Project: Corsair/i7/WC build

[Petrucci_M3]

Hey guys, I guess I’ll go ahead and start my write up of my current build. I hope to have this somewhat complete by the end of December/middle of January. This will be my second build and my first watercooling build, so bear with any questions or noobishness that may follow. Here’s the specs I’m looking at right now, as I’m sourcing together my build little by little.

Motherboard: EVGA X58 SLI LE
CPU: Intel Core i7 920
RAM: Corsair Dominator 6GB DDR3 (3x2GB)
GPU: EVGA GTX260 Core 216 896MB
PSU: BFG Tech ES Series ES-800
Case: Corsair Obsidian Series 800D

Watercooling:

Swiftech Apogee XT
Swiftech MCR320
Swiftech MCP 655 Pump with Speed Controller
EK 150 Reservoir
Bitspower ½ ID ¾ OD Compression Fittings
Feaser ½ ID ¾ OD 45° Compression Fittings
PrimoFlex PRO Tubing ½ ID ¾ OD (White)

Here’s the case, and as you know it’s freaking huge. On to some pictures:

Here’s what was waiting for me when I go home on Thursday. I love boxes, don’t you?

Some shots of the reservoir.

Lastly, some close up shots of the Feser compressions. Sidewinder was out of the Bitspower angled fittings, otherwise I would have went with them and I’m not going to be paying 8 bucks shipping for these small things. Eh.

Tomorrow I should be receiving my order from Sidewinder and I’ll hopefully grab some pictures of the parts. I’ll be placing my order tonight at MDPC X for some sleeving. Probably going for either black or white sleeving and this will keep me busy while I source the rest of my parts.

Oh and here are some pictures of what I was working on Friday and Saturday, and what helps fund my other hobbies.

For my info or to see more pictures here’s a link to my write up.

http://www.autopia.org/forum/pro-de...cci-detailed-2009-lamborghini-murci-lago.html

 

[Xiphos]

Nice case choice.... I've already seen some case gallery pictures with that case
I especially like the HDD bay feature the most

nice ride also ;D

 

[Petrucci_M3]

Nice case choice.... I've already seen some case gallery pictures with that case
I especially like the HDD bay feature the most

nice ride also ;D

Thanks man, I was soooo dead set on a V1200 plus II, but this seemed so right at the moment.

UPDATE

Received this after work from Sidewinder Computers. Very excited to see the contents =)

The moment of truth for the waterblock. I initially was going to go with the Enzotech Sapphire block, but said what the heck. I haven’t upgraded my system in three years and coming from a Opty 170 and 7800GTX this should hold me over for awhile.

WOW! Looks so much better in person.

Upon further investigation I found these interesting things. I have two normally looking screw heads and two that look like some sort of crust or build up on them. Take a look at the pictures.

Clean versions look like this:

Here are the two “dirty” ones, I have no idea what that could be, hopefully it can be cleaned up. 80 bucks later…

Also, checked this out, as it was known to come from the factory with pushed and deformed pins. Apparently they aren’t suppose to change, but who knows, again 80 dollars later…

What do you guys think? RMA or should I just deal with it and move on?

Here are some shots with the Feser 45 angle compression fittings installed.

Just some other shots of the fittings installed.

Well, that’s it for now. I have my MDPC-X order from Nils coming in the mail and that should keep me busy until I decide when to purchase the main components to this build. My birthday is this Saturday and we have Christmas in a few weeks.

 

[WicKeDcHilD]

http://i399.photobucket.com/albums/pp77/PetrucciM3/Comptuer%20Build%2009-10/ecomputer_63.jpg[IMG]

What do you guys think? RMA or should I just deal with it and move on?
[/QUOTE]

Get a HK or wait for the new EK High flows, once some reviews come out. I picked up a HK over the swift just because i knew when i spent my money on their block, I wouldn't get it and have it be another swift horror story block. :(

 

[AthlonXP]

Many i love that case!! Was so happy to get one for christmas!! My GF was nice enough to let me get it early.

 

[d3an]

Fantastic detailing work on that lambo ...and looking forward to more updates on this build!

