Badomen

Next week we build !
 

I get bored to looking to my setup i was running last 2 years so i made some little changes. Month ago i strike a deal on local market - 3090 for around 500 USD. I dont know how rest of the world but here they are normaly even on used market selling for 800-900 USD so i was in hurry to pick it up. It is refference model from Dell but i know what i want to build so look doesnt matter. So what was done..
 
Welded brackets for holding two 480 rads from aqua computer - they are absolute nightmare to work with because those stupid threaded inserts kept falling off.
 
Welded bracket for D5 pump.
 
Drilled and then installed threaded inserts to hold cable management brackets.
 
Middle brace of the case was little modded to allow use GPU inlet be from the MB side. Also back of the case have 2 holes for tubing out. I also have to offset GPU because that thick ABP block.
 
Custom cables from PSU to under the table to run PWM module, fans and pump.
 
GPU cables was shortened and 6+2 pin connector was swapped to 8 pin.
 
 I am running pump and fans on 30% via pwm module connected to arctic fan controller. I like to set it up manualy and forget it. Anything over 30% is audiable.
 
Specs are 13600k, B660i board, kingston 5600 ram 32Gb, Dell 3090, Corsair sf 750 and Samsung 980 nvme.
 
Cooling specs:
 
CPU - Aqua commputer cuplex cryos next (copper-acetal)
GPU - EK-Quantum Vector² with active backplate, RGB strip removed
Fittings are Alphacool Eisbaer mostly - 13/10 with PUR tubes 12/9. I like those PUR tubes, they are nightmare to work with because they are very hard but on the other side they stay clear very very long time (2 years +)
Fans - In the case are two 140 noctuas set as exhaust just to move radiating heat from the case. On radiators are eight P12 pwm arctics in push mode.
Pump - EK-XTOP Revo D5 PWM with some small Alphacool res on the top of it.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 3 – Building the HTPC
 
After months of designing/tinkering/prototyping/printing, it was finally time to build the HTPC! On the bright side, December came by and I got some good PC component deals during boxing day!
 
The parts
 
Since it is an HTPC, I don't need the fastest components. Just something that can stream, watch movies, do some light gaming in a small form factor. I didn't want to spend too much either so I settled on these parts:
 
Ryzen 5 5600G Asrock B550 M-ITX/ac 2 x 16 GB DDR4 Corsair 3600 Mhz 1TB Teamgroup M.2 PCI 3.0 SSD RGEEK 250W pico-psu 120W power brick 2 x 40mm Noctua fans 3D printed NES case 😉
 
 
I went Ryzen since the APU fits the bill and has decent integrated graphics. The downside is that they are very few mini-itx AM4 motherboards. Choice was limited and the Asrock was a bit more expensive than I wanted to spend. But it came with a 20 MIR, that I should receive in 14 weeks... 32 GB of ram is a bit overkill for my needs, but I got a good deal and it wasn’t much more expensive than a 16 GB kit. Now I know some of you will say that 120 W for the power brick is not enough power. However, I stress tested all the parts with Prime95 and Furmark running at the same time and it didn’t crash. In a real-life utilization, I would never push the CPU and GPU to 100% concurrently.
 
 
The build at last
 
I started by installing the USB 3.0 front USB ports. I used super glue just to be sure. That thing is not coming off.

 
Then came the motherboard with pre-assembled CPU, heatsink, ram and M.2 SSD. I added the pico-psu right after.

 
It’s a tight fit!

 
To finish the bottom section, came the power and reset button and the LED. The wires for the switches and LED were really too long and I had to cut them to size. The front IO connector is right next to the buttons.

 
Now for the fan installation and a bit of cable management. Did my best but my options were limited.

 
Finally, let's attach the two parts together and see what it looks like!
 

 
 

 
 
Now the real test...Watching WAN show. Added sone NES controllers for the theme haha.
 

 
 
So that's were I am at now. Technically, I should paint the section around the USB ports black, but I kind of like the looks of it now.
 
Let me know what you guys think!
 
 

It arrived!

Update : 27-Dec-2021  
Continue installing hardware with working on RGB lighting and finishing base cover plate.  











Now working on 12mm back acrylic sheet. Done all the I/O cut-outs, now will be doing some hand engraving. 

