[Finished; RTX] Lian Li PC-O6SX water cooled build log

[Zandvliet]

Hi all! 

 

Edit: 24-10-2018

 

For the previous text see below.

 

New parts:

• Asus RTX 2080 Turbo 8G
• EK Vector RTX 2080 Copper + Acetal
• EK Vector RTX 2080 Backplate - Black
• Crucial MX500 1TB (for games)

 

The plan

I just bought the Asus Turbo RTX 2080 which I'm going to put in my system this weekend, the EK waterblock and backplate are already in my possession. Unfortunately, the backplate is too long. As can be seen from the last pictures below, I placed my PSU in the lower end of the case which prevents me from using a GPU longer than 270mm. According to the specifications the GPU is 268mm long which should fit. But apparently the EK backplate is longer than that, whereas the waterblock itself does fit. The solution will be to create new tapped holes in order to move the GPU i/o a couple of millimeters back and I might be able to shift the PSU a bit to the front. I also want to try and do some improved cable managment, but it's relatively hard in this case.

The old Samsung 850 Pro Series 256GB is going to be a Linux boot system in case I want to do some programming again.

Hopefully this won't be too much of an effort but if history has anything to say about it, it will....  I'll try to post as many pictures as possible, so stay tuned!   

 

Reason for RTX2080

I've chosen the Asus Turbo over the FE card because the Asus Turbo only has 2 DP port instead of 3. This allows to make it a single slot card. Plus, thinking long term here, once I upgrade again I can use the Asus Turbo in my HTPC which is in a Fractal Node 202 case. 

I didn't get a 1080ti because the price difference isn't worth it for me to buy an older gen card.

 

Cheers!

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Old text -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

So I'm going to build a new pc using the Lian Li PC-O6SX  It will be water cooled build from which the parts should start arriving at the end of this week. The theme will be black and white and I might throw in some gold, not sure about this yet. For now just let me tell the parts that will be used.

• PcPartPicker (hardware only): https://be.pcpartpicker.com/list/R4NnM8
• CASE: Lian Li PC-O6SX
• MB: Asus Strix Z270G Gaming
• CPU: Intel Core i7-7700K
• RAM: Corsair Dominator Platinum 3000MHz 32GB
• GPU: Gigabyte GTX 970 GV-N970G1 GAMING-4GD (from current build, might buy 1080Ti when (if) it comes)
• PSU: Corsair HXi Series HX1000i (from current system if it fits, otherwise the SilverStone SST-SX800-LTI)
• Storage: Samsung 960 EVO MZ-V6E500BW + Samsung 850 Pro Series MZ-7KE256BW + WD Red 4TB 5400RPM

The water cooling components will be from EK and Barrows, might buy some Bitspower parts but we'll see. Custom sleeving will also be part of the build, though it will be a slow process since it will only by my second time custom sleeving cables..

 

Note that I know this system might run somewhat hot, I do not mind this. I'm building this build purely for aesthetics. 

My current system can be seen here: 

And I also have a small Linux pc which is here: 

 

This is it for now and I hope you will enjoy it.

[Zandvliet]

So here are the first bunch of pictures! I've already ran in some problems... for example I already had a EK PE 360 radiator and wanted to use that one in the top, however (and according to the specs) the radiator does not fit. I had hope that it fits, since the front had enough room on every other picture I saw I figured it would fit. But of course it didn't, the radiator rests on the back of the case, making sure I can't secure the case.

I had also bought the pw-pci-e38 from Lian Li (Lian Li support suggested that I could get this one for SLI), it turns out the the 380mm riser card is way too long and I could not fit it. Therefore I bought the 300mm version and returned the 380mm.

 

But finally, here are the picitures.

 

The first package of the day:

 

The case itself:

 

My working space at the moment...

 

The 360 radiator that doesn't fit:

 

The GPUs I already owned:

 

Second riser card installed (will be replaced):

 

And the GPUs in position:

 

The reservoir and pump:

 

The new i7-7700k:

 

My beautiful new motherboard:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Starting the CPU block installation:

 

And the final pictures for now:

 

 

 

 

I'm still debating whether I should paint the RAM white or black, any suggestions?

 

Cheers for now!

[Yahtadi]

Followd!

[Zandvliet]

Here's another update! First I apologize, I don't have that many pictures for now since not a whole lot happened. 

 

I received the new riser card and using that one and the included one I was able to make it fit...barely.. Lian Li should make the included riser card a little bit longer, about 2 cm would do it. I also received my new radiator, the EK-CoolStream SE 360 Slim Triple. Now I was able to put it up there. 

