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[Bouncewasp]

So after more years than I'd like to admit, I decided to build myself a PC at the start of lockdown. I kind of went entry level to start with to see if I got back into it and i must say the bug has definitely bitten! After a humble beginning in a cheap MATX case I've already upgraded the mobo and AIO with plans for a new CPU once Ryzen 5000 are on the shelves and I'm waiting out like many to see how big navi compares with a 3080.

 

System specs currently are:

Thermaltake Commander C35

ROG Strix X570-E mobo

Ryzen 2600 (OC@4.0GHz)

Castle 360 V2 AIO

32GB Corsrair Vengeance RGB Pro 3200mhz

RX570 Strix OC 8GB

EVGA 650w

Reaper cable extensions

 

Slight mod on the case as I replaced the front 2x200mm Themaltake fans with 3x120mm so I could control speed. I had the fans going spare after 3 came with my AIO so swapped them out. I was initially worried I'd lose colling performance as the 200mm fans were beasts but only ran at 100% via a proprietary TT hub connector thing. So far I'm more than happy with the 120mm fans as intake, GPU sits 77C max in gaming even on the vertical GPU mount.

 

Also I noted that the case doesn't technically support a 360rad up top, but looks to have been pressed with the holes to suit. After a bit of investigation the front panel circuit board and plastic moulding are like 5mm too think to allow a rad to mounted against the top of the case. I figured I'd try mounting the fans above in a pull config and it fits perfectly. Cooling works a treat and the little 2600 sits at 35deg whilst gaming. The only downside is the RGB on the fans is a bit wasted, but I actually prefer the clean look of the edge of the rad vs the ribbed plastic of the fans. I also had to do away with the usual exhaust fan as it won't fit (even tried a 15mm slim fan) but I've not needed it so far as the three on top seem to be managing fine.

 

Image taken with glass panel off to avoid reflection.

 

I'll hopefully keep this up to date as I carry on my upgrades/mods in the coming months. Plans are for a 5900x and some third party 3080 or 6900xt depending on what gets launched by AMD at the end of Nov vs availability of the 3080s!

Appreciate any comments or thoughts. Got a few more internal case mod ideas but just need to find the time. 

 

 

[Bouncewasp]

So on reflection, the image quality of my picture above isn't that great thanks to a rubbish phone camera so apologies for using the same one again to mark up my initial thinking! By way of an update I've just pulled the trigger on a load of parts for a custom loop - something I've kinda been wanting for a while now. Early birthday present to me

 

*EDIT - a few items were not actually available so after sleeping on it I had a bit of a change of heart and cancelled the original order. I've decided to order a few bits piecemeal to check fitment etc. first. The plan remains largely the same, but I've opted for a 240mm flat res only to mount in the blank space, and will likely tie this to a standalone pump, or even a round pump/res combo unit as these can be had for quite a bit less than the pump plus head on it's own. Also I may actually do a stealth pump install and hide it under the PSU shroud but will decide once I've got the rad mocked up into place.

 

Current parts ordered:

• FLT240mm flat res

I've ordered all EKWB parts as follows:

• 360mm classic slim rad
• classic D-RGB water block (cheapest AM4 block)
• FLT360mm res/pump combo
• 10/14mm hardpipe
• classic fittings in black
• cryofuel clear

Ideally I wanted one of the more expensive velocity CPU blocks and perhaps some slightly nicer fittings but managed wanted to try and keep within my £400 budget (I went £1 over including delivery). The plan is to get into a custom loop and then potentially watercool a GPU down the line, upgrade the CPU block (perhaps even to a VRM/CPU block which they make for my mobo) and add another rad at the front.

 

I plan on sticking with the 360mm rad at the top, and have gone for a flat panel res/pump combo to fill the large blank panel to the right of the mobo. I think this will fill the front end of the case nicely, and I much prefer the look of the flat distribution panel style res to the cylindrical ones. I've never done a custom loop before so jumping in with the hard tube will be no picnic I'm sure! I did order a deburr/chamfer tool and also a silicone insert for bending. Already have a heatgun and pipe cutters etc. in the toolbox.

 

The bit I'm most nervous about is getting the pipe from the rev to the CPU right, I've also not included a drain at this point as I want to test fit the res and see what the best option looks like once it's in there.

 

Appreciate any thoughts/tips/suggestions!

[Bouncewasp]

So I received my FLT res and once I'd test fitted went ahead and ordered the smallest 120mm EK pump/res combo and mounting bracket. Both now fitted and fill the space at the front of the case perfectly

 

Again, apologies for the potato camera image, can't seem to get my DSLR to talk to my PC via the cable and don't have a card reader handy!

