Project: Zack's Beest [Completed]

[Zack.]

Hey Guys.

So I promised you guys a worklog so here it is, I’m no liar! I would just like to say thanks a lot to Gary at Sidewinder he put in a huge amount of extra effort into my orders and he is definitely my most favourite watercooling supplier. I did not receive anything in this rig free of charge, I just feel like I need to thank Gary. The specifications are below:

CM Cosmos S
Gigabyte UD5 Motherboard
Intel i7 920 CPU
12GB Corsair 1600mhz RAM
2x GTX285
ULTRA X3 1000W PSU
6x 1TB Hard Drives
2x OCZ 120GB SSD in RAID0

Watercooling:
HeatKiller 3.0
2x MCP655 Pumps
Black PrimoFlex Tubing ½”
EK-MultiOption RES 100 Rev2
EK-FB KIT GA X58 Gigabyte Acetal
Watercool HEATKILLER GPU-X for GTX285
Feser X-Changer 240mm
Feser X-Changer 360mm

This is only my 3rd watercooling build and I think I've learned fast. However you still run into problems all the time. First silly mistake was me not realizing that BP Compression fittings won’t fit on the Heatkiller CPU block so I had to get some normal ones.

Another one was forgetting to tell PPC to mark my package as being less than 1000$AUD which means I had to wait for all the customs paperwork and pay over $300 in import taxes and duty. My package sat in customs for over a week, the most frustrating week of my life.

Anyways, on with it, here's a brief overview of the whole routine. If you want more specific photos of an area or higher resolution, let me know!

Sorry I don't have a GREAT camera, but I think it does the job.











Testing all the hardware, making sure none of it was DOA. One of my 285's was DOA But luckily I had a quick and easy replacement so no harm done.



Waiting for watercooling packages to arrive from overseas - will take about 7 days so I just threw everything in there and started messing around with it a bit. Please excuse the intel heatsink and all that Sata mess, it worked though..



Finally received my watercooling gear, uh-oh, PPC sent me the wrong motherboard blocks, back they go. Another 6 day delay to my build. Gee, was this rig just NOT meant to be? lol.



First ever sleeving attempt at anything, very first cable sleeved...



...and all done! Not great, but hey for my first go I think it's alright.



Hard Drive and DVD Drive Power cables. Since then I split up the DVD drive and HDD power cables. So the 6 hdd's are on one cable and the 2 dvd drives on another, just for safety measures.



[b]First time ever[b] using a dremel, cut those holes for the 2fan Rad at the bottom, when the rad came the measurements were perfecto. lucky me haha! I thought the rad might not get a lot of air being so close to the ground, but funnily enough I'm getting insane temps, ambient ~18, cpu idling at around 20-25 so I'm happy.





Modded the lower hard drive cage a lot. I cut out the bottom of it so that the radiator could fit at the bottom and have a fairly decent amount of room for airflow as well. No point there being room for the radiator but no room for the air to flow through. That dremel mod worked really well and airflow is immaculate.









Used my trusty new dremel to cut these holes. Since this photo I've sanded them off nicely and made them a bit easier on the eye. The bottom left hand hole is for USB/Front Panel. The long hole just to the right of that is for all the SATA cables, the one above that is for the 24pin ATX and the big one obviously for the CPU mount.



Motherboard with waterblocks mounted and barbs attached.



Mock mount in the case to check everything out. Still needed to sleeve one of the pumps and mount the top reservoir properly. My camera flash made this photo look terrible.



Both loops connected and ready for leaktesting. Initially the GPU-X2 sli waterblock adapter thingo was leaking really badly, and I only realised this after I almost bled the entire loop. Water was pretty much gushing out. I drained it and realised the special O-rings weren't quite sitting right, after I reseated, no more leaks!

I also learned the hard way to not use Compression fittings on the EK reservoirs, leak mania, fixed that.

Apart from those two leaks, installation went pretty well and I was on my merry way. Temperatures are REALLY good, if anyone's interested just ask and I'll post them.

There's all the boring hard work done. So here are the money shots!







Might look like one of the tubes is kinked, but trust me its not. None of them are, just seems that way because of the black tubing hehe.

Okay its 5am, time for bed. Will post to replies tomorrow! Hope you enjoyed this brief overview, sorry there aren't that many pictures.

Zack.

[ILikeCosmosS]

since one of my idea's in my cosmos s is already being shown in your build

can see those 2 120mm fans at the bottom

i think you just convinced me to get gigabyte board

[Zack.]

since one of my idea's in my cosmos s is already being shown in your build

can see those 2 120mm fans at the bottom

i think you just convinced me to get gigabyte board

Those 10 Sata ports are beautiful. 6TB of space and 2 120GB SSD in Raid0, what more can you ask for? haha.

I've always had a nack for Gigabyte, never had one fail on me.

[mit78]

i have the same case,but the radiators its worst at you,try to put more radiators,just 2 radiators its not a good ideea for a lot of waterblocks.
i have 4 radiators,and al cooled with water same i7.but vga is gtx280 just one piece

[3Z3VH]

I am not sure what you are referring to, but the 720mm worth of radiator he has in his case should be plenty for his setup. I don't think he could add any more without adding radiators to the outside and making the case look terrible.

[Zack.]

i have the same case,but the radiators its worst at you,try to put more radiators,just 2 radiators its not a good ideea for a lot of waterblocks.
i have 4 radiators,and al cooled with water same i7.but vga is gtx280 just one piece

Sorry I'm not quite sure what you mean. You think I should add more radiators? I dont need to. it's plenty for what I have.

I am not sure what you are referring to, but the 720mm worth of radiator he has in his case should be plenty for his setup. I don't think he could add any more without adding radiators to the outside and making the case look terrible.

Yeah your correct. I definitely won't be adding anything onto the case, especially not outside.

My temps are great so I think my rads are doing the job just fine.

[MomijiTMO]

You did well!

[Oskaliber]

I don't really like tubes arrangement, but entirety it looks quite nice.

[MomijiTMO]

Yeah I know. When he did is psycho paint diagram I knew it was going to look messy but at the end of the day it's just aesthetics.

[xaxis]

The motherboard your chose compliments the rest of the build very well.
Good job.

[denice25]

great job.... congrats....

[Zack.]

You did well!

Thanks. This isn't the 500th computer I've built so I still learned so much from it.

I don't really like tubes arrangement, but entirety it looks quite nice.

I'm actually going to disagree, I do like the tubing. I don't know maybe the photos make it look messy but in person it looks very nice. Next time maybe I'll try make it look better.

great job.... congrats....

Thanks.

The motherboard your chose compliments the rest of the build very well.
Good job.

Yeah Initially I thought the blue motherboard would ruin it, but with the cathodes and the black tubing I think it wasn't a bad choice afterall. And with all those sata ports, its quite an extreme motherboard haha.

Thanks guys for the encouragement.

[mit78]

please put some printscreens with temps full load and idle,vga and cpu please
not outside,i have in the same case 4 inside the case

[Zack.]

please put some printscreens with temps full load and idle,vga and cpu please
not outside,i have in the same case 4 inside the case

Im thinking maybe you mean you have 4 Single fan rads? So 4x 120mm rads?

If not, feel free to post photos of how you mounted all your rads..

Anyway, here are temps:

Ambient about 18-20 I think. GPU load is 40-41C.

Idle


Load

[shazza]

Nice Job, Zack.

I don't know how else you could route your tubing - you've got a lot of action going on in there. Looks pretty good to me.

[ILikeCosmosS]

hey zack how much did your water cooling setup cost you?
( i going to be having similar parts, trying to under 3500)

[Zack.]

Nice Job, Zack.

I don't know how else you could route your tubing - you've got a lot of action going on in there. Looks pretty good to me.

Thanks Shaz! Your comments are appreciated

Your right, With all those hard drives and 2 loops, I was really pushing the case for space, I can honestly say the case is full. I couldn't mount another *insert anything here* even I wanted to haha.

hey zack how much did your water cooling setup cost you?
( i going to be having similar parts, trying to under 3500)

Mmm. If I recall correctly, including shipping all the watercooling would have been around $1500-$2000AU, so I would say just the watercooling set me back around USD$1350.

EDIT:

Yeah I know. When he did is psycho paint diagram I knew it was going to look messy but at the end of the day it's just aesthetics.

You dissing my paint skills? haha. (jokin)

[Stvwndr219]

were all those cuts done with a dremel? What dremel bit did you use for the cutting?

[Zack.]

were all those cuts done with a dremel? What dremel bit did you use for the cutting?

Yup. All with a dremel.

It's called:

MultiPro Variable Speed Rotary Tool Model 395

So if you just ask for Dremel Model 395 you'll get the right one.

As for the bit, I used just the normal discs that came with the tool. Not the fiberglass reinforced one as it took way too long to cut through the metal and it was too big anyway.

It was about $80AU and came with all these neat accessories and stuff.

[millertime359]

Man you got alot going on in that case. You did a good job and temps look fine