Project "Acanthoscurria" (5960x, GTX980 sli, AX1200i, 850 Pro 1TB, Acrylic Primochill Tubing, DDR4 2400mhz, AlphaCool )

[Tetters]

That's beautiful work .... awesome.

[Tetters]

That's what I figured but it it slides in perfect in the tubing. I thought maybe by having it in the tubing it would have more direct contact with all the water going through the smaller diameter tube (vs res).

 

Sadly if its in the tubing you will probably never it out, especially if it gets stuck at a bend, and there is plenty of water movement in the res for it to do its work.

[eBiz]

Sadly if its in the tubing you will probably never it out, especially if it gets stuck at a bend, and there is plenty of water movement in the res for it to do its work.

 

Ok that makes sense, I'll put it in the res.

[Tetters]

Still jealous, when funds permit I want to build a loop very similar

[eBiz]

During the black Friday sale on Newegg I ordered some goodies that arrived today!

 

Prior to placing the order I spent hours at Frye’s examining all their monitors. I was considering the LG 34UM95, Asus PB287Q Samsung UD590 and a few others. The LG monitor just seemed like it would take up too much desk space and I honestly don't think I would like the 21:9 aspect ratio. The PB287Q is practically the same as the Samsung but has a more versatile mount. I like the aesthetics of the Samsung and literally 80% of all the displays in my house are Samsung products.

 

After comparing the prices on Newegg between the Asus and Samsung I decided to go with the 4K Samsung UD590 because the cost dropped down to $430 ($600+Tax at Frye’s) The Asus by comparison was still $560 and the cheapest I found the LG was $800 on Massdrop

 

I'm still on the lookout for a good 144hz 1080p panel if anybody has some good suggestions? I'm thinking of having a dual monitor setup with the 1080p for monitoring. I also want to benchmark on both the 1080p and 4k.

 

When looking at the monitors at Fryes I "tried on" some of the mice they had for sale too. My right shoulder gets sharp pains when I use a mouse for more than a few hours and I think a larger palm type mouse would greatly reduce or fix this problem. The largest most comfortable mouse was the Logitech G700s. This mouse has all the features I wanted with wireless and wired performance and 8 extra buttons. During the black friday sale I picked up a refurbished model for only $40 bucks.

 

The G700s feels great and is a huge step up from my old mouse. However today after doing some more research on palm mice I found one that really intrigued me. The Func MS-3. Does anybody have experience using this product?

 

The last things I need to order to complete my build now are a nice mechanical keyboard and some drive cages for the two vertical 5.25 drive bays. Should I go with a RGB K70 or K95? The other keyboard that I would like is the WASD "Code" Keyboard with cherry mx clears. I want something solid with brown or clear switches.

 

Samsung UD590 4K 28"

 

 

I think they'll make a great couple

 

 

Close up of the Logitech G700s

 

 

Anybody using one of these?

 

 

[alby800]

During the black Friday sale on Newegg I ordered some goodies that arrived today!

 

Prior to placing the order I spent hours at Frye’s examining all their monitors. I was considering the LG 34UM95, Asus PB287Q Samsung UD590 and a few others. The LG monitor just seemed like it would take up too much desk space and I honestly don't think I would like the 21:9 aspect ratio. The PB287Q is practically the same as the Samsung but has a more versatile mount. I like the aesthetics of the Samsung and literally 80% of all the displays in my house are Samsung products.

 

After comparing the prices on Newegg between the Asus and Samsung I decided to go with the 4K Samsung UD590 because the cost dropped down to $430 ($600+Tax at Frye’s) The Asus by comparison was still $560 and the cheapest I found the LG was $800 on Massdrop

 

I'm still on the lookout for a good 144hz 1080p panel if anybody has some good suggestions? I'm thinking of having a dual monitor setup with the 1080p for monitoring. I also want to benchmark on both the 1080p and 4k.

 

When looking at the monitors at Fryes I "tried on" some of the mice they had for sale too. My right shoulder gets sharp pains when I use a mouse for more than a few hours and I think a larger palm type mouse would greatly reduce or fix this problem. The largest most comfortable mouse was the Logitech G700s. This mouse has all the features I wanted with wireless and wired performance and 8 extra buttons. During the black friday sale I picked up a refurbished model for only $40 bucks.

 

The G700s feels great and is a huge step up from my old mouse. However today after doing some more research on palm mice I found one that really intrigued me. The Func MS-3. Does anybody have experience using this product?

