[Build Log] Accent

RichieSams

RichieSams

New member
Hello people of OC3D!!

I finally got the time and money (yay summer internship) to do a watercooling build. I've always enjoyed watching the builds here at OC3D and now I get do do my own. On the the build itself!

The Theme
I always like all the small highlights people put in their builds (sleeved cables, backlit blocks, neat tubing runs, etc., but it always irks me when they just drown it out with light, light everywhere. So for this build I wanted to try to 'Accent' the interesting parts of the build with selective lighting schema (more on that later) and in the end, have a badass look, without blasting it.

The Parts
Most of this is set, but there are a couple that have options that I would like your opinion on. More on that later.

Main
Case: NZXT Switch 810D
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4
CPU: Intel Core i5 3570K Ivy Bridge
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2x4GB)
Video Card: EVGA Reference GTX 680
SSD: SanDisk Extreme 120GB
PSU: Cooler Master Silent Pro 600W (I'm looking for a 850W PSU to go on sale, maybe the NZXT Hale82. Any thoughts or suggestions?)

Water Cooling
Top Radiator: Alphacool NeXXos UT60 420
Bottom Radiator: Alphacool NeXXos UT60 280
CPU Block: XSPC Raystorm
GPU Block: XSPC Razor 680
GPU Backplate: EVGA 680 Backplate
Pump: Swiftech MCP355 / Laing DDC 3.x
Reservoir: XSPC DDC Reservior top
Tubing: PrimoChill PrimoFlex Pro LRT - Clear - 7/16 ID
Fittings: Assorted Bitspower Matte Black Compression fittings
140mm fans: Akasa Apache Black (still deciding)

Everything in main except the case is from my build I did in May and already bought. The case arrived today and the radiators are in the mail. Everything else is on hold until I can figure out some more specifics of the build. Speaking of which, the things I still can't decide on:

Pump/Res combo
I'm happy with the performance of the XSPC res top, but I'm curious if any of you know of pump/res combo that is a cylinder. Of course, with similar performance. This is mostly for looks and pretty minor at that.

Fans
I really like the Akasa Apache Black because they have 2.76 mm H20 static pressure and they're only 22 db. I know the B-Blasters have 3.16, but they're 36 db. Akasa Vipers have 3.12 mm H20, and only 26 db, but that yellow is so bright. Lol. Any other fans I've seen (Bitpheonix Spectre [Pro], Thermaltake TY140, Corsair AF140) all have terrible static pressure.

Feel free to comment with any thoughts or suggestions.

Flow diagram
 
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My case came in today!


I was a little scared it might be damaged because the box was beat up, but everything was fine


Holy crap! This thing is freaking huge! It makes my HAF 922 look like a midget.


Being me, the first thing I did is take the entire thing apart. :)




So I don't lose everything.



Planned case mods so far:
I need to cut out a portion of the 5.25 cage in order to let the bottom fan on my top rad breathe


I want to have the top mesh strips on the top panel backlit in red.


The top part of the top panel screws off with 15 or so small screws.



Then the mesh can be removed by lifting the tabs with a flathead screwdriver



My initial thought was to put EL wire in that space under the mesh but then I did research into how long they lasted and trashed that idea. Next I thought of led strips, which would've worked, except all the factory ones are either wider than the space I have or the individual leds are very far apart. So my current idea it to create my own led strip. I will drill holes in the bottom part of the top panel and insert standard leds at about 1 inch spacing. The resistors and wiring will be hidden on the underside of the top panel. I'll add a molex quick disconnect to allow the top panel to be removed after everything is wired.

I want a similar effect around the front panel dust filter


For this I will use flat leds instead of standard ones and glue them to the recessed plastic frame holding the filter mesh.


Again, another molex quick disconnect to allow easy dust cleaning.

Well that's it for now. I plan on cutting out the hole in the 5.25 tomorrow, but I'll wait on drilling holes in the top panel until I hear some people's thoughts on the lighting. I'm going to order the rest of the parts that I'm set on so I can start the actual watercooling part of the build. Keep your eyes peeled for updates

--RichieSams
 
Can you not have the rad mounted the other way on?

pump/res > floor rad > gpu > cpu > roof rad

Otherwise that tubing at the back will be ugly as out.

Since you are new to watercooling. Remember to flush the rads before use.


