Dark Shadow is born :)

RizeAllard

New member
Greetings to all who spend some time here to see how my new rig builds up!

Last year I decided to build a new rig because my system is getting old and some times a was leak on computing power. The old rig was 4 years old at that time, so I have to move on a totally new rig.

My old computer spec was:

Intel i7-950 CPU in a Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7 rev. 2.0 assside of 6GB of A-DATA DDR3-2000MHz CL10 memory, and a Gigabyte GV-R9290X-4GD OC, powered by a Chieftec CFT-850G-DF 850W semi-modular power supply. I also had 7 HDD-s and an OCZ Vertex 4 SSD and a good old Pioneer DVD-RW drive. The cooling was a custom built water cooling system consist of EK Waterblock Supreme HF CPU block, a EK Full Cover X290 block with full cover backplate for the videocard, and a chipset block packed with the mobo originally. The pump is an XSPC 750 H2O. The tubes are 10mm ID/13mm OD Thermaltake UV reactive green ones. The liquid was a mixture of EK Cooling liquids (60% UV green and 40% UV blue) . The heat spreders were an EK Waterblocks 240mm XT RAD (45mm) and an XSPC 120mm (60mm), and the airflow was provided by BeQuiet Shadow Wing 2 Fans 120mm on the radiators and 140mm for intake on the front (also cool the HDDs).
Here some photo about it:
6t0n1yt.jpg

kShtBmI.jpg

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When I got to the point where I had to chose what components will I use, I had to decide between barriers which are the following:
1st and most importantly I just a skimpy budget for it
2nd I need 10 SATA port (if possible without additional RAID card)
3rd I will need a system wich will be able to stand the requirements of the near future computing capacity (I will build it for at least 3 years)
4th I will use a Crossfire or SLI configuration in the future ( I hope I can purchase the second 290X in March of 2015)
As I had to search hardwares which are full fill the requirements above, the list was shrinked to about 8 motherboards and 4 cpus . There were ASUS ROG Formula VII, ASUS X99 Deluxe, Gigabyte X99 Gaming G1 WiFi, Gigabyte X99-UD7 WiFi, Gigabyte GA-Z97X- Gaming G1, Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming G1 WiFi-BK, MSI X99 Gaming 7 or MSI X99S MPower in the basket. After reading lots of reviews and forums, and searching in webshops I decided to go on with Gigabyte X99-UD7 WiFi. The reason was it was almost the cheapest one and it has a good avarage in all the reviews with the less issues i find on the forums, and I have never had to RMA any of my Gigabyte hardwares. (I know lots of you will say I’am a lucky person… J )

On CPU side the choice was easier then. After I choose out my new board I had to deside between two units, which are almost indentical. The i7-5830K and i7-5930K. The price tag of 5930K was a lot higher but after some sleepless night I chose that one because of the 40 PCI Lane instead of 28. This will be maybe important for me as I going to use a crossfire setup, and I don’t want to change cpu if I decide to run a 3 or 4 way Crossfire.

[URL="http://i.imgur.com/Enh3wXr.jpg%5b/img"]http://i.imgur.com/Enh3wXr.jpg[/img[/URL]]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/PqhE1nM.jpg

After all I had to search for a supplier where I could get these items. At that time it was almost impossible to get these items in Hungary (2014 end of september), so it was a real romour to find one. After a month of searching and ringing up the 40% of the possible sources, I finally got my new mobo and cpu on my desk. J I was really happy to see them in their box but they were useless without memory modules which were also now available of the surrounding countries as well. So I had to ring up all my contacts at importers and for my luck one of them could purchase the new Kingston HyperX Preadator DDR4-2666Mhz CL13 16GB kit for me. It was so new that they just can send it in a raw paper box whitout any marketing labels and graphics (the retail box was not ready at that time…J ). Thanks for them again to get it for me. :)

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And here are the new main parts together:
tmI6wBE.jpg


Before I decide to get the new configuration I bought a new PSU, becouse I’ve got an offer that I cannot refuse. So I bought a brand new Corsair AX1200i for about the 60% of the retail price J.
It must be enought for the two power hungry R9 290X and the rest of the system.


Here is the main specification of the new rig:
Processor: Intel i7-5930K
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X99-UD7 WiFi
Memory: Kingston HyperX Predator DDR4-2666MHz 16GB CL13 Kit
Videocard: Gigabyte R9 290X OC with EKWB FullCover block and backplate
PSU: Corsair AX1200i
Case: Thermaltake Speedo Advanced
CPU cooler: EKWB Supreme HF
Pump and reservoir: XSPC 750 H2O
Tubes: EKWB HD 12/16 Solid (acril) Tube
Fittings: EKWB HD Adapters 12/16 and AF 90°and 45°adapters
Fans: BeQuiet! Shadow Wings 120mm and 140mm
Fan controller: BitFenix Recon

I will update soon as I got some free time to finish this post.


