First time cooling – 2080ti FTW3 monster build

[OG_Mega]

17 hours ago, Dissitesuxba11s said:

You got it. The tricky ones will be the tubes that have a bend.

Got it ! 

 

Wanted to ask since most parts are coming in today / over the weekend – 

 

In what particular order would you suggest I start putting everything together? Is there a rule of thumb when doing custom loops? The only problem is I'm getting the Heatkiller IV pro CPU block ~Thursday next week, and the EVGA Hydrocopper in on ~Tuesday. 

 

I'd like to get as much done as I can over that period of time though if possible 

[Dissitesuxba11s]

1 hour ago, OG_Mega said:

In what particular order would you suggest I start putting everything together?

What I suggest based on my experience is wait until you have the CPU block before installing anything permanently. I don't know if the Heatkiller block has special mounting hardware, but installing CPU coolers are easier outside of the case. What you can do in the mean time once you get the motherboard, fans, radiators and reservoir/pump is to at least fit check those components in the case so you'll know how much room you will be working with. Just don't screw everything down permanently, just loosely, because the radiators and fans might make it hard to install the motherboard and cables.

 

You can also assemble the pump/reservoir assembly to make sure that it seals properly. Once the waterblock for the 2080ti arrives you can assemble that too.

[OG_Mega]

On 4/11/2019 at 2:17 PM, Dissitesuxba11s said:

What I suggest based on my experience is wait until you have the CPU block before installing anything permanently. I don't know if the Heatkiller block has special mounting hardware, but installing CPU coolers are easier outside of the case. What you can do in the mean time once you get the motherboard, fans, radiators and reservoir/pump is to at least fit check those components in the case so you'll know how much room you will be working with. Just don't screw everything down permanently, just loosely, because the radiators and fans might make it hard to install the motherboard and cables.

 

You can also assemble the pump/reservoir assembly to make sure that it seals properly. Once the waterblock for the 2080ti arrives you can assemble that too.

Hey ... I think err, we may have forgotten a pump on my list of things I need? O_O 

 

I don't see it on my spreadsheet and would 100% need that. Unless I'm overlooking it? 

[Dissitesuxba11s]

3 hours ago, OG_Mega said:

Hey ... I think err, we may have forgotten a pump on my list of things I need? O_O 

 

I don't see it on my spreadsheet and would 100% need that. Unless I'm overlooking it? 

Lol, whoops. Yea I overlooked it too. I thought that pump top was a pump also. Something like this should work.

What you will be doing is taking off the top part of this pump via the 4 screws underneath and then you will install the Magic Cube top and top reservoir adapter. The pump cooler will be installed at the bottom.

 

Sorry I missed this 

[OG_Mega]

6 minutes ago, Dissitesuxba11s said:

Lol, whoops. Yea I overlooked it too. I thought that pump top was a pump also. Something like this should work.

 What you will be doing is taking off the top part of this pump via the 4 screws underneath and then you will install the Magic Cube top and top reservoir adapter. The pump cooler will be installed at the bottom.

  

Sorry I missed this 

Haha it's okay – I wound up getting this (https://www.aquatuning.us/water-cooling/pumps/laing-ddc/ddc-pumps/13400/laing-ddc-pump-12v-ddc-3.25-18w) because I wanted to get my order in before EOD.

 

This will work right? I simply need to remove the top portion with the plugs and install the top reservoir adapter, then the Magic Cube, right? 

 

PS: what exactly is the magic cube for, anything special?

[Dissitesuxba11s]

15 minutes ago, OG_Mega said:

Haha it's okay – I wound up getting this (https://www.aquatuning.us/water-cooling/pumps/laing-ddc/ddc-pumps/13400/laing-ddc-pump-12v-ddc-3.25-18w) because I wanted to get my order in before EOD.

 

This will work right? I simply need to remove the top portion with the plugs and install the top reservoir adapter, then the Magic Cube, right? 

 

PS: what exactly is the magic cube for, anything special?

That should work too. Same process as what I said earlier with the Magic cube, reservoir adapter and pump cooler.

 

The Magic Cube simply changes where the in and out ports are. Instead of them going through the side by side ports on the original top, the inlet comes from the reservoir that you will be attaching to it and the outlet will be on the side. Plus it looks a lot cooler than the stock top.

