All these upgrades, looks like I'm overdue... My turn

Serephucus

So, it's the time again. My rig is feeling a bit long in the tooth, and I'm in the mood for something new. I don't have the money for this quite yet, but all going well I should be able to order the bulk of this next weekend.

At present my rig is this:

Intel i7 950 @ 4.2GHz
6GB Corsair Dominator 1600MHz
Gigabyte X58A-UD5
Zotac GTX 580
Cooler Master Silent Pro 700W
Cooler Master ATCS 840 case

What I'm aiming for with this build it to reduce noise even further, and to have the watercooling all internalised. I also want to shoot for something very clean, and aesthetically pleasing. I'm taking inspiration from this rig in particular.

I'm pretty much settled on using a 600T as the case for this. Being able to mount a 200mm rad in the front, and a 360 in top is something not a lot of cases can boast, and it looks wonderful IMO as well.

Anyway, this is what I'm thinking of for the lot, I'll explain my reasoning afterwards:

The main bits, from HWVS:

Item|Price
Intel Core i5-3570K Box, LGA1155|€208.05
ASRock Z77 Extreme4, Sockel 1155, ATX|€129.14
16GB-Kit Corsair XMS3 Dominator Platinum PC3-12800U CL9|€133.76
EVGA GeForce GTX 670, 2048MB DDR5, PCI-Express|€351.51
Enermax Platimax 600W|€166.03
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€1007.48

The watercooling, from Specialtech:

Item|Price
XSPC RayStorm CPU Waterblock for Intel : RayStorm Intel|£49.98
XSPC EX Series 360mm Triple Radiator : EX360|£49.96
3 x XSPC 1/2" ID - 3/4" OD (13-19mm) High Flex Tubing : Black|£8.96
8 x Koolance 1/4" Thread Compression Fitting for 1/2" ID - 3/4" OD (13-19mm Tubing : NZL-V13-19KG|£47.90
Phobya Xtreme 200mm Radiator|£53.95
4 x Scythe Gentle Typhoon 120mm Case Fan 1450 RPM : D1225C12B4AP-14|£55.97
Shipping|£17.94
Total|£ 284.67

I'll also be ordering sleeving from FrozenCPU, a reservoir for my D5 from EK, and Alchemy LED strips from Amazon (though I might look for these somewhere else).

Now, my choices... I know the 600W PSU is overkill. That's to account for the possibility of upgrading to a GTX 780 when it arrives. Hence the EVGA 670. It's to take advantage of their six-month step-up program offer. The ridiculous memory is also for aesthetics. Yes, I want those white LEDs this much. I was also planning on throwing a 512GB M4 in the mix, but I don't think money will quite stretch that far. If it turns out it does though, it's very easy to add in, given that I'll be using it as a Steam drive.

The overall theme I'm going for here is a black one, with gold or silver accents. I'm thinking it might have to be silver though. The only place I've found that stocks Bitspower's True Golden fittings is NCIX, and they don't ship here. The Koolance fittings are in there as placeholders, mostly. I'm thinking I might switch to Bitspower Silver fittings if I can't work the gold in. I really wanted to try and bring out the gold caps on the ASRock.

I've also gone with XSPC blocks, as they allow white LEDs to be installed, to match the RAM and case lights. I should also mention that I'm going to try and sleeve all the PSU cables along with the tubing. Probably similar to the above rig I linked to, but with gold/sliver instead of the red.

Oh, and I'll also be swapping my QPad for a G710+ from Logitech, both for the media keys, and as to better match the colour scheme.


Looking for comments, suggestions, and opinions on this one!

Serephucus

Loop diagram, if anyone's interested.



I'm thinking of also sticking my one mechanical drive in the bay area, and getting rid of the HDD cage under the pump - it's not pictured, but you can move the two there out, and put one under where the pump is - then mounting the pump/res on the floor, which would allow for slightly cleaner tubing.

Still not sure on what fans I'm going to go for. Thinking of GT 1450RPMs at the moment, but not totally decided as of yet.

freestyla

All I can say is great stuff! Really pro planning mate.

Personally I won't buy Asrock ever since have seen, and had myself, many failures from the day one when Asrock entered computers world years ago. Last year I went for a socket 1155 Pro mobo, was faulty, got replacement which was cr@p too. Fortunatelly HV shop was kind enough and let me exchange for Asus mobo which is still on going strong.

