My watercooling build for RYZEN

KeepItCool · March 13, 2017

Getting my parts this thursday. Its very sad that supplier in my region failed to predict the demand in x370 motherboard and its extremely limited here and not to mention asus crosshair vi hero its not even here yet. I have just ordered the most expensive motherboard msi xpower titanium. Its a great looking board but the price tag is just too heavy for me but i had no choice. There is much stock for asrock motherboard since that particular supplier predict the demand and brought many asrock board which in fact literally any people who build ryzen build in my region is using a asrock board now. There is hardly any other motherboard laying around. Other brand like msi and gigabyte only brought 5 freaking x370 motherboard for the 1st batch for the whole freaking country. Asus am4 motherboard havent even touch the ground yet until next week. I would never buy asrock board since i dont trust their brand, their bios and software support is terrible and i dont even like how they look.

KeepItCool · March 15, 2017

FINALLY !!!! ITS TAKING SHAPE.

alexcheetah · March 16, 2017

10 hours ago, KeepItCool said:

FINALLY !!!! ITS TAKING SHAPE.

THAT MOTHERBOARD IS SO SEXY

KeepItCool · March 24, 2017

The build is complete but im now making the finishing touches and want to post the build log one shot. Until then sorry for not updating and for now i will post these shots.

godsarmy · March 25, 2017

Very nice man! Thats looking sweet

KeepItCool · March 25, 2017

1 hour ago, godsarmy said:

Very nice man! Thats looking sweet

Sadly I have the further delay my post. My power supply just short circuit. I have to dry it in the sun and it's working now but it's still not safe. I have to RMA the PSU and get a new wan on monday. Getting the ax1200i. This is why I like Corsair PSU is so realible. I know for sure they my PSU short circuit probably due to water droplets may have dropped into the psu. Due to ax1500i use different plug compare to other psu. I cant orientate it facing down. The ax1200i use regular plug and I should be able to mount facing down. I was lucky non of the components are effected. Im happy and this is why Corsair back their PSU with 10 year warranty.

KeepItCool · March 25, 2017

Btw one of pump fail. Emm vpp755 pump. Alphacool said is better then d5. Just marketing I guess. It was very quiet pump but it didn't even last 3 days. Unfortunately I have to replace on of the pump with one of my 4 year old d5 ekwb pump. Man these thing are realible and was as great as I bought it on day 1. I'm not going to bash alphacool but will give them a chance to RMA me a new unit and see how it goes. For me I don't really care about performance metrics if some thing is not realible then basically it's rubbish. Probably I assume I got a bad unit but will like to review back this pump before I give my last opinion.

KeepItCool · April 22, 2017

Okay it took some time to update it here since i was busy and i planned to post the logs one shot after i finished the build completely. But still there is issues and upgrade still on progress so i just decided to update this site since i try get push as much info today of the build.

There are some reason why i choose be quiet dark base 900 pro case. FIrst would be having the option to invert the mobo layout since i have never worked with such layout before and really want a chance to work on such layout. Second reason will be i seriously wanted a smaller case that can fit high end wtc without much compromise. The trend nowdays is actually smaller and unique cases with high end parts with or without wtc.

I have previously worked with case labs cases sth10. Eventhough the be quiet dark base 900 pro is a full tower atx case but is still doesnt have a very large footprint and in reality the size its very close to other high end medium atx case.

So after i decided on the case, I proceed to order and after receiving it i made some glory shots which is posted on the previous section. As you can see it obviously didnt look like a piece of cake to build wtc inside this case since just by adding a high end psu it already ate so much space. FIrst i noted the dimension of the case from the be quiet website for this case and was planning the rad that i would go for this case. At first i taught 2x 360 rad will be sufficient but i really wanted to max out the radiator size on this case.

As you can see at first glance i taught 2x 420 rad would be a good fit for the case. My choice was the black ice nemesis gts xflow 420. I proceed to checkout in performance pc at the same time ordered some orange dye, mayhem blitz cleaning kit and some bitspower valve. It was at the moment when i received the rad and trying to fit into the case i knew i screw up.

Eventhough i already accounted the measurements of the rad make sure it fit the case. I totally forget to consider that if i fit 1 of them and there is no space to fit another rad since 1st rad at top 466mm + 2 rad at front thickness 29.6mm = 495.6 mm. So in fact i need at least about 500mm of clearance.

