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Figured I'd post up my first serious build for you guys to enjoy. This is my third custom waterloop, and the first time I decided to throw caution to the wind when it came to buying parts. I wanted the best of the best (within reason) since I had saved up enough to do it finally. Keep in mind this build was done around January 2016, so the 10 series cards and 6000 series 2011v3 CPUs hadn't come out yet.
The original idea was:
Caselabs M8/M10 in black
X99, either RVE or MSI Godlike
5930K (better single-core performance than the 5960X and a lot cheaper, which meant more money to spend on other cool parts)
Trident Z 32GB
SLI GTX 980 Ti, either Gigabyte G1 Gaming or EVGA Classys, watercooled with EK full blocks+back plates
Re-using the XSPC Raystorm CPU block and possibly RAM blocks from my previous builds
Bitspower compression fittings
Red flexible tubing, likely Primochill LRT since I had used it previously and was a big fan, and distilled water+ Daz's additive
XSPC EX360 from my old build
Darkside 360mm dust-free thick rad
Whatever other cool parts I could get my hands on.
It just so happened that one of my buddies was getting rid of a Caselabs M8 that he didn't end up using for one of his builds,thus kickstarting my new build. Only problem with it was it was white, but I got such a good deal on it that I couldn't say no to it. I decided to go with it:
I decided I wanted to change a few things up with the case, so I put in a big order with caselabs and the waiting game began.
In the meantime, I decided to grab a pair of G1 Gaming 980 Tis as they were on sale at the time (boxing day FTW), and from the research I had done they seemed to be about the same performance as the much pricier classifieds from EVGA (which apparently had iffy bins):
Went ahead and grabbed a couple of EK-FC nickel+acetal blocks and nickel back plates for them and almost immediately ripped apart the cards straight out of the box (after testing them first of course) and threw them on:
I ended up deciding to go with the ASUS Rampage V Extreme, mostly due to the price difference between it and the MSI Godlike Gaming. I also managed to get a really good deal on it at the time (about $100 off MSRP), which was a major deciding factor. I figured I couldn't go wrong with either of these boards anyways.
I also managed to get a killer deal on a sealed, BNIB 5930K off of Kijiji locally, and managed to price-match for a set of 32GB 3200MHz 14-14-14-34 G Skill Trident Z RAM at NCIX to get about $50 off.
At this point, I decided to start mocking stuff up and seeing how I would route my tubing and the new Bitspower res. At the time, I decided to only put 1 980 Ti in since I was waiting on the water block and backing plate for the second card, and I wanted to get the computer up and running ASAP. I also decided to use the EVGA 1300W G2 PSU from my old rig, along with the custom red+black cable extensions I had made for it.
After I had gotten the basic loop design ironed out, it was time to leak test (with lights!). Don't worry, I had everything else unplugged:
The original idea was:
Caselabs M8/M10 in black
X99, either RVE or MSI Godlike
5930K (better single-core performance than the 5960X and a lot cheaper, which meant more money to spend on other cool parts)
Trident Z 32GB
SLI GTX 980 Ti, either Gigabyte G1 Gaming or EVGA Classys, watercooled with EK full blocks+back plates
Re-using the XSPC Raystorm CPU block and possibly RAM blocks from my previous builds
Bitspower compression fittings
Red flexible tubing, likely Primochill LRT since I had used it previously and was a big fan, and distilled water+ Daz's additive
XSPC EX360 from my old build
Darkside 360mm dust-free thick rad
Whatever other cool parts I could get my hands on.
It just so happened that one of my buddies was getting rid of a Caselabs M8 that he didn't end up using for one of his builds,thus kickstarting my new build. Only problem with it was it was white, but I got such a good deal on it that I couldn't say no to it. I decided to go with it:
I decided I wanted to change a few things up with the case, so I put in a big order with caselabs and the waiting game began.
In the meantime, I decided to grab a pair of G1 Gaming 980 Tis as they were on sale at the time (boxing day FTW), and from the research I had done they seemed to be about the same performance as the much pricier classifieds from EVGA (which apparently had iffy bins):
Went ahead and grabbed a couple of EK-FC nickel+acetal blocks and nickel back plates for them and almost immediately ripped apart the cards straight out of the box (after testing them first of course) and threw them on:
I ended up deciding to go with the ASUS Rampage V Extreme, mostly due to the price difference between it and the MSI Godlike Gaming. I also managed to get a really good deal on it at the time (about $100 off MSRP), which was a major deciding factor. I figured I couldn't go wrong with either of these boards anyways.
I also managed to get a killer deal on a sealed, BNIB 5930K off of Kijiji locally, and managed to price-match for a set of 32GB 3200MHz 14-14-14-34 G Skill Trident Z RAM at NCIX to get about $50 off.
At this point, I decided to start mocking stuff up and seeing how I would route my tubing and the new Bitspower res. At the time, I decided to only put 1 980 Ti in since I was waiting on the water block and backing plate for the second card, and I wanted to get the computer up and running ASAP. I also decided to use the EVGA 1300W G2 PSU from my old rig, along with the custom red+black cable extensions I had made for it.
After I had gotten the basic loop design ironed out, it was time to leak test (with lights!). Don't worry, I had everything else unplugged:
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