Scratch Build – In Progress [New Build Almost Complete] First time building a custom loop. All comments welcome.

Hi guys,
Been around the forums and overclocking since the celeron and MMX days, but only recently got into the whole benchmarking thing and decided it was time to build a new machine up with some watercooling headroom, so, here we go.

Case:
Corsair Obsidian 800D

Mobo:
Asus Maximus Extreme IV - Z

CPU:
Intel Core i7-2600K

GPU:
3 x Sapphire Radeon 7970's

RAM:
16GB of Corsair Vengeance 1866MHz

HDD:
2x OCZ Vertex 3 Sata 6 SSD
2x 1TB Western Digital Velociraptors

PSU:
XFX Pro 1250w Black gamer Edition

Optical:
Pioneer 12x Blu Ray Combo Drive

Monitor:
3 x Dell UltraSharp U2410 24" LCD

OS:
MS Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit


Cooling & Monitoring

CPU Block:
EK Supreme HF Plexi EN

Radiator:
1 x EK Coolstream XT 360mm Copper Fins - Single Circuit

Reservoir:
XSPC Acrylic Dual 5.25 with pump inside

Pumps:
Alphacool VPP655 - D5 Pump

Fans:
3 x Scythe Gentle Typhoon 1850RPM - AP15s on the radiator.
3x Corsair 140mm fans around the chassis.

Fittings:
Bitspower compression fittings

Tubing:
Masterkleer 59117 3/8" in red.

Coolant:
Feser Aqua - Ultra Pure Water

Controller & Monitoring:
Aquacomputer Aquaero 5 Pro
Coolant temp monitored before and after radiator.

Lighting:
LED's and a UV inverter so far.


Basic hardware and case...


+ water cooling parts.


Case unwrapped..


Some parts unwrapped...


360mm radiator installed with 3x Scythe GT Ap15's


Temperature monitoring for radiator inlet and exhaust


Installing EK water block on the MOBO.




Some pipes, and mobo installed.


Sata hotswop bays are quite ingenius and lovely to wire up.


Then a cover makes it all neat and tidy.


Ready to power up...


Up and running...

 

Sorry, thought I had taken far more pictures than that, will get some more tonight of pumps and reservoiur setup etc.

Comments on the above build are very much encouraged, good and bad.

Moving forward...
I want to deal with the following jobs...

• Install my Aquaero pro tonight
• Placement of the OCZ Vertex drives. (I think on the shelf below the 7970's would look wicked.)
• Add a drain port somehow. - ideas welcome
• Tidy up the wiring some more
• Purchase and install cooling items for GPU's.
• Figure out best way to fit a second rad for GPU's. (External is a viable option)
• Investigate and purchase better 140mm fans.
• Investigate wether chipset cooling is worthwhile on this MOBO
• Investigate and purchase better 140mm fans.

Advice always very welcome.

 

I am really looking forward to fitting this Aquaero tonight... it really looks the business!


Animated Giff showing some features.

 

Thats some serieus hardware you got there man! A trifire with 7970
Whats that Hot swap unit you got btw, it looks realy usefull!

Will any modding be done to the case?

 

Thank you.
The hotswap comes with the case, nice little board indeed, but sadly I cant get the SSD's to work with it due to alignment so have had to find a new home for them. (see below)

Unsure on case mods just yet, need at least one more radiator when the GPU blocks start to go in, but may yet go external triple 360's.

Far more importantly though, the damn Aquaero does not even power up... its dead.

Some more pics for now...

Interior with 2x SSD's installed. (ignore 2 temp monitor wires, will be moved when new aquaero is installed)

 

Nice clean set up , =)

 

Only thing I would suggest is that it would look better if you changed the blue LEDs for red ones

 

Thanks mate, I have bought red too, trying blue as every other piece of PC equipment in the room lights up blue, as you can see in the room image above. I will try red as well at some point though.

 

You're welcome. That's the problem now, almost everything seems to have at least one blue LED in it

 

sounds to me like you have some LED's to mod

 

You can usually fit a 240 radiator in the floor of the 800D, pulling air in from the bottom. So I'd suggest going; Res, Pump, Gpus (It'd be sinful not to WC those.), Roof 360, CPU (And mobo, if you go fullcover block on it), 240 then Res again. Means you don't have to go through the hassle of wiring up two loops.

 

Had a more extreme idea and most the parts will be here tomorrow and the final ones Friday so watch this space!