Not 100% sure on the name yet - maybe going with "Thanos"

[Kalm_Traveler]

Well, parts are just about all here except for the CPU (theoretically arriving in 2 days).

 

So far all I've done is install the fans on the two HWLabs radiators, the ssd in the first M.2 slot under the chipset heatsink cover, and the RAM. 

 

Kinda want to put everything in the case and get the loop figured out but as we all know you're supposed to test all the main components out of the case first in case something is DOA...

 

Also I'm not 100% sure what to call it yet, but have some blue UV XSPC additive concentrate and lots of UV LED lighting to mount inside aimed at the components so the first thing that came to mind for blue/purple was Thanos.

[Slottr]

Nice fans (the noctuas)

[Kalm_Traveler]

12 minutes ago, Slottr said:

Nice fans (the noctuas)

thanks! i wish they would release the "x25" version of a 140mm but for now they'll just have to be mismatched like that. I figured the 2000rpm PWM iPPC model was fine for the front 420 radiator for now.

[Kalm_Traveler]

Minor hiccup - 

 

I had planned on a 420mm radiator in the front and a 240mm on the bottom so both would pull in cold air, but the Corsair HX1200 PSU I have for this (left over from previous builds - plus with OC'ing the 9900ks and cranking this Kingpin 2080 Ti I might actually pass 850w use at full tilt) is so long that there's just no way to fit a 240 down there.

 

Given that I don't want to skimp on cooling, I opted to pick up a 280mm and will put it on the top which doesn't look ideal but that's the best compromise I felt possible. The bottom will have 3x Noctua NF-A12x25's as intake to hopefully offset any temp increase from the top radiator technically pulling up pre-heated air from the front radiator.

 

Side note there - Cooler Master has puzzled/disappointed me a bit with what's included in the box of a $400+ case. The case itself it gorgeous and well constructed but what's odd is that they include 4 really terrible 140mm fans (probably the same ones they include on their cheapest of cases), and while they bundle a different back panel plate in case you want to rotate the motherboard tray for a different orientation, they do NOT include one of the radiator/fan mounting brackets needed to have fans/radiators on all 3 possible locations  - only 2 - so out of the box you can have fans/rads on only 2 of 3 top/front/bottom. This means that to 'finish' the build I need to buy a ~$8 cooling bracket from them to be able to install those bottom fans.

 

Not a huge annoyance but given the cost I would rather have no included garbage fans, and include that bracket.

[NotSoEpicMods]

Gonna follow this, interested in where this build will go. I'm a huge fan of the Cosmos series of cases but I totally agree with you about the included hardware. It makes more sense if they just didn't include any fans and just gave you all the case specific brackets you need. I think my Cosmos S originally came with crappy 200mm  and 120mm fans so CM has been doing that sort of thing forever.

[Kalm_Traveler]

Somehow Corsair sent me the necessary RGB controller literally a day after Christmas (I ordered it two days ago!) so the Commander Pro is in use, pump and fans are lit up. 

 

Also I managed to get the case lighting to work correctly as well as fix the front panel toggle switches. Luckily the problem was just that the main cable connecting the front panel to the built in controller device was just loose in the front panel. I may glue it in place so it doesn't come out again. 

 

Now I need to order some custom PSU cables since these included cables are mostly much too long, then final cable management can happen. Also need to install some UV LED strips to show off the UV fluid, and Cooler Master needs to get their parts site working again so I can order that cooling bracket for bottom intake fans. 

 

Also, although the EK Supremacy VGA block is keeping the gpu itself nice and cool, the memory chips are getting a bit toasty under benchmark load (seen them hitting 83c) even with little copper heatsinks so I'm debating picking up a Bykski full cover block. Don't really "need" the OLED screen but it would be nice to keep it. 

[Kalm_Traveler]

so funny story...

 

December 5, 2019: pre-ordered a 9900ks from Amazon, with "guaranteed delivery by December 20th 8pm"

December 21, 2019: email received and order status changed with unknown ETA, "we need a little more time to give you a delivery date"

December 27, 2019: email received with 'new estimated delivery date: February 3, 2020"

 

No thanks Amazon... they accepted more pre-orders early this morning according to nowinstock.net yet can't even fulfil existing pre-orders on time from 3 weeks ago. Needless to say, I am cancelling the $582 + tax pre-order from them and have reordered for a cheaper price from a shop in California that shows a handful of these actually in stock ready to ship. 

