Project 2Cule. Noctua themed copper tubed watercooling build

[Jackdowell]

Hello boys and girls; welcome to the build log for my Noctua themed, custom copper water-cooled computer. I have done previous builds but this is my first build log and my first time into the world of water-cooling. The build will be a mid to high spec machine that will be mainly used for multitasking, work (office programs), YouTube, watching films, browsing the internet (fueling the vicious cycle of building a computer that you use to look for better hardware so that you can upgrade and continue looking for more hardware…) and occasionally for gaming. I appreciate that it is over powered for what I’ll be using it before but it’s more for the enjoyment of building it and working on the aesthetics.

The initial inspiration for starting the build has come from watching OC3D videos on XSPC watercooling kits. I then started doing my own research, learning more about water-cooling and my expectations (and parts list) grew from there. Hopefully I can continue learning from this build and improve on my next one. I aspire to be able to build with the level of precision and quality as that of the singularity computers youtube channel. I also hope to incorporate more modding with each consecutive build. The theme for this build came from my love of Noctua fans; as an engineer I’ve always has an appreciation for quality and well-built products. Contrary to most of the computer community, I also think that they look really good, especially fixed on a black radiator. I wanted to keep an industrial look as well as match the colour scheme so copper piping was the obvious choice. Finished with copper water blocks and copper/grey/white sleeving.

I would like to thank Jakob at Noctua and Martyn at SpecialTech for proving some of the parts for this build at a discounted rate.

PC parts:
Processor: Intel i7 3770k @4.5GHz (Hopefully @5GHz under water)
Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth Z77
Ram: TeamGroup Vulcan 2400MHz (4x4Gb)
Graphics: Sapphire R9 290 4Gb
Case: Corsair 750d
PSU: Corsair RM850
Storage: Corsair Force 3 series SSD 120Gb; 1Tb Seagate barracuda
Fans: Noctua NF-F12 PWM x5, NF-A14 PWM x2, NF-A4x10 FLX.
Sleeving: MDPC small sleeve: ‘Vanilla sands’, ‘Titanium grey mkII’ and ‘Copper-brown’

Peripherals:
Keyboard: Filco Majestouch 2 Tenkeyless
Mouse: Razer Death Adder 2013
Monitor: Asus PA238Q
Headphones: Audio-technica ATH-M50

Water-cooling parts:
CPU block: EK Supremacy Clean CSQ Universal CPU Waterblock : Full Copper
GPU block: XSPC Razor R9 290 Full Cover Waterblock (finally in stock after a month of waiting).
Ram: EK RAM Monarch X4 CSQ Memory Waterblock : Copper Acetal,
Radiators: Alphacool UT60 full copper 360mm and 240mm.
Pump: Alphacool VPP655 (D5)
Pump accessories: EK-XTOP D5 - Acetal (Original CSQ); EK-D5 Cover Kit (Nickel) Acetal
Res: Bitspower Z-multi 250
Fittings: EK G1/4" Thread HD Adapter 10/12mm : Nickel
Coolant: Mayhems Ultra pure H2O and Biocide extreme.


Since starting the build I have just got my first job and moved away from home. After making the transition from being a student to working full time, I’m still getting used to the lack of free time that I have. This means that the build is going a lot slower than I anticipated and the log has been put to the bottom of the list. The first part of the build requires a very small amount of modding and some more hands on work, making it much easier to do in my Dad’s workshop at home, limiting me to weekend work unfortunately.
At the time of posting this I have already completed the initial design and loop planning. As well as the small amount of modding and installed the ram and gpu blocks. I’m away from home for a few weeks now so will make time to update the log to where I’m currently at. Please comment with any suggestions/feedback on how I can improve my rig. (And excuse my noob posting mistakes).

More pics to follow shortly

 

[JR23]

Noctua hype! That sleeve looks so good together, with enough black to balance it out this color scheme will look awesome. Subbed and passed on to my friend with a Noctua obsession.

JR

 

[WillSK]

This could be lovely. Looking forward to seeing it progress.

 

[Jackdowell]

Cheers guys. I have some time off over Christmas so hopefully the build should progress substantially over the next week. I'll post some of the photos of the components now. You will notice quite a difference in photo quality in some of the later pictures. This is because I started the build log using my htc one x as my camera but wasn't happy with the quality. I've now invested in a Nikon D3200 and a tripod, backdrop etc. I've retaken as many pics as possible but some can't be, such as fitting the gpu block.

