So here we go... This was my first liquid-cooled build and I am not really sure about the prefix because there is not many modification to the actual case and it is not built from scratch (So I left it blank for now but I'm open to suggestions from veterans of this forum). Just FYI, this is complete build (almost 2 years ago), but because I only have YouTube videos about the build, I will try to write it up here step by step the way I built it. If anyone needs the links to the build - please ask As I mentioned before, this was my first liquid cooled project when I started doing PC modding. Also it was first project for my YouTube channel and because I'm new to the scene - this project was NOT sponsored. All parts in this build were purchased by me, for me Parts that I used for this build: Case – Thermaltake The Tower 900 Motherboard – Asus ROG Maximus IX Formula Intel Z270 PSU – Corsair HX1000i 1000W ’80 Plus Platinum Digital Modular Power Supply GPU1 – MSI GeForce GTX1080Ti GPU2 – MSI GeForce GTX1080Ti CPU – Intel i7-7700K RAM – Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit SSD – Samsung 960 PRO Polaris 512GB M.2 2280 PCI-e 3.0 x4 NVMe Solid State Drive CPU CPU Waterblock – Phanteks Glacier C350I CPU Water Block Acrylic Cover RGB LED – Chrome Two Pumps – EK Water Blocks EK-XTOP Revo D5 PWM GPU waterblocks – Phanteks Glacier GTX 1080 Ti GPU Full Water Block Reservoirs – EK Water Blocks EK-RES X3 400 Reservoir Radiators – EK Water Blocks EK-CoolStream CE 560 Fans – 8x 140mm Thermaltake Riing Red Fan controller – Thermaltake Commander F6 RGB LCD Multi Fan Controller The Case - Thermaltake The Tower 900 case. At the time seemed to be quite good choice. Plenty of space to work with although not the cheapest case as it is a premium class case. I've seen some interesting mods at the time in this case but one of the reasons I chose this build is because it is closed case. Dust is not my thing at all The colour scheme of the build was planned to be black, chrome and red. I added RGB LED strips to see if any other colours would look good, but I guess because I like red colour, I keep the build red. 140mm Thermaltake Riing Red fans that I chose at the time were a bit too dark and I was a bit disappointed with effect, purely because they do sit behind the side panels and are covered by dust filters. PSU - Corsair HX1000i 1000W ’80 Plus Platinum Digital Modular The choice was based purely on the fact that system would be running quite few elements - two GPU's, two pumps, 10 fans, LED's. It might be an overkill at the time, but I've heard good reviews about these PSU units, hence the choice. Motherboard - Asus ROG Maximus IX Formula Intel Z270 At the time, I guess this motherboard was a good choice if you were planning liquid cooled build. For me it turned out to be a bit of misfire, because 1 month after I purchased this motherboard and Intel i7-7700K - new generation PCU's were released and z270 motherboards were not supporting 8th gen Intel CPU's. I guess you can't have everything GPU - 2x NVIDIA 1080Ti I know that at this point there is not much point running system in SLI if that is a gaming rig. SLI is not supported by many games and to be honest - it is not really cost effective choice, but I always had all my PC's running in SLI so I decided to go with SLI build this time as well. (Please don't hate me ) First rookie mistake. Oh well. I know it was quite lame, but I guess we learn from our mistakes. Both GPU's I have are MSI GamingX GPU's, however, guess what water blocks I ordered? Quite obvious. WRONG ONES It's not that they are bad looking blocks, just wrong ones Founder Edition blocks DO NOT fit on aftermarket cards. I learned it the hard way. Sowwwyyyy (PS. I still have one of these blocks. If anyone needs one - drop me a message. Not a charity thing but I'm pretty sure I can be quite flexible with price ) You might be asking, why I have not returned the blocks. Well, it's quite simple. I noticed that these are wrong ones only when I got to the point of assembling hardline loop. Which was, according to overclockers.co.uk, exceeding the return date limit. I think it was 2 days over the 14 days return limit. Silly, but I guess rules are rules. (I was not too happy, but that is the cost of not doing your do diligence I guess) CPU waterblock - Phanteks Glacier C350I CPU Water Block Acrylic Cover RGB LED Nothing much to say - very nice looking CPU waterblock. Fitted with my colour scheme.
Pumps - 2x EK Water Blocks EK-XTOP Revo D5 PWM I wanted to have pumps separate from reservoirs so chose these pumps. Very good quality pumps and run very quiet. Reservoirs - 2x EK Water Blocks EK-RES X3 400 Reservoir At the time - these were the biggest ones I could find. I wanted to go with 600mm but I did not like the idea of the placement for 600mm tanks. (I will touch on reservoir placement later on in the build). Radiators - 2x EK Water Blocks EK-CoolStream CE 560 560mm radiators would fit entire side panel of the case, so I chose these. I did not like the builds with 360mm and 480mm radiators as they would make the side panels look a bit weird. The only thing to consider if you are planning to build in Thermaltake Tower 900 case - if you are going for 560mm radiators, you will not have space for HDD trays as they are placed on one of the sides in HDD tray module. However I did not plan to have extra storage in this build as I keep all my stuff on a server, hence the 560mm radiators to fill the space. That's it for now. More tomorrow
One of the first things I had to do was make the default wiring tiny bit shorter for both CPU and GPU waterblocks. From this: to this: And GPU. From this: to this (sorry not a good quality pic): Wires are sitting in the gap between the block and the card and when placed into motherboard you can not see them at all, except of the actual connector:
For wiring I printed few cable combs: Nothing too fancy, but as long as it worked (ish) as intended .... I decided to place water pumps on the sides of middle HDD bay, facing forward: To create correct angle for hardline tubing I had to print spacers that I placed between HDD hub and pumps:
Then it was time to bend some pipes.... Obviously I decided to go with two loops - one for VRMs and CPU and other one for both GPU's. But because I did NOT wanted to use traditional placement for reservoirs - I decided to hang them up-side down. But for this I needed a custom bracket to hold them in place. So I printed them. Not the best version, I must admit, but does the job. I attached brackets to the top of the case (white version was just a test): And then the only thing left was to fill up the system and it was pretty much ready to go
Tidy Nice write up. Much prefer a single colour finish over a multi-colour light fest. You could link your YT videos here too if you fancied, YT links get automatically embedded using the film button.
Thnx Appreciate the feedback. YT Vids. Part 1 Part 1 v2 LOL - A bit disappointed with screws Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