[OG_Mega]

On 4/10/2019 at 11:17 AM, Dissitesuxba11s said:

Sorry for the delay, work and personal life. See the image below and notes for my take on how he setup his loop.

  Hide contents

LEGEND:

1. Triple Rotary
2. Hard Tube Fitting
3. Plug
4. 90 Degree Extender Fitting
5. 15mm Extender Fitting
6. Aqua Pipe Fitting

NOTES:

- Please use this as a guide and not as the final layout. I might not be correct on everything.

- The in and out ports at the radiators are oriented like that so that I can show you without overlapping them in the drawing.

- Triple rotaries in the CPU block and the reservoir are drawn sideways to show that they are at full 90 degrees like in the video.

- The triple rotaries going into the top rad and out the from rad are straightened out because I think that the ports of the components don't line up with each other and the rotaries help overcome this offset. You can swap these out with the dual rotaries.

- If you decide to get a 4 port rad for the front, you would need to get plugs to close the unused ports which is why I included two of them on the mock up. If you get a rad with only 2 ports, then you don't need them.

Component wise, nothing will change assuming that the Evolv case already comes with the vertical GPU bracket and riser cable. The only thing that I'm a bit concerned about is how the pipes will line up and how straight they will be since the location of the ports will be shifted a bit. It's not that big of an issue, and you can easily check once you have all the components on hand.

Yup, something like EK Cryofuel premix. You can also get EK Cryofuel concentrate and make a 9:1 mix with distilled water. There are other brands of coolant, EKWB is just the one that I've had experience with.

-I'm think you would be fine with just the triple rotaries. From my layout you don't really need 12 rotary extenders. I might be wrong especially since I don't have a clear line of sight on what is going on with the ports on both rads so I just guessed what he used based on what I can see.

-I just realized that getting prebent tubes will save you the hassle of getting a heat gun and bending kit, which is a great idea.

-What GPU waterblock do you plan to get?

-Other than that, I think you're golden.

Also sorry - wanted to revive this comment and your diagram. 

 

Here's a somewhat clearer view of his setup inside(@3:38). You have a lot of triple rotaries down on your diagram, but it looks to me that he uses mostly double 90' rotaries, no? It's hard to tell: 

 

[Dissitesuxba11s]

1 minute ago, OG_Mega said:

Here's a somewhat clearer view of his setup inside(@3:38). You have a lot of triple rotaries down on your diagram, but it looks to me that he uses mostly double 90' rotaries, no?

They are interchangeable with each other. The triple rotaries are slightly bigger but they give you more freedom to move since more parts can rotate.

[Dissitesuxba11s]

On 4/10/2019 at 4:38 PM, OG_Mega said:

I want to make sure, but do you think I should have enough connections on my motherboard for all the fans and other components? I would hope and assume so since the MOBO alone is $600...

Missed this edit. Looking at the specs sheet at of the MSI MEG Z390 GODLIKE, it says that you have 8x 4-pin fan connectors. You also have one more 4-pin fan connector for the CPU for a total of 9! That is ridiculous! That is the most I've seen on one motherboard.

 

I can't really comment on fan performance as I'm not too familiar with them. Layout wise, you should just do intake at the front and exhaust at the top. 

 

One thing to note with Corsair LL120s is that since they are RGB fans, they would need to be plugged into a connector for you to control the light show. Unfortunately, to fully contol Corsair fans they have to be controlled via their Corsair's iCue program and you would need to connect it through a Commander Pro or Lighting Node Pro.

 

[OG_Mega]

1 minute ago, Dissitesuxba11s said:

Missed this edit. Looking at the specs sheet at of the MSI MEG Z390 GODLIKE, it says that you have 8x 4-pin fan connectors. You also have one more 4-pin fan connector for the CPU for a total of 9! That is ridiculous! That is the most I've seen on one motherboard.

 

I can't really comment on fan performance as I'm not too familiar with them. Layout wise, you should just do intake at the front and exhaust at the top. 

