PROJECT LOG Tower to cube...air to water.

[Railgun]

EDIT....Sorry to those that have seen this thread before I was finished...too many things going on and hit enter on the wrong kb before I was finished. Then, naturally, as I edited this post, it logged me out so I lost the edit...figures....



I'll apologize in advance for the lack of pics as I'm quite literally just starting off this particular project, but rest assured, there will be plenty as the weeks and/or months progress.

Not that I want to sound like everyone else here in how their respective threads start off (no offense, of course) but, like many, I've been building my PCs for a good 10 years now. Granted, not as many as some, but long enough to know that most of the things I've done in the past could be considered a large waste...well...I could have spent $ on other/better things.

The overall goal here is twofold:

1) Quiet the system down considerably. I've recently moved to London and where the system is sitting, it makes quite a bit of noise that reverberates throughout the flat.

2) Where the system is sitting, it does get quite warm as I'm on the top flat, and the thing is sitting in a little loft even higher up. So, heat gets stuck up here very easily.

Bit messy...but the left opens up to the rest of the flat and it's annoying.

That being said, the setup I'm currently running isn't changing, rather the home in which it lives.

As you can see, it's a disaster in there. Additionally, the case and my plans are not going to cooperate so, in addition to the LC move, I'm also going to a MM Ascension.

And we'll say point #3 is good OC'ing ability.

I'm not as techy as some here with CAD and the like, so instead of posting up some nice renderings of what the case will look like, I'll just throw it up as some words...

The case itself will be configured as:

Front: Trinity
Rear: Horizon flipped 180
Top: Diamond
Left: Triple big window (fans up)
Right: Solid or triple big window

It will be somewhat stealthy in that all main components will be annodized black and the windows either clear or smoked.

Those components as shown above are:

Asus R3E
i7-970
2x Gigabyte GTX460s OC'd
8800GT for PhysX
12GB Corsair Dominator GT 7-8-7-20 @ 1866
Areca 1880-i
4x WD Raptor 740GDs in RAID0
4x 1TB Samsung F3s in RAID10
Blu-Ray RW

Needless to say, I need some room, in particular for the eight drives.

I haven't decided on the exact components for LC'ing, nor have I determined exactly how I'm going to do the loop or loops, but here's where I am so far.

Some D5 pump(s)
EX Supreme HF
Koolance GPU-220s
Koolance MB-ASR3E
3x TC PA120.3

I'll have one rad on the front at the bottom, with fans in the middle for some air to the mobo and the drives in the third spot.

The other two rads will be up top on the left and rear. For the loop, I'm thinking CPU/NB, two top rads, GPU in parallel, front rad. But, I'm open to more efficient suggestions. I'm also somewhat concerned about how I have airflow. All fans will be at 1k or 1400RPM. The entire front will be intakes, the side and rear as well as top exhaust. I still think there will be some positive pressure given nine intake fans and only six exhaust of 120mm variants. The additional four 80mm up top may make some equilibrium, but we'll see.

And for the sake of argument whether this is all necessary, let's just say it's going to be OC'd a lot.

As far as the rest of the case...the Areca card is somewhat of a pain, but easy in that the headers for the drive status lights have a common ground (I believe). That will make wiring much easier.

My old card RAID card, an Adaptec 2405 had a nice 8-pin header which was easy to retrofit an 8-pin mobo header cable I had and create a front light panel. Well, as now I have eight drives, I need 16 lights...eight activity and eight error. So, that being said, I'll have a rather nice light show up front for all these drives. As I "only" have five free bays off the bat to work with, we'll see how I'll do the res and pump setup as I'm sure I'll need some fan controllers and whatnot. I haven't determined whether I want to use two bays for the HDD LEDs or not....either way, the whole thing will be as clean as possible.

So, in the coming week or so, I'll be ordering the case itself. Once in, I'll be able to better plan the cooling solution. I'm more visual so I'll need to see it in person before I can lock in the plan.


In the meantime, as mentioned, I'm all eyes on more efficient setups. This will be quite a build I'm going to do here...at least that's my intention. So I'm all for those chiming in with their experiences on this particular case.

 

[Dooms101]

Ahhh another epic mountain mods build xD I'll be watching this...

 

[TheQuadFather]

subbed, been waiting for some MM pronz for a while now.

 

[Railgun]

Ok...the case has been ordered. Man...they really kill you on shipping to the UK. Oh well...

