Maki Role

It makes basically no difference. In reality the water is flowing through so fast that the temperature doesn't change that much, as such it's pretty much just as capable at cooling the part as before. The whole loop will eventually stabilise at a certain temperature, with only a few degrees between any individual points in the loop.

'Ello 'ello what's all this then?
 
Seems's we're all joining up, still can't get enough of those beautiful bends.

More than happy to take my content elsewhere for you instead.  I understand there are no exceptions, but at the end of the day the staff on this site need to decide if LTT wants to be taken seriously or remain a back yard for youtube and that professional modders say "wait you post there?" to.
 
All sponsored mods are advertising.  So by allowing them you allow major companies to advertise in this space, but a personal website link in a signature is deemed too far.
 
Don't need to deal with moderators happy to wave a stick so that they can feel more important than they really are.

Well here's another semi-update to the longest running project log where nothing actually happens  

There has been a PSU swap! As much as I love the 2000W one, and it's no doubt a very high quality unit, it's just not suitable for home use at all. This is an earlier model I believe and as such the fan is unbelievably loud, to the extent that it's louder than the 4 GPUs on air during standard use.

So the 2000W beauty will be retired and going to Parvum to use in one of their stunning builds instead where volume doesn't play a factor. I think this is appropriate anyway as they're the ones who provided it to begin with, it should help one of their larger builds draw some nice attention.

Instead I'll be using a Thermaltake DPSG RGB 1500W Titanium unit. More than enough juice since I won't be overclocking (rendering stability) and it's nice and quiet. RGB is a 'nice to have' since the PSU will be very visible, but expect it to remain switched to white or off haha.

But in keeping with the rest of the build, I went and modelled the beast in full detail, including the Riing 140 RGB fan inside.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I do believe it's about time this rig had a little bit of an update eh?
Out with the old and in with the new, fan and SSD upgrade.  Stepped up to a 2TB 850 Evo and some shiny Thermaltake Premium Riing 120 RGB fans.  I must admit I really do like they lighting they provide, fits the theme just right IMO.  
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks guys!
 
Going to need every single vote available if we're ever to catch up with the current leader at 580:

 

Would certainly be very cool to use the new Pascal ones, although thankfully for me they don't offer any real improvements other than speed (yeah that sounds dumb I know haha).  The big limit for my usage is VRAM, which Nvidia decided not to increase for the Pascal Titan Xs.  So at least I can rock myself to sleep telling my mind I don't need them haha
 
 
Just wait a it until the big block is done, now that will be interesting for sure.
 
Glad to be back at this, had to put it off all summer thanks to overly busy schedules and whatnot.
 
 
Cheers, hope it lives up to the hype
 
 
You our and me both, it's been a long time coming
 
 
Haha my favourite tactic, make the pictures look like renders and the renders look like pictures
 
 
That actually sort of happened with my previous project Aetos.  AMD thought that I had finished the build months before hand and had shared the renders around.  Needless to say they were quite surprised when I said the build was done and presented them with the final pics.

Well this has certainly been a little stagnant hasn't it?
 

 
So with Aetos finally all done and dusted, the time has come to once again move my focus to completing Argentum.  Got an awful lot of CAD work to do, but at least it's now happening.  Here are the latest renders for the first parts:
 

 

 

 

 
 

Well this has certainly been a little stagnant hasn't it?
 

 
So with Aetos finally all done and dusted, the time has come to once again move my focus to completing Argentum.  Got an awful lot of CAD work to do, but at least it's now happening.  Here are the latest renders for the first parts:
 

 

 

 

 
 

Well this has certainly been a little stagnant hasn't it?
 

 
So with Aetos finally all done and dusted, the time has come to once again move my focus to completing Argentum.  Got an awful lot of CAD work to do, but at least it's now happening.  Here are the latest renders for the first parts:
 

 

 

 

 
 

Hello again!
 
This project is going to be run parallel to Argentum, it's a tiny ITX, air cooled build that aims to make the most of what the form factor can offer.
 
So a while back AMD approached me and asked if I'd like to do a build for them as part of the launch for their upcoming R9 Nano card.  Given how Argentum is shaping up to be a beastly, giant of a rig, I couldn't help but feel drawn to the idea of building something at the opposite end of the spectrum at the same time.  The brief was simple, make it small and make it powerful.  I'd like to offer a big thank you to AMD who are fully financing this project along with allowing the opportunity to begin with!
 
