[Buildlog] I NEED MOAR ROG

[Cakezxc]

Well, this is what I ended up with. A total of 11 ROG logos across the entire station.

 

Spoiler

 

Now that I have your attention (hopefully), lets go back to the beginning. I built a i5-6600k based rig in 2016 with the same philosophy - More ROG = More sex appeal - and it looked something like this:

 

Not a bad looking rig, performs well, awesome temps and performance for the amount of money I spent on it. I loved it.

 

And then two weeks ago this happened.

 

 

That's the reservoir of the good ol' Swiftech H220-x gone. I had to pull the whole thing out and have the system live on a stock Intel HSF for about 2 weeks.

 

So as I looked into custom watercooling solutions that'd fit in my NZXT N450, I began to realise just how outdated my entire rig is becoming. The N450 isnt watercooling friendly at all, the i5 6600k had always left me wanting for more when I was running simulations and CPU heavy games, and the Swiftech waterblock that just wouldn't glow properly red has been triggering me ever since I got it.

 

So that's what got me started. I want more. I want a 6 core Coffee Lake i7. I want hardline watercooling. I want tempered glass. And most of all, I WANT ROG.

 

And so, I drove up to Stoke-on-Trent to Overclockers.co.uk and blew almost half of my month's salary. No big deal. Traffic on the M6 there and back was probably the worst part of all this.

 

Honestly, it wasn't until this point that I realised how privileged I was, as a PCMR, to have lived in Taiwan most of my life. The largest PC parts market IN THE WORLD was only 15 mins away by metro from my place in Taipei City, as opposed to wasting 3 hours on a motorway here in the UK.

 

This is what I bought from OCUK:

 

The complete parts specs are: 

• ASUS ROG Maximus X Hero

• Intel i7 8700k - 5.0Ghz/1.328v

• Avexir ROG Impact 4 x 4Gb - 3000Mhz/1.35v

• Asus ROG GTX 1070 Strix O8G

• EVGA G2 750w

• Plextor M8PE(g) 256Gb

• Kingston Hyper X 3k SSD 128Gb x 2 in RAID 0

• Samsung Spinpoint R2 1Tb x 2 in RAID 0

• Phanteks Enthoo Pro Special Edition

• Phanteks Glacier R160 Reservoir

• Swiftech Apogee XL CPU waterblock

• Swiftech MCP350 DDC 3.2 Pump

• XSPC 14mm PETG tubing and fittings

• Magicool G2 Slim 360mm radiator (16 FPI, 30mm)

• 3 x Corsair ML120 for the radiator with EKWB 3 PWM fan splitter

• Phanteks ATX, 8 Pin CPU, 8 Pin VGA cable extension

• Phanteks Halos 120 RGB Frame x 2

• Phanteks F120 and F140 XP fans

• EKWB Ball valve

• Phanteks G 1/4" plugs

 

I dont think I need to make too many rationalisations here on the parts. Mobo+CPU combo is pretty self explanatory, and the WC parts were decided pretty quickly.

 

The only part that actually made me spent a week pondering and watching about 20 different Hardware Canucks' reviews though, was the case.

 

I'll be honest. Im VERY picky on cases. Let's list out my requirements for the case:

 

- Good res+rad supports

- Has to be mid tower, or a small full tower

- TEMPERED GLAAAAAASSsssss

- Clean, not overly tacky/aggressive looks (i got tired looking at the N450 tbh...)

- Has to be able to house at least 2 3.5" hdds while supporting the radiators

- Preferably comes with RGB fans

- Costs less than £140.

 

After those criterias, only 3 cases were in contention for me:

- Lian Li Alpha 330x

- Phanteks Enthoo Pro

- Fractal Define R6

 

Obviously I went with the Phanteks case in the end, but for most of the week before I made a decision, the Lian Li was the front runner. The R6, although very very good, was a bit too boring looking for me and was £20 more than the other two.

 

I guess I just love Lian Lis. Heck my rig in Taiwan is still rocking this classic:

 

 

Yea that's right. The legendary Red Spider. the PC8-FIR. This full aluminium badass costed me a cool 250 USD back in the day. If the internal layouts weren't so outdated I would've actually moved it here to the UK in the beginning.

 

So why did I choose the Phanteks in the end?

 

Well. Now that I have built a whole hardline WC PC in it, I can tell you that I think it's got a strong case to be the.....uh....case....of the year. At least the most versatile.

 

Standing at 53cm tall, it's at the upper limits of what are considered Mid tower cases. Hell, even Phanteks themselves call it a full tower. You know what that means?

 

That means awesome clearance for the top radiator and fans. 

 

 

Its not everyday you see a mid tower case that can mount a full push/pull radiator setup on top without having a top shroud of some sort.

 

And then theres the reservoir support. This is currently the only mid tower in the world that can house up to 6 3.5mm drives while still having native support to full sized reservoirs.

 

 

Perfect for someone like me that still runs spinning hdds in RAID 0 then. On paper at least. We'll come back to this reservoir mounting plate later.

 

This case also doesnt fall into the "choke front airflow in favor of looks" trap that many cases released in 2017, including the Alpha 330X i was looking at, fell into.

 

Build Quality is seriously exceptional. It is on par, if not better than the NZXT N450. The modularity of the case is a huge plus too. If I am to remove all 3.5mm hdd cages and the enitre pillar that holds the cages together, I can sqeeze 240 rads up front and down bottom. Almost nothing is riveted on in this case and I think that is downright awesome.

