Build Log: My first watercooled computer

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SorenJH

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Nov 2, 2013
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10,510
Hello Toms

I have decided to make a watercooled computer. My experience is from 2 earlier builds, but they have been air - and closed loop watercooled.
For the CPU I have chosen the 3930k from Intel, but i can't decide on a motherboard yet. Feel free to give me some advice on that.
I have bought 16 gigabytes of Kingston Hyperx Predator 1866mhz cl 9 ram. I would like my build to be white and black themed, so I am considering to sell the ram again and buy 16gb black Corsair vengeance ram.
I have bought most of the watercooling which is as following.

Pump: Laing DDC-1T
Res: EK-multioption RES 150
CPU Head: EK-Supreme HF
Fans: Yate Loon D12SH-12
Laing DDC-1T top: EK-DDC X-TOP V2 - GL4

I have also bought my power supply which is the AX1200 Gold from Corsair.
As of now i am thinking about buying the brand new Fractal Design Arc Mini R2 case that will house one 360mm rad, one 240mm and 1 120mm.

Feel free to give me suggestions and advice.

Pictures

http://peecee.dk/upload/view/424903

http://peecee.dk/upload/view/424904

http://peecee.dk/upload/view/424902

I will update soon

Regards Søren Denmark
 
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Jake Wenta

Jake Wenta

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Mar 13, 2013
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I'd recommend 4x4GB RAM as smaller RAM runs better than 2 sticks of 8GB (And you don't really need more than 8GB for gaming)
As for the fans, 40DBa for just over 80 CFM isn't too good, but if you don't mind the noise :).
Nice Pictures.
Hmmm suggestions:
I'd change the CPU for something else if you have just purchased it, but if not-that's okay.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-3930K 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($553.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock X79 EXTREME4-M Micro ATX LGA2011 Motherboard ($199.99 @ Amazon) Official Website
Memory: Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($309.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($98.99 @ Mac Mall)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($84.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 290X 4GB Video Card (2-Way CrossFire) ($585.91 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 290X 4GB Video Card (2-Way CrossFire) ($585.91 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Arc Mini R2 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($99.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Corsair Professional Gold 1200W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($278.24 @ TigerDirect)
Optical Drive: Pioneer BDR-208DBK Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($57.99 @ B&H)
Total: $2855.98
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-11-03 00:53 EDT-0400)

Another thing to note, only 3 Motherboards for LGA 2011 in a Micro ATX format which is what the case supports. And for 30 dollars more, you could get the AX1200i for monitoring but also Platinum Certified.
(You haven't stated your Budget, and you can remove the cooling on the GPU's and use these waterblocks and these back plates to stay with the Black and White theme)
For Fans, you can use the corsair fans with white rings, or something like xigmatec with white leds.

I also recommend colored tubing over colored coolant. (And white tubing looks AWESOME! :D Can't wait to sure you build come together. :)
White Cables for Corsairs AX1200i: http://www.corsair.com/us/ax1200i-professional-individually-sleeved-modular-cables-white.html
 
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S

SorenJH

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Nov 2, 2013
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10,510
Ohh, sorry.. My budget is not even close to that big :D
I am pretty sure that i will go for the ASRock motherboard. The Power Supply has allready arrived - check pictures. The processor and most of the cooling as well. I have the Asus P9X79 laing around, which is what the processor is photographed in. The case that i have chosen does not support the motherboard, and other cases that will house the rads that I would like is full tower and not easy for a 15 year old boy to bring to a lan party. If there is an atx case that is not to big, feel free to tell me.
I will probably go for either a 250 og 500 gb ssd because i will remove the hdd cages to fit the last 240mm rad in there.
Also with the desired radiators there will not be room for odd drives.
I don't know just yet if i will go for black, red or white tubing. I will definetely use clear water not to kill my expensive components. Please tell me what tubing you think will look cool.
For the graphics card I am thinking about buying a 7970 and an Alphacool waterblock.
Just now I have ordered 16gb ram with waterblocks on them. It is the silver Alphacool NexXxoS RXP-1 I will be using. Futhermore i am getting a D5 pump with top and res. Just to see if it is way better than my DDC 1T. I only bought it because I got it for next to nothing.
I have also bought 14 or 20 (or something) silver and black compression/push-on fittings.
In the package there is 2 rads as well. 1st is the NexXxos monsta 360mm and the 2nd is the RX 360mm. I will have to see if the monsta will fit in the top of the case - if not I will sell it.

The sleeved cables look super awesome and i will definetely buy such.

The CPU is bought because I don't believe it will be much worse than a Hasswell for gaming, but it will probably be very much better in photo - and videoediting which i will be using it for as well.

I have 4 yate loons, 5 Noiseblocker eLoops B3 and 2 Noiseblocker Black Silent Pro.
The configuration of them - I don't know yet but i will probably use a push pull conf on the 240mm rad.

Let me know your ideas and thoughts

Regards Søren
 
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Jake Wenta

Jake Wenta

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Mar 13, 2013
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Well what's your budget then? :)
You can't use the cables with the AX1200-it said it's only compatible with the AX1200i. (But you can always return for a refund and get the 1200i) [I looked at the pictures]
There are Mid Tower cases that may fit your needs, but only have room for 1 or 2 radiators-which is really all you need.
You want distilled water btw, with silver or some other killer in the reservoir.
I'd recommend a R9 280x since it is a beefed 7970 with DirectX 11.2, better overclocking, and better PCB. (You will be able to overclock it and get more out of it)
You don't need waterblocks on RAM, especially DDR3-as it runs cool up to 1.8v. And you won't really be able to do that on Intel safely as far as I know.
The reason I would change the CPU is for the Price/Performance. But if you are video editing, then that's the way to go, but not so much for videocards. You'd want nvidia for Cudas and gaming OR Quadros or Firepros for better video editing cards.
As for tubing, I prefer Acrylic. It bends when heated, so you can use less fittings.
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/20520/ex-tub-1867

Usually fittings are the last thing to get after you plan your build out.
 