So i made a 2nd round of order from performance pc this time around i ordered 2x 420gts. Eventhough i calculated i need about total 484 mm but internally i measured and made sure both rad fit perfectly. And after received i tried testing the rad mounting together with the fans and found out the top rad have problem with the alignment whereby after adjustments i was still able to only mount maximum of 3 screws for each fans. Eventhough it was sufficient but i want u guys to take note. Since mounting only one 420 rad is no issue since you can align the holes perfectly with the radiator grill but i already have a 420 rad in the front which take up some of the space and was unable to comfortably align the top rad with the case radiator grill.

As you can see both the radiator fits just fine but the only possible configuration with this radiator was to have the inlet facing down for the front rad and inlet facing left for the radiator.

It was impossible for the top rad inlet facing right since the pcie bracket or cage was blocking the inlet. Thus facing to the left means the front rad had no choice to have the inlet located below since facing top the fittings will clash when assembled.

KeepItCool · April 22, 2017

Okay now rad has been settled i would like to talk about the reservoir. I went for the singularity computers reservoir since i have been following their channel. I love their build and wt better way is there then buying their product to support them. Eventhough now many are aware of singularity computers products but upon having the product in my hands now. I would vogue that every penny was worth it. This are just some raw shots i took at night in my room.

This is the full res after assembly with their d5 top and cover. There is total of 7 inlet in this res. 4 located at the top and 3 located on the front, right and back. The top part can be adjusted to face any direction and once you tighten down the ring it will just stay in place. This is a unique feature and what i really like about this res since experience builders do face problem when traditional rad once secure the existing holes does not alight properly Instead they will use multiple rotary the get the alignment they want. It hard for me to explain but wtc builders may understand wt i exactly mean. This res saves the trouble by making it face the direction you want so u can make a cleaner looking loop.

Plus with the ethereal mount you can basically just mount you res to the radiator. They also have ethereal single for single res mounting solution and ethereal core for single res mounting with a more robust look. U can check out their website . I still dont see other manufacturer offer this type of mounting solution. The mounting solution that currently manufacturer like ekwb provide is not standard. U need to mod the case or having a case that is compatible with the mounting solution. You will end up buying other mounting kit to mount the res into your desired case. Its not to say the current solution are bad but there isnt much choices and in terms of quality is also not on par since they are not cheap too. I even made a mistake since im using 140mm. Im suppose to order the 140mm ethereal mount. I end up purchasing the 120mm mount. I did talked to the sg representitive and they were willing to replace it with the 140mm mount if i send back the 120mm mount. So its good to take note that that offer was available but instead i went with just mounting the screws on just one side and i can tell you the mount is pretty strong even with the entire res filled. I had no issues since the ethereal is made very solid. Obviously i wouldnt recommend using 120mm ethereal mount for 140mm rad but incase you made a mistake u dont have to cry.

KeepItCool · April 22, 2017

I will continue tomorrow. Im trying to be as informative as possible. Building a custom wtc system is a challange but trust me there are times we make dumb mistakes. That is a difference between a experience and a novice builder. But the fun part is always trying to learn from this mistake and make sure it never happens again. Not to mention you can always advice your friends make sure they wont make that mistake.

KeepItCool · April 23, 2017

Okay next would be the pump. I went for the vpp755 alphacool pump because i was excited about the new pump since its advertised to be as good as a d5 with smaller footprint and is more quiet then the original d5. After proper testing i now have in my hands 2 vpp755 that have failed. This is so disappointing since the boosted its so called better then d5 in terms of noise to performance. But no point having a product that screams performance when its not even reliable. I not going to purchase any alphacool brands pumps in the future. Not only is hard to reach their customer support they dont even have a native english tech support on their site. The pump just after few days start having problem with random on and off or completely doesnt turn on. When i dismantle and checked. One pump is completely dead and another pump is having random on and off issue.

So i would skip the whole alphacool vpp755 pics since its no point posting unreliable pump. Really a waste of money indeed. Even if one of the pump was running i would just think its a production issue or a faulty unit but both having issues means they just suck.

Im having 2 pump fitted with my trusted buddy laing d5 from ekwb.I had this pump for more then 3 years. Its a non pwm pump with manual speed adjustments located at the bottom of the pump range from speed 1 to 5. Im just having one the pump running and with speed 3 and my loop temp is still excellent. Having 2 pump at this point is really overkill. But i really want a dual res set up with dual loop. But as the build progress i find it having dual loop set up will make the build look so cramped up and as i was assembling my build i find they overcloking ryzen does produce a lot of heat and 1080ti wtc dont release as much heat as the cpu. So having a single loop where the entire components share 2 rad was better.

As you can see have one single loop give me more space to do more bends. Overall i can make the build look more stunning. This is still not the final version of the loop. I still havent finalize the loop. As days and weeks pass buy i was still tweaking and upgrading so bear with me.

