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Build Log: Caselabs TH10 Dual 480 Loop
- Thread starter Zoinks
- Start date
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2005
- Location
- Tau'ri
Wow, going to be an AWESOME build 
- Thread Starter
- #84
Here are a few belated pics of the water cooling gear I will be using in my new build...
Above: Corsair fans, XSPC Dual D5 bay mount reservoir, Swiftech MCP655 PWM controlled pumps, and Enzotech BLSI-1 SLI Brdige. I don't know if I will actually use this, since upon inspection it seems pretty flow restrictive to me. I haven't decided yet but I am inclined to go with something from Bitspower.
Here we have the Alphacool NexXxoS UT60 radiators (two 480s and one 360), Koolance CPU block, Aquaero 6 Pro (with black faceplate), Aquacomputer flow sensor, Bitspower fittings, Primoflex Advanced LRT tubing, and various cables and pieces that I need for the build.
Still waiting on a few things before I can start. I have a 360mm flex bay radiator mount, 5 1/4" adjustable device mount, and a set of heavy duty casters on order from Caselabs. No word yet from Caselabs about when this order will ship, but I can't start my build until it arrives so everything is on hold until then.
And I decided to go push pull across the board with the radiator fans, so I have 11 Corsair AF120 Performance Edition fans on order. They should be here Thursday.
I'm hoping to have this system built by the end of next week.
Above: Corsair fans, XSPC Dual D5 bay mount reservoir, Swiftech MCP655 PWM controlled pumps, and Enzotech BLSI-1 SLI Brdige. I don't know if I will actually use this, since upon inspection it seems pretty flow restrictive to me. I haven't decided yet but I am inclined to go with something from Bitspower.
Here we have the Alphacool NexXxoS UT60 radiators (two 480s and one 360), Koolance CPU block, Aquaero 6 Pro (with black faceplate), Aquacomputer flow sensor, Bitspower fittings, Primoflex Advanced LRT tubing, and various cables and pieces that I need for the build.
Still waiting on a few things before I can start. I have a 360mm flex bay radiator mount, 5 1/4" adjustable device mount, and a set of heavy duty casters on order from Caselabs. No word yet from Caselabs about when this order will ship, but I can't start my build until it arrives so everything is on hold until then.
And I decided to go push pull across the board with the radiator fans, so I have 11 Corsair AF120 Performance Edition fans on order. They should be here Thursday.
I'm hoping to have this system built by the end of next week.
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- Thread Starter
- #85
I have completed my build. There were a few bumps in the road along the way but I am very pleased with things so far. Let me apologize in advance for the poor quality images. My digital camera is not very good, and I am sure that my skill as a digital photographer leaves something to be desired.
Below is my Caselabs Magnum TH10 case, stripped down with one of the new Aquacool UT60 NexXxos 480mm radiators fitted. One of the problems that I repeatedly had to cope with in my old build was dust, and I had to pull my machine out at least one per month to clean it. You can see some dust (looks like dirt but it is dust) on the power supply side case fan mounts. I cleaned the case several times: three before this picture was taken, and three after. I was determined to deal with dust more effectively with this build so I didn't have to constantly pull my system out and clean it. I'll talk about that in more detail later.
Here's the XSPC dual D5 bay reservoir. There are two Swiftech MCP655 PWM controlled pumps to do the heavy lifting. I mounted it in the bottom of the mother board side of my case. I really like this arrangement and got the idea from Dean Pasic's video on Youtube. I new I wanted this res/pump combo before I saw the video, but I also knew I really didn't want to mount it in a bay and one of the things I kicked around for a while was where else to mount it that would give me good tube routing options. Fitted to the Bitspower 90 degree single rotary on the reservoir inlet is a Koolance quick disconnect for easy hassle-free draining of the loop.