So it's been almost a year and I finally worked up the confidence to show off my build. plz go easy on crit of the components as they are all budget i think in toto ~$1100 barring components i didn't already have:
Mobo: ASUS PRIME WIFI mATX
PSU: EVGA 650 gold full modular
RAM: gskill 3200 hMHz cl16
CPU: ryzen 7 3700x
GPU: EVGA GTX 1660ti
M.2 : 2x 1 Tb intel 660p 
SSD:  256 gb kingston
HDD: 2 tb 
also in as far as case i built it all from 1 sheet of 2'x4' cedar plywood no room for error lol... i made a couple niks in it wish i hadn't... I planned the design off of a test bench with double hinging action, the lid hinges forward while the moo tray hinges back to expose the wiring underneath and a little pull out drawer for the HDD and SSD with a slot for another SSD... lemme know your thoughts and questions (*realized I had posted this in the wrong spot first in case mods)... there is also a similar framing for the fan for the PSU underneath

Hello
So a little bit of background to how the project started.
I have always wanted to modify a Ammo can to be able to hold an "okay" gaming PC.
Which I had some problems doing in the past as I couldn't find a can that was big/small enough.
Also I didn't want too big holes for cooling that is way too visible, but wanted to hide it as good as possible.
So it had to be a few ATX builds before i stumbled across a site while I was looking for a more rugged backpack that aslo sold a lot of diffterent used Ammo cans.
So of pure intrest i started to look for one that might fit a PC inside without being too big.
Then I managed to find one with outer dimensions 30 x 22 x 18.5cm. I started then to take some diffrent measurments of SFF components to see if it was even possible, which to my suprise seemed to work with some really small marginals.
So I orded a can to be able to see the inner dimensions and started to be worried as the few millimeters I had over dissapeard fast and was left with something I didn't know if it would fit or not. But I wasn't ready to give up or order components worth 2-3k $ that might not fit.

So I bought a used SFF PC for less than 200USD which I could spare and use as a HTPC in worst cas just to make sure the parts would fit.
To my suprise the motherboard just bearly fit with a small modification to the IO shield.
So I stripped the whole floor of the can and glued (temporary) a honeycomb mesh for minimal airflow interference. And took a donor case and cut out the stand offs for the motherboard and glued in place. Also cut out a big hole in the mesh to be able to access the CPU cooler mounting.


After that I started marking up all the sides for cutting so I could get enough cooling for both GPU and CPU and also for the GPU to be able to fit and the power cable and some front USBs and a start button.
In the mean time I got my new PVC mesh that i was gonna use to "hide" the holes and use as a dust filter so smcashed on son feet to the case and started cutting out the mesh for the bottom.

Then it was time to cut the sides and grind the edges smooth and the weld the meshes in place so there is no possibility for one to get loose and short something.

Then it was time for cutting all PVC mesh for the sides as I said earlier I didn't want any big hole visible and works great as dust filters.

 
After some grinding it was directly to the paint booth to paint the case then the mesh, also choose to keep the Original table of conduct on the side to make it more authentic and the got a idea (is lower down) and started tested to see if the products still would fit. Also got a new cooler for the CPU and a power supply before I started to spend the big $ on the rest.




 

As I said, it aint much room to spare around the motherboard or between the motherboard and PSU.





So at this stage I had to start looking for what type of GPU I could even fit into this as the inner length would be exact 300mm and I still have to get it in place and the height clearence wasn't much either as I knew I wanted 2 Noctua fans to in front to not loose on preformance.

So was looking some and managed to find the Asus RTX 3080 TUF that should be 299mm in length and bearly be able to fit height wise. So now the issue was trying to find one at a reasonable price as to this summer the prices was all over the place.
At last I managed to find a PC with and 3080TUF and a Ryzen 5600X at a deacent price.


During this time I have also gotten som things 3d printed as a bracket to hold the Cooler and PSU in place with some goodies which i would like to thank kiim over at sweclockers .
Also at the last project he helped me to print a M18 smoke grenade in Violet to match the table of contents and to make it a bit more useful I put a Xbox 360 controller reciever into ti.











Specs:
Motherboard: Gigabyte B550I AORUS PRO AX WIFI 
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5600x
RAM: G.Skill 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3600MHz CL16 Trident Z Neo C
SSD: 512gb Samsung evo 970 m2 ssd + 2tb sabrent m2 ssd
GPU: Asus  RTX 3080 TUF
PSU: Corsair SFX series SF750W Platinum
Cooling: Corsair iCUE H100i RGB PRO XT

Update : 04-Oct-2021
Was little busy in life so have not posted any update in last two weeks, but project is slowly under progress.
Mostly finished the Dragon head and applied a primer layer, now one’s primer layer hardens will start sanding following with another primer layer and start colouring. 