Specs:
 
So in lieu of the brief, I chose the following components:
 
CPU: Intel i7 6700k
Motherboard: EVGA Z170 Stinger
RAM: 16GB Kingston Fury Black 2400MHz
Cooler: Noctua NH-L9i
Storage: 2TB Samsung 850 Evo
GPU: AMD R9 Nano
PSU: Silverstone 450W Strider Gold
 
Now some of you may be thinking "why no M.2" or "How come not that X99 Asrock board".  Well those would be sensible points to make.  A HyperX 480GB Predator drive is on the way, but I made a mistake.  It turns out the Stinger has a near useless Key E M.2 port, which means no Predator unfortunately.  So that's being shelved for the next build (spoilers...) instead.  As for X99, well for a start I think that board is hideous, but even if it looked good I'd have an issue.  Something doesn't quite seem right about using a CPU with near as dammit the same TDP as the dedicated GPU.  One of the key points about the Nano is its low power usage, which would be completely nullified by some mahoosive 150W+ CPU.  There's also the matter of cooling the things.  X99 CPUs need hefty cooling, meaning I'd need a bigger cooler, which would have cut my options down significantly.
 
Renders:
 
And as usual, here's a batch of renders of what the build should look like.  These are sans components as they haven't arrived yet.  The files are being sent off to the printers and Parvum Systems on Monday, fingers crossed we can get things done during the week on that end.
 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for the kind words! The basic premise for gaining sponsorship is getting your name out there and getting to know as many relevant people as possible really. Sadly there's always an element of "Who you know, not what you know", but thankfully it's fairly simple to get on the ladder. Competitions are a great example as you often get to know the organisers, successful entries will also do a lot for your portfolio. Over time people will automatically take an interest if your work's good. Some people get massive legs up along the way, for others it takes a while, but if you just keep at it good things can happen.
Yeah the crappy m.2 port on the Stinger is really annoying, it would have been so much better with one on the back like you mentioned.
 
 

I must admit when I place the card next to the case I start to get worried, it's going to be a seriously tight job getting everything in neatly. Really not looking forward to the PSU cabling that's for sure.
 
 

Sure... I'll add it to the list
 
 

Only issue with a mass produced one is that it would likely have to be bigger so as to be more accommodating. As it stands you'd have to use all custom cabling along with a very rigid set of components to fit it all in, heck I'm still worried I'm going to manage it even with those things. Thanks though!
 


UPDATE!
Aye and a big one at that.
So yesterday I spent the best part of a day over at Parvum Systems helping out (well, I think I helped?) with the cutting of the midplates for Aetos. The plan was to have them machined from 10mm acetal, which all worked out rather well in the end. There were loads of pains trying to get the files to load up properly, but we managed to work through everything eventually. Massive shout out to Justin and Shaun for making this possible, seems once again Parvum Systems rescues a project! I also managed to get back just in time (with a whole 6 minutes to spare...) for a short interview on AMD's livestream in the evening.
If you're interested in hearing a little about how I got into modding as well as bit more about the build, check the recording below:
www.twitch.tv/amd/v/14245742?t=31m55s






Fits like a glove

Placed the printed shell on top, seems to fit right too!

And here we are folks, the end of the journey for Aetos.  Hopefully you'll enjoy the final results!
 
A huge thank you to AMD for commissioning the build, it would have been completely impossible without their help and support.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Banana for scale:

 
 

Cheers man, hope you like the final update!
 
 
Welcome to the community!  I'm honored that this build helped you to make the plunge.
 
 
 
MEGA UPDATE!

 
Well this is it folks.  It's been one hell of a journey with many ups and downs (some seriously low points), but I wouldn't trade it away lightly.  The amount of support this build has garnered from the community has been astounding, finally winning a Bit-Tech MotM being the icing on a rather rich chocolate cake indeed.  I'm amazed by simply how many have followed this thread too, a massive 315 at time of writing!   
 
I'd like to thank everybody who's followed this build from the start, along with everybody who joined along the way.  Also a big thanks to my sponsors EKWB who provided almost all of the watercooling parts for the build, it certainly would have been a much slower affair without them.  I'd also like to thank the team over at Parvum Systems who managed to get a new block made so quickly, and of course a thanks to James (Phame) who made the original one that sadly now sits in my room as a grim reminder of the cost of carelessness.
 
 


 
First up, the final update:
 
Tidied up all the fan wires, much neater only having one.

 

 
Felt that the radiator screws needed a bit of sprucing too.

 
And now for the main event!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
The rig is all up and running safely.  I'd have grabbed a few pics of it pushing some pixels only every place I could use is a bit of a heap right now thanks to trying to frantically finish the build.  Going to be a bit of a cleanup job for sure.

