Building another Box (full tower this time)

[hackintosh]

Well, after spending the last 6 months with my midtower being fully water cooled and having 2 gpus crapping out on me I have decided that I need a full tower for the ease of being able to work on things.
I bought the midtower honestly by mistake, then I kept it because everyone told me I was crazy to think I could fit a full dual loop inside of a midtower with 2 cpu's so I went ahead and worked my *** off for a week and I got everything to fit.

But now I am going for convenience and a clean build. I had planned to sleeve everything and clean up all the wiring but with the gpu issues I never got around to it.


My new build will feature a DF-85 case which a lot of people don't like but hey this isn't your box now is it?
I chose the case because I like the front fans, and its a 1200 with the fans moved farther forward which makes working inside the case a little easier.

Here are the system specs

Asus z8na-d6
2 x Xeon Nehlaem 2.26
24gb ddr3 patriot memory (long story why I have 24)
corsair hx1000w psu
nvidia geforce 9800gtx+
2 x wd 1tb HDD
2 x kingston 128gb v-series SSD x2
DF-85
I will be adding a raid card, and 2 more ssd's after x-mas

Watercooling specs
2 x Swiftech Apogee XT
2 x Swiftech MCP-655
2 x HW 360gtx rads (120.3)
slimfit res
Ek Full gpu waterblock
Custom nb/sb chipset
New box will be all compression fittings

You can expect build pics of the new box to start next week. I ordered the case today, and I also ordered the new rads and fans today.
I will be ordering all of the fittings next week once I figure out what I need.

Untill then, here are some pics of my current setup.
Dont mind placement of anything or the wiring it was supposed to be temp until I was caught up with work and able to work on it.

 

[hackintosh]

one more of the front.

PS. the film on the res is from not listening to everyone and running the Feser fluid when I first bought everything.
You live and you learn

 

[m0r7if3r]

Man, I'm interested to see what you can do given a bit of wiggle room...that one you've got right there is a testament to dedication. What fans you runnin on those rads? you may needa do some weird offset on the barbs or maybe use 45's or 90's I get 7.244 in of rads + 38mm fans, compared to the case thickness of 8.40in, you've got room to work, even with the added thickness of setting it back a little and what not, but the tubing bend coming out will be interesting. fwiw, I'd tackle this by putting the barbs of one on top and the other on the bottom, so they tubing runs didn't interfere. Bleeding would be a touch tricky, but isn't it always? Just a bit of food for thought for you...not gonna lie, I'm downright excited about this build! Always nice to see something that takes a bit of modding to make it work!

 

[hackintosh]

Man, I'm interested to see what you can do given a bit of wiggle room...that one you've got right there is a testament to dedication. What fans you runnin on those rads? you may needa do some weird offset on the barbs or maybe use 45's or 90's I get 7.244 in of rads + 38mm fans, compared to the case thickness of 8.40in, you've got room to work, even with the added thickness of setting it back a little and what not, but the tubing bend coming out will be interesting. fwiw, I'd tackle this by putting the barbs of one on top and the other on the bottom, so they tubing runs didn't interfere. Bleeding would be a touch tricky, but isn't it always? Just a bit of food for thought for you...not gonna lie, I'm downright excited about this build! Always nice to see something that takes a bit of modding to make it work!

Glad to see you stopping by!

I already have some ideas on what I am going to do to make the rads fit, I have been talking to my friend Nathan at Koolertek about the fittings and he has just the ones I need! He just got in some crazy fittings that have any angle that you could think of.

This wont be the fastest build because even though I work at home my daytime job has be running rampant right now trying to get everything done before the weather turns and a lot of the parts I will be using for this build I will be making myself.
I will be running either the scythe ultra Kaze fans at 3000rpm or the gentle typhoon's at 1800


And I am really excited for this build because my last build was.....My not only my first WaterCooled build, but my first Computer build also, so I am pretty happy with what I accomplished.
And your right about my Dedication Mor, Asus told me I wouldnt be able to get a 3rd monitor to work with this board, so I did.
People told me that I wouldnt be able to have a dual boot OSX and WIN7 with this setup, it took a month but I had everything working perfectly but I decided that I no longer needed OSX since all of my video editing is done with vegas, so it would be easier just to keep win7 and run PS through that.

 

[hackintosh]

I might be getting a corsair 800d because I found one very very cheap and I was going to place my order for the df but I had to wait till monday because the place I was ordering from closed before I got my order in.
Now I am mauling over the decision of the 800d

 

[Rotary]

i own a 800b and its very easy to work with. its nice to keep your drives in the front. that was my best choice i made in a long time. i say go for it

 

[hackintosh]

haha, if I go with the 800d I will be removing most of the drive storage sadly so that I can mount the rads vertically in the front.
I just placed my order for all the wc extras like fittings, res etc quite the list.
I am going for no wires showing in this build either so I will be doing all custom wires thanks to some awesome how to projects that I have been scoping.
Every fitting will be compression even if you cant see them just because it is so much easier to work with them in small area's as I learned with my last build. Trying to get pliers on a clamp you can barely get to sucks.

 

[hackintosh]

Well I got an email today saying that my parts had shipped out and my case will be here Friday so you should start seeing some progress by the end of the weekend

 

[hackintosh]

Parts for the box are coming in tomorrow here is the list of what I ordered which is going to upgrade the system I have now

2 HARDWARE LABS GTX 360 RADIATOR
15 PRIMOCHILL 1/2 X 3/4 TUBING, BLUE
6 SCYTHE ULTRA KAZE 3000 FAN
1 SWIFTECH MICRO RES
1 DANGER DEN FILLPORT, BLACK
1 DANGER DEN FILLPORT, BLUE
1 SILVER STRIP, 12"
1 SUNBEAM PSU TOOL KIT
1 MOLEX CRIMPING TOOL
1 ATX EXTENSION CABLE, 6"
20 ENZOTECH BLACK COMP. FITTING, 1/2 X 3/4
2 ENZOTECH BLACK 90 ROTARY ADAPTER
1 LAMPTRON FC3 VER. B FAN CONTROLLER

 

[Peeved Kitten]

Every fitting will be compression even if you cant see them just because it is so much easier to work with them in small area's as I learned with my last build. Trying to get pliers on a clamp you can barely get to sucks.

I found that barbs with zip ties fixes this, just take wire cutters and cut the "lock" off the tie, works like a charm. Just my $.02

 

[Dooms101]

This is like a more extreme version of my current build. Instead of my massive heater core and single CPU loop in a tiny mid tower (it's barely even that) you're running 3 times what I am in a slightly bigger case. This shall be fun to watch. =D

 

[hackintosh]

Here are the new parts for the box (now I am just waiting on ups for the case to start)

 

[m0r7if3r]

Where's the other gtx360?

 

[Dooms101]

ooommmgggg nerd pr0n! I love those black anodized fittings with the uv green o-rings. Should look pretty sick.

 

[hackintosh]

Where's the other gtx360?

Haha it is there, There is one in brown box, and one in the box with the picture on it. I thought someone might say something about it

ooommmgggg nerd pr0n! I love those black anodized fittings with the uv green o-rings. Should look pretty sick.

I was on the fence about ordering all anodized compression fittings for this build since the way I am planning it, you wont see any fittings besides the ones that are on the blocks. So I could have saved a ton of money and just done the blocks but.
1. I didn't want to skimp on the build since I had already invested so much in it
2. I was really tired of trying to get clamps off of rads, pumps etc in small spaces with pliers since there was no way my hands were fitting.


I ended up going with the DF-85 I know it is not to every bodies taste, but I have talked to a couple people who have the case and they said its ugly in pics but in person its a great case. I also got what I feel was a really good price on it (139.99 shipped to my door 2 day express) My first order of business is to change out all the red lights for blue ones, while blue is played out and overused I still think it looks good.

Anyone want to weigh in on the push vs pull for fans on the rads? I was considering turning the front fans around on the case, and having them pulling air out of the case and having the fans on the rads pushing air through. Since the case is going to be sealed I thought that would be the best idea to have the fans pull fresh air through the rads, then have the front fans pull the hot air out. Then in the back of the case I will just have the top fan and 2 in the back since there are no air cooled parts in the case. Just to keep some of the heat out of the case.

 

[m0r7if3r]

front of the case should be pulling air in, fans should be against the case side with the rads behind them, pushing air out the side of the case.

 

[hackintosh]

I looked at that drawing, but I thought fans were most efficient in a push setup?

I mean it would make more sense to me to have cool air pulled through the fans on the rads, then have the front fans pull that air out of the case.
If you have the front fans pulling the air in, in an enclosed space, then you have air being pulled from two different directions it seems like you would be creating turbulance in the system making it less efficient.

My logic is working like this, I have 3 fans in the front of the case, that spin max 2,000 rpm moving 66.6cfm according to the specs from Antec
I have 3 fans on each rad spinning at 3000rpm moving 133.6 CFM according to the Manufacture The Ultra Kaze
I know that rad is going to stop a decent amount of the airflow, but it just seems like it would be creating turbulance inside the case when both sides are pulling on the air, and the front is pushing air into a wall inside the case. Espcially when you think that each one of the fans on the rad is capable of moving twice as much air as the front fans. So even if they are pulling half of what they are capable of, they would still be pulling in as much air as the front fans can provide.

So I thought it would be smarter to pull the air in from the rads, into the enclosed space in the case, then have the front fans remove that air from the system.

 

[m0r7if3r]

http://martin.skinneelabs.com/Radiator-Fan-Orientation-And-Shroud-Testing-Review.html

well there's push vs pull. You could always just dump the fans in front. The whole concept behind paraflow (and what makes it so ingenious i might add) is that there's never heated air in the case. You pull cold air in it warms in the rads and is immediately exhausted. This (theoretically) helps with temps in the rest of the case. I think you're gonna have issues with pressure either way. One way you've got huge negative pressure and the other huge positive pressure...it's just gonna be the nature of this beast.

 

[hackintosh]

I am going to try both and see what gives me lower temps on my components because that's what I am most concerned with.

I think as long as the front is sealed off and I have the 3 front fans pulling the hot air out it would never really have a chance to effect the case heat.

The only really benefit I see with the front fans pulling in, is that the case has the easy to clean filters which would mean my rads could run longer without needing to be cleaned because a lot less dust would be introduced into them

 

[m0r7if3r]

I'm quite interested to see the results of your testing...keep us posted!