Monochromatic | X99 | Titan X(m) | Watercooling

Ahokas99 · January 24, 2018

The Compunator V.2

This is pretty much my "dream pc" from few years ago,

I couldn't afford all this at the time so here it is, bit late, but still here

Parts i've upgraded to slowly, core parts are mostly bought used (GPU, CPU, RAM, PSU).

For now i'm waiting to swap the case again, Define R6 Gunmetal TG has yet to arrive in Finland.

Planning to swap the 240mm radiator for a 360/420 radiator or maybe cramming 3 rads into the R6,

also thinking of switching to EK's Supermacy Evo Full Nickel at the same time to fit the "theme".

Current HW configuration

CPU: Intel i7-5960x 4,5Ghz 1,28vcore

Motherboard: Asus X99-E WS USB/3.1

Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury 32Gb 2400Mhz DDR4 (Black)

GPU: Asus Titan X Maxwell

SSD's: Samsung M.2 960 Evo 250Gb & OCZ 480Gb Trion 100

HDD's: Seagate Barracuda 1Tb + 2x 500Gb

Current case: Corsair 750D Airflow Edition.

PSU: Silverstone Strider Gold S 850W

Teh RGB: DeepCool 350 Magnetic led strips

Other: Akasa M.2 PCIe x4 Adapter (problems with the MB m.2 slot),

Silverstone Braided Black Cables for 24pin, 4+4pin & 2 x 6+2pin PCIe.

Watercooling configuration

CPU Block: EK Supermacy EVO Plexi + Nickel

GPU Block: Watercool Heatkiller IV XL Acrylic Black + Backplate

Res & Pump: EK-XRES D5 PWM (250mm + EK-Res X3 Multiport Top)

Fittings: EK 13/10mm Silver Compression fittings, 90° adapters &

T-Splitter, Alphacool Valve, Adaptors, Plugs & Pass trough Temp sensor fitting

Tubing & Coolant : EK DuraClear 9,5/12,7mm & EK CryoFuel Blue.

Radiators: Alphacool NexXxoS Full Copper 360mm + 240mm 30mm thick

Fans: EK Vardar 120's x5, Corsair AF-140's x3

Monochromatic theme

Aim of this build was to be very monochromatic themed with led illumination & coolant color differentiating the looks,

PrimoChill Vue coolant would fit perfectly but it's not meant for this high wattage, almost 24/7 running build.

I love the Asus X99 Worksation board looks, ofc it has other great features, like proper VRM cooling, USB 3.1 & alot of expandability/connectivity.

I would have gone for the EK waterblock for GPU too but sadly I didnt find any in stock, but Watercool Heatkiller block does the job and

I like the backplate on it. Alot has been copied from Corsair 750D owners club builds when it comes to stuff like mounting the reservoir.

Building experience

Building experience in Corsair Obsidian 750D Airflow edition was quite nice, ample room for working around with the custom loop,

cable management is bit lacking compared to the Define R5 I used earlier with the same loop configuration, but better than previous,

Phanteks Enthoo Evolv TG that was very tight fit for the radiators & res (140 version at the time).

I know it's a older design with main points being cabletie points and rubber grommets with radiator support limited by three 5.25 bays (and lots of pcie expansion slots, hence the full tower size)

but I couldn't help myself missing the cable straps and full coverage dust filters found on previous cases, 750D does not have a bottom mounted dust filter,

causing high amounts of dust to enter from the bottom radiator intake. PSU filter makes vibrating noises when fully mounted and pushed to it's position.

Radiator mounting was easy, not much hassle excluding having to lay the case on it's side to attach the bottom radiator (really big tower for my small table),

reservoir & pump combo was bit tricky to mount, It can be mounted between the 5.25 bays and motherboard with EK Res X3 mounts that fit trough some pre-drilled holes,

but I ended up attaching it to the 750D's drive cages mounted to the top position right under 5.25 bays with some screw holes aligning nicely to attach the res & pump combo onto it.

It still fits four regular 3.5inch drives (3 mounted now), the mounting screw and nut interfere with two of the drive caddies but thats no biggie.

The EK DuraClear tubing package I bought the first time (3m per package) was a very easy fit with the fittings using hot water and slight streching

w/ pliers to open them up over the barbs, and the compression ring screwed in nicely. Same cannot be said for the second batch DuraClear package

I got few months later, I had some serious trouble with trying to tighten the compression fittings to the same point which they fitted nicely in with the first batch of tubing.

Airflow, Radiator Placement & Draining System

Compared to the previous cases I have used with this build, it's far ahead in terms of airflow (yes not really comparable, all have different target groups) with perforated front panel and

no closed off top panels (Looking at you Evolv TG ). Two front 140mm fans provide plenty airflow and the EK Vardar 120's are plenty enough to push/pull air trough the radiators,

albeit being greyish and plain I like the look of these fans and they perform well for their intended purposes.

I have currently mounted the 240mm radiator on the bottom 240/280 spot taking in unflitered fresh air with the Alphacool Valve & EK T-Splitter handling draining,

also Alphacool Temp sensor passtrough fitting somewhere there, front 140mm fans are sucking in air trough front filter,

360mm radiator on top radiator position exhausting (fits 360mm effortlessly but requires 5.25 bay removal to fit proper 420mm rads),

and single Corsair AF-140 in the back exhausting.

(TL;DR : 4 intaking, 4 exhausting)

Development Over time

It has been pretty rough and problematic over time while building & upgrading this pc, some big ones to mention;

Titan X(m) shuntmod failure, simple liquid metal over the shunt had corroded the solder off, causing the shunt to almost completely fall off = black screen when drivers load

Fixed by resoldering the shunt back, result for my first soldering job was only 5-6% "smaller" power target, slight misreading from the shunt that is.

Motherboard & CPU fried, had a Asus X99-Pro/3.1 that either had a capacitor or VRM failure, resulting into a dead motherboard & CPU (at that time it was 5820K)

There was no way I could fix that, I dont have the equipment nor skill to fix such things. CPU was covered by insurance and the motherboard is still to date in Asus warranty service (2-3 months?)

All in all it's been rough

Pictures

(Currently too lazy to clean up the dust and table + repositioning the led strips. Will add as soon ~~as I get my ass off the chair~~ get some proper lighting to help my op5)

Edit 1: Just to illustrate the loop until I can get decent looking photos of it