Ranker's UFO CYO & H2GO simultaneous build

[ranker]

After a long 2 year sabbatical, I've decided to start a new series of water cooled PC's. It didn't take long for me to realize that I didn't want to attempt to squeeze three loops into a MM Horizon like I did previously. Although I was tempted with the space available in the Ascension, the darn thing just looked terribly ugly in all the pics I saw (no offense to Ascension owners; beauty is in the eye of the beholder). I decided to pick up an extended UFO CYO with a Duality Front, Standard Back, and Horizontal Tray with a black anodized color. Realizing I needed to a smaller case for my HTPC, I also opted to purchase a black anodized H2GO case.

The components are as follows:

Big Brother

Components:
Case: MM Extended U2-UFO CYO (Duality Front|Standard Back| Horizontal Tray) Anodized Black
Motherboard: eVGA X58
CPU: Intel i7 920
RAM: 6 GB Corsair Dominator PC3-12800
Video Card: eVGA 295GTX
TV Tuner Card: VisionTek TV Wonder 650 Combo PCIe HDTV Tuner
Sound Card: Asus Xonar Essence STX
Hard Drives:300GB WD Velociraptor & 1TB WD's Black Ed.
Optical Drives: LG 22X DVD-Writer & Lite-On 20x DVD-Writer
PSU: Corsair CMPSU-1000HX PSU

Cooling
CPU Loop: DDC-2 w/ XSPC Reservoir Top -> Swiftech GTZ -> Thermochill PA120.3 (Push: 3 Scythe S-Flex G)

GPU Loop: DDC-2 w/ XSPC Reservoir Top -> (295GTX WB tbd) ->Thermochill PA120.3 (Push: 3 Scythe S-Flex G)

Chipset Loop: DDC-2 w/ XSPC Reservoir Top -> Alphacool Silentstar Dual HD waterblock enclosure -> Bitspower Black Freezer eVGA x58 MOSFET-> Bitspower Black Freezer eVGA x58 NB -> Thermochill PA120.2 (Pull: 2 Scythe S-Flex G)






Little Brother
Components:
Case: MM H2GO Anodized Black (w/ Steel Handle)
Motherboard: eVGA 680i
CPU: Intel E6700
RAM: 2GB of Corsair Dominator PC-8500 (1066 5-5-5-15 @ 2.0V)
Video Card(s): 2 x eVGA 8800 GTX
TV Tuner Card: AVerMedia AVerTV Combo PCIe HDTV Tuner 95522 96066 5
Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB in Raid 1
Sound Card: Auzentech X-Fi Prelude
Hard Drives: 2 x Western Digital 150GB Raptors in Raid 0, 2 x Western Digital
Optical Drives: Asus 20X DVD-Writer & Lite-On 20x DVD-Writer
PSU: PCP&C Silencer SLI 750W

Cooling
DDC-2 w/ XSPC Reservoir Top ->
Thermochill PA120.1 (Push: 1 Yate Loon D12SL-12) ->
EK NF4 1.1 SB ->
EK 8800GTX Full Cover ->
EK 8800GTX Full Cover ->
EK eVGA 680i NB ->
D-Tek Fuzion v1 (w/ 4.5mm nozzle & Pro Mount) ->
Thermochill PA120.2 (Push: 2 Yate Loon D12SL-12)


All fittings used will be various Bitspower 3/8"ID - 5/8"OD compression fittings. Tubing will be either Tygon 3603 or Tygon R3400 (Black) in 3/8"ID - 5/8"OD size.

[ranker]

Big Brother Progress

Stock eVGA x58 motherboard w/ Intel i7 920 processor installed


After installation of Swiftech GTZ CPU waterblock & Bitspower X58 mosfet & chipset waterblocks






After installation of eVGA 295 GTX video card and VisionTek TV Wonder 650 HDTV Tuner





As of the current moment, I'm still waiting for a variety of components to be shipped in. I'm waiting for a 295GTX waterblock. My Asus Xonar Essence STX should be arriving either tomorrow or Friday. I'm still indecisive on how I want to orient the Duality front. At current time, I have it in the "normal" Duality orientation with both bay drives up top and the two PA spaced fan openings on the bottom. I realize that this will make wire management a lot harder. However, I'm hoping that this will make draining easier while compartmentalizing the pumps and radiators down below, making it easier to drain and mange. I'll be mounting the pumps to the radiator via UN Designs fan & pump brackets.

Little Brother Progress:

After some fiddling around, I finally decided upon a configuration that would best fit all the components I was utilizing. This build will focus on silence without much regard to overclocking performance as it is intended to be my HTPC box. Although I should I have purchased quieter fans, I was disgusted with the idea of having to wait longer before starting my build. In addition, I couldn't stomach spending more money after dropping another $2,000US on watercooling components alone for this round of builds. I figure with a rheostat, the Yates would serve me just fine.