Update : 20-Sep-2021
This week, working in late evenings slowly I am able to finish lower jaw of the Dragon head.  Next on line is the tongue and the neck.












 

Update : 13-Sep-2021
Saturday late night work resulted in some decent output. Getting little closer day-by day.

up and front panels complete!      

The parts have been ordered!...but not without issue...
 

 
They are out of stock of the coolant concentrate I desire. Mayhems X1 Clear Concentrate to be exact. It seems clear coolants are very popular. I put in a request to be notified when it's restocked but in the meantime I can fill the loop with just distilled water. The X1 just acts as a good pH balancer/corrosion inhibitor.
 
We'll see what happens as parts come in and as we progress in the project. Maybe someone here on the forum knows of another place I could source it. 👀

I was going to start the watercooling but guess what showed up in the mail?
 

 
So i guess today we finish off the electrical.
 
For the sake of proper color/voltage I decided to use yellow for the +12V source.
 

 
Ran the line back to a molex connector and followed it up by throwing some sleeving and a little heat-shrink on the end.
 

 

 
I did a continuity test between all four lines and the frame. Each circuit is electrically isolated so the frame won't become live at 5 or 12V or worse short a line to ground.
 
I stuffed as much of the wire back into the frame as I could so I could screw the face plate on:
 

 
Although my use of heat-shrink on the connections was a nice idea I had forgotten my depth limitation and because of this the switches made it a very tight fit.
 
But man am I loving the result.
 

 
Unfortunately  the control box is only being held in by 2 screws. The 5mm ones I ordered are on backorder and won't be in for some time. It's secure enough though for us to move forward. I'll replace the two and install the eight when they do arrive.
 
Tomorrows my late night at work again. Likely won't get anything done but NOW finally next on the agenda is dismantling the old water cooling apparatus.

Tonight starts off on a bad note. I realized I had forgotten to drill YET ANOTHER hole and I've already ran a bunch of electrical inside the tubing...
 
I decided to just go for gold and very very ginger carefuling nip a hole deeper and deeper until I just barely punched through, then widened it up.
 

 
And thank goodness I did because right below the hole was a couple of wires. If I had used my usual gung ho method of "Just push it til she goes through!" I would have chopped right through them and that would have been a real set-back.
 
Moving forward tonight I pulled a 5V wire through the tubing and I finished wiring the back of the temp displays:
 

 
So now when the switch is ON...
 

 
The displays are ON.
 
And when the switch is OFF...
 

 
The displays are OFF.
 
Now as for wiring the switches I used a multi-meter in continuity mode to find out which wire goes to which set of outlets (because why would I want to label the wires? 🙃)
 
After determining where each wire goes I soldered each according.
 

 
Then added some heatshrink:
 

 
Now the other side of these switches are a common +12V supply. Just for creativity sake I decided to connect them all together as such:
 

 
I swear this high-temp silicone wire is just an absolute treat. Try doing this with your run of the mill jacketed wire and see how big a mess it makes.
 
Finishing off the night I attached one leg of the potentiometer, pontentiometer bypass switch, and the imput of the four switches:
 

 
Unfortunately this setup and the work I've done has used up nearly all of the 20ft of wire I had and I need just a little bit more to finish it out. Good news is I have more wire on order. A lot more. This does mean through that tomorrow we will be shifting gears so we can keep moving forward while we wait on equipment.
 
I don't have a picture of it at this time but we will be disassembling, and cleaning my old watercooling apparatus. Stay tuned for that.

Final pictures – Part 2
Thanks to the sponsors : Antec e Bitspower.
 

Oh yeah, look how nice these countersunk cooler brackets came out!!
 

 
 
Hey.....wait a second.....hand me that waterblock....
 
 

 
 
.....

 
I think cutting them out would be too weak, so I'm going to redesign the brackets to be wider in the middle 😭😂

had to hook up my PC and secondary monitor real quick to get some work done.
figured id place Her PC in there to see.
 
work to do: wall/ceiling paint, top panels, additional outlet, reroute cables in attic, touch up paint.
- mount shroud, add RGB fans and strips, redo insulation tube, add ram and hdd.

Budget (including currency): ~$500 CAD
Country: Canada
Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Various 3D CAD applications and video editing (a bit of KSP after work :P)
Other details :
- Existing parts to bring over: Quadro P4000, My old TV
- Upgrading from i7 2600k with 16G RAM
Final Build:
Ryzen 5 3600x
16G DDR4 @3600mhz
Quadro P4000
1tb PCIe4 NVME WB Black
 
I figured that a few of you might enjoy this build 🙂  I am quite happy with how it turned out and am writing this post from it right now.  I own a company (TimberWolf Cycles) which makes custom high performance bicycles out of wood and so I have more tools for working with wood at my disposal which is why this case ended up being built this way.  The purpose of the machine is general CAD work as well as some video editing which I plan to do more of for the business as time goes on.  
 