Note on the psu.. Yup that nzxt is a good choice internally its practically a M12II. However you may like to look at something fully modular like the AX series from corsair or seasonic X / Platinum units so that you can sleeve it ect.
 
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Yea, my brain had told me to put a rad in-between the gpu and cpu. But with the water moving so fast, no difference I guess. I'll modify the loop and update the picture

Thanks for the reminder about flushing the rads. I've started a check list on a sticky note. :)

Edit: Can't edit the first picture but here is the new one. There's still some long tubes from the cpu to the rad and rad to pump, but some of that will be hidden by the 5.25 cages. I might have to switch the fittings on the top rad to 90 depending on how much clearance I have to my dvd drive.
 
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wassupdoc said:
the led's could look really neat if you don't overdo them :) looking forward to some updates :)
Click to expand...

Yea, I was originally going to do 0.5 inch spacing but that's really close considering they're going to be 5mm LED's. I'm going to order the LED's and a couple different ohm resistors (they're super cheap, so might as well) and see what it everything looks like before drilling/gluing
 
RichieSams said:
Yea, I was originally going to do 0.5 inch spacing but that's really close considering they're going to be 5mm LED's. I'm going to order the LED's and a couple different ohm resistors (they're super cheap, so might as well) and see what it everything looks like before drilling/gluing
Click to expand...

You shouldnt need to add resistors. You should just be able to change a couple of the wires round so you only draw 7v or 5v off the molex
 
andrewmchugh said:
7v from the potential difference of red 5v and yellow 12v is not advisable really as it is not grounded.
Click to expand...

Oh good to know. The resistors aren't that bad to hook up anyways. Plus they're only 5 cents a piece. I plan on running the LED's in parallel in groups of 3, so:

 
$370 later, everything but the fans and the gpu stuff is ordered.

I'm waiting on the gpu stuff because I'm still waiting in the EVGA Step-UP queue to get my 680. :(
 
WAIT! Wouldn't recommend LRT tubing, it's currently got some really bad plasticizer leaching issues (which I am now experiencing first hand). Check out this thread for more info.
 
Hmm, I guess Primochill is having QC problems. The order already went through so I can't change it now. It was ordered in bulk too, so it can't be returned... Oh well, maybe I can pawn it off on someone.

Any suggestions for alternative tubing? Duralene looks like a good choice atm.
 
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Can't recommend anything since I've only used LRT, but I've heard good things about the Duralene. I know you already ordered the LRT but I'd say there's about a 90% chance of getting wicked buildup like me and a lot of other people (just posted up some pics of this in my current project log). Might be worth investing in something else.
 
Well I'm going to go with Duralene then. I went ahead and ordered the Akasa Apache Black fans as well cause the shipping was going to gouge me otherwise ($8 shipping for $4 of tubing..... *Grumble grumble grumble*)

As an update for everyone, Performance-PC's is an awesome site. I ordered those parts at 12:30, and they were in the mail to me by 2:50! They're supposed to arrive Wednesday next week.

As another note, apparently Aquatuning USA & Canada division doesn't have a warehouse here because my rads are coming from Germany...

(No idea what half that says. Lol) Only paid $6 shipping though.... Oh well. :P

Lastly, for anyone buying electronics, I suggest AllElectronics.com. I got 130 resistors (3 different Ohm's), 30 flat leds, 30 standard leds, and 25 ft of wire for $16. *Winning*
 
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UPDATE!!!!

So this evening I cut the hole in the plate that goes across the 5.25 cage. I ran into a couple bumps along the way, but I think it turned out very well. Onward!!!

My new toy. :)



So first I took off the top of the case so I could get better access to that plate. It's not too difficult, just unscrewing 20 some-odd screws. Well that is, until I found out I had to remove the front IO because one of those screws was behind it.... *le sigh*


Fortunately, that was only two more screws and then I carefully pulled all the wires through.



Top off!!


I removed the one side of the top optical bay for easier access.


Marked out where I wanted to cut


Practice :)


So I finished one side and was about halfway through the other side when I realized that the cutting disc was awfully small...



Good thing it comes in a pack of 20 for $4. Heavy duty my ass....


And it's cut!


I filed all the rough edges and corners, then blew off all the metal dust with shop air. Finally I wiped everything down with a rag and Hexane.