 

*crossing fingers* since this build is still 3 things away from being completable, 9900ks (swapping out this 9700k), bottom 'cooling bracket' for bottom intake fans - from Cooler Master whenever they turn their USA store back on, and of course custom proper-length PSU cables probably from CableMod since there's a coupon included with Asus motherboards and they are decent quality.

 

 

[NotSoEpicMods]

Looking good so far too bad about amazon they've been screwing me over as well. Anyways that top rad does look quite awkward any reason a 420 rad won't go up there? Also not sure why I didn't notice it before but why no full cover block? You seem quite concerned about your cooling so was just wondering the reason.

[Kalm_Traveler]

1 hour ago, NotSoEpicMods said:

Looking good so far too bad about amazon they've been screwing me over as well. Anyways that top rad does look quite awkward any reason a 420 rad won't go up there? Also not sure why I didn't notice it before but why no full cover block? You seem quite concerned about your cooling so was just wondering the reason.

I have a 420 on the front, and just measuring I don't think I'd be able to reach the fittings with another one on top (front has to have the ports at the top, top radiator would need them up front as well as far as I can tell - also why I put this 280mm oriented that way). 

I might try to make it work anyway but for now this seems to be working well enough.

 

I do want a full cover block, but EVGA only sold them for a couple months earlier this year, and doesn't seem to have any intention of another run. Reading on overclock.net 's forums it seems they had problems leaking which might have contributed to the short run, but in any case I can't buy one now. Bykski recently released a full cover block for the Kingpin card though, so I'm probably going to give it a try since the memory chips are getting a bit toasty for comfort without anything directly cooling them.

[NotSoEpicMods]

Ah ok didn't know EVGA had issues with their blocks. I know fitting clearances can be a pain with rads, just finished checking clearances in my own build after lots of measuring and re measuring. Is there no room behind the rad or mobo tray to run a tube to the back so the top rad can have the fittings at the rear of the case?

[Kalm_Traveler]

3 hours ago, NotSoEpicMods said:

Ah ok didn't know EVGA had issues with their blocks. I know fitting clearances can be a pain with rads, just finished checking clearances in my own build after lots of measuring and re measuring. Is there no room behind the rad or mobo tray to run a tube to the back so the top rad can have the fittings at the rear of the case?

yeah I was sad to find that out about the Hydro Copper block for this Kingpin card

 

flipping a 420mm around for fittings on the back side... if I moved the rear exhaust fan down as far as it can go... I think the problem was that the tank sticks out too far so the bracket can't fit into the case. That was the same reason I had to flip it around on the front - if you attach it with the ports on the bottom, that side sticks down too far so the bracket can't be installed because the tank hits part of the frame.

 

Now that you've got me thinking about it I may double check and just see. There is room behind the motherboard tray to run soft tubing and I would really like to have the additional 140mm of both cooling and top fan for aesthetics!

I'll take a look tomorrow morning and if it seems doable I'll let you know as well as order another 420mm HWLabs radiator for up top. Already have the Corsair fan since my original plan had been to do 3 of the fans up top, with a 240mm radiator as bottom intake.

[Kalm_Traveler]

Slight change of plan today - I had meant to do some research about swapping the top 280mm radiator for another 420mm, but the 9900ks showed up so I swapped the existing 9700k out, and found a disturbing surprise; the CPU block was not making contact with the CPU really at all. Thermal paste had squished to about a 1 cm circle but was obviously not spreading like it should.

 

Long story short, I found that with these Heat Killer IV blocks on lga1151 you want to mount them sideways, with the text vertical and outlet port below the inlet port for what Water Cool calls "normal" orientation, so that the block doesn't hit anything and will mount flush.

 

After rotating it thusly without cleanins off the IHS or block and just remounting for a quick test - max load temps dropped significantly from mid 90's C to 63 C max, though light use temp is still high-ish to me around 33-36 C. I'm sure if i clean everything off and remount it while laying the pc on its side so the MB is horizontal would lower these even more but I have a direct-die kit so I'll just wait until I have time to delid the 9900ks and do the direct die install along with a Heat Killer backplate for better mounting pressure.

[NotSoEpicMods]

3 hours ago, Kalm_Traveler1 said:

Slight change of plan today - I had meant to do some research about swapping the top 280mm radiator for another 420mm, but the 9900ks showed up so I swapped the existing 9700k out, and found a disturbing surprise; the CPU block was not making contact with the CPU really at all. Thermal paste had squished to about a 1 cm circle but was obviously not spreading like it should.

