PROJECT LOG ''Elysion'' Mod - i7-980X - Hextuple Rad - Cosmos S

''COSMOS GTR'' Black Edition Avalanche Mod 8 Rads - 6 Cores - 4 GPUs



In the pipeline coming in March/April
- OCZ SSD Revo 2 240GB on PCI-E (to be delivered 28.2.)
- Corsair Airflow (Ram Cooling) (to be delivered 28.2.)
- XFX HD5970 replacement card (to be delivered 28.2.)
- External ASUS DVD Drive (to be delivered 28.2.)
- External USB 7 Port Hub (to be delivered 28.2.)
- External Samsung My Passport USB 3.0 (to be delivered 28.2.)
- Koolance ASUS RIIIE chipset cooling kit (to be ordered)
- Koolance new Bay Res for two laying DDC pumps aka MCP35X (to be ordered)


Hi community,
I'm Stephan (Swiss Exile) and live in South East Asia, I'm browsing the forum for sometimes and decided to build a new rig.
Any advice or recommendations, please feel free to post a reply, thanks!!
It has been 7 years since i did my first modding on a PC with a watercooling, that was with an Eheim pump and an oversized innovatek rad the size of a full tower case, so bear with me ;-)

About 4 months ago I was excited about the idea of upgrading to watercooling. I was searching a lot, reading a lot and got help from the forum members, which is great!
I finally placed (several) orders at Sidewindercomputers which has been great in terms of price and especially support service, highly recommended!

Since powder coating is not available where I'm currently living, I had the idea of painting the inside of the case myself, at our workshop and i ordered the paint needed from AUS.

Info - The following sites have helped me a lot to calculate and evaluate parts and wc stuff (besides the members of course):

All the great stickies of fellow experienced members with all the tips and trimmings &
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cooling/2007/08/22/watercooling_101/1
http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/showthread.php?t=282232
http://www.overclockers.com/guide-deltat-water-cooling/
http://www.coolingconfigurator.com/...ine?height=260&width=530&inline_id=comp_table
http://martinsliquidlab.i4memory.com/
http://martinsliquidlab.i4memory.com/MartinsFlowRateEstimator.html
http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp
http://extreme.outervision.com/flowdesigner.jsp
http://skinneelabs.com/


My goals I had in mind was: 1. noise vs good performance, 2. to reach 4.0GHz, 3. decent graphics 4. Black Matte Red Theme 5.Sleek, contemporary colors, no fancy stuff and colors without much interior and exterior changes. This is obviously not an extreme build but a bit of modding and tuning to make it a 'black beauty'. With all the fittings and tubing I could on a later stage change the side panel with the fan and a window which will be probably happening on a later stage!


Hardware
CM Cosmos S
i7-980X
ASUS RIIIE
6x2GB G-Skill F3-16000CL9-2GBRH DDR3-1333
HIS ATI HD5970
CM Silent Pro Gold 1000W Modular
WD 500GB Blue Edition
2x ASUS VW266H 26'' (98LMTF181002)
BOSE Companion 5 USB
Win7 Pro 64 6.1.7600 (Win7 RTM), BIOS: 1005 (08/26/10)


Water cooling Parts
10x Scythe SFF21G 75 CFM, SFF21G, S-FLEX
2x Scythe SlipStream SY1225SL12H - 88 CFM
2x Scythe SFF21F 63 CFM, SFF21F, S-FLEX
1x EK-FC5970 Acetal+Nickel
1x EK Waterblock EK-Supreme HF - Full Copper - Rev 2
5x Feser TFC Xtender Radiator Shroud 120 - RED LED
15 Feet Tygon R3400 1/2in.ID 3/4in. OD Laboratory Tubing
1x Akasa PaxMate II Noise Reduction Kit
1x Swiftech MCR320 QP
1x XSPC RX320 Rev.2 (wrongly ordered, 60mm is to thick to top mount which I discovered too late, ohh)
1x XSPC RX240 Rev.2
1x XSPC RX120 Rev.2
1x Petra'sTech PT_Nuke -PHN Concentrated Biocide
1x UN Designs Rad Bracket
1x Lamptron FC-5 Black Fan Controller with VFD
1x Aquaero 4.00 USB Pump/Fan Controller White/Blue - LCD with black alu Frontplate, Inline Temperature Sensor for aquaero
2x Swiftech MCP35X 12 VDC Pump
2x Swiftech Reservoir for MCP35X

- Compression Fittings, Fill Port, , Nylon Hose, Breeze Miniature Hose, Fan Guard
- EK LEDs, Cathode Lights, Radial Beam LED, Black Sleeving, Black sleeved Single Braid molex/pin/sata/atx cables, Heat shrink tubing, non-fry sleeving
- Artic Cooling MX-4 TIM