I've also drilled the first holes to mount the reservoir, coming weekend I will drill the holes for the pass through fittings coming from the pump and I might be able to drill the other holes and install the entire water cooling loop. Though this depends on when the shipment of fittings arrives, it was just send today from the US and has to go to the Netherlands.

Lastly, I placed my HX1000i in the case, it does fit but the room left for the cables is very tight as you can see from one of the pictures. I am going to try and make it, but it's going to be a pain.

 

Here are the pictures and expect more updates this weekend or at the beginning of next week.

 

The MB installed along with the riser cards and GPUs

 

 

The pump and reservoir in position

 

 

And the last ones are of the all the hardware in place (sorry for the dark pictures)

 

 

Cheers!

 

[Yahtadi]

Top notch!

[Zandvliet]

6 hours ago, Yahtadi said:

Top notch!

Thanks! Wanted this case for so long and finally just bought it

[Zandvliet]

Time of another update! Unfortunately, I'm still waiting for the fittings but there is also good news, as they have arrived in my county so I expect them at the end of this week. Meaning I can finally begin tubing and drilling holes for the pass through fittings. I've waited with the drilling as I want to confirm the diameter of the pass through fittings. I've also decided that I will keep my HX1000i for now. 

 

I've ran into a problem; my SLI bridge that was included with the motherboard is too short. I have to put a lot of force on it to be able to attache it to the GPUs, causing the GPUs to sit uneven, this it due to the fact that the GPUs touch at the side of the output ports. I've send an email to Asus and hope to get an answer soon, though this won't be too much for a problem for now, it is rather annoying. One can see a picture below showing that is it too short imo:

 

I've painted the RAM sticks and I am pleased with the result (see photos). I started on the sleeving of the cables, first the CPU cable and two of the four GPUs cables. I've bought some more cable combs and CableMod RGB LED strips, which I also expect at the end of this week. Meaning that I can start finishing up this project this weekend.   

 

One more thing I will probably buy is a WD 4tb Red HDD for storage, currently I have at max a 2tb HDD, but since I can only find room for one HDD I will probably buy a new one. 

 

That's enough talking for now, here are some pictures  

 

Showing how tight it is for the PCIe riser cards:

 

 

Behind that piece of aluminum is a SSD  

 

The CPU cable:

 

Next are just some overall shots of the case, no cable management done whatsoever, just wanted to see how it will look:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's it!

Expect big updates at the beginning of next week!

 

Cheers.

 

 

[Zandvliet]

Unfortunately I'm going to have to wait a while for the Samsung 960 EVO MZ-V6E250BW, currently they are high in demand! 

[Zandvliet]

A small update:

Tada!

 

Since the 250GB version would have taken 2-3 more weeks, I got a refund and bought the 500GB which was in my hands the next day  

 

I will post more stuff soon, coming days are somewhat busy. 

 

Cheers

 

[Zandvliet]

So I found some time after all. Be prepared for big updates, but with big updates comes big problems.

 

Last Thursday my fittings finally arrived from the US (freaking import costs were like 50 euro's...did not see that one coming) but the Barrow fittings are well worth it. They look really nice and are of really high quality. I also had to buy some extenders afterwards from Bitspower and the differences are very very small. So after remeasuring the pass through fittings I started drilling the holes for the wc loop. Well.. that took more time than expected and was more difficult than expected, but I managed to drill it and one can not see the mess from the front of the case, only from the back. Here is a pictures of the pass throughs:

 

 

So I was happy and continued with the build. 

 

I placed the CPU block on the MB and placed the PCIe M.2 SSD in the MB and it looks really nice:

 

Next up were the GPUs, again I was really happy that the fittings fit perfectly between the GPUs as planned:

 

Then the fun part started, as mentioned earlier the SLI bridge didn't fit on the GPUs. That was a bummer and I was in contact with Asus and the supplier. However, I installed the GPUs in the case and discovered some new problems... 

 

 

As one can see, I wouldn't have been able to fit the SLI bridge on there anyway. Since the hole for the wc was too much to the right of the case and was in the way for the bridge. But of course the problems didn't end there...

 

The other hole planned for the GPUs was also in the wrong place, when coming straight out of that fitting, I couldn't connect the PSU cables into the GPUs. On top of which the configuration I planned for the loop made it so, that the fittings in front of the GPUs would have prevented the glass panel from attaching to the case. So in the end I had three big problems related to the GPUs, which led me to the disappointing decision where I would only use 1 GPU instead of the SLI  but this solved all my problems, except for the PSU cables. That I was luckily able to fix using some fittings I had lying around.

