The Monolith

[Reloaded2]

Nice looking build.

 

[Remmy]

Should of called it Seb, my girlfriends ex. He was big and black.
Hah ^_^:lol:

That said, this machine is very much to my liking! Love it.

Rofl, shame, if only I'd have known first. Perhaps I can still get it changed by deed poll anyway

Nice looking build.

Cheers dude

 

[Cxizent]

Man, that looks crazy good. I first saw the flow indicator and was wondering if you'd be able to make it look good (just because normally I see them thrown in as an afterthought), but you knocked it out of the park!

 

[Remmy]

Man, that looks crazy good. I first saw the flow indicator and was wondering if you'd be able to make it look good (just because normally I see them thrown in as an afterthought), but you knocked it out of the park!

Thanks dude Do you mean flow indicators in general or these specific ones?

I think these are one of the only nice looking ones tbh, the others look small and cheap whereas this one is actually a feature of the loop in its own right

 

[Cxizent]

Thanks dude Do you mean flow indicators in general or these specific ones?

I think these are one of the only nice looking ones tbh, the others look small and cheap whereas this one is actually a feature of the loop in its own right

Not at all! And I meant flow indicators in general. I always see those little round ones that people just leaving dangling in mid-air. Your one looks sweet as all hell, though.

 

[Remmy]

Not at all! And I meant flow indicators in general. I always see those little round ones that people just leaving dangling in mid-air. Your one looks sweet as all hell, though.

Oh yeah I've seen that a fair few times, I saw that these were coming out a while back in March or so I think on SpecialTech forums and I had to have one It was a long wait but I'm glad they came out in time for when I was doing my upgrades otherwise it would have been ages before I could put it in

 

[coffeefoot]

I call it The Monolith simply because it is big, black, and well.. monolithic.

I originally built this PC 2 years ago, but since last October there has been many many upgrades (with many more yet to come), and the only remaining original parts are the motherboard, CPU, HDD, and the optical drive. I'm at uni so I spend most of my student loan on this thing hehe.

In around 6 weeks I'm upgrading several more things, including: Watercooling my 2nd GPU (I bought them at different times), adding a second radiator, going push/pull on both radiators, new pump, new reservoir, a flow indicator, Corsair individually braided cables, and making some aluminium panels. I want the XSPC Raystorm CPU block too but it's hardly essential (not that any of the rest of the hardware is either lol).

Rig Spec:
NZXT Switch 810 Black
Corsair AX850
Asus P8P67 Pro
Intel i5 2500k
16GB Corsair Vengeance 1600MHz
Zotac GTX580 1.5GB
Gainward GTX580 1.5GB
Asus Xonar D2
Corsair SP2500
128GB Vertex IV SSD
1TB Hitachi HDD
Samsung Blu-ray rewriter
Asus VE228HR 21.5" Monitor
Generic Microsoft Keyboard & Crappy Dell Mouse

Water cooling components:
EK-DCP 2.2 Pump/Res combo
EK-Supreme LTX CPU block
Aquagrafx GTX580 block
Phobya G-Changer 360mm 60mm thick
3x Corsair SP120 Quiet Edition (Soon to be 10!)
EK 3/8"-1/2" Compression fittings (The angled fittings are just non-branded fittings)

Here is my desk area (I have the worst mouse/keyboard money can buy pretty much; I'm going to be getting a Corsair M65, and likely the K95, I just don't know when. I tend to prioritise the PC components over the peripherals):

The black panels on the bottom and right hand side are just makeshift panels made from an A4 file folder, and these will be replaced with aluminium panels coated in carbon fibre Di-Noc, I also plan to make a panel to cover the side of the optical bays. The HDD is in a Hot Swap bay in an optical bay.

The cables which could really do with some work lol :/ Plus Jeremy Kyle in the background haha

The upgrades I'm looking forward to putting in oh so much...

The extra fans I need for push/pull

My new pump, the trusty ol' MCP655 Vario (I'm getting the alphacool acrylic pump top for this)

My reservoir, I absolutely love this thing and have done since I first laid eyes on them It was well worth the HUGE hole in the pocket
Cathode off:

and on:

Here is the flow indicator I'm getting, whenever they get released

The second rad I'm getting is the Phobya G-Changer 240mm to match the 360mm in the roof.