Configuration
Single Loop, Two Pumps in series: Res/Pump, Pump, XSPC240, Swiftech MCR320, CPU, XSPC120, GPU

Details
My ambient temp is 27 C
HF Supreme Backplate 1
Distilled Water w/ PT Nuke only, no dye!
Water Out/In T-Delta aspiring ca. 6.5C - 7C
C/W Rating 0.0893
Output Wattage (CPU&GPU) Stock 427W / OC'ed 452W (4000/1.42)
Fan Speed: 1,350rpm
Fan Config: 15 Fans at current. 6 Push/6 Pull (P/P 18% gain), 2 TFC Shrouds (6% gain)
Rad Orientation: Vertical In/Out on top - OK / Horizontal In/Out down - OK
Air-Flow: Front (Intake), Top (Outtake), Back (Outtake), Side (Intake), Bottom sealed - no fan used, probably good since it would 'alter' the flow?


To the case
I ordered this case since i had CM in the past and they worked well with air flow and design, the S version being catchy on the looks (if you like it) and i liked the idea with the 200cm side fan as an intake. Unfortunately the inside is left in an ugly alu which I thought is not matching with the case exterior design and colour, that's why people i guess go for a descent powder coat. Also would have been great would be the Corsair 800D being the mark in Towers in terms of functionality and looks for me, but I realized it to late and i had already ordered the Cosmos S, I still admire it...


Last weekend
the second shipment from 'sidewinder' had arrived and I figured out the best rad/pump placement and discovered that the triple rad won't fit on the top because the 60mm with fan would interfere with the mobo's ram, therefore, i re-ordered a Swiftech triple with 34mm slim form factor size














Taped and Masked for Painting






Paint Job
I'm using the following for priming and automotive paint:
EP Primer, EP Hardener, Hardener P25, Black Colour 358G5, Reducer (the base matte black colour), AClear Mat (the finish) Reducer. We have a workshop here so i will be using a spray gun with compressor which should get a better result in general. I have not used any sanding before applying the primer since its just the inside of the case and brushed alu, I thought it might be sufficient, let's see the result.


Paint Line-Up


1st Primer Coat, dry time 45 min by 32 C ambient
2nd Primer Coat, dry time 60 min by 32 C ambient


Don't use hardener with paint for acrylic/perspex/plastic material. 2 thin layers of paint is sufficient.


1st Black Coat, dry time 2 days at 25-43 C ambient

Did some more work today, since i do not have a dremel i used a drill on some edges and cut and jigsawed the honey comb on the top, rounded the edges with 240 and 1200 grit sandpaper





2nd thin black coat applied, need to wait for two days to let it dry

I finally made the last layer/ coat of transparent matte and I was quite happy with the result, although not perfect of course especially the edges would have to be touched up before final use.

Anyways, did the brackets, case screws and bay holders as well as the original blue push button to release the bays.
I also had the temporary HDD alu heat sink coated with the front blend

I still like the 'Porsche Design' frame look of the original casing that's why i leave it at that at the moment, lets see with the top cover and the legs and handle bars at the end but it should come together nicely.

I think a sleek looking mat finish gives the case a better appearance and sporty look but that's just my taste.

for the acrylic/perspex parts like the push button and inlet, just use acrylic paint pure without hardener or mat finish, the material was to coarse and it did not look good, a bit shiny can't heart either...

did some work last night and today, small update

removed the heat sinks on the mobo and removed the yellowish TIM and applied arctic M4 to both chips and re-attached the heat sinks.

I used kind of Q-Tip to remove the sticky part, I also removed the fan and heat sink and added new TIM there as well.










Next on was the CPU, the setup was quite easy and simple and I left stock backplate 1 in as it was. since it was already tested and mentioned in the guide i did

not clean it yet with distilled water but probably have a run through






Then GPU which took a bit longer to disassemble










I rinsed the radiators where the dual rad was okay but the single rad had too much green oxidation and till now i can not remove it, tried, vinegar, sodium

hydroxide and so on, lots of chunk and black and yellow bits coming out, probably have to scrap the single rad and go for the option with the additional triple

rad at the back, lets see

single


dual


thats it for now, cheers

I had a look at the dual rad installation today.

4 fans work in push/pull and are configured with the two TFC shrouds as 'intake' blowing air in and pushing air through the rad.

the installation sheet mentions that a shroud makes only sense in push configuration, unfortunately the triple rad on top will be using push/pull but by blowing hot air from inside the case, out, and not cool air from outside in.

therefore it might not be the best solution but i have only two outtakes with two intakes so i think this configuration makes sense for better airflow, but correct me if I am wrong.