 

I will have to triple check the position of the power plugs on the GPU for the 1080ti if I buy that one...

 

So after these setbacks I continued the build and finished the entire loop:

 

 

 

I must say that I copied most of the loop from BornEvil Lian Li PC-O6S build, which can be seen here https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18736617 but I really like the straight lines and covering the rest in the back of the case.

 

Next up was the leak testing, after a first failure point, where the right fitting of the GPU was connected a bit of and because of that it was leaking, was fixed. The loop had no further leaking whatsoever.  I really believe it is also due to the stiffness of the Barrow fittings, one has to apply quite a bit of force to rotate the rotary connections. Again I was happy.

 

Which didn't last long... I of course next tried to boot the system. And that's the next problem, it didn't boot. The PSU fan spinned for a sec (as is supposed to) and the radiator fans started to spin. The MB and RAM LEDs lit up, but... no video output... I tried every solution I could think of and after those didn't work I took the system apart again and replaced the i7 7700k with a i5 6400 I use for my Linux system. Also no luck. Next I placed the i7 7700k in the Linux pc and tried to boot... no luck.. then I tested the RAM I had since that was the only piece of hardware I used in both systems, but in the Linux pc with the i5 6400 all the RAM worked fine and the system did boot and showed video output. So that left me with only one solution: I RMA'ed the MB and CPU as I think they are both dead. This is weird however since I tested the system a week before and it worked fine. Though I did resleeve the PSU cables and might have made a mistake there. Though I find this very unlikely since I took the pins out one by one, therefore making sure at all times only one pin was disconnected and therefore I could not make a mistake. One thing I haven't checked, which I probably should have before sending it back, was to see if all the pins are in all the way. I will do this on Friday once I am home and have some time.

 

So that's it for now, I hope you enjoyed this update. I didn't not enjoy all that has happened but what can one do.. Next week I hopefully will have a new MB and CPU and rechecked the PSU cables and I will be able to show some benchmarks and final pictures.

 

For now, cheers!

 

 

[PCMasterDebater]

Ya know, its highly likely a simple bios/cmos reset would have corrected the failed boot... But now we'll never know.  ;p

 

 

 

future reference: testing the kabylake chip in ur skylake build wont work without a bios update, and visa versa.

 

good luck with ur build

[Zandvliet]

15 hours ago, PCMasterDebater said:

Ya know, its highly likely a simple bios/cmos reset would have corrected the failed boot... But now we'll never know.  ;p

 

 

 

future reference: testing the kabylake chip in ur skylake build wont work without a bios update, and visa versa.

 

good luck with ur build

I did clear the cmos and bios by removing the battery a couple of times, also no luck there. I didn't know about the bios update, that's a good thing to know. MB and CPU have been send back and we'll wait a response  thanks!

[PCMasterDebater]

The cmos clear can be tricky on some mobos. I've attempted it countless times on my g3258 build and messed it up more times then I can remember. The process is a no brainer but for some reason it doesn't work every time.

 

Aside from that; Your build shows real forethought with the parts chosen and its evident that you've been conscious throughout the process. Keep it up and you'll have a real toy to marvel over. Thumbs up for that! 

[Zandvliet]

12 minutes ago, PCMasterDebater said:

The cmos clear can be tricky on some mobos. I've attempted it countless times on my g3258 build and messed it up more times then I can remember. The process is a no brainer but for some reason it doesn't work every time.

 

Aside from that; Your build shows real forethought with the parts chosen and its evident that you've been conscious throughout the process. Keep it up and you'll have a real toy to marvel over. Thumbs up for that! 

Hmm, that could be it. I tried it about 3 times. Ah well, I expect a new MB and CPU coming soon. I once had returned 16RAM set, because I thought one of the two sticks didn't work. Turned out I forgot to change it in the bios. They send me a new one anyway  

Thanks. I appreciate that. Been planning this for a while and I'm glad it's coming together now.

 

Cheers.

[Zandvliet]

Here's one more update! This will be the second to last update.

 

Last weekend I received my MB and CPU. It turns out there were some pins bend, though I still do not believe this is the main reason the system didn't work anymore. During my own testing to see whether I could get it working again I heard the noise you do not want to hear and I believe that were the pins that had bent. But after they had fixed it and sent it back to me I assembled the whole system again and tried to boot. Again no luck... this was weird... I tried a couple of things. First I only used 1 RAM stick and the intel stock cooler, it booted! Then I tried 2 stick, 4 sticks and tried one stick in all DIMM slots. That all worked on air cooling. Then I installed the water cooling again.. no boot... The last thing I tried was to replace the jet in the EK EVO water block to the correct size, apparently I hadn't done that yet and I moved the HDD I had placed at the back of the case. This one was attached to the hole of the CPU backside, see photo:

And what do you know. It worked! I still don't know why, it might have been a shortage between the HDD attached to the case and the CPU. It couldn't have been the jet of the block since one can use all three types of jet in the block, only the temps will differ by a few degrees. 

