(Completed) Needs More VCore - Custom Watercooled Define R5

[fringie]

This thread was made before the forum update so formatting is broken, V2 will be posted in a new thread.

Computer name: Needs More VCore

Project name: Project I totally overspent

Status: Completed see bottom of this post

 

 

 

Just over a year ago I started building my PC and I've not been happy with it since day one but with this mini-project that will no longer be the case. This project includes a custom watercooling loop (soft tubing), GTX 980, duck tape, a coat hanger, barnacules nerdgasm tier mods & some intense overclocking. The completed PC will be posted in this post with the overclocking results when fully completed the rest of the photos can be found throughout the thread.

 

 

 

 

New computers specifications (when created):

i5 4690k

MSI Gaming 7 Z97

Palit Super Jetstream GTX 980 4gb

EVGA ACX GTX 980 SC 2.0

Samsung Evo 840 500Gb

Corsair RM 550 (with white braided cables)

Fractal Design Define R5

8GB of non matching Corsair Vengeance RAM

2x Corsair SP120 quiet edition

4x Corsair AF140 Quiet Edition

2x Fractal fans

1TB Western Digital Green (7200rpm)

2x dual fan splitters

Lots of step down voltage adapters (used for the fans)

BitFenix Alchemy White LED strip (30cm)

Fan controller taken out of a Fractal Design Define R4

 

Watercooling:

 

Monsoon Premium fittings (black)

XSPC Raystorm CPU waterblock (black)

2x Dual 3mm white LEDs

Alphacool 240x30mm radiator (14 FPI)

Alphacool 280x83mm radiator (14 FPI) (this does not fit in the front of the case without some tweaking)

Primochill white tubing

Alphacool D5 Pump

Alphacool Repack Acrylic 5.25 dual bay reservoir

Anti-corrosive & anti-algae clear fluid

Black Duck tape/electrical tape

A Coat hanger

2x XSPC EC6 1L (clear) 

 

 

Old Computer specifications:

Spoiler

i5 3570k

Asus LX-V Z77

Fractal Design Define R4

Gigabyte Windforce 4GB GTX 770 

Corsair RM 550 (with white braided cables)

Samsung 840 Evo 500GB

SanDisk SSD 128GB

8GB of non matching Corsair Vengeance RAM (matching RAM is too main stream)

2x Corsair SP120 quiet edition

2x Corsair AF140 Quiet Edition

2x Fractal fans

Fan controller taken out of a Fractal Design Define R4

 

 

 

Pictures:

 

 

 

 

New computers specifications (current, changes not in pictures):

i5 4690k

MSI Gaming 7 Z97

Palit Super Jetstream GTX 980 4gb

EVGA ACX GTX 980 SC 2.0

Samsung Evo 840 500Gb

Corsair RM 550 (with white braided cables)

Fractal Design Define R5

16GB White HyperX 1866mhz ram

2x Corsair SP120 quiet edition

4x Corsair AF140 Quiet Edition

2x Fractal fans

1TB Western Digital Green (7200rpm)

2x dual fan splitters

Lots of step down voltage adapters (used for the fans)

BitFenix Alchemy White LED strip (30cm)

Fan controller taken out of a Fractal Design Define R4

 

Watercooling:

 

Monsoon Premium fittings (black)

XSPC Raystorm CPU waterblock (black)

2x Dual 3mm white LEDs

Alphacool 240x30mm radiator (14 FPI)

Alphacool 280x83mm radiator (14 FPI) (this does not fit in the front of the case without some tweaking)

Primochill white tubing

Alphacool D5 Pump

Alphacool Repack Acrylic 5.25 dual bay reservoir

Anti-corrosive & anti-algae clear fluid

Black Duck tape/electrical tape

A Coat hanger

2x XSPC EC6 1L (clear) 

 

Watercooling:

Monsoon Premium fittings (black)

XSPC Raystorm CPU waterblock (black)

Alphacool 240x30mm radiator

Primochill white tubing

Alphacool D5 Pump

Alphacool Repack Acrylic 5.25 dual bay reservoir

Anti-corrosive & anti-algae clear fluid

Completed rig showcase

 

Day to day overclocks (100% stable)

GTX 980 @ 1567mhz & 8224mhz

i5 4690k @ 4.7ghz (47x100)

Corsair Vengeance 1600mhz @ 2000mhz

 

Detailed overclocking post including Hall of Fame 3DMARK result in the spoiler below

Spoiler

placeholdery0

When stress testing my graphics card for a day to day overclock I was very close to top 100 firestrike extreme, with the settings I used for Ultra (i.e. higher CPU oc & closing things like youtube) I can defo score in the top 100. If anyones interested in seeing how high I can get in those leaderboards (I'd be the only i5 + set to single gpu) lemme know. 