 

The last things I need to order to complete my build now are a nice mechanical keyboard and some drive cages for the two vertical 5.25 drive bays. Should I go with a RGB K70 or K95? The other keyboard that I would like is the WASD "Code" Keyboard with cherry mx clears. I want something solid with brown or clear switches.

 

Samsung UD590 4K 28"

 

 

 

I think they'll make a great couple

 

 

Close up of the Logitech G700s

 

 

You posted the same picture twice

[eBiz]

You posted the same picture twice

 

 

I keep doing that on accident. I think it's fixed now. Thanks!

[terrytek]

Alright so I started bending the white acrylic PrimoChill tubing for the first time. This is what I have been looking forward to most since the start of the build. I used a PVC cutter to try and cut a couple inches off but the tubing shattered. I then test bent that little piece just to get a sense of what bending it feels like. I burred the edges and cut the tubing with a steak knife because I couldn’t find the piece for my dremel.

 

I wanted as straight lines as possible but it's really hard to estimate where to bend as it's not perfect sharp right angles. I decided to start with the most ambitious and difficult bend first ( Bottom of 360 to CPU). I worked very carefully and some how got it like 95% right for my first bend ever with acrylic tubing. The tube is a just a couple degrees off from being straight up and down but I can live with that for now. I ordered some more tubing which is still on its way if I want to attempt it again.

 

Smooth Edges

 

 

 

I found it a necessity when bending close to the end of the tubing to put the fitting on to prevent deformation at the tip (otherwise your fitting won't fit)

 

 

 

The start of my first bends with acrylic tubing

 

 

 

The final product, I hope it fits..

 

 

 

It fits! I couldn't believe how close it was to perfect. If only the bend started a 1/4 inch later.

 

 

 

 

Now the from the CPU, this was a fairly easy bend after the last one.

 

 

 

 

 

All Done for now. (You can see the slight angle from the 360 up to the CPU). It's also important to note that I will have to redo this bend when I get the two 980ti's. I'm not to concerned with the looks now because I really want to use this thing too.

 

Wait, so no GPU cooling? Me so sad.

[eBiz]

Wait, so no GPU cooling? Me so sad.

 

 

Not yet, when the 8gb versions of the 980 come out I will be picking up two of them to finish the loop. I just dont see the point of watercooling this single 980 when I'll be upgrading in a month or two.

[terrytek]

Not yet, when the 8gb versions of the 980 come out I will be picking up two of them to finish the loop. I just dont see the point of watercooling this single 980 when I'll be upgrading in a month or two.

Oh, so when you get 8gb 980s, can i have your single 980?

[JarJarBanksy]

Not yet, when the 8gb versions of the 980 come out I will be picking up two of them to finish the loop. I just dont see the point of watercooling this single 980 when I'll be upgrading in a month or two.

There is no end to your madness, is there?

 

Maybe you have a family member you can initiate into the pc master race with that 980 once you remove it from your build? That or you can build a steam box or folding at home rig.

[eBiz]

Oh, so when you get 8gb 980s, can i have your single 980?

 

 

Well I'll probably return it as its still under the 30 day return policy. It really depends when the 8gbs come out.

[eBiz]

There is no end to your madness, is there?

 

Maybe you have a family member you can initiate into the pc master race with that 980 once you remove it from your build? That or you can build a steam box or folding at home rig.

 

 

It definitely feels like madness after looking at my credit card bill today. But I'm hoping that the once I get those two 8gb 980s I won't have to upgrade at all for the forseeable future. I just hope Skylake doesn't tempt me too much.

[JarJarBanksy]

It definitely feels like madness after looking at my credit card bill today. But I'm hoping that the once I get those two 8gb 980s I won't have to upgrade at all for the forseeable future. I just hope Skylake doesn't tempt me too much.

Please tell me you plan on paying this off immediately, and not sitting with any amount of credit card debt.

[eBiz]

Please tell me you plan on paying this off immediately, and not sitting with any amount of credit card debt.

 

I took care of it today, it's just the most I've racked up in a long time.

[Spev]

That's a good looking case too. I like the 540 though even though it doesn't seem to be that popular.

Personally I love the 540 I'm just not a fan of the bottom of the case and how it's open where the HDDs go. Other than that it is sick.

