Personal computing has been a hobby of mine for awhile, now.  I've built several computers for myself, wife, family members and friends, but this will be my first ever attempt at watercooling and will hopefully last me through the next couple years as I attempt to complete my Bachelor of Science in Nursing.  This computer's purpose is to handle games for the next 2-3 years, be reliable, and power through CS6 freelance work I do for portrait photographers.

The Build

• i7-5930k - I know a guy, who is a guy, and I got it for cheap.
• Motherboard - I currently have an Asus X99-Pro, but I may switch it up depending on my color theme and because I am not quite satisfied with the PCIe layout if I were to choose a 3-way graphics card configuration.
• 16 gb (4x4) 2666 Corsair Vengeance LPX - It was on sale when I bought it and a neutral black.
• MSI r9 290x Lightning x 2 - I currently have one so far and it's a monster for how cheap it is right now.
• Storage - These will probably change before the finished product, but I currently have a 512gb Crucial M4, 240gb Seagate 600 series, WD 3TB green, Seagate 1.5TB Barracuda (that is 5 years old and going strong, mind you).
• EVGA 1300 G2 - Plenty of headroom, but I may end up expanding if I get an itch to go trifire 290x Lightnings.
• Case-Labs Mercury S8S - Limited edition Mercury S8 and the best cube case in my opinion.
• Cabling - Was considering going with a set from Cablemod, but I'm sort of wanting a 3 color scheme and may end up with something self done or... else.

The Cooling

• Swiftech MCP655 - D5 Vario
• Pump top - I dunno
• EK Supremacy EVO acetal+nickel - EK waterblocks simply look amazing, and, from my research, are top performing.  This particular one fits my goal aesthetically for the build.
• EK r9 290x Lightning acetal+nickel - Beautiful and fits my black and acetal theme.
• Reservoir - Still debating.  I'm waiting to get the S8S to get things laid our and see how things end up.
• Alphacool NexXxos UT60 360mm - Low FPI and nice port layout
• Additional 360mm - Will update.
• Alphacool NexXxos UT60 240mm - Low FPI and nice port layout.
• Fittings - The big question, now.  Do I go rigid tubing or flexible.
• Tubing - See above.

The Peripherals

• Poker ii - White back light, Cherry MX clears.
• Razer Naga 2014 - I like buttons.
• Dell 2713hm - I've had it for a few years, now.  I like it.
• Some cheap-o Gateway 23" peripheral monitor - For screen real estate.

Updates

• Beginning.

This is my second post on here but I just upgraded my system! 

Specs:

Case: Stock HP Case

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 645

RAM: 6gb DDR3

GPU: EVGA Geforce GTX 750Ti FTW Edition

SSD: Samsung 840 Evo 250gb

HDDs: Seagate 7200 RPM 1TB, WD Caviar Green 5400RPM 1TB

PSU: Seasonic S12II 380B 380 Watt 

Motherboard: Foxconn RS880

Hello. So, this is my build I'd been buying piece by piece for a couple months now. 

CPU - Intel i5 4690k

GPU - AMD HD Radeon 6870

RAM - HyperX White 1600MHz 8GB

PSU - 750W semi-modular Corsair 750CX

Mobo - MSI Z97S Krait Edition

Case - NZXT S340

Cooler- Corsair H50

1st SSD - Corsair 60GB(boot drive)

2nd SSD - Mushkin 480GB

and an external 1TB WD HDD that uses USB 3.0. I got this was because my 480GB SSD died and I am waiting to get it replaced and needed a lot of storage until then. 

This video card is just a place holder until new cards come out to drop prices or just offer more for the money, hopefully.

I know it's more important to keep the video card cool over the CPU, but it's mainly for looks in this case(pun intended), and I plan on liquid cooling my future graphics card when I decide on it. I was wanting to get a Kraken G10 in white for a simple water cooling solution but I figured I would wait until I get the new card later down the line when newer liquid coolers come out to offer better price/performance.

I also mounted two white led bars so you can clearly see the inside through the window; they can turn on and off. The top and rear fan are Corsair quiet edition fans, obviously with the ring swapped to the white color. They are noticeably more quiet. The top stock fan was vibrating against the case sometimes. While, far more quiet than before, the front fan attached to the 120mm radiator is still quite loud. Definitely going to get that replaced at some point. I did get a 24 pin extender that is white sleeved for the mobo. The two six pins to the card are black extension sleeving my friend gave me since he had an extra he wasn't gonna use. 

