Corsair Air 540 - Liquid Cooled

[Silverstone-Z]

I've had this build for a while, built it at the end of 2011. It was originally put inside a Corsair 600T white case, and I thought the aesthetics were okay, since it worked. Back when it was built, it was equipped with a single ASUS GTX570 DCII, but it's come a long way to become what it has. Quickly, I started to realize the 570 wasn't enough for the games that were coming out. I hopped on eBay and picked up another DCII 570. This is where things got interesting. I started having heat issues with my top card and noticed my PC sounded like a mini leaf blower. I made a frowny face and looked into the different paths I could go. Way back, I looked into liquid cooling, but I didn't feel it was mature enough to be reliable. I stayed away. It was now, however, a very real option. I decided I was gonna do it. After a bunch of research, I opted to go full XSPC for cooling components.
For some reason, I then decided to sell my GPUs and upgrade to a stronger single card. Any questions are welcome on how working with this case is and how working with acrylic tubing was. In the end, I wouldn't choose any other option. Somewhere in the mix, I decided to pull the trigger on some MDPC sleeving. That was fun... :huh:

The system is aging rapidly, and I have a good amount of things to do to it when I return from my current deployment. I feel a refresh is due. Plans are to replace the motherboard (2011?), CPU (6-core), PSU (AX1200+), add another GPU (SLI), possibly set up a second loop, grab a couple more hard drives/SSDs, ditch the fan controller for an all-contained unit (EK or CorsairLink) and stuff it all in a Corsair 900D that I'm gonna take the time to refinish inside so as to hide all cable routing holes, etc, behind a false backplate. Not sure on the color change, yet. I also plan on ripping out the subpar NZXT LED strip that's half-assed and doing my own custom hidden LED lighting via lots of pcb, SMDs, and soldering. :lol:

Main Components
Case: Corsair Air 540
Motherboard: ASUS P8Z68-V Pro/Gen3
CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K @ 4.6ghz
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16gb (4x4gb) DDR3-1600
GPU: ASUS Nvidia GTX780
PSU: Corsair HX850 - MDPC black/aqua blue
HDD1: Crucial M4 128gb
HDD2: Seagate 1tb 3.5" 7200rpm
HDD3: Seagate 500gb 2.5" 7200rpm (Photography drive)

Cooling
XSPC Raystorm CPU Waterblock
XSPC Raystorm 780/Titan Waterblock
Swiftech MCP655-PWM G1/4-Threaded
XSPC Photon 170mm Reservoir Glass/Aluminum
XSPC EX360 Radiator
XSPC EX280 Radiator
XSPC In-Line LCD Temperature Sensor
Primochill Rigid Ghost Fittings
Primochill Rigid Acrylic Tubing
Corsair SP120 Fans x3
Corsair AF140 Fans x3

Original build

Air Cooled

Process

Current

 

[SPS]

Looks epic dude well done

 

[Jordan]

Woah that's a heck of a difference. You've done a great job there dude

 

[d3rrial]

Looks really great, just out of curiosity how do your pictures look so good, even with light sources directly shining into the camera?

 

[Silverstone-Z]

Thanks guys! Any recommendations are welcome, no matter what it's related to.

The "current" picture was taken on a Canon T4i through a long exposure, I believe 5-seconds. Unfortunately, it was before I really took the dive into photo editing and I didn't add lens correction for the bowing along the edges.

 

[Remmy]

Looks awesome mate It even looked great air cooled with all the matching blue

 

[sheroo]

Looks fantastic fella. Moar pics please.

 

[Dicehunter]

Awesome, Great work

 

[Silverstone-Z]

I don't have any more "quality" pictures, and I'm playing in the giant sandbox at the moment. I do have more photos on my facebook of the build.

 

[garih]

damn that is pretty, how easy is it to make bends in that tubing? does it need warming up?

 

[Silverstone-Z]

It's easy if you're good with your hands. I used a heatgun, silicone insert, and used whatever round objects I could to get the bends right.

You heat the tubing evenly around the area you plan to bend it until it becomes really soft and pliable, but not to the point of where it's burning, melting, etc. Once it's soft, you can bend it into any shape you want. After holding it for ~10-20 seconds, it's hard enough and retains its shape. Longer tubes with multiple bends are tougher to do, and one wrong move can easily turn a piece of tubing into garbage. If you go this route, order some extra tubing.