Three EVGA GTX 780 Classified Hydro Copper cards were originally going into this build, but I ran into a problem that I did not anticipate. The inlet/outlet manifold on the Hydro Copper GPU blocks are much wider than those from other manufacturers, and there is only one SLI fitting made that will work with them in a triple SLI single-slot spacing scenario. I wasn't aware of this when I bought the cards, but when I encountered the problem I wasn't worried about it either. Someone pointed me in the right direction and I bought the SLI fittings that I needed. One thing I noted when I was first fitting the Hydro Coppers is how heavy they are. I knew they were big and heavy cards before I ordered them. They weigh a little over 4lbs each. And while 12lbs of GPUs hanging off of your motherboard doesn't sound that bad...I have to say that I was concerned about it. It probably would have been just fine since the major load bearing point would be where the cards secure to the slot bracket with a retaining screw. But that didn't stop me from thinking about it.
The Swiftech SLI fittings arrived and I wasn't satisfied with their quality. The O-rings fell apart on all four fittings, the threading was so tight that I had to put an adjustable wrench on them to get them installed. The finish peeled right off of them. While I could have obtained replacement fittings or replaced the o-rings and lived with the poor finish, I decided to remove the Hydro Copper water blocks and replace them with GPU blocks from EK. So I ordered the EK FC blocks and a EK FC terminal from Performance-pcs and had it sent FedEx Priority Overnight. My package arrived the following morning. The EK blocks were fine but the EK FC terminal had a thin crack in it about an inch or so long running through one of the mounting screw holes. Fortunately, I had some Bitspower adjustable aqualink SLI fittings on hand and used those to set up my GPUs in a parallel configuration.
GTX 780 Classified with the Hydro Copper water block removed.
Here are two of the three cards with the EK FC Classy GPU blocks installed.
All three cards fitted to the Rampage IV Black Edition motherboard. The GTX 780 Classified with the EK GPU block mounted weighed half as much as the same card with the EVGA Hydro Copper block installed.
Here all of the radiators have been fitted to the case and I am placing the res/pump combo to better visualize tube routing. You might note in this picture that the Blu-Ray burner shown in the fist picture has been removed. With the 360mm radiator mounted to a flexbay mount, there is not a lot of real estate left and I need space to mount the Aquaero 6 Pro that is going into the build. I thought it was about time to lose the optical drive anyway. I have a few USB drives so there is no real need to have all of that space taken up with an internal drive in the case.
The system with the tubing installed. What you don't see in this picture is the Aquacomputer flow meter for the Aquaero 6 Pro since it is installed in the power supply side of the case. After this picture was taken I decided to trim a little tubing from the segment that connects the GPUs to the reservior. I felt there was just a little too much slack.
The system is back where it belongs...in use. Now I would like to return to the subject of dust control. Note the DEMCiflex filters. Like all products, this line of filters has its advocates and its critics. I had no experience with them and it was impossible for me to tell whether or not they would work out for me based on the handful of reviews and owner comments I could find. One thing that did concern me about them was the restrictive airflow. According to the product literature they reduce air flow by 20%. That is a lot, especially if you are trying to run a quiet system with low fan RPM. I did not see any complaints about the filters in terms of their ability to trap dust. So I had to ask myself what was more important to me...airflow or dust control. I decided that they were equally important, and that is why I chose to go with Push-Pull on the radiator fans.
I have been running the system less than 24 hours so I have not had any time to do any tuning, benchmarking, and temperature profiling. Most of the day has been spent installing my apps and restoring data from a backup -- getting my machine more or less back to where it was system-wise prior to the build. Against my better judgment I went with Windows 8.1 Professional for my OS and am using Classic Shell to provide the look and feel of Windows 7 and disable most of the annoying things in Windows 8.