 

On 1/24/2015 at 11:51 PM, fringie said:

Update:

 

I kinda got distracted by overclocking so no rig updates (final touches before I take showcase photos) till Monday (I'm busy tomorrow), sorry!

 

My day to day overclocks:

 

CPU - 4.7Ghz @ 1.33v (quick oc, it wouldn't do 4.8Ghz under 1.35v so I just set it at 4.7Ghz and it worked fine; I'm not too fussed if it's running at a higher voltage than it needs to be as it takes too much time). I didn't take a screenshot when I tested it at the very start with 1.35v but it's 100% stable. Unfortunately, my chip is average at best.

RAM - 2000Mhz I just used the clocks I knew from last time

GPU - 1582mhz & 1752mhz (stock memory clock). This is what I spent most of my time on. The core actually can hit 1598mhz (fails at 1600mhz :c) but it won't pass everything so I'm happy for it boosting to it when it can. The memory overclocks quite well, 8.4Ghz at best (I think, if not 8.3Ghz for sure). I'll change this to something like 1550/2000 though, I just don't have anymore time today for it.

 

 

So, I wanted to get the highest i5 score in 3DMark Ultra but unfortunately one guy somehow has a better score than me. I don't know how he has a better score than me though and no matter what I did I couldn't reach his score (this is the guys score is the one I wanted to beat, if somehow can explain to me how +400mhz in memory beats over a 1.5k difference in physics score and like 300+ mhz in core I'd be greatful.. http://www.3dmark.com/fs/3885173).

 

So I placed 55th which is still pretty good and I'm not far off that number one i5 spot; I'm pretty sure if I spend another while on it I can beat it (I'm only like 25 off) but for today I'm out of time.

GPU - 1422mhz (plus the boost clock which fluctuated a lot but was usually around 1550mhz) & 2046Mhz on the core

CPU 4864mhz (it says 4801mhz in the pic but in the direct link it'll say the actual speed) (this took a looooot of volts, 4.8Ghz was stable instantly at 1.5v (not fully stable at 1.45v and nowhere near stable at 1.4v). So lets play a game, guess how much vcore was needed for 4864mhz  . 

RAM 2000mhz

BCLK 101.6 (roughly, I don't remember the exact number and I'm too lazy to do one simple sum via windows calc  ).

Overall I went a little crazy with the vcore for the CPU but I was doing it for a bit of fun and I really wanted to beat that guy.

Link to my result sheet thingy - http://www.3dmark.com/fs/3890139

 

 

And for the luls, somehow I got this score in one of my runs. (link to it - http://www.3dmark.com/fs/3889242)

 

Overall the watercooling coped with this all really well. My GPU never hit more than 45c (but that wasn't stable, below like 41c with stable), the radiators weren't even warm (they weren't quite cold though) and the fluid in the tubing wasn't warm either. That's pretty damn good for pretty high overclocks and it was waaaay cooler than my v1 watercooling loop (both loops fans are running at 5v so like 800 rpm or something like that). The CPU waterblock does get a little warm though, with my crazy CPU voltage it was hitting 85-90c, I'm assuming to sort that out I'd need a better waterblock or something but I'm not going to go for that ofc as 4.7Ghz is perfectly fine.

 

 

I also have another problem ;c. After installing the GPU into my computer when I was about to oc it turns out the displayports don't work. I checked the graphics card with my second monitor which used the dvi-i port as I had to change my main monitors mini cable to the full displayport variant and I'm lazy so I decided to do that when I started oc'ing. So after a decent value of research it seems EVGA are blaming peoples monitors for this issue and are offering RMA's which allegedly doesn't help according to the posts from people. I haven't contacted EVGA yet and I thought their customer service was supposed to be pretty bad-ass (this is my first EVGA product so just from what I've heard) but I'm not feeling hopeful. I'm not really too keen on RMA'ing which doesn't help, I do think it probably is an issue with the GPU and the monitor but I really do think EVGA should fix it if it is. I just have one problem after another  ! 

