Mountain Mod Ascension "MMA"

[marxviper]

Hi

After checking out your watercooling worklogs, I have decided to try build one of my own. I am newbie in this field so please do advice me, I will be glad to hear out from you.

I want this build to be Silent, fast and still look good.

Here are my specs:

Case: Mountain Mod Ascension
Cpu: intel i7 core 920 2.66ghz
M/B: Evga x58 x3 classified
RAM: Corsair Dominator GT 6Gb 1600mhz
GPU: Asus Nvidia GTX480
PSU: Corsair HX850
SSD: 2 WD velociraptor 150mb raid 0
HDD: 3 WD 1 TB caviar green raid 5

Watercooling:
CPU: EK waterblock supreme HF nickel
M/B: EK waterblock x3 classified Nickel
GPU: EK waterblock nickel GTX480
Fittings: Bitspower (didnt ordered yet)
Coolant: Distilled water, killcoil and Mayhem Dye deep blue
tubing: tygon
Radiator: XSPC RX360 (x3)
Fans: Enermax apolish blue led (x15)
Pumps: XSPC laing
Sleeves: MDPC-x
fan controller: lamptron
Pump and temp: mCubed T-balancer

Please, do let me know if i missed anything.

Pictures will be updated every weekend. Well, some of the pictures in previous will be changed to better ones.

[noob eater4726]

With that many loop colors, I would just do a solid color for sleeving, probably black. Otherwise, it might look a little busy imo.

[marxviper]

thanks for your advice.

I meant, either green, blue or red... however, im thinking of blue or green.

[marxviper]

I need an advice on fan controller with thermal sensor and display. I have 11 fans in my case. Do I need to buy multiple fan controllers?

[marxviper]

sorry for the delay

It was fun assembling the case first time. Took me awhile as there was not any manual for assembling the case. Love the case and paint quality. The case has mirror black finish on it. However, at the end I was disappointed as they send me the wrong motherboard tray support bar. you will see in the pic

here is the first pic of the case


Here is the mistake. I tried changing the floor of the case 180 degrees and wondered maybe the tray rests on PSU. Unfortunately not.



here is opening of the corsair HX850 PSU. I love their packing, done professionally.





here is EVGA x58 MB

i will open it when I get the water block for it. Hopefully, it will be soon.

Now Corsair dominator GT 1600mhz



Thats all for now.

I am getting radiators and cpu water block and tubings and fans later this week.

[marxviper]

i got a decent camera.. hope the pictures turn out to be good enough for your eyes..

ek waterblock supreme hf nickel -- :

I will try to see if i could add led light in this block


XSPC RX360 radiators


enermax apolish blue


fans on radiator




more updates probably on weekends, hopefully

I am waiting for mountain mods to send me actually support MB bar for my case. then I will start building up the case

any advice on photography is welcome

[armeniandave]

Talk to Shazza about photos cause she also had a MM case so she could help you out.

I already built one of these so I can tell you there easy to build in. Try and think ahead about wiring and fan noise. You'll probably find that you won't need as many fans as you think. I actually had most of my fans off in the front panel, although I had the nine fan front.

[marxviper]

Talk to Shazza about photos cause she also had a MM case so she could help you out.

I already built one of these so I can tell you there easy to build in. Try and think ahead about wiring and fan noise. You'll probably find that you won't need as many fans as you think. I actually had most of my fans off in the front panel, although I had the nine fan front.

Thank you for your reply and suggestion.

I am planning to put 6 fans in the front and 5 at the back.

9 of fans will force air into the case and 2 fans will exhausting air out of the case.

Do you recommend this idea?

I will contact shazza then.

[armeniandave]

Well you have nine in (six in front and three on the bottom)
and I'm assuming your putting the rads on top so that's nine out.
You can then put the two by the motherboard going out also
on low speed.

That should give you a nice flow!

[marxviper]

Well you have nine in (six in front and three on the bottom)
and I'm assuming your putting the rads on top so that's nine out.
You can then put the two by the motherboard going out also
on low speed.

That should give you a nice flow!

Which fan controller did you use?

Is it possible to connect 3 fans to one molex and be controlled by one fan switch? It would be buy more than one fan controllers.

And also I want a single thermal display.

What do you suggest?

[Raiden]

Got to love those fans ! Amazing..
Keep up the good work !

[shazza]

Those fans do look good.

About the PSU support - I found it was strong enough to be supported by just the four screws to the case - I used the Corsair HX 1000W in my Mtn Mods cube (not an ascension). Just double check it when it's installed to make sure it's good - you can add some type of support bracket if necessary.

As for fan controllers - I'd recommend starting with something relatively simple at first - maybe the Sunbeam Rheobus, which is inexpensive and very robust. You might also check out the newer Lamptron controllers, although I've not used one so can't say. After you get it all working with the simpler controller, then you can think about going to something fancier - like the Koolance TMS-200 or the Aquaero. There are even more options for fan and temp control and display, but they can be a headache to figure out and trouble shoot, which is why I recommend going the simple route first. It never hurts to have a spare fan controller around.

