Project BSG Scorpion Fleet Shipyards (Lian Li PC-A77B)

[luke997]

Bad news - my pump died yesterday. Good thing I have 2 in my loop so should be fine until I'm back to my 2xD5 setup.

Interestingly, I've heard some opinions that DDC are fine when running continuously, while they don't like frequent on/off.
My pump died after running continuously for 4 weeks - at very low temps (water @21C, case @20C with fan directly cooling both pumps and with the housing cut for cooling) - I was doing online backup.

Pump was fine while playing/benchmarking (which included a lot of on/off cycles) for the past half year.

Lessons learned - I should have stayed with D5...

BTW - redundancy is the king!

[luke997]

A major update after all - half year without change proved too much for me

1) In: 2x GTX 580 3GB with EK-FC5X0 GW Acetal Nickel blocks in series
Out: 3x GTX 480 1.5GB in parallel
I won't bother with 3rd this time since it won't work in 3D surround anyway and dropping £500 for the benchmarks only doesn't appeal to me now.
I reckon that following benefits:
a) 480 to 512 cores
b) hopefully higher (~950-1000mhz) OC - with GF110 being better OC as well as more power available by dropping 1 card
c) more VRAM
d) full 16/16 slots (from 16/8/8)
should provide better performance in my 3D Surround games.

2) In: 2x Koolance PMP-450S (D5 Strong) 24V pumps with Koolance 12V-->24V converters
Out: 2x Koolance PMP-400 (DDC 3.25 - 1 DIA)

I'm going to reuse EK Dual D5 Single Loop top.
Having done some homework on the PMP-450S, I'm going to run it at 18-20V. This hopefully should be fine in this top and all in all provide much better flow than 2xDDC 3.25.
RPM sensors from both pumps will go into Aquaero for monitoring.

3) In: 12GB (3x4GB) RAM - Patriot Viper II Sector 7, 1600mhz @ CL7
Out: 6gb (3x2GB) RAM - Corsair Dominator 1600mhz @ CL7

Nothing against Corsair, just need more RAM for video editing in Vegas and I prefer to have 3 sticks rather than 6...

4) In: All fans controlled by single CPU header on the mobo (PWM signal only)
Out: Currently only 6 fans controlled that way, rest running at full speed all the time.

All parts have been ordered and should arrive no later than Friday - so expect some eye candy this weekend and next week

[Elder]

I have a proposal on the 24V Pump Controller...
Do not mount two separate CTR-SPD24.






CTR-SPD24X2 Dual 24V Pump Controller
What do you think?

[luke997]

I have a proposal on the 24V Pump Controller...
Do not mount two separate CTR-SPD24.






CTR-SPD24X2 Dual 24V Pump Controller
What do you think?

Thanks, unfortunately I do not have free bays left so I had to get converters and shove them inside

[shazza]

I do love the black and blue ... really nice work. And, your triple display action makes me jealous!

[luke997]

I do love the black and blue ... really nice work. And, your triple display action makes me jealous!

Thanks, will try to keep good looks this upgrade

[Church]

luke997: but you can also think of dremeling it somewhere in sidewall/top of case?

[76BigDeac]

luke997: but you can also think of dremeling it somewhere in sidewall/top of case?

I am with Churchy. The pump controller dremeled in somewhere would look hot.

[luke997]

I am with Churchy. The pump controller dremeled in somewhere would look hot.

Agree but there's hardly any space left for it. Side - where there is any space available is occupied by 4 fans.
Top is busy with the rad, USB panel + on switch.
Rad at the back and 3 fans at the bottom so the only place I could shove it would be ....

[luke997]

More changes:

3) In:Corsair Dominator GT 12GB 3x4GB Kit (CMT12GX3M3A2000C9)
Out:12GB (3x4GB) RAM - Patriot Viper II Sector 7, 1600mhz @ CL7

I've received some very heplful feedback regarding the RAM, so instead of these:

As these have red fins, I'll swap them with my current black and will figure out the red sticker later.

5) In: Back to EK res on the dual D5 top - this time 140mm.
Out: T-Virus

I've had 100mm in the v1.1 and as much as I like T-Virus, the looks with EK were a bit more classy

6) In: Additional water temp sensor on the inlet to second (top 360) rad

Currently I have 1 in the outlet of the third (front 240) rad, I'm curious what is the temp difference in the loop.

[luke997]

So the upgrade begins today - I've finally had some time to open the parts.
Here's a small teaser, proper photo session and update post will follow in the evening.

<Adama> XO, reload the front rail gun battery!

[LLiH]

@luke997

I love your work. Beautiful bitspower fittings! Well done!

[luke997]

So far so good, got now photos of all the major players in this upgrade so what have we got here...

Let's start with more guns


Now we got some bad boys with red spikes hair:


You know what colour I like best so after a quick hair dying - or rather a transplant :


And now some pure EK-fest:


This is one good looking block!


The backplate is so good I can't reveal it whole at once




Ok, now we can have a look at the whole beauty


This leaves us with the star(s) of the evening:




I was very close to have to use acrylic + nickel blocks - due to no stock in the UK but EK saved the day.
Big thanks to whole team (especially Gregor) - despite being very busy they delivered EK goodies via DHL Express in 24h!
That was amazingly quick for the Slovenia to UK trip - the blocks were almost still warm from the machining


@LLiH
Thanks!

