Phanteks Enthoo Elite build log

Phanteks Enthoo Elite build log.

Work pays for my PC and while I can't justify the price, I'm the boss.



I'm aiming to make this the nicest build I have ever done personally. I used to do this stuff for a hobby but lost my passion for it after working in the IT industry for 12 or so years (including 3 years of bulk building PCs and servers). Now that I am out of IT I'm starting to renew my passion for this great hobby and finances allow me to do silly things so let the building commence...

I'm moving my existing, watercooled rig in to the new case but I decided not to move over any of my old WC gear.
Completed specs will be:

Phanteks Enthoo Elite (Duh)
i7-5960X
Rampage V Extreme
64GB G.Skill F4-3333C16-16GTZ
Two Gigabyte 1080Ti founders edition
Sound Blaster Zx
Samsung 850 Pro SSDs

Watercooling:
EKWB EK-Supremacy EVO X99
1080ti full cover EKWB blocks
Hardline tubing (PETG) with EKWB HDC compression fittings
EK-XTOP D5 PWM Plexi pump + EK-XRES 140 Revo D5 PWM (Glass)
EK-XRES X3 400
EK-Coolstream XE 480, XE 360, CE 420.
EK-Vardar F4-120 (7)
EK-Vardar F2-140 (4)

Radiators are installed, 480 in the bottom, 360 in the front and 420 in the top.
The 480 is going to be exhausting out the bottom, I'm still deciding on the top rad, I may put the barbs at the other end and at the moment it is setup to exhaust out the top but I'm considering having it sucking air in otherwise dust filtering is going to be completely worthless.




Cablemod order arrived today, I got red and black to go with the Rampage V Extreme as well as SATA cables to match.



I'm waiting on the second res and pump bracket which will go in next, will post pics when I have them in.

I'm going with a single loop.

(build update 2).

So my parts order finally arrived on Friday so I managed to mount the pump and res and put some tubing in place. I decided to go for a mix of hard and soft tubing.







One thing I can't understand is why EKWB doesn't sleeve their cables :nuts: The D5 PWM has a combination of red green and blue sticking out the bottom which would stick out like a sore thumb in a clean build so out comes the shrink wrap...



I'm a little worried about pressure drop with so much in a single loop so I have decided to add a second pump to the loop. I already have a EKWB D5 PWM gen 2 kicking around, I just don't have housing that will fit in the back on the Elite's pump mount so I ordered this from EKWB:

So after some thought I have made some changes to the loop order and the pump combo has been moved to a higher position to accommodate the new loop order.

Got my first HEDT pipe bent and installed too.





This turned out way better than I hoped; found a clean way to get the bottom and front rads linked up without having to make a hole, or remove those nice mid plates. Routed the tubing inside the front panel.





The second pump housing arrived earlier in the week as well so that went in today and linked it up to the bottom radiator.

I purchased a cutting/bending kit from EKWB and was really unhappy with the results. Honestly, 200 grit sandpaper and a freaking hacksaw?

People have been using copper/steel pipe cutters so I popped down to the hardware store and bought one for $12...

Turns out that it is useless at cutting PETG, the cutting disk is too blunt, yeah you can get through the pipe eventually but the result is still not that great.

So I pulled the cutting disk out and sharpened it with my Ken Onion edition knife sharpener, made it super sharp.



factory cut tube:



Result from my sharpened pipe cutter:

Well the loop is as far along as I can go now without actually putting my system in the case.

Installed the second pump and drain port and switched out the soft tubing for hard. I also re-did the bend from the top pump to the front rad to increase the radius a bit. The old bend was also clouded somehow by the insert when I heated it.











After some more pondering I have decided to forgo the motherboard blocks. Can't see the point in putting them on if they offer no benefit at all and my OCD can't handle the thought of dumping heat in to the loop unnecessarily. Plus the added time and effort of installing just isn't appealing to me at all.

I also did some quick number crunching and this beast will be taking around 2.5 litres of water

Finishing up and leak testing. Started at 2pm and finished at 4am because the damn thing leaked. Had to bend the last of my tubing in to an insane 's' shape to get it all working properly. Damn the PETG tubing is tough! Getting so close now.

Purged the loop 3 times already due to leaks and flushing. Still seeing little flecks of metal in the water so I'll have to flush it a few more times before I finally finish.

Just finished this today.

Reserved

That's a SICK build!

Great build, love the tubing but I have to wonder. Why have all that sweet sweet cooling and only run that 5960 @ 4.2? I know many people that were able to reach 4.5Ghz using a cheap $100 240mm AIO. Does your chip just suck OC'ing wise or?

