My Water-cooled PC Build

[MH6~SPARTA~]

I'm thinking about building a new PC, using about half of the components from my current machine. I will be using my current graphics cards (GTX 580 & GTX 280), along with my various SSDs/HDDs and my PSU. Everything else (CPU/Mobo/RAM/Case) will be upgraded. This will be my first ever water-cooled system, and as such I will be purchasing a kit. I will most definitely bleed and test-run the entire cooling setup outside the case before I install everything, so I don't risk leaks ruining components.

 

My End Goal:

The goal of this build is to have a badass machine that will laugh at anything I throw at it. I am shooting for a CPU overclock of around 5GHz, stable. In the future, I may consider purchasing a second GTX 580 for an SLI configuration, or possibly holding off and purchasing a dual-GPU card once the 580 starts to struggle. The 580 would then take the 280's place as a dedicated PhysX card (or possibly used in another gaming machine). A big component of this build is the water-cooling. I've always wanted to try it, and now I can.

 

My build, as it stands:

CPU

Intel i7-3930K

• Six Cores
• Quad-channel DDR3
• 12MB L3 Cache
• 3.20 GHz (stock)

Why an i7-3930K over an i7-3770K?

I decided to go with an i7-3930K due to the fact that at this point in time, it is not known whether Intel will be releasing a six core CPU on the new Ivy Bridge architecture. While the Ivy Bridge chips are a step forward, it is not a very large step, and not in directions that concern me (I care not about lower power consumption or integrated graphics). The 3930K will be slightly better, performance wise, and most importantly would allow me to have a quad-channel memory setup as opposed to the 3770K's dual-channel setup.

MOBO

ASUS Rampage IV Extreme

It seems to be a general consensus that this is one of the better motherboards to host an i7-3930K. While I usually go with EVGA, their X79 board has been having too many problems for me to confidently purchase one. Plus, the ASUS board is extremely over-clocker friendly, and has all the basic features I need (6GB/S SATA, support for 64GB of 2133 MHz memory, USB 3.0, etc.) . This will be my first ever ASUS board, so I am a little hesitant, but I've quite liked their laptops so hopefully I won't be disappointed. Another great feature of the board is the dedicated heatsink and fan for the chipset--as I will be water-cooling the CPU, there will be less air traveling across the motherboard, which can make the chipset get quite hot.

RAM

G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 16GB (4x4GB) 2133 DDR3

• CAS Latency: 9
• Timings: 9/11/10/28
• Voltage: 1.65V

I may end up buying two of these, for a total of 32GB. What could I possible need so much RAM for, you ask? Good question! Let me show you a little something about RAM Drives & RAM Caching...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cqfhZvyE80

 

Video Summary:

RAM Disk & Caching can provide sequential read/write speeds of up to

6 GB/s

. Quite a performance increase over the

~450 MB/s

of SSDs! But wait, you ask--games surely can't benefit from this! You are right, a lot of games can't (at least, not enough to really matter). However, certain games, like

ArmA 3

benefit

greatly

from being run on a RAM disk. Not to mention the speed increases you get for regular applications, such as Photoshop. Not to mention how it benefits

virtual machines

. RAM disks are amazing, and you can benefit a great deal from harnessing them.

Hell, I'd get 64GB of RAM if it didn't cost so damn much (as I want 2133MHZ or better RAM, which increases the price a bit). If you know of any RAM I can get 64GB of, with a latency of 9 or so and a comparable speed to 2133--and all for under $300--let me know. I doubt you can though.

CASE

COOLER MASTER HAF 932 (Blue)

I've already seen examples of people fitting an RX360 radiator in the top of the case, internally, beneath the top exhaust fan--so I don't have to worry about anything not fitting. The main benefit of this case, over my current Antec 1200, is the fact that the hard drive bays are oriented sideways, so the HDD ports would be pointed toward the right panel, not toward the graphics cards. That is one thing that has always pissed me off about my Antec 1200 case, as it makes everything extremely cramped and hard to plug/unplug when they are oriented to be parallel with the case instead of perpendicular.

