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VanGoghComplex
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Apr 5, 2016
- Messages
- 2,286
Hey all! I got the bug again recently and so I'm doing an update to my main rig. Here's a thread to share that with you all.
There are a few niggling flaws with Hephaestus as it is now, pictured below.
For one, I'm color locked to red. The fans, the LED ring on the reservoir, and the sleeved cabling are all red. I like red, but my mobo and GPU are RGB equipped, so it would be nice to be able to change it up every now and again. Some color-neutralizing will be required.
First thing's first, of course: strip the machine. Due to the cramped nature of the GPU, the rear radiator, and the hardline tubing, this is an endeavor that must be taken on in a specific order.
Get the red out... (this stuff is over in FSFT if you're interested!)
And (chronologically out of order) run some Primochill Sysprep through the res and rads. I'm using Primochill Vue in the rebuild, so I want to make sure everything is in good clean shape.
I'd originally planned to disassemble that waterblock and clean it by hand, but Gigabyte chose to make that a very difficult prospect. Therefore, it gets Sysprep too!
I'm sorry I didn't get any pictures of the CPU block, which I did take apart and clean. It had some gnarly black gunk in it that looked almost fibrous. My only guess on that is the low-concentration black dye that I ran in it for a while to give the coolant a "cloudy" look.
I wanted to get rid of the orange on the Gigabyte card, because of course I did. The original plan was to take the paint off with some sort of solvent. The plate on the front is anodized aluminum, so solvent did nothing to it but clean it. The paint, however, was super-resilient. It did come with with Acetone or MEK, but I was being impatient so I tried the masking job and paint pen you see above.
I didn't take pictures of the results because they were garbage. After cleaning off the paint, I consigned myself to an hour and a half of scrubbing with a q-tip.
And... imagine my surprise and delight to find that the paint was applied BEFORE the aluminium was anodized! It masked the process, meaning after removing the paint, I still get the pattern but in a bright aluminum color! It took SO LONG you guys. But, if you ask me, this is how it should have looked from the factory. I've been harassing Gigabyte on Twitter about putting orange paint on RGB products. They haven't responded yet, but someday...
Here it's shown with all the paint off and the new black and white cables from CableMod. The Seasonic PSU you see down there is new as well. My Corsair RM550 served me well, but it needed to go for this build.
Here's a shot showing the fitment of the new fans: Blacknoise NB eLoop 140s, fitted with Phanteks Halos RGB frames. The light bouncing off the glossy black fan rotors should be a nice subtle lighting effect.
That rear radiator has been the thorn in this build's side from day one. It is too wide to mount flat to the back panel, and thus must be stood off enough to clear the I/O shield shroud on the mobo. You can see the nylon spacers in there. However, it can't be stood off too far: the eLoop fans are 29mm thick, and then add 6mm for the Phanteks frames. It's not touching the terminal of the GPU block, but it's clearing by a mm or less.
Both of these Swiftech rads also have their mounting holes spaced wrong, by a little bit. I've been able to make them work through persuasion, but I won't be buying Swiftech rads again.
More to come!
There are a few niggling flaws with Hephaestus as it is now, pictured below.
For one, I'm color locked to red. The fans, the LED ring on the reservoir, and the sleeved cabling are all red. I like red, but my mobo and GPU are RGB equipped, so it would be nice to be able to change it up every now and again. Some color-neutralizing will be required.
First thing's first, of course: strip the machine. Due to the cramped nature of the GPU, the rear radiator, and the hardline tubing, this is an endeavor that must be taken on in a specific order.
Get the red out... (this stuff is over in FSFT if you're interested!)
And (chronologically out of order) run some Primochill Sysprep through the res and rads. I'm using Primochill Vue in the rebuild, so I want to make sure everything is in good clean shape.
I'd originally planned to disassemble that waterblock and clean it by hand, but Gigabyte chose to make that a very difficult prospect. Therefore, it gets Sysprep too!
I'm sorry I didn't get any pictures of the CPU block, which I did take apart and clean. It had some gnarly black gunk in it that looked almost fibrous. My only guess on that is the low-concentration black dye that I ran in it for a while to give the coolant a "cloudy" look.
I wanted to get rid of the orange on the Gigabyte card, because of course I did. The original plan was to take the paint off with some sort of solvent. The plate on the front is anodized aluminum, so solvent did nothing to it but clean it. The paint, however, was super-resilient. It did come with with Acetone or MEK, but I was being impatient so I tried the masking job and paint pen you see above.
I didn't take pictures of the results because they were garbage. After cleaning off the paint, I consigned myself to an hour and a half of scrubbing with a q-tip.
And... imagine my surprise and delight to find that the paint was applied BEFORE the aluminium was anodized! It masked the process, meaning after removing the paint, I still get the pattern but in a bright aluminum color! It took SO LONG you guys. But, if you ask me, this is how it should have looked from the factory. I've been harassing Gigabyte on Twitter about putting orange paint on RGB products. They haven't responded yet, but someday...
Here it's shown with all the paint off and the new black and white cables from CableMod. The Seasonic PSU you see down there is new as well. My Corsair RM550 served me well, but it needed to go for this build.
Here's a shot showing the fitment of the new fans: Blacknoise NB eLoop 140s, fitted with Phanteks Halos RGB frames. The light bouncing off the glossy black fan rotors should be a nice subtle lighting effect.
That rear radiator has been the thorn in this build's side from day one. It is too wide to mount flat to the back panel, and thus must be stood off enough to clear the I/O shield shroud on the mobo. You can see the nylon spacers in there. However, it can't be stood off too far: the eLoop fans are 29mm thick, and then add 6mm for the Phanteks frames. It's not touching the terminal of the GPU block, but it's clearing by a mm or less.
Both of these Swiftech rads also have their mounting holes spaced wrong, by a little bit. I've been able to make them work through persuasion, but I won't be buying Swiftech rads again.
More to come!
I might go with PETG tubing someday. That's an extra expense I need to justify first, lol.