Stay tuned for the updates, and feel free to leave any suggestions/criticisms you may have

Thanks for reading,
Jamie!

Edit 25/6/13: I've seen that the flow indicators have already been out for a week on SpecialTech, I don't know how I never saw that, so I've just ordered the indicator and pump top

UPDATE 9/8/13: I've had my delivery of supplies now, and I've got everything I need to finish this bad boy for the time being All of the hardware is the same, only the water cooling, cables, and panels have changed.

Water cooling components:
Swiftech MCP655 Vario w/ Alphacool pump top
FrozenQ Fusion 250mm reservoir - Flourescent blue helices
Phobya G-Changer 360mm x 60mm
Phobya G-Changer 240mm x 60mm
EK LTX CPU block
2x Aquagrafx GTX580 block
Primochill Vortex Flow Indicator
EK compression fittings 3/8" - 1/2"
Masterkleer tubing

Like a kid at Christmas:

I love the smell of new rad

The Corsair braided cable kit

I've made a few custom aluminium panels, covered with carbon fibre vinyl, here's the corner/box section I made to cover the side and back of my optical bays:

The naked GTX580

With the lovely new block on it

I had some spare carbon vinyl so I thought I'd stick some on my SLI bridge

The case pretty much gutted out

Starting to come together

Shamelessly took 'inspiration' from Tom with the SSD mounting, but let's be fair it's a fantastic place to stow them away

I put the fillport out the back here instead of through the top which is where I wanted it but the tubing just wouldn't allow it, so I put the res cathode switch in the top instead

The finished loop reading for filling

I had to make many compromises to get it to look as neat as this, for example I had to betray one of my most fundamental beliefs that I've been brought up on since I was a nipper, and put the front radiator in upside down, and no, putting it horizontal is not okay either I'm still happy with how it looks but it's a bloody PITA to bleed that thing. I really like the straight and neat look of the SLI fitting between the GPUs and the flow indicator and GPU though

Filling, bleeding, and leak testing...

And finally, a few pictures of the end result

I'm so happy with how it's turned out now, there's just one or two things I can still think of to do:
The PSU top still has a plain black cardboard panel on it, so I'd like to carbon fibre that, and I would like to make a panel to cover the 4 w\c tubing holes to the left of the GPUs which are a bit of an eyesore, and also maybe wrap the bottom of the pump, and the end caps of the res in vinyl. The USB 3 cable was impossible to heatshrink so unfortunately I've had to use electrical tape, so if I can find a braided USB3 header extender that'd be great. One more thing that I couldn't really get around was getting the pump in in such a way that it would be neat, and also allow me to access the speed control, so I've just got it stuck on 2 at the moment, and the temps are good, and the whole rig is silent as anything, but when I next fiddle with the loop I might try setting 3. I've also got my old NZXT braided LED cable to put back in but I've got no adhesive hooks at the moment so I'll do it soon, but it's hardly that important

Thanks for looking guys, feel free to leave any suggestions/criticisms/questions etc..

One question,Remmy. What type of res. top is that? If I go with a tube res., I'd want it part of the loop and not just to fill.

 

[Remmy]

One question,Remmy. What type of res. top is that? If I go with a tube res., I'd want it part of the loop and not just to fill.

Hi, I'm sorry for the late reply. I'm not sure if you mean the reservoir, or the pump top.

The reservoir is 'FrozenQ Liquid Fusion 250mm Reservoir, with fluorescent blue helices'

The pump top is 'Alphacool HF Acrylic D5 pump top'

You certainly can get tops which double up as a pump top also, if that's what you meant.

 

[remember300]

did you braid those sata cables ... or did you buy them?

 

[Remmy]

did you braid those sata cables ... or did you buy them?

I braided them I bought the braided PSU cables, but did the fans, front panel connectors, and SATA cables myself

 

[sprintdmc]

Great stuff Remmy, your Rig upgrades and changes have made a hell of a difference. question, the coolant your using is it UV reactive, if not some white lighting and Di Noc for your pump and psu will finish your Rig of nicely, at least til the next upgrade lol.

