HELIOS - ASSEMBLED 2015-SEP-06 - (Caselabs SMH10 | Black/Copper | EVGA SR-2 )

[crunzaty]

After not having checked the forum in a long time and i come back to this.

 

Again Alpenwasser, Good job! Amazing build

[alpenwasser]

After not having checked the forum in a long time and i come back to this.

 

Again Alpenwasser, Good job! Amazing build

Hey man, nice to see you again! And thanks, much appreciated! Might not have turned out precisely how planned and I still have some niggles with it (the cable color, as I mentioned elsewhere I think), but hey, I'm still pretty damn happy with it. Plus, I can finally actually use it these days.

Question is... what to do next?

[crunzaty]

Hey man, nice to see you again! And thanks, much appreciated! Might not have turned out precisely how planned and I still have some niggles with it (the cable color, as I mentioned elsewhere I think), but hey, I'm still pretty damn happy with it. Plus, I can finally actually use it these days.

Question is... what to do next?

Nice to see you as well! And you are a part of the staff team now, you deserve it!

 

That is indeed a good question. 

[alpenwasser]

Nice to see you as well! And you are a part of the staff team now, you deserve it!

'bout two years now, yeah.

It's actually kinda funny coming to this thread, because the first post in this thread was the very first post I ever made on LTT.

That is indeed a good question. 

I have a few ideas, but, uhm, let's just say they will require significant financial and temporal resources and are unlikely to be implemented sooner than in three to five years, unless something miraculous happens.

[alpenwasser]

Your reputation began here 50 pages ago . To bad mine wasn't as humble

Weeeeell, you know, we can't all be the same.

I wonder how much space this thread would take up if I were to print it out...

[8uhbbhu8]

WOW. Damn amazing Build! There are not enough copper and black builds in the world yet When ever I get the money together im going to be water cooling my pc with copper.

 

And Damn I WISH I could get my hands on a black SR-2...

[alpenwasser]

WOW. Damn amazing Build! There are not enough copper and black builds in the world yet When ever I get the money together im going to be water cooling my pc with copper.

 

Hehe, that was my thinking too, thanks!

And Damn I WISH I could get my hands on a black SR-2...

Yeah, SR-2 is really hard to find these days, I've been trying to get one for ages (for a reasonable price). I am very happy with how the black paint turned out, definitely a much better fit than the weird salmon red color it was before.

[Samsterstorm]

Table of Contents

01. 2013-APR-27: The SMH10 - Unpacking and Assembly

02. 2013-APR-28: Radiators

03. 2013-APR-29: Making a New Workshop

04. 2013-APR-29: My Old Rig

05. 2013-APR-30: The Raystorm CPU Blocks

06. 2013-JUN-16: PSU & Pump Mount, Making the 24 Pin Cable

07. 2013-JUN-21: Small Cable Progress Update

08. 2013-JUN-21: Some Sketches and Information About the Cable Lacing

09. 2013-JUL-06: What 40 Hours of Cabling Will Get You...

10. 2013-JUL-18: Various Smaller Bits

11. 2013-JUL-22: A Copper Face Plate for the Lamptron FC5V2

12. 2013-JUL-25: The Aqua Computer Aqualis Copper Edition

13. 2013-SEP-14: Prototype: The Bitfenix Spectre Pro Copper Edition

14. 2013-SEP-15: Painting the M/B Block Screws

15. 2013-SEP-20: Fan Disassembly: How-To

16. 2013-SEP-22: Quick Status Shot of the Unfinished Rig

17. 2013-SEP-23: The Bitfenix Spectre Pro Copper Edition (cont.)

18. 2013-OCT-01: Colour-Coordinating the Kryographics Titan

19. 2013-OCT-08: Loop Planning

20. 2013-OCT-09: Colour-Coordinating the Raystorms

21. 2013-OCT-13: Deciding on a Backplate, Small M/B Teaser

22. 2013-OCT-13: The EVGA SR-2 Black Edition

23. 2013-OCT-28: Requesting Opinions on Fittings...

24. 2013-OCT-29: Colour-Coordinating the RAM Blocks

25. 2014-FEB-20: Temporary Ghetto Setup

26. 2015-SEP-03: Progress! Motherboard Looped Up!

