The April Fool Build

[BigRM]

Let me start by saying this was never supposed to be a full build.

This was never supposed to be even a simple case swap.

This was SUPPOSED to be two friends checking out what was on sale at Dazmode during Black Friday when we came across the InWIn 303EK case and I commented it looked pretty cool and matched my current Orange/Black theme.

3 days later my so called "Buddy" walks into the store with a Dazmode box almost bigger than him and tells me when I'm done the build, he gets my old system. Shit.

I knew right away that I wanted it to be a full AMD build based on their latest and greatest, and fanboy that I am, was wrongly convinced (again) that AMD couldn't botch their launch as bad as Nvidia. I put in a few calls to friends, got ready to kiss some ass and tried to figure out how I was going to afford this.

I was privileged enough to be able be able to get the one and only 6900XT that arrived at my local computer shop. Names will not be named as jobs were put on the line to get it to me. I was not so fortunate with the 5900X, as it was almost 4 months later that the same friend was able to get me the chip. Much ass was kissed. Finally, after nearly 6 months of collecting parts, I'm finally ready to get this system built.

So why the April Fool?
Because some guy thought AMD could solve the stock issue
Because some guy decided to try and build a flagship PC during a pandemic
Because some guy threw every spare nickel he had at this project
Because some guy forced concessions to accommodate nonsensical hardware
And because the same guy wants the most kick-ass AMD PC build ready for his birthday in 2 weeks, fool that I am.

This mostly going to be pc parts porn today, getting the radiators cleaned and prepping the motherboard. The fun bits won't start until the long weekend.

System Specs
Case - InWin 303EK
CPU - AMD 5900X
GPU - AMD 6900XT reference
Motherboard - Gigabyte Aorus X570 Ultra
RAM - Corsair Dominator RGB 4x8GB 3600MHz
Storage - Corsair MP600 Pro 2TB and Corsair MP600 Pro 2TB Hydro X edition
May throw in my Samsung 860 EVO 1TB drives in a raid for more storage, undecided yet.
PSU - Corsair HX1000i
Soundcard – Sound Blaster AE-9

Watercooling Specs

EK PE 360 45mm radiator x2
EK Vardar EVO D-RGB x 6 with EK Connect controller
EK Quantum Momentum Aorus Master Monoblock
EK Quantum Momentum Aorus Chipset block
EK Quantum Vector 6900XT Waterblock and Backplate
Fittings – EK Classic 16mm for hard tubing and Koolance and Darkside fittings for drainage and disconnect.

I’ll be updating regularly as I complete sections. Enjoy.

[BigRM]

Rads are full of Mayhem's Blitz Part 1 for the night. Moving on to prepping the board.

[Bartacus]

Hell yeah bro! I have two all-AMD rigs now, with the higher end one being my 'dream rig' for the past few years. I just hope that Quantum Vector block performs well. I had a Quantum Vector on my Radeon VII, and it was a total stinker, hot spot temps exceeding 100C, so that got ditched in favor of a Barrow block. Sure hope the 6900XT variant is better!

[BigRM]

I've actually been using the 6900XT in my 9900K build for the past 2 months. The block seems to be working very well. I rarely hit 65 on the core, peaks at 75 junction temp, all while pushing 250+ watts though the card. Flow through the block is garbage over the I/O side voltage regulators. I've tried reversing the coolant direction, issue persists, though it seems best when using the right port as the inlet and the left as outlet. I just couldn't sit on the card any longer while I was stuck with a single GTX 1080 in my primary machine.

[BigRM]

Didn't make as much progress as I'd hoped tonight. Had a tree start to fall in the greenbelt behind me that needed urgent attention if I wanted to keep my fence and some very insistent huskies stretched a 1 hour walk into 2. Still, progress is progress.


Not the grade of board I'd normally have gone with, or the brand, but I had very specific needs on PCIe x1 placement, and this was the only board on the market that met that requirement while still supporting a monoblock (technically the Asrock X570 Aqua fit the bill too, but I wanted to keep this build possible). Got the chipset cooler mounted first and had a small upset. Sound card placement might have come back to bite me.



Thankfully the solution presented itself fairly quickly. I just had to take a step back and look at things from another perspective.

[BigRM]

As I stated earlier, I've actually been using the 6900XT in my current system for a while, but I'll throw up some photos of the teardown and GPU block install. Having only used Watercool Heatkiller IV blocks in the past, I was a little disappointed. Packaging may have been nicer, and true single slot design was nice (actually a requirement for this setup) but EK's instructions and build quality aren't as good. QOL features like pre-cut thermal pads were also lacking. The design also has some flow issues, but once together does do a good job of keeping the card cool under load.

[BigRM]

Finished off the motherboard with the exception of the RAM. That will be added last. The RAM and PSU are in use in my current system. Popped off the stock heatsink and dropped in the 5900X.


My gripe here again is poor instructions from EKWB about how to remove the heatsinks and IO cover. They could have gone into more detail, and while I'm not using the board the block was designed for, they do use the same IO cover, so I imagine it isn't any better for the X570 Master. That said, sure looks sexy once it's all mounted up.


Final part tonight to go in are the storage drives. A pair of Corsair MP600 Pros, one passive, one Hydro X edition. 2TB each, lots of room and stupid quick. Completely overkill, but given this is likely the last personal PC I'll be building for a few years, I wanted to future proof it as much as possible. These hadn't even been announced when I started gathering parts.


Trying not to think about the fact that this is a $3000 motherboard as it currently sits.

[Hooded]

Looks like an awesome rig.

[BigRM]

Not a huge update in terms of progress. Temporarily mounted the board, some of the hardware and my old GPU to try and get a better feel for a potential layout. After staring at it for almost 2 hours, I think I've got it figured out.



Fitment in the bottom of the case is going to be tight, hence the need for the specific PCIe placement. The lower fans intrude 1mm into slot 4, leaving only the top 3 slots available.



I'm also not a fan of the extra holes around the radiator. I'll be getting a sheet of metal or acrylic cut to fill in the gaps. I'll be doing the same in the space next to the motherboard to hide the holes and any cables behind them.

[Bartacus]

It will be interesting to see the tube runs.

[BigRM]

Started fitting the drainage line. There's 20mm of space between the rad and the reservoir. Thankfully Daz stocks these handy LP 90° fittings from Koolance. 19.5mm installed. Perfect.



This lead me to realize I'd screwed up and needed two more fittings. 24 hours later and they showed up.


EK soft tubing adapter and a soft tubing to male quick disconnect. Build is back on track.

[Danny79-Qc]

Looking good! Lol, Corsair are funny to put rgb where it should not or watercooling too.. watercooling a ssd. Gona be interesting for sure! Not saying this in a bad way don't worry! Actually very intrigued of what it will give as a result! Keep posting updates!

[BigRM]

I'll be sure to run a few benchmarks to see if there is any difference between the two drives. My current loop temps stabilize between 39°-41°C, which seems to be the agreed upon ideal temp for SSDs. Either way, it'll look good.

[Danny79-Qc]

Sure gona be a chalenging tube routing I think. Might be wrong but have fun doing it!

Well, monitoring the 2 m.2 I installed in my latest project. One being nvme and the other just a little Sata. The nvme is a Samsung 980 1tb and the sata a WD blue 2tb. Or the 980 is 2tb and sata 1tb. Can't remember lol.. anyways, the m.2 nvme reaches the low 50's and the Sata the low 40's. Pretty sure the first one is getting more heat because its running the OS and pretty sure if I switch it to the other, temps will be inverted because of workload.

Liquid temps for cpu loop stabilizes at around 29-31°. I wonder if having a ssd added to it would affect cpu temperature at all. It's deff the biggest question I have about it. so thanks for keeping us updated! Final product gona be nice I'm sure.

[BigRM]

I've no illusions of this being an easy tubing job. I've already redesigned it at least three times in my head and I expect it will be different still when I finally do it tomorrow. I've been holding off because of the number of parts I need to pull from my current setup to finally route everything.

Drainage run is in. I'll be doing a quick leak test on it tonight. Not 100% sure that it's sealed right. The collar on the EK 90° fitting is slightly wider than the Koolance LP 90°, might need to grab a second Koolance fitting.



Also got the fans mounted on the radiators, EK Vardar EVOs mounted to EK PE 360 rads with a Darkside 360 gasket on each.



Finished this afternoon with mounting the top radiator and starting on what cabling I could before a nice turkey dinner. Going to give my 9900K a proper send off tonight before it gets relegated to a life of CAD and Facebook.