Project Rampage

[Vicey]

So in 2010 I built a water cooled rig this was my first fully custom loop before that I'd used the Corsair Nautilus and then the Corsair H50 to just cool the CPU. These units were nice but I decided in 2010 that I wanted to buy all the parts and put something together myself.

So this year about a month or so ago I got the itch to renew my system. I had been running a Core i7 940 system since 2009. Originally I used an X58-UD5 by Gigabyte but I upgraded it to a P6T6 by Asus before I embarked on my water cooling rig in 2010. So flash forward to late March I decide to purchase the following parts to renew my rig:

Core i7 3930K

EK Supreme LTX Waterblock

Asus Rampage IV Extreme

Corsair AX1200 Cable Set (Red)

32GB of Mushkin Redline (1866MHz, 1.5v)

Some clearflex tubing to replace the black tubing I was using before

Two bottles of EK Blood Red Coolant

A few of these parts such as the Asus Rampage IV Extreme, AX1200 Cables and Mushkin Memory I chose based on TTL's reviews of these products. He gave them great reviews and I liked the design of them obviously as you'll see below I went with a Red and Black theme which those three products all follow so it fit quite well with what I wanted to do. And yes I mentioned you when purchasing parts where possible Tom

Now I was in a rush while I put most of this together so I didn't use my DSLR on all the pictures. I just used my iPhone 4S for some so I apologize for the poor quality of some of the photos.

So lets gone on to the pictures!

Corsair AX1200 Red Cables:

EK Supreme LTX Waterblock:

EK Blood Red Coolant:

Intel 3930K Processor:

Asus Rampage IV Extreme

Mushkin Memory: (These were a late arrival which is why they weren't installed during the leak test)

Danger Den Reseveoir:

Laing DCC+ 18w Pump:

Various Fittings: (I just went with cheapo ones)

GTX 480's with EK Blocks fitted:

Fitting and leak testing:

All completed:

Now just to list the parts I've used:

1x Intel Core i7 3930K CPU

1x EK LTX CPU Block (acrylic Top, Nickle plated copper base)

1x Asus Rampage IV Extreme Motherboard

2x Mushkin Redline Ridgebacks (16GB each / 32GB total - 1866MHz)

1x AX1200 PSU from Corsair (1200Watts)

1x Corsair Single Braided Modular Cable set for AX1200 PSU

1x Lian Li PC-X2000 Case with W2000 Side window

1x Laing 12v DCC+ Pump (18 Watt Model)

1x Phobya 1080mm radiator (9x120mm fans connect to this on just one side)

1x OCZ 120GB Vertex 2 SSD

1x 2TB Samsung F4

2x GTX 480's (I'm intending to replace these with two 4GB Kepler GPU's later on)

2x EK GTX 480 Water Blocks (Transparent acrylic Top with Nickel Plated Copper Bottoms)

1x Danger Den Acrylic Reservoir

1x Scythe KAZE MASTER Pro Fan Controller

2x Litres of EK Blood Red Coolant (I only actually need 900ml of this to fill the loop completely)

 

[Vicey]

Thank you mods for accepting my project!

 

[tharionos]

AWESOMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

always love seeing rampage builds and especially using those corsair cables

just bought em myself aswell and i don't regret it for a moment !

i hope it gives u as much joy as it gave me

funny thing is the way ur cables are now laid makes em look like muscles

really neat

 

[Vicey]

Thanks

- I would have liked to do the cables neater but unfortunately my case has no area behind the motherboard tray. There is a thin 3mm or so acoustic pad on the back door and then that almost touches the motherboard tray so I can't stick any cables behind it. I have to have all the cables dangling down the middle like pictured. I think I'll probably change cases in a few years and I'll definitely get one with amazing cable management haha

I think I did okay with what I had though, I had to stick three molex rails down to the bottom bay and 4-Pin + 8-Pin CPU for the motherboard and then the 4 PCIe cables. Thank goodness the hard drives aren't in the motherboard part or it would look so messy. I got this case back in 2008 and I just love its external design that's why I've kept it all this time.

 

[tharionos]

nah i mean't it in a good way

really like your how ur pc looks with the tools u had at hand

 

[Vicey]

Na I know you meant you liked it. This is just my own personal gripe with my build

although having said that, after spending all that money on the cables I guess it's good to be able to see them!

 

[yassarikhan786]

It looks fantastic considering your cable management options

 

[tharionos]

aye evrytime i look at em i think damm worth evry godammm pennny

theirs just soooo cool they even look like that edible candy

unpacking em i tought attach em or eat em lolmao

 

[jits h]

Looking awesome mate

and a quick question, I notice that almost all of your watercooling stuff is by EK, i've seen quite alot of builds with EK parts. Is EK one of the best or are they just favoured for watercooling items?

 

[Vicey]

EK are just very good. I used to use an XSPC waterblock which worked absolutely fine I had no problem with it but when it came time to upgrade I wanted a block with a little more flash so I bought the EK block. The reason I used the EK blocks on the GTX 480's was for design. When I got them (way back in 2010) there was only Koolance and XSPC offering blocks for those cards and they didn't look that nice to my eye. Also the EK ones were cheaper which was just an extra bonus.

I have to say one niggle I have with the EK graphics card blocks is that the standoffs which go between the waterblock and the card are not milled in to the blocks. EK give you some plastic washers that you must carefully place over the holes on the block and hope to god they don't move while you attach the card to the block. They suggest using a tiny bit of thermal paste to hold the plastic standoffs in place and it does work but again annoying and something I think they should fix in the future, I've not seen their recent blocks so they may have already changed it I don't know.

Res I went with Danger Den just because I liked its design, radiators I have owned two Hardware Labs SR-1's before (a 280 and a 140) but I changed those out for a single 1080mm Phobya rad which I've mounted externally inside the companion Phobya shroud/stand. Just more convenient and tons of performance for any future upgrades I might decide to do. Fittings I went with generic no name brand compression fittings except for the Quick Disconnects where I went with Koolance and the SLI connector I went with Koolance for that also. I would NOT recommend that SLI fitting, it's just crap, very hard to tighten by your fingers and the o-rings are almost non-existent.

 

[jits h]

Will be looking to watercool in the future, lets hope they've fixed that niggle by then

 

[Ru5ty_t00l]

nice build but I can't see any modding on this

 

[alicarve]

that is some nice kit!

 

[Vicey]

nice build but I can't see any modding on this

That's because I didn't do any modding on it.

 

[Ru5ty_t00l]

That's because I didn't do any modding on it.

thats cause u like it as it is or u don't want to do any modifications on it ?

imo the inside of the case really looks awesome . I would try to make the outside look awesome too

 

[Vicey]

I love it like this, the outside external design of the case is the whole reason I shelled out £400 for it. I'd not want to tarnish it with stickers or holes or anything. The entire case is brushed aluminium it has a very nice minimal look to it that I love

 

[dipzy]

Awesoome rampage build, loving those EK blocks and the corsair psu cables

 

[Computer crazy]

Very nice, some great kit in there, I love ROG products they look amazing, the quality of the photos is surprising from a phone as well. Good job

 

[Vicey]

Thanks guys

 

[V1Viper]

Really nice build mate