 

One thing to note with Corsair LL120s is that since they are RGB fans, they would need to be plugged into a connector for you to control the light show. Unfortunately, to fully contol Corsair fans they have to be controlled via their Corsair's iCue program and you would need to connect it through a Commander Pro or Lighting Node Pro.

 

Ahhh! I forgot about that too, thanks –

Yeah I got 2x 3-packs of the ML120Pro's which both include a Lightning Node Pro. Side thought, do I need to run 2 LNP's or just one for all 6? Any idea?

[Dissitesuxba11s]

52 minutes ago, OG_Mega said:

Yeah I got 2x 3-packs of the ML120Pro's which both include a Lightning Node Pro. Side thought, do I need to run 2 LNP's or just one for all 6? Any idea?

Oh that's perfect!. You will only need one LNP since those packs also include an RGB hub that you can connect all 6 fans.

 

RGB Connection:

Motherboard <-- Lighting Node Pro <-- RGB Hub <-- 6x Fans

[OG_Mega]

39 minutes ago, Dissitesuxba11s said:

Oh that's perfect!. You will only need one LNP since those packs also include an RGB hub that you can connect all 6 fans.

 

RGB Connection:

Motherboard <-- Lighting Node Pro <-- RGB Hub <-- 6x Fans

I would just stick the LNP and RGB Hub in the back panel, right? 

 

Also wanted to ask this before I forgot (about the loop): 

 

You have an extra piece of pipe in there, but that couldn't be longer than an inch, if that. Is that really how it looks in the video / images? Honestly I've been staring at it for over an hour and still can't figure out what he has going on there. 

 

 

EDIT: Not to derail from cooling, but I was thinking about my storage options. So I ordered a 2tb 970 EVO m.2 to store all my games, etc. on; however, I still have 2x850 evo 500GB and 1x850 evo 250GB. I was using the 250GB exclusively for the OS, but do you think I need to do that? Should I just run the OS on the main drive, or should I still run it on the 250GB?

[OG_Mega]

2 hours ago, Dissitesuxba11s said:

Oh that's perfect!. You will only need one LNP since those packs also include an RGB hub that you can connect all 6 fans.

 

RGB Connection:

Motherboard <-- Lighting Node Pro <-- RGB Hub <-- 6x Fans

Also (sorry replying on a new comment to keep the one above):

 

How would I go about draining this build? It doesn't seem like there's any outlet where I can do that?

 

Edit: Unless, that is, that he uses a 4 port radiator in the front so the rear facing port (in the front of the case) has a 90' bend down, a tube running down the front side, and a T-drain port that goes into the Evolv X's drain port that's built into the case)? 

[Dissitesuxba11s]

2 hours ago, OG_Mega said:

I would just stick the LNP and RGB Hub in the back panel, right? 

If they are like the Commander Pro then they have double sided tape included and you can just stick it somewhere in the back of the case.

2 hours ago, OG_Mega said:

You have an extra piece of pipe in there, but that couldn't be longer than an inch, if that. Is that really how it looks in the video / images? Honestly I've been staring at it for over an hour and still can't figure out what he has going on there. 

What I think he did in the video is what I made on the layout, except what he has coming out of the radiator. In his layout, he has a double rotary rotated straight like the picture below. The triple rotaries that I recommended to get can be substituted for it.

Spoiler

 

2 hours ago, OG_Mega said:

EDIT: Not to derail from cooling, but I was thinking about my storage options. So I ordered a 2tb 970 EVO m.2 to store all my games, etc. on; however, I still have 2x850 evo 500GB and 1x850 evo 250GB. I was using the 250GB exclusively for the OS, but do you think I need to do that? Should I just run the OS on the main drive, or should I still run it on the 250GB?

Dang, that's a lot of storage. Just as a good failsafe, you should still make that 860 EV0 250GB exclusively for the OS, while installing programs on the other ones so that in case you would have to reinstall Windows, you wouldn't have to delete all your program files.

1 hour ago, OG_Mega said:

How would I go about draining this build? It doesn't seem like there's any outlet where I can do that?

 

Edit: Unless, that is, that he uses a 4 port radiator in the front so the rear facing port (in the front of the case) has a 90' bend down, a tube running down the front side, and a T-drain port that goes into the Evolv X's drain port that's built into the case)?

