Smollie1

@wkdpaul +1

I'm doing this for the challenge. I could order better parts and have it running in a bigger case tomorrow, but I'd be bored AF instantly.
 
I'm taking suggestions for keeping temps down that don't involve changing core components or getting a new case. That will be considered cheating.
 
And yes, those tubes are fucked real good.

Ding ding ding. We have a winner i.e. Mayhems UV. The loop is a combination of Bitspower and EKHD tubing. I wouldn't be surprised if the heat also had something to do with accelerating this process. Not sure on the loop temp, plausible that it was in the high 60 /  low 70s. The thermal limit of the 860k is probably 72c and the thermal margin was in the single digits i.e. CPU in high 60s. The GPU temp was in the low 70's.
 
Guess I've learned my lesson. Time to start planning loop v2. I wonder if I can fit 2 more fans, a loop sensor and the lighting I'd planned in there?
 
Why do anything the easy way when you can do it the unreasonable hard expensive way and learn 100x more. I'm not going to stop until I conquer this case for hardline.
 

@wkdpaul +1

I'm doing this for the challenge. I could order better parts and have it running in a bigger case tomorrow, but I'd be bored AF instantly.
 
I'm taking suggestions for keeping temps down that don't involve changing core components or getting a new case. That will be considered cheating.
 
And yes, those tubes are fucked real good.

Yeah, a D5 would be a really tight squeeze if it fit at all. I think I could get an 80mm fan in the corner with the ram and rear I/O. Also, I'm going chop a big hole along the GPU side (Imagine identical to the grill on GPU side). I could get another 80mm fan somewhere on GPU side.
 
If I set them both to intake, would that improve the situation without creating any extra problems?
 
@GzeroD The copper was an absolute nightmare to work with if you don't have a $100 pipe bender, which I don't. It looks amazing but I move around a lot and PETG is cheaper and easier to work with. One day I will return to the copper (and buy the bender) as it has a bunch of preferable features. I'd probably do a copper / PETG combo.

@wkdpaul +1

I'm doing this for the challenge. I could order better parts and have it running in a bigger case tomorrow, but I'd be bored AF instantly.
 
I'm taking suggestions for keeping temps down that don't involve changing core components or getting a new case. That will be considered cheating.
 
And yes, those tubes are fucked real good.

OK, I'm pretty much done. 3 of 4 bends done, waiting on fittings that arrived but have been misplaced by the building I'm staying in (and will resurface tomorrow). I could also sleeve the SP120 and pump cables with techflex but I'll see how I feel.
 
The first bend was way harder than the second one even though it was longer and had more actual 'bends' in it. I started with a much larger piece (which ended up too short, so I started again), which made it easier to get leverage and make the major bends and more importantly,  minor adjustments.
 
Getting the power supply back in with the 24 pin connector was the toughest part. I could adjust the bend to the radiator to relieve some pressure on the 24 pin connector which is a little squashed (or at least the heatshrink is). I should be able to test run the loop tomorrow probably after I read about how to do that.
 

 
I'll take a bunch more better pictures in the daylight tomorrow once the final run is put in with the fittings.
 

 
I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out although the cables are kinda covering more than I'd like of the copper tubing.

This morning I finished 'cutting' the space for the pump to go. I bought a nice file that worked really well and cleaned it all up with electrical tape. Came out pretty good for the 3 incorrect tools I was using.
 

 

 

I cannot recommend hand bending copper pipe with a bending spring. It's a pain in the ass, although totally do-able.
 
First run is done, three more to go.
 
I'm seriously considering cutting a hole in the case for the reservoir to stick out of.

@SonoDanshi Where did you get that rubber gasket stuff that you used on the edges of the case where you cut the big hole?
 
I'm definitely going to investigate doing all this stuff with standard plumbing parts next time, I think I can do all this for a fraction of the price.
 