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SorenJH

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Nov 2, 2013
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I have not ordered the cables yet.. Primarely i am dealing second hand, which means I can get serious bang for the buck :D

Just got some fittings in the box with the Rads...

Cooling the ram because of the looks!
I will be cooling it all with a 360mm rad and a 240mm..
My preferable gpu is a watercooled 680 or 770 tbh... But i am not sure I have the money.. Let's see.
My budget is 1200 USD.

The price of the PSU - CPU - 16GB Ram and a P9X79 untill now is 400 usd...

Your suggestions are helping me alot.. Keep it up..

Regards Søren
 
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Jake Wenta

Jake Wenta

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Mar 13, 2013
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Performance
280x($300)>770($350)>680($320-400)
280x is better and cheaper :) -but 770 is better for it having Cudas. Which is what you need for video)

And that price is amazing-don't forget black friday and cyber monday are coming :D (Be fast, things will sell out QUICK)

(You can cool the HDD :lol:)
But really, you can cool VRM's and Chipsets on the Motherboard.

I'd have the 360 on the VRM and CPU and 240 on the GPU's.

And thanks man, always nice to have some appreciation :)-always glad to help.
 
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Lutfij

Lutfij

Titan
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Søren - is this a build log? If so where are the pics of your action :)? or is this a suggestions thread for parts for a build log?
If so, then you should head down to the watercooling sticky(located in my sig) and stock up on info regarding how much rad space you'd need and how the fans would be working in tandem with them.

Blocks for chipsets would be needed if you're pumping insane volts through them but non-the-less if it isn't for aesthetics and the increased wallet crunching, then forgoing the ram/chipset/hdd watercooling via blocks is the way.
 
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SorenJH

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Nov 2, 2013
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Well I am from Denmark so Black Friday won't help me alot....

I am now pretty confident that i will go for a 4gb gtx 670 and then just watercool and oc it.

Regards

 
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Lutfij

Lutfij

Titan
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If you can hold on a while you may just get better performing parts as Nvidia will roll out their new line up of gpu's sometime in Q1 2014..I'll post back with some more info. Would you be kind enough to let us know what else you'd like us to help you with in terms of components as the watercooling route is definitely covered in the watercooling sticky :)
 
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SorenJH

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Nov 2, 2013
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My budget is only around 350$ ish...
I need to find a GPU with stellar perfomance in gaming as well as editing. I am pretty confident about buying second hand. So give me some realistic opinions and advice.
Buying second hand here in Denmark the prices with a decent waterblock is the same as the new price of the gpu with reference cooler.

Hit me with advice

Regards
 
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Jake Wenta

Jake Wenta

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Mar 13, 2013
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Well, the 7** Series from Nvidia will have ti's launched soon-780 ti, 770 ti. And they've already cut the prices of their higher GPU's by 100 dollars. So once these newer cards release-prices for AMd and nvidia will mst liklely drop some more. :)
 
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manofchalk

manofchalk

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Which side (GeForce or Radeon) to go on depends on what your software can take advantage of. If you use the Adobe Suite primarily, Nvidia is a good option as I believe they have supported CUDA acceleration since it was a thing. If you use something like Sony Vegas, AMD would be a better option as it can leverage the superior OpenCL performance that Radeon cards have over GeForce.
 
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SorenJH

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Nov 2, 2013
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I use DaVinci Resolve for all my grading, and as far as i know, it only supports CUDA. Nvidia is the way to go for me i believe....
Might just buy a second hand gtx 680 with waterblock :)
 
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Jake Wenta

Jake Wenta

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Lutfij

Lutfij

Titan
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Its the Supreme HF acetal version and not the Supremacy HF :D I like your photographic catch/mood. Is the block 2nd hand or brand new? If its the former then I'd highly suggest opening it up and inspecting it for any damage or gunk ups. If its brand new, the former advice yet applies :)

Never hurts to be careful :p

The Ek performs just about the same as any other block out there - you're fine with what you have. On a side note, are you going for an all black+white themed build? Although very simplistic in nature, an accent would help in bringing out the build to full exposure :)

* if you'd like to add some pics just use these tags:
[img ]your image link here[ /img] minus the spaces and the text :D

The tag does this to your image link:
DSC_0009_big_thumb.JPG


DSC_0010_big_thumb.JPG


That way you can keep this thread light and simple and if you really would like people to check out the rest of the pics(or all of them) then you may want to include a gallery link.
 
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SorenJH

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Nov 2, 2013
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I opened it before i took the pictures, and i looked just fine... Oops about the name...

Well i think i will use black motherboard, white cables and red tubing...
What do you guys think about that. I can't decide so suggestions are welcome......

You forgot the tags :D
 
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Lutfij

Lutfij

Titan
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The accent, be it any color, would stand out and give a little bit of life into your builds innards. I personally like the look of orange amidst black and white but there's blue, red, grey, green, purple, yellow and acrylic tubing to consider :p
 
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