Worklog: About Time

[Kranium]

Well I'm starting a new build. My old story can mostly be found HERE. Needless to say, I'm a [H] procrastinator.

I've been rocking my Presler setup for 3 months after having a Northwood-based rig for a bajillion years, all as I waited for Sandy-E which of course came out today.

Here is my baseline. This is a LOUD computer. 4 120mm fans at 2k RPM is not very quiet

This will be my first jump into Water cooling after researching it many many times over the years. So there are bound to be some adventures waiting for me in this build.

I am also determined to make this a "clean" build. Every time I've assembled a computer, I say to myself that I'll make it look nice but always end up getting impatient and shoving the wires off to the side and it looks like crap.

My kitchen table has been taken over, guess I'll eat at my desk for a few weeks
You'll notice a lot of missing parts, many are still on their way.

I'll explain the parts as I install them in the next few weeks. I work long hours so this will mostly be done over a few weekends.

 

[Kranium]

My first order of business was to see if I screwed up going with the Airplex Revolution radiator. As you may know, this is technically a 420 radiator and the Corsair 800D is made for a 360. I searched but this combo hasn't been tried much and I found one forum where a guy said he was told it would pop right in..... and I found another where a guy was selling the Airplex after he found it wouldn't fit the 800D (after I ordered). Oops!

Sorry for weaksauce photos, it's dark in my place.

The top of the radiator would be just inside the drive bays so I need to see if I have the room.

Whew, only 2mm to spare!

Then I got the radiator up in there but it could not line up the mounting holes......

Little bastard drive rail is in the way.

Using a secret tool (ok it was a stick)....

Haha it fits!

Gah! Blur!

Well that's the first hurdle out of my way. I'm sure there will be many many more.
If any of you have suggestions along the way let me know I'm not above taking advice or criticism.

 

[Kranium]

Got a shipment in today!

Sandy... meet your Great great great great great grand dad Northwood

 

[Kranium]

First mod.

I realized the Sabertooth is not nearly as cool as the MSI BigBang so I modded it.

I give you Asus Sabertooth BigBang Mod!

 

[OKANG]

I was expecting a pun on the title...a case mod with clocks or something. Lol.

 

[Kranium]

That's not a bad idea.. Like a steam-punk clock work thing with gears and springs. If only I had 1/2 the talent of some of the modders around here

 

[xDezor]

Lol, that last picture made me chuckle. Really like the color of the gun though... nice.

 

[Kranium]

Well I made some decent progress on Saturday but then I got blind sided by a cold

.

I started off my day with the conversion of the Swiftech MCP655's top to the EK D5 x-top. I ordered this as I knew flexibility would be important on my first water-cooling build and the addition of the threaded ports for my compression fittings would help with mounting locations.

All done! This took maybe 15 min..... most of which was spent trying to unscrew the retainer ring on the original pump. Thing was on tight!

 

[Kranium]

Next I got some handy thin weather stripping...

...and applied it to both sides of the radiator. I think making a good seal can help with noise issues and maybe the cooling if I'm lucky.

Then add the 140mm fans and she's ready to go inside.

 

[Kranium]

After a few minutes working it in there, it's a tight fit.

 

[Kranium]

Oh noes! A hole!

.... for the Danger Den fillport. Yes I know it's aluminum but as long as water is not filled up to the top, I'll be a-ok.

 

[Kranium]

I had a lot planned for Sunday but as I said, I got sick. I started the morning installing the TecnoFront Challenge X1 Reservoir..... and ended it there. The mounting holes were not lined up to the pre-drilled holes in the case. Long story short, it took like 1hr and I was sick and knew it would have gone more smoothly if I didn't feel crappy. So i stopped before I did something stupid.

Next time I will probably have a bunch of wiring done. Look at this synth-velvet bag the Seasonic came in. How over the top is that?! It's just a power supply.

 

[Kranium]

Had a setback last weekend. ordered a few new parts. Big update coming soon!

 

[Kranium]

Ok I'm lazy. So sue me.

She's all done now, been downloading updates, freq. used applications, changing windows settings etc.... reminds my of why new builds can be a PITA.

Here you can see that the 8 pin CPU cable is BARELY able to reach. I would have been bummed to get this far and have to buy/build an extension. The back panel has a hard time closing of those bundles. I wish Corsair could have made channels or something in the dividing piece between the lower and upper compartments.

 

[Kranium]

So that's it! For a first water cooled build it went pretty smoothly. Took a bit longer than a normal assembly of course but that was to be expected.

This is the first PC after my ~15yrs of system builds that I classify as a "Dream" setup. I've always wanted to go all out and build a top-notch system so I finally did it. Now I just need to figure out how I'm going to use 16 gigs of ram!

With 6 140mm fans this is BY FAR the quietest PC I have ever had. I'm actually glad for the 2 fans on the Sabertooth x79 board because it's unnerving to me to not know if the PC is actually on or not after the monitor sleeps, and those 2 little fans are just audible. The Asus 560ti in here is really quiet so it's no help.

Let me know what you think! I'll take any ideas/advice if you have it.