Great question. Ideally you would want the port at the lowest point of the cooling loop so that the water would just naturally flow out. That idea of using one of the ports as a line down to the built in drain port is a pretty good idea. For this, I think the drain line would be located in the port directly accross the inlet line so that the water coming in would just flow out of the drain line. This drain line can just be made of compression fittings, soft tube, ball valve, male-to-male extender, pass through fitting and plug. 

 

Another option, and I don't know fully if this would work is to start your drain line from the other inlet of the Magic Cube top. The image below shows where the side inlet is located. Since this port is designed as an inlet, I;m not fully sure how effective it would work as a drain since water would still be coming out of the outlet.

Spoiler

 

For my old setup, I put my drain inline with the outlet port of the pump (see picture below). This way worked for me but for your setup, I think it wouldn't look good.

Spoiler

 

[OG_Mega]

18 hours ago, Dissitesuxba11s said:

If they are like the Commander Pro then they have double sided tape included and you can just stick it somewhere in the back of the case.

What I think he did in the video is what I made on the layout, except what he has coming out of the radiator. In his layout, he has a double rotary rotated straight like the picture below. The triple rotaries that I recommended to get can be substituted for it.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Dang, that's a lot of storage. Just as a good failsafe, you should still make that 860 EV0 250GB exclusively for the OS, while installing programs on the other ones so that in case you would have to reinstall Windows, you wouldn't have to delete all your program files.

Great question. Ideally you would want the port at the lowest point of the cooling loop so that the water would just naturally flow out. That idea of using one of the ports as a line down to the built in drain port is a pretty good idea. For this, I think the drain line would be located in the port directly accross the inlet line so that the water coming in would just flow out of the drain line. This drain line can just be made of compression fittings, soft tube, ball valve, male-to-male extender, pass through fitting and plug. 

 

Another option, and I don't know fully if this would work is to start your drain line from the other inlet of the Magic Cube top. The image below shows where the side inlet is located. Since this port is designed as an inlet, I;m not fully sure how effective it would work as a drain since water would still be coming out of the outlet.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

For my old setup, I put my drain inline with the outlet port of the pump (see picture below). This way worked for me but for your setup, I think it wouldn't look good.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Follow up question for the drain - if I used a 90’ fitting off the back-front side (behind the reservoir) of the front radiator, some clear tubing running down the front to the Evolv X drain port, that drain is technically almost at the highest point of the build, right? Wouldn’t that not work? I re-watched the original video again full through and he does plug off the front ports, so he definitely just doesn't have a drain in the build.

 

With that in mind, how does all of the fluid get out of the radiators? No matter how you drain, if you have a vertical radiator how does the water sitting on the bottom come out? 

 

Last thing, if we put the drain port across from the inlet line, that is at the top of the reservoir right? Sorry having a hard time picturing it. 

 

@knightslugger – this is the build I was talking about (https://builds.gg/builds/phanteks-evolv-x-review-build-3785) – I don't think he has a drain in it, and am trying to figure out either a) how to drain it, or b) where to best put a drain to not kill the aesthetic

 

Edit: @Dissitesuxba11sI saw a video where the guy used a syringe to manually suck out all the DW from the reservoir and then was able to open one of his plug and run it to a tub. This had me thinking, what if I were to do the same thing, manually suck the water out of the reservoir with a syringe, and then what I could do is unscrew the 90' bend from the pump, quickly screw on a T-valve, and then use that T-valve to drain the rest of the loop? I'm talking about this fitting in the picture below. (Otherwise, maybe he would just drain from the CPU block behind the black fittings where it says "Geforce GTX 1080"?)

[Dissitesuxba11s]

23 hours ago, OG_Mega said:

Follow up question for the drain - if I used a 90’ fitting off the back-front side (behind the reservoir) of the front radiator, some clear tubing running down the front to the Evolv X drain port, that drain is technically almost at the highest point of the build, right? Wouldn’t that not work? I re-watched the original video again full through and he does plug off the front ports, so he definitely just doesn't have a drain in the build.

Yup, that option doesn't really drain well but it was the only clean route that I can think of.

 

23 hours ago, OG_Mega said:

With that in mind, how does all of the fluid get out of the radiators? No matter how you drain, if you have a vertical radiator how does the water sitting on the bottom come out?

