[Build Log] The Adventure Project: CL SMA8 Acrylic WC W/ SLI 980! Parts are arriving!

Menthuslayer

New member
PICTURES COMING SOON! Please bare with me as I create this page over time I don't really know what I'm doing.

UPDATE: Processor, RAM, MOBO, SSD, PSU ARRIVED!

Welcome to my adventure. This is my first PC build. I have been playing computer games since I was a little kid (I'm 25), and I have never built my own computer. I have always played on my parents computers, or a laptop. While in the Army I owned an Alienware M17xR4 which was exactly what I needed at the time, a mobile gaming solution. Now that I have moved on with my life and begun studying computer engineering, I am very ready for a monster build! So..... here we go!



FINALIZED AND ORDERED PARTS LIST

- Caselabs SMA8 Awaiting Shipment

- Intel 4790k: ARRIVED

- Corsair AX1200i ARRIVED

- Corsair Dominator Platinum 4 x 4gb 2400 ARRIVED

- Asus ROG Maximus VII Formula ARRIVED (and oh wow is it beautiful)

- 2x EVGA GTX 980 BACKORDERED :(

-512 GB Samsung 850 PRO SSD ARRIVED

-I wanted to do 2x 2tb western digital red pro's in Raid 1, but I have hit my budget so that's not happening right now.

-PK-3 Thermal Paste

-Indigo XS Extereme CPU TIM (going to give this stuff a try if I can't get it to flow I will use PK-3.

WATERCOOLING: I am stuck here right now, I need to order this stuff and I was going to use FrozenCPU.com for all my watercooling parts but their constant lack of stock, and the inability to order things that are out of stock may lead me elsewhere.
I don't want to pay shipping twice so I'm not going to order some of it and then some more of it. Getting very frustrated with them.


- 2x Alphacool Nexxos Quad 120 (480mm) MONSTA 80mm thick rads

- Swiftech D5 pump

- Bitspower pump top and pump mod kit (black sparkle)

-Bitspower fittings Carbon Black (I wanted to use a few red anodized fittings in certain places but again frozencpu doesn't carry what I need in this color.

-12mm OD Rigid acrylic tubing

-EK/Bitspower 250 RES I really like how the EK rez looks but I really wanted two ports on the top of my rez this will be a last second decision I'm sure.

-EK CPU and GPU waterblocks! (these things are sexy)

-16x! Corsair SP120 PE Fans for push/pull on both rads

-6x Corsair AF120 QE Fans for case fans.

- white led's

- I am hoping to learn to sleeve cables and do custom cables for this build, but do to budget that is getting pushed for the time being.

Anyway this is where we stand right now, things are slowly trickling in I'm really waiting to figure out where I'm getting all this WC stuff, and obviously 980's are backordered so that could take a couple weeks.

Please feel free to post tricks tips and etc, especially if you have experience with rigid tubing and bitspower fittings or just anything in general!
 
You do know EK have a replacement top you can buy with 3 ports from multiple angles? You can also add internal tubes so the coolant goes nicely into the res. If you have a loop where the coolant enters the top of the res I strongly recommend that option.

Love the sound of that spec list though buddy. Are you planning to bend the acrylic or just use loads of fittings? I'm guessing fittings because all of monsoons nice bending equipment is for 13mm OD tube. (You might like to check my build on the right in my sig, similar stuff going on ;))

Welcome to OC3D

JR
 
Someone looked at my thread! Awesome, I will go check out the rez top. Going to look for it now. The EK res has a built in thingy for the coolant to enter through, unless it just doesn't work well? Loads of fittings, and MAYBE one 90 degree bend.
 
Someone looked at my thread! Awesome, I will go check out the rez top. Going to look for it now. The EK res has a built in thingy for the coolant to enter through, unless it just doesn't work well? Loads of fittings, and MAYBE one 90 degree bend.

Hey this is an awesome intro thread with an epic spec list. I'm all over it! It's gonna need some pictures in the next few days though :)

When you get the optional multiport top if you had coolant entering through that it would just 'fall' in. You can buy tubes that stick down underneath the surface of the water. They make it much easier to fill because it prevents the res from backfilling when you turn the pump off. Also I found putting a tube into one of the extra ports and filling through that made it super easy.

If your planning bends make sure you buy loads and loads of extra tube, they take a while to get right and nothing looks worse than half-assed rigid tube. It's easy to get a Bitspower addiction and lose some serious $'s though. I blame SuB for my +£70 drain tap.

JR
 
Menthus,

You might have a look at aquatuning for your cooling parts (they have a customer care section on this site)

I have nothing to with them by the way. Nice build and look forward to watching your progress.
 
