New machine build

[Ken RQ]

Greetings fellow forum dwellers,

I am about to embark on building a new machine later this year and have been lurking around this site (as well as looking at multiple YouTube videos - many thanks to the likes of Tiny Tom Logan & Lutro0, etc.) to get ideas on how I can build what I require. I now have a prospective list of components and was looking for thoughts, comments, etc., on what I am about to do (please be gentle...)

The machine will be living in the Lounge room (connected to my TV) and will have two uses: the first one is me cruising the web and also playing game (currently playing SWTOR) and the second one is to be the storage of my DVD collection (which is rather large and I am ripping to disk).

The stuff I will have:

Case: Coolermaster Cosmos II
MB: ASUS Rampage IV Extreme
CPU: Core i7-3820 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor
RAM: 32GB Dominator® Platinum (CMD32GX3M4A1600C9)
HD: 2 x OCZ VTX4-25SAT3-256G (in a RAID-1 array off the MB RAID Controller)
11 x WD30EFRX Caviar Red 3TB SATA NAS Hard Drive (in a RAID-6 array off the additional SATA RAID Controller)

SATA RAID Controller: Adaptec 2274600-R 71605Q

Graphics: ASUS GTX680-DC2-4GD5

Blocks:
CPU: EK-Supremacy - Acetal + Nickel
MB: EK-FB KIT RE4 - Acetal+Nickel CSQ
GPU: EK-FC680 GTX - Acetal+EN (Nickel)
EK-FC680 GTX Backplate - Black

Pump: D5 Vario with Front Cover (1/2” barbs)
Pump cover: Acetal Top for Laing D5 (Multiport)


The stuff I am not completely sure of:
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Radiators:
360 radiator for roof -
EK-CoolStream RAD XT (360)
Alphacool NexXxoS XT45 Full Copper 360mm
XSPC AX360 Triple Fan Radiator (Black)
Alphacool NexXxoS ST30 Full Copper 360mm
Black Ice GT Stealth 360 X-Flow Radiator - Black

120 rad on the back -
Alphacool NexXxoS UT60 Full Copper
EK-CoolStream RAD XT (120)
Alphacool NexXxoS XT45 Full Copper
XSPC AX120 Single Fan Radiator
Black Ice GT Stealth 120 Radiator
Alphacool NexXxoS ST30 Full Copper

Now, I know that peoples will probably slap me for having a 120mm block on the back but everything I have read suggests that I should have a 120 per block which I need at-least a total of 480 which the 360 & the 120 will give me. What say you all?

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Fans:
Noctua NF-F12 PWM
Corsair SP120
Gentle Typhoon - GT1850
Enemax Magma

I have read a lot of differing comments/views about fans but I would like to know what peoples real experiences have been.

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Reservoir:
Bitspower Water Tank Z-Multi 250 ICE Black
Phobya Balancer 250 Reservoir : Matt Black
EK RES X3 250 6 Port Reservoir : Acetal

I like the tube style reservoir and want to know what peoples think about the options I have - good or bad experiences?

Extender: EK-Extender G1/4

I have added the extenders just in-case, I might not need them yet.

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Power Supply:
Corsair AX860i
Corsair AX1200i

I think that I will probably need to go with the AX1200i due to the number of HDDs I have inside the machine but am open to any alternative advice.

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Fan Controller:
NZXT Sentry 2
NZXT Sentry LXE

I am not sure if this is actually needed for a liquid cooled system but included it in the list just in case.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think that my loop will go something like:

Reservoir -> Pump -> GPU -> Chipset -> Back Rad -> CPU -> Mosfet -> Top Rad -> Reservoir


I am also planning on sleeving all of the cables but do not know if I will use plastic or paracord just yet.

If I have missed anything important, please let me know.

My apologies for the long post and look forward to all of your responses.

 

[NeverBackDown]

Honestly The Cosmos 2 is not a very good watercooling case. I would advise a Fractal Design XL2 for this build. Silent performance and can hold plenty hard drives, can fit a 240 rad and 140 in the rear. Speaking of storage... Swap those OCZ out for Samsung 840/pro or a different brand. i.e. kingston,corsair,mushkin,crucial, or plextor.

This seems to be extremely overkill for one game and ripping dvds, i would have advised to go the i5 route with a 7970/680 but since you have it not much we can do about that.

Seriously 32gb of ram? 8gb will do you fine and still have headroom for at least 4 years before we approach the 8gb mark.

Watercooling the chipset is useless. Stick with a Cpu and Gpu setup.

 

[Ken RQ]

Thank you for your response to my post NBD.

Honestly The Cosmos 2 is not a very good watercooling case. I would advise a Fractal Design XL2 for this build. Silent performance and can hold plenty hard drives, can fit a 240 rad and 140 in the rear.

I quite like what TTL did with the Comos 2 in his video. I had a look at the Fractal case as well as others on the Internet but given the fact that I will have 11 x HDDs inside it, I like the concept of having thick doors, etc., to at least provide some more sound dampening capability, plus I like the look of the Comos 2 as well.

Speaking of storage... Swap those OCZ out for Samsung 840/pro or a different brand. i.e. kingston,corsair,mushkin,crucial, or plextor.

I have been running OCZ SSDs for a couple of years now and have not run into any problems with them but it may ultimately come down to price & availablility.

Seriously 32gb of ram? 8gb will do you fine and still have headroom for at least 4 years before we approach the 8gb mark.

Ultimately I will end up with 64GB RAM in this machine as I will most likely also use this machine for training & will be running multiple virtual machines under Hyper-V.

Watercooling the chipset is useless. Stick with a Cpu and Gpu setup.

Ok, that makes sense I suppose, was probably getting a little too carried away with it all...

 

[NeverBackDown]

The R4 XL cases have built in sound dampening foam so they will do just as good if not better than the Cosmos two. A 240 rad and a 120/140 in the rear should be enough to keep everything quiet but temps will be pretty high with OC'ing.