27. 2015-SEP-06: Assembled

PDF Version of this Build Log

http://alpenwasser.net/repository/files/helios.pdf

Current Status

Prologue

About Me

Hello everyone. Been watching Linus' show(s) for a while, and a few weeks back I finally joined

the forums. I started this log two weeks ago on the OC3D forums, so some of you might be familiar

with it, but I decided to wait until the vBulletin troubles had been resolved to post it here as

well.

No worries though, it's still very much an ongoing project, so this won't be a retroactive build

log (and once I've caught up this version of the log, they will be updated pretty much concurrently).

Anyway, since this is also my introductory post to these forums, I'll blab a little about myself

before getting to the interesting bits .

So, my specs:

• Built my first PC ~ 2001, and got into water cooling pretty much right off the bat with an

  Aquacomputer Cuplex classic.

• Finished high school 2005,
• was in the army from 2005 to 2007 (Lt, infantry)
• and worked in logistics for Swiss Post 2007/2008, and various small accounting jobs on the side.
• Studied mechanical engineering from 2008 to 2012, but I only managed to complete four semesters

  due to (still ongoing) health troubles. Had to drop out last summer.

• Been doing web development and recuperating since September 2012,
• Will be starting an electrical engineering degree in fall 2013, if everything goes according

  to plan.

From my army times until around 2010 I was pretty much out of the loop when it came to hardware

since I just didn't have the time anymore to keep up with current developments (I still had a PC

with W/C, but I just didn't keep up with CPUs, GPUs etc.). I originally found the tech tips

channel around that time and found it pretty practical for getting reacquainted with the current

market situation.

About this Build

Yes, yes, the SR-2 is old news by now, I'm well aware of that. However, it was not yet when I

started this build almost two years ago. My health troubles intervened soon after that (again)

and put a stop to my plans. Since I really did not want to sell the hardware I had already

bought (the SR-2 among it), I decided to stick it out and finish it when my health and funds

allowed for it.

Originally, this was going to be a scratchbuild, but the nice thing about having such a long

delay is that Caselabs have brought out pretty much the perfect case in the meantime. My own

box would have been pretty similar in its layout to the SMH10 and also made from Alu. But

buying all the raw materials and the tools necessary to do it properly would have probably cost

me more than the SMH10, so I just decided to go for that.

The Name

Hysterical Excess Labouring Independently Of Sanity, aka HELIOS.

Because: It's been going on for almost two years. And I am definitely starting to question my

sanity .

Also: I've been naming my PC's after Greek deities since forever. The first PC I built was an

AMD Thunderbird C 1.4 GHz machine back in 2001, which lasted me for a few years, and it was

called Helios (I use the name as the PC's host name within our network, for those wondering

what practical use it has).

It died a fiery death at the hands of a water cooling accident: Using the Eheim 1048 I had been

befallen by the rattling pump wheel. Naturally, I wrapped some tape around the axle which solved

that problem. Unfortunately, the tape became brittle over time and eventually, a piece of tape

broke off and clogged the loop. Killed the flow, cooked the CPU (no overheating protection back

then). I'll see if I can get some pics of the damage to the Cuplex and post them later.

After that, I took that name out of use, until now. It's time for a revival.

Oh, the original HELIOS was name after the A.I. from the original Deus Ex game, but I've always

had an interest in Greek mythology, so it was a nice fit.

The Inspiration

Originally, PrometheusCU. I'm sure many of you are familiar with it, and those who aren't:

Go read it, now! I'll wait a few days.

Sadly, its creator passed on and never finished it (it did go to a friend of his, but no activity

since last summer, at least not in the original thread ). I don't nearly have his set of skills

and/or tools, but that doesn't change the inspiration part.

Also, B Negative's SR-2 rig.

The Main Hardware

As a side note: The computing power of this rig will mostly go to BOINC (I might use it for

gaming from time to time, we shall see). If F@H ever get their stuff together with regards to

GPU folding on Linux (highly unlikely ), I might switch over to folding again, since I'd been

doing that for about 18 months before switching to BOINC due to the GPU problem (and a few other

niggles I have with the project's behavior towards its donors).

The O/S will most likely be Arch Linux (since I've been using that for about two years now and

am quite comfortable with it), or if I feel experimental Gentoo or even FreeBSD. Certainly not

Windows. I need my xterm and Z shell and UNIX utilities.

