone with a larger rad in the top, but my stupidly tall reservoir would get in the way. It only just clears the 240 one by about 3-4mm.

[A.D.A.M]

That is a long reservoir... On another note nice pics.

[Hasle]

That is a long reservoir...

I get that a lot.  :rolleyes:

 

#blocks #cpu #mosfet #voidingwarranties

 

n o t e  │  EK Supremacy EVO CPU block from Slovenia, united with PrimoChill Revolver compression fittings from New Mexico. Multiculturalism much?

 

n o t e  │  Has to be one of the best looking motherboards out there.  :wub:

 

n o t e  │  Decided to water the MOSFET, too. Just for looks.

 

n o t e  │  I was adamant on keeping the heatsink by the I/O. Failing to pry the heat pipe loose, I resorted to a hack saw. It's an oddly soothing experience taking a saw to a €300 motherboard. But then again, you don't fully own something until you've voided the warranty.

[A.D.A.M]

Great pictures, what camera are you using?

[Hasle]

Great pictures, what camera are you using?

 

Thanks man. It's my trusty old Nikon D90 with a VR DX 18-105 objective.

 

 

#gpublocksassiness

 

 

n o t e │  The victim. Marvelous cooler, but it's coming off in favour of a much cooler EK block.

 

n o t e │  I was very tempted to polish this and the CPU block up, but I quite like the frosted look of these.

 

 

 

 

n o t e │  Scraped off most of the thermal paste with a small plastic spoon, and applied some denatured alcohol to remove the rest of the paste.

 

n o t e │  Polished to a shine. I'm using Prolimatech thermal paste on all blocks.

 

n o t e │  Thermal pads cut and applied. Fiddly work.

 

 

n o t e │  Finished product, and one heavy mofo.

 

 

n o t e │  I decided to have all the fittings facing outwards, as I found it to be more aesthetically pleasing than having them going every which way. Ready for piping!

[A.D.A.M]

Ah keep the pictures coming. Perhaps I should invest into photography too

[Atomicnerd64]

really nice build. digging the white touches and I think that with the blue coolant it will look great

[FunkyFeatures]

Something I've got to ask.. but first of all. Very nice build!

Is the build already finished? Your profile picture looks like a finished version of the build log

[Hasle]

Something I've got to ask.. but first of all. Very nice build!

Is the build already finished? Your profile picture looks like a finished version of the build log

 

You see nothing! But yes, as stated in the first post, the build is finished to the extent that it's up and running and I'm using it as my main system at the moment. I haven't done a water cooled system before, so I took lots of pictures during the process, and that's basically just what I wanted to share with you here, along with my experiences. If only I'd discovered LTT earlier - I would have loved you guys' input during the building process. But there's always next time!

 

(I replaced the avatar with something less spoilery, lol)

 

Thanks for the kind words!

[Poster]

Those water blocks are DY_NO_MITE!!!  Looks great!

[Hasle]

#pump #linuslevelsoldering #pimpincrimpin

When I received my EK-DDC 3.2 PWM pump with all the trimmings, I pulled it apart to fit the heat sink housing I bought for it, only to find that it had been assembled by OPC (other people's children), knackering the 12V wire (yellow), almost cutting all the way through the insulation.



n o t e  │  I figured that I might as well just replace all the wires with black ones, in stead of sleeving them. I've never soldered anything worthwhile before, and never on a PCB, but I figured that I might as well practice on this €90 pump.  :wacko:



n o t e  │  Could've been worse. Joints ended up a bit cold/dry, and the PCB was burnt a tiny bit, but should be solid. I went with AWG18 for the power, and 26 for the PWM cable.



n o t e  │  New wires equals new connectors, so I got to work crimpin' those suckers.



n o t e  │  Black on black is the new black.



n o t e  │  Moment of truth. It prevailed, despite my abusive soldering! 

[Hasle]

Why havent i seen his build until now?

Beats me, but I'm glad you found it. 