More than likely you one has to clear all the fluids out for a complete cleaning they would need to disassemble the whole loop anyway, so once the majority of the fluid is out you can just take the radiator out and dump the excess coolant.

 

23 hours ago, OG_Mega said:

Last thing, if we put the drain port across from the inlet line, that is at the top of the reservoir right? Sorry having a hard time picturing it. 

Nope, there is a second inlet in the Magic Cube. See image below.

Spoiler

 

23 hours ago, OG_Mega said:

Edit: @Dissitesuxba11sI saw a video where the guy used a syringe to manually suck out all the DW from the reservoir and then was able to open one of his plug and run it to a tub. This had me thinking, what if I were to do the same thing, manually suck the water out of the reservoir with a syringe, and then what I could do is unscrew the 90' bend from the pump, quickly screw on a T-valve, and then use that T-valve to drain the rest of the loop? I'm talking about this fitting in the picture below. (Otherwise, maybe he would just drain from the CPU block behind the black fittings where it says "Geforce GTX 1080"?)

Sucking it out with a syringe is going to take way too long. I was thinking the same thing with just putting the computer on it's side and plugging a ball valve to one of the plugs on the side of the GPU block. There are more plugs on the bottom of the block but unless you want to flip the whole computer over (it's going to be heavy with all the water and components) then I think the side ports would be better.

[OG_Mega]

11 minutes ago, Dissitesuxba11s said:

Yup, that option doesn't really drain well but it was the only clean route that I can think of.

 

More than likely you one has to clear all the fluids out for a complete cleaning they would need to disassemble the whole loop anyway, so once the majority of the fluid is out you can just take the radiator out and dump the excess coolant.

 

Nope, there is a second inlet in the Magic Cube. See image below.

  Hide contents

 

Sucking it out with a syringe is going to take way too long. I was thinking the same thing with just putting the computer on it's side and plugging a ball valve to one of the plugs on the side of the GPU block. There are more plugs on the bottom of the block but unless you want to flip the whole computer over (it's going to be heavy with all the water and components) then I think the side ports would be better.

Hey thanks! 

 

Follow ups: 

1. The port you're talking about on the cube is in my pink circle, right? Assuming it has to be plugged with one of my stop fittings? 

2. This is the plug you're referring to, right? Basically, I'd just flip the PC on it's side, open that plug up carefully, screw on a ball valve, and flip it right side up? If this is the best method, I would need a Ball valve, compression fitting, and a soft tubing, right?  

 

[Dissitesuxba11s]

46 minutes ago, OG_Mega said:

1. The port you're talking about on the cube is in my pink circle, right? Assuming it has to be plugged with one of my stop fittings? 

Slightly to the left more, directly across from the outlet. Yes, I believe you typically would have to provide your own plugs unless they come included.

 

46 minutes ago, OG_Mega said:

This is the plug you're referring to, right? Basically, I'd just flip the PC on it's side, open that plug up carefully, screw on a ball valve, and flip it right side up?

Yup, that's the one. I've done it before to make sure that there are no fluid in the GPU block.

 

46 minutes ago, OG_Mega said:

If this is the best method, I would need a Ball valve, compression fitting, and a soft tubing, right?

It's definitely not the best method, but it is the only method that I can think of that doesn't involve including the drain line inline with anything since that wouldn't be a aesthetically pleasing as the current set up. But yes, that is all you need to make a drain line. I don't remember how many hardline fittings you purchased but if you have an extra one and some spare tubing, you can substitute those for the compression fitting and the soft tubing. I'm trying to not spend anymore money.

[OG_Mega]

6 hours ago, Dissitesuxba11s said:

Slightly to the left more, directly across from the outlet. Yes, I believe you typically would have to provide your own plugs unless they come included.

  

Yup, that's the one. I've done it before to make sure that there are no fluid in the GPU block.

  

It's definitely not the best method, but it is the only method that I can think of that doesn't involve including the drain line inline with anything since that wouldn't be a aesthetically pleasing as the current set up. But yes, that is all you need to make a drain line. I don't remember how many hardline fittings you purchased but if you have an extra one and some spare tubing, you can substitute those for the compression fitting and the soft tubing. I'm trying to not spend anymore money.