 

[Petrucci_M3]

Many i love that case!! Was so happy to get one for christmas!! My GF was nice enough to let me get it early.

It's great isn't it? I can't wait to see what future designs Corsair will come out with, this one is close to being "perfect" .

Fantastic detailing work on that lambo ...and looking forward to more updates on this build!

Thank you sir! I'll post up a few cars that I do along the time span of this build.

 

[Petrucci_M3]

UPDATE

Got this package last week, from the one and only

Seriously can't wait to open this thing up.

Very nice!

Here's what the color scheme of my build is going to be. I was going for a pure white and black concept, but that seemed, dare I say overplayed just a tiny bit (but it looks so nice and clean though). So, I wanted to take from that idea and add my own flavor to it and this led me to choose this beautiful blue. Hopefully people enjoy the look because I think it flows nicely together.

Very nice!! Mr. John Petrucci, must be jealous of this. Haha

So I dove right into it, thinking this shouldn't take more than 6 or 8 hours. Yeah effing right! Ahhhhhhh! This lone pin literally took me a hour of fiddling around with to get out. I seriously thought about giving up or thinking that this power supply would be a failure for sure.

I made sure to test the PSU before cutting anything up, just in case you know.

But here we go, some progress, and nicely labeled up.

In this picture you can see the hideous manufacture's sleeving. This had to go STAT.

Since I am using white, I wanted to make sure the color was perfect. So I went ahead and wrapped all the white pieces with electrical tape. This honestly took the longest and was (and is) my most dreaded procedure. But it's all worth it at the end, that’s for sure.

My best friend through this strenuous ordeal. I'm getting a craving looking at this picture... ohhhh nice and cold too.

/addiction

Some progress shown in these pictures.

Ok so here are some finished shots of most of the cables, I still have to do the two PCI-e cables and both SATA strands. <----Not looking forward to that, and hopefully I can get those off.

I see some improvement in these shots for sure. I’ll have to clean them up at a later date.

That's it for now, I'll most likely update the case construction next. I have to place my next order for more sleeving and heatshrink and wait for that to arrive to continue.

See you guys soon.

 

[Shadowssong]

Beautiful job man! What fans are you going to use on the rad?

 

[Petrucci_M3]

Beautiful job man! What fans are you going to use on the rad?

Thank you!

I love the design of the Fractal Design fans. But they sell them only in the UK and I found a place that has the but it is a killer price to have just three fans sent over to Arizona.

So, I think I'm going to go with Nexus with the white blades and then sleeve them up. Should work well. I thought about the Gelid fans but I hate the look of that sticker, not sure if I can heat it up and remove it but I don't know what the underside looks like.

 

[MurderCityDevil]

Hahaha man I remember the first time I did MDPC style sleeving...I thought oh this won't take more than a few hours...took almost the entire day and I too struggled forever with the very first wire and was certain I broke my PSU. Although what I did was actually ripped off the crimped pin off the end of a dual-wire and it was damn near impossible to put it back on without a crimping tool. But the end result is so worth it. Looks really good, keep it up!

 

[Petrucci_M3]

UPDATE - (Finally)

Wow it’s been awhile and I finally found some time to upload the pictures I’ve been taking. I’ve been swamped with school, work, life, and working on cars. But on to the good stuff.


Recieved my second order of sleeving, can't wait to get cracking.

Always nice! Thank you again!

Always nice that he adds a sample of other colors. I love the aqua a lot, might add some later on or gray too.

Ahhhh good ol' Newegg!

Finally got my fans for my rad, just have to sleeve them (ughh).

Got my order in from Sidewinder

So beautiful in person, sorry for the shitty lighting.

A little before pictures of my mini project.

Hmmmm, decent.

All done!

My TigerDirect order came in.

Love this part!

So here are some completed pictures of the power supply. Note to self, buy a modular one for sure. This one was a big pain in the ass, but I made it work (I think). Right at this very second I'm trimming each heatshrink to a specific size. So I apologize for the sloppiness in the pictures.

Got a visitor, checking in on my progress.

Fans all sleeved up. So much better, IMO. I wonder if I should of did one in blue, eh.

Hopefully my next post will sooner. Still have a long way to go, but this is a major work in progress.

 

[Petrucci_M3]

For all the car guys, just a few cars I was working on during the last update.

Detailed: 1995 BMW Avus M3

http://www.autopia.org/forum/pro-details-before-after/126874-petrucci-detailed-1995-bmw-avus-m3.html

Detailed: 2001 BMW 740i

http://www.autopia.org/forum/pro-de...etrucci-detailed-2001-bmw-jet-black-740i.html

Detailed: Volkswagen Red Jetta TDI

http://www.autopia.org/forum/pro-de...trucci-detailed-volkswagen-red-jetta-tdi.html

See you all on the other side!

 

[Petrucci_M3]

UPDATE

Instead of buying 140mm white fans, I decided to paint my stock Corsair fans. Here's a shot of what they look like, really clean looking and quiet.

All dissembled and primed, next step was a lot of very thin coats of white paint.

Forgot to take some after shots, but later down you'll see them all done. Did some more sleeving, got the front connections all nice and cleaned up.

Last night after work, I finally got my Corsair DDR3 in the mail so I couldn't wait to get home and finally test all the parts and get ready for the waterblock installation. So here's a silly shot of everything working. First try! I was a little nervous but, you gotta have faith right?

Everyone's seen this board before, but here's some before shots with the gorgeous heatsinks.

That was quick, ripped those suckers off to find this mess.

Much better!

Some shots of everything so far installed in the case. Gotta get some extensions for my eight pin and 24 power cable, so that means another order with Nils.

Also, I'm seriously 99% sure I'm going to ditch my EK 150 RES and get the iandh 225, and some more compression fittings. Still trying to figure out what fan controller I want to use. Welp, on to the next future update. Take care all.

 

[BeavermanA]

Damn, looking real nice. You must have a lot of patience, after I get my stuff it has to be installed that weekend if I'm not working. Though mine isn't nearly as polished. Like the look of the white too.

Wish you could work on my car as well, maybe wouldn't need to be repainted.

 

[Power5]

What products do you use on those cars?

Love the splash of color the blue adds. Very nice touch.

 

[fochkoph]

Man those Corsair fans turned out beeeeaaaauutiful. I'm a huge fan of the black and white scheme!

How did you dismantle the fans? Just pulled them off?

 

[WorldExclusive]

Very nice. In what city do you detail cars?

 

[Vonstar]

God that is sexy as hell. I am going with the same motherboard/cpu/gpu.........can't wait to see this finished up!

 

[Crys1s_Gam3r]

The last few pics look awesome. The grand bleu accents add so much.

 

[finalgt]

I don't often come in this subforum, let alone post - but jesus dude, keep the good work the hell up. Looks NICE.

 

[Petrucci_M3]

Damn, looking real nice. You must have a lot of patience, after I get my stuff it has to be installed that weekend if I'm not working. Though mine isn't nearly as polished. Like the look of the white too.

Wish you could work on my car as well, maybe wouldn't need to be repainted.

Thank you

This build really has tested my patience, I'm just like you, get and that same hour boom, built. I wish there were more time in the day like when we were kids and I could have this thing wrapped up so much quicker. Almost there.

What products do you use on those cars?

Love the splash of color the blue adds. Very nice touch.

Thanks man.

For the paint correction I use a Flex 3403 rotary, various Menzerna polishes and Lake Country lo-profile polishing pads.

Man those Corsair fans turned out beeeeaaaauutiful. I'm a huge fan of the black and white scheme!

How did you dismantle the fans? Just pulled them off?

Aww thanks man!

First time painting fans, and I'm assuming they are just like others. Pull the sticker back, and pop this little white C clip and they pull apart. Very simple when you get the first one apart.

Very nice. In what city do you detail cars?

Thanks! I'm in Arizona.

God that is sexy as hell. I am going with the same motherboard/cpu/gpu.........can't wait to see this finished up!

Thank you!

