Taking Forever 11/13, an attempt to water cool a pc the right way [Get Crackin' Failure]

Well, @Atomic_Charge has put forth another challenge and rather than come up with an original idea I think I'll rehash my last challenge submission! More water cooling it is but this time around, as the title implies, I plan on doing it right. A loaded word I know but in essence I want this build to look nice as I'll be starring at this thing on my desk for quite some time.

well lets get to the good stuff eh?

The Parts

  • FX-8350
  • Sabertooth 990FX R2.0
  • R9-290x OC
#not the most extreme pc i know but it get the job done

So many fittings!


This will be a hard line tubing build and I initially made the mistake of not ordering enough fittings!

It is best to plan out your loop before you order everything for instance

I bought a 280x block before I knew I would be upgrading, same with the rad, after consulting a the false guru @SoulFallen it was determined I bought the wrong rad and needed a cross flow for optimal setup so I did....

LIke I said, make sure you know what fittings you'll need beforehand


Time To Get To Work

I've been told you need to flush out blocks and radiators so I did, I had enough stuff lying around to rig this up.
Surprisingly only the EK block had anything in it, a few acetal chips from machining.


Also I am not using that filthy radiator nor is that my filth, it came with a pc I bought...

After a few weeks of the Gigabyte windforce cooler it is clear it is a turd
Off it goes

Jeez didn't even get a pic of the cleaned up card

Once again @SoulFallen was giving me shit for the TT block even though its a Swiftech rebrand, I took the opportunity to add a custom touch.

I was able to take off the paint with some alcohol

Polished it with some toothpaste and masked it off for paint

I cut out a design with an exacto after a few scetches and tada! I forgot to pictures...

Ooh don't it look nice?

Leave a comment, tell me its awful or ask a question all feedback is welcome!

desperation intensifies

11 Likes

Why can't things go right for change?

my reaction

Oh well can't get of this one without cutting something I suppose
Sayonara hot swap bays

I'll cut a sheet of plastic to cover the floor later

While I was at it I took the dremel to the 5.25 drive cage for mounting the res

It will be visible from the front though a set of perforated bay covers and lit with an Led.

Now I also Realize the there is no reasonable position for the bulkhead fittings and the transition from hard tube to soft so that will be added. Good thing I am a mild hoarder because I saved a few bucks by digging up some alumimum plate I got years ago

I'll mount it with some screws later, too tired to drill in a precise manner


Cables

After pulling out the PSU i realized there was just too much crap in the psu side of the case (Air 540) and custom length cables would be too pricey and sleeved extensions would be going in the opposite direction.
Enter the idea of splicing extensions to my existing modular cables!


I plan on cutting and soldering these babies on for nice short runs and freeing up space in the case.

4 Likes

Part 3 [is he still doing this?]

Rad Mounted

Holes Drilled

Pump Mounted

Soft tube done in compartment w/ drain

I used that plate to mount the bulkhead fittings and transition from hard line to soft tube

Bending the Tube

I didn't get many shots of this and the ones I did get are awful

The tubing is done, the top one looks kinda janky, I'll redo that later

The PSU Cables

This thing is a monstrosity, it will be replace with custom length cables soon


Putting it all together

The Horror


And it is up and Running

Had to make a few tweak since the chassis fan headers won't go below 40%, moved the splitter onto the cpu fan head and added the pump tach wire to the cpu block led connector


There is still a lot to be done on this piece so I can't say its finished but now it won't collect dust.

To Do

  • cover the case floor
  • cover the top fan mounts?
  • custom length cables
  • a few case leds w/ control
  • some paint accents
  • an I/O cover like on newer motherboards
4 Likes

why not this one too

1 Like

This is exactly what my son wants me to do for a pc for him. The thing is it has always been more practical and affordable to build an air cooled pc. Also when I told him about closed loop coolers he said no that stuff. Anyway hopefully one day I will have real money to do the build for him. Good luck with your build.

1 Like

Thank you, this whole thing has been a giant pain in the ass, I don't want to total up the cost for this I'd cry.
I would wholeheartedly recommend soft tube as it is much more forgiving.
Also there are those nice kits that EK makes and a few others, that are expandable so you could start with a cpu and add a gpu later.


Also bump for update!
so soon?
amazing right?
yes, yes it is...

2 Likes

Looks awesome so far. I really want to do a custom loop one day, but I keep spending all my cash on network junk :P

2 Likes

Yeah custom loop can be pretty pricey but its been fun.
And thanks for commenting!

2 Likes

Make him slave away for it lol

2 Likes

Yay senpai noticed me!

1 Like

Hmm. My desire to do my own new build with a custom water cooling loop is intensifying. MUST. WAIT. UNTIL. NEW. HARDWARE. MAKES. IT. WORTH. IT!

Oh yeah nice work on your rig. Give it a cool name once you're done.

Thank you, Im open to suggestions!
You could be playing the waiting game for a while, i say if you know when you are going to upgrade your hardware (zen, vega, hbm2) fine but if you're holding out for rumors then why not now? A lot of parts will carry over, at least the more expensive ones, gpu blocks are usially the biggest pain.
Also cpu only is an option!

I am waiting to get both a new motherboard and CPU (I've got an X-79 and a 3930K) for my next build so the next one will be a full overhaul. I think I'm gonna do a practice run with a cheap $500 desktop system. It's an old computer my little brother used to have but no longer uses. I'll slap in a cheap GPU and work on it later. My work load is going to explode in the next couple of weeks and probably won't slow down until late November. I've gotta figure out everything from what tubing to use and how to shape it properly to what kind of fluid to use along with the blocks themselves. I've taken the cooling shroud off of GPU's before just for shits and giggles so I know how to do that. I'll try it out later this year.

1 Like

Yes I noticed. looks good so far.

1 Like
3 Likes

I don't care how old this post is discourse, I've updated it

3 Likes
3 Likes