Andromeda -- A beautiful X99 build

[Sazexa]

Background

Hello there everyone. I originally pushed the boundaries of an NCase, and was hoping to get cooling and performance which I thought I'd achieve. Sadly, I was unable to get either that I wanted. Relatively close, but it wasn't quite what I was looking for. There is a build log, to that, and here is the link. I decided to upgrade in size to meet my needs, and while I could have gone MicroATX, there wasn't quite a case that supported what I wanted, without being as larger as a regular mid-tower ATX case. I ended up settling on the Phanteks Evolv ATX TG. It has great watercooling support, solid construction, looks beautiful, and plenty of modular aspects to support what I wanted.

Components, and their selection
I mentioned the case and why I chose it. I've choose to use an ASUS Rampage V Edition 10 motherboard, partly because I got it brand new from a friend for almost half the MSRP, and partly because it's arguably the best motherboard for X99 on the market. From features, to robustness and durability, to even aesthetics, it's a wonderful choice. I haven't fully decided on a CPU yet, but, I've been eye-balling the i7-6950X. I did plan to use this CPU in the M1, but, to be able to get an overclock to 4.0GHz and still remain cool in the M1 would NOT have happened. For RAM, I've chosen Corsair Dominator Platinum. The price difference between 32GB and 64GB over 8 memory sticks wasn't significant, so, I went with the 64GB. I'll likely make a RAM disk with the extra/unused RAM. I took some parts from the M1 build, such as the Intel 730 Series 480GB SSD, the Western Digital Black 6TB HDD, and all the watercooling components, as well as the GTX 980. I'm currently in the process of picking up the same model GTX 980 from a friend for relatively cheap also, as he's upgrading his GPU. I plan to use two 980's in SLI for a few years, then upgrade these. I debated between the Corsair RM1000X and EVGA 1000 P2 power supplies, but ended up with the RM1000X, partly due to how it looks. 

Watercooling Loop
For the watercooling loop, it's almost made up exclusively of EK hardware. The plan is to reuse the EK DDC 3.2 PWM pump, and most of the fittings. I've changed the top on the pump to the EK XRES 100 pump/reservoir combination top. I've also added the DDC heatsink housing. I'll be using two EK SE 360 radiators, which are 360*26mm. The two GTX 980's will be connected via a triple-parallel bridge (with a blank cover for the middle GPU slot) and will have QDC's on each side of the GPU. I'll likely leave one side of the tubing of the GPU's extra long, so, if I want to, not only can I quickly swap GPU's, but I can quickly air-test new/replacement ones by connecting the two QDC's on each side of the GPU together, so I can remove the GPU from the loop entirely. The CPU will obviously be on water, attempting a pretty good overclock. I've also got a cross/T-fitting in there, with a ball valve for quick and convenient drainage of the loop. I also got one of EK's vertical 120mm mounts for the radiator, and will mount it to the front radiator or fan. As planned for now, the loop flow was something like this:
Reservoir/pump combo -> 2x GPU's in parallel -> top radiator -> CPU -> front radiator -> reservoir/pump combo

The fans used on the pump will of course be LinusTechTips edition Noctua NF-F12's. They performed excellently on the M1 build, and were almost always inaudible. I'll get the black Chromax anti-vibration pads, and have an all black and great fan for the system. They'll likely be controlled by the integrated Phanteks PWM fan controller built into the case, that supports 6 fans.

Current compatibility issues
One issue I knew going into this build was the support of E-ATX support in the case. Phanteks lists E-ATX motherboard support as up to 264mm in this case. The ASUS Rampage V Edition 10 motherboard is 272mm wide. To allow this board to fit properly, a few things had to be done. The first of which, I needed to remove the side-mounted LED strip piece and the motherboard backplate. The angular bracket inside the Evolv ATX prevents the motherboard from sitting down nicely with the backplate on. The second thing I had to do, was remove the grommets on the case, as they were causing flex in the motherboard when mounted. The last thing I did was neatly and carefully put electrical tape going vertically along the right-most side of the board. I don't believe it's making contact anywhere, but it's a close call so this was just a precautionary step.

The next compatibility issue is actually fitting two 360mm radiators. The case wasn't really designed to fit two 360mm rads at the same time, but more like one 360 and a 240/280 somewhere else. I've come up with a couple possible solutions. One is "cheat" mounting the top radiator, to push it farther back along the case than originally intended, without actually modding the case. The second, is swapping where the front intake fans normally sit and where the front mounted radiator normally sits. Since the radiators I chose are only about the same thickness as a fan, they can be placed directly in front for more compatibility. My most likely solution will be, when filling the loop, lay it side ways, and have the inlets on the radiator at the bottom of the case. They won't fit at the top, but will fit at the bottom.

