What's new
  • Please do not post any links until you have 3 posts as they will automatically be rejected to prevent SPAM. Many words are also blocked due to being used in SPAM Messages. Thanks!

Work in progress An old mans confusing dual system water cooled build log(s)?!?!?!

Bartacus

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 22, 2014
Messages
961
Location
Ottawa, Canuckistan
This is going to be a bit scatter-brained and wordy, fair warning! Short attention span people get out now!!!! :bananafunky:

I wasn't sure quite how to approach this, but with HWC being a rather quiet forum, I figured I could combine two builds into one log, rather than create two threads. Since I'm basically 'migrating' hardware between builds, I figured that would be fine. Allow me to explain. Recently my local Canada Computers, and AMD, decided to collaborate together to take advantage of my complete lack of impulse control when it comes to buying geek things. Through various media outlets, YouTube, etc, I was subliminally programmed to desire something called a "Ryzen 9 3900X", because 12 cores I won't use are much better than the 8 cores I don't use now. :ph34r: When I saw that one of these "Ryzen 9 3900X" things suddenly became available at a CC store 2KM from my house, I jumped like my butt was on fire, and ended up coming home with some new toys:





Corsair was also in on the shenanigans, even though I'm not wild about that company's products....usually. But the kid at CC just *happened* to have a PCIE4.0 SSD, all dressed in black and looking too sexy to pass up. 5000MB/s read speed is relevant to my interests! This is also my first Gigabyte board, after years of being an Asus fan boy. But CC had NO Asus at all in stock, let alone the Crosshair 8 I wanted. So I settled on the Gigabyte Aorus Master X570. I'd watched some Buildzoid videos, and he was talking about this one having better quality Infineon power delivery, and I am VERY interested in overclocking the snot out of this thing.

Now since I'm into water cooling (unfortunately for my wallet), and since I am a serious geek who ALWAYS needs at least ONE PC up and running, this upgrade stuff always leads to the same problem. That being migrating hardware from build 1 down to build 2, etc. When I bought this new stuff, I had two builds running.

Build #1 - Big Rig (current daily driver):

AMD Ryzen 2700x
Asus Crosshair VII Hero motherboard (with EK monoblock)
4 x 8GB G.Skill 3200 CL14 RAM
Zotac 1080TI x 2 (Watercool HeatKiller GPU blocks, custom back plates)
ADATA SX8200 1TB SSD, 2 x 2TB Micron SSD in RAID0, 3 x 3TB HDD in RAID0

That all sits underwater inside a large box of radiators, also known as the Case Labs (RIP) Magnum M8, with pedestal. It is rather large, and only LAN-party-capable if you are The Hulk:


Some sweet back plates, and one ugly ghetto-rigged light panel:



Build #2 - Pretty Purple Pixel Eater:

AMD Ryzen R7 1700
Asus Crosshair VI Hero motherboard (Barrow CPU block)
2 x 8GB G.Skill 3600 CL15 RAM (Barrow RAM block)
Gigabyte Radeon VII 16GB (EK Vector block)

RIP PPPE:


That was my previous build, and old mans all-AMD purple something. I sold the board, CPU, and a FlareX RAM kit today to a friend of mine who was in dire nerd need. He couldn't afford a new rig since he has two babies, and apparently those are expensive, so I cut him a deal. I kept the Core P3 case, the Radeon VII GPU, and the good RAM, since he already had a case / system with a 1080 GPU he is re-using. He now has a kick-arse rig that's blowing his mind, and causing him to neglect his family, which is awesome! :biggrin:

So today I tossed the new hardware onto the Core P3 to test it out, test the PCIE riser with X570, etc. Everything works, especially that Corsair SSD. Holy heck is that thing fast, and it's NOTICEABLE. Tested the new gear out, and it passed. So where does that leave us? It leads to two builds in multiple stages. Here's the plan:

Step 1: migrate the motherboard / CPU / RAM from Big Rig into (onto?) the Core P3, with the Radeon VII GPU. Pretty Purple Pixel Eater 2.0. Get that system up and running with soft tube, hard tube to come later. This becomes my primary system while I rebuild the Big Rig.
Step 2: re-architect Big Rig loop, install 3900x into it, with the two 1080TI's.
Step 3: marvel at the length and girth of my new ePenis. Estimated length: 29 inches! :bananafunky:

Future plans for Pretty Purple Pixel Eater 2.0:

- 16mm hard tube, 16mm EK hard tube fittings, in purple (purchased, they look just like the soft tube ones).
- coolant needs to be WAY more purple, already have dyes, etc.
- install longer Singularity Computers reservoir tube (swapping 200mm for 250mm, purchased).
- relocate flow meter to better location up top

Future plans for Big Rig 2.0:

- back to 16mm clear acrylic hard tube, with translucent coolant, most likely red.
- replace Barrow Boxfish reservoir with Watercool HeatKiller reservoir, with red struts (purchased, it's amazing, godlike even!). Whoever designed the Barrow box res didn't think about high flow dual D5 systems like Biggie, so I had to unplug one of my pumps due to turbulence. It's a nice piece for a single pump rig though, not hating on it.

The building starts tonight. I will update this thread with pics from both builds as I go. Time to rock! :punk:
 

JD

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 16, 2007
Messages
11,931
Location
Toronto, ON
When I saw that one of these "Ryzen 9 3900X" things suddenly became available at a CC store 2KM from my house, I jumped like my butt was on fire, and ended up coming home with some new toys
Heh I quickly thought about doing the same when I saw there was stock last night, but I will stand strong and resist for now.

Always fun moving a machine and building a new one though! :clap:
 

Bartacus

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 22, 2014
Messages
961
Location
Ottawa, Canuckistan
Thanks gents!

I've been at it for a few hours now, making progress, spilling fluids, and killing my lower back! Damn I hurt, aging sucks! So the evening began with an empty Core P3 shell (and loop):


The eagle eyes will notice the longer 250mm Singularity Computers tube. It fits the build much better size wise. That longer tube also made the top rad-to-res connection a lot shorter. Thankfully due to my 'nerd hoarder' status, I had an old set of TFC SLI fittings in a box:


The smallest tube in that SLI set just happened to be a perfect fit for this connection. Yeehaw:


This is what the basement of a scatter-brained nerd hoarder looks like when he's working on multiple PCs at once. Oh the mess I will have to clean up:


With the "donor" system for PPPE 2.0 ready, it was time to rip into Big Rig 1.0, for the last time. I started with this:


After popping off the external panels, very easily thanks to Case Labs genius (yet simple) mounting system, it was starting to get nekkid:


Here's what the PSU side looks like (aka rats nest):


My drain system sucks and needs reworking. I had to tilt this thing 8 ways from Sunday to get half the fluid out:


I disconnected everything from the motherboard and was ready for transplant:


Case Labs genius also extends to the removable motherboard tray. You notice in the picture below that there are 4 captive spring-loaded screws in the rear (hard to see):


Once you pop those, the entire mobo tray just slides right out. Genius I tells ya:



The mobo was mounted onto the P3, and I added some more dye to my fluid, and a 'refresher' shot of Daz Protect. Mixed it up and loaded the new tube:



Pretty Purple Pixel Eater 2.0 beta is online (since I'm posting from it):



Now I'm off to bed! More to come tomorrow. :bananafunky:
 

Bond007

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 24, 2009
Messages
7,964
Location
Nova Scotia
Looking great! The small “sli” piece you added visually looks very narrow compared to the tubing. Is the inner diameter much different (for flow)?
 

Bartacus

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 22, 2014
Messages
961
Location
Ottawa, Canuckistan
Looking great! The small “sli” piece you added visually looks very narrow compared to the tubing. Is the inner diameter much different (for flow)?
Thanks guys! According to my flow meter, the new tube layout does flow a *bit* slower than the previous iteration. But that doesn't affect performance at all.


Valkyrie: you are not wrong, LOL! :rofl:
 

sswilson

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Dec 9, 2006
Messages
24,652
Location
Moncton NB
Awesome! Nice and clean.



I've always loved the look of those Thermaltake open cases, and if you keep posting pics of that barrow flowmeter I'm going to have to order one for my next build.... ;)
 

Latest posts

Top