[eBiz]

Last week I made two orders from FrozenCpu. The second one I ordered came today (Priortiy Mail seems to be way faster). I would be able to finish the loop if I had only one more fitting. So it looks like it will likely be finished tuesday when more of the PrimoChill acrylic fittings arrive. Today I tried to figure out how the drain will work with the "Y" fitting and ball valve. It's really important to me to have an easy to clean system. I really like the ball valve but I don't know how well it will look l with two more fittings on either side for such a short run. So as of now I plan on running the "Y" directly from the bottom of the 360. The side closest to the motherboard will go through the hole underneath MB and to the pump. The other end will come out and drain out through the holes in the bottom if the case.

 

The order that came today

 

 

Here's the close up of the bitspower ball valve

 

 

This will be the drain that will come out the bottom of the case

 

 

Hopefully this gives a better idea of how the drain will work

 

[eBiz]

Personally I love the 540 I'm just not a fan of the bottom of the case and how it's open where the HDDs go. Other than that it is sick.

 

It is kinda weird, along with the verticle bays. I'm gonna utilize the open part by having a drain out throught the bottom of the case. The other one will house the ssd.

[eBiz]

Ok so when I started this build I thought it would be challenging but I never expected to be difficult. It's been awhile since my last post and since then I received two more orders from frozen cpu and one more from Newegg. I thought after placing my first order from frozen cpu that maybe I might have to place a second one for some odds and ends but never five separate orders all rushed shipped. Oh well though I guess that's just how it is with building a custom watercooling rig.

 

As for the Newegg order I finally decided on what to do with my two 5.25" vertical bays. This took some time deciding on what I needed and what would look good aesthetically. Since I want a large amount of storage I went with a three 3.5" dual bay storage unit from Icy Dock with two USB 3.0 ports as well. This unit is almost all metal and looks really good too. Its trayless design is also something that’s a plus for me.

 

When the Icy Dock unit arrived I was struck with its quality. It's enclosure was all aluminum and the entire face (except the bottom part) was all metal. I was excited to see how it looked in the case so I tried to slide it in and encountered a serious issue. It wouldn't fit! The middle of the carbide 540s drive bay enclosure has a protrusion that follows the entire length of the enclosure and the "slots" in the Icy Dock were not nearly deep enough to fit. I sat down looking at this problem and how to fix it, I decided the best way to deal with this is too use a dremel to grind down the backplate of the Icy Dock. As I took apart the cage I was still surprised with the build quality but nervous about cutting into the brand new $110 item.

 

After removing the backplate I proceeded to use my dremel to grind down the slots. After grinding down as much as possible, I test fit it and it still wouldn't fit. My only other option is now to remove the drive bay enclosure from the 540 and grind that down. Removing the enclosure was a pain in the ass, requiring taking off the entire front of the case with screws in hard to reach locations just to get access to the thumb screws holding in the enclosure. After getting it off I took it outside and used the dremel to carefully and tediously grind it down. This took some time and I burned through two of my dremel bits doing so.

 

I put the case and enclosure back together and now with the modified case and cage I tried to fit it in. I struggled but with some serious force I got it to work.

 

I have been contemplating a few different routes from the top 240mm rad to the reservoir and also how the plumbing to the reservoir would work. It would have probably been significantly easier just going with a combo pump/res but it’s too late for that. I originally thought that I could do most the 90 degree bends with the acrylic tubing but after some thought it makes things 100 times easier just using 90 degree g 1/4 fittings for the really tight bends. These fittings should arrive today along with some male to males as well.

After these arrive I need to decide what route to use. Either a standard layout with both intake and exhaust from the bottom of the res, or water getting forced in through the top of the res and water being pulled out the bottom ( this would make filling the system nearly impossible so I would use a “Y” fitting attached to the top of the res)

 

This is why it wouldn't fit

 

Before

 

After

 

Hack Job

 

All done

 

Inside (not much room)

[eBiz]

I've been busy with holiday stuff so I haven't had much time to post. I finally got the water cooling loop complete. I underestimated the difficulty of the final two bends in the loop.

 

One of the two bends was from the top 240mm rad to the reservoir. I had to decide whether to into the top of the reservoir with a "Y" fitting or use some 90 degree fittings and make to the bottom of the res. I decided on the latter even though it was more difficult. This way might be more restrictive but it didn't seem right to have water spurting down from the top of the res.