 

 

Current parts sourced:

• FLT240mm flat res
• EK Quantum 120mm DDC pump/res combo
• EK 360mm rad (slim)

I've been deliberating over monoblock vs CPU waterblock, but I think I'm just going to opt for the EK velocity DRGB in plexi, and then some 10/12mm acrylic tubing and black EK Torque fittings. Happy with progress so far, love it when a plan comes together!

 

[Bouncewasp]

Quick update on progress, most bits ordered and on route, also managed to grab myself a 5900x on release yesterday so all being well I should be able to drop that in, install my cpu waterblock and complete my custom loop at the same time

 

Small progress update, I've rotated the pump 90deg towards the side of the case (as you look at it) so the inlet/outlet ports are facing you (rather than facing up as I had it in the image before). While it looked quite neat with a short run from the reservoir to the pump I think it was going to be a pain to install and also leave that area too congested. Opted for some 90deg fittings to send the pipe run to the cpu out to the left as you look at it, and also allowed me to do a single 90deg bend for the res feed.

 

Image below - my very first hard line bend and I must say I'm pretty happy with it!

[wall03]

nice build

[Bouncewasp]

Weekend update...

 

As I mentioned previously, it was annoying me that I had to mount my fans above the rad (in pull config) when I fitted my AIO. To be fair the case is only advertised as being able to take up to a 240/280 up top, however I figured I could make a 360 work, and with a bit of modification - you can!

 

The odd thing I realised early on in owning this case was that the top rad mounting slots and single holes at each end are spaced perfectly at 3x120mm fan mounting pattern. I guess either they've done that in case you just want to run 3 fans as exhaust up top without a rad, or that part of the case chassis is also utilised on another case that has a different front I/O layout/design.

 

You can see the issue in the images below, basically there is a case wide PCB for the front I/O, mounted to a small plastic module that then screws into the case itself. The clash for a 360mm rad (as these are obviously slightly longer than just 3x120mm fans) was being caused by three things:

• Upper rear case rivets (3-5mm each where they protrude into the back of the case);
• Front I/O plastic module mount;
• Front panel USB3.0 headers.

So I removed 2 of the rivets from the rear of the case as shown below, these do not affect the integrity of the case as there seems to be a fair bit of redundancy in the folding of the metal and number of rivets. This allowed me to push the rad right back up against the rear of the case. Secondly I then took my Dremel to the web/flange on the plastic module for the front I/O, I took maybe 2-3mm off. Lastly, I actually removed the USB3.0 headers and will make a blanking plate. Maybe a bit extreme, but I don't honestly use them and I have spare ports at the rear - I'd rather fit a 360mm rad the way I want than have front USB ports anyway?

 

The result, a perfect fit! It's almost like the case was originally designed for this setup and then they came along and shoehorned in the front I/O as an afterthought?

 

So, my AIO is in there for now, my EK 360 slim rad turned up and is about 1mm shorter than the AIO rad, so I'm pretty happy that's another job sorted in prep for my custom loop which I'm now hoping I will have all the bits for by next Friday  

 

Rear rivet delete x 2 (turns out I didn't actually need to remove the one on the right, doh!)

Front I/O PCB, note the 90deg USB headers which were causing a clash

Dremel cut on the left of the plastic module

Dremel cut edge

Clearance...

System as it stands, now with 3 RGB fans to light things up a bit more!

[DoctorNick]

Looking good! Subbed for more!

[Bouncewasp]

1 hour ago, DoctorNick said:

Looking good! Subbed for more!

Thanks dude! Hopefully my couple of orders will arrive this week and I'll have a good update on Friday

[Bouncewasp]

Interim update, some fairly major changes driven by my 5900x order developments over the past few days...

 

I thought I'd snagged a 5900x on release but did have quite a lot of issues at the basket stage and it took like 10mins for me to actually manage to check out. Turns out the vendor here in the UK was of course struggling to meet demand (as everyone was) and it turns out a lot of people who thought they'd managed to get one, actually ended up in a pre-order queue as it would appear a lot of overlap was happening in the basket/checkout phase. I maybe naively assumed that if I managed to add one to my basket, that would be it secured whilst I checked out, apparently not, but to be fair I don't blame the vendor at all, must be difficult to manage live stock, even via a web order system, when literally 1000's of the same produce are being sold in a matter of minutes (or seconds, even?).

 

For me, I also admit I got wrapped up in the hype, as per my OP in this thread, I'm only just ~6months back into building and gaming on PC's and I thought I'd entered at a really exiting time where I could build something entry level and then upgrade when the news stuff got released later in the year. To be honest I only really game on my PC, so why I was aiming at a 5900x and rx6900xt was basically me getting caught up in things a bit, but I must say I've been a bit disappointed by the RTX3000 and now Ryzen 5000 releases and it's left me reviewing what I actually want from my system.

