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Air 540 WC Build Log

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Extra parts came in last night. Should have this done by this weekend.

I also need to trade someone those ripjaws for some ares to match the blue color scheme.
 
Well, got it all installed. I've got a no post with a red VGA led. Not sure what to do from here.
 
The card appears to be ok. I quickly bolted the stock cooler back on and it booted fine. I'm a little puzzled.
 
Leak testing.
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Playing with colors.
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That's just about it for this project. Now it's time to start pushing the limits on my hardware. I've already seen temp drops with the GPU at more than 40 degrees C.
 
That is an impressive amount of thingies, he he.

Impressive tank.

:salute:

You guys will make me go water someday.

If I ever did I'd go steam punk with polished copper tubing and throw some gears in maybe here and there.

But I'm getting old and lazy and just going to work is a grind, frig I've bathroom needs remodeling badly and just say screw it these days.

Nice work !
 
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All I can say WOW!!!
Hats off to you on a very nice build
I love the lighting but a few ??'s
Are you using both UV light plus led color lights?
 
I don't know anything about UV lights, is it the cathodes on the side/top that are UV?

Very very nice work, I love the look a lot
 
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Great job Bamato! Was this your first water cooling project?

Anyways, I really like your routing. Did a Tron Theme come to mind, because it does for me right away with that neon straightening lining effect. Really nice routes and love the fact you still added a drain at the bottom. :p
 
Great job Bamato! Was this your first water cooling project?

Anyways, I really like your routing. Did a Tron Theme come to mind, because it does for me right away with that neon straightening lining effect. Really nice routes and love the fact you still added a drain at the bottom. :p

Tron is actually the theme, glad you saw that. I tried to make the tubing look like a light cycle path. I plan on doing some more decorative work to to give it more of a grid look later on.

Drain lines are a must. I don't understand how people build loops without them. I had to use it once already to remount the gpu block. I put a small ball valve with a threaded cap on the end of it, that way all I have to do is thread a fitting and my drain tube and out it comes.

And yes, this was my first water build. Loved doing it. Still can't believe I wasted almost no tubing. I'll have to return four pieces to FrozenCpu that I bought just to cover mistakes.

Now I have to convince family to let me cool theirs as well.... ;)
 
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Tron is actually the theme, glad you saw that. I tried to make the tubing look like a light cycle path. I plan on doing some more decorative work to to give it more of a grid look later on.

Drain lines are a must. I don't understand how people build loops without them. I had to use it once already to remount the gpu block. I put a small ball valve with a threaded cap on the end of it, that way all I have to do is thread a fitting and my drain tube and out it comes.

And yes, this was my first water build. Loved doing it. Still can't believe I wasted almost no tubing. I'll have to return four pieces to FrozenCpu that I bought just to cover mistakes.

Now I have to convince family to let me cool theirs as well.... ;)

Awesome. I sometimes use the Tron surround wall paper on my rig and really love it. Actually here's a picture (Post #7, image #7) of it. It goes really well with your build. :attn:

Really amazed that its your first build and you did great. :salute:

People don't read stickies and research let alone add a drain to their loop. You sir are a prime example of being patient, reading stickies and doing your research. If you ever have any questions, don't be afraid to ask us.

Also, its up to you in having extra in tubing etc but I like to keep a little extra in case I change something or needs to be changed.

Again, great job! :salute:
 
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I'm glad I subbed to this, it turned out great! I got the Tron theme too from your final pics. The tubing run also reminds me a bit of the old Windows screensaver with the pipes... Can't wait to see what other changes you'll make to this later.
 
Thanks for the kind words everyone. I had a great time building the loop (with the exception of modifying the Heatkiller, that was nerve racking).
 
I think my next step is going to be a back-plate for the GPU. The bare blue PCB looks out of place.
 
I was in the same boat with my GPUs. I wish manufacturers would stick with plain black PCBs, especially for higher end components. (I'm looking at you, Gigabyte...) I ended up going with the backplates that EK sells with their waterblocks, but you'd probably be able to make one with a piece of black acrylic or something. You could probably also find a way to tie it in with the Tron theme (UV orange lines?)
 
I was thinking a black plate with Tron symbols cut in it and using UV plastic behind it so only the symbol glows.
 
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