KeepItCool · April 23, 2017

Fittings i went with barrow since its just like bitspower fittings for half the price. You can ask @Poohy14 about the barrow fittings. They are great fittings sometimes better then bitspower since they have more orings and they also provide spare o rings for compression fittings for all hard tubing. I went with 16mm od and 12mm id aryclic tubing from barrow. It is also cheaper compare to other brand. Obviously petg is cheaper and easier to bend but i went with the aryclic due to its transparency. I will be using orange mayhem dye to go along with the orange accent of the be quiet case and not to mention i like orange. Its a good break from my typical black and red build which is so common nowdays.

I didnt use any gold rotatory its just for display. But if you guys are interested in gold finish is also available. The have 3 colour option which are black, silver and gold. All of the fittings come with individually packed with zip lock. So you can reusing the packaging to store screw and etc they are very handy.

The 16mm tubes are also individually packed no matter the quantity.

KeepItCool · April 23, 2017

Next is custom cables. Honestly i would never recommend anywhone try making custom cables. The reason is that if you have no experience and just started making custom cables its really not worth the time and money. At first it may seem cheap buying custom wiring, sleeve, pins. However you will end up spending more since you need to purchase the tools to make ur life easier and not to mention you will need to buy more then u need considering there is a very high chance to screw it up.

I would say making custom cables for you personal build all the way to sleeve the front panel cables, fans and etc is for those who are very particular about their build down to small details. SInce you want to make sure everything is perfect. But for regular person you can just start with making custom cables for your fans and try to sleeve your io panel cables to make you build look clean.

First process of custom cables is measuring the length of cables you need.

Usually i will just use the wire to measure. Lets say the 24 pin cable will start from the mobo and will need to pass through the rubber grommet all the way down back the psu. So i will use the wire to make the same path and then will just cut them when i fell the length is enough. So i will just follow the same length and cut accordingly to make 24 pieces of wire for the 24 pin. I used mdpc-x sleeve and heatshrink which i ordered from singularity computer bulk kit. I did use cablemod cable configurator to make the design and i just send the pic to the person i was talking to online on singularity computer website. His name was febb. After that u dont have to worry about the length. According to ur design they will just divide how long you need for the individual color.

So for the gpu and cpu cables. Usually the standard size is 22 awg. Most cable sleeved custom cable extension are made from the 22awg wire. 18 awg wire are more thicker. Picture above shows side by side comparison of 18 awg and 22 awg wire. Usually for modern pc 22 awg wire is already good enough. Using 18 awg does not boost power nor giving extra performance for your pc. 18 awg wire is just more tough u can draw a lot of power since the will be able to withstand heat better so they wont melt. Since 18 awg wire are more thicker they are able to stay in shape better then 18awg wire and that a plus for cable management since you can just shape the cables according to ur liking and it way just stay put without needing a lot of cable combs.

Process of custom sleeving as follows

First u will need to trim the wire. I use the wire trimmer that i bought from sg.

You can use a sharp pliers instead and there is no difference, This wire trimmer is just a lazy man tool.

You will need to trim the wire usually about 2 mm or 3mm. I usually trim about 3mm since it will go all the way to the 2nd crimp just right before the hook of the pin as shown below.

This is a molex pin but same thing applies for other pins. U want to make sure the insulation stops at the first end of the pin and the wire stops at the second end of the pin.

Then you just have to use a crimper to crimp the pins to the wire. I used the mdpc-x crimper bought from sg site. There is 2 crimping location on the crimper. Its is also labelled.

Before you crimp the wire you would want to use a flat pliers to squeeze the first pins to make sure it holds the wire in place so it doesnt move when you going to crimp the wire

You well then want to make sure the second end of the pins align with the end of the crimp.

After pressing the crimp all the way through. U should get a perfect crimp like this.The first end of the pins will crimp the insulation and the second end of the pins will crimp the wire.

Sample for standard pins

Next need to measure the sleeve needed for that wire. You will need to measure the sleeve by putting them alongside the wire and stretch them gently together. After that cut and insert the sleeve. U want to make sure the sleeve is located at the end of the first pin and same thing goes for the other end of the pins.

Then just insert your heatshrink. Make sure the heatshrink is all the way to the end second pin.

Heat up the heatshrink

You can use heatgun or lighter to heat up the heatshrink but to do the heatshrinkless method u will need a lighter or to make my life easier i use this.

You would want to burn the heatshrink just right at the second pin location.

You will end up with something like this.

Then just cut and pill it off.

You will end up with this

U will have no issue plugging it into the connector and since you cant see the heatshrink the cables will look clean.