Hi everybody!

Been following LTT for a while now, figured I should finally make an account in order to get involved with the community. As a bit of background, I'm a student from the UK with a passion for modding and watercooling in particular. Some of you may know me from reddit, where I'm an active member of /r/buildapc and a moderator at /r/watercooling, I'm also found on Bit-Tech under the same name. I haven't actually been modding for that long, I probably started seriously not more than a couple years back. Since then I've caught the bug and can't wait to launch into new projects the moment one is finished!

So to kick things off I thought I would share with you my current work in progress rig:

 

The idea behind "Loramentum" was to make a rig that could be wall mounted but at the same time watercooled. The challenge comes from how I also wanted the rig to be portable so that it could be taken to LAN events and to/fro home and university. Naturally a simple mini-ITX rig in say an EVGA Hadron could have sufficed here, but I wanted to try something new and a bit more novel, at the expense of being a bit more portable.

The main construction itself is formed from a single piece of machined acrylic, which will not only provide the structure to the components, but also feature water channels for the coolant. Protection during transport will be provided by a flight case that I'll also be building.


Contents:

Update 1: Introduction and Renders
Update 2: Laser Cut Frame Lid
Update 3: Watercooling Care Package from EK
Update 4: O-rings, Wires and Braid
Update 5: GPU Blocks and Fractures
Update 6: Trial by Water
Update 7: Fans, Plugs and Dye
Update 8: Extenders, Extensions and Sharpies
Update 9: Corsair Dominator Platinum - Gold Edition
Update 10: Front panel cut
Update 11: GPU Bracket Started
Update 12: GPU Bracket Finished
Update 13: Flight Case Parts
Update 14: PSU Bracket and Pump Jacket
Update 15: Part assembly!
Update 16: Stand and Coolant Renders
Update 17: Flight Case Part 1
Update 18: Flight Case Part 2
Update 19: 24 Pin Sleeved... Again
Update 20: Flight Case Interior Work
Update 21: 8 Pin CPU Cable made and sleeved
Update 22: GPU Sleeved up and Cable Management
Update 23: PSU Fan and SSD Painting
Update 24: New Mechanical Keyboard and Stand Progress
Update 25: Stand Finished
Update 26: Smashed... Better start over
Update 27: New Block Design and 3D Model sharing!
Update 28: The Parts Still Work!
Update 29: New Block and Giveaway
Update 30: O-rings back in
Update 31: Block filled and tested
Update 32: Hardware Installed
Update 33: Tubing Added
Update 34: Coolant Added
Update 35: Finished!  Final Pics Here!
Update 36: Better Final Pics Here!  Ignore the previous ones
Update 37: Battlestation Upgrade!
 
First up I'd like to thank EK Waterblocks who will be providing much of the watercooling equipment used in this build, I'd also like to thank Intel for sending me an i7 4770k to use in this build!

 

So here's a hardware lowdown:

CPU: Intel Core i7 4770k
Motherboard: Asus Z87I-Pro
RAM: 16GB Corsair Dominator Platinum 1866MHz
GPU: Asus AMD R9 290
PSU: Corsair RM650
Storage: Samsun Evo in some undecided size (likely 512GB)

Cooling:

CPU Block: EK Supremacy Clean Gold
GPU Block: EK-FC R9-290X Acetal
Radiator: XSPC EX360 Crossflow
Pump: Laing D5 Vario with EK Clean Pump Top
Fittings: EK HD Adapters
Tubing: EK rigid acrylic tubing 10/12mm
Fans: Undecided but I'm likely to go for Noiseblocker eloops as they look simply fantastic

Concept Renders:
 
 
These were made using a combination of Autodesk Inventor and Blender, with the renders themselves being done in Cycles within Blender. I find planning builds like this in 3D can be a great idea as it allows you to play with things like colour schemes and alternate parts very easily.
 
 










For the case I've decided to go for the carbon vinyl look. Not only is it easier to work with, but most of the people I asked said they preferred it, which certainly works for me. I'm planning on having the RAM heatspreaders and GPU Plate/IO shield gold plated so that they match the theme. You'll notice from the renders that the reservoir is actually built into the structure itself, it's definitely one of the parts I'm most looking forward to finishing.

And now for some actual components!

 


I know you've all seen it before, but damn I love the look of these sticks. Very different in person to how they appear in the promotional art though, the bars have much more texture to them, which is no bad thing.


Dat box...