The fan controllers I mentioned can easily control 3 fans on 1 channel - you'll just have to splice the fans together yourself, or use splitter cables which you can buy (difficult to make look good, but easy to use).

As for 9 fans bringing air in and 2 exhausting? It will probably work fine because the Mtn Mods cases are not air tight, but I like to balance it a bit better. Best thing to do is experiment - maybe run the fans on your rear radiator on exhaust - depends on what you are cooling as to how much difference it makes - would probably be fine for GPUs or motherboard blocks. My main concern is that if you bring all the air into the case through the rads in the bottom half, that air has to go somewhere, and it's going to want to go up. Don't know how efficient the one fan in the top half will be at drawing the air out (that's why the option for fan openings on the top panel is nice - gives you more options). Chances are, since you are water cooling everything, you're not going to have a real issue with air flow - just something to check.

One, Two, or Three loops - that's a decision you'll need to make. You easily have room for 3, but that might be more than you want. I'd probably go at least two loops, since these cases have so much room.

Also - you mentioned, I think, a concern about the bay mounts interfering with your eATX mobo tray. You can either flip your front panel - which puts your radiators on the top, or trim the bay mounts (which, I think is what you said you were looking to do - that would be my choice).

Good luck with your project!

[armeniandave]

Maybe I missed it but are you putting the rads on top or in the
front and back? I think with the horizontal MB there's not
much room on top.
So if you have the nine fans coming in through the rads
and then nine on top exhausting you should be fine. I haven't
seen your top panel so I'm guessing which one you have.
I used the lamptron fan atic controller. You can put three
fans per channel I believe but I only put two. All my rad
fans were always one speed.

[marxviper]

Got to love those fans ! Amazing..
Keep up the good work !

Thanks, I am looking forward for the weekend to do more work on sleeving the fans and the PSU, hope the parcel I ordered from mdpc arrives by this friday.

Those fans do look good.

About the PSU support - I found it was strong enough to be supported by just the four screws to the case - I used the Corsair HX 1000W in my Mtn Mods cube (not an ascension). Just double check it when it's installed to make sure it's good - you can add some type of support bracket if necessary.

As for fan controllers - I'd recommend starting with something relatively simple at first - maybe the Sunbeam Rheobus, which is inexpensive and very robust. You might also check out the newer Lamptron controllers, although I've not used one so can't say. After you get it all working with the simpler controller, then you can think about going to something fancier - like the Koolance TMS-200 or the Aquaero. There are even more options for fan and temp control and display, but they can be a headache to figure out and trouble shoot, which is why I recommend going the simple route first. It never hurts to have a spare fan controller around.

The fan controllers I mentioned can easily control 3 fans on 1 channel - you'll just have to splice the fans together yourself, or use splitter cables which you can buy (difficult to make look good, but easy to use).

As for 9 fans bringing air in and 2 exhausting? It will probably work fine because the Mtn Mods cases are not air tight, but I like to balance it a bit better. Best thing to do is experiment - maybe run the fans on your rear radiator on exhaust - depends on what you are cooling as to how much difference it makes - would probably be fine for GPUs or motherboard blocks. My main concern is that if you bring all the air into the case through the rads in the bottom half, that air has to go somewhere, and it's going to want to go up. Don't know how efficient the one fan in the top half will be at drawing the air out (that's why the option for fan openings on the top panel is nice - gives you more options). Chances are, since you are water cooling everything, you're not going to have a real issue with air flow - just something to check.

One, Two, or Three loops - that's a decision you'll need to make. You easily have room for 3, but that might be more than you want. I'd probably go at least two loops, since these cases have so much room.

Also - you mentioned, I think, a concern about the bay mounts interfering with your eATX mobo tray. You can either flip your front panel - which puts your radiators on the top, or trim the bay mounts (which, I think is what you said you were looking to do - that would be my choice).

Good luck with your project!

Thank you Shazza for your advice. I really appreciate it.

Do you know where I could buy the PSU for ascension?

Do you think one rad is enough for MB and one graphic card? if so I would like to try dual loop. with 2 different colors.

Regarding the fan controller, I was thinking koolance too. In addition, I was thinking of checking display panel like aerocool touch or nxzt multipanel display. Anyway, I think I should go to simple stuff first.

[marxviper]

Maybe I missed it but are you putting the rads on top or in the
front and back? I think with the horizontal MB there's not
much room on top.
So if you have the nine fans coming in through the rads
and then nine on top exhausting you should be fine. I haven't
seen your top panel so I'm guessing which one you have.
I used the lamptron fan atic controller. You can put three
fans per channel I believe but I only put two. All my rad
fans were always one speed.

actually, left, right and top panel of my case is acrylic.