I ended up with the options as I mentioned above with the triple bigs for both sides.

I may end up with the horizon rear in the standard orientation as I can use the extra space below for pump mounting and whatnot if I choose. That being the case, I will need to modify the tray bracket since it mounts right next to the side panel, which means I'll need to have fans up, and with the mobo being up high, I'd rather have fans down so the window has a good...view...

So what this means in the grand scheme of things is perhaps a fourth rad. I've got a good idea how things will route of that's the case, but the final setup will still be based on what I see when it gets here.

More to come.

 

[TheQuadFather]

Ok...the case has been ordered. Man...they really kill you on shipping to the UK. Oh well...

i know how you feel, it will be worth it though, i hope to have one, one day.

 

[Railgun]

So it will arrive here on Monday. I've fired off another thread regarding the cooling solution, specifically fan control. I don't necessarily know what the finished product will look like both from a control and indication perspective, but I know that it will have enough lights to light up a square mile.

 

[Railgun]

Christmas in May

Well, fortunately, things showed up a little earlier than expected...

Unfortunately, there was one minor issue, which I assume will be dealt with appropriately...

Back to being fortunate again, I'm in no hurry to get this complete, so it's not that big of an issue.

Though, to any MM folks reading this, it would be great if not exactly the whole amount is on the packing slip. That VAT/customs is rediculous. But, that's another thread on another forum.

 

[CompuTamer]

Ouch :/ Sorry to hear about that scratch.

Good luck on this though, subbed Should be an interesting build!

 

[Railgun]

Ok....so some initial thoughts here.

First up. I think it goes without saying that this case is a monster. Its build quality seems to be top notch. Though the edges are a little on the sharp side, I don't think it's more than any other Al case I've owned in the past where the edges weren't rounded off.

It's cavernous.

However. Where there is a ton of room, it's all in the middle. Some of the design doesn't seem to be thought out for the endless combinations so claimed. You're still somewhat limited with these options and how you orientate the panels. In particular, the side panels I picked up.

With the tall horizon brace installed, you cannot do a 360 rad/fans down.

Nor can you do fans up with the drive bays up top as well...

I had already expected to do some modifications to the brace. As you can see in the 5th pic, there's plenty of clearance for what will be the bottom edge of the rad and the floor of the case. So I'll flip the feet of that tray brace 180 deg, lengthen it a bit and essentially create a narrower brace. There's no need to have the entire tray supported.

Of course, the logical thing would be to flip the front panel around, but as this is going to be on the floor at my feet, that would obviously be somewhat of an inconvenience.

So the whole thing poses an interesting situation with the end goal to have an equal amount of air flow through the case. With all rads down as they are currently, that leaves very little left for exhaust.

So, I ponder a bit more. Next item up is to get some radiators in so I can start mounting those and see exactly how things will end up getting plumbed and whatnot.

 

[Railgun]

So, not to lose sight of this whole thing, I think I've compiled a list of items for this build. I've had to rethink this a few times as with as extensive a radiator setup I'm going with, there's not a lot of room with how the case is setup.

That said, I've emailed MM and asked for a custom horizon bracket that comes in 10cm from the sides. That will allow room for a radiator and fan setup as from the pics above, you can see that I'd have an issue.

Second to that, I may not even put a radiator in the side spots now, and if I do, limit them to a 240 as opposed to a 360 as there isn't enough clearance in the corners to get adjacent, perpendicular rad/fans.

So, as far as the parts list...

3x Swiftech MCR320s
Koolance CPU-370
3x XSPC Rasas
Koolance MB-ASM3E
Koolance RP-452X2 w/ 2x PMP-450

Fans I'm on the fence with. I'm looking at the Nexus PWM line of fans, mainly because they're PWM and can have LEDs popped into them whenever, but then I may change my mind and may go with some other PWM fan and do some general case lighting. But that's not a need to figure out right now anyway. Keep in mind, I'm going for great cooling performance here and keeping this thing as quiet as possible.

So, with that, the rads will probably line up vertically across the front. The drives would then sit on the bottom of the rear panel (remember, there are eight of 'em) and will probably do the left side panel fans up and the right fans down. Fans up will just have 3x exhaust fans. The other side will have at least 3x intake fans if not another 240 rad towards the rear.

The middle fan hole on the rear panel is up in the air and the mobo tray fan, even though it's up top, may have an intake fan with some ducting to cool any air components left (ram sinks on the vid cards, etc).

