tehPr0fess0r's Suppressor F31 Black and White build

[Hooded]

Wow very nice indeed.
Beautiful.

[bungwirez]

excellent work indeed. creative syringe mechanism for filling that tight spaced rex top.

[Father Fuzzy]

bigger res and white coolant really made a difference

[tehPR0fess0r]

GTX 1080 Upgrade finally completed!

Well I finally got off my ass and finished my GTX 1080 upgrade last week. I've been running the GTX 1080 with stock cooling for a couple months already (out of sheer laziness more than anything else) but I finally got around to actually picking up the EK full cover block and adding it into my water cooling loop last week. I decided to do a few other upgrades while I had the loop taken apart also with some other parts I've picked up over the past few months as well.

Updates since my last build log photos:

• GTX 970 w GPU only block swapped for EVGA GTX 1080 SC ACX 3.0 with EK Full Coverage Nickel/Plexi block
• Swiftech MCP655 Vario (10 years old and still kickin'!) swapped for EK D5 PWM
• XSPC EX240 Multiport rad swapped for Alphacool XT45 240 rad
• Sandisk 256GB SSD swapped for 480GB SSD (temporary until the new Samsung 960 M.2 drives are available)
• 2x Dell 2408WFP (24" 1920x1200) swapped for a Philips BDM4065UC (40" 3840 x 2160 4K)

EK definitely has the best looking packaging in the business IMO...



Prepping the new XT45 240 for a white makeover, using Plasti Dip to match the rest of the build.

[tehPR0fess0r]

Disassembly of the current setup, to remove the pump/res and front rad



Installation of the new EK D5 PWM into the XRES - its finally time to retire my Swiftech MCP655 (D5 Vario) that has run in my main rig for the past 10 years!


New pump and rad installed in the case. New inlet/outlet locations required re-thinking my loop, and I ended up completely reversing the flow direction to now go Pump>GPU>CPU>360>240>Pump



Waterblock installation on the GTX 1080. Unlike the FE cards, the EVGA backplate is completely compatible with the EK FC GTX1080 waterblock

[tehPR0fess0r]

Installing the GPU and new tubes to match... Hard tube is much MUCH easier the 2nd time around now, after having done it before.






Time for filling and leak testing! Because the D5 PWM I have is a gen 1, it required this handy little mod I cooked up for filling/bleeding/leak testing. In order to run the pump at full speed without being plugged into the mobo header you have to put connect the PWM pin on the fan to a 5V constant, so I made this tool using an old molex to 3-pin fan adapter and keep it stashed with all my water cooling parts.




Here's your friendly neighbourhood Public Service Announcement reminder... MAKE SURE YOU LEAK TEST! Oh, and check all your fittings for o-rings before installing them!

Turns out one of the stop fittings I had installed on my new XT45 rad didnt have an O-ring on it, and it ended up leaking... Luckily that fitting was right at the bottom of the loop and there was nothing below it other than some paper towel so no big deal other than a bunch of lost time. No photos from this part though because I basically went into panic mode and drained the loop to find and fix the leak.

Some further investigation and I found the issue... when I removed the stop fitting from the old XSPC EX240 and moved it over to the new rad, the o-ring was actually stuck to the EX240 and I just never noticed it when I installed the plug into the new rad.

[tehPR0fess0r]

Completed build gallery

And now for my favorite part... here's a few shots of the completed build, all lit up and running.

[Bartacus]

Nicely done!

[xmanrigger]

Looks great. Very clean. Have yet to have done a hard tubing build, but I hope when I do, coloured tubing is available if it isnt already. I am not a fan at all of using any kind of dye in a loop.

Good pictures as well. I wont mention member, but he posted a great build. In the name of art (I am guessing), the pictures were all brutal 'artsy' angles. This made it impossible to the viewer to fully appreciate the build itself.

[Gotwake]

Question about your waterblock from your 970.

I have what I believe is the same video card as your old one. How well did the water cooling gpu block work on it? What did you do for cooling the rest of the gpu?

Just about to start my first water cooling build on my existing pc. Debating on the gpu block vs saving the money and putting it towards a 1070 with a full block. Wondering how you feel since it is essentially the same path you followed

[Gotwake]

Also. Very nice, very clean build

[Hooded]

Turned out great. Very nice build

[tehPR0fess0r]

Question about your waterblock from your 970.

I have what I believe is the same video card as your old one. How well did the water cooling gpu block work on it? What did you do for cooling the rest of the gpu?

Just about to start my first water cooling build on my existing pc. Debating on the gpu block vs saving the money and putting it towards a 1070 with a full block. Wondering how you feel since it is essentially the same path you followed

The GTX 970 I had was the EVGA SSC ACX 2.0+ model (04G-P4-3975-KR), so it had a 2-piece stock cooler. The GPU core had a heatsink with heatpipes and fins, which I replaced with the EK Supremacy VGA bridge edition, and the rest of the card was essentially cooled passively with what EVGA calls the MMCP (Memory and MOSFET Cooling Plate) which I left in place. I say passively, because unless the GPU temperature got high enough, the fans dont even spin so there is literally no additional airflow on the MMCP. To compensate for removing the GPU fans with the stock heatsink I added another bottom 120mm fan in my case blowing up towards the GPU for additional airflow over the MMCP.

I've seen this done a lot on EVGA cards with ACX coolers, especially for brand new cards where full coverage GPU blocks arent available at launch (like the FTW or Classified cards). It works well enough and definitely lets you OC the GPU core, but you would probably be limited on memory OC vs. a full coverage block where the memory chips are actively cooled.

If the question is between adding a GPU block to your 970 or saving for a 1070 with a full cover block, I'd definitely say just save the money. If your plan is to upgrade to a 1070 soon(ish) anyways, its probably not worth the time/effort/money to put a GPU block on the 970. That said, you can find used GPU-only blocks for cheap and if you just have the itch to tinker with your system (and we all get it...) then spend the ~$50 and have some fun while you wait for your 1070 upgrade.

[Gotwake]

Cool thanks for the info. That's pretty much exactly what I was looking for.

[DazMode]

Nicely done.