COOLING

XSPC Raystorm RX360 Kit

This kit comes with a 3x120MM fan radiator, which fits nicely at the top of the HAF 932 case. It also features a dual-bay reservoir with a built-in pump, which is one less thing to worry about. This setup would also let me extend my cooling loop to accommodate a water-cooled GPU in the future, should I desire one. The GTX 580 has been running just fine on air, however, so I will be sticking with that for now.

 

COST

Now the fun bit, tallying up the costs.

$589.99 Intel i7-3930K

$429.99 ASUS Rampage IV Extreme

$299.99 XSPC Raystorm RX360 Extreme

$159.99 COOLER MASTER HAF 932 (Blue)

$139.99 G.SKILL Ripjaws Z 16GB 2133 DDR3 (or $280 for 32GB)

~$10.00 Non-conductive, liquid coolant (not factored in total)

GRAND TOTAL

$1,619.95 - $1759.94 (Depending on whether I buy 16GB or 32GB of RAM)

 

Other optional costs:

Blu-ray Writer/Reader: ~$75-80

Keep in mind, I've already sunk about $1200 into upgrades for my current PC, which I will be transferring over to this one (GPU/SSDs/HDDs/PSU), so the total cost for the entire machine will be closer to $3000 even though I am only buying about $1800 in parts.

 

Long post, I know. Comments/critiques? Should I drop a component for something else, know of any cheaper sources (most of above is from Newegg), etc.? Am I just being crazy (probably)?

 

I'm really bad with my money...but might as well spend it while ya' got it.

[EL_n00biachi]

I bet you could easily scrape a 300bucks off of this build buying a cheaper watercooler and cheaper mb with the same results\performance....those 2 look waaay too expensive being almost 50% of the total build cost.

[AlarmedBread]

Don't feel bad about spending a few bucks on your PC, it's a relatively cheap hobby. Think about how much time you spend on it. The cost of your PC is less than a set of tires that get used up in one day at the track. In other words, you need a separate GPU cooling loop.

[Batwing~SPARTA~]

I actually like your config a lot.

 

I have to say that the RAM Disk solution is extremely interesting and it would fully justify that choice to go for 32GB straight.

 

In my real life experience i never maximize my 6GB RAM config. If i could let the machine at 6GB RAM and build a 26GB RAM Disk.. man.. you have room for 2 major games (average 10GB each) and full Office suite and some extra super fast crap !!!

 

I would not even go for the super fast RAM I have to be honest. The performance is so excellent with the 1333 bandwith that I am not sure you would "see" any difference in the real world with the high end RAM, other than a more expensive buy.

 

What we see in this presentation is a great job from the ASUS x79 chipset on that board, but, bottom line, wouldn t be expectable that the RAM Disk performance would be very similar on any other x79 chipset? For what it matters, theoretically I should be able to have an excellent performance on my old x58 chipset as well, so far the MoBo supports a large amount of RAM. When you start to have a transfer rate of around 5GB per second, differences in the range of few hundreds are really negligeble.

 

I think this set up is going to be excellent, an investment of about 1800 bucks is not even that bad. you might be able to re-sell your old Mobo, CPU and ram in a cheap set to someone else for 2-300 bucks, bringing your real expense to a very reasonable 1500 average...

 

to me is a major GREEN LIGHTS my man.. GO FOR IT !

[Slain~SPARTA~]

Don't know what fans you were planing on getting for the rad but i would go with the yate loon over the xspc ones. The xspc are pretty crap if I remember from when I build my loop may have changed since its been about a year. This one will sever just as well at 100$ cheaper but isn't as nice or flashy. For coolant i've been on distilled water with a kill coil for about a year now with out any problems and haven't had to change it out.

 

Oh and those are very nice cases had one and have the HAF X atm quite like them.

Edited May 31, 2012 by Slain~SPARTA~

[MH6~SPARTA~]

I actually like your config a lot.

 

I have to say that the RAM Disk solution is extremely interesting and it would fully justify that choice to go for 32GB straight.

 

In my real life experience i never maximize my 6GB RAM config. If i could let the machine at 6GB RAM and build a 26GB RAM Disk.. man.. you have room for 2 major games (average 10GB each) and full Office suite and some extra super fast crap !!!