 

Long story short, I found that with these Heat Killer IV blocks on lga1151 you want to mount them sideways, with the text vertical and outlet port below the inlet port for what Water Cool calls "normal" orientation, so that the block doesn't hit anything and will mount flush.

 

After rotating it thusly without cleanins off the IHS or block and just remounting for a quick test - max load temps dropped significantly from mid 90's C to 63 C max, though light use temp is still high-ish to me around 33-36 C. I'm sure if i clean everything off and remount it while laying the pc on its side so the MB is horizontal would lower these even more but I have a direct-die kit so I'll just wait until I have time to delid the 9900ks and do the direct die install along with a Heat Killer backplate for better mounting pressure.

Nice are those temps at stock settings? The 9900ks must have some nice thermals compared to the k or at least compared to the temps on my 9900k.

[Kalm_Traveler]

56 minutes ago, NotSoEpicMods said:

Nice are those temps at stock settings? The 9900ks must have some nice thermals compared to the k or at least compared to the temps on my 9900k.

Stock but Asus MCE is enabled (by default). 

 

What temps do you see with your 9900k? My 7960x is idling around 25 c stock with MCE enabled, granted that is delidded + LM and has its own 560mm radiator... 

 

Room ambient is between 19 - 20 c according to an ambient sensor I have checking air temp below the PC

[NotSoEpicMods]

18 minutes ago, Kalm_Traveler1 said:

Stock but Asus MCE is enabled (by default). 

 

What temps do you see with your 9900k? My 7960x is idling around 25 c stock with MCE enabled, granted that is delidded + LM and has its own 560mm radiator... 

 

Room ambient is between 19 - 20 c according to an ambient sensor I have checking air temp below the PC

Ah ok well my ambient is about 5-6c warmer and 9900k would be at about 55C at 25% load though it's clocked at 5.1ghz. So would make sense it's quite a bit warmer compared to your setup. Don't recall what it was at idle before I tore my system apart for the case mod. Bright side though with the tear apart I know my thermal paste application was good.

[Kalm_Traveler]

Quite a bit done this weekend - remounted the pump/res so it wasn't pressing up against the graphics card PCI-E cables, and redid the drain to run from a T on the outlet rather than as one of the inlets.

 

Next, installed the Heatkiller back plate for the CPU block, delidded the 9900ks, and have it direct die mounted now.

 

Finally, managed to get a second 420mm radiator installed - swapping the top 280 but surprisingly I had to mount with the ports up front. This meant unfortunately that they are too close to the front radiator, so I had to get creative and ended up making a funny little circular loop for the run from the top radiator to the front one. 

 

While I was at it, also decided to remove the top metal plate over the top air filter panel because its cutouts are not very good for airflow, especially on the front-most fan area, and if you remove the metal plate there is just a fine mesh filter on top of an actually-good-for-airflow plastic honeycomb pattern on the panel. Probably going to either glue the mesh to the plastic, or maybe just some velcro or similar adhesive.

 

Remaining steps off the top of my head:

• get additional cooling bracket (fan/radiator bracket) for the bottom fans - waiting for Cooler Master's online store to be up. It's been down for at least a month
• reinstall bottom PSU/fan shroud
• buy and install Bykski Kingpin 2080 Ti water block
• measure for and order Cablemod custom power cables - this is pretty important since the stock PCI-E cables are way too long, and the MB/CPU cables are really stiff near the ends
• once that's all done.... overclock this bad boy

 

Strange to me though, light use CPU temp is exactly the same as pre-delidding and direct die. in 22 C ambient, CPU (on the Asus MB OLED display) reports 34-35 C. Under Cinebench back to back runs it is much cooler though, boosting to 5ghz all core and settling in at 55 C.

[NotSoEpicMods]

I think the temp thing you're experiencing is because the closer you get to ambient temp with your cooling system the harder it is to cool a degree lower on the cpu. The lower full load temps are good though. Kinda wish you had a closer/better view of your tubing runs on the front there might be a way to do it neater but I gotta say the 3 fans on top vs 2 previously looks a million times better.

[Kalm_Traveler]

9 hours ago, NotSoEpicMods said:

I think the temp thing you're experiencing is because the closer you get to ambient temp with your cooling system the harder it is to cool a degree lower on the cpu. The lower full load temps are good though. Kinda wish you had a closer/better view of your tubing runs on the front there might be a way to do it neater but I gotta say the 3 fans on top vs 2 previously looks a million times better.