Fluffy88

Definitely interested, just not sure I have anything constructive to add
I love seeing peoples ideas and designs for watercooling as I hope to be doing it myself someday and have no clue when it comes to watercooling.

For the rad in the front, I thought it was generally better to have the barbs at the top to help with removing bubbles. And if you had the barbs at the top you could leave the pump where it is and the tubing would be pretty good, leaving you plenty of space for HDDs.

Serephucus

Yup, it usually is, but with the extra length the barbs add, they hit the bottom of the drive bay assembly, so it has to be mounted the other way.

As for the motherboard choice, well there aren't really many other options. I don't really trust Gigabyte lately, and ASUS/MSI both use blue everywhere, which I don't want to go with for this.

Black/gold or black/silver? The gold fittings will be hard to get hold of, but I think I can manage it. Just not sure if it's worth the extra price/effort. I do really like the idea of gold fittings with black sleeved tubing though...

Monotype

I think a white - or better yet - a silvered sleeving would be better.

Hmm yeah, I think this would go nicely with the RAM/board/GPU.
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/12061/slv-185/ModSmart_Kobra_High_Density_Cable_Sleeving_34_-_Silver.html?tl=g35c493s1330

That's just me though.

Serephucus

Heh, I was actually thinking about using this sort for the PSU sleeving, whether as accents or, to replace the black, I'm not sure. I haven't been able to find any good pictures of it though.

I'm thinking with this, I want to try and keep everything dark, and have the only accents being metal - fittings, blocks, etc. - with maybe a hint in the PSU sleeving. I'm pretty set that I want the tube sleeving to be black, though I might stretch to the carbon fibre, if I had a decent picture of it in use.

freestyla

Black and gold must be then. Hopefully the board will be fine.

This one is just too expensive right, targeted more for overclockers
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/SABERTOOTH_Z77/#Awards

glynf

Check out the MDPC sleeving Serephucus, the quality is way better than most stuff out there, they do a standard black kit and you can order colours to suit your build in 10 meter quantities, which is what I ordered and was plenty for my build even with 2 GPU's.

If you are going for gold theme maybe the vanilla sands and black, or the mkII grey if silver & black.

I have a bit left over and have the de pinning tools if you want to borrow them, you are more than welcome.

Serephucus

That sleeving looks very nice alright. Not quite sure I was going to spend €50 on it, but I hadn't calculated exactly how much I'd need yet, so that might well be an option, cheers. And the tools would most-likely mean the avoidance of a huge headache. Many, many thanks. I'll PM you about that once I figure out when I'm going to be doing the sleeving, etc.

Oh, should also mention that I'll be using the silver version of the 600T. Want the window, but really not a fan of white cases, but I think the gun metal colour is just great looking, so it works out quite nicely.

Not quite sure if I'll be ordering everything in one go, but it's looking like the component upgrades will almost-certainly go ahead this weekend coming.

glynf

No probs with the the tools-let me know when you want them. Like your thinking re. the six-month step-up program BTW. The 600 in gunmetal looks great, as well.

One thing I would do a bit of research on is the manufacturers connectors, how easy are they to de-pin etc. I sleeved an AX850, and found them a huge PITA to remove, especially the PCI-e's, they required a lot of pressure to remove and broke one pin off. thankfully I had a spare PSU=>PCI lead...
Had I googled first, I would have found loads of info. about the AX850 & 1200 being a pig to do, and would have gone with a different PSU.

€50+ is a lot on sleeving but the quality is great. I nearly went with paracord, but it's a fair amount of work to do a full PSU, so my thinking was do it once instead of not liking it and having to do it again.

Serephucus

Yeah, I had looked at the AX650 for my upgrade as well, but I've seen that Corsair does something weird with the 24-pin. They split off the wires weirdly so they don't all line up, so you end up having to sleeve them with different diameter stuff.

A question for Tea (whenever the fecker decides to show up): Will an EX rad fit in the top of the 600T? I'm pretty sure you've tried it, or were going to, but I can't remember what ended up happening with it.

Thinking I might also just go with a 240 rad, suffer the higher temperatures (if any, not sure on this) and deduct the cost of a Dremel from the budget.