I appreciate that thanks ! 

 

So I think we've solved it. I bought a drain valve, a few more fittings, some soft tubing, etc. I'm going to run the drain out the back port of the Magic Cube as you originally suggested. There should be enough room to run it in the back of the cube, down along the front radiator, and then out the front using the port in front of the Evolv X case. 

• The order will be: Magic cube > Drain valve > 90' fitting > compression fitting > soft tube > compression fitting > case fitting > stop fitting. This order will let me just plug another compression fitting / soft tube to the front of the case so it's completely hidden until I'm ready to drain. 
• This is assuming that there's enough space behind the reservoir for this, and I think there should be after doing some measuring, but This video here @ 2:58 somewhat shows how much room I'd have.

[Dissitesuxba11s]

4 hours ago, OG_Mega said:

The order will be: Magic cube > Drain valve > 90' fitting > compression fitting > soft tube > compression fitting > case fitting > stop fitting.

And in the event that there is not enough room in the back, you can switch the order to Magic Cube > 90° fitting > ball valve (drain valve?) > etc. Another thing that you would need is a male-to-male extender (boo!) between the Magic Cube and the ball valve, or between the 90° fitting and the ball valve, depending on the configuration. The ball valve and Magic Cube only has female ends so you would need a way to connect them.

[OG_Mega]

2 hours ago, Dissitesuxba11s said:

And in the event that there is not enough room in the back, you can switch the order to Magic Cube > 90° fitting > ball valve (drain valve?) > etc. Another thing that you would need is a male-to-male extender (boo!) between the Magic Cube and the ball valve, or between the 90° fitting and the ball valve, depending on the configuration. The ball valve and Magic Cube only has female ends so you would need a way to connect them.

Yeah, the ball valve I ordered is this one here which already has a male extender included on it. Going to grab another male to male extender just incase. 

 

And ... I think I'm finally done ordering parts?... hopefully.

 

When all the cooling parts start coming in, I'll use the Mayhems Blitz Part 1 on the radiators, and then run Mayhems Part 2 through the entire loop, but what about the tubing? Should I wash them out with tap water, or just hook everything up and using the Mayhems Blitz Part 2 on the loop will be good enough?

 

And in terms of order of putting this together, would it be: PSU>Motherboard>CPU cooler / backplate> Ram> GPU/GPU Block> (water cooling: Install top and front radiators and fans, connect the reservoir to the front radiator fans, connect all the fittings to the blocks, etc., and then start measuring the tubing and cutting, install tubing into fittings). Once all of this is complete, I'll run the loop with DW to test for leaks, if there are no leaks I'll flush it, then do Mayhems Part 2 and run that through the loop to clean it. And finally, once it's clean, I'll add the Mayhems X1 Clear Premix. Once ALL of that is said and done, I'll be good to go finalizing all my connections to the PSU and I'll be good to go, turning it on for the first time. 

 

All this sound about right or am I missing anything? 

 

 

[Dissitesuxba11s]

3 hours ago, OG_Mega said:

When all the cooling parts start coming in, I'll use the Mayhems Blitz Part 1 on the radiators, and then run Mayhems Part 2 through the entire loop, but what about the tubing? Should I wash them out with tap water, or just hook everything up and using the Mayhems Blitz Part 2 on the loop will be good enough?

Once you cut and ream them, just clean them with warm to hot tap water just so that you can clean the copper dust, then rinse with distilled water. Once you have all the parts are plumbed up, the Mayhems part 2 will clean out any remaining residue from all the other parts that Part 1 didn't clean (blocks, res/pump).

3 hours ago, OG_Mega said:

All this sound about right or am I missing anything? 

Sounds like you got a good plan set. I would install the CPU block and RAM while the motherboard is out of the case just to make it easier. Also, as with every build, try to boot to the BIOS while all the parts are outside of the case to make sure that all the main parts are working. You can just test this with an Intel stock cooler if you have one lying around, or whatever cooler you have on your current computer. Heck, I think you can test boot without a cooler at all since it's not going to heat that quickly.