I haven't even figured out how I'm going to do the loop yet, but once I get some components in, I'll be better able to visualize how things will go.

More to come...

Oh yeah, they did send a replacement mobo back panel which was perfect, so thank you to them.

 

[Railgun]

Just so none of you think that this is just another stalled project or dead thread...

I've ordered and have had delivered a few things, though they're not yet in my possession. I'll have it all early next month.

Some minor changes to the original list, which is now (with some repeats):

Koolance PMP-450 with its base for a 60mm reservoir
CPU-370
24v dual pump controller
3x MCR320-QP
2x XSPC Rasa
EK-FB RE3 - Acetal
Corsair AX1200

I thought I had my fans in this order, but apparently not, but there will be 19 AC F12s, all quietly doing their duty.

Once I get this stuff in, I'll start figuring out where things are going to get mounted and design the actual loop and what have you. I'll worry about fittings and hose at that point.

The other recent update is MM should be, this week, completing my new horizon bracket. I had them bring the sides in about 10cm on either end to make room as illustrated in the last few pics above. I'd have about 15mm clearance with a rad and fan should I put one there. A fan will definitely fill the space whether there's a rad or not.

More to come...

On a side note, I had tried to order some things through Jab-Tech, but there were some apparent issues actually completing the order. I was getting some fraud prevention message when trying to get the order through from the site itself. My bank didn't see anything one way or another in terms of any issues so, I went elsewhere.

 

[Railgun]

Ok...so I've moved into the new case, but still on air at the moment as I start to fit everything in. Unfortunately, it seems to have a bit less room than I had thought.

I received my new horizon bracket and while it worked great for clearance on the sides, it now interferes with the back. I had planned to mount my drives on the low side fan locations. However, some drives are deep enough that they would hit the bracket. This has forced me to move them to the front and move one of the rads to a horizontal position there. Not the end of the world, but not the cleanest of solutions I was hoping for.

Next order of business is to figure out where and how I'm going to mount the pump and res. I need to order some shorter SFF-8087 cables.

That said, I've got the two front rads vertically on either side of the case with the drives in the middle. I'll probably move them to one of the sides and have the rads next to each other just for a cable management perspective.

My loop will look like (based on initial location of the pump itself which is on the left side of the case):

Pump/res->front rads->rear rad->probably split to CPU/NB and GPUs-> back to pump

I know what everyone will say for the split, but that's how I want to do it. Whether necessary or not is irrelevant. Flow meters will sit on each lane and I'll have a check valve on the GPU lane.

Once that's set in stone, I'll start getting some tubing and fittings ordered. Lotta wiring to be done, but I think that'll be late in the project. Getting the thing up and running is obviously first and foremost.

 

[unijabnx2000]

So umm what happened?

 

[Railgun]

I'm doing too many other things to see one project through to completion. I'm doing some here, some there. That said, I just need to order fittings and hose. I
Not too concerned about wire management at the moment as I can easily address that later.

I'll take some pics tonight of the current state as a progression point.

 

[Railgun]

So I suppose this is the worst project log thread on the forum. So be it. Other things have been consuming my time and I`ve just not concentrated on this enough. But...I`m almost done.

And I promise I`ll take some additional photos.

I`ve been somewhat anal about this thing. I had an XSPC VGA block for the 460s that I didn`t like...it would interfere with the passive RAM blocks I have. So...I opted for a pair of 570s. Seems I picked up the last Koolance block in the UK for those, so I`m waiting on one from the States.

...and some additional fittings...

...and some other things...

On paper, my loop now consists of this...

-13/19 tubing throughout
-Koolance D5 w/COV-RP450 and the 471ml res.
-Down to lower, rear, horiz rad, to front vertical rads (all Swiftech MCR320-QPs).
-Out with pass through temp to Y into:
-Koolance CPU-370 to EK NB block
-Through high flow meter back into Y into pump
-Parallel Koolance VID-NX580s
-Through T for filling (highest point of the loop)
-Through high flow meter
-Koolance ball valve to even flow between loops
-Back to Y into pump
-Y into block has another T for draining (lowest point of the loop).

The kickers have been the routing of the loop, and getting all the correct fittings. There have been several orders to get it all lined up. The last of the fittings should be arriving today and the last vid block hopefully not long after.