NTMK

Serephucus wrote: »

A question for Tea (whenever the fecker decides to show up): Will an EX rad fit in the top of the 600T? I'm pretty sure you've tried it, or were going to, but I can't remember what ended up happening with it.

Im pretty sure the cooling fins on the top of the motherboard (Z68 extreme 4) got in the way so you would need the mod the case to get it to fit it.

Serephucus

Seriously? Feck. I'd been led to believe I wouldn't have any problems fitting it.

NTMK

Serephucus wrote: »

Seriously? Feck. I'd been led to believe I wouldn't have any problems fitting it.

Itjust didnt fit i think it was a mm or two i think you could move it closer to the front. tea will know more on this i think he had worked out a method of mounting it but

Serephucus

If he did what I think he did, it should fit, I'll just have to bolt it to the mesh, rather than the screw holes.

In other news: Black and gold it is.

Serephucus

NTMK wrote: »

Im pretty sure the cooling fins on the top of the motherboard (Z68 extreme 4) got in the way so you would need the mod the case to get it to fit it.

Only just saw this. The Z77 Ex4's heatsinks are at good 5-10mm lower on the board, so I think I might still go with the EX rad. Was going to change to an Alphacool all copper rad, but I can't find any good reviews on it.

Just waiting for money to arrive at this point. Hopefully stuff will be ordered by Friday.

I've also decided upon watching TTL's video of the Bitfenix LEDs, that I won't be using them. I can add them in if I want to later, but they looked far too bright for what I was thinking. I'm only wanting relatively subtle lights for this build, so I'm going to embed white LEDs in the CPU and GPU blocks instead. Hoping it'll give everything a nice soft light, and catch things like the fittings and capacitors.

freestyla

Have you take in concern could be few bright LEDs on the motherboard?

Serephucus

I actually meant to ask that, good point.

Anyone with a Z77 Extreme4?

Serephucus

Right, so I'm ordering everything that's not from HWVS today (that order will have to wait a couple of days). Anyone noticed anything substantial missing?

Item|Price
XSPC RayStorm CPU Waterblock for Intel : RayStorm Intel|£49.98
XSPC Razor GTX670 Full Cover Waterblock for Reference Design NVIDIA GTX 670 Graphics Card : Razor GTX670|£77.99
Phobya Xtreme 200mm Radiator|£53.99
1/4" Thread Blanking Plug : Gold|£1.54
8 x Phobya 1/4" Thread Compression Fitting for 1/2" ID - 3/4" OD (13-19mm) Tubing : Gold|£18.34
4 x 1/4" Thread 45 Degree Rotary Fitting : Gold|£11.95
4 x Scythe Gentle Typhoon 120mm Case Fan 1150 RPM : D1225C12B3AP-13|£55.82
3 x XSPC 1/2" ID - 3/4" OD (13-19mm) High Flex Tubing : Black|£8.96
Shipping|£17.94
Total|£ 296.48

Item|Price
XSPC D5 Dual Bay Reservoir|£49.99
XSPC Razor GTX670 Backplate|£16.98
Phobya Extension G1/4" to G1/4" with Knurling - Gold Plated|£0.60
Shipping|£8.25
Total|£77.47

The 240 rad for the roof is missing. Specailtech don't have it in stock. Going to call them in a minute and see what the story is. Update: In stock Monday, will be in final order. Haven't quite decided on what I'm going to do sleeving-wise yet though. I have a feeling trying to sleeve the non-modular part of my PSU might be a bit too tricky to be worth the effort, though I haven't completely ruled out the idea. Anyone that's done it offer any advice?

Anything else a miss?


Edit: Parts ordered. I'll start a build log once I get the HWVS order in. I'll actually be able to do one this time as I don't have to get rid of my desktop to finance the new one, so I can go easy with it. I've decided not to bother with the sleeving - at least to the same extent as previously thought - though I will still be sleeving the tubing.

deejer

http://www.adverts.ie/other-hardware/clearout-of-items-corsair-600t-coolermaster-ek-etc/2305774

Dont know if you noticed this fella on adverts last week. He was selling a WC modded 600t.