This is also why I won't get an Aquaero; the Aquasuite is Windows only, and an Aquaero without

Aquasuite is, if possible, rather pointless imho

Anyway:

• M/B: EVGA SR-2
• CPU: 2 x Xeon x5680 (not ES, normal retail version, got them for half price

  on eBay, brand spanking new)

• RAM: 24 GB of Corsair Dominator 1866
• GPU: 1 x Geforce Titan (should do well at computing)
• SSD: Intel 520 120 GB
• HDD: TBD
• PSU: Enermax Platimax 1200 W (don't need that much power, but the

  weaker models aren't fully modular, more reasoning for my decision later on)

• Case: Caselabs SMH10, reverse ATX layout, obviously in black

Originally, I was going to use a Koolance 1.7 kW liquid cooled PSU, but it turned out to be

incompatible with the SR-2. I'm not kidding, the PSU is fine, as was the M/B last time I

powered it on with a different PSU. Somehow, the initial self-check of the SR-2 is not liked

at all by the Koolance PSU, so I've had to get a different one.

W/C Parts

Well, of course it will be under water! . In fact, all my PC's for the last 12 years have had to

get wet.

• CPU blocks: XSPC Raystorm Copper Edition
• GPU block: Probably the Aquacomputer Titan block in copper with the acrylic top.

  Haven't ordered it yet though, so this might still change.

• RAM blocks: Alphacool Dominator water blocks in copper with plexi tops. Yes, cooling

  your RAM with water is absolutely unnecessary. I just like how it looks.

• M/B block: MIPS SR-2 block in Acetal/Copper
• Pumps: 2 x Aquacomputer D5 without Aquabus
• Pump tops: 2 x Alphacool D5 pump tops in Acetal
• Reservoir: Aquacomputer Aqualis Pro
• Radiators: 2 x Hardware Labs SR-1 560 + 1 x Alphacool NexXxoS XT45 Full Copper 480

  (that's the equivalent of ~14.89 120mm single radiators, for those wondering).

• Fans: For the moment, Bitfenix Spectre Pros in 140 mm and 120 mm, respectively.

  Some people seem to be having bearing troubles, if that happens, I will probably go for

  some Noctuas.

• Fan and Pump Controller: Lamptron FC5v2
• Flow Meter and Display: Koolance INS-FM17N with the DCB-FM01 as its display.

  I know flow monitoring isn't really necessary, and the Koolance flow meter doesn't really

  look good. This is mostly about satisfying my curiosity, and there's enough places in the

  SMH10 where I can hide the display and the sensor so that it doesn't uglify the build.

• Fittings: 16/10 mm compression fittings, Alphacool shiny copper and possibly also

  in black

• Tubing: 15 mm OD copper tubing (possibly some normal 16/10 tubing in some parts,

  to be determined). And yes, I have figured out a way to fit 15mm OD tubing into 16/10

  compression fittings and getting it watertight (at least according to first tests, let's

  hope it keeps working).

I'm not yet absolutely sure how the RAM blocks will look, maybe it will just be too much or I

will have to accent them with some black in order to avoid "Copper overload". We'll see.

Pictures

Aka the thing that people actually care about .

I have my own web space and will be uploading the pictures to it. Quite a few reasons for that,

none of them relevant here. There are a few scripts in the background which resize the pics to

any desired resolution. I'll be resizing them to 800px width for now, which should not overload

people's connections while still providing enough detail. If that's too much, let me know, I can

reduce the standard size.

Most pictures are stored in 1920x1440 on my server, so if anyone wants to see some additional

detail, I will hyperlink each image to its own full-res version.

You can also specify any arbitrary desired resolution with the following pattern:

 

http://www.alpenwasser.net/images/w000/h000/imagename.extension

Where w000 and h000 are the desired width and height in pixels (you do need the preceeding "h"

and/or "w" though). It's sufficient to use one of the two. If you use both, the image will be

resized proportionally and the pixel values given will be treated as maxima.

So, for those brave few who have not been deterred by my introductory novella, let's get started

Quick remark: The forum software keeps messing up the capitalization of the thread title. If that

could be fixed at some point that would be super nice, but I'm well aware that such minor things

are to be expected after a software switch, and it's certainly nothing of top priority

 

Amazing amazing build it truly is incredible probably one of the most beautiful builds I have ever seen!!! Keep up the work man its stunning!!