KeepItCool · April 24, 2017

Next would be sleeving all the front io panel. The only cable i didnt sleeve was the usb 3.0 since is pretty thick and i dont have a heatshrink that can stretch as wide as the usb 3.0 mobo port. I just sleeve the were just until it reach inside the front io panel cover and use heatshrink. I did use super glue on the sleeve to glue it to the cable so the sleve dont move. The heatshrink is just to make it look clean. Just heatshrink is not enough since the sleeve will just come off the moment u pull or stretch the cables.

So it looks much better now.

KeepItCool · April 24, 2017

There was an issue half way through doing the cables i found it the sleeve was not enough. I did contact singularity computers there were willing to send me more sleeve but just the amount of time wasted just to get the sleeves through shipping and not to mention the shipping cost for express shipment. I just contacted by local modder. He literally supplies custom extension through my country and make custom cables for customer if needed. Is amazing he is just one person. Sadly he didnt have the glossy orange i needed and the only sleeve he had was the matt orange.

The top cables from my modder friend and bottom are the mdpc-x sleeve. Since customers here dont prefer glossy finish. He didnt restock when the glossy cables are out of stock.

The mdpc-x sleeve was only enough for the 24 pin cpu and the gpu.

So i have no choice to mix. I planning soon on my next order on singularity computers i will add the sleeve so for now i just try to manage with it.

KeepItCool · April 24, 2017

The cpu and gpu cables was not easy as i taught at first. Since remapping based on my old sleeve supplied by my modder friend. I found for the corsair psu there are times where 1 wire will be split into 2. That was a problem for me since i dont have any tools to soldier the wire. So i contacted my modder friend. He told me he soldier the wire just to make sure its unbreakable since you wont know wt the hell will the customer do just to make sure the wire is strong but for personal build he said joining both wire and having couple of heatshrink on the is pretty strong enough.

So here is how i did it. First i used the flat plier to twist the wires. Since this are 18awg wire i had no issue the wire itself is pretty thick but it shouldnt be even a problem for the 22 awg wires.

Next i heatshrink the top part followed by the bottom.

I did stretch the heatshrink so its easier to use couple of heatshrink on top of each other.

And i end up with some like this.

KeepItCool · April 24, 2017

So i also sleeved the fans. Some of the fans i had to cut the wire to specific length and sleeve them. I used the mdpc-x pin remover to squeeze the pin and remove them.

I just cut them to make sure i know which pins goes into which connector

DIfference between the new sleeved connector with the old stock sleeving by be quiet. I would say the stock sleeve is that bad compare to other fan manufacturer sleeve.

Be quiet has a fan controller at the back. The be quiet included rgb strip is also connected to this thing.

Also sleeved the pump but just for show since its not in my build now. Rubbish pump.

SonoDanshi · April 25, 2017

Fair play to you for sleeving your front I/O. I never bothered on my build and now I feel like I need to open everything up and sleeve them

KeepItCool · April 25, 2017

15 minutes ago, SonoDanshi said:

Fair play to you for sleeving your front I/O. I never bothered on my build and now I feel like I need to open everything up and sleeve them

I think it's fine bro ur build is awesome at it is. Probably u can sleeve those when you are really free.

SonoDanshi · April 25, 2017

1 minute ago, KeepItCool said:

I think it's fine bro ur build is awesome at it is. Probably u can sleeve those when you are really free.

It's a good excuse anyway as the Qi charger stopped working so I need to check the connections on it all so I can use that again.

KeepItCool · April 25, 2017

3 hours ago, SonoDanshi said:

It's a good excuse anyway as the Qi charger stopped working so I need to check the connections on it all so I can use that again.

I see. Using my s7 edge I found it extremely useful too. I mean I just put my phone there and just game nearly everyday without worry If i forget to charge the next day.

KeepItCool · April 26, 2017

Quick update custom res underway. Excited to share. Still have a lot of build updates done previously need to be posted here.

I'm be quiet fan so have mercy.

KeepItCool · April 29, 2017

Some updates

KeepItCool · May 2, 2017

Mod the bottom part to fit 2x140mm fans. Take me hours to cut and sand. Just had a small saw and sandpaper.

KeepItCool · May 15, 2017

Im done still waiting for a vinyl sticker for the sli bridge to support my favorite computer shop. So far the rig is complete.

I tried my best but managing 12 fan cables with custom extension. The hard part was the gpu and mobo cables. It used 16awg wires which is very thick and incredible difficult to get it organized since i gave all the cables extra length since its was my first time to sleeve and make own custom cables. The sata cables was also troublesome due to one sata cables is longer then the other.