That's basically it. I cable managed the best I could. Sorry for not many pictures. The side panel on this case is quite cheap, unfortunately. It somehow got scratches on it from I don't even know what. When trying to clean it off, with a microfiber cloth it just got worse. It also bubbles out a millimeter or two for whatever reason. It's already a bit pricey, but I had been buying it paycheck by paycheck when something was on sale so I saved a little bit. I never planned on the 480GB SSD for it. I bought it on sale for my laptop but then decided to switch back to desktop. I could have saved a lot of money but I wanted everything to be elegant. The case I wanted in the first place was the Phanteks Enthoo Pro but it had been sold out for weeks and I thought I would just save $30 and get the S340. It's a great case for sure, just think the side panel ruins it. Anyways, that's about it o.o

Like lightning, creativity can hit a person from any direction. Inspiring them to take a new path. Project Reliquary is that path for for me. As a student of Engineering, and a Gamer I need the tools to stay successful and be able to create when I need and be a refuge in my down time. This build is an expression more to myself than to others but like every person every build has its story.
- Jan 9, 2015



The first pc I ever worked on was when I was very young in 1997. I was just helping my mother put in a 5” floppy drive and a Creative sound blaster sound card into her upgraded Windows 95 Packard Bell. Now its 2015 and I am beginning to upgrade from a 7 year old windows Vista laptop to my first enthusiast build. I have been slowly working up to this point since late 2012 when I realized I wanted to do my college projects from home. Very quickly I discovered that I would either need to buy a new machine or build one from scratch. Buying a new machine outright would have been fastest but there is no way I could have afforded it at the time in 2012. By January 31 of 2013 I had saved enough to just buy some parts and I got really excited and thought that by that time next year(2014) I would have a new pc. Yet life had some other crazy plans for me. December 27, 2013 was the beginning of a very strange journey. I was looking to buy a car for my mom it was something she really wanted and at the time I had a much better line of credit that she did. So we looked at a few and she really wanted the first one we looked at but we never bought it because by January 11 I began my one week hospital stay as I got really sick the week before. I was diagnosed with ADEM or Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis. As the doctors told me it would take some time for my brain to heal about six months to a year. A few months roll by I got better and I noticed something scary. I was totally broke with only 50 dollars left to my name. Medical bills ate up almost all of my families savings in such a short time. By August my computer funds that I saved away disappeared.
That did not deter me; by the end of September a friend of mine helped me out and I started working full time for a small security firm and I have been working almost non stop to recover both my health and my funding for the pc. Then a few days ago I finally saved up enough to have a cushion and bought the rest of the parts I needed and wanted to at least get the rig up and running.

Parts and Random Thoughts:

CPU: i7 3820 - * it was given to me in 2013. / I’m sure it will work well.

PSU: HX 1050 - * this was also given to me in 2013. / Kinda overkill on power.

I might need a support bracket; as I doubt fishing line might not be the best choice to hold it up with.

Memory: Corsair Vengance 4X8 / Runs well so far.

CPU Cooling: Corsair H100i / I need to buy 2 PWM fans for push pull config.

Case: NZXT 810 Switch / Its a case with a nice amount of room.
Case Cooling: 4x140 NZXT Fans / They are plugged into the NZXT Fan Hub that came with the case.

Future Upgrades | Reason | Expected Date
HDD Storage 4TB Total (2x2) / Content Creation Storage / Q1 - 2015
Monitor ultra wide or decent Color correction / Will replace 7 year old monitor / Q3 - Q4 - 2015

Intuos-pro tablet small. / Would like to use for Ps & IL / Q3 - 2015
Fan controller / Not sure about this one / N/A

Reliquary Case Mod:
Wood Casing and Accenting | Q4 - 2015/ Q1 - 2016

Description:

Design and create an exterior shell/shroud  for the NZXT 810 Switch and matching support bracket for the 970 Strix out of a light colored wood material. The final product should look and feel like furniture and blend naturally into the home while keeping a somewhat enthusiast look.
Requirements:
Material must be lightweight.

Material must be a wood or veneer.

Material must be stain/sealable and or be painted over.

Material must be easy to be etched and laser cut.
Gap/Space Tolerance +/- ¼” for panel behind Motherboard tray.

The Old And Tired Lappy:


The Goods:

More random updates to come.

DNA - [Build Log] 003 - DNA Systems

Hey guys & Girls

Here is a system that I built over the Christmas holidays.

All my parts are brand new from NCIX Canada links will be provided in case you want to read up on more info then I will dish out.