I generally leave my workstation on a desk at my shop but fairly frequently take it home, or (when not limited by COVID) would use it to show prospective clients the design of their custom bike.  A laptop able to work hard enough for me would be quite expensive and I don't really need that level of portability.  I also own a 2012 MacBook pro which is fine for word processing and emails or meetings when CAD work is not involved so I am not in need of a laptop.  A desktop however has too many bits to carry when going place to place which led me to the idea of the "LAN Party Rigs" of my youth 😛.  The original "THE RIG" was just a regular ATX Case with a handle bolted on the top and a screen bolted to the side with a bent steel cover slipped over the screen when left in the shop.  The was great! because I could just grab the handle and toss the machine in the car on the way somewhere.  Problem is, it was HEAVY!  Like 4 2010-era enterprise grade hard disks and a 750W PSU heavy plus the steel case, the screen, the surge protector I crammed inside, yada yada.  It was also getting old and while the I7 2600k still packs a pretty good punch for these workloads, NVME was out of the question and PCIE 2 was a bit of a bottleneck for the Quadro P4000 I had acquired the year before to replace my aging (not well) Quadro 4000.  I debated just refiling the case with new components but to really maximize the benefits of the upgrade, decided to give it some flair!  
 
I decided to build THE RIG MKII the other way around essentially.  Rather than mount the screen to the case, I would mount the case to the screen.  This let me shrink the case, and use a bigger screen in the form of my modest Samsung 30" TV that I didn't need and is bright and has a nice wide viewing angle which will be helpful for showing things to customers.  I had to modify the TV Stand to tilt the TV up a bit so it would be comfortable to view from a desk, and also move the centre of the support back to keep it under the centre of mass of the combined unit.  The case itself would have to stay thin for this to work out well so I chose an unconventional but very practical component arrangement that resulted in a 1U thick case.  I didn't want the machine to be loud so commercial 1U PSUs were out.  I ended up dismantling a PSU and placing the fan adjacent to the circuit board to draw air out of the case and over the heat sinks.  I left space for an ATX board beside that but I would argue there would be very little reason to ever put a full ATX board in this thing and there would be no way to use the extra PCIe slots anyway.  As it is, I use the X16 slot and one X4 slot for my WIFI card (I know you can get boards with WIFI obviously but this one came up for sale and the guy tossed in a WIFI card which actually is essentially a riser for m.2 letting me put in a wireless AX later if I like.  Both slots are obviously connected via riser cables.  The GPU which is really the heart of this machine is turned on its side overtop of the expansion part of the board with the fan facing the back of the case.  This lets it draw its own fresh air and gives it its own exhaust. It can run full bore in this crazy tight case without warming up the case much at all.  A sweet 1U CPU cooler with heat pipes keeps the profile low and also draws in fresh air directly but exhausts into the case.  The PSU fan (which sucks air out of the case) is sized for a higher flow rate so even at max CPU fan speed the case is below ambient pressure.  There are two small intakes near the VRMs that draw in make up air and keep those cool.  All said and done, the GPU idles at 35C in a 21C room and the the CPU at 39C and each peak at 79C when fully loaded so I am very happy with the airflow design.  The goal was never overclocking and the temperatures are very reasonable.  The other motherboard temperatures including the PCIE4 NVME drive sit very steady at 40C to 45C no matter the load.  The consistency of this temperature is optimal for NVME drive life.  
 
But what about shielding in a wooden case?! Most of you wouldn't likely care but I figured since I had unboxed the PSU (removed its shielding) and am building a nice stable workstation, I should shield both the PSU area of the case and the MB area.  I did this with a combination of stainless wire mesh on the intakes, a fan grill on the main exhaust, and a lot of copper foil tape with conductive adhesive.  I also used a more open mesh between the PSU and the MB to ensure that dust was less likely to collect inside and more likely to collect on the intake screens where I can vacuum it (remember I build wooden bikes so there is lots of dust at times!).  The case is made of poplar core plywood with mahogany veneer and closed with MANY tiny brass screws which electrically connect the shielding.  
 