Menthus,

You might have a look at aquatuning for your cooling parts (they have a customer care section on this site)

I have nothing to with them by the way. Nice build and look forward to watching your progress.

Thanks for the reccomendation, however it looks like they don't sell a lot of the stuff I'm looking for. Just a quick glance shows no EK CPU blocks, no 980 WB's, and no bitspower fittings, thats enough for me to stop looking, but thank you for posting!
 
Sorry I haven't really updated the main post, it's a bit complicated as a new member in the project logs, because everytime I change my post, it has to be reapproved....and I keep messing up the code and it doesn't change, and still has tobe reapproved.

Anyway....
All the WC stuff has been ordered from Frozencpu, case is still "awaiting fulfillment.", fans, and a few other things are still coming from amazon, and the GPU's are backordered 3-5 weeks, so when they get here they get here. I have to mail back a monsta 480 and swap it for a ut-60 because it isn't going to fit in the top w/ push/pull( unless one of you has some sort of personal experience with this and think they know. I am going rock climbing in NC tomorrow and saturday, but I have Monday and Tuesday off. UPS says frozen cpu stuff here on Monday, look for a big update when everything arrives.

15295396707_668cde5c0b_b.jpg


I know this isn't giving you a whole lot and I'm sorry, time is tight. but here is what was in the 2 boxes that came from amazon so far.

----------

I don't know why that picture is so small, it is actually of enormous resolution 4948 x 3280, but terribly quick photography. Also remember I posted this build log a bit early before everything was here, so consider this an early look and not yet a big build log. I will post stuff as it comes in and I have time, and then when I build, I'll blow this thing up with high res pics. I have a little tiny bit of lightroom experience with outdoor pictures, but no real photo editing experience. I have a great Nikon DSLR and I am not bad with it. If any of you gurus have advice on how to shoot pics of the build process/ final build, and how to touch em up really quick, and then how to really make a few shine that would be aweome. I can do some research myself, but this being my first build, I'm a bit bogged down in the amount of research, I am however treking on in my adventure project. You will also note throughout my build log, that I will type a whole lot. Read it if you want, if you don't want to then skip it, and wait for the pics later. Here is the url to the high res shot of what's above. I think the camera was set to point focus and not area focus it seems a little off, I was in a hurry.
https://flic.kr/p/piAUyk



I'm sure my coding mess ups and constantly having to be reapproved has been a pain in the ass for someone. If someone could just clear the top post, and I will post like this from now on, I think it would be a lot easier. I just have some things in it I don't really want to leave up, but I don't want the thread to dissapear again.

Also thank you to everyone who has helped so far, the videos from Tiny Tom, have been invaluable and trying to learn all the things you have to learn about to build a computer. There are a lot. There have also been so many random forum posts that I have come across that have answered one question or another, so without an awesome community I never would have even attempted this project.
 
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Copy the part that's in image tags and paste it directly in line with your text.

img.jpg


When done right it will look like this -

img3.jpg


JR
 
Copy the part that's in image tags and paste it directly in line with your text.
When done right it will look like this
JR

I've fixed it for him this time but remember to also change the size of the image in the drop down box.
 
Hey guys, I got in a shipment from FrozenCPU today! As I started going through the box somethings weren't quite right. I got 2x CPU blocks lol, I got 16mm OD instead of 12, I got 1x silver shining fitting instead of black carbon. And I haven't actually counted all the fittings yet to make sure I'm at 100%. All this being said, I'm sure I've annoyed them today, but I think as of first thing in the morning we'll be sorted all out on the phone. Now, I've decided after seeing 12mm and 16mm OD tubing for the first time lol, that I like 16 better, and they are going to switch out my 12mm fittings for 16mm fittings, and my rad, I'll ship back that stuff, and the extra block they sent me, and in another week or so we will basically have everything. Caselabs has had some "production issues" according to their e-mail and my case is delayed a bit. It's kinda holding things up, I could start getting some stuff test fit and such but whatever, gets here when it gets here. Tomorrow I'm gonna get a photo area setup on my desk so my pictures suck a little less. I will shoot a bunch and edit some, and post some for everyone. Thanks for following along, see you guys tomorrow!

I swear my code for the image looks the same as yours jr. I used the img tag the link and the img tag, I did it using the What is it that you changed? the code looks the same, I don't know how you made it bigger? I'm trying to learn, thank you guys for your help, I'm sorry, I can't figure out what I'm doing differently than you.

UucUCGl.jpg


used imgur this time, seems like I don't get the 5k resolution this way though. Gonna have to spend more time tinkering.
not sure why it is coming out so granulated, really need to play with things a bit tomorrow.
 
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