Project Eepy

[symi]

Eepy

Edit: jump to finished build post for final pictures​

This build is about 2 years in the making. My current interim rig has been going for 3 years now and well I’ve been meaning to replace it with something a bit special for a while. Unfortunately it’s taken a rather major life changing event to finally get this build started. My mum sadly passed away on boxing day last year and this build is now a rig to keep me busy, happy and little something to remember her by (if you like it’s something along the same lines as Tom’s Orca).

So let me introduce what is now called Project Eepy. It’s name was going to be Wavell however my mum liked sheep and had two little sheep dolls she called Eepy and Mini Eepy hence the name Project Eepy. As you might guess the build is a white and black one. My favourite colour is blue, and my mum was a Manchester City fan, so I’m going with blue accents as well. Theres also going to be nickel from the blocks and ram tops. Performance, looks and low noise are all priorities. Although the build is expensive I am trying to keep a lid on the costs. I don’t often treat myself but I still have more important things I should be spending my money on! By the way this is my first ever watercooled rig, but with my research, I’m pretty confident I can actually build the thing without messing up (too many times anyway).

So the specs!

CPU: Intel i7-5930K - will obviously be overclocked, wanted 40 PCIe lanes and well the 5960X is just silly money and I don’t need 8 cores, so seems like a happy medium.
MB: Asus X99-S - lovely features and specs. love the looks and from what I can tell its a deluxe but without a second ethernet and wifi card, but £100 cheaper.

(Is it just me, or is that board made for this case!)

RAM: Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB 4x4GB 2800MHz - no question my ram will be Dom Plats, only need 16GB.


Storage: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB x2 - put into raid 0. Want the 850 Pro but the red detail on them means I can't My data storage will be in my home server (what my current interim rig is becoming).


GPU: Gigabyte GTX970 Windforce 3X x2 - more than enough performance and these 970s are full length PCBs


Case: NZXT H440 - The moment I saw this case I was sold by it. Not really going to mod all that much. I have an idea of putting two reservoirs where the 2.5” caddies are, but I'm thinking it might foul the bottom couple PCI lanes. So the SSDs might live there in their conventional place with the reservoir and pump under the PSU cover. Either way a couple holes will be drilled. Apart from that I’m thinking about some detailing somewhere saying ‘project eepy’ or just ‘eepy’. Just need to figure out how and where.


PSU: Corsair AX860i - the build should only pull <500w with the crazy power efficiency of todays components, but I want as little noise as possible so hopefully the fan won’t be spinning on the 860w version when under normal use.
Cables: Corsair Sleeved Cables - blue - Was going to go with CableMod because they don't have heat shrink and nicer braid... but the blue of the corsair ones matches the coolant better. Was thinking blue and black but corsair don't do multicolour
Pump: D5 Vario.
Reservoir: EK-XRES 100 D5 Vario - only a 100mm tube res pump combined unit. but not got the space for anything else.


Radiators: Alphacool NexXxos - 360 monsta in the front, and a 240 30mm in the roof. Push pull on the front one, and just fans on the bottom of the one in the roof.

(can't get my head around how big the mosta rad is)
CPU Block: EK-Supremacy EVO - Nickel

(I'm a little disappointed with this in real life... its a bit blocky and cheap looking...)

GPU Block: EK-FC970 GTX WF3 - Nickel x2 + EK-FC Terminal - Plexi x 2
GPU black plate: EK-FC970 GTX WF3 Backplate - Nickel x2

(shiny shiny shiny, also no machine line down the middle of the plate)

Fittings: EK-ACF Fittings - Nickel - gone for nickel over black nickel as it matches the rest of the metal in the case.

(so I've got a nickel compression fitting and a black nickel fitting... which one to go for?! - Decision: nickel)

Tubing: PrimoChill PrimoFlex 3/8"-1/2"- clear.
Fluid: EK-Ekoolant pastel blue - really really nice looking blue.
Fans: 3x Scythe Gentle Typhoon 1450rpm + 5x Alpenfohn ​120mm Wing​ Boost plu​s - Bl​ack & Whit​e & 1x Alpenfohn ​140mm Wing​ Boost 2 P​lus - managed to track down a GT supplier so got 3 for the front of the monsta rad. The visible fans will be the Alpenfohn ones, they perform okay but not as good as the GTs, but they look amazing.


Other: Light bar kits - Getting two light bar kits for the Dominator Platinums. From what I remember they have either white or blue inserts… might play around with both.
Light strips - might get some led trails but will see how it all looks.
SLI bridge and SLI cooling bridge - SLI bridge - went for a short black cable... happens to be ROG branded. tempted to get an acrylic one made though?... In terms of watercooling, going for solid tubing between the two cards using EK-HD Tube 10/12mm with EK-HDC Fittings (nickel again, so it all matches).
Sound card - I do like my music, but my Asus Zonar D2 won’t fit so thats staying in the other rig. At the end of the day, that pc will have all my music on and will be connected to my HiFi so I’m not getting a soundcard for Eepy.
M.2 drives - I did a load of research into M.2 last week and was pretty impressed, (another reason why I want 40 PCIe lanes). The performance of M.2 using x4 PCIe 3.0 is amazing! The X99-S does come with a M.2 port for this however its a vertical standing port, which just seems stupid. I might make use of it when more m.2 drives hit the market.
No MB blocks. The heat sinks are too pretty to remove!