Sockets make for some cool macro shots.


And just for a laugh, this is where I'm keeping the components for now... Yeah I know, I don't think I've ever seen an emptier Phantom before.

And the award for the loudest stock component ever goes to the 290. I knew the stock cooler was pretty loud, but I was truly taken aback just by how much, it's insane.

Here's the machined part after a few goes with some coarser grit sandpaper. I'll be slowly working my way up the grades, just need to order in some more of the high grit stuff first.



Rough fitting session with the rad, pump and an old GTX 590. That card is monstrously sized, much larger than the 290 (or at least it feels it), thankfully the holes line up with the ports etc. on the 290.

Hope you all enjoy the project! I'm looking forward to being able to post more updates as well as getting involved with the awesome community here.

Then this update will be right up your street...
 

UPDATE!
No doubt some of you were thinking "What does that pump block do that a normal one doesn't?", the answer to that is, well, nothing.  By itself it doesn't operate any differently to the ones I was supplied by Thermaltake.  It was, however, a test bed for this thing instead:
 

 

 

 

 

 
Enjoy working out the loop order

UPDATE!!
 
So you may ask, what the hell have I been doing all this time?
 
Well, to be frank, I don't have a very good answer for that.  This update was delayed by almost 2 weeks thanks to a problem with my plastic supplier.  I had ordered cast acrylic but they sent extruded, only found out once we started to cut it.  In short, it broke the tool and was a complete disaster.
 
In the meantime, I decided it would be a sound investment to pick up a vinyl plotter!  Figured it would be handy for making things like labels, fan hub stickers and of course stencils.  Perfect, also, for replacing the SSD sticker with something more in keeping with the theme of the build.
 


First up, I picked up a load of these rather fancy screws.  My thought was that the block could use a little colour, these looked just the ticket.
 
And the SSD in its new form!


F*** that hurt.  Bloody sticker sliced through my finger to the tune of about 4mm, ended up needing stitches on this one.
 
 
 
And here we go again.


 
Cutting!

 
The tensest part, lining up for the double sided cuts

 
Eurgh, tapping over 100 holes is not fun.


But the end result is definitely worth it





 
Like a glove

 
Off to Yorkshire now for the weekend, I'll fill it up when I get back.

And here we are folks, the end of the journey for Aetos.  Hopefully you'll enjoy the final results!
 
A huge thank you to AMD for commissioning the build, it would have been completely impossible without their help and support.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Banana for scale:

 
 

And here we are folks, the end of the journey for Aetos.  Hopefully you'll enjoy the final results!
 
A huge thank you to AMD for commissioning the build, it would have been completely impossible without their help and support.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Banana for scale:

 
 

And here we are folks, the end of the journey for Aetos.  Hopefully you'll enjoy the final results!
 
A huge thank you to AMD for commissioning the build, it would have been completely impossible without their help and support.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Banana for scale:

 
 

And here we are folks, the end of the journey for Aetos.  Hopefully you'll enjoy the final results!
 
A huge thank you to AMD for commissioning the build, it would have been completely impossible without their help and support.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Banana for scale:

 
 

Befitting of the last update, here is another "small" one.  Admittedly this took a lot longer than I was expecting as I had to remake the panel after I messed up the first one with some dodgy measuring.  Needless to say this was quite a bit of needle file work.
 


GPU bracket included

 
 

Looks ugly at this point but is functional

 
 

Ahh see, looks better now

Befitting of the last update, here is another "small" one.  Admittedly this took a lot longer than I was expecting as I had to remake the panel after I messed up the first one with some dodgy measuring.  Needless to say this was quite a bit of needle file work.
 


GPU bracket included

 
 

Looks ugly at this point but is functional

 
 

Ahh see, looks better now

Befitting of the last update, here is another "small" one.  Admittedly this took a lot longer than I was expecting as I had to remake the panel after I messed up the first one with some dodgy measuring.  Needless to say this was quite a bit of needle file work.
 


GPU bracket included

 
 

Looks ugly at this point but is functional

 
 

Ahh see, looks better now

So it's really been quite the last couple months.  Computex was an absolute blast, thankfully Exsectus managed to get there all in one piece.  Fast forward a few weeks and this turned up at my door
 

 

 


Some coolant leaked out of one of the ports (they were only lightly plugged) but that was all

 

 

 
 
 
So that's the return survived!  Thermaltake did a great job of packing this baby up again, now all I need to do it get it all ready and updated for iSeries in August.
I was also sent some goodies, going to be modding these to fit the build.