The last few pics look awesome. The grand bleu accents add so much.

Thank you! I hadn't seen too many people with the scheme so I was taking a leap ordering those heaps from Nils. I think the gray would also go well with my build. Maybe next time.

I don't often come in this subforum, let alone post - but jesus dude, keep the good work the hell up. Looks NICE.

Thank you for the kind words!

At this very moment, I'm sleeving my new 24 pin, PCI and 8 pin extensions. My sidewinder order with my extra compression was suppose to come on Friday but, they had some shipping problem. No biggie, says they will be here tomorrow. Hopefully then I can start cutting the white tubing and get this on the road.

 

[wonSR4]

Pretty dang sweet man! Case work is splendid as is your detailing work!

 

[ROCKETR]

Wow, I am speechless as to how good your build is looking and those cars are nice!!

Keep up the great work. I'm looking forward to the final product.

 

[Petrucci_M3]

Pretty dang sweet man! Case work is splendid as is your detailing work!

Thank you sir

Wow, I am speechless as to how good your build is looking and those cars are nice!!

Keep up the great work. I'm looking forward to the final product.

Thank you for the kind words , it's really nothing, kinda too simple.

 

[Petrucci_M3]

UPDATE - well a small one

Nice package I received from Taiwan.

The goods.

Here's a shot of the pump before I went back to work. I had to do away with the individual sleeving and combine them because they both wouldn't fit inside the tiny holes in the rear.

I had to sleeve some extensions, one 24 pin, two PCI-e, and one 8 pin. Here are some after shots, I've got my sleeving procedure down to a tee now, a lot better than the other things I've sleeved.

And here's the final shots of the pump.

What the case looks like now with some hardware in place. No RES yet, I'm still waiting for the iandh 225's to come back into stock. I also had to rotate (not pictured) the XT's position to accommodate the BP's 45's. I also, hope I can make the tubes work with this position otherwise I'll have to switch the radiator around.

Too close together and the angle makes it a tight fit for the tubing.

What a mess, I'll have to clean this up later.

I can't get over how hideous my 260GTX looks. I'm not sure if I want to take the stickers off and do something about the color. I want to eventually pick up some 295's in the near future and probably sell this card. Hmmmmm decisions.

Any hopefully the next update I'll be closer to finishing this project. I laugh when I first posted and said I'd be finish by the end of December or January. Hahahaha.

 

[jeansamedi]

This is great. Thanks for the pics. Subscribed!

 

[ryken]

your car detailing is phenomenal. I sold cars for two years and the new cars never looked that good.

 

[BeavermanA]

FYI the iandh 225 res is supposedly in stock at Petra's, ordered mine. Let's hope it gets here faster than my last order from them, took 5 weeks .

 

[mrmylanman]

That is a nice looking build, I have the same quality issues with my Apogee XT as well, as long as it cools I'm fine though... I have a piece of rubber or something else black lodged in between some of the copper fins though. I haven't had time to use it yet (my P6T6 died, and I'm waiting on a new board to come in).

But like I said your build looks awesome can't wait to see it finished!

 

[Elledan]

Woah, they threw that box out of the airplane or what?

 

[USUAggie]

Looks gorgeous so far, if you don't mind me asking, how loud are all those nexus fans when going together?

 

[formula409]

Nice work with the sleeving. Going to look awesome when finished.

 

[picool]

nice setup

 

[Cruiza]

VERY nice work so far. Keep it up!

/subbed

 

[Petrucci_M3]

This is great. Thanks for the pics. Subscribed!

Thank you!

your car detailing is phenomenal. I sold cars for two years and the new cars never looked that good.

Thanks for the kind words

FYI the iandh 225 res is supposedly in stock at Petra's, ordered mine. Let's hope it gets here faster than my last order from them, took 5 weeks .

Haha, I should of bought mine along time ago.

That is a nice looking build, I have the same quality issues with my Apogee XT as well, as long as it cools I'm fine though... I have a piece of rubber or something else black lodged in between some of the copper fins though. I haven't had time to use it yet (my P6T6 died, and I'm waiting on a new board to come in).