 

Three 90 degree fittings used on the reservoir

 

 

The empty spot housed the temperature probe.

 

 

This is the fill port of the system and also the highest part of the loop.

 

 

The second bend was the longest and stemmed from the bottom of the 360 to the top of the pump. This section of tubing also includes the drain out the bottom of the case. I started this with a "Y" attached the 360, one side to the pump and the other do the drain. This section runs right through the bulk of the wires.

 

The tubing on the right is my first attempt. The second one looks and fits much better.

 

 

After tightening all the fittings I then connected all the wires. With the dual Icy Dock unit it took alot of the space up but I was able to connect all 4 sata cables along with everything else.  I was intending on starting it up but after looking at the poor cable management I decided to fix that first.

 

PSU side of the case

 

 

The build isn't finished yet and still figuring out some of the fine details. I am contemplating my options for powering the fans. The X99 deluxe came with a nice seperate pcb fan controller but right now I'm using a 5 to 1 fan splitter with all the Jet Flo fans attached to the CPU fan header and the 240mm exhaust attached to the mb. I have roughly five days left on the return for my 980 and I don't know if I should keep it. I really want to sleeve the cables and watercool it but don't know if that's the most cost effective options if i'm going to upgrade next Nvidia release.

 

Some of the other purchases I may make soon include replacing the Icy Dock 80mm fan with a quieter noctua fan. I also plan on getting two more 4tb hdd to fill the storage in a raid 5 set up. I am really temped to get the 512gb Samsung M.2 XP941 as the boot drive. Case lighting is another possibility but I need to see what it looks like with the white led fans first. This is in my bedroom and I don't want it too bright.

 

This build will likely be running by this weekend, stay tuned as I will be posting some shots of the complete build.

[eBiz]

Well it's pretty much done, except a few touch up things. The OS loaded and drivers updated. Still doing some benchmarking. The 4k panel looks amazing.?b

 

After looking at the window side as it is now, I realized I need some case lighting to brighten up the inside a little more. Not sure if I will go RGB or just straight white. I will be needing four 1ft strips which I will be ordering soon.

 

Also I purchased a thin 80mm fan at Fryes that I might install in the back of the Icy Dock storage unit.  This would add a little more space and hopefully be quieter. The other option is getting a 80mm noctua fan. 

 

In order to finish the storage side of things I will ordering two more 4gb Western Digital Reds for a raid set up. This should provide all the storage I could want and provide the redundancy I need. I am really temped to get a 512gb Samsung XP941 as a boot drive. The X99 deluxe comes with a M.2 slot on the motherboard or I could stick it in one of the PCI slots. It would be awesome getting 1000MB/s read/write speeds.

 

I will be ordering a new keyboard soon as well. I've widdled the choices down to a RGB K70 or K95, or a WASD "Code" with white backlighting.

 

My desk has enough room for another monitor too. I'm looking for a 24" 144hz panels that have the ability to go portrait. Oh and as for the desk I'm planning on building one. This desk will need to be a "L" shape and made either out of wood or get it cut from marble/quartz. This will allow me to do some really cool things with the desk!

 

BIOS

 

Close up of the PSU side and the cable management.

 

This is the fill port

 

Possible replacement fan. This fan is only 10mm thick!

 

The boring side.

 

The ass end

 

Here is the drain port. I utilized the open areas in the bottom of the case so this is the lowest point in the loop. This will make refilling the loop a breeze!

 

Power Off

 

I love the look of the fans, this picture taken in a well lit room.

 

This is with one active HDD in the Icy Dock. That blue led is reaally bright.

 

Power On!

 

Angle Shots

 

So dark in there, needs some case lighting

 

Lights Out!

 

Samsung 28" D590D with the Apples desktop background

[someonesim]

Wow, quite a dream built for me. Wanted upgrade to X99 + DDR4 but price just for processor mobo and DDR4 cost almost 1K USD so have to hold it till price drop.

[GhostWindGamer]

It's so beautiful 

[LordMustangGT]

I didn't read the whole thing, but didn't it say SLI?

[eBiz]

I didn't read the whole thing, but didn't it say SLI

 

Yeah, I bought two 980s at the start of this build but decided to just keep one for now to hold me over. Since I decided to go 4k I will be waiting for the higher vram versions of the maxwell architecture cards and put those in sli when they come out. I didn't want to waste $1500 just to replace them in a couple months. So once this happens I will call the build fully complete.