Input requested regarding maintenance and improvements for Threadripper workstation with custom loop

Hello there,

At the end of the month I’m picking up a workstation from a customer as shown in the pictures below. I’m in the phase where I’m brainstorming on what I want to do within the scope of the project in terms of must-haves and nice-to-haves. I’m time-restricted with regard to how long I can work on the build the moment it goes offline. So I need to prioritize the possibilities and work with what I have. In terms of budget I can execute any ideas I have for improvements as I see fit, within reason of course.

The specs are:

  • Asrock TRX40 Creator
  • AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X
  • HyperX FURY RGB HX436C18FB3A/32 (8x)
  • PNY GeForce RTX 3090 XLR8 Gaming REVEL EPIC-X RGB (4x)
  • Seagate FireCuda 520 SSD 2TB (2x)
  • Corsair Obsidian Series 1000D
  • Corsair 420mm radiator (1x)
  • Corsair 480mm radiator (2x)
  • Corsair pump/res (2x)
  • All other water cooling parts are Corsair also
  • Debian as the Operating System

The primary scope of delivery is:

  • Expanding the total storage size
  • Deep cleaning the system

Possible improvements in the category must-haves:

  • Replacing the dual pump/res with a single res and a dual pump top
  • Putting QDCs in the loop in such a way the GPU stack and CPU can be disconnected

Possible improvements in category nice-to-haves:

  • Creating an automated script using liquidctl to control the fan speed based on coolant temp
  • Putting a flow meter in the loop that has temp read out also

My questions (for now) are:

Storage expansion or replacement

The customer would like to add a Seagate FireCuda 530 4TB drive in the third M.2 slot. However, this SSD is not on the QVL list from ASRock. I’m assuming it will work fine but this is the most exotic system I’ve ever worked on so I want to be sure. Will that SSD work with this board?

I’m a bit worried about the PCIe lanes. If I read the diagram correctly of the TRX40 chipset there are a total of 88 PCIe lanes from the CPU and 72 of those are available for the PCIe slots and NVMe slots. The four 3090’s will take up 64 PCIe lanes and three NVMe drives will take up 12 PCIe lanes. That’s a total of 74 PCIe lanes, two more that is allotted. Am I missing something here or is this system limited to populating only two of the three NVMe M.2 slots when four graphics cards are seated also?

The customer is also open to the idea of replacing the current two 2TB SSDs with two 4TB SSDs but this will require additional time from the customer to reinstall the Operating System and any software he uses.

Loop improvements

Currently I’m considering replacing the dual pump/res combo with something like the EK-XTOP Revo Dual D5 Serial and a EK-RES X3 250 Lite or the similar solution from Aqua Computer with a new res. I’ve read various topics on Reddit and other sites that the current setup is not optimal for flow and head pressure and that you can end up with one res getting empty and the other full. This seems to be happening here. A dual pump top and single res is the preferred setup. Any thoughts on this particular issue?

I also suggested adding QDCs in the loop so the entire GPU stack and CPU can be disconnected from the loop for part replacement and/or future maintenance. He was very interested in this idea and told me to implement it. I don’t think there’s any downsides to doing that but maybe I’m overlooking something.

A flow meter would be a nice-to-have for a quick readout of the loop temperature and flow. Not sure yet how I want to do this with soft tubing. Suggestions are welcome.

And finally I would like the have a quality-of-life improvement for the customer by implementing fan curves based on the temperature of the coolant. This is a Debian system so I can’t use the iCUE software. The customer currently uses liquidctl which has full support for all the Corsair parts. Based on the pictures I don’t see any temperature probes in the loop currently. There is a sensor connected to the “Obsidian 1000D” USB device which has a readout of 41.8℃ which makes me think it could be the loop temp but I don’t see a sensor anywhere. They are included with those Corsair pump/res units. Should be on the right side of the second pump/res but I don’t see anything there.

Another very important question I have. What parts would you order to have on hand in case something need replacing. I rather ask the customer to spend a couple hundred Euros on spare parts and not use it, than not have it on hand when needed. I’m a bit worried about the D5 pump in that left pump/res combo because the coolant level is so low. Maybe it has sucked air in. Obviously the tubing is going to be replaced. I’m thinking in terms of O-rings for any of the water blocks perhaps. I also don’t know the state of those blocks.

I would like to end with an open question: what improvements would you do if you were in my position? have 3-4 days to work on this build. Starting on a Friday late afternoon and finishing on Monday morning. Cleaning this is going to be a lot of work. So I need to be realistic with the possibilities.

Thanks in advance for any feedback and answers!


So that loop looks good. I highly recommend a thorough cleaning of everything though. Tear the blocks down and give em a good scrubbing, maybe replace the softlines, as they look to have yellowed a bit, and definitely clean out the rads and pump/rez.

Everything there looks good otherwise.

This is how all waterloops should be. If you dont have a temp sensor in each loop, do that.

I dont usually use flow meters. Gpu temp is a good enough indicator of lack of flow :sweat_smile:

Check the motherboards diagram. Itll tell you how the pcie lanes are allocated. Not all x16 slots are x16 electrically. Same with nvme.

Is this a single loop? Definitely switch to single rez. Dual pumps is nice for fault tolerance, but single D5 is also a suitable option

If you’re going single pump, i would have a spare. Otherwise, everything else seems very solid.

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