I am running the CPU and GPUs at stock speeds and voltages for now. But I did do a few tests just to make sure the loop is effectively cooling my hardware. Running Prime95 my CPU temps get to about 42C under full load. The GPUs never went above 46C after playing Borderlands 2 for about 30 minutes at 5760 x 1080 with the graphics settings maxed out and no cap on the frame rate. The fans were running at 1250 RPM, so the system is very quiet, much more so than my last build. I haven't had time to do much of anything with the Aquaero 6 Pro, other than to set the pump and fan speeds from the panel. I haven't even installed the software yet. Based on my very limited exposure to this device, I have to say that I am extremely impressed by what I have seen of it. Aquacomputer left no stone unturned when designing this product and threw everything into it that a water cooling system builder could possibly want. The only oddity I have seen with it so far is that fan channel 4 (which I am using to control all of the "pull" radiator fans), shows the RPM as zero but the fans are in fact spinning and they do respond to changes in the power level from the panel. Could be a firmware quirk. Everything else seems to be in order. I can see my pump speed, flow rate, coolant temperature, and ambient case temperature (I have not installed all of the probes).
I plan to tune and overclock this system and run some benchmarks soon. I'll post those results when I have them. I should have some time for that in about a week.
Thanks to those who made helpful suggestions. I started thinking about this build in September and began serious planning and research in early October. While I had a few issues, so far I am happy with the results. A special thanks to JeremyCT for recommending the Aquaero 6 and being the first to suggest going with a single loop. I know I resisted the Aquaero 6 recommendation when he first made it...but I am very glad I went for it.
Below is my Caselabs Magnum TH10 case, stripped down with one of the new Aquacool UT60 NexXxos 480mm radiators fitted. One of the problems that I repeatedly had to cope with in my old build was dust, and I had to pull my machine out at least one per month to clean it. You can see some dust (looks like dirt but it is dust) on the power supply side case fan mounts. I cleaned the case several times: three before this picture was taken, and three after. I was determined to deal with dust more effectively with this build so I didn't have to constantly pull my system out and clean it. I'll talk about that in more detail later.
Here's the XSPC dual D5 bay reservoir. There are two Swiftech MCP655 PWM controlled pumps to do the heavy lifting. I mounted it in the bottom of the mother board side of my case. I really like this arrangement and got the idea from Dean Pasic's video on Youtube. I new I wanted this res/pump combo before I saw the video, but I also knew I really didn't want to mount it in a bay and one of the things I kicked around for a while was where else to mount it that would give me good tube routing options. Fitted to the Bitspower 90 degree single rotary on the reservoir inlet is a Koolance quick disconnect for easy hassle-free draining of the loop.
Three EVGA GTX 780 Classified Hydro Copper cards were originally going into this build, but I ran into a problem that I did not anticipate. The inlet/outlet manifold on the Hydro Copper GPU blocks are much wider than those from other manufacturers, and there is only one SLI fitting made that will work with them in a triple SLI single-slot spacing scenario. I wasn't aware of this when I bought the cards, but when I encountered the problem I wasn't worried about it either. Someone pointed me in the right direction and I bought the SLI fittings that I needed. One thing I noted when I was first fitting the Hydro Coppers is how heavy they are. I knew they were big and heavy cards before I ordered them. They weigh a little over 4lbs each. And while 12lbs of GPUs hanging off of your motherboard doesn't sound that bad...I have to say that I was concerned about it. It probably would have been just fine since the major load bearing point would be where the cards secure to the slot bracket with a retaining screw. But that didn't stop me from thinking about it.
The Swiftech SLI fittings arrived and I wasn't satisfied with their quality. The O-rings fell apart on all four fittings, the threading was so tight that I had to put an adjustable wrench on them to get them installed. The finish peeled right off of them. While I could have obtained replacement fittings or replaced the o-rings and lived with the poor finish, I decided to remove the Hydro Copper water blocks and replace them with GPU blocks from EK. So I ordered the EK FC blocks and a EK FC terminal from Performance-pcs and had it sent FedEx Priority Overnight. My package arrived the following morning. The EK blocks were fine but the EK FC terminal had a thin crack in it about an inch or so long running through one of the mounting screw holes. Fortunately, I had some Bitspower adjustable aqualink SLI fittings on hand and used those to set up my GPUs in a parallel configuration.
