Hey all,
It has been a long time coming. I had thought about acrylic tubing at first but since this was my first water cooling build, I thought it best to go with the soft tubing. I'm glad i did because there were some complications when I started trying to fit everything in, but I get ahead of myself. Comments are welcome. Here is what it looked like to start:
At this point I only had my Swiftech H220x CPU cooler, ONE Asus Poseidon 980GTX and the MSI 980GTX. I decided it was easier and would look better to order another Poseidon than to get a waterblock for the MSI and figure out how to connect the two. I also had an Asus Formula and an Intel i7-4970k at this point. Sadly the motherboard started having issues with some fan headers and Asus was taking their time getting a replacement. After a month of waiting I decided to upgrade to the 2011-3 series.
Next up was to figure out a loop.
I placed my order Performance PC since Frozen CPU went down and Pierre there was a lot of help. In the mean time my second Poseiden came in.
So my parts came in.
I had decided to go with an all in one reservoir/pump combo instead of two separate parts, besides where I was going to put the pump under the HDD cages but decided to use that area for an drain port.
At this point I installed my new PSU a Corsair 1200i and two Commander Minis. no they don't work together (yet that firmware patch is in the future) but I needed two fan hubs for all the fans and ... for something else.
Sadly the reservoir wouldn't fit properly past the HDD cage so I had to dremmel a bit (pix was taken after I filled everything)
The radiators were a problem. These alpha cool came with 30mm and 35mm screws. Unfortunately I didn't have and rubber grommets to make up the 4mm difference so i had to scravenge them from my other old cases. Luckily I ended up with exactly how many I needed and was able to mount them. With that I was able to put everything into place and start to fill and test for leaks.
Then added the dye.
WIth the sucessful leak test completed, it was time to put on the finishing touches. I was able to order some Corsair Dominiator Platinum Air Series fans for my memory. I ordered them directly from Corsair which was new as up to a month ago, they didn't have them available. If you want to be able to change colours, you have to attach them to a Corsair Link. Unfortunately the Corsair Link only has ONE port for these and they don't have a Y-splitter. If anyone knows where I can get one, it would be appreciated. The default colour is red, but when Corsair finally comes out with a firmware fix to be able to use BOTH Commander Minis, then I will have each one connecting to one of them.
If anyone knows how to get two Commander Minis to work together, please let me know.
Sadly with the camera I use, the LEDs often times look orange instead of red. Limitations of the camera sadly but it is all blood red.
As of writing this I just got my LEDs in the mail and will be attaching them tomorrow...maybe add some cable combs....and then I'm done. I'll take final pix then.
In the end I'm satisfied with the build, although I think it would look even MORE better with acrylic tubing. I also didn't order enough 90 degreen fittings and had to use one of the 'S' fittings out of the reservoir. Luckily the compression fittings I used were the Monsoon free center ones and can easily upgrade them to the hardline type. If/when i do make the change, I may add some extenders and 90 degree fitings to the top reservoir to make it look cleaner or just bend it properly, but for now. I'm done.
Here are the final specs:
Case: Phanteks Enthro Primo SE red/black
MB: Asus x99 Rampage Extreme
CPU: Intel i7-5930k
GPU: 2x Asus Poseidon GTX 980
PSU: Corsair AX 1200i
RAM: 4x4 Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR 4 2800Mhz
BOOT M.2: Samsung xp941 m.2 256GB
APP SSD: 2x Samsung 850 Pro 256GB (Raid 0)
SSD: Samsung 850 Pro 512GB
HDD: Western Digital Black 4TB
USB Hub: NZXT
DVD: Asus DVD/BR Drive
Water Cooling:
13 x Corsair SP 140 Fans
Primochill CTR 240mm Clear Phase 2 Reservoir with Swiftech D5 pump
Alphacool NexXxoS ST30 Full Copper 420mm radiator
Alphacool NexXxoS UT60 Full Copper 280mm radiator
Mayhem X1 Blood Red Concentrate
Primoflex Advanced LRT Tubing
Swiftech Apogee XL CPU block with ROG front
Customer Wiring (don't remember where I got them from)
Lots of Monsoon fittings
Comments are welcome. Now to sleep.