I ended up with the loop order as dictated above. Although my loop only contains one pump, I'm certain that my DDC-2 (18W) (red impeller) pump was enough for the task at hand.

Front of H2GO


Bottom Chamber: Everything is pretty much finished for the bottom chamber other than drilling mounting holes for the UN Designs pump bracket. However, I first need to cut the washer on the bracket so that my pump/res has enough clearance to fit underneath the motherboard tray.




Motherboard tray with blocks installed: Just for McCoffey, I went ape with the 45's, 90's =P

Due to the constraints of the size of the case and what I wanted to fit inside, I was required to use a variety of fittings just to get a single loop to work. You'll notice that I had to use a variety of fittings for the EK chipset blocks and the Fuzion v1. Unfortunately, the 5/8"OD compression fittings are too large to be installed normally. In order to use the compression fittings (I'm anal and want to keep my builds either all compression fittings or all barbs), I had to slap together a bunch of 45's in order to get enough clearance from the block to put the compression fittings on.






For the time being, Little Brother will be placed on hold until I receive another shipment of Bitspower fittings. Unfortunately, I'm unable to proceed due to requiring a standoff fitting in order to get the Bitspower rotational 90 degree elbow to screw onto the bottom most 8800GTX so that it will clear the Auzentech Prelude soundcard. Once that comes in, I should be able to assemble the rest of the build quickly. My only hangup is not wanting to re-sleeve a few of the molex adapters I'll be required to mod in order to perfectly align up with the hard drives. I HATE SLEEVING with a passion. I love the way it looks but lord I'd rather watch paint peel than be forced to sleeve again.

In any case, I did make an important discovery in regards to the H2GO case. It is impossible to install a PA120.1 in the bottom front fan opening. In all orientations, the radiator would not fit. I was falsely led to believe that this was possible due to MM's website having said so. This irked me quite a bit as it required me to completely redo my loop order. Hopefully this tidbit will help someone avoid making the same mistake in the planning phase.

[exe163]

FIRST!!... I mean looks good so far . Try to get a SLI bridge (for water) it looks a lot better.

[PsYcHoNo0b727]

Ill deff be following this along. I am interested in picking up a UFO case for my next build that I do and I wanted to see and Extended one. Looks like you picked the same parts for the case that I would too so its perfect .

Good work so far.

[armeniandave]

Wow managing two builds at once!
I'm having a hard enough time with one.
It looks like you have everything well
under control. I would agree that the
acensions beauty is in the eye of the
beholder. It's definetly not a case for
just anyone.
I look forward to seeing how this turns out.

[atomic ferret]

Looks real good! Keep up the good work.

[ShArKo]

WOOOOWW...........that is what I call REALY NICE hardware dude.........congratulation

Realy nice.........

[jollyjoker]

Looking good , can't wait to see these finished.

[ranker]

Thanks for the kind words so far. I hope to get some more progress done today. Hopefully I can get some good feedback.

Wow,

Nice selection Ranker. Should be an interesting winter project and one hell of a lot of fun. Can't wait to see it some together.

Subscribed,

andyc

What can I say andy.. although we may have different philosophies towards WC'ing, seeing your builds always spark my desire to start another. =)

The lack of a working gaming rig is killing me right now. I hope to get at least one up soon so I satiate these withdrawal symptoms.

I have a few questions to ask.

1) Should I use black or clear tubing? And for which build?

2) Has anyone ever used the bitspower "central power" board? Although, I love the BigNG's customizability, I realized that I never once touched or even looked at any of control/reporting stuff after having finished my previous build. Will the central power board be able to handle fans and pumps without any problems?

3) Has anyone ever experienced any leak issues with bitspower fittings?

[SiGfever]

Fantastic stuff ranker. What newer top has an issue with the DDC-2 pumps? Seems that some new ones have clearance issues?

[DarthBeavis]

I say go with black or white tubing. Your build looks awesome thus far!!! I use the BP power boards in all my builds. They are awesome. I rewire and sleeve all my stuff anyways. AC Ryan makes really nice push on molexs in right angles that work perfectly (sold on performance-pcs in many colors).

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...oducts_id=1169

[shazza]

Looking good so far, ranker. Will be following your build with interest - I think the extended UFO-CYO is a good choice. I kind of agree with you on the Ascensions ... just a little too big for me, but some of the builds like dave's are looking quite nice.