Heres some teaser pic...:D
Enh3wXr.jpg
 
Shiiiiit, awesome new rig, i hope you get another GPU for Corsair.
Also, those DDR4`s look like they just got out of factory lol, though you should have went for 3000MHz ones :P
 
Update

A little update ;)


I had a little time so I write this little update for you. :)



As you can see in the specification I decided to use solid tubes in my custom loop. The decision was hard because I have no any experience with solid tubing and I a bit afraid of it, and also the purchase of these bits are slothful as I just can order it from UK. ( I’m living on the dark side of Europe….)
So first I make an aproximate mesure and I order 2 meter of solid tube all the adapters I will need.
btJ1ARU.jpg


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There were romours with the delivering so I had to delay the building about a month. But this delay give me enough time to decide what colour shame I will use.
Before I know anything what hardware will be in my new rig I thinking about red & black but its too frequent now a days, then black and grey (monocrome like) stealth theme is came to my mind, but there were some romours with the early all black mobos (MSI X99S SLI PLUS) and there were only other fully black mobos around which is too expensive for my budget ( Gigabyte X99 Gaming G1 Black Edition) I had to reject this idea too. Maybe one of my future rig will got this theme…J You never know. So when I chose wich board I will use in this rig I just thinking about why not to use yellow and black or orange and black, even if I’m not a huge fan of yellow or orange theme, but it may be look good in my black rig with dark background and surroundings. After I order my ne board which has black and yellow/orange theme I started to search wich type and brand of coolant I will use. I don’t know how many hours I spent on it but it was a like a week of Sundays…

These were the main questions in my mind:
[FONT=&quot]Shoud I use UV reactive or not? – The uv light doesn’t fit so good to this theme (Rejected)
Should I use pastel coolant? – It would be look good but I can’t find a good yellow or orange one (Rejected)
Should I use Mayhems Aurora ? – It looks good, but its hard to refill (I had to order the coolant from the UK too) if I run out of it, and it may be too shiny for me (Rejected)
Should I use premixed coolant or use conentrate, dye and distiled water? – As I did not have the board inI my hand I cannot define the colour I would use, I had to reject the premixed coolant.

Yes a litle bit closer after all….:) After another two weeks ofsearching I find the final solution.
I bought two bottle (2×150ml) Mayhems XT1 Clear Concentrate,
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a Mayhems Dye 15ml Orange,
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and 4 liters of distiled water. It will be enought to refill the whole system if I had to change the coolant due to expand the loop, when the second graphics card will arrive. [/FONT]:)

Thats for now, and I will update as soon as possible. I promise you the next update will about the building it self .... ;)

And a little teaser for you again. :)




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Nice looking case, Honestly I think Thermaltake get a little too much flak.

A work mate of mine is a little bit of a TT fan and has a V71 and a T81, Both cases look awesome, Have everything you need in them and great airflow, Not forgetting to mention he has TT mice, Keyboards, Headsets, PSU and mouse pads.

In all honesty they do look pretty damn awesome.
 
Nice looking case, Honestly I think Thermaltake get a little too much flak.

A work mate of mine is a little bit of a TT fan and has a V71 and a T81, Both cases look awesome, Have everything you need in them and great airflow, Not forgetting to mention he has TT mice, Keyboards, Headsets, PSU and mouse pads.

In all honesty they do look pretty damn awesome.

This case is about 5 years old now and it has some modification to be able handle the two rads and the two front 140mm-fan. :) I like most of the Tt products but sometimes they have nerve-racking issues...

My first (totaly bought and built by me back in 2005) rigs home was a Tt Swift which was a realy nice and good case at that time for that money. It was one of the first cases with almost screwless desing and hard drive cage rotated by 90°. I really liked it. I just sell it with my old stuff last week...:D Rest in peace....
 
Update II

After three months of waiting I’ve got all the parts together, so I was really happy to begin the build.
It was 12th of december 2014. And I had to realise that I will doesn’t have any time to get it ready. As many of you know that theres so much rush at companys before Christmas. I was realy exicet about to begin in and finally after Chirstmas I have enought time to begin, but I just have three days to do it. So I was in a bit of rush.
Firts I had to take appart the old rig, and prepare the house for the newcomers, with some minor modification inside, and a major mod on the sidepanel.
Just to take appart the old loop was take me about 2 hoursJ


The old system without cooling parts.
[URL="http://i.imgur.com/vT8riPF.jpg%5b/img"]http://i.imgur.com/vT8riPF.jpg[/img[/URL]]
Then all of the cables and hardwares was moved out of the case. It was take me about another 3 hours. When I do it I also clean them and put them back to their boxes if I have them. [FONT=Wingdings][FONT=Wingdings]J[/FONT][/FONT]

The epty, and bare case:
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/FFDBiZb.jpg

I had to modify the front of the case in the past to be able to fit there a second 140mm fan. But I was not satisfied with it so I make some little cosmetics on it. This was the situation with the top of the case. On the old system there was a refill port when I use the old Tt Big Water ’compact’ system, but it was out of use since I got the XSPC H2O 750. To be honest I would fit a 140mm fan grill on it to cover the whole window. (Anyway if someone has any idea what would be the best to do it please share with me)

The front panel:
WStaItZ.jpg


The old window to the refill port…. (The ugliest part of the rig in my opinion):

xIfjAVM.jpg


On the side panel, I changed the old plexi with a 230mm fan on it to a clear policarbonate, which give us a clear and big sight ont he main parts J. I use policarbonate because its more resistive aginst scratches and also has better antistatic feature than any other plastic.