[c.ruel]

Amazing build! Just out of interest how do you find those akasa apache fans, did you find a way to control all 20 of them!? Also at what temperatures do they to start speed up?

[luke997]

Amazing build! Just out of interest how do you find those akasa apache fans, did you find a way to control all 20 of them!? Also at what temperatures do they to start speed up?

They are efficient and quiet (though with 21 running full bore you know they are here .
They get the power from molex (akasa pwm fan splitter) while pwm & rpm sensor signals are daisy chained from mobo CPU.
In AISuite, Fan Xpert I set user profile with the lowest settings, can't remember when exactly it kicks in but in real life only when I run IBT on 12 threads for a few loops.

[luke997]

Small progress update - got all the parts prepared and hopefully within the next couple hours I'll be able to start bleeding the loop.

Hoped to be there already but F1 qualy and garage tidy up sidetracked me a bit - that's what always happens to me when I go there looking for parts

Final photo shoot tomorrow, in the meantime couple other parts shots.

[luke997]

I've finished bleeding, wiring and cables tidy up.
No leaks, W/C, fans and DC converters work (range 10V - 24V).

Unfortunately I can't comment yet on the flow/pumps since either my whole Aquaero or just the display stopped working.
If it's competely broken - Aquaero 5.0 is in order, if not, I'm happy with Aquasuite monitoring only for now.

Going to fire whole PC now - hope new GPUs work - in the meantime enjoy some photos!

















No changes on the outside but I couldn't resist to take couple shots anyway.
Love this case

[ScottALot]

I guess you could make the VGA cables look a bit more tidy... otherwise, perfection!

[theseeker]

Epic build all around! I truly appreciate your attention to detail and you get a blue ribbon.
One question for you; how did you mount the acrylic to the 3-way SLI bridge? I am building a Tri-SLI rig and will be doing something similar.
Good luck with the upgrades.

[Tigris STI]

perfection!

This ^^^

@luke997 Your project makes me want to buy a Lian Li A77B But sadly it was discontinued
BTW, why do you hide all that awesomeness behind the side panel ? Why not make a window and add some lights inside ?

[ximius]

One question for you; how did you mount the acrylic to the 3-way SLI bridge? I am building a Tri-SLI rig and will be doing something similar.

+1 Any more details here?

[eXa]

Im following this build! Very high quality, and BSG is awsome too

A couple thoughts:
The tubing between the gpu and cpu, i think it would be better to ditch the 45s and just use normal straight fittings.
Also, on the left pwm block. Move the connection to the mb block from the top to the bottom. then connect the rad on the top one without any 45s

This should, in my opinion, straighten/smoothen the flow by cutting down 45s without introducing the same with the tubing. It would also look abit cleaner.

[luke997]

Good news:
1) Controlling all 21 fans via ASUS Fan Xpert through mobo CPU PWM fan connector works perfectly

2) New GPUs are fine. I was a tad bit worried about DOA since I didn't test but Palit's QA is good

Stock vid on both is 1.013v and after couple hours I got rock solid stable stock voltage OC at:
865mhz core
2260 memory

I was shocked with the memory OC, this 256MB Elpida chips are awesome!
I couldn't get much past 2000mhz on my 480s!

Temps are:
21C idle
35C stock speed load
38C OC speed load
all this with fans 50C, 18C ambient

3) What's best, at roughly similar settings I get >400W less off the wall than with 3x480s!

Bad News:

Aquaero is dead.
No USB device neither so I'm going to order 5.0, hopefully will get one for tomorrow.

This ^^^

@luke997 Your project makes me want to buy a Lian Li A77B But sadly it was discontinued
BTW, why do you hide all that awesomeness behind the side panel ? Why not make a window and add some lights inside ?

Thanks

There is A77F available, similar case, dimensions are just a little bit different.

Epic build all around! I truly appreciate your attention to detail and you get a blue ribbon.
One question for you; how did you mount the acrylic to the 3-way SLI bridge? I am building a Tri-SLI rig and will be doing something similar.
Good luck with the upgrades.

Thanks!
I used regular UHU glue.

Im following this build! Very high quality, and BSG is awsome too

A couple thoughts:
The tubing between the gpu and cpu, i think it would be better to ditch the 45s and just use normal straight fittings.
Also, on the left pwm block. Move the connection to the mb block from the top to the bottom. then connect the rad on the top one without any 45s

This should, in my opinion, straighten/smoothen the flow by cutting down 45s without introducing the same with the tubing. It would also look abit cleaner.

Thanks, appreciate!

I see what you mean and it certainly would look better.
Unfortunately with the current components it's the only sensible way it could work - that's due to how the Primochill LRT tubing stiff is.
Even using more force than I really should I couldn't fit shorter/tighter bends so it'll have to stay that way.
Shame that there's no full cover block, it would make everything much easier and look better.

On a positive side, the 45s don't affect flow much so I'm not concerned about the efficiency.

[Tigris STI]

Glad to hear that GC's are fine Looks like Palit have greatly improved their QC - Some of my friends previously experienced problems with Palit products

There is A77F available, similar case, dimensions are just a little bit different.

Yeah, I know, but I don't like its front Although it is quite similar to A77B, the rounded sides on the latter look much better in my opinion

[luke997]

We have a new arrival - Aquaero 5 Pro



I think this calls for some painting - it will be back in black shortly!