Behemoth

[TripleM]

After watching every single one of Daz's how-to videos (at least once) and creeping this forum for tips, I made my first order for water cooling parts. Then I started working out of city and had about a day and a half every 3 weeks for my own stuff, so it took a very long time (since May) to finish my build and have my desk look presentable. On top of that, my first motherboard was a dud, which I only tested once almost everything was installed.

Computer Hardware:
■ Asus MAXIMUS VI Formula ■ Intel I5 4670K @ 3.20 GHz ■ Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB DDR3 1600MHz ■ 2 Crossfire XFX Radeon R9-290X @ 1000MHz ■ Corsair AXi1200 ■
Water-cooling Hardware:
■ EK Supremacy Clean CSQ - Full Nickel CPU water block ■ 2 EK R9-290X Acrylic and Nickel VGA water blocks ■ 2 EK R9-290X RAM Backplate ■ XSPC RX360 radiator ■ Koolance RP-452X2 Rev.2 dual bay reservoir ■ 2 Alphacool Variable Speed D5 pumps in series ■ Aquaero 6 XT Fan/Pump Controller ■


The motherboard with the "removable" armour.

Armour removed and painted fluorescent blue.

Back on the mobo.

This thing looks so tiny in such a big case.

XFX graphics card with stock heat sink.

[TripleM]

Stock cooler removed.

My first water cooling accessory installed!

Painted backplates installed on both graphics cards.

Graphics cards installed with a crossfire block which I decided to not use. It's a little too bulky and after some measuring I realized I could fit a small piece of tubing and some compression fittings between the 2 cards.

Everything installed and the UV light on!

[TripleM]

Profile view.

A better pictures of the guts with only the UV light on.

Front view. All I gotta say about that Aquaero is it is supremely powerful and I could not do what I wanted without it. It took quite a while to figure out programming of it though, especially when I was trying to fill the loop without power to the rest of the system and therefore not having the ability to use the windows program that makes setup infinitely easier.

My gaming station. Eyefinity monitors with Xbox 360 connected to the left monitor and PS4 connected to the right monitor.

Thanks Daz for making all your how-to videos and for all the help while I was ordering, and thanks to the entire water cooling community for just being awesome.

Mike

[bungwirez]

Oh Hell YA!

that's looks pretty sweet MMM.

[DazMode]

Cool to see that Blue glows too.

[TripleM]

Oh Hell YA!

that's looks pretty sweet MMM.

Thanks Bung!

@Daz
I think blue is harder to make glow because it was hard to find a spray can of fluorescent blue, and I had to pay a premium vs other colours.

[xmanrigger]

Cool. Nice fan controller. Ya, your Crossfire link looks much better than the EK block. I did the same instead of using the HeatKiller SLI block. Much cleaner. The fittings coming off the bottom of the video card looks sketchy though. Looks like there could be leverage on them which could cause a leak down the road. Not sure what the purpose of them is, other than maybe a drain. If it is a drain, why not just put a container under the bottom card and remove the plug to the left of those fittings? Would clean it up nice, and free up those unnecessary fittings for somewhere else.
Congrats on first water build. Next one will be that much better.

[TripleM]

Cool. Nice fan controller. Ya, your Crossfire link looks much better than the EK block. I did the same instead of using the HeatKiller SLI block. Much cleaner. The fittings coming off the bottom of the video card looks sketchy though. Looks like there could be leverage on them which could cause a leak down the road. Not sure what the purpose of them is, other than maybe a drain. If it is a drain, why not just put a container under the bottom card and remove the plug to the left of those fittings? Would clean it up nice, and free up those unnecessary fittings for somewhere else.
Congrats on first water build. Next one will be that much better.

Oh it's an amazing fan controller. It activates my second pump when the temp gets to be too hot, or if the first goes offline for some reason (hopefully that doesn't happen) and I happen to have my computer on but I'm not home, which happens often. Yeah I'm not entirely satisfied with the fitting coming off the bottom, but I don't like the idea of having a drain that requires a sketchy catcher placed above the PSU. The other issue is I don't want to cut a new hole in this case for the drain to be ran properly. So later on down the line there is a chance of leaking? Wouldn't it start leaking from the beginning if it was ever going to leak?

[xmanrigger]

No, it might not leak right away or in a week or a month. The fact is, the leverage of those fittings is causing stress on the swivels and may cause a fatigue failure. It wouldnt be at the threads, but could at any joint that swivels. You are running a higher risk of a leak with you configuration, than the risk of my suggestion.
Again, its just a suggestion and would clean up the looks greatly. As well, two pumps running in that loop is not going to cool any more efficiently than one pump. A single D5 can efficiently circulate a much more robust loop than that without breaking a sweat.The advantage you have with that controller as far as pumps go, is a fail-safe backup in the event one pump fails.


There is nothing sketchy at all draining it from the card. My main X79 system is drained that ways, and has been drained several times without issue. You simply find a container that will sit stable below it. Seriously, it is very low risk.

First, put something under the backside of PC to tip it slightly to eliminate chance of water getting on card. Use a rag in your hand to remove the bottom plug on video card slowly in case there is a bit of pressure build up in loop.

As long as all other plugs are tight, only a couple drops will come out at first, it will be air locked. Have a fitting with a short piece of tubing on it, and screw it in as soon as you take plug out and direct it to container.

Loosen the top most plug possible in loop so it is no longer air locked, and loop will drain into container. No spillage, no risk. Easy as pie.

[TripleM]

Ok maybe I'll work something else out, but I do really like having the convenience of a separate line to drain the system from.

The purpose of having the second pump in series is mostly for a redundant backup, and also because I've noticed 2 pumps running slower to provide a flow boost is quieter than having a single pump running at high speed. There are often times when I will leave my computer on for days without touching it (because it is also a server) and so I don't want things to cook without me noticing if a pump were to fail.

[Bartacus]

Ok maybe I'll work something else out, but I do really like having the convenience of a separate line to drain the system from.

You can still keep the drain, but maybe just do it differently, like with a T-block. Don't overthink the drain though. I did the same thing, and ever time I go to drain now, I don't hesitate to just rip off tubes over a big bowl. It's one of those things that you can over-think when you first get into WCing.

[xmanrigger]

I know what you are saying, and please dont take offense. I am by no means, an 'authority'. I can say though, I have built more than 8 different custom water cooled systems with great success and no issues (five of them being client machines).

You went to all the work, time, and expense to make everything neat and tidy, only to cluster it with those fittings. They look horribly out of place and could cause issues down the road. Other than that, great build.

As Bart said, keep things as simple and basic as possible. Dont over-think.

[TripleM]

I think I have the perfect idea. It'll be a good chance to take my system apart to change the battery (stock battery came dead and so system time has to be re-synced every half an hour or so). Thanks for the advice!

[NotSoEpicMods]

Too bad you couldn't get those mobo slots painted blue too but it still looks good.