 

In honour of my excessive vcore when oc'ing for e-peen status I have decided to call my rig 'Needs more v-core'.

 

 

 

The end product (dark).

The end product (light).

I just took this photo to show how the internals looked (this is before I made the gpu cables neat).

This is angled from the top down. As you can see a fair bit of the area isn't covered by the radiator so light bleeds through. I'm thinking of getting some sound dampening foam to cover it up but that'll probably be done in next upgrades batch).

My drain port . Works a treat, I just open the fill port in the reservoir to let air in and I bent the metal grill backwards slightly so that I can put the dust filter on/off with ease.

[fringie]

I cut off the lower piece of the 5.25 inch bay out so the radiator would fit & so I could easily connect the reservoir and 280x83mm radiator. I used a coat hanger to mount the 280x83mm radiator to the case (when I put the radiator in the screws were misaligned and coat hangers are surprisingly robust - the radiator is very secure). Otherwise not much progress as I'm waiting for a few fittings to arrive from overclockers before I tear my current PC apart.

 

 

Patent pending radiator mounting design. Looks a bit messy but it was too awkward to cut shorter and remain easy to remove for later on.

 

Errmerrgerr, the filter shuts .

 

I put some duct tape in to help the direction of the air through the radiator. The tape is less noticeable in person (looks grey on my phone) and it doesn't look bad in my opinion. It's not needed but it'd be inefficient if I didn't do this.

 

The 5.25 inch bay that I cut (badly). I'm not very good at DIY stuff.

[Laputacake]

Subbed? Also, that power supply in sig. What a great deal

[Liam-McShane]

Subbed? Also, that power supply in sig. What a great deal

Sarcasm? Not sure. Either way it's a terrible PSU. It's not 80+ GOLD it's simply just gold coloured.

 

OP, why did you upgrade from a 3570K to 4690K, there's virtually no performance increase?

[Laputacake]

Sarcasm? Not sure. Either way it's a terrible PSU. It's not 80+ GOLD it's simply just gold coloured.

 

OP, why did you upgrade from a 3570K to 4690K, there's virtually no performance increase?

I'm assuming a joke. Hopefully

[fringie]

Sarcasm? Not sure. Either way it's a terrible PSU. It's not 80+ GOLD it's simply just gold coloured.

 

OP, why did you upgrade from a 3570K to 4690K, there's virtually no performance increase?

It was a joke; I wrote 'gg' in really small letters beside it too so it was a bit more obvious.

 

I upgraded because I wanted to be on a newer platform (improved/new features & better looks) not for the performance gain.

[fringie]

Update:

 

Overclockers still haven't dispatched the rest of the watercooling stuff I need so this is just me transplanting my rig over from my R4 (I put tape over the fittings on the top radiator just incase it has fluid in it). Hopefully the parts will come soon so I can actually watercool the GPU+CPU and not have to use the stock intel cooler.

 

Actually building the PC:

It was a complete pain to put the HDD cage where I did; the cables coming out of the PSU were stopping me from screwing the HDD cage in but I just managed to squeeze it in. You wouldn't really think it's an R5 by the lack of space in my build ..

I connected all of the fans to 2x fan controllers which output a minimum of 5v (I have 3 pin fans) so I attached step down voltage adapters to the fans but they make a weird whirring noise at 3v. Since I can't be bothered to re-cable manage I'm just going to leave the adapters in  and set the fan controllers to 7v so the fans will run at 5v - lazy person masterrace,

 

Pics:

 

Flash

No flash

[Robi_g]

I like builds where you can see that all of the case has been used (This is one of them). I can't stand builds with swathes of empty space in them without good reason.

[fringie]

Well, I feel stupid. The Palit GTX 980 I bought is slightly different than the reference design so the EK-WB waterblock I bought doesn't fit with it.

Gonna have to replace it with a more expensive product (like £60-100 which is quite a lot), if I'd known this I would have bought a 295x2 (& a new PSU to handle it) or 2x GTX 970's. I'm not 100% sure which 980 I'll go for but I might go for the EVGA one, removing the Palit cooler horrified me (thermal paste was everywhere and the cooler itself wasn't fun to remove) and I know EVGA are water cooling friendly so yh.

