DodgyChris's Gaming Rig

[DodgyChris]

Hey guys, So I am upgrading! Just sold my faithful Rampage 3 Extreme and 980X, gonna miss that stuff with the sexy EK waterblocks, but looking forward to my 4770K and my Sabertooth Z87 Arriving Monday.

 

Components!

 

Case and Cooling

 

• 800D Chassis, completely stock, but in need of some dremel work, because the tubing holes are so close together they don't line up with my RX120 rad.
• RX120 and RX360 Rads
• D5 and XSPC Res 
• Clear Tubing, unsure on which, either XSPC or Primochill
• Mayhems Pastel Ice White coolant, now I have an annoying problem, I need about 1.1 litres, and I aint paying for 2 litres of coolant because that stuff is a rip off! so what do ya think guys, top it up with some distilled water?
• Corsair SP fans, 4 120 Static Pressure and a 140 Air 

Hardware

 

• i7 4770K
• Asus Sabertooth Z87
• 16GB Corsair Vengeance
• EVGA GTX 680
• Corsair AX860 PSU

Plans So Far

 

So hopefully I will dremel a nice rectangle out around the water cooling holes in the 800D midplate, touch up with some paint, and then maybe some rubber seals. So there is the kinking problem I have been having out of the window. I am thinking white, I just want something smart, but neutral, I have tried red and blue and it just does't do it for me, the fluid stains and fades over time, and colored tubing isn't an option because I personally think it looks cheap. I need to get my CPU block ordered and all the other stuff, soon as paypal lifts the hold on the payment from my old board and cpu! But i'll put up some images of the build as it is now.

 

 

 

 

[DodgyChris]

Whilst I remember, I just wanted to show you guys one of my all time favourite expansion cards.. or accessories. This my friends is an NZXT IUO1, it is a USB expansion that is directly powered by a molex, it has 2 external USB and 3 internal headers. Some boards  only have one USB header, which is a pain. 

 

Now I use this for a few things firstly my Antec Veris which uses an external USB, secondly my case USB, and then a Wireless USB adapter, if I ever need it and my Xbox Wireless Receiver for my controller. It is a great piece of kit and I highly recommend it!

 

 

[jclappers]

Thats got very similar specs to what i want to upgrade too, let me know how she runs

[DodgyChris]

Another update guys, My motherboard, processor, tubing and rear 140mm turned up, postage is all over the place as not everywhere has everything I need in stock, so I have to use various sources. I have installed the cpu into the sabertooth, which looks lovely by the way, the picture quality isn't half bad on the iphone 5, I suppose its got to be useful for something ;). 

 

I have put in the various dust protectors and will not be using the assistant fans for the chipset/mosfet/vrm and so on, as this is going be a silence optimized build (hopefully) and little fans tend to be noisy beggars just like the one on the rampage 3 and 4. The corsair fan looks awesome, and from the build I did for my friend a few days ago, they perform great, very quiet even at max speed, but they shift plenty of air too (the 2nd picture is of my friends rig, in the awesome 350D with  a gryphon, 4670k upgrade from the previous AMD setup).

 

Hopefully monday night my stuff will have arrived, and I will start the build, I have some simple case mods to do to the 800D, the first mod will be a fillport/drainport at the top for my xspx d5 res, and another tubing hole in the midplate, maybe two, definitely one to the right of the second hole as the spacing is too close for my 120 rad. 

 

I just want to say big thumbs up to www.watercoolinguk.co.uk who shame most of the other companies in the uk when it comes to postage, Placed my order early in the morning at around 9ish and it was there the next day, no messing around, no lazy friday despatch, check them out!

[DodgyChris]

Thats got very similar specs to what i want to upgrade too, let me know how she runs

Just to let you know mate, with my rads and a gpu in the loop the 4770k at stock (turbo up to 3.9) is idling around 28-33 and gaming upto around 52.

[DodgyChris]

So guys, I am terrible at the whole build log, but people like pictures right? so I went ahead spent the whole night building my system. Now I am very happy with how it turned out, accept for one thing! The white coolant picked up some red dye from one of my rads, even tho I flushed them out a few times, so its gone a bit pink, gona refill on the weekend tho :D any questions just ask! 

[unitus77]

Looking real nice. 

[DodgyChris]

Looking real nice. 

Thanks mate :) 

[delet my acc pls]

Damn that looks good :)

[TicTac]

Looks nice good job man!

[Glaith]

Sexy rig man well done

[DodgyChris]

Damn that looks good :)

Thanks :) 

[DodgyChris]

Looks nice good job man!

Cheers :) 

[DodgyChris]

Sexy rig man well done

Thanks :) 

[DodgyChris]

So I got an NZXT L.e.d strip, and well...the pci bracket doesn't fit, the pcb is too far down the bracket so it is blocked by the pci slots, so I am resorting to velcro, I have removed the pcb and attached velcro to the back. Just thought I would mention it in case anyone else has this problem, I will post pics of the completed mounting later.

[o0odellero0o]

your case look dirty :blink:

[Deaven]

What tubing dimensions are you using?

[DodgyChris]

your case look dirty :blink:

Dont worry man, gave it a wipe now, the camera picked it up so bad when i was taking pics :) the 800d is a bitch for dust regardless of filters lol.

[DodgyChris]

What tubing dimensions are you using?

Hey mate, 1/2id 3/4od  :)

[AxelPeeters]

Wow that looks awesome :O sorry for asking but is it difficult to build a custom watercooled rig for the first time ? (I'm pretty expierenced with air cooling and pre-filled solutions like the H60)

[DodgyChris]

Wow that looks awesome :o sorry for asking but is it difficult to build a custom watercooled rig for the first time ? (I'm pretty expierenced with air cooling and pre-filled solutions like the H60)

Thanks buddy, and hey no problem, no, you just have to take your time, make sure your tubing is good quality and attached to your barbs/compressions properly, also it can help to leak test things outside of the system first, to be honest, the chance of leaks are low as long as you look after the hardware and buy good stuff such as EK and XSPC.

[AxelPeeters]

Thanks buddy, and hey no problem, no, you just have to take your time, make sure your tubing is good quality and attached to your barbs/compressions properly, also it can help to leak test things outside of the system first, to be honest, the chance of leaks are low as long as you look after the hardware and buy good stuff such as EK and XSPC.

 

Thanks for the answer. I might buy an custom waterloop with frozencpu and ek stuff

[DodgyChris]

Another update guys, so... I went down to Overclockers to buy some stuff, new coolant, a long dvi cable, a nice bit fenix fan controller and I thought since my rig was pretty much up to date I would upgrade my intel ssd to a newer model, all good and ready to refill my loop...and then the pump decided to die. My D5 has given up.