Ok so let's start with the hardware:

• Case - Bitfenix Pandora
• Motherboard - Asus M5A78L-M/USB3
• Processor - AMD FX-8320 8 Core 3.5/4.0 Ghz
• Ram - 2 X Corsair Vengeance Blue CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B 8GB 2X4GB DDR3-1600
• GPU -  Gigabyte Radeon R9 280 OC
• Main OS Drive SSD - Kingston V300 240GB Sandforce
• Power Supply - Corsair AX760i
• CPU Cooler - Corsair Cooling Hydro H100i
• Fans - 2 X Corsair Air Series AF120 LED Blue Quiet Edition TWIN PACK
• Storage - WD Green 1.5TB
• Operating System - Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Edition 64Bit

Here we go People time for pictures

Full inside Image

Bottom right - Looking UP

SSD Mod Blue

Thanks

I wanted to share with the forums of Linustechtips, as I used his tutorials a lot to help me with this build. I appreciate forums like this that have communities that are so willing to freely assist others with tech help. I have not named the build, but I am planning on submitting it in the build competition thread.

I wanted to say first that this build was not an original idea. I borrowed the idea from a different forum. The builder actually borrowed the idea from a Red Harbinger desk. That being said, this is pretty much my first build I've done myself.  Its also the first time water cooling for me as well. This is where Linus Tech Tips really helped. It also helped a lot in my selection of components. I have about 20 photos to show the process of my build, and am in the process of uploading videos of the step by step process of fabricating and installing my components on youtube. I will link the channel if there is interest.

Last note, I am a stainless steel custom fabricator by trade. For those who know anything about the trade, I am aware that I am tigging mild steel rather than migging. It is a lot easier for me to do so considering the project does not need to be structurally stout. The welds will hold up just fine ! ! ! lol

This is a continuation of IDprofile's "S340 Assembly" log. 
 
 IDprofile is leaving now for couple of years and I can attempt to fill in now. Right before he left he and I spent about 20 hours straight finishing up his builds.
 Anyway, here's the specs for the PC's:
 
Hydra
Color Scheme: Red/Black/Silver with Red/White Lighting
--------------------------------------------------
Case: Cooler Master HAF X (modified)
Processor: AMD FX8350
Motherboard: Asus Crosshair V Formula-Z
Memory: Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB 1600Mhz
Graphics: EVGA GTX 780 Ti Classified
Storage: Intel 730 240GB SSD, 3TB Seagate Barracuda HDD, 1TB WD Blue HDD
Power: EVGA Supernova 850w G2
Cooling: Cooler Master Glacer 240L, Corsair AF140. BitFenix Spectre Pro Red LED 200mm & 230mm
Lighting: Darkside Dimmable LED Strips Red & White, 3 Red LED Fans
Controller: NZXT Grid+
Display: 23" Acer H236HL bid 1920x1080p
Cable: Braided Red 24-pin & Red/Black 8-pin



 
Leviathan
Color Scheme: Black/White with RGB Lighting
----------------------------------------------
Case: NZXT S340 (Black)
Processor: Intel i7 5930k
Motherboard: Asus X99 Deluxe
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 16GB 2666Mhz (to be painted)
Graphics: EVGA GTX 780 Ti Classified
Storage: OCZ Vector 150 240GB SSD, 3TB Seagate Barracuda HDD
Power: EVGA Supernova 850w G2
Cooling: Corsair H100i
Lighting: Corsair Link RGB
Controller: Corsair Link
Display: x3 22" 1920x1080p
Cable: Braided White 24-pin & White 8-pin
 

Siren
Color Scheme: Black/Purple/Pink with Purple/UV Lighting
----------------------------------------------
Case: Cooler Master N600
Processor: Intel i5-4690k Devil's Canyon
Motherboard: MSI Z97S SLi Krait Edition
Memory: G.Skill Trident X Series 16GB 1600Mhz 7-8-8-24 (to be painted purple)
Graphics: Dual SLi EVGA GTX 465 (to be painted)
Storage: Corsair Force Series 3 120GB SSD, 1TB WD Blue HDD
Power: Corsair TX650w
Cooling: Corsair H100i, Corsair SP120 Purple LED
Lighting: Darkside Dimmable UV LED Strips, x3 Purple LED Fans
Controller: NZXT Grid+
Display: 24" 1680x1050p
Cable: Braided UV Pink/Black 24-pin & 6-pin

 
We also set up two other computers in the same room, however I am not going into detail on those two since they are the least powerful and weren't really part of the project.
To be clear: the builds are not quite finished, I still need to work on some of the software and lights/fans. I will also post some more pictures in the future (these ones are a bit placeholder).
 