Anyways, I did not drill or cut anything on the cage just used rad brackets from UN and it works quite well, to note is that i had to use spacers in the exact same thickness as they were not provided, as I used 4 brackets but would need four spacers for the 4 other screws to mount the fans on the rad.

Added a a piece of cut AKASA sound dampening mat below the rad and might cover the entire bottom area with it at the end to give it a clean finish, further by closing of the second fan guard to the right as I will not be using it with a fan.





I also saw off the plastic handle of the bottom filter guard to make some space and 'clean-look'




moving on, i test installed the mobo to see the space around it, discovered that when removing the ugly stickers a hologram 'void' layer appears, nice ;-)




I was eager to see the modular PSU with its originally black sleeving and i will leave it like it is as i don't want to open the PSU and I am not good in sleeving so i better buy sleeved braids, works great...






I placed the two pumps at the bottom of the case, now, it seems I have two options, either leaving them on the bottom and make a compression fitting link with 90 degree fittings or I separate both pumps and level them at mobo height off but would need to make sort of a 'platform'

One friend mentioned that he connects the pump with the CPU then to the rad, then res and back to pump so there is no aeration issues.


However it does not leave me with much space now and the bottom area looks okay but I am not that experienced, might think about it a bit more and see if a platform does indeed makes up for less aeration issues, any advice? Some work logs I have seen are using the bottom area as well, some use the HDD cage for installing it on middle height, guess its choice of preference.




I also added the gpu and EK block to see the fittings to the res/pump back and the CPU to GPU connection.




If I look down from the opening the side intake fan is close to the GPU block but not touching it, nice cool air coming in there....

Still need to wait for the triple rad and fittings to arrive on next Wednesday, can't wait...

let's have a close look at the lighting and front panels the next days till the rad arrives...

Nice setup.
Nice paint.
Nice case.
Nice stuff.
If you go dual 5970 im not sure that those 320 + 240 rads will be able to adequately cool the massive heat that a oced i7 and dual 5970 will output.

Nice looking build; subscribed.

thanks volumetrik and hokie, since i have to remove the single XSPC as it is still having flux coming out after 36 hrs hot tap water continuously going through, and 20 hot water sessions, with the heat load / wattage I calculated it should get a theoretical Delta-T of 6.26 for single 5970 card & CPU with the two rads.

However, I could still add another triple rad outside the case at the back giving a T-Delta of 4.29... ;-)
that's just in theory though, because my ambient is at 26 C quite high, thanks for the comments!

Maybe I leave the additional 5970 on stock fan and one in the loop...


edit:

More loop setup thinking and pump placement issues

looks sick man! i would recommend though, for performance reasons, to put your cpu in the loop first. it will look cooler to put your gpu in first, but you'll gain more performance with the cpu being the first in the loop.

cold.nut said:

looks sick man! i would recommend though, for performance reasons, to put your cpu in the loop first. it will look cooler to put your gpu in first, but you'll gain more performance with the cpu being the first in the loop.

Click to expand...

Actually the difference in temp should not be significantly different. The fact that they're in the same loop is all that matters.

thanks for the recommendations guys, will mount the triple to the back now, should compensate for the missing single and giving the option of adding the second 5970 ;-)

Will mount the triple to the back now, should compensate for the missing single and giving the option of adding the second 5970 ;-)



used the rad guards off the bitspower custom mesh guard and using just 3 fans for the moment in push without shrouds, the koolance bracket in the way i can mount it to the case is 90 degrees around so i have to use 4 small cable ties to stabilize them on top so it wont break off.
not the best solution but at least no drilling or dremling, the fittings will change too to 2 45 degree's.

i like the way you've mounted both rads, especially the 120.2 in the front, very clean and the rear 120.3 has the cleanest out of case mount i have ever seen.

thanks Quad, not 100% finished yet but I am working on it ;-) thanks to all the plenty of great rigs, work logs and galleries in here!!




small update to the front;
was not happy with it and changed the order. Also took the HDD cage apart from the old Cosmos 1000 and stole the rubber rings and removed the front bezel of another cheap 'so-called' HDD cooler, will have to mod the front a bit so the fans stick to the DVD drive...thinking of super glue though, lol






stay tuned...