Things coming over from my current desk:
Monitors: 2x LG IPS 225v.
Keyboard: Das Keyboard Professional S - cherry MX Brown switches.
Mouse: Roccat Kone optical pure.
Mouse mat: Puretrak talent.

I've now ordered and nearly got everything here. However I’m pretty much open to any comments, so feel free to recommend something different. I’m all ears and ready to learn something new!

So expect pictures and updates as and when things arrive.

 

[symi]

Update time! I've been busy ordering parts and doing bits and pieces (I've updated the first post with the finalised list of parts).

Once all the components arrived, I wanted to check they all worked now rather than when the loop is in. and the good news is they all do! Even the parts bought of some slightly dodgy looking sites.





I am so glad I'm watercooling those graphics cards, they don't half make some noise.

 

[symi]

Now that all the components are working it was then time to start messing around with the water side of things.

I decided I wanted to see the coolant at the top of the GPU blocks, so bought the plexi terminals for both, and replaced the matte black with see through plexi. Also took the CPU block apart and put in the 'optimal' 2011-v3 parts.

Washed and flushed all the blocks, rads and pump/res. Did a quick leak test on the individual parts, tightened up some of the screws to make the seals a bit better, but all seems good.




Next thing was to add the light bar kits to the RAM. I went for blue and white mix... still can't decide if they should all be white/blue or a mix.


I let the blocks dry off and then got around to putting them on the GPUs. I forgot how much I hate peeling thermal pads, such a pain in the butt.




Annoyingly EK didn't send any screws with the GPU backplates... I could be bothered returning them, so I just went on ebay and got the missing bits and pieces for a couple pounds. They looking nice!



(finger prints! lol)

 

[symi]

It was then time for some test fitting. First thing, the rads. Immediately a problem, the screws it came with are too thin and fall straight through the holes in the case... ebay to the rescue. Next issue, the monsta rad fits with push pull but the gap I have to install the rad through isn't wide enough for the rad and fans to fit... so I have to install the fans "in situ" which is a complete pain the butt! (I gets more annoying, this case is beautiful but she is just a bit too tight!)

With both rads in, the next problem is how I'm linking them. The loop will start at the pump/res in the floor -> go to the top skinny rad -> then to the monsta -> then the CPU -> GPU x2. There isn't too much room at the top and annoyingly the rads don't line up in any of the 3 axis.




I can get them to line up in 2 axis but the third requires the top rad to be moved towards the mb, and that means half of the screws will be in the space where the fans are. So I can't really do that Other options are using 3 90 deg adapters and go into the top of the mosta (see picture), not sure how much I like that tho. Maybe I could use some funky adapters, bitspower do a couple interesting looking ones for off centre problems... The only problem is the space I've got to work with. If worse happens I can always put the barbs at the bottom of the monsta rad and tube connect it all... bleeding will be a pain though.

 

[The_Governour]

With the top rad then you would have to place the fittings the other way round - having both fittings next to your 140mm exaust case fan, if you know what I mean.

OR you could turn you MONSTA rad around and have the fittings at the bottom - as that rad also has a bleed port at the top.

 

[symi]

fittings at the back of the case will mean more hose on show... could route it around the back of the top rad. I've ordered a couple adapters to try and connect the two rads

 

[symi]

Progress. I've put the hardware together to see what it looking like...






I'm thinking I might just go with the white tops to the RAM... also going to get some white LEDs for the GPU blocks. I would get LEDs for the CPU block but I can't really think of a way of hiding the cables.

 

[Blade Runner]

Why not try connecting the left to the right if you know what I mean?

Rather than try and connect the rad outlets/ inlets closest to each other, connect the opposite corners, it may give enough room to get a bit of tubing in there that is long enough not to kink?

Just thinking out loud.

 

[symi]

Why did I not think of that!:huh: *facepalm*

cheers once some parts arrive later in the week, I will have a mess around with all the different options.

Current annoyance is the sexy Parvum F1.0 white fans are apparently out of stock (even though when I ordered them they were in stock ), and overclockers say they have no ETA for any re-stock. I can't seem to find anywhere that sell them in the UK (can get them from the US but at a ridiculous price). The fans on the top rad are completely visible through the window, so now I'm struggling to find anything nice looking (that are still quiet and performant)... thinking maybe just some SP120s but those Parvums! They are just rebranded Alpenfohns, so could get the black version of them instead...

 

[Deblow]

Them backplates look very very nice!
looking like this will be a classy build

 

[Bartacus]

Very nice! I have that same block / back plate for my 980 and dom plats as well, very pretty hardware that works nice together, if you like dat chrome bling.

