Looking for some help

[Brenz]

Hi.

Im new to the forum and found it after finding Tom's channel on YouTube. Im going to uni in 8 days and I have been wanting to build my own rig for a long time but due to lack of funds I have never been able to afford it.

Anyway, hardware wise I plan on grabbing the parts from a refurbed XPS 8300 simply due to cost, looking at the price of the system buying the parts on their own would be more expensive and it means I can spend more money on water cooling etc.

I then plan on getting the SilverStone TJ07 case which I will be getting powder-coated hopefully. Does anyone know if the whole front is made of Aluminum including the bay covers?

Now for the water cooling stuff. All I know is what I have seen in Toms videos and some other bits and pieces I have read online. Im guessing the best place to put the Rad would be at the bottom where the HDD's normally are which can be relocated to behind the drive bays with a tubular reservoir upright next to the motherboard and a pump somewhere below the res. Ideally I want to cool but the CPU and GPU. Until I actually buy the computer I won't know exactly what graphics it will have but I will certainly be getting an Intel i7 CPU.

I would really appreciate it if people could suggest some water cooling stuff that will fit in the TJ07 and be capable to cool the CPU and graphics. Also despite not being available yet, I really want to use Mayhems Aurora liquid so from what I have read of his posts it would be better to get parts known to work well with the liquid. As far as cost is concerned im not too fussed about cost but with about £800 going on the hardware, another £200ish for the TJ07 then maybe another £100 or so for Powder-coating so ideally I wouldn't want to spend any more than about £300 on cooling so I can then spend another £100 on other small mods and lighting.

Thanks for any help you can give me

 

[Scoob]

Hi Brenz,

I'm looking at migrating my current build to a TJ07 myself shortly - this will be my first own water cooled build so I'm not really the best to give advice just yet!

My plans (subject to change) so far are have a 480 rad in the base, for a loop consisting of a 2500k @ 4.6 and a pair of GTX 570 @ 800. I've identified the GPU blocks I need, a bit of a pain as while both are "reference" 570's one is one of the first batch while the 2nd is a newer design. Still, reckon I'm sorted on that now.

As for the rest of the kit, well a CPU block obviously, likely one of the DDC pumps - either a higher pressure OR higher flow varient, depending on how restrictive my loop looks like it will be. I imagine it won't be very restrictive with just three blocks.

Tubing-wise I want to use 1/2" Inner Diameter, 3/4" Outer Diameter stuff with compression fittings where possible.

Still thinking about things at the mo, so I'm yet to get too specific on individual parts.

Good luck with your own venture, do keep us updated here so we can all compare notes

Cheers,

Scoob.

 

[Brenz]

Hey Scoob,

I will make sure to post some pics when things finally get going. Getting ready to move to Cardiff for Uni currently so I only have my NAS and iMac left out to use

Im still trying to decide whether to buy a pre-built system that I can then put into a new case and modify or to buy the components separately and do it all myself then once I get to Uni I will be getting the case and if I choose to go down the individual component route just some of the larger stuff like the Mobo, Rad, Res depending on how much money I have (No student loan till end of the month

) to see if I need to modify the case in any way.

Then im thinking of having it powder coated in two colours with this green on the outside (excluding the back):

And possibly with some metal flake to go over it to add a bit of shine and then coating the inside and back in Candy White. I haven't decided what to do with the vents yet, either they will be done in the Candy White or I may see about having them Chrome Plated and then use a Chrome false floor and Chrome fittings. Then im hoping to finish it off with some white LED's, Bitfenix Alchemy Braided Cables in White and when/if its available Mayhem's Aurora Liquid in Green.

I really want to modify how this system actually looks. This will be the first time I have used anything but Standard HP towers with a few new components thrown in when they are needed.

 

[AxJaWz]

Look around and you can get it a LOT cheaper if you build it yourself. You can get 8Gb of ram for under £30 now.