 

[Remmy]

Great stuff Remmy, your Rig upgrades and changes have made a hell of a difference. question, the coolant your using is it UV reactive, if not some white lighting and Di Noc for your pump and psu will finish your Rig of nicely, at least til the next upgrade lol.

It is not UV reactive, I do have a 2M NZXT LED strip installed, but it's not very bright, I may get some of those rectangular bendy strips, I don't know what they're called.

I have thought about putting the carbon fibre vinyl around the base of my pump, and I think next time I take it apart I'll do that, same with the PSU and a couple of other places but unfortunately I ran out of the vinyl, and I couldn't be bothered waiting for anymore before just doing the rest lol

 

[dynastes]

Thumbs up for this very nice piece of work

 

[blitztech]

Nice build, do you get great performance from those Phobya rads?
Also why did you have the 240mm radiator endtank down? And how long did it take to bleed?

 

[Remmy]

Nice build, do you get great performance from those Phobya rads?
Also why did you have the 240mm radiator endtank down? And how long did it take to bleed?

Thanks, I'm really pleased with the temps, under load the GPUs max at about 50C, and the CPU about 60C, and that's with the pump setting on 2/5, and the fans on about 60%.

I really wanted the 240 the right way up, but I realised there was just no neat way to tube it up like that, so by putting it upside down it meant I could get the tubing a heck of a lot neater, and aesthetics means everything

It probably only takes 5 or 10 minutes longer to bleed it than normal (25-30 minutes total) with it being upside down, I just have to put a towel down so it doesn't get scratched and then put the case standing on its front and rock it about to bleed the 240. I made the mistake of doing this after I'd bled the 360 first time and I just filled the 360 back up with air xD

 

[rubber5]

sweet rig
but can i ask some questions please

1 was there any reason you went with copper blocks and not nickel plated
2 do you know you max temps when the whole rig is loaded
2 silly one but does your fan controller make your fans click as you turn the speed up

1 thing i wold do it turn the rear fan round so it blows into the case
but that about it

thanks for any help

 

[Brigandiers]

man that is nice

 

[Remmy]

sweet rig
but can i ask some questions please

1 was there any reason you went with copper blocks and not nickel plated
2 do you know you max temps when the whole rig is loaded
2 silly one but does your fan controller make your fans click as you turn the speed up

1 thing i wold do it turn the rear fan round so it blows into the case
but that about it

thanks for any help

1) I first bought an EK watercooling kit for my CPU when I was a w\c nab, so I didn't care at the time, and I just happened to buy my first GTX580 with the block on it because I got it cheap second hand, so I didn't have a choice with that either. When I bought my second GTX580 I was obviously going to get the same block to match so that's why. I do prefer nickel looking ones, particularly the EK Acrylic GFX blocks, I love those, and I would choose them if I was doing it from scratch, but wasn't worth the money when I got mine on the cheap.

2) Depends on the fan speeds, at lowest (which I think is 5V) CPU: ~70°C, GPUs: ~60°C. With fans on max (12V, which they are when gaming usually) CPU: ~62°C, GPUs: ~52°C. This is with the D5 on setting 2/5.

3) It's funny you say that as not many people seem to talk about it (maybe because most people here just run fans at fixed voltage), but yes they do, and it's quite annoying, however when the fans are on max, the main noise is fan noise, and not the clicking, also the game drowns out both noises anyway. I removed the fan controller for a while because of the clicking and ran them at 7V, but it was to loud, and I actually prefer the look as well as being able to have them at 5V at which point I can't hear the fans at all from like 30cm away.

I have considered it for the positive pressure, but aesthetics is so important to me that I would rather keep it this way round so I can see the nice side of the fan with the ring and not the corsair sticker, despite extra dust, which I just clean out a bit more regularly.

man that is nice

Thanks a lot dude

 

[RamboOC]

I like that carbon fibre vinyl. where did you get it from?
Overall a nice slick looking rig, nice!

 

[Remmy]

I like that carbon fibre vinyl. where did you get it from?
Overall a nice slick looking rig, nice!

Cheers mate

It's 3M Di-Noc carbon fibre vinyl, really nice quality stuff I just got it off eBay, not sure if I'm allowed to post links, but you should find it easy enough should you want some