 

[JKDaniels]

Awesome stuff, can't wait to see the finished pics

 

[Jackdowell]

Right, I’m back and have a few updates to share of build progress over the last couple of months. I appreciate that this is not the best way of doing a build log but it is the only viable way with my schedule.

First things first as any Noctua fan (pun intended) would do, I quickly got them fixed on my rads and took some photos. It’s where they belong and they look so much better. So I only had to screw them onto the rads once, I gave them a quick flush with tap water first. They seemed quite clean but a couple of black flakes were shaken out. I’m going to flush the full system with distilled water when it is fully assembled to keep the final loop as clean as possible. The five NF-F12’s will be fitted onto rads with two as intakes in the front and three as exhaust out of the top of the case. The NF-A14 will go in the rear but I’ll swap it around to make it an intake to try and keep the case positively pressurised. The two stock case fans in the front will also be kept for the same reason. I’m excited to try the little A4x10 40mm fans in place of the stock Asus ones that come with the motherboard. The stock ones are almost unusable with the annoying whine they make.

I went for a conventional layout for the loop, i.e tube reservoir next to the motherboard with the pump mounted on the bottom of the case. This is because I didn’t want to take any attention away from the copper tubing and the theme in general. I will have the rads fitted with a 360mm in the top and a 240mm in the front. The order of the components in the loop will go around the case in a circle to limit the amount of tubing and hopefully the difficulty of the bends. The rads will be in series in terms of flow to try to minimise trapped air. The order will be: pump, 240mm rad, 360mm rad, processor, ram, graphics card and into the bottom of the res.

The initial plan was to remove the optical drive bay, primarily to make the case look more clean but also to open up that corner for plumbing between the radiators. After some thought and looking at hard drive placement I’ve decided to keep it to store the HDD out of the way. To improve the looks I will mount the SSD onto the front of the optical bay in a custom made bracket. This meant that I had to cut a hole in the bottom of the bay to allow the copper to connect the radiators. I did this using a drill mounted HSS cone cutter. I then filed the edges smooth and put in a rubber grommet to protect the pipe and keep it tight in place.

My other small modification to the case was that I thought it would be cool to add a fill port in the top of the case and a drain port at the lowest point in the loop. The 750d has a removable mesh on top that is secured by magnets and is designed to hide the top radiator and its mounting screws. This is handy as it means a hole cut into the top of the case can be used as a hidden but easily accessible fill port. The top of the case is a thick mesh so I used side cutters this time rather than drilling. Although I still filed it smooth and finished with a grommet. Unfortunately both of these were poorly documented photos wise and just have the holes marked ready for drilling/cutting. For the drain point the lowest point was the bottom of the front rad so this was installed to test for size. The front section of the bottom of the case is also a metal mesh so that it can be used as a fan mount but this would have been good to let the water drain through if the valve was the correct height. Unfortunately it was a few millimetres too long so the bottom had to be cut out with snips as before. The valve is just a basic ball valve that I got from my dad as the ‘watercooling’ ones all seemed ridiculously priced for what they are.

The final piece of work on the case was to try and improve the cable management and keep it looking neat at the back. I’m going to do this by securing the cables that hopefully won’t need to be moved with p clips. These are attached with M3 bolts so holes needed to be marked out and tapped.

The first component to fit was the motherboard. The Asus Sabertooth has two small 35mm fans that it uses to cool under the ‘thermal armour’ (Northbridge etc.). Due to the size these are very noisy and don’t move a lot of air. There are videos on youtube showing that they have very little impact on temperatures as well. However since I am doing a Noctua themed build I thought it would be cool to replace them for aesthetics as well as to see how they impact the temperatures.

One of the two fans is easy to replace as Asus include an additional plate (shown below) that has a slightly wider slot for a 40mm fan. Unfortunately the Noctua fan is slightly too thick so part of the plastic on the plate had to be scraped off with a Stanley knife.

The second fan, in the centre of the board, is a bit trickier. The thermal armour has a 35mm square recessed into it. Therefore the two options are to either cut the thermal armour to make the hole the correct size or to raise the fan slightly so it can sit on top. The first option isn’t really possible as the threaded posts that the fan screws into are fixed onto the motherboard for a 35mm fan. I am therefore going to design an adaptor to expand the size of the slot. I will be doing this in CAD and then making it on my Dad’s 3D printer. This is by no means the quickest or easiest method but it should be the most interesting and it’ll be nice to learn some new techniques.