 

Update - Apr 25, 2017:
 
Everything is going well. All parts have arrived except the CPU / cooler (coming today). I started doing some sleeving last night which went OK, by the time I got to the 10th one, I was getting the hang of it. Smaller diameter heatshrink in shorter pieces helped. I could not for the life of me get the heatshrinkless method to work. Could be that I was expecting it to be really secure (a la heatshrink) but actually it's kinda loose but that doesn't matter once sat in the plug. Not sure. Will try again tonight. I'll keep redoing the 24 pin until it's good enough. Cable combs and pin extractor tool coming soon, using staples is a pain in the ass.
 
@SonoDanshi I chose 'copper' colored paracord which turned out to be closer to your color scheme. This wasn't intentional. I was in fact trying to match to the copper pipe I'll use for the water cooling. But that's a project for after the cabling is done and the system is actually running. I'm fully aware of what a stupid and hard thing to do that is, but I think I can manage. Also, I think I should make my first build as badass as possible.
 
I did have a couple questions:
 
WTF is the deal with the 24 pin connector that came with my power supply. The cables aren't going to the corresponding plug on the other end. Instead they might go from say the top left plug on one end to a bottom middle plug on the other end. This doesn't seem to be how people do their cables when they sleeve them from scratch (see here) Although I really would like cables that run 1:1, I have no idea how the wiring of these things works so don't know what I could swap around to tidy it up. I know that there are 3 gauges of wire and that if I fuck it up, something will likely burn out. Any thoughts? Why are the internal cables so goddamn long? Who designed the USB 3.0 header cable. It's the worst. Has anyone had any luck sleeving / shortening / replacing these? Thanks again to @RAM555789 @SonoDanshi @Aekim @TheRandomness for all your help getting started. I will keep you guys updated with my progress

Since roughly the start of 2016 I've been contemplating a new watercooling project, but wasn't sure what to do as I was happy with my main rig already. Then my thoughts turned to upgrading my HTPC so it could play games as well as serve media (with the aim to dust off my racing seat/wheel and play on the htpc. I spent some time thinking about how to approach this and then @red773 made a thread about how he'd watercooled a node202 which really kicked off my interest in making this a reality - although I wanted to go hardline and also wanted it to look completely stock from the outside (so no chopping the top of the case up to let tubes fit etc...).
 
Fast forward a few weeks and I had pretty much everything I needed apart from the pump/res (more on that in a later post) and the final list of fittings.

 
For anyone who wants a complete parts list you can see the pcpp link in the spoiler..
 
Before I even consider putting any of the watercooling parts together, I had to fix a huge issue..... The motherboard and RAM are red and black - which I absolutely detest (sorry to the millions out there who love it). I stripped off everything with red paint on it and already thought the bare components looked a lot better...

 
For the heatsinks, I simply masked off all the black areas leaving the red paint exposed before giving it a light sand. The RAM accents were just sanded and the chipset heatsink had a combination of masking and being attacked with a sharp blade to remove the plastic covering it came with to expose the red paint.

 
As I live in a high rise apartment, I don't have access to large areas to put together a spray booth so I had to go ghetto on it in my living room!


 
A few coats later and it looked a bit like this

 
 
That's it for now but plenty of updates and pics to follow (I'll add spoilers to the first post for late comers).
 
UPDATE 1:
 
UPDATE 2:
 
UPDATE 3:
 
UPDATE 4:
 

Final update time!
 
So carrying on from the last update, as I had everything connected I figured it was time to leak test. Time for lots of paper towels and a light color tint to the water to highlight any problems.
 
As the res was so small and the connection to the pump is right near the top, I had to add a temporary tube to the fill port that would give me enough liquid to cycle the pump on and off without it running dry for too long.  The tube also helped with the bleeding as it allowed air top bubble up and escape wit the water level higher than the res.

 
To my complete and utter surprise absolutely nothing leaked at all and after adding a bit more dye to the loop it looked like this:

 

 

 

 
Here's a better look at the res when fully topped up.

 

 
And finally... here she is with everything in place and ready to roll.
 

 
I haven't done a great deal of benching and haven't done any overclocking yet, but the CPU idles at 24c and peaked out at 67c on the highest core when benchmarking. I definitely plan to push things beyond stock but with such small thermal capacity I imagine things will spike very quickly beyond a certain point. I also have plans to cut the top of the Node202 out and replace it with some beveled tempered glass so I can actually see all the hard work that has gone into it.