#puzzle #hardtubing #candycane

n o t e  │  Replacing all the tacky green o-rings on the Bitspower fittings with black and blue ones.

n o t e  │  Ready to bend some piping. Doing the one connecting the two rads behind the motherboard tray first. It won't be that visible, so I felt it would be a good place to start practicing.

n o t e  │  Using the case as an end stop to get the right spacing between the bends.

n o t e  │  I don't have any pictures of the bending process of these, but they were a lot more difficult than the long one, due to the close proximity of the bends, and the routing I'd chosen with symmetry in mind. Just the slightest miscalculation or dodgy bending would instantly be very visible. Thankfully they turned out perfect first try.

n o t e  │  Not.

n o t e  │  This is the next piece of the puzzle - connecting the MOSFET block to the GPU. I needed to produce a 180 degree bend that was as close to 30 mm apart 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.

n o t e  │  90 degree bend straight out of 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 pretty spot on.

n o t e  │  The final piece of the puzzle, connecting the GPU to the RES/PUMP, brings the loop full circle. Ready for leak testing!

[DBUndeR]

Do you put your HDD in the optical drive bay?

[Flurr]

Holy crap... 

[perestrojka]

Epic !, subbed

[Hasle]

Do you put your HDD in the optical drive bay?

Yes indeed. I only have the one for storage, and then one SSD for the OS, and one for games. With the lack of airflow around the drivebay, and the fact that it's placed right under the Aquaero, whose fan amplifiers tend to run quite hot (60-70C), I mounted it with some rubber standoffs and a neat little heatsink/fan combo:

[Hasle]

#testingforleaks #lotsoftissues #90degreeEK



n o t e  │  As I've flipped the CPU block 90 degrees, I took this moment to also rotate the EK logo, as it's almost impossible to get in there with all the tubing in place. It was tingling my OCD.



n o t e  │  Also got rid of all the stickers I could find, because as you well know, you don't truly own something until you've voided the warranty.



n o t e  │  All fittings screwed in firmly. Also swapped the rings on the Corsair fans for the white ones, as the blue ones would clash slightly being a different hue than the coolant.



n o t e  │  Way too neatly laid out tissues. It's a sickness. 



n o t e  │  Using Mayhems Pastel Blue Berry coolant, which should really make the tubing pop.



n o t e  │  Having everything else in rather dull monotone colors, it was so nice finally getting some color in there, and it also matches the little blue accents on the power supply nicely. :wub:

 

And more importantly, no leaks! Had been running at about three hours at this point.

[DBUndeR]

That looks very nice!

[Hasle]

#fin

 

This being my first time water cooling, I could have went with a safer, hassle free approach, of AiO coolers or soft tubing, and still had a blast. But I'm glad I aimed a bit higher, I really learned a lot, and enjoy looking at my creation every day. Thanks to everyone who swung by, hope you enjoy these final pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

n o t e │  This is the Danish reagent eating a kebab, before anyone asks. It's nothing sassy. 

#temps #finalthoughts

Temps were great straight off the bat. The DDC was a bit noisy at its full potential at ~4500RPM, but barely noticeable at around 3900RPM. Lower flow rates to boot, but I still got CPU idle temps of around 28-30C and GPU around 30C prior to overclocking. The 5820K is currently running at a solid 4500MhZ (up 32% from the stock 3300MHz), at around 40C idle and ~60C when gaming, with fans at 45-50%. I did a full stress test and benchmarking in RealBench, and it never got higher than ~68-69C after 15 minutes at 100% load. I'm a happy camper.

If you have any questions, shoot! Until next time!

[amb]

Hey, dude. Nice build. I've already ordered pretty the same pc components w/ the same case. How do you cool the front radiator? Does its fans work @ intake or exhaust? If the both radiators work @ exhaust (as they should be), what about an intake airflow to make them breathe? Is the only intake fan - the rear one? I'm thinking about possibility to make 1:1 push-pull ratio.. and if it's really possible, how noisy it would be.

And the second thing. Have you heard smth about mounting 420 rad @ the top of this case? Yeah, according to the case's specs, its impossible (360 max), but people do some pretty simple remakes and make a 420 go into Corsair 750d (its pretty the same as 760t; as far as I know).

I guess, it would be better for your system, if you make the loop shorter. It's a pretty long way for your coolant with all of these nice-looking corners and so on