Bought a new SONY Cybershot for better pics so it should look all better now

thought to spray-paint the cable clips as well in black since they look awful in white with this size in the case



the cables gives me a bit of headache and I would pay 1,000 USD to have this wireless probably need to solder the 3-pin headers as splitters so i can attach 2-3 fans per channel, lol






work in progress with black-sleeved braids and fan extension cables, still waiting for the black cable ties to replace the temporary white ones though




again need to use different fitting shapes since i changed the order of the two pumps (again ), found one solution and two more problems (just not enough stuff bought )




cable 'miss-management' at the back, to noet probably need to spray paint the alu part which shows through the opening when you have the side cover snapped-in, some more painting, yes!




the EK Supreme HF rev2 copper version in all its glory, think the copper colour adds a nice touch and contrast to the shiny silver fittings and black matte finish

Bit of an update and was working on my rig all-day yesterday...made some good progress up to leak testing it

Some more painting was needed as i discovered some ugly white plugs on the two 8-PIN ATX (will be replaced with black sleeved braid versions next month since the isolating taping does not look professional)




power converted also taken apart for the cathode lighting and spray painted in black, may have another one since i might use 4 cathodes, depends on the setting really....




Noticed that the sidepanel's frame was in alu so to cover that up, also unscrewed the black screws and removed them for priming, good thing here that you can unscrew it so it makes it hassle free for painting it. once completed and back on the case you won't see anything in alu shining through where the cable openings are beside the mobo




some more stuff arrived, notably the Swiftech slim factor rad which was looking great inside after a few hot water washes and rinsing it with distilled water, no issue here and i have to say that the quality is much better outside and inside than the XSPC's :buttkick:






PC Tool Kit arrived and it came with a nice solder hand machine, it will be very useful as I have to create some splitters Molex and 3 Pin




Legs back on



Cutting out some pieces of sound dampening material and laying out the floor where the pump comes on top




Sleeved the pump cables as well, i just love sleeving ;-)






The top needed some cable management with what i had around and it looked more or less okay, the rad will cover up most of it, one of the rad's exterior fans I had linked to the board so I can spare one more channel on the controller which are currently 12 fans with 4 splitters

The short piece of tube will be used for draining the loop, which would come in handy very soon...sniff sniff




testing the cathode on top, the other will be mounted on the opposite site, which looked the best imo




Finally time for connecting the tubes, my fingers still hurt and I am happy that i did not have more fittings to use...omg




Of course, CM did not spare me that 5mm to add a shroud on top so I had to use none which is a bit disappointing not having any on top as planned (without further cutting etc). Even the slim form of 34mm does not allow you to ad one shroud there in the middle.
the orientation changed due to that i should have bought more fittings which are longer in size to add a fan to the right, now the fittings are obstructing to mount any fan so that's another compromise which hurts (need to buy 2 sets of large fittings or connectors there!








Current cable mess there, and noticed that with the new orientation of the rad I cant use the top bays anymore, good thing my dad brings me an external DVD drive and PCI-E SSD so i don't need to use them, nice

second pump out has two silver fittings with the flow meter in it, I love silver shining but the other fittings look very decent too in this setup.




Time of Truth,stuffing out the inside like a turkey, just to make sure there is something running where it should not be




Jump-starting the second PSU for leak test

Testing the LED lighting on the front mounted to the shrouds (the only 2 of the 6 planned i could do....)




Probably using two white LED lights instead of red, red does not cut it really for acrylic there, bit too much red, so the Twin LED's will be connected to the Aquero front Panel and the left and right will be pulsing according to heat loads, nice




and the two red cathodes on top will make a good visual, the dark knight is coming...




Couple of hours in, all looking good but i noticed some damp area around the res, at the moment i try to fix it but probably need to drain the loop and inspect the res and it's mounting to the pump, at the bottom it looks not even with the pump surface...let see today :drink: cheers

Very nice LOG, I hope you get that leak sorted out.

Very nice build! Do you have any pictures showing off the whole case?

Volumetrik said:

Very nice LOG, I hope you get that leak sorted out.

Click to expand...

thanks mate
fixed yes, the issue was the bottom res, the acrylic res was not properly placed on the pump top and i remounted the slotted screw properly again, its very tight now, no issues, except that out of my genius brain the drainage does not work properly so to i have to re-figure the whole drainage loop and i probably use the res top as water indicator only and use a dellrin fill-port on top of the system since i have lots of bubbles in the top rad still and wont go away...lol ;-)

BenF said:

Very nice build! Do you have any pictures showing off the whole case?

Click to expand...

Hi mate, should be able to get the last cables sleeved and molex splitters done, HDD mounted and minor fixes to be done this weekend and doing some final pic yes

This build looks excellent, very impressive. Can't wait to see final pictures and the performance that is coming!

Janus67 said:

This build looks excellent, very impressive. Can't wait to see final pictures and the performance that is coming!

Click to expand...

thanks mate, appreciated, just worried now that all is work after two weeks of fiddling around ;-) hope the EK blocks are keeping up with the GPU block namely with its 'not so sophisticated pcb mount' and i hope it really came without the 0.5mm stepping
cheerio, more to come this weekend...