 

I also forgot that 90 degree/45 degree fittings require a normal fitting to go with it so I'm around 4 regular fittings short and I have an excess of like 4 45/90 degree fittings because I overbought thinking it'd be a good idea just in case I didn't buy enough (I only bought 1 extra normal fitting..); fail . 

 

On the plus side though the monsoon fittings fit on the EK-WB block and they look damn sexy.

 

Also, anyone know how to remove fittings ? I tried to remove one of the fittings from my 240x30mm radiator and dear god I couldn't make it move for the life of me (at least I'm pretty certain I'll never get a leak ).

[Laputacake]

Next time use EK Configurator. Also there is a water block for Palits 980 http://www.coolingconfigurator.com/step1_complist?gpu_gpus=1553

[Buildmeasystem]

if you are talking about removing the monsoon fittings, if you bought a 6 pack there's a wrench in the kit. 

I think you can order the wrench as a stand-alone product too. 

 

Also, making the fittings so tight is not a good thing. The rubber o-rings can collapse and/or warp which can cause leaks. 

Just slightly over hand tight is all you need. 

[fringie]

 

Next time use EK Configurator. Also there is a water block for Palits 980 http://www.coolingconfigurator.com/step1_complist?gpu_gpus=1553

Oooh, ty. I'll use it now actually .

 

Since EVGA is the only confirmed one to fit with the block I bought I'll go EVGA I think.

 

 

if you are talking about removing the monsoon fittings, if you bought a 6 pack there's a wrench in the kit. 

I think you can order the wrench as a stand-alone product too. 

 

Also, making the fittings so tight is not a good thing. The rubber o-rings can collapse and/or warp which can cause leaks. 

Just slightly over hand tight is all you need. 

You hand tighten the fitting that goes into the radiator (etc.) and use the tool to screw the second part of the fitting into the first part. The tool doesn't un-screw the first part of the fitting, only the second part. I'll note that for next time .

[Laputacake]

Oooh, ty. I'll use it now actually .

 

Since EVGA is the only confirmed one to fit with the block I bought I'll go EVGA I think.

And you dont void warranties with EVGA

[Buildmeasystem]

 

 

Oooh, ty. I'll use it now actually .

 

Since EVGA is the only confirmed one to fit with the block I bought I'll go EVGA I think.

 

 

You hand tighten the fitting that goes into the radiator (etc.) and use the tool to screw the second part of the fitting into the first part. The tool doesn't un-screw the first part of the fitting, only the second part. I'll note that for next time .

 

 

 

The tool works for both the barb, and the collar. 

 

the round end us used as a screw driver in the notches on the top of  the barb. the end with 2 prongs that are bend 90 degrees is used for the collar. 

[fringie]

The tool works for both the barb, and the collar. 

 

the round end us used as a screw driver in the notches on the top of  the barb. the end with 2 prongs that are bend 90 degrees is used for the collar. 

Oooh, I never knew the circle bit was useful . Tyvm.

 

P.S. 

 

Update: Getting a new 980 replacement sorted out. I'm gonna get the EVGA SC 980 so the next update will be when that arrives. 

[fringie]

Not quite finished (which you can probably tell by the unplugged cables) but this is close to what it'll look like when finished.

 

 

To do:

Stick the LED in place

Fill the loop and bleed the air from the loop

cable manage

Plug in the gpu & 24 pin cables

Overclock the hell out of the system (I'm hoping for 1550/8000 mhz from the evga sc 2.0 acx gtx 980 and 4.8ghz from the i5 4690k, I know the RAM will oc to 2000mhz),

 

I will post pics when it's fully completed and the oc results when I've done it (will post an update on friday/saturday).

[fringie]

can i have the old define r4?

 

overall, that is a very nice rig

Sorry man using it for my mums build. Thank you .

 

Time to continue working on the build , 

[fringie]

Update:

 

I kinda got distracted by overclocking so no rig updates (final touches before I take showcase photos) till Monday (I'm busy tomorrow), sorry!

 

My day to day overclocks:

 

CPU - 4.7Ghz @ 1.33v (quick oc, it wouldn't do 4.8Ghz under 1.35v so I just set it at 4.7Ghz and it worked fine; I'm not too fussed if it's running at a higher voltage than it needs to be as it takes too much time). I didn't take a screenshot when I tested it at the very start with 1.35v but it's 100% stable. Unfortunately, my chip is average at best.