 

Also, do you know how to jump the PSU to turn on the pump with out putting power to the motherboard?

[OG_Mega]

11 hours ago, Dissitesuxba11s said:

Once you cut and ream them, just clean them with warm to hot tap water just so that you can clean the copper dust, then rinse with distilled water. Once you have all the parts are plumbed up, the Mayhems part 2 will clean out any remaining residue from all the other parts that Part 1 didn't clean (blocks, res/pump).

Sounds like you got a good plan set. I would install the CPU block and RAM while the motherboard is out of the case just to make it easier. Also, as with every build, try to boot to the BIOS while all the parts are outside of the case to make sure that all the main parts are working. You can just test this with an Intel stock cooler if you have one lying around, or whatever cooler you have on your current computer. Heck, I think you can test boot without a cooler at all since it's not going to heat that quickly.

 

Also, do you know how to jump the PSU to turn on the pump with out putting power to the motherboard?

Gotcha – 

 

Follow ups: 

1. I got a deburring tool for after I cut the brass tubing, but saw that I should grind down with sandpaper too. Any idea what grit I should use? 
2. Good point about booting to BIOS. Can you explain a little more how to do that real fast? Is it simply just plugging in the motherboard/CPU, and a keyboard? 
3. I bought a PSU jumper off amazon for like $4 so I think I'm good on that front. 

Thanks!

[Dissitesuxba11s]

25 minutes ago, OG_Mega said:

I got a deburring tool for after I cut the brass tubing, but saw that I should grind down with sandpaper too. Any idea what grit I should use?

Are you talking about rounding out the edges like in this tutorial? Looks like you should be fine with 350-500 grit sand paper.

25 minutes ago, OG_Mega said:

Good point about booting to BIOS. Can you explain a little more how to do that real fast? Is it simply just plugging in the motherboard/CPU, and a keyboard?

Place the mobo on top of the box and insert the CPU and RAM. If you have a spare Intel stock cooler or any spare cooler, install it on there. If you haven't torn apart the GPU, install that as well so we can test it too. Plug in your keyboard and mouse, along with a monitor to the GPU. Connect all power cables to the mobo and GPU. Turn everything on and see if you can get to the BIOS. Make sure that you are seeing the CPU and RAM in the BIOS. If everything is there then you should be good to go.

26 minutes ago, OG_Mega said:

I bought a PSU jumper off amazon for like $4 so I think I'm good on that front.

Nice! That thing has helped me so much whenever I was doing maintenance on my loop. You could also just get a paper clip.

[OG_Mega]

8 minutes ago, Dissitesuxba11s said:

Are you talking about rounding out the edges like in this tutorial? Looks like you should be fine with 350-500 grit sand paper.

Place the mobo on top of the box and insert the CPU and RAM. If you have a spare Intel stock cooler or any spare cooler, install it on there. If you haven't torn apart the GPU, install that as well so we can test it too. Plug in your keyboard and mouse, along with a monitor to the GPU. Connect all power cables to the mobo and GPU. Turn everything on and see if you can get to the BIOS. Make sure that you are seeing the CPU and RAM in the BIOS. If everything is there then you should be good to go.

Nice! That thing has helped me so much whenever I was doing maintenance on my loop. You could also just get a paper clip.

Yeah, that's the video! Thanks for reposting.

 

Will definitely try and boot to BIOS tonight after work. Have 99% of parts, just waiting on final rounds of water cooling gear CPU block / backplate. 

I have my old NZXT Kraken x62 that I can plug onto the CPU, would that work in terms of booting to BIOS? If I do that, after I'm all done and the CPU block comes in, I just need to take isopropyl and clean off the CPU and reapply thermal grease right?

 

Last thing – I just put the front radiator in with a fan to judge spacing. The reservoir is HUGE. To be honest I have no idea how he got that thing to fit the way he did. Hoping that when I take it apart and install everything it'll fit nicely, but eyeballing it I'm a little worried. In the video he has the front radiator all the way at the bottom of the case and then a straight line from the radiator to the reservoir with a 90' fitting. When I tried that it wasn't straight on, I had to lift the radiator up higher so it would fit. Fingers crossed that when I get the pump in, the whole reservoir assembly will fit and it'll work.