 Basically, I've got school to do and don't have as much time on my hands as IDprofile did. However, I will try and get as much done in my spare time as I can. I am brand new on the forums, and hope to fill in for IDprofile PC-wise.   

It's 2015 and time for another watercooled build. I'll be trying out the PrimoChill acrylic tubing and rigid comrpression fittings this time.

AMD FX8370

Gigabyte Windforce R9290X

ASUS Crosshair V Formula Z

GSkill Ripjaws 4X8GB

Crucial M4 512GB 6GB/s

Corsair RM850

Corsair 750D

Bitfenix spectre pro 120MM and 140MM X3 ea.

Alphacool reservior, pump, and radiators

Bitspower CPU block

Heatkiller GPU block and backplate

Primochill Acryilic

Primochill rigid compression fittings

Bitspower adapters

Alright guys, I'm the guy who tore out my PCI-E slot. My new motherboard arrived today and I'm happy to tell you all that I'm writing this on my new desktop

I'm calling it "The Struggle" because of my own incompetence in building it. I destroyed the first motherboard, I cut my finger on the IO shield making me bleed all over the case and I had to walk through "Nina" a storm that just passed through our area in my search for Isopropal alcohol to clean the CPU. I did not sleep properly at night while waiting for my new motherboard, "did I break the cpu?"  "is the ram faulty" these were all questions lingering in my mind.

The struggle has come to an end and I present to you my new pc. I don't think I could've done it without all the fine people over at plans and building, and generally all the help you guys gave me. So big thanks to you all! 

Compontents: 

Fractal Design R5 Windowed

Intel Core i7 4790k @stock

Hyper 212 Evo

Asus Z97-A  Asus Z97 Sabertooth Mark 2

8GB DDR3 HyperX Fury 1600mhz

Corsair CX850M

Kingston 120GB SSD

Corsair MX100 240GB

WD Green 1TB mass storage

SLI Gigabyte G1 970 Gaming 

Quick picture I took: http://imgur.com/nBlADBk

The GPUs are running at 69 degrees and 59 degrees celcius under load, and the computer is dead silent. 

Benchmarks.

Unigine Valley @ 1080p all max

Score: 4105

3DMARK Firestrike:

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/5585808

Score: 15521

EDIT: More but not necessarily better pictures: http://imgur.com/a/1fKCj

I just re cable managed my rig and decided to make a video of it. First video i've ever produced so not great but don't think it is bad for a first try?
 
In case you wanted to know the system specs are;
 
CPU: 5400k
GPU: r7 260x
RAM: 2x4gb crucial vlp
SSD: samaung 120gb evo
MoBo: Some biostar rubbish
PSU: CX430
Case: Fractal Design Define mini
AIO: Corsair h80i, know it's massive overkill but found a good deal and it quiet as a mouse!
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np8AuXj57Ng

So I kinda needed a new PC that would be sufficient to run todays games at atleast high or medium, as an upgrade from my old Dell Optiplex 780 midi-tower that was kind of lacking due to several of reasons.  I decided to go with AMD to keep the price down and to still be able to overclock the PC a bit. I did put quite a bit of work into making the cable managment nice and I'm really satisfied with it for being my first real PC build (only upgraded other OEM PC's before).

The parts that I used in this build are the following as of now:

CPU: AMD FX-6300

MOBO: ASUS M5A97 LE R2.0

RAM: HyperX Fury Blue 8GB 1866Mhz

GPU: Sapphire Dual-X R9 270x

HDD: 1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.14

COOLING: Cooler Master Nepton 140XL Closed Watercooling

CASE: Phanteks Enthoo Pro w/ window

PSU: Fractal Design Integra R2 650 watt (non-modular)

Hey guys,

I'm new to this forum but I've viewed a lot of LinusTechTips videos and found them to be awesome!

I made my first gaming desktop to replace my 6 year old Gateway FX-P7915U gaming laptop after it gave me a good long run! Being a techie at heart, it was fairly easy to do but I definitely learned some new cool stuff about case airflow, cooling and lighting

All the components stay really cool even under max load with CPU not reaching beyond 51(avg 44.6) and GPU not going beyond 65(avg 54.3)

EDIT: Forgot to mention I also do a lot of Adobe Premiere Pro rendering work so that is why I had to strike a balance between CPU and GPU. Also wanted to slightly future proof by getting the X99 mobo w/ DDR4 standard lol

Hope you guys like it!