RAM - 2000Mhz I just used the clocks I knew from last time

GPU - 1582mhz & 1752mhz (stock memory clock). This is what I spent most of my time on. The core actually can hit 1598mhz (fails at 1600mhz :c) but it won't pass everything so I'm happy for it boosting to it when it can. The memory overclocks quite well, 8.4Ghz at best (I think, if not 8.3Ghz for sure). I'll change this to something like 1550/2000 though, I just don't have anymore time today for it.

 

 

So, I wanted to get the highest i5 score in 3DMark Ultra but unfortunately one guy somehow has a better score than me. I don't know how he has a better score than me though and no matter what I did I couldn't reach his score (this is the guys score is the one I wanted to beat, if somehow can explain to me how +400mhz in memory beats over a 1.5k difference in physics score and like 300+ mhz in core I'd be greatful.. http://www.3dmark.com/fs/3885173).

 

So I placed 55th which is still pretty good and I'm not far off that number one i5 spot; I'm pretty sure if I spend another while on it I can beat it (I'm only like 25 off) but for today I'm out of time.

GPU - 1422mhz (plus the boost clock which fluctuated a lot but was usually around 1550mhz) & 2046Mhz on the core

CPU 4864mhz (it says 4801mhz in the pic but in the direct link it'll say the actual speed) (this took a looooot of volts, 4.8Ghz was stable instantly at 1.5v (not fully stable at 1.45v and nowhere near stable at 1.4v). So lets play a game, guess how much vcore was needed for 4864mhz . 

RAM 2000mhz

BCLK 101.6 (roughly, I don't remember the exact number and I'm too lazy to do one simple sum via windows calc ).

Overall I went a little crazy with the vcore for the CPU but I was doing it for a bit of fun and I really wanted to beat that guy.

Link to my result sheet thingy - http://www.3dmark.com/fs/3890139

 

 

And for the luls, somehow I got this score in one of my runs. (link to it - http://www.3dmark.com/fs/3889242)

 

Overall the watercooling coped with this all really well. My GPU never hit more than 45c (but that wasn't stable, below like 41c with stable), the radiators weren't even warm (they weren't quite cold though) and the fluid in the tubing wasn't warm either. That's pretty damn good for pretty high overclocks and it was waaaay cooler than my v1 watercooling loop (both loops fans are running at 5v so like 800 rpm or something like that). The CPU waterblock does get a little warm though, with my crazy CPU voltage it was hitting 85-90c, I'm assuming to sort that out I'd need a better waterblock or something but I'm not going to go for that ofc as 4.7Ghz is perfectly fine.

 

 

I also have another problem ;c. After installing the GPU into my computer when I was about to oc it turns out the displayports don't work. I checked the graphics card with my second monitor which used the dvi-i port as I had to change my main monitors mini cable to the full displayport variant and I'm lazy so I decided to do that when I started oc'ing. So after a decent value of research it seems EVGA are blaming peoples monitors for this issue and are offering RMA's which allegedly doesn't help according to the posts from people. I haven't contacted EVGA yet and I thought their customer service was supposed to be pretty bad-ass (this is my first EVGA product so just from what I've heard) but I'm not feeling hopeful. I'm not really too keen on RMA'ing which doesn't help, I do think it probably is an issue with the GPU and the monitor but I really do think EVGA should fix it if it is. I just have one problem after another ! 

 

In honour of my excessive vcore when oc'ing for e-peen status I have decided to call my rig 'Needs more v-core'.

[fringie]

Completed, check the OP.

 

+ I had a picture of the EVGA GTX 980 on my phone. I figured I had to share it (so pretty) !

 

[Laputacake]

Completed, check the OP.

 

+ I had a picture of the EVGA GTX 980 on my phone. I figured I had to share it (so pretty) !

What do you have? Mine can take better pictures and its from 2011 and cost £70 on ebay

[fringie]

What do you have? Mine can take better pictures and its from 2011 and cost £70 on ebay

I was using an iPhone 5 to take the pictures for the end photos & my Blackberry bold 9790 for the ones I just posted in the thread. I'm pretty terrible at taking photos .

[Laputacake]

I was using an iPhone 5 to take the pictures for the end photos & my Blackberry bold 9790 for the ones I just posted in the thread. I'm pretty terrible at taking photos .

Ah, Blackberrys. Get more lighting to improve quality.