Inside the PSU area I did the other 120VAC connections including the leads to power the TV and a standard household socket on the side for my second monitor at the office, or a laptop charger or whatever.  On the top of the case, I put the on-button (a button that used to be the engine start button in my old car made from a defrost button painted red) and the totally unnecessary RGB button from the PSU.  Also on top of the case I put two front panel USB3 ports for thumb drives and a marine panel mount quickcharge 3.0 module wired into the 12V from the PSU.  The Molex connector to power that was harvested from the ancient 128mb hard drive that I found had escaped many a tech purge 😛.  A very rare external port to add is found on the bottom which is a SATA3 data and power connector that I use with a cable I made up to connect a standard internal type optical drive if I want to burn a DVD for the old folks in my life etc.  
 
If you have any questions or want to build something like this yourself, jump in on this thread and I would love to chat 🙂 (yes I also use an Orbweaver Chroma for CAD shortcuts... Sacrilege!) Tossed in a pic of the latest bike in progress for the the curious among you 🙂
 


 

Test fitting the fans.

I did my first test for of all the parts in September of 2020, but the mother board tray was a bit too large. So close!

There's been a couple little changs again.
 
first off, i got better cablecombs for the GPU cables. These are originally 24-Pin combs, but i just cut them down to being 16 PIN. Looks a lot cleaner!

 
Second, i swapped out the 4266Mhz Trident Z for a kit of 3200Mhz Dominator Platinum RGB's.
These look a lot better with the RGB off IMO. The Trident Z's have this big white lightbar on them which just doesn;t play nice with the black/chrome colorscheme i'm going for. 
 
It's a bit of a downgrade tho, but realistically on 2nd gen threadripper you're not clocking RAM above 3.5Ghz anyway.


 

imho, its beautiful...

Hello and welcome to my new PC build, successor to the "White Heaven" S340 build I did 6 years ago!
 
Introduction
 
The goal for this computer was a proper full custom loop with emphasis on silence and reliability.
 
I previously tried a Fractal Design Kelvin S24, but the pump made the whole case vibrate since it was directly mounted to the CPU.
I sold that cooler and went back to the H100i I bought almost 10 years ago (still going strong!) because it was quieter.
After saving up for a while and buying loop parts here and there, now was finally the time to get all the parts together and do a complete redesign.
I had spent so many years planning the loop and everything else that PC parts kept updating and evolving quickly so instead of an upgrade/rebuild I ended up doing a completely new build.
 
 
The Cooling Decision
 
I am aware that the quietest PC is a passive one, but after the mediocre and expensive launch of the Calyos passive cooling case, I decided to avoid going that route.
The next best option is a large heatsink like an NH-D15 or Bequiet Dark Rock cooler, since they have only fans and no pump.
I wanted a liquid cooling loop for aesthetics and combined CPU+GPU cooling, because while a CPU heatsink can keep a CPU cool while being quiet, it is hard to find similar aftermarket GPU heatsinks that are big and quiet.
Either way, I wanted something that would not cover up the motherboard and other components.
AIOs were out of the question, so a custom loop is all that was left (no phase change today, sorry guys 😞 )
 
 
Silence Modifications
 
My goal was to build a very quiet computer, so there were three factors to take into account:
1. Fans
2. Pump
3. Noise dampening
 
For the fans I chose Noiseblocker e-loop B12-PS and B14-PS, for their beautiful aesthetics but also for their high static pressure at low RPMs.
These fans have excellent PWM control and can be driven down to only a few hundred rpm for near-silence.
Their large blades also make them great for radiators because of the high static pressure.
 
For the pump I went with dual EK D5s.
The D5 pump is the best and most reliable PC watercooling pump that exists, and by using two of them I get redundancy in case one ever fails.
The PWM control on the EK version of the D5 also allows them to be driven at even lower speeds, down to ~1500rpm which is much quieter than the default 4000+rpm they usually run at.
 
For noise dampening I chose Acousti Acoustipack multi-layer dampened foam.
Unlike regular cheap foam you've probably seen before, this stuff has suspended layers of high density material within the foam for more noise dampening rather than just reflection absorption.
I used 3 layer foam wherever it fit, since it is half an inch thick, and 1 or 2 layer foam elsewhere.
Almost the entire interior of the case is covered in it, the top, front, back, entire PSU compartment, etc.
 