The old window and the new one:
[URL="http://i.imgur.com/tcEFRCb.jpg%5b/img"]http://i.imgur.com/tcEFRCb.jpg[/img[/URL]]

My father was help me out with the policarbonate cutting becasue he has more experience with it, and I have no time for it at that time. (Not even now… [FONT=Wingdings][FONT=Wingdings]L[/FONT][/FONT] )

When I was ready with the modifications, firts i put the main components in to their new home, to see how will the new layout look, and how will the components fit. There were 3 options in my mind before I put the main components in, as I got a 360mm, two 240mm and two 120mm rad on my seves .
They was:
1st: Use one 360 on the top and one 120mm on the back - The 360 was take too much space from the front so if I use it i had to remove the DVD drive (unfortunatly sometimes I have to use it) [FONT=Wingdings][FONT=Wingdings]L[/FONT][/FONT]
And maybe I would have trouble with the tubing because of the small space.
2nd: Use a 240 on the back and use a 120mm on the top, and another 120mm rad in the middle.
As I have an ajustable fan holder which was use to give a direct airflow for the graphics cars when use aircooling. – It was possible to make it but there would be too much tubes in sight so I moved on to the third version.


3rd: Use a 30mm thick 240 rad ont he back and a 47mm thick on the top. – That was the best option so I choose it.


The left over:
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/EGfr4TI.jpg

When i put the rad to their place I start to worry how I will able to make the tubing, as I never used solid tubeing before. So I begun to mesure approximatly how long pieces I will need, and how and where the tubes will going. J

I tried many different layouts, with changing fittings and and adapters, then after a few hours I find the best layout for my needs. :)



[FONT=&quot]Thats all for today, I will post the rest of the log on the weekend if i have more time. [/FONT]:)

P.S.: Here is the last teaser:
gLENblf.jpg
 
Update III.

Fist of all sorry for the late! It's been a long time I've update the Log. It was a hard time for me but finally I'm back and now I can give you a big update then.

So the thing is that the Rig is almost ready. (It will be never ready :D ) .

In the last update I was writing about I had hard times with finding the final layout of hard tubing. As i found the right layout I begun to form the needed pipes. It was really hard to find the right size and the right angles as there were no spare tubes to try with.
q0xXSOy.jpg


I'm used a heater to make the acrylic tube foldable. Then I curved them and fine tuned their lenght.
After about 5 hours of mesureing, cuting, heating, curveing, fine tune the pipes got in their places. It was the hardest part of the build. I just hoped that everything will be fine because there was no room for mistake. My hands were shaking while I prepared the loop for leak test. I put paper towel everywhere were leaking was possible then I filled up the tank with the coolant.
I’m using Mayhems X1 coolant concentrate and destillated water in 1:6 ratio and Mayhems Orange Dye. After 4 hours of continous running without leaking I finalize the level of the fluid, and I let it run for another 1 hour to let the bubbles out from the circuit.
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Next day I put everything together. Every cable found its place. I try to make it clean as possible, so the back of the case is full with cables.

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It was not an easy task because theres 8 HDDs, 1 SSD, and 1 ODD next to the rest of the hardwares. It took me about 3 hours to get it done. But in the end I just can see the power cables of the VGA.


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Now it looks like that :) :

tZ0tL0N.jpg


I've already put in the second 290X but I have to wait for the water block.
When I got it I will give you the last update on it. :)

I hope you'll like it. And please let me know your thoughts.

Thanks for reading :)
 
Looks a little like iron bru pumping through the pipes ;P

A few unnecessary bends for my liking but if thats your design its great glad the leak test went well for you :)
 
Looks a little like iron bru pumping through the pipes ;P

A few unnecessary bends for my liking but if thats your design its great glad the leak test went well for you :)

You are right, there are some bends wich are done due to the space limitation of this
case. Originaly it was only able to handle one 120mm or 240mm rad in the back.
Now i fitted two 240mm rad and the upper one is 50mm thick.

I'd like to avoid too much bending maybe in my next rig itt will be more simple.:)
 
Hello again!

This will be the last update for the next few months.
Finally I could put in the 2nd graphics card into the rig so its now officially ready. :)

Unfortunalty I could not get the exacly same waterblock for the second card because the manufacturer did not manufacturing that, but I think its not so eye disturbing.

Here is some new pictures about it.

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jiQx5F5.jpg


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I hope you like it! :)
 
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