 

Now that I got the choice of case out of the way, lets get on with the build.

 

 

First order of business. We all know how shitty Intel's IHS thermal compound is these days. Back in the days, delidding was something you do to get the best temps possible, not to be done in order to prevent thermal throttling.

 

Now, I have indeed delidded my previous CPU that's the 6600k the OG way with a knife so I wasnt too worried. But when I saw Linus' video on the Der8auer Delid Mate, I had to get one for myself to see how easy its become.

 

A minute later with no risks of cutting my own finger open taken, I ended up with this

 

 

Seriously. This is way too easy. 

 

I used Coolab's ultra LM compund on it, stuck the IHS back on and called it a day on the building, since the silicone had to be dry before I could do anything to the build.

 

 

 

I'm just gonna skip the building part since I'd assume noone here wants to see that boring stuff. Lets get straight on to the watercooling.

 

 

 

I know a lot of the pros on this forum likes to use 3d modelling/sketchups to plan out their build and impress the living crap out of everyone (including myself) here.

 

Well. I deal with enough solidworks drawing and simulations for my day job and honestly dont want to use it in my free time. So I did it the old school way.

 

 

I know, i know, if I drawn the model to scale in Solidworks I could've saved myself from the trouble of having to measure the lengths of the pipes physically. But I was lazy and I went ahead with it.

 

 

 

Now, if you've paid attention to the parts list above of the stuff I bought from OCUK, you'd have realised I didnt buy any waterblocks or pump. So whats the deal?

 

Well. Remember how I had a H220-x kit from Swiftech? They call it an "Expendable AIO" kit, but honestly, its more like a Swiftech patented Res+Rad combo hooked up to other WC parts Swiftech made at the time.

 

And unlike the EKWB Fluid line, the kit was full on copper. This means I could salvage both the pump (Swiftech MCP-350 DDC 3.1) and the waterblock (Apogee XL), which are both a bit old, but are still solid performers.

 

Bonus point: The pump bolts right on to the Phanteks reservoir.

 

 

Now, remember how I said we'd come back to that res mounting plate? Well here it is. As you can see, I drilled quite a few extra holes on it.

 

BUT WHY? ARENT THEY BOTH PHANTEKS??//? 

 

Well. Whoever designed the Glacier reservoirs clearly forgotten that they made this plate back in 2014. The screw mounting holes are now 42mm spaced instead of the original 40mm on this plate.

 

I wasn't amused by this in the beginning, but later found that this was a blessing in disguise as I could decide on where exactly I want to mount the reservoir.

 

And then theres this other mod I had to make.

 

 

If any of you have seen/used the Apogee XL IRL, youd know that the "red" lighting shade plate that came with the block was actually orange. That's not gonna fly in my build. So I stripped the to acrylic plate of the original Swiftech logo and painted the rear with a light coat of burgundy. Why burgundy? Well, thats to compensate for the white LEDs in the waterblock.

 

I also needed even more ROG logo so I did a bit of improvisation by cutting out the logo from a fan sticker to be used as a stencil. 

 

Honestly, im not very good at spray painting. Nevertheless, still kind of happy with the result.

 

Obviously, I couldn't be taking pictures while bending the tubes to that'd have to be omitted from this log. Still, I think it's surprisingly easy even though it's my first time doing it and managed to do all the bends in one go. Might have something to do with the fact that I've done one dimensional bends on steel pipes for pneumatic systems for my job before but I digress

 

I actually wanted to shoot a slow mo video of the loop being filled but I couldn't find my tripod so that's out the window too. Now that I've found it ill be sure to do it just for the sake of doing it the next time im filling it up again.

 

One more thing to note, cable management in the Pro SE is so easy that it made me feel like it's just cheating. The back of the case is so spacious and there are cable tie points everywhere. Phanteks REALLY knows what they're doing.

 

 

Also, for the final touch. One last ROG logo......OR IS IT?

 

 

So here is a few shot of the completed build

 

 

 

Now I ain't gonna bore all 3 of you that actually read everything I blabbered on about with benchmark figures. However, the thermals this thing is posting is straight up incredible and I feel like it's worth mentioning.

 

 

And that's it for this part of the upgra.....wait. What do you mean I "forgot" to watercool the GPU?

 

Well the thing is, the 1070, albeit still a really powerful card, is starting to show its age in the latest AAA titles at ultra settings even at 1080p.

 

Soooo......I guess I'll just have to burn another one of my paycheck when nVidia releases Turing/Ampere cards later this year. Also, I am already planning a second loop dedicated to the GPU(s) that will further compliment the white/red/black color scheme. So keep an eye out for that!

[Jurrunio]

Set the AVX offset to 0 and run Prime95's small FFT test. That should push temps further.

[Cakezxc]

1 minute ago, Jurrunio said:

Set the AVX offset to 0 and run Prime95's small FFT test. That should push temps further.

I've never used P95 before since I never had a cooler this powerful. I'll try that right now actually.

[LienusLateTips]

wait ur in taiwan?

 

I'm from Taiwan and currently there

[Cakezxc]

8 hours ago, JDE said:

wait ur in taiwan?

 

I'm from Taiwan and currently there

Yea I was born and raised in Taipei City. Currently living and working in Britain though.

[LienusLateTips]

15 hours ago, Cakezxc said:

Yea I was born and raised in Taipei City. Currently living and working in Britain though.

Taipei city too expensive for me (sobs), lives in Taipei County/New Taipei City only sometimes

[Tech_Dreamer]

Cool Build, very nice pics as well. Good Job.