I think for that nice clean look you are going for the sleeving is the way to go. I guess its always something you could come back to at a later date. Have the say the MDPC stuff is the best out there and worth the expense in my opinion. ALOT of work involved in it though.

The non-modular bit of the PSU is difficult. The best thing to do is sleeve back as far as possible and then get a nice big peice of shrink tubing to cover the first few inches. Impossible to do it clean without it. Its why i made sure this psu was completely modular.

Im working on sleeving with paracord now and that is proving to be harder again. stuff is as cheap as chips though!

Serephucus

Nope, hadn't seen that. Cool though.

Yeah, shouldn't be hard to fit in at a later date, just means I'll have to re-do some cable management, basically nothing. Might just use some spare tube sleeving, stick it over the PSU sleeving, then get 8 and 24-pin extensions. Can easily sleeve the other modular stuff.

Apologies as well Tea. I know I said I'd let you know when I was ordering parts. Completely went over my head (and I didn't end up going for the EK D5 res anyway).

Tea_Bag

hello! how did I miss this thread

I dunno how far along you are, but gentle typhoons are considerably cheaper on HWVS.

the EX rad will not fit with a z68 extreme4, but the z77ex4 has really small heatsinks so it might do fine. getting a 360 rad in the roof of the 600T is quite a challenge.

even the 200 could prove problematic. on some cases it fits right in, on others you've to dremmel. must be different manufacturing plants with higher tolerances??

do you have a fan controller? the extreme4 only has 4 fan headers, and pretty poor control of 2 of them.

I'll post more as I wake up.

Tea_Bag

consider replacing the stock 200mm fans on the 600T for your rad. they don't do well in the vertical position and on some cases including my own it develops a rattle as the motor slips when its under low power/slowed down.

Tea_Bag

the only leds on the extreme4 are the power and reset switch buttons. red.

I've built with the board a few times and haven't personally been very successful at OCing with it. reviewers do OK though so they must have far more patience with it, hours to spare and far more experience.

deejer

Will you be splitting your existing rig when you are finished??

Serephucus

Completely brain-farted on the fans actually. I knew they were cheaper on HWVS, but forgot. I'll call Specialtech and remove them from the order.

Decided to go with a different rad. Getting an Alphacool all copper one instead. 5mm shorter than the EX, so should fit fine. It's also only a 240, so no modding. I also ordered the same in a single 120. Going to see if it can be squeezed in the back. If not, Specialtech will take it back*.

* Props to them on this one actually. Were very nice about it. As long as I "don't play football with it" they've got no problems taking back stuff like that.

600T has got a built-in controller, and that's what I'll be using. Was thinking on replacing the fans with Spectre Pros. Still might, but going to try the stock ones out first and see how they fare.

200 should be fine. Saw plenty of Youtube videos on it. As long as it's barb side down it fits with a good bit of room to spare.


Edit: @Deejer, yup, it'll all be going. :P Everything but the hard drives, sound card, and pump. (I think)

Tea_Bag

duh forgot about the fan controller on it.

what are you doing with the pump?

the 600Ts fan controller is very good at being an led dimmer.

you might have to cut out the plastic under the mesh of the fan grill at the top. if it rests on the fans then it vibrates, but its not a difficult job.

I'd think the 120 rad would be overkill no?

headshots CPU doesn't break 50°C under load on the 240 at low fan speeds, and the gtx670 is frugal in its heat requirements.

Serephucus

Pump is going in a new bay res from XSPC. Nylon, so should be very good sound-wise, which is all I was worried about.

I might end up splitting the LEDs of whatever fans I end up using in the front and running them off a molex. I'd (probably) like the fans spinning slower than the do at stock, but I'd still like the lights.

Yup, had seen that, and might well do. Again for noise reasons more than airflow.

The 120 probably will be, yeah, but I'm justifying it by saying that there might end up being SLI 780s in this thing by next year.

What fans has Headshot got on his rad anyway, and what speed are they?

deejer

i cant get over the price difference between some of them compression fittings. Like what really is the difference between them phobya fittings and say the bitspower ones that cost over gbp10 each?

Serephucus

The Bitspower ones are shiny!

Some of the Bitspower ones are silver plated, so you don't need silver** in your loop, which I think is pretty cool.

** I just realised I forgot to add a kill coil to the Specialtech order. Feck.