I originally started with black Tygon, but then switched to the Primochill LRT - liked it better, and also have some of the Feser tubing (Danger Den) version that I think is better than the Tygon - but that's just my opinion.

[ranker]

After a week long hiatus due to RL obligations and responsibilities, I found time to finish up my H2GO build.

I'll have to say that this was probably the most difficult build to date. Due to the case design, any sort of the slightest modification to the build would require that the entire case be disassembled. I suggest anyone interested in a H2GO build to seriously plan out the entire build before commencing. You'll save yourself some aggravation by not having to take the build apart multiple times.

All in all, I'm happy with the build. My only regret was not taking the time to drill some holes onto the bottom of the case to use the UN Designs pump mount so that there could be some airflow running along the base of the DDC2. I'll cross my fingers and hope that the aluminum chassis itself will help keep the DDC2 cool.





















After finally finishing my H2G0 build, I finally got around to working on my U2 UFO CYO build. The first task was to mount the Koolance 295GTX waterblock onto my eVGA 295GTX. Although the instructions weren't included with my box, I gave Koolance a pass since they shipped out the product asap as I ordered the day the block was released. I was able to download the instruction manual PDF and follow the directions without any difficulty. Lets just say that taking apart a $500 video card is pretty nerve racking. I've never had to apply that much force before to remove the HS/Fan cooling unit from a video card.

I give kudos to Koolance for not being cheap (hell for the price they charged) and including 2 different sheets of thermal pads. I also give Koolance a nod for their innovative way of including bling without sacrificing performance. They managed to put the original fan plug to use by including 3 blue leds that light up the acrylic part of the block by using it as the power source. I super glued the LED's into their holes.



























The next task was to clean my brand new radiators (I hate reusing old ones, I just give them away to friends or use them in my screw around builds). After 4-5 fill/shake/drains on each rad with boiling water, I set off toward working on sleeving all the fans and putting anti vibrational gaskets on them. After a long and tedious 2 hours of work, I got them all sleeved, including the pump wiring.



I decided I was going to mount all 3 pumps to the bottom most PA120.3 by using UN Designs fan/pump mounting brackets. They're a bit pricey, but they got the job done in an elegant manner.













Next step was to begin the tubing process. I managed to get two loops completed but could not finish my chipset/HD loop due to running out of some BP fittings. I placed a few on order and they should be coming soon.













I'll continue to update later once I receive the last of the fittings. All that's left will be to complete the tubing for the 3rd loop, do some wire management, and a leak test.

Til next time!

[exe163]

Nice! Very clean build, but there are still some wire hanging around try find a way to hide them.

[PsYcHoNo0b727]

Very nice build. The extended UFO is nice and roomy inside .

[ranker]

Nice! Very clean build, but there are still some wire hanging around try find a way to hide them.

Like I said above, I haven't finished the 3rd loop yet so I haven't begun wire management yet. I'll get there eventually, so long as my sanity holds from all the sleeving I've done.

[NaeKuh]

Like I said above, I haven't finished the 3rd loop yet so I haven't begun wire management yet. I'll get there eventually, so long as my sanity holds from all the sleeving I've done.

thats why i gave up sleeving.

more time spent playing on the computer, then viewing the computer.



i sleeve now to track down my wires, and not for cleanliness. Skinnee gets pissed when i use a uv purple sleeve in a black background, but when i shine my uv flahslight, i can trace all my wires to where they terminate.

[shazza]

Excellent progress, ranker. I love how little brother came out ... and big bro is looking good too. I think the Z-brackets and pump mounts make the build look clean.

[SiGfever]

Lookin good Pal. I really like how things have come together.

[shazza]

Any updates, ranker. I'm particularly interested to see how you did your final loop layout for the mosfet/chipset.

Also - the only thing holding me back from mounting all my pumps on the rad using the (UN) Designs brackets is a concern over obstructing airflow - do ya think it makes any real difference?

[armeniandave]

Shazza when I designed the Z-Bracket I purposely make it as thin as possible to minimize airflow obstruction. Does it block a little air, probably, but in my informal tests it was minimal.

[shazza]

Thanks, Dave ... I wasn't too concerned about the Z-brackets themselves, just the res tops. My (UN) Design brackets are on their way from Petra's

[armeniandave]

Shazza the pump/res does block a little air no doubt. Is it enough to make a difference I think probably minimal.
Ranker has done a great job using the brackets exactly how I envisioned MM
owners would use them.
Looking forward to seeing your implementation

[ILikeCosmosS]

i like it but for my taste the ufo is big
i think igoing to consider the h2go case again

[capreppy]

I'm sorry I missed this thread. Sub'd

I'm looking at a lot of the same things that you are and seeing it in a build log helps me visualize a whole lot better