When I was putting it back together I realized there is a mesh strip at the bottom of each side of the case. Maybe more lights? It might look weird down there though and I don't think there is any room for leds since that's where the dust filters run. Thoughts?


Anyways, also while putting it back together I managed to misalign one corner of the case. And of course, I only realized it when the screw threads were stripped and the head wasn't flush..... Needless to say, I dremeled the head of the screw off and left it. For any others planning to take the roof off, in the corners there are little tabs that the screw goes through. The roof tab goes BEHIND the wall tab.

Anyways, despite that frustration, I got the case all back together and everything looks good.




I'm rather happy with how the hole turned out. The lines are rather straight and after the filing they're smooth. I left the strip at the front for extra stability; that plate helps to stiffen the case. I may decide to cut that part out later, but for now I think it's fine. Feel free to comment.

--RichieSams
 
The Akasa fans are PWM, which is kind of a mixed blessing. I could not, for the life of me, find any PWM fan controllers. Should I just use the PWM as normal 3 pin and use a voltage regular fan controller? (found tons of those)
 
Huge update!!


By Thursday I recieved enough of my parts that I could start building, and that's exactly what I did.

As I said before my radiators came all the way from Germany in 3 days (and only $6 shipping)







The best part of it all: They threw in a package of Phobya gummy bears. :)


Now, I know they advertise full copper, but I didn't realize that this meant the plugs and the screws as well. Lol


On Thursday I got a box from AllElectronics and a box from Performance-PC.





Cleaning the parts with distilled water. I cleaned the rads as well, I just didn't get a picture of them.


Mounting the push fans. (The rad is upside down in the pic)


When I went to mount the rad/pull fans to the roof, I realized the roof holes are 20mm spacing, but the rads have 15 mm spacing. *le sigh* Oh well, making good use of the dremel.


As a note for anyone else watercooling the Switch, the easiest way (and the only way for people with 60mm thick rads) to install the rads is to unscrew the top of the case, pop it off, screw the fans/rad to it, then drop the whole thing back on top of the case. Props to TinyTom for the idea.

Success!



Well, not quite. When I dremeled out that big hole earlier, I had forgotten about the fittings, so I had to extend the hole.




On the top of the case, NZXT gives you an awesome hole to route your top fan cables through, but fails to put a hole through the plastic cover that goes over it... Nothing some quick dremeling couldn't fix though.





Now for the bottom rad. Holy crap this one was a pain in the ass. First, the bottom mount for the front 140mm fan didn't allow the rad to slide back far enough. Ok, easy fix with a dremel. But then the side runners got in the way. More dremeling. Then the rivet at the bottom got in the way. Grrrrr. More dremeling. Finally, it fit.



The actual mounting was also a bit of a pain. I ended up using a bit of scotch tape to hold the fans in place, then held the rad up with one hand, while guiding the screw in with the other. The screws that came with the Alphacool rads had pretty small heads and the case holes were kinda big, so I used a thin nylon washer from the hardware store to make sure they wouldn't pop through the case holes.



Whew! Both rads on and ready to move forward.


Well, maybe a break and some cleanup first. 10 fan boxes can make quite a mess.


Pump/res all assembled


Raystorm mounted on the motherboard.


Motherboard mounted in the case.


This is where I panicked a little when I noticed just how close the top fan was to the CPU 4+4 power plug. But after I sanded down some of the plug, everything fit.



Tube fitting


This is where I realized my huge derp with fittings. I bought all straight fittings with some 45 and 90 adapters due to it being cheaper and the fact that it gave me more options to interchange. But what I didn't realize was that the threads were single threads, meaning, when you screwed them in, they ended up one orientation every time. And 9 times of out 10 it was the complete opposite direction I wanted. So I've ordered some swivel fittings and that should make tube routing a tad easier.

I had just finished tubing and was about to start filling, but I couldn't get the fill cap out. The compression fitting was sticking out too much. I actually had to take the fitting out to get the fill cap out. Later I ground down the outer edge of the fill cap so it could fit.



Filling and leak test!


Yes I realize the pump and tubing the pump is gross. It's only temporary. My pump mount should be here Monday.

Device to help remove air bubbles


And that's it for now. The pump mount along with some fan splitters will be here Monday and the fittings should be here Wednesday. I probably won't do anything until then just so I don't have to keep purging, trimming tubing, and refilling.

Feel free to leave comments! :)

--RichieSams
 
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