Pretty much. Just lost the silicone lottery I guess. Even the IMC sucks. Can't run higher than 2800 on the memory which a lot of people seem to exceed without issue.

Deimos said:

Phanteks Enthoo Elite build log.

Work pays for my PC and while I can't justify the price, I'm the boss.



I'm aiming to make this the nicest build I have ever done personally. I used to do this stuff for a hobby but lost my passion for it after working in the IT industry for 12 or so years (including 3 years of bulk building PCs and servers). Now that I am out of IT I'm starting to renew my passion for this great hobby and finances allow me to do silly things so let the building commence...

I'm moving my existing, watercooled rig in to the new case but I decided not to move over any of my old WC gear.
Completed specs will be:

Phanteks Enthoo Elite (Duh)
i7-5960X
Rampage V Extreme
64GB G.Skill F4-3333C16-16GTZ
Two Gigabyte 1080Ti founders edition
Sound Blaster Zx
Samsung 850 Pro SSDs

Watercooling:
EKWB EK-Supremacy EVO X99
1080ti full cover EKWB blocks
Hardline tubing (PETG) with EKWB HDC compression fittings
EK-XTOP D5 PWM Plexi pump + EK-XRES 140 Revo D5 PWM (Glass)
EK-XRES X3 400
EK-Coolstream XE 480, XE 360, CE 420.
EK-Vardar F4-120 (7)
EK-Vardar F2-140 (4)

Click to expand...

Great looking build. I just got my elite case 2 days ago and plan on installing a custom loop. Love the pics. Have been very helpful. Hard to find folks on the net that actually have this case and have posted builds. I will be putting in it a 480 push/pull on top. 360x86mm monsta rad on front and bottom. Dual loop setup and went with ekwb as well. If you dont mind i would like to ask a few questions.? Again awesome build.

I already have my evga 1080ti ftw3's on blocks as well as cpu. Tried to build in a enthoo primo case but didn't have the space i wanted.

Nice.
Why dual loops though? You'l get better temps all round with a single loop. Dual pumps for a bit of redundancy and better flow rates sure, but dual loops are a waste of time.

If you are going PETG I can give you one tip that I haven't seen anywhere, some people suggest using oil to lube the tube insert for bending. Use dish soap. It lubes up the insert better and just rinses off, no fuss.

I found that using olive oil works amazing and finding the correct tube insert that fit perfectly took a few different orders lol. Im using a combo of 16x12 petg,acrylic and soft tubing. I would like to raise the midplate up by a 1 &1/2 inches to allow me to put in a cylinder res horizontally on top of the bottom 360rad. Still working on that. Primochill has a new coolant coming out in a couple of months that looks like mayhems aurora but lasts long term called "VUE". Going to check that out when its out. I actually have 3 pumps. And 3 res's. Still deciding on config. Will post pics on a build log.

Finally got my two loops done. Still needs some tweaking but for the most part this is it. Next the rgb cables and installing a 5 inch touch screen inside the case and of course the nitemare of cable management
Will have pics when all done

How did you guys find the elite? Some of the reviews have been less than savory.

I saw some complaints about quality issues but I didn't have any issues with mine.

Overall I'm very happy with it. Money isn't really an issue for me but I would say that it is over priced.

I don't really know what else to say about it. The case is awesome and you can do whatever you want in there because it is so huge and it is a great showcase. I moved from a TJ07 which was a modder's dream. I ended up turning that in to a HTPC, that thing has way more potential for customisation yet even the TJ07 feels VERY small compared to the Elite.

I made one major error when I built this. I went for the thickest EKWB radiators I could find. After doing the opposite with the TJ07 I would recommend going for the thinnest you can get, they seem to perform better and make less noise.

Deimos said:

I made one major error when I built this. I went for the thickest EKWB radiators I could find. After doing the opposite with the TJ07 I would recommend going for the thinnest you can get, they seem to perform better and make less noise.

Click to expand...

I'll tend to agree with this... I have some thick xspc rads and they are loud as all get out. You get stuck playing the same game of balancing noise with cooling efficiency that you would on a thinner rad, except you have to accomodate the bulk a thick rad carries. You may as well save the hassle and go thinner.

I have its little brother and I must say it was the most pain in the ass case I've ever worked with. I can typically do a new or transplant build in around 2 hours without a custom loop. It took me literally all night with this thing (7-8 hours). My biggest complaint is the tolerances in the screw holes were too damned tight everywhere. The case definitely looks nice, but I have to say that this will be the first and last case I buy from Phanteks.