Thanks - may be indeed. My 7960x (16c/32t) idles around 25-26c in the same room so I was expecting this to be at least that cool given half the cores but who knows. Load temps are more the concern anyhow but it is a head scratcher for me.

 

I'll get a better tubing run today, and totally agree with you the 3 fans up top (which is again sort of what I initially envisioned, just not on a radiator) does look a TON better! I think you'll see what I mean about not enough room to do a nice short direct run between the two rads though. As it is, loop order is:

pump -> graphics card -> CPU -> top radiator -> front radiator -> pump

I wish there was a way to do that top rad to front rad connection without the circular loop run but I tried several combinations of fittings and the ports are just too close together.

 

Top radiator was a bit janky to install; had to flip the bracket around and rather than installing the rad to the bracket, then put the assembly into the case... had to hold the rad with fans installed squished in from the inside while installing the mounting screws through the bracket from the top. It fits, but just barely, and I'll be happy with the custom PSU cables because these stock Corsair CPU 8 pin cables have some capacitors right up at the CPU end of their cables, which makes routing them between the radiator and MB female connectors quite a PITA.

 

[Kalm_Traveler]

@NotSoEpicMods here's a different angle for the runs - you can see the doofy circular loop I ended up having to do to connect both radiators.

 

Got the UV LED strip installed tonight, and ordered a Bykski water block for this thing on Aliexpress so it'll be a few weeks. Tomorrow I'll measure the power cables needed and put in the Cablemod order. I think given what will be visible I'll just do MB, 2x 8 pin CPU, and the 3x 8 pin PCI-E for the graphics card. There are 3 or 4 cables behind the MB tray but since they can't be seen and are not causing cable management grief no real point in upgrading them to sleeved.

 

Still waiting for Cooler Master to turn their store back on so I can order the $8 fan/rad bracket that they really ought to just include in the case instead of the 4 throwaway fans...

[Kalm_Traveler]

reinstalled the cable management shroud in the back section, and part of the PSU shroud in the front section. I can't get the top part of the shroud in without pulling the front radiator out a bit so just going to wait for the bottom fan bracket to arrive since the PSU etc will need to come out at that time anyway.

 

On that note, Cooler Master's store is back up today so I ordered the cooling bracket (price jumped up from $8 to $10) and with $14 shipping. Thanks CM, the $400 case wasn't expensive enough!

 

Also got the Cablemod cable order in so hopefully it doesn't take any longer than the Aliexpress order for the graphics card water block so I can get this thing completely buttoned up by end of the month!

 

still a little concerned about the idle CPU temps being identical to stock, I may try to remount one more time but also might have to ditch the Heatkiller block and try one that is more flat for direct die. I had good results with the 9900k build in 2018 with an EK Supremacy Evo so might go back to EK, or try Aqua Cool's CPU block.

[NotSoEpicMods]

Was thinking if you could run a 90 compression from the top with a spacer then run it straight into the front rad. Still kinda hard to see the spacing but it looks like it might work with a really short tube run. Also what about lapping the block? You're direct die already anyways.

[Kalm_Traveler]

1 hour ago, NotSoEpicMods said:

Was thinking if you could run a 90 compression from the top with a spacer then run it straight into the front rad. Still kinda hard to see the spacing but it looks like it might work with a really short tube run. Also what about lapping the block? You're direct die already anyways.

There's about enough space just for 2 fittings to be there - not enough to put 2 fittings on a tube then tighten them down, or put one on tight, then the other. Might be able to do it if the radiator is unscrewed, leaned forwards a bit, then put back into place... 

 

You might be on to something with lapping the block. I have no experience doing that though so it would be new territory  

[Kalm_Traveler]

Finally got the custom power cables installed, Bykski water block on the Kingpin 2080 Ti installed, and managed to get the PSU shroud top cover in without bending it.

 

This is pretty much done, though if Optimus PC follows through with an alleged plan to produce a water block for this Kingpin card I'll probably swap to that since the cooling quality of this Bykski block is a bit dubious. Everything is as good or better temp than my janky setup before with the EK VGA Supremacy gpu block, copper memory heatsinks and stock VRM cooling, but for some reason Nvidia OC Scanner clocked it only to 2085mhz, down from 2150mhz on the janky setup.

 

Overall I am absolutely loving this machine. The only thing I might try to tweak in the future is try to remove the doofy circle in the loop at the front to connect both radiators.