 
Watercooling Loop Reliability
 
Hearing about fittings leaking, reservoirs cracking, waterblocks being clogged, and so many other problems I was a little concerned about custom loops.
I wanted something simple and reliable, that could last 10+ years without issues just like my H100i did (although I got lucky because I have seen many of those fail too)
Here are the decisions I made to increase loop reliability as much as possible:
 
Used a D5 pump, the most reliable and well known PC watercooling pump Used two pumps (using the EK X-TOP Revo Dual D5) for redundancy in case one pump fails Used soft tubing instead of hardline Used clear fluid instead of dyes/colours Used high quality Bitspower fittings only Used barb fittings instead of compression fittings Used tubing clamps on all fittings Used minimal rotary fittings (I had to use two, one because the case blocked a radiator port and one in the cramped basement where the pumps are) Used a T-line instead of a reservoir  
Watercooling Loop Components
 
Hardwarelabs Black Ice Nemesis 280GTS radiator (painted white by performance-pcs)
Hardwarelabs Black Ice Nemesis 120GTS radiator (painted white by performance-pcs)
Noiseblocker e-loop B12-PS and 2x B14-PS fans
EK Radeon Vega GPU waterblock
EK Supremacy EVO full nickel CPU waterblock
EK Monarch ram heatsinks (custom painted white, not watercooled)
EK X-TOP Revo Dual D5 pump top
EK D5 PWM controlled pumps (x2)
Bitspower 1/2" white barb fittings with 3/4" clamps, and some rotary fittings and a T-fitting
Mayhems UV white tubing 1/2" ID 3/4" OD (Used clear tubing for the T-line to see water level)
EK Cryofuel clear premixed coolant
 
 
PC components
 
Case: NZXT H500
CPU: AMD Ryzen 3950X
GPU: AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition
Motherboard: ASUS Ace X570 Pro WS
RAM: 64GB Corsair Vengenance LPX (modded with EK Monarch heatsinks painted white)
Storage: Samsung 512GB 970 Pro (OS) + 1TB 980 Pro (storage)
PSU: Seasonic Prime Fanless Titanium TX-700
Cables: @CableModcustom sleeved Modmesh Pro white cables (all cables, 24 pin, 8 pin CPU, dual 8 pin GPU)
Sound dampening foam: Acousti Acoustipack Ultimate Plus (used 1, 2 and 3 layer types used)
LED lighting: Darkside CONNECT G2 rigid LED strip white (dimmable, connected to motherboard fan header so I can adjust brightness from the UEFI)
 
Peripherals:
Mouse: Logitech MX Master 2s light gray
Keyboard: Coolermaster SK630 white (Cherry MX RGB low profile mechanical switch)
Webcam: Logitech Brio 4k
Audio interface: Scarlett 2i4 Gen 2
Microphones: 2x Audio Technica AT2020 white
Monitor: Samsung NU7100 58" 4k TV
Speakers: (not purchased yet, planning to buy Adam Audio T8V)
 
Pictures
 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
Final Thoughts
 
The loop was harder to build than I expected.
It took a lot of planning, and at one point I even modeled my tubing runs with a mockup case and PC components in Solidworks.
Filling the loop without a reservoir was difficult but not impossible, I ran the loop using a flower vase as my reservoir until all the bubbles were out.
Then I flipped the case and connected the tubing at the highest point so that the final air bubble was at the top, then topped it off using the T-line.
This essentially meant I had close to 0 bubbles in the loop, and it definitely sounds extremely quiet, if there were bubbles going through the pumps it would be noisy,
I hope I never have to do maintenance or take it apart though haha
 
I also wanted to wait for the 5950X but it was going to take a while for the stores to stock it, and when they did I was sure it was going to immediately sell out, so I ended up buying a 3950X from craigslist instead, for two thirds of what the 5950X would cost new.
The Vega FE was also bought on craigslist for a very good price.
I wanted that card because of the high raw performance and 16GB of HBM2 vram which would benefit me in Solidworks or machine learning/machine vision applications.
It was also much cheaper than a quadro.
 
Overall I think the build turned out excellent.
Great performance, super low noise, and amazing looking loop.
I think if I could change one thing I would have gone with the regular black HWlabs radiators, I find the white ones add too much white to the theme.
I wanted a black interior with white accents on the tubing and wires, but then thought maybe I should do all the watercooling components white.
I chose to not make the PGU white because I figured it would be too much white at that point, and I see now that even the radiators were too much.
It still looks very cool though IMO.
 
 
 
Let me know your thoughts and what you would have done differently!
Thanks for reading 🙂 
 

I found some time for my hobbies, so I have begun building the case in the virtual environment where I have an unlimited supply of bricks. I started with the bottom which needs to be perforated for better airflow to the power supply. Enjoy.