Siberia - My Rig

[nj4ck]

Hey guys, 

 

so since I have this log linked in my signature, I figured I might as well keep it up to date... so out goes the old post, here's the update: Some rather drastic changes have been made to my watercooling setup since I originally posted this build log, the PC hardware has remained the same:

 

i5 4670k @ 4.4GHz

8GB DDR3 1600MHz ADATA XPG RAM

ASRock Z87M-Extreme4

XFX R9 290 @ 1100/1400

SanDisk Ultra Plus 128 GB SSD

Seagate Barracuda 1TB

Corsair CS650M 

Fractal Arc Mini R2

 

The current watercooling components are:

 

EK LTX Copper+Acetal CPU block

EK FC R9 290X Copper+Acetal GPU block

XSPC Fittings

PrimoChill UV blue tubing

1x XSPC 120mm radiator (EX120)

1x Coolgate 240mm rad (CG240HD)

1x Coolgate 360mm rad (CG360HD)

7x Noiseblocker Black Silent Pro PL2 fans

EK pump-res combo with X-RES 100 and DCP 4.0 pump

Aqua Computer Poweradjust 2 Ultra (for controlling the pump and monitoring coolant temp)

Revoltec UV cathodes

Shoggy Sandwich

 

So here's what the system looked like when I first built it a few months ago: 

 

It had just one 360mm and one 120mm radiator in it, the storage drives were still mounted in the hard drive cage, the pump was running at a constant 100%, there was hardly any dampening for the pump and there was a multicultural mixture of different fans.

 

 

 

A 240mm Coolgate rad was added in the front, making it necessary to completely redo the tubing runs (using PrimoChill tubing this time, last time it was XSPC). I also needed to get rid of the HDD cage, because I needed to place the pump/res there. I ended up putting the HDD in a dampened plastic HDD enclosure and velcro-ing the SSD to the side of it. You can't see it in the picture, but it's behind the reservoir. I also added a Shoggy Sandwich for dampening vibrations.

 

 

 

Used a tripple-rotary for the tricky connection between the third radiator and the reservoir, space was way too tight to use standard fittings and tubing.

 

 

 

Right above the front radiator is where I mounted the pump controller, hidden behind the tubing in this picture. You can  also see the runs I had to do, things get pretty cramped when trying to put this much radiator space into an mATX build.

I'm pretty happy with the results though.

 

 

 

Here's the whole thing as it is right now, the crappy cellphone pictures don't really do the UV lighting any justice, even though I must say the old XSPC tubing I had before looked nicer. It was also harder to bend and easier to kink though, so I'll have to think twice about going back to it or sticking with PrimoChill next time.

 

 

 

The front intakes. All the fans in this rig are now Noiseblocker Black Silent Pro PL2s, a fan I think is highly underrated and I can definitely recommend for pretty much any type of use. Right up there with Noctua in terms of silence and performance, in my experience.

 

 

 

Here it is all closed up. Its hard to capture the subtle UV glow that can be seen through the window on camera...

 

 

 

Some glamour shots from the inside, this was before I switched to PrimoChill tubing and XSPC fittings. The EK ones I had before SUCKED. I have several EK parts in this buld and the quality is amazing, everything except these fittings. They were terrible, tolerances were off (you could actually SEE the differences in size) and they tended to "stick" shut after a few minutes, so that re-opening them required brute force. Oh, and the chrome started chipping off after a few weeks.

 

Replaced with much better fittings from XSPC.

 

 

 

 

 

So that's my build. I still don't dare to say its finished because you know... it never is. I'm currently having some minor issues with the pump and pump controller, which makes me think I might be replacing it with a D5 Vario or a PWM DDC in the future, depending on how things turn out.

 

Hope you enjoyed my build, feel free to leave me some feedback.

 

 

-nj4ck

Edited January 30, 2015 by nj4ck

[Eddprzz]

How hard was it to watercool in general like installing blocks and stuff cuz I wanna watercool but sorta scared to do

[DavidGordon]

Really, really nice man! I love the UV glow of the tubing and the runs you made look clean af!

[Guest]

I like your case heheheheee!

PS: I have the same one.

[nj4ck]

How hard was it to watercool in general like installing blocks and stuff cuz I wanna watercool but sorta scared to do

Take your time and you'll be fine. The most important thing is not to panic immediately when something goes wrong, becasue something will go wrong. I had the fittings that wouldn't screw down over the tubing without a fight, my system would not boot after building the loop (was a faulty fan adapter shorting out the psu) and my pump was insanely loud, until I figured out how to dampen it correctly, I even had a leak. All of these things gave me mini-heart attacks but looking back on it, I'd have had a much better time if I had gone about it with much more time and a little more patience. 

[Anthony10]

Looks great! What tubing and coolant are you using? Love how they look together.

[dfox mxyzptlk]

How hard was it to watercool in general like installing blocks and stuff cuz I wanna watercool but sorta scared to do

 

I'm a newbie builder myself. I just take some time watching Linus on Youtube and other builders out there.

It takes some time to get familiarize with the common stuffs you need for watercooling like fittings, pump, res, etc. Also be prepared to do some trial and error and invest some money of course.

In short, you'll be fine...

[nj4ck]

Looks great! What tubing and coolant are you using? Love how they look together.

XSPC tubing and destilled water with a few drops of anti-corrosion and biocide concentrate. Next time I service the loop I'm going to be replacing the tubing with Primochill clear tubing and instead adding a UV dye to the coolant, for the glow. The XSPC tubing is way too stiff for my taste.

[Viiksi-Vallu]

One of the best looking loops i have seen in a m-ATX case Nice job

[Ryan Leech]

This is definitely the first time I have seen anyone use an Extreme4 under a custom loop.

[flibberdipper]

Nice. I really like the UV look of it, and I think that if you were to add some dye (like you had said) it would look great.

[Nit3Rid3R]

That's a very cute rig. 

[nj4ck]

This is definitely the first time I have seen anyone use an Extreme4 under a custom loop.

Unpopular choice, I know. It does everything I need it to do and the quality is really surprisingly good, too. And as you can see in the pics, the brown really doesn't look brown when its installed.

[nj4ck]

This is definitely the first time I have seen anyone use an Extreme4 under a custom loop.

Unpopular choice, I know. It does everything I need it to do and the quality is really surprisingly good, too. And as you can see in the pics, the brown really doesn't look brown when its installed.

[nj4ck]

This is definitely the first time I have seen anyone use an Extreme4 under a custom loop.

Unpopular choice, I know. It does everything I need it to do and the quality is really surprisingly good, too. And as you can see in the pics, the brown really doesn't look brown when its installed.

[Ryan Leech]

Unpopular choice, I know. It does everything I need it to do and the quality is really surprisingly good, too. And as you can see in the pics, the brown really doesn't look brown when its installed.

I like it! ASRock makes some great boards

[Quantum]

Nice rig  .  I love the UV lighting you've done

[Paralectic]

The build is perfect except.. those ugly stickers on the front of the case >_< argh

[d33g33]

that UV colour is amazing!

[Guest]

Dat cable management

[flibberdipper]

I like it! ASRock makes some great boards

Mine is not one of them.

[Ryan Leech]

Mine is not one of them.

What do you expect from a $40 2007 board

[flibberdipper]

What do you expect from a $40 2007 board

$41. Shoulda have gotten the M5A-forgottherest when it was on sale for $10 more.

[Ryan Leech]

$41. Shoulda have gotten the M5A-forgottherest when it was on sale for $10 more.

What year did you buy it?

[nj4ck]

The build is perfect except.. those ugly stickers on the front of the case >_< argh

oh yeah, I moved those to the back a few days ago.