Hi everyone,
Just a brief introduction about myself. My name is Alex and I've been a LinusTechTips fan for about 3 years now, been a member here for a while however this is my first thread. I'm 21 and currently a full time student at Griffith University in Gold Coast, Australia, studying finance, so nothing to do with computers and technology. But I have a deep passion for computers and videos games. Everything I've learned that can be reflected in my build has been from watching YouTube videos from Linus, TinyTomLogan and the like. I've seen so many real nice builds on here that it inspired me to upload my own. So I wanna share my build with everyone and hope to inspire more people to document their builds. Thank you for viewing my thread and I hope you like my build. Lets get on with it:
Firstly this is my old build:
The specs are NZXT Phantom 820 Gun Metal case, EVGA Z68 FTW motherboard, i5 2500K @ 4.5GHz, 16GB G.Skill Ripjaws 1600MHz, 2 x EVGA GTX 670s, 120GB Corsair Force GT SSD, Corsair AX860 power supply and custom watercooling with all EK waterblock, DDC pump and res combo, 360 Alphacool rad up top push/pull and 240 in the bottom push/pull, phobya g-silent fans and some bitfenix red led fans, bitspower compression fittngs, Primochill tubing and Mayhems X1 Blood Red coolant which doesn't really look like blood red but I came to like it in the end.
The new build is now complete but I just haven't had time to upload anything due to starting uni. I have documented as much as I could of the process and will be uploading everything in the following days.
The purpose of this new build was that I just wanted a smaller build that could fit all my watercooling gear and also decided to upgrade some components. What I kept from the old build was the graphics cards, SSD, power supply, rads, pump and waterblocks.
Here are the new specs:
Fractal Design ARC Mini R2 (Case)
Asus Maximus V Gene (Motherboard)
i7 3770K (CPU)
2 x EVGA GTX 670s (Graphics Cards)
16GB (4 x 4GB) Corsair Dominator GT 2133MHz C9 (Memory)
120GB Corsair Force GT (SSD)
1TB 2.5" drive from a random external hdd that I had
Corsair AX860 (Power Supply)
Cooling:
7 x Gelid Wing 12PL Silent 120mm PWM Fans UV Green all with 7V adapters
Alphacool NexXxoS ST30 Full Copper Radiator 360 in the top with 3 fans in push
Alphacool NexXxoS UT60 Full Copper Radiator 240 in the front with 4 fans in push/pull
EK Supremacy CPU Block Nickel Plexi CSQ Design
EK Monarch X4 Dominator GT Waterblock Nickel Plexi CSQ Design
EK-Mosfet Asus M5G Waterblock Copper Acetal CSQ Design, could not find Nickel Plexi version
2 x EK GTX 670 Waterblock CSQ Design one is Nickel Acetal and one is Nickel Plexi, both CSQ Design with backplates
EK FC Bridge Dual Parallel Clear Plexi CSQ Design
Laing DDC Pump
Bitspower DDC Pump Top Full Acrylic
Bitspower Water Tank Z-Multi 250
Various Bitspower angle and extension fittings mat black
Primochill Ghost Green Rigid Compression Fittings
Primochill Clear Rigid Acrylic Tube
Mayhems X1 Emerald Green UV Coolant
I also bought the Monsoon 13mm Full Bending Kit which is a really good kit for rigid tube bending. Took me about 6 hours to measure, bend and install all my tubes and this is my first time using and bending rigid tubing. Really good bending kit from Monsoon.
Also Phobya 60cm RGB LED Flexlight with controller for lighting
Not the most extreme specs according to today's standards, I'm just a uni student, however this build is more than enough to play any game at max at 1080p so I'm happy with that. The parts where bought from various stores in Australia and US, including PC Case Gear, The Koolroom, GAMMods, PerformancePCs, Frozen CPU and the 3770k and dominator memory I scored a real good deal on ebay, also the motherboard was purchased from Gumtree.
I have polished all EK plexi waterblocks that I have, used 1500 grit wet sand paper and meguiras ultimate compound polish.
Overview of the case:
Stripped the whole case apart, removed all drive cages, 5.25" bays, and most of the front panel cables, was left with only the power and reset switch
Got a small piece of very thin metal cut to size, cost me $5 lol, I mounted it into the case to mask the area next to the motherboard to help me better with cable management. Used the screw holes that where holding the drive cages
Used some foam to cover up the front panel usb holes, mainly took it out because I don't like the thick cable and didn't see much use to it
Motherboard overview
CPU:
Memory:
SSD:
Power Supply:
Graphics Cards after taking them out of my old build
The tube there used to be clear... wait till you see what was inside the blocks
EK GTX 670 Nickel Acetal block after about 6 months of Mayhems X1 Blood Red
After cleaning with a toothbrush and some toothpaste, I reckon it came out pretty good
For some reason the other block came out much better and was not even that dirty
Polished the plexi top
Both GTX 670s with clean waterblocks installed
Gelid fans with detachable blade. Really like the look of these fans. They all came with white LEDs but I decided to cut them out as I think it ruins the UV effect of the fan blades. I know I could of purchased the ones without the LEDs but these were on special at The Koolroom and got them for $9 each and they were the only ones available. Only left the white LEDs on the 2 fans that will be seen through the front mesh
Alphacool NexXxoS ST30 Full Copper Radiator 360. This is a 30mm thick rad that will be going in the top of the case, I could of used a thicker rad or go push/pull but wanted to be able to see my whole motherboard and this fits just perfect
Alphacool NexXxoS UT60 Full Copper Radiator 240. 60mm thick rad going push/pull in the front of the case
Both rads next to each other
CPU block after getting pulled out of my old build
And cleaned, also with a toothbrush and toothpaste
Polished CPU block before and after
It looks much better installed in the build with fluid
EK RAM Block Polished
Pump
Pump top
250 res
Primochill Ghost Green Rigid Compression Fittings
Primochill Clear Rigid Acrylic Tube. I bought way more than I needed in case I messed up the bending lol
That's it for now as it's getting really late here, nearly 1am on a Sunday night. Hope you enjoyed an overview of most of the components. I will be uploading more pics tomorrow.