Project Blurple

[Bartacus]

*!*!*!*!WARNING*!*!*!*!

This build will contain all sorts of things that will not make ANY logical sense to ANY rational human being!! This is an experiment, sort of! If you're expecting a build that makes any sort of sense, you will be extremely disappointed! However, if completely illogical overkill custom loops are more to your tastes, you may enjoy this. :-)

The Experiment: code name Project Blurple

Goal of the experiment: to cram as much crap as possible into a Case Labs M8, with pedestal, using as many parts as possible that I have collecting dust in boxes. This will include a potentially excessive amount of radiators, fans, flow meters, etc. It may get a bit silly, considering the amount of rads I have laying around.

System Parts:

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2950X / Gigabye Aorus Xtreme X399 motherboard / Watercool TRX40 CPU block
32GB G.Skill TridentZ (4x8GB 3200mhz CL14)
2TB ADATA SX8200 Pro x 3 / RAID0
Zotac 1080ti AMP Edition x 2 / Watercool Heatkiller GPU blocks
EVGA 1000W Gold PSU


Introducing one of the O.G. cases of serious water cooling, the Case Labs Magnum M8, gettin' nekkid:



For the longest time, the pedestal was set up like this, dual D5 varios in an EK Revo-something sitting between two 88ml thick Alphacool Monsta 360 radiators. As much as I'm not EK's biggest fan, this is pretty much the most space-economical way to have two D5s (notice the plasticizer on those "clear" tubes, ewwwww):



These radiators are utterly ridiculous, LOL!



Pedestal empty for the first time in years. Fun fact, this pedestal is the very one used in builder Snef's very first "big" build, the Xtreme Red Demon, so it has history! :-D



Sign of a clearly organized mind....NOT!



Rules of building: appropriate tunes are a must!



Got the motherboard installed quickly, but deciding how to run the tubes required much pontification. In the end, I came up with this weird half-X thing:



The OCDz are relatively pleased:



Monsta rads re-jigged, EK dual top removed, Sunbeam fan controller and Koolance flow meter display installed in pedestal.



I'm not 100% sure what I'm going to do just yet, but this pic contains some clues:



One radiator, of many, with a hidden salute to Red Green (because Canadian). Duct tape FTW!!



A fan or 12, or 15, or 18 may be required:



More to come soon!

[wattermain]

Hey Bart, I was all in when you said “ cram as much crap as possible into a Case Labs M8”. Standing by.

[Bartacus]

I'm starting to regret saying that, LOL! Working on it now, my god this will be tight, and there may be a VERY specific order of operations to install all this crap.

[Bartacus]

Oh boy, this is going to get painful, LOL!

Got another rad prepped this evening, 3-pin OG Nidec Typhoons:


The handyman's secret weapon, duct tape:


Holy mother of muffins, this is gonna be one large hemorrhoid of a build! Stuff will have to be installed in a VERY specific way, IF I can even fit it in there once some tubes have been added:


It's kinda tight, LOL!

[Bartacus]

My hands are scratched to hell, my fingers hurt, but headway is being made.




Prepping the Resonance, Duct Tape will be needed.






Duct tape was to help install the RGB / UV LED strip:






Trying to keep it hard tube as much as possible, only exception being around the drain. Small hard tubes are a !@#$%$@&^$!






The "hot" temp sensor, and another pain in the arse piece of tube:






Using a lot of 90s to work around stuff. This is one tightly packed space!






Peek a boo! You can see the tube run I was trying to "dogleg" around in the background:






Putting the Resonance back in place was tricky as F:






Many painful minutes later, the front is finally starting to come together:






Now I need a break and some sustenance! More to come!

[MackTheKnight]

Awesome, Bart! This build is crazy!

[Bartacus]

Welcome to hell, cable management hell! Good thing I'm not trying to be neat and tidy, as I suspect there IS no way for this to be tidy without custom wiring:


Basement is set up, SPLITTY9 in place for the 6 PWM fans in the pedestal, + 3 PWM fans on the front 360 rad:


Put a Darkside LP240 rad plus 2 more OG 3-pin Gentle Typhoons in the PSU side. Couldn't fit another 360 since I needed access to the pedestal for a pile of wiring and tube:


Putting the case back together, with all the 3-to-1 splitter cables going into that pedestal, as well as the soft tube, was a royal pain in the derriere, but it's back together, currently running some sysprep cleaning mix through it.


12 hours of running the pumps stand-alone, then I'll drain and refill, and attempt to power it up:


One thing I will say, it looks like running both D5s in series with this distro plate, which is actually two separate plates bolted together, will not do. It creates tons of air bubbles in the reservoir compartments, so I might need to run with a single pump. The 'reservoir' space doesn't appear to be large enough to prevent bubbles from re-circulating when both pumps are running. Oh well, more to come when the power up happens tomorrow, hopefully!