I`ve already flushed everything and I`ve opted for Mayhems Tharsis Red coolant. The loop from pump through the NB block and to the first GPU block are done. Just waiting on everything else. I had started to question the use of 13mm tubing, purely from a size perspective, but I think when all is said and done, it will work well.

I`ve also changed some HW around in removing the Raptors in favor of 4x120GB OCZ Vertex 3s, still in a stripe. I`m debating on what to do with the PhysX card. At present, I`m retaining an 8800GT, but I think I`d rather use the old 460. That said, we`ll see how loud the fans on that thing will be before I go ahead and WC it.

More to come...sooner than later this time, I promise.

 

[Railgun]

Oh look...a four year old update...

But guess what...I kinda finished...

It's changed somewhat from the above...but why start a new thread when I can finish off my original. Since the original pics are gone since I hosted them on my server (which will be revived at some point soon) here are a couple of reminders to where I'm coming from...

The cavern:



Kind of the old setup:



And what we ended up with:

The new board with Primochill acrylic fittings


A slightly modded SLI bridge (I hate green)
View attachment 172893

New pump and res test fitting against the DAS



The first go. The line from the CPU block to the res was redone as I forgot to take into account the proximity of the fans with the side of the case on...it was brought in a bit.




And some "production shots"



I'm not all that great at product shots...so this is just a small selection until I can better represent the thing.

My sig basically covers the build...but, the full kit and kaboodle is this:

PC gear:
Mountain Mods Ascension with custom modded parts:
-Front Trinity panel for MORA fan spacing
-Rear Horizon panel for 140mm fan
-HDD Brackets for said 140mm hole (that I just checked and realized I was royally ripped off on...didn't even realize it at the time)
-Floor tray for pumps
Asus R5E
i7-5960x
G.Skill Ripjaws F4-2400C15Q-32 (EK Monarch cooling blocks with short Corsair red top fins)
2x OG Titans with slightly modded NVIDIA SLI bridge
Corsair AX1500i
E-MU 1616M
Areca 1880i
512GB Samsung XP941 boot drive
1TB Samsung 850 EVO games drive
4X 2TB WD Black in RAID-5 for DAS

Water cooling gear (in order of flow):
Aquacomputer (AC) Aqualis XT 450
EK-XTOP dual DDC pump
AlphaCool UT60
Watercool MORA-3 360
Koolance CPU-380i
EX full cover Titan acetal+nickel (Koolance DUAL-VID connectors between)
EK-FB kit acetal+nickel
All PrimoChill 13/10mm red acrylic lines with Revolver diamond fittings.

Air cooling gear:
19x Nidec GT AP-53 fans for radiators, and general flow
4x 80mm NoiseBlocker BlackSilent Pro for top exhaust
1x 140mm NoiseBlocker BlackSilent Pro for DAS cooling
1x 40mm Fractal Design R3 for Areca cooling

Control:
2x AquaComputer Aquaero 6XT
2x AquaComputer Poweradjust 3 Ultras
1x AquaComputer Farbwerk

Lighting:
3x Phobya RGB LED strips (controlled by Farbwerk)
6x Vishay TLCR5800 red LEDs for reservoir (powered by mobo fan header)

Misc:
IcyBox external USB3 CD/DVD carrier
iStar USA 4-in-1 2.5" hot swap carrier
NZXT USB expansion
Various modded ModMyToys 3/4-pin expansion PCBs for fan aggregation/LED expansion

I don't have specifics here, but delta temps are well within single digits...if I recall, within 5c.

This is a never ending process really. The video cards will be swapped soon enough with Pascal around the corner. I may extricate the DAS at some point as I'm slowing getting a media server setup which, if it performs well enough, will be used as a NAS (not in the traditional sense). The cooling capacity is more than sufficient. The loudest thing in this case is the RAID card fan. The pumps second. At full tilt, it's a lot better than an air only setup, that's for sure.

Acrylic was a bit of a learning curve for me. I went through two and a half complete sets to get this done. Trial and error was the way for this build. I'd definitely do it again as it's such a better setup IMHO than rubber.

After all this, even the cavernous space that this case gives you...you still find you struggle for space. Not necessarily to fit everything, but to route wires and whatnot in such a way to keep everything neat and out of the way.

So...only took four years...but I finally finished it.

...kinda...

 

[Nebulous]

Dislike the red, but a beautiful job none the less! Bravo!