I am planning on 2 rad on the front and one rad below the MB.

Do you recommend any particular pump? I was thinking of going for XSPC. what do you reckon?

[Kanzy]

Wow, Shazza and Mr.UN design are on this one, gonna be good.

[marxviper]

Wow, Shazza and Mr.UN design are on this one, gonna be good.

I hope

[armeniandave]

Do me a favor and take a pic of the
top and sides so I can see them.
It will help with the advice we give you.
Also check out my build log in my sig
and also Shazzas to get some ideas
of what your in for.

Also "Hope" is what you make it....
With a little planning hope is unnecessary!

[marxviper]

Do me a favor and take a pic of the
top and sides so I can see them.
It will help with the advice we give you.
Also check out my build log in my sig
and also Shazzas to get some ideas
of what your in for.

Also "Hope" is what you make it....
With a little planning hope is unnecessary!

Thanks for your thought mate.. appreciated

here are the pictures of my case..









There are lot of things I need to look into the case but first I need that MB tray support bar.. As you can see in the picture, mountain mod sent me UF0 case's one instead. I found out they charged 100 dollars extra for shipping just in case they mess up my order.

here what they said:
"The fees associated with postage are not always accurate to actual shipping and handling fees.

With international shipping – we include fees that are not seen – such as (Increase international charges for transaction.)
These are on average an additional 5%. For an average order of $500 that would be $25. Other fees are included for documentation and extra time to prepare those documents so that packages will ship without hassle. Lastly with postal service orders on cases – we include a fee to help make up for lost or damaged goods and fraud and to encourage alternate shipping."

I am checking usps tracking for a week and it seems like my parcel is stuck in BEAVERCREEK (97004 = oregon? )

[armeniandave]

OK I don't see side panels?
I'm assuming (hoping) that the side panels have
exhaust fans in them.
Pic would do nicely please.

Sorry about your hassle with MM.
I'm sure they'll take care of it.
There pretty good about these kinds of things
and shipping is always a challenge over seas.

[RedFang300]

Yeah I just ordered a Horizontal 10 back panel and a Ascension Motherboard Bracer Bar, however for some DUMB reason Mountain Mod only lists their UFO Horizontal Motherboard Bracer Bar. I emailed them and they told me to just put in the comments of my order that I want the taller Ascension one. I am just hoping that I get the right one, since they shipped out today.

[marxviper]

OK I don't see side panels?
I'm assuming (hoping) that the side panels have
exhaust fans in them.
Pic would do nicely please.

Sorry about your hassle with MM.
I'm sure they'll take care of it.
There pretty good about these kinds of things
and shipping is always a challenge over seas.

well, i bought acrylic side panels.. I thought 11 fans were good enough.. with three radiators. and 2 of them will be exhausting the air

[marxviper]

More update

I was playing with the dyes:
blue looks nice


following pic are of one drop of blue and 3 drops of red:




Now I need help from members of this site:

Check the pictures out:






There is converter for small pin to molex. I was wondering if I am able to add another fan on the empty 2 pins in the molex. I need to make sure the fan rotate in the same direction. In addition, could somebody tell me what tools I need to connect the wires to these molex. Moreover, I saw somewhere in the site, the guy was melting lead to connect wires to the circuit board. whats the name of that tool?

Could I be able to use this fan shock absorber or should I throw them away?


Now, let me show the subscribers of this worklog what I have done today:

I got dremel yesterday and had fun with it cutting metal. These


my fancy work
after cutting

after sanding the edge


I want to paint 5.25 and 3.25 racks. Should I sand them and paint them whatever color I like or is it possible to paint on the black surface without sanding them?

[INFRNL]

For the fan connector: if you use the other 2 pins you will not have enough voltage to the fans. I do not recall, but I think the other pins only supply 5v. You could either bodify the one you have or other styles are sold for fairly cheap.

For the painting, you will want to scuff the existing paint or take it down to the metal. If you try to paint over the existing paint it will not last and/or flake off; especially since its glossy. You should be abvle to scuff it with something like 100/200 grit probably. I would wait for someone with more experience to chime in on a more exact grit.

Good luck with your build, cant wait to see the results

[marxviper]

For the fan connector: if you use the other 2 pins you will not have enough voltage to the fans. I do not recall, but I think the other pins only supply 5v. You could either bodify the one you have or other styles are sold for fairly cheap.

For the painting, you will want to scuff the existing paint or take it down to the metal. If you try to paint over the existing paint it will not last and/or flake off; especially since its glossy. You should be abvle to scuff it with something like 100/200 grit probably. I would wait for someone with more experience to chime in on a more exact grit.

Good luck with your build, cant wait to see the results

thank you for your advice. I did not know about the other 2 pins have 5 volts.

do you what tools do i need mold two wire together?