 

I would not even go for the super fast RAM I have to be honest. The performance is so excellent with the 1333 bandwith that I am not sure you would "see" any difference in the real world with the high end RAM, other than a more expensive buy.

 

What we see in this presentation is a great job from the ASUS x79 chipset on that board, but, bottom line, wouldn t be expectable that the RAM Disk performance would be very similar on any other x79 chipset? For what it matters, theoretically I should be able to have an excellent performance on my old x58 chipset as well, so far the MoBo supports a large amount of RAM. When you start to have a transfer rate of around 5GB per second, differences in the range of few hundreds are really negligeble.

 

I think this set up is going to be excellent, an investment of about 1800 bucks is not even that bad. you might be able to re-sell your old Mobo, CPU and ram in a cheap set to someone else for 2-300 bucks, bringing your real expense to a very reasonable 1500 average...

 

to me is a major GREEN LIGHTS my man.. GO FOR IT !

 

You can definitely do the same RAM Disk/Caching on your X58 board--or any board, for that matter (as long as it can support a decent amount of RAM). I do it on my X58 board now, but I only have 12GB of RAM so I don't have quite as much room to store stuff. It's enough to store the core ArmA2 files (but not all of ArmA), and does increase ArmA's performance a lot, especially when flying over cities (reduces pop-in lag noticeably). With ArmA 3, I'm sure it's going to be just as bad if not worse, so having a RAM disk devoted to running ArmA 3 is, in my opinion, very very beneficial.

 

I thought about going with a slower speed RAM, like 1333/1666, but that's a difference of ~2GB/s seq. read/writes. Then again, it probably isn't noticeable either, so I'm torn. I may see what 64GB of 1333/1666 goes for and alter my setup a bit.

 

 

[MH6~SPARTA~]

Don't know what fans you were planing on getting for the rad but i would go with the yate loon over the xspc ones. The xspc are pretty crap if I remember from when I build my loop may have changed since its been about a year. This one will sever just as well at 100$ cheaper but isn't as nice or flashy. For coolant i've been on distilled water with a kill coil for about a year now with out any problems and haven't had to change it out.

 

Oh and those are very nice cases had one and have the HAF X atm quite like them.

 

Wow, I didn't realize the Rasa kit was so much cheaper. I may just go with that one instead, because as I recall there is very little difference between the two kits. Raystorm is newer, has different etching on the block, and has a slightly bigger block, but other than that I can't recall any major differences--though I'm going to double-check now. I'll be sure to pick up some Yate Loon or equivalent fans, I was having my doubts about the XSPC fans anyhow. I think I'll also pick up different tubing since the reviews mention the XSPC tubing seems sub-par.

 

Thanks for the heads-up.

Edited May 31, 2012 by MH6~SPARTA~

[Slain~SPARTA~]

I think I'll also pick up different tubing since the reviews mention the XSPC tubing seems sub-par.

Reminds me that the Rasa tubing is crap as well so if you go with that one id do the same. The raystorm block might be a bit better but your talking 1-2 degrees and its got compression fitting they look real nice but are a lot more than any other way of holding tubing on.

[MH6~SPARTA~]

Think I'll drop the G.SKILL memory and pick up 32GB of 1600 Corsair Vengeance RAM.

 

This is mostly due to the fact that 1600 is the rated spec for the i7 3930K, the Corsair RAM supports XMP 1.3, has timings of 9-9-9-24, and is more reliable than G.SKILL. While I've never personally had a problem with them, there are numerous reports of G.SKILL's 4/8+ stick kits having multiple faulty sticks in them.

 

Corsair Vengeance 32GB (8x4GB) 1600 DDR3 $199.99

[EBE]

Damn

 

 

but to be honoustly that CASE is UGLY as hell (are u holding money back on this or What ... hahahah

 

 

 

 

 

retro sux

[MH6~SPARTA~]

Yeah the case isn't great, but I don't mind the look of it. I'm more concerned with whether or not it can fit an RX360 mounted internally to the top, beneath the top exhaust fans.

 

I've been looking at different cases for a couple of hours now, having finally decided on the majority of the internal components. I've found a couple of other cases that aren't too bad, but they all have minor quirