Custom Water Cooled Desk - 56k warning. Lotsa Pictures! *Now with Table of Contents*

[Ymac]

The Corsair AXi series use 1:1 wiring? When I emailed Corsair they said the complete opposite! 

No, they are not 1:1.

but not the same as the old (Gold) AX series.

[PBaines]

They are practically 1:1, very close to it. So was sooo easy to do the wiring job

[extra lube]

where the updates bby? 

[PBaines]

waiting for some fittings to fix a problem I will outlay in the next update :)

[MG2R]

waiting for some fittings to fix a problem I will outlay in the next update :)

Dude, you don't understand! I NEED more pictures! AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH

[Justjuice12]

Awesome! Very detailed and lots of pictures! The lamb was pretty random though, haha.

Nice work. :)

 

Just a quick question though, how much did this cost you?

[PBaines]

Awesome! Very detailed and lots of pictures! The lamb was pretty random though, haha.

Nice work. :)

 

Just a quick question though, how much did this cost you?

 

How much did it cost? i have't finished the build yet so not sure ;)

[Kuzma]

THIS IS SO EPIC!

[Blood4guts]

Just went through the entire thread, very nice handiwork! I hope you have some nice lighting so you can see it all.

[Str_Mape]

Another Kiwi here, holy crap this thing is insane.

[Calavera]

THIS IS SO EPIC!

 

That profile picture made me think it was something dirty at first, guess I have a filthy mind ;)

[jclappers]

Also another Kiwi, this is the best example of the Kiwi DIY i have come across, you sir are the god of Custom Built PC's. just amazing.

[Kuzma]

That profile picture made me think it was something dirty at first, guess I have a filthy mind ;)

xD I know that was going in your mind, I guess we both do ;)

[Theknight42]

awesome cant wait to see it done. gave me some ideas for a cool desk computer too

[s0nrise]

Awesome, just freakin awesome.

Waiting for an update :D

[jclappers]

Just an idea, but to tidy up the cables you could use Cable lacing, it was on the build log of the week and looks pretty awesome :)

[CarDesinr]

I feel your pain

5km away from Brisbane CBD Australia

 

http://www.speedtest.net/result/2805763064.png

 

Read it and weep....

[PBaines]

Just an idea, but to tidy up the cables you could use Cable lacing, it was on the build log of the week and looks pretty awesome :)

 

The way that I will be doing the cabling I do not think that I will need to do lacing :)

If I did though, I would use clear nylon. Not black, as to me black lacing looks terrible.

[jclappers]

The way that I will be doing the cabling I do not think that I will need to do lacing :)

If I did though, I would use clear nylon. Not black, as to me black lacing looks terrible.

i think it depends what colour the cables you're lacing are, but yes i understand where you're coming from

[farchord]

This is amazing.... Keep up the good work, this is gonna be a masterpiece!

[Hiimstring3]

Truely epic build really loving it man :D Can't wait to see it when it is finished!

[Wint3rSh0ck]

Stumbled across this, read it all and I'm now dissapointed to reach the end. I have to tell you this probably the single best build I've checked out in my life, I'd have a tough time choosing between this and a Steiger Dynamics PC. Top notch works mate, it's hard to believe school taught you all these skills! Looking forward to the next update.

[jclappers]

 I'd have a tough time choosing between this and a Steiger Dynamics PC

Whats tough about it, his desk all the way :P

[wg87]

Very nice work I can't wait for the next update!  :D 

[PBaines]

First things first, thank you very much Mayhems for sponsoring me 2L of Mayhems Pastel Orange Coolant  :)

(will add picture of logo shortly after I get it from Mick)

 

It has been a bit too long without an update, here is a small one while the I get onto making a PCB for the GPU cables. 

 

After getting a hold of the last bit of crystal link It was time to start filling it up! Just for testing to see how the fittings are and that I have no leaks. The top of the reservoir has a T fitting, on the top right of the T I have a Tap that I used

 

 

 

As untreated wood absorbs water I laid handy towels under every fitting joint otherwise if I do not see a leak in time there will be a different shade and an outline of the drop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Think this is a 1L Koolance filling bottle, super simple. Fill, screw, squeeze!

 

 

After filling it all, giving it a few rounds I noticed a leak. Now, as soon as I saw it I knew what was wrong with it. As you can see quite a large air bubble at the end, you know that there is not a complete seal around the O-Ring, which means that the O-Ring would be quite damaged. If it were a leak that had partial damage to the O-Ring, there would be no air bubble, and just a little drop forming every now and then. Still, either way the fitting was binned!

 

 

Time to drain it, to replace the fitting. Draining... something I had not thought about before filling. Only way I thought of doing it was this way, which did create a bit of a spill but that is what the handy towels are for!

 

 

I fixed the fitting and found that the flow rate of the loop was terrible. I mean, literally dismal. I thought that if I took out that manifold, and ran the pumps in serial it would fix it. (though still intaking from their own reservoir)

But I thought wrong, as the left pump intaked water it would flow water into the right pump, but also would flow water into the right reservoir too. That being said, the flow rate of the loop was better, but still very poor. The option that was always there, but I would rather not have done it for aesthetical reasoning, have the left pump intaking from both the left and right res and running the pumps in serial. 

 

 

Though again, not thinking about draining whatso ever, I had to be delicate and lift the reservoirs up, take the pumps off, and then put a stop fitting on the end of the reservoirs until my new fittings came to eliminate the problem

 

 

 

 

So I got my fitting, the configuration is a T fitting on the left, and an L fitting on the right. I think from this close up you can easily see what is going on 

I just put the loop together quickly to see how the flow rate is. And it is much better, perfect pretty much! 

 

 

 

 

Time to move onto a different aspect of the build, the storage. I changed the SSD's to: x1 256GB Samsung 840 Pro for the OS and then x2 Samsung 250GB SSD's in RAID 0 for my Steam, Origin and other gaming stuff. All of my media is on a file server that I just stream through Plex over the network 

Anywho, I decided that I would actually put the SSD's up by the PSU. This made cabling a lot easier, and also would make it a lot tider. However it does leave a bit of space for where I was going to put them originally, though I will probably put something there in due time

 

 

To power the 3 drives I had to run the SATA Power cable under the PSU. I folded the cable over and crushed it with some pliers to make it sit flat

 

 

Time to make the new SATA Power cable, I measured where the bottom connector would go.

 

 

Sat the drive on top and pushed the wires into the grooves

 

 

Third one on, with this one I have to cut the wires off the top, and has to be very flush to the top of the connector otherwise the close-over cap will not fit on. 

 

 

Excellent!

 

Test fit

 

 

Though the red cables do not mix in well with the build, I will be sleeving them black so no need to worry  :)

 

 

I didn't really like the way the GPU went to the Pump, so I changed it. It gives it less of a bunched up in the corner look, and also makes the gpu's both look a bit more symetrical on each end too

 

 

 

The permanent filling solution. squeeze water into this, and blow on the tube to get the water in (because the reservoirs are horizontal you can only fill them to a certain point. Where when you blow water in and close the valve it lets you fill it properly)

 

I also had the GPU SLI Link too short, so when I put the SLI Bridge on the fitting leaked, after fixing that time to leak test again!

 

After an hour and a bit of leak testing I was happy that there were no leaks (To me, if it hasn't leaked in an hour. It won't leak at all) so I decided I may as well do some quick benchmarks and see how the rig goes!

 

 

 

Here are the results including Heaven, 3DMark and also the Temps (Note, only using 4 fans in pull on the first rad, have not hooked up cooling on the back rad at the moment)

 

 

17577 3D Mark

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/6840143

 

 

That is it for this update, there isn't much left to do! Just wiring really and then will be filling everything with Mayhems Pastel Orange  :)