Antec P280 - Grayscale + Copper

[Fuglsang]

Hello guys.

 

I recently decided to do some watercooling after a close to ten year break from it. A lot have changed since I last did a watercooled project, and a lot of things and fashions seems to have changed since then.

I wanted to do it the more oldschool way with fat tubing and barbed fittings rather than the hard tubes and compression fittings that seems to be the bees knees today.

The specs of the PC:

3570k -  R9 290 - GA-Z77X-D3H - 16 GB Ram, Corsair TX750

The computer originally had a MSI 660TI with the blue cooler, and there were a overall blue theme. However, when I decided to upgrade to 1440p, I really needed more graphics ram and I bought a yellow 290, which obviously doesn't fit the theme.

I forgot to take some good photos of the build before the modding, so I only have this one.

 

Then I bought "a few things" from Aquatuning:

 

All lined up and tidy. Yes, I know AF fans would have been better as case fans, but I think the SPs work fine as well:

 

First things first: remove old coolers and look at all that sweet dust!:

 

Removed PCH and mosfet coolers in order to remove anodizing:

 

Dat CPU:

 

Anodizing removed, I know the mosfet  cooler still looks slightly blue on the picture, but it is much less present in real life, and the slight tint actually matches the capacitors quiet nicely:

 

CPU block ready to be installed:

 

GPU block. I know it says 290X, but the reference 290 and 290X share PCB layout, so the coolers are interchangeable:

 

GPU block mounted. It looks extremely nice in real life and the steel parts are super shiny:

 

Backplate. Once again: 290X fits 290:

 

I really didn't like that blue ram, and I didn't want to remove the heatspreaders as the PCB is green. I decided to try out wrapping the ram in some black foil, which looks really nice but obviously hurts the cooling performance. Do this at your own risk:

 

Stripped the case and removed the plastic part of the HD-mounting system. It required a lot of violence and anger to get it out due to the way the case is assembled:

 

Layout of radiator hole on the button of the case. I'm sorry I don't have any shots of the cutting, but I used a Dremel (first time using one) and the result were OK. It is hidden underneath the case, so finish isn't that important:

 

Removed the rest of the HD-mounting system. The metal part and the support structure were pretty easy to remove just by drilling out a few rivets and cutting the support. It have removed quiet a bit of structural integrity from the case, but It won't be a problem with sides mounted. I also mounted the pump and radiators:

 

Threw the hardware and watercooling in. This is what the project looks like ATM. There is still quiet at bit left to be done, but I am pretty happy with the result this far:

 

And a few extra shots of those sexy blocks:

 

As you can see, I still need to do all of the cable managing and sleeving. I am strongly considering buying a different PSU, as this one now by far is the loudest part of the system.

I am not quiet sure yet if I want to add any color to the water - I think the clear fits the build pretty well but what do you guys recon?

 

Thanks for watching - feel free to ask questions if you have any.

 

 

[helping]

HOLY SHIT THAT BACKPLATE 10/10

 

really nice tubing runs too

 

btw are you going to cut a window into that side panel?

If the PSU is loud, it's not a bad unit, so I would just mod the fan instead.

[rambi36]

Excited to see the rest of your work!

[flibberdipper]

Wow. Old watercooling looked kinda nice.

[Pineapple Wolf]

Lovely looking loop, can't wait to see more. I haven't seen people using barbed fittings in a while