 

[symi]

I just found a seller on ebay which does acrylic SLI bridges... and they even do custom designs....


tempted.

Update on fan... I'm resigned to the fact that I wont be using these


but I am getting the black version

 

[symi]

So I finally got the pump in place... was a struggle. The pump fits and the pump bracket fits... however the gap at the 'side' of the PSU shroud (the side nearest the monsta rad at the front) has a little (3mm) lip on it. The bracket is literally millimeter perfect fit under the shroud. So to fit it in I have to angle the bracket under the lip... however I can't angle it with the pump attached. So this is another case where I have to fit the pump to the bracket in place, then rotate it. complete pain.

But the good news it fits, there's *just* enough room for the psu cables and hose! (I hope)

Currently problems are once in place the pump speed dial is round the other side where I can't get to, so it might have to be fixed (could use the MB connector as an alternative). Other problem is I can't get in to mark out where to drill the holes for the bracket screws. I really don't want to rotate the pump around as I'm planning on filling it via the 'top' fill port on the res. Should make it easier to completely fill the res and bleed, along with making maintenance (draining) easier.

 

[symi]

So a 3 week wait later and some more parts have arrived. One of which was some solid tubing and solid fittings (for the GPUs).

I've been playing around with them tonight and I'm not totally happy with the connection they make. I might not be inserting the tubing far enough, but essentially, with not too much effort I can pull the tubing out of the fitting (can't do this with the bendy hose compression fittings, they are pretty well connected).

Has anyone used the EK-HDC fittings? My problem is I can't seem to get the tube to go passed the o-ring in the middle of the fitting, the part on the right in the picture below. Should I be able to?

EDIT: *** I'm an idiot... needed to wet the fitting slightly first and give it a good push. Good fit now ***

 

[symi]

I've started to hose her up and figure out the finer details in my loop. Firstly I've solved the problem of connecting the rads, the only problem is that it uses most of my 90 deg fittings so I've had to order some more.



A -> B - will be connected via a short piece of hose to connect the two rads diagonally.
C -> CPU - as shown below goes off to the cpu behind the top rad to hide it as much as possible.
pump -> D - a long piece of hose that will go from the pump in the bottom of the case up to the top rad. I'm going to hide it between the front rad and the HDD supports so its nicely out of view.

I've hosed up the front, and gone for the minimalist look. Ignore the fans, they were just some I had to hand, and the missing SSD and RAM etc etc. I want to get the top piece of hose as vertical as possible. Also I can't wait to put some blue in there!

 

[symi]

So I did a dummy run yesterday to figure out what order everything had to go in. Then took her apart completely, gave the rads one final flush and double checked the seals. Took me a couple hours this morning but got her all together. Started filling and DOPE!

The pump has recessed threads for the inlets and it comes with an extender. Silly me for some reason put the extender on the non recessed outlet... so I got a leak straight away. Luckily there wasn't much in the loop, and the leak only went into the floor of the case. So I drained it and put the extender on the correct port!

Now she is all filled and no leaks (6 hours later... still no leaks!). The problem has been bleeding. So many air bubbles, but shifting the case around has removed all but one or two which should come out over night.

 

[symi]

I am surprised by how much humming is coming from the D5 pump... its on speed 3 atm. I think once the sides are on and the fans are running I won't be able to hear it.

Also the coolant colour and cable braid is a good colour match




Pictures of the front will follow tomorrow

 

[crowarth]

Another tidy looking build!

 

[symi]

Thoughts anyone?

Got a slow leak, which has shown its head after a day and half of bleeding/leak testing. It's the 90 adapter fitting from the exit of the second GPU. All that's leaked so far is the amount you can see in the photo, but as you can see the thread is full of blue liquid and it's very very slowly making it's way out (literally takes a couple hours for anything to even get out).

if you blow up the pictures below you might just be able to make out what *might* be a fracture or crack or something stuck in the o-ring (follow down from the middle of the 'wb' letters in the logo). So other than a complete drain, anyone got ideas?




On a side note. for the first 24hrs I had a fill tube in so when I turned the pump off, the pressure obviously moved liquid back up the filling tube (talking 3cm up the tube maybe). Last night I put the plug in (the res was brimmed to the top at the time). So when I turned it off with the plug in that liquid and pressure must have stayed in the loop. This is a fitting right at the end of the loop so could some funky pressure of caused this? And for future info, so I therefore leave a gap at the top of the res for it to expand out again. Should it even be expanding out?

 

[Warchild]

Try to tighten it a little more.

Failing that, I have had poor O rings on some of my EK fittings in the past. I simple replaced it with a spare fitting i wasnt using. Upon close look though, when I compare the top and lower fitting, they seem out of alignment, like the lower fitting is screwed in at a very slight angle. The O-ring on the leaking fitting doesnt look as compressed as the O-ring on your stopper plug to its left.