But like I said your build looks awesome can't wait to see it finished!

Thank you!!

Woah, they threw that box out of the airplane or what?

Looks like it doesn't it? lol

Looks gorgeous so far, if you don't mind me asking, how loud are all those nexus fans when going together?

Compared to my old thermaltake fans in my old system these are super quiet. Right now, I can only here my pump, if that helps. I believe there is a chart that has the exact dBs but I don't know off the top of my head.

Nice work with the sleeving. Going to look awesome when finished.

Thank you

nice setup

VERY nice work so far. Keep it up!

/subbed

Thank you guys!

Well, for the car guys here are some of the most recent cars I completed while waiting for my iandh RES to come in.

Petrucci Detailed: Sparkling Graphite Metallic BMW 335i

Petrucci Detailed: BMW Alpine White E46 M3

PetrucciM3 | BMW E46 Alpine White

PetrucciM3 | BMW E46 M3 Laguna Seca Blue

PetrucciM3 | BMW E92 M3 Jet Black

PetrucciM3 | 2007 BMW Imola Z4 M Coupe

PetrucciM3 | BMW Interlagos M6

PetrucciM3 | BMW E46 M3 Carbon Black

PetrucciM3 | 2008 Chevrolet Black Corvette

 

[Petrucci_M3]

UPDATE

Finally!

After months of stalling and waiting I finally picked up my iandh 225 RES to complete my build and boy was it worth it.

Here's a few shots of the first tubing routes, decent but not perfect.

The moment of truth - Leak test

I flipped that switch, and heard the pump kick in and the water rushing through the tubing and all of a sudden I started to get a leak near the front the radiator.

I quickly turned the power supply off and grabbed a towel. Crap...

I made a terrible noob mistake by tightening my fan screws too tight, thus creating a small leak at three screw points.

So, I guess I saw this as a perfect opportunity to pick up another brand that I've been lusting after. I picked up a XSPC RX360 - 3x120mm Radiator Rev. 2 from Jab-tech and this was such a better choice than my Swiftech. You obviously get what you pay for right? Truth.

Anyway, a week later I did another leak test and no problems at all!

Here are a few pictures of the final look (yeah right) of my second build/first watercooled build. Hope you guys enjoy! Thanks again for checking out my log!

A couple of shots of what it looks like in my room.

Specs:

Motherboard: EVGA X58 SLI LE
CPU: Intel Core i7 920
RAM: Corsair Dominator 6GB DDR3 (3x2GB)
GPU: EVGA GTX260 Core 216 896MB
PSU: BFG Tech ES Series ES-800
Case: Corsair Obsidian Series 800D
Storage: WD Caviar Black 1TB SATA HD (2 TB)
Windows 7

Watercooling:

Swiftech Apogee XT
XSPC RX360
Swiftech MCP 655 Pump with Speed Controller
iandh Stealth RES 225
Bitspower ½ ID ¾ OD Compression Fittings
PrimoFlex PRO Tubing ½ ID ¾ OD (White)
Nexus 120mm fans

 

[Wahoomcdaniel]

The wiring looks very clean. Overall, the build turned out great.

I don't want to detract from your final PC pics, but those detailing pictures are unbelievable. I want to go wash, wax, and detail my car to attempt to get the paint approaching your results. Care to offer a detailing guide?

 

[Petrucci_M3]

The wiring looks very clean. Overall, the build turned out great.

I don't want to detract from your final PC pics, but those detailing pictures are unbelievable. I want to go wash, wax, and detail my car to attempt to get the paint approaching your results. Care to offer a detailing guide?

Thank you!

Basically to achieve those results you'll need to acquire a polisher, depending on your experience level I would probably suggest a Porter Cable.

I also use Menzerna polishes along with Lake Country pads.

Menzerna Super Intensive Polish with a orange polishing pad then after the swirls are out I finish it up with Menzerna 106FA on a white polishing pad. Then after an alcohol/water wipe down the paint is ready for a sealant or wax.

 

[guoinc]

Wow sexy cars, and very nice build. Is that your job cleaning up car scratches?