Pictures and more information will come soon.

[Energycore]

I'd love to see pics of this

 

[QFA350]

Pictures please!

[Sazexa]

I'll post some tonight!

[Sazexa]

On 7/12/2016 at 9:29 AM, Sazexa said:

I'll post some tonight!

As I forgot to post some last night 

Well, here's some images for today then. Waiting on several parts from EKWB, the rest of the fans, and some other small stuff. I'll order the CPU soon, get it running, and then I'll look into buying a GTX 980, testing it, and adding it in.

A quick over-view of some shots of the build so far. I've basically only have like... 60% of the parts or so in at the moment.

As you can see, a 272mm wide motherboard is an extremely tight fit, but is possible, despite Phanteks only saying up to 264mm wide E-ATX boards.























Here's where we get into some compatibility pictures.

To make the ASUS Rampage V Edition 10 motherboard fit, I had to remove the backplate and side mounted LED's, sadly. At least, this was the solution without modding the case. I also insulated the back of the motherboard with some electrical tape, which I'll document later on.




Radiator clearance is very limited when using two 360mm radiators. I had to "cheat" to mount the top 360mm radiator (EK SE 360, 360*26mm) which is another thing I'll document later on. The front radiator will be an EK PE 360 (360*38mm), but for this to fit the inlets on the radiator must be at the bottom of the case.



I used my EK PE 240 to kind of get an idea and test-fit my pump/reservoir combo. It will work pretty well.

[QFA350]

Looks great! Love the motherboard. 

[Sazexa]

1 minute ago, Warning said:

Looks great! Love the motherboard. 

It's gonna look even better when finished, and the LED's come on

[handymanshandle]

So hawt.

[Energycore]

I want one

 

Actually I'll post about my own camputer and turning a shit case into a great one, once I get enough money to finish moddimg

[Sazexa]

On 7/13/2016 at 8:26 PM, wcreek said:

So hawt.

Thank you!
 

On 7/13/2016 at 9:14 PM, Energycore said:

I want one

 

Actually I'll post about my own camputer and turning a shit case into a great one, once I get enough money to finish moddimg

I'd love to see the progress!

And speaking of progress, here's a few pictures of progress on my build.

Here's how the ASUS Rampage V Edition 10, a 272mm wide motherboard, fits inside the Evolv ATX case, which officially only supports 264mm wide motherboards. I had to remove the motherboard's backplate to make it fit.



I also insulated the back side of the board with electrical tape.



When, because it's only a matter of time, I decide to change and upgrade GPU's, I'll easily be able to do so. QDC's let me quickly swap out GPU's, but also run the loop with just the CPU! This way, I can air-test GPU's before getting blocks for them. And adding them to the loop won't require me to drain the loop and refill it.


This picture is the approximate location for where the bottom GPU's inlet will sit. So I have enough slack to reach both this, and the other QDC to by-pass the GPU's.



Cable-sleeving preview.


I mounted the pump to the front radiator.



Fitting two 360mm radiators was tough, but I managed to do so. The top one is an EK SE 360, 360mm * 26mm, and the front is an EK PE 360, 360mm * 38mm. Using six LinusTechTips Edition Noctua NF-F12's for the radiators. Waiting to get the second GPU, and CPU soon.

[Sazexa]

Re thinking the loop slightly by the top rad and where it connects to the GPU's. That QDC is extremely tight, and hard to get out in that spot.

[Sazexa]

Another small update on the build; I'll be using two 1080's instead of two 980's.



The CPU will be in tomorrow. I've already verified basically ever part of this build except the RAM and CPU. I'm just waiting for the waterblocks and last fittings to come in the mail.

[Xiauj]

What's the total cost of this whole build and is there a specs list?

I can't seem to find it 

 

@Sazexa

[Sazexa]

13 minutes ago, Xiauj said:

What's the total cost of this whole build and is there a specs list?

I can't seem to find it 

 

@Sazexa

Excellent question. Let's do a rough price estimate since I don't know, either lol

Case: Phantaks Evolv ATX TG -- $180
Motherboard: ASUS Rampage V Edition 10 -- $600
CPU: Intel Core i7-6950X -- $1,650
RAM: Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR4 64 GB (8x8) 3,200 MHz 15-17-17-35 -- $420
GPU's: NVidia GTX 1080 Founder's Edition x2 -- $1,100 (I got a hell of a deal on this, about $300-$400 off MSRP)
SSD's: Intel 730 Series 480GB -- $300 || Samsung 960 Pro 1TB -- $450 (speculated price)
HDD: Western Digital Black 6TB -- $300
PSU: Corsair RM1000X -- $170
Cooling: All EKWB cooling components ~$800 || LinusTechTips Edition Noctua NF-F12's x6 -- $160
Accessories: Cablemod cable kit -- $120 || RGB LED lighting -- $35 || 3.5" HDD bracket -- $25

The total is around $6,300. Give or take a bit for things I either forgot or decided not to use/got cheaper.

[Xiauj]

2 minutes ago, Sazexa said:

Excellent question. Let's do a rough price estimate since I don't know, either lol

Case: Phantaks Evolv ATX TG -- $180
Motherboard: ASUS Rampage V Edition 10 -- $600
CPU: Intel Core i7-6950X -- $1,650
RAM: Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR4 64 GB (8x8) 3,200 MHz 15-17-17-35 -- $420
GPU's: NVidia GTX 1080 Founder's Edition x2 -- $1,100 (I got a hell of a deal on this, about $300-$400 off MSRP)
SSD's: Intel 730 Series 480GB -- $300 || Samsung 960 Pro 1TB -- $450 (speculated price)
HDD: Western Digital Black 6TB -- $300
PSU: Corsair RM1000X -- $170
Cooling: All EKWB cooling components ~$800 || LinusTechTips Edition Noctua NF-F12's x6 -- $160
Accessories: Cablemod cable kit -- $120 || RGB LED lighting -- $35 || 3.5" HDD bracket -- $25

The total is around $6,300. Give or take a bit for things I either forgot or decided not to use/got cheaper.

Daaaayum  I don't know how people can afford to spend that much on a PC, it's crazy in a good but cool way haha

I mean like, I would love to as well but like, it would take sooooo long to save up the budget and all that stuff

[Sazexa]

Just now, Xiauj said:

Daaaayum  I don't know how people can afford to spend that much on a PC, it's crazy in a good but cool way haha

I mean like, I would love to as well but like, it would take sooooo long to save up the budget and all that stuff

Mind if I ask your age and occupation? I live on my own, and am 22 and work in the electrical construction industry. I do pretty well, but it's a good balance of very smart spending/savings, and good credit.

And to be fair to that price tag, I'm expecting this build to last me six years or so. Provided no parts fail. I know I'll likely replace the GPU's eventually, but, for now this will be a long time lasting build I believe.

[Xiauj]

Just now, Sazexa said:

And to be fair to that price tag, I'm expecting this build to last me six years or so.

True, forgot about things like that, lol -^

[bughtoo]

SIX YEARS?  I have build mine for 2.5k and i am expecting it to last 10 years!!! 2 years old so far still all AAA games run on highest details on 1440p on avarage 80+fps  SO i think i can manage 4-6 years on highest and then it will slowly go down if something doesnt break,

[Darlin]

Wow! Awesome build man. Every time I come to this forum I just get more jealous! 

[Energycore]

On 7/25/2016 at 7:16 PM, Sazexa said:

Mind if I ask your age and occupation? I live on my own, and am 22 and work in the electrical construction industry. I do pretty well, but it's a good balance of very smart spending/savings, and good credit.

And to be fair to that price tag, I'm expecting this build to last me six years or so. Provided no parts fail. I know I'll likely replace the GPU's eventually, but, for now this will be a long time lasting build I believe.

Ouch, that's a lot of money for a computer, watercooling gear aside

[Sazexa]

Rough progress of the build so far. I had some problems to work out, but they've been solved. Glad I did all that on air cooling first.

[Sazexa]

So, it's been some time. The build is close enough to call it "finished" for now, I suppose. I still want to add some more RAM, a PCIe capture card, an NVMe SSD and do something a bit more elegant regarding the wiring, as well as waiting for EK's HB SLI bridge.

I'll post some information once it's overclocked regarding benchmarks and such.

[AI3X]

I am crying here with my stock cooled i3...:{

 

[Energycore]

11 minutes ago, AI3X said:

I am crying here with my stock cooled i3...:{

 

You can make your rig look good with clean cable management

[Sazexa]

31 minutes ago, AI3X said:

I am crying here with my stock cooled i3...:{

 

Nothing wrong with that! Well, except the crying part.
 

19 minutes ago, Energycore said:

You can make your rig look good with clean cable management

This is very true. Cable management is honestly probably the biggest thing in determining how "good" a computer's internals look.