[Build log] Necromancer (in progress)

[GregEl]

Greetings from Greece. After a long break of about 3 years I return to modding and I am starting with project "Necromancer". It is a system with a theme inspired by the necromancer class from diablo 3 with custom watercooling and 3d printed accesories. I would like to thank Cooler Master that has agreed to support the project from the very start with a partial sponsorship!

 

Parts list:

Case: Cooler Master MC500M
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z370 Aorus Ultra Gaming WiFi
CPU: Intel i7 8700k
RAM: G.Skill Trident Z 32GB DDR4-3200MHz
GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Aero 8G OC
Storage: Samsung 970 EVO NVMe 500GB + Sandisk Ultra II 240 Sata 3 SSD + 2TB WD Black
PSU: Corsair RM 750i
Water cooling: EK Fluid Gaming A240G + EK-FG 240 expansion pack

Optical drive: Pioneer Blu-Ray 3D Recorder Dual Layer
Accessories: Cooler Master vertical GPU holder with riser cable, 3x CoolerMaster MasterFan MF120R RGB 120mm

Some parts were delivered at the workshop, so let's start assembly and testing.

 

First test mount of the motherboard in the case

 

First small mod was to remove the orange colored stripe at the back io cover. I think I will give it a second try to remove the color completely. Black motherboard, RGB lights and an orange stripe on a cover? Dear Gigabyte, why? You are forgiven though, because it is a great motherboard in general.

 

Ready to start sleeving the cables and I am greeted with the following "delightful" sight.

 

It is a known issue "caps on cables are ugly no matter what you do" and of course the capacitors are there for the voltage ripple. It is not a major issue if you remove the caps, but the less fiddling I do with the cables, the better for everyone. There is a workaround I decided to do. (more info later on)

 

I started with the 8-pin for the motherboard, with the classic trick of using tape on fingers to be able to pinch-press hot-molten paracord without getting burned.

 

I left the cap visible, because I will 3d print a cable cover that will mount with screws on the top radiator fans and also act as a cable and water cooling tubing guide.

 

 

Although as long as I don't have the water cooling parts, I can't get measurements and dimensions to start designing the cover. So I started designing a cover for the front USB cables and 24-pin making a few test prints to test the fit on each design step.

 

RAM sticks arrived and I got a mat black vinyl sticker. I cut some white acrylic-plexiglass, that I sanded with 800 grit sandpaper to make it have a mat finish. Also I 3d printed a fan grill I designed for the fan at the back.

 

Right now the build is at the following state.

 

 

Next small steps while I wait for the rest of the hardware to be delivered:

-Short video timelapse of the build log so far. (recording is done, I just need to edit the footage)

-Continue the design of the front cable cover to also hide the blu-ray drive sata cables.

-Make the GPU cable have a single 6+2pin connector at the end and not dual daisy chained connectors like the stock configuration is.

I expect to get the GPU in about 3 days, the NVMe SSD in 2 and the water cooling parts next week.
That is all for now. Valar makeris!

[Professor Dingledore]

Looking forward to it. I'm a long-time Diablo fan.

 

OT: Is it just me or are case manufacturers getting worse at lining up the grommet pass through for the 20/24 pin power connector?

[GregEl]

Quick and short update.

 

I made a simple timelapse video working on the system.

I will make one more at least with the new hardware and then a final one to showcase the build.

 

Speaking of new hardware, everything except the watercooling parts has arrived.

 

I build the system with air cooling to install windows and make sure that all hardware is working fine.

 

Everything is good, I have 3d printed more parts and I am waiting for the watercooling parts in a couple of days.

 

Stay tuned and Valar Makeris!

[GregEl]

Τhere has been a lot of progress on the build, so it's time for an update!

 

I 3d printed the final cable cover for the cables on the right of the motherboard.

 

It covers the 24pin cable, front usb 3+ front usb c cables, blu ray drive cables and the single 8pin for the GPU

 

The water cooling parts also arrived. Wierd fact: The EK fluid gaming eshop is different from the classic ekwb eshop and the parts ship from different warehouses as EK have themselves told me in a support ticket. So if I were to order RGB vardar fans I would have to pay double shipping because only plain vardar fans and not RGB are available in the fluid gaming eshop.

 

GPU waterblock, Cooler Master fans and radiators mounted

 

Started doing the tubing. The only issue I had with this case is that for the front radiator the fan screws are not long enough to mount the fans from the front and I had to mount the Vardar fans behind the radiator in pull config. For some reason that I don't understand the metal sheet on the front is punched in and that adds thickness making the screws too short to use for mounting the fans from the front.

 

Other than that though this case has been a joy to work with! No moddification was needed to mount the 3d printed parts. The cable cover is mounted using M4 screws and the holes are already there on the bar for the HDD cages and accessories. Also there are M3 holes on the bottom, which I used to mount the 3d printed base for the pump and plexi cover support.

 

I assembled the loop outside the case to flush it with distilled water. It was a good idea since I saw quite a few particles after draining the loop.

 

The good thing about soft tubing is that you can transfer the loop inside the case without the need to disassemble it. And the removable top radiator bracket of the case made it very easy to mount the fans at the very end of the mounting process of the loop.

 

I have left the pump running with power from an external PSU to bleed the bubbles and make sure the loop has no leaks.

 

I am making another video timelapse and I will take photos with good lighting of the final result. So the next update should have enough eye candy.

[GregEl]

And the second timelapse video is ready

Because it will be a few days until I upload the photos and video of the finished build, I put a small teaser in the thumbnail.

[GregEl]

 

The system is complete. Everything is up to date, did some overclocking and some stress testing. It is now delivered to the owner, who has started nostalgia playing diablo 2 and all the games in the Far cry series. I am waiting to hear his responce on graphics and performance when he plays Far Cry 5.

 

 

Temperature wise with prime95 and furmark the loop after 30 minutes was stable around 55-58C degrees on the CPU and 48-52C on the GPU. Very good temps considering that the room temperature was 28C, the blocks and radiators are the budget aluminium ones from EK and XMP was enabled making the 8700k run all cores at 4.3GHz. The only minor issue with the system is that the GPU has coil whine, but enabling vsync significally reduces it. Speaking of vsync, the owner told me that the next purchase for the system around Christmas time will be a 27 inch 1440p IPS gsync monitor.

 

But let's not delay things more. Here are the final photos and a slideshow video. Enjoy!