 

I actually enjoy building/upgrading/modding as much as I do gaming on the PC, so on review I've decided to write off the RX6800/6900 release and bet that it goes the same way as the RTX3000/R5000 releases as well as cancel my 5900x order. I don't actually NEED any of these products the day they come out, I'm only running a 1080p monitor currently, and what I've actually always wanted since getting back into PC building is a full custom loop.

 

To that end, I've decided to stick with my Ryzen 2600 (now OC to 4.2GHz stable at 1.4V on my AIO setup) and go high end last gen for my GPU and pick up an RX5700XT. Now given my aim here is to add the GPU to a custom loop, options seem limited for waterblocks for the RX5700XT, likely as they're on their way out and also they were never as popular as the Nvidea counterparts, so it felt like second hand reference blower off ebay or a Strix cards were the main options. I have a Strix 570 atm and really like it, so went for the strix version of the 5700XT and an EK block and backplate to match with everything else.

 

I know, I know, the Red Devil is a better card and slightly cheaper and the Strix card has had a bad rep with driver and cooler issues, but it seems like the driver/bios issues are now resolved, and the cooler issue won't matter as I'm fitting a waterblock, but from what I understand it was only ever a couple of screws that needed to be shorter/have washers added anyway. I would have gone straight for a Liquid Devil, but they seem to be like Hens teeth, so there you have it, full EK loop with a 5700XT it is!

[Bouncewasp]

Update photos, fairly good progress yesterday...

 

I test ran my 5700xt Strix as it was out of the box to make sure drivers etc installed ok, gave it a go in a couple of games and ran a Heaven benchmark, all seems fine so went ahead and stripped it back to fit the waterblock. Also got the CPU block fitted and a couple of hard lines in too.

 

Overall I'm pretty happy, I tried to be a bit too clever with the line going from the CPU to the rad and ended up with a bit of a sweeping bend, it's also not sitting quite right so I've since taken it back out to tweak. I actually dont mind the sweeping bend as it should tie in with what will be a short S bend from the GPU to CPU next to it, but it definitely needs a tweak regardless sonim going to try that first before I go for a remake.

 

Other that that I just need to make up the last two hoses and tidy up my cable management then can get some deionised water and run a flush through first before adding my cryo fuel.

 

Pleased with how it's looking though

[Bouncewasp]

Quick update, I redid the rad to cpu line to get a nice 90deg rather than the curve I showed previously. I also managed to make a fairly neat s-bend for the tight space between the back of the gpu and cpu inlet - had to unscrew and wiggle the gpu forwards to get it in! One more section to make tomorrow after a total disaster on my first attempt and a wasted 500mm section (trying to be too clever again!). Hats all my acrylic tube used up so I'll have to switch to PETG for the last run.

[Bouncewasp]

And here it is! Pretty happy with how it turned out, got to spend some time running tests and checking temps and fan curves etc. Really also need to get some better quality photos than off my phone camera, ha!

 

Will update when I've got a bit more time later this week.

 

 

[Bouncewasp]

The photos above obviously show the solid white coolant in the system, however before that I did run the system for about 4 hours with deionized water in, everything was fine so went ahead and filled the loop.

 

Done a fair bit of benchmarking using Heaven 4.0 last night, tried a few different configs including running pump and rad fans at 100%, then playing with pump speed so I can't hear it (20-40%) and latterly the rad fan curves. The rad fans are still a bit on the loud side, however I realized quite late in the day that I needed to run this off a chassis fan header (and not the CPU header) so I could select my coolant temp sensor as the source input for the fan curve which is the same as for the pump header, so both run in tandem. Got a bit of fettling to do with this curve now I have a better understanding of the operating temps under load.

 

Temps looking like this:

• CPU (not really done any CPU specific benchmarking yet), but it sits at 32deg C idle and somewhere around 40deg C when under a bit of general load. 
• GPU sits at 32deg C idle and tops out at 55deg C when benchmarking.
• Coolant temp sits around 28-30deg C idle and maxes out at 38deg C when benchmarking the GPU.
• CPU 2600 OC to 4.2GHz
• GPU 5700XT Strix OC to 2150GHz

I wasn't sure what to expect temps wise, but I'm fairly happy with these values - they're far from high or dangerous. My main concern was making sure the coolant didn't hit high temps as I've read horror stories about tubing deforming in the fittings etc. DeltaT on coolant temp is about 8-10deg C (ide vs load). Not actually sure what ambient room temp is as I don't have a way of measuring it and it fluctuates a lot in our house!

 

I think improvements could be made by using better rad fans (currently deepcool 120mm which run at 1500rpm max) or of course adding another rad, but I think space is limited unless I can squeeze one inside the front panel of the case itself.