GTX 780 Classified with the Hydro Copper water block removed.
Here are two of the three cards with the EK FC Classy GPU blocks installed.
All three cards fitted to the Rampage IV Black Edition motherboard. The GTX 780 Classified with the EK GPU block mounted weighed half as much as the same card with the EVGA Hydro Copper block installed.
Here all of the radiators have been fitted to the case and I am placing the res/pump combo to better visualize tube routing. You might note in this picture that the Blu-Ray burner shown in the fist picture has been removed. With the 360mm radiator mounted to a flexbay mount, there is not a lot of real estate left and I need space to mount the Aquaero 6 Pro that is going into the build. I thought it was about time to lose the optical drive anyway. I have a few USB drives so there is no real need to have all of that space taken up with an internal drive in the case.
The system with the tubing installed. What you don't see in this picture is the Aquacomputer flow meter for the Aquaero 6 Pro since it is installed in the power supply side of the case. After this picture was taken I decided to trim a little tubing from the segment that connects the GPUs to the reservior. I felt there was just a little too much slack.
The system is back where it belongs...in use. Now I would like to return to the subject of dust control. Note the DEMCiflex filters. Like all products, this line of filters has its advocates and its critics. I had no experience with them and it was impossible for me to tell whether or not they would work out for me based on the handful of reviews and owner comments I could find. One thing that did concern me about them was the restrictive airflow. According to the product literature they reduce air flow by 20%. That is a lot, especially if you are trying to run a quiet system with low fan RPM. I did not see any complaints about the filters in terms of their ability to trap dust. So I had to ask myself what was more important to me...airflow or dust control. I decided that they were equally important, and that is why I chose to go with Push-Pull on the radiator fans.
I have been running the system less than 24 hours so I have not had any time to do any tuning, benchmarking, and temperature profiling. Most of the day has been spent installing my apps and restoring data from a backup -- getting my machine more or less back to where it was system-wise prior to the build. Against my better judgment I went with Windows 8.1 Professional for my OS and am using Classic Shell to provide the look and feel of Windows 7 and disable most of the annoying things in Windows 8.
I am running the CPU and GPUs at stock speeds and voltages for now. But I did do a few tests just to make sure the loop is effectively cooling my hardware. Running Prime95 my CPU temps get to about 42C under full load. The GPUs never went above 46C after playing Borderlands 2 for about 30 minutes at 5760 x 1080 with the graphics settings maxed out and no cap on the frame rate. The fans were running at 1250 RPM, so the system is very quiet, much more so than my last build. I haven't had time to do much of anything with the Aquaero 6 Pro, other than to set the pump and fan speeds from the panel. I haven't even installed the software yet. Based on my very limited exposure to this device, I have to say that I am extremely impressed by what I have seen of it. Aquacomputer left no stone unturned when designing this product and threw everything into it that a water cooling system builder could possibly want. The only oddity I have seen with it so far is that fan channel 4 (which I am using to control all of the "pull" radiator fans), shows the RPM as zero but the fans are in fact spinning and they do respond to changes in the power level from the panel. Could be a firmware quirk. Everything else seems to be in order. I can see my pump speed, flow rate, coolant temperature, and ambient case temperature (I have not installed all of the probes).
I plan to tune and overclock this system and run some benchmarks soon. I'll post those results when I have them. I should have some time for that in about a week.
Thanks to those who made helpful suggestions. I started thinking about this build in September and began serious planning and research in early October. While I had a few issues, so far I am happy with the results. A special thanks to JeremyCT for recommending the Aquaero 6 and being the first to suggest going with a single loop. I know I resisted the Aquaero 6 recommendation when he first made it...but I am very glad I went for it.
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