Thus the system worked up to this point.. sort of... The PSU cable connected to the GPU had the wrong pin layout... So I do believe I fried my GPU... Luckily (and unfortunately) I had the spare GPU because SLI would have been unpractical. I replaced the GPU and again the entire system booted.. finally..

 

Next up was the cable management, which turned out the be more difficult that I had figured. But everything is there (sorry I don't have a picture) Then I put on the tempered glass, looks really really nice. It was hard to put the glass on because the base for the case has a very very tight fit over the case and the glass, I had to bend the base a bit the get it over the case and not scratch the glass in the process (next week I will post more final pictures including the glass panel).

 

Here are some pictures I made last weekend and more will follow next week.

 

Using my Linux pc to transfer all my files to the new 4TB WD RED HDD:

 

Started with installing the res/pump and GPU:

 

The complete system:

 

   

 

 

 

 

I'm still waiting on the LED strips, they will arrive at the end of February or beginning of March.

That's it for now, next week more pictures and some benchmarks.

 

Cheers.

 

 

[Zandvliet]

First of all sorry for the few pictures. I have the case standing next to my triple monitor setup which was a point to get settled. I will post more pictures once I receive my LED strips. 

 

I've done some benchmarkings:

CB R15 at 1.25v @ 4.7GHz I got a score of 999 CPU and 134.13 OpenCL with a max temp of 71C. At 1.25v @ 4.8GHz 1015 CPU and 145.45 OpenCL max temp of 71C. At 1.27v @ 4.9GHzi got 1034 CPU and 148.23 OpenCL max temp of 76C. After the last CB R15 test I did Aida64 stress test for CPU, FPU, cache and RAM. About 20 min in I had a max temp of 82C.. which was a bit high for my taste. As I don't need a high overclock I've settled for 1.25v @ 4.7GHz. All test were performed at ambient temp of 22C. 

 

Here are some pictures, more will follow once LED strips are here.

 

 

 

As most of you know the 1080Ti might come soon, once I get that one I will be posting more updates.

 

Cheers and thanks for following.

 

[Zandvliet]

Hi all,

 

I redid my custom loop, here are some glamor shots.

 

 

 

 

[stealth80]

This is pretty cool! How did you top the res up? Its pretty close to the rad and I cant see a fill point external on the case? 

[Zandvliet]

30 minutes ago, stealth80 said:

This is pretty cool! How did you top the res up? Its pretty close to the rad and I cant see a fill point external on the case? 

Thanks! 

 

It might look like that, but I got about 4cm of clearance between the top of the reservoir and radiator.

[Zandvliet]

I just edited my OP  

[Zandvliet]

Here it is, the Asus Turbo RTX 2080.

 

 

The card looks pretty nice even though the shroud is plastic. It underwent about 2 hours of testing, 3DMark, Heaven Benchmark, Aida64 stress testing. All seemed fine, no weird issues and the card's temperature was at maximum 82C. It wasn't the most quiet card, but it wasn't too bad. 

 

 

In the meantime I prepared the my pc, drained the previous loop and started cleaning. Cable managment in the case is pretty difficult. Especially with the 2 x 2 USB 3.0 cables which are very thick. 

 

 

That's it for now!

[Zandvliet]

New update!

 

The GPU just fits in the case with the PSU. The clearance was about 2-3mm. 

 

Unfortuantly the EK backplate is longer than the PCB, which meant I had to move the PSU by a couple of millimeters to the front of the case. Which luckely wasn't that bad. 

Next up was putting the EK waterblock onto the GPU. It was fun to do so again, it's been almost 3 years since I put one on. With some background music it took about 30 minutes. 

 

 

Mounting the GPU in the case was also somewhat troublesome. I forgot that the allignment of the back I/O and the PCIe extension slot isn't correct. I guess it is a manufacturing error, which resulted into me having to tap two extra holes on the bracket holding the PCIe extension. 

On the picture below one can see that the backplate is longer than the PCB of circa 8mm. This is due to the fact (I guess) that the EK waterblock also includes a plastic bracket at the back which can be taken off. 

 

 

Cheers!

[Zandvliet]

It's done!

 

 

See you all when the next update is here!