Specs:

Case: ThermalTake Core V71 Full Tower

Mobo: AsRock Extreme 4 X99

CPU: i7 5820K 3.3ghz

GPU: Sapphire R9 270X Dual-X (OC'd to 1180 gpu clock, 1600 mem clock)

RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8gb(2x4GB) DDR4 2400 MHz RAM (OC'd to 2666 MHz 13 13 13 35 timings)

Cooler: CoolerMaster Seidon 120V

Boot SSD: 250gb Samsung EVO 850

HDD: 2TB WD Black 7200RPM

PSU: Corsair CX750 (Yes I was stupid and bought a non modular PSU because I got it confused with the CX750M which is semi modular lol too late to rewire things now )

Extras:

Case Lighting: 3 CCFL blue lights with the bottom one being sound activated

Additional fans: replaced exhaust fan with Corsair AF140 Quiet Edition, added an additional 200mm Spectre exhaust fan on top)

Rosewill memory card reader/ usb hub

Standard DVD/CD RW drive I had laying around lol

Total Cost: Approx $1150ish

Planned upgrades:

2 more 4gb DDR4 RAM sticks

Hello community!

I posted some problems in the watercooling section about this, but they got solved in the meantime, so I`m posting it here, happily.. finally.

Well, after waiting a few months for parts, mostly because of knowledge issues, I built my first fully watercooled PC!

PC parts:

CPU: 5820K OC at 4.5 Ghz with 1.3V

GPUs: GTX 980 a bit OC

MB: ASUS X99 Deluxe

Memory: DDR4 Corsair Dominator at 2666 Mhz

PSU: Corsair H1000i

Case: Phanteks Enthoo Primo

Watercooling parts: Alphacool rads (one thick 280 and one medium 480), fittings and D5 pump, EK waterblocks, fans for the rads Corsair Low Noise High Static Pressure and for general airflow around the case, the Phanteks fans.

Unfortunately, I can`t put the wire shield/reservoir holder because of the second card.

So here are some pictures, I hope you like it!

Alex

Since I'm too lazy to post all the pictures here I'll just link my PCPartPicker post: http://pcpartpicker.com/b/nbxYcf

I love this build even though I'm still having problems with it a month later. Now my 750GB SSD is broke and I have to send it in. Other than that it works fine now. I had a lot of fun building this and it can out A LOT BETTER than I thought it ever would. And I also have you guys to thank for helping me through the year on choosing the parts and bettering my self when it comes to PC parts.

How is my pc?

FX-6300 OC 4GHz (check other thread)-(likely to get an FX-9590/FX-8350E)

ASRock Fatal1ty 970 Performance (may upgrade to ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Professional)

WD Blue 1TB HDD

Samsung 840 EVO 120GB SSD

Cooler Master Nepton 240m

G.Skill 2133Hz 2x 4GB DDR3 RAM (will get another kit of this ram soon)

NZXT Phantom 410 (red)

Pioneer DVD/CD-RW+BD

Sapphire R9 270x 4GB OC Edition (will get a second soon)

OCZ Fatal1ty 550w PSU

Let me know how it is! 

This is my ultimate build for this time of tech.

Intel Xeon E5-2699v3

ASRock X99 Extreme11

NZXT Phantom 630 Windowed edition/820 (white)

WD Green 6TB X2 RAID

Samsung 850 PRO 1TB

EVGA 1600P2 PSU

MSI GTX980 4G Gaming x3 (2 in SLI, 1 for other monitors)/ was thinking 2x Sapphire R9 295x2+ r9 270x for secondary monitors

DVD/CD/BD-RW

Cooler Master Nepton 280L

Corsair Dominator 8x 4GB 3200MHz

Let me know on changes/ better performance/value for this ultimate build.

This is my ultimate build for this time of tech.

Intel Xeon E5-2699v3

ASRock X99 Extreme11

NZXT Phantom 630 Windowed edition/820 (white)

WD Green 6TB X2 RAID

Samsung 850 PRO 1TB

EVGA 1600P2 PSU

MSI GTX980 4G Gaming x3 (2 in SLI, 1 for other monitors)/ was thinking 2x Sapphire R9 295x2+ r9 270x for secondary monitors

DVD/CD/BD-RW

Cooler Master Nepton 280L

Corsair Dominator 8x 4GB 3200MHz

Let me know on changes/ better performance/value for this ultimate build.

:blink:I am going to attempt to put a MSI R9 290X lightning in a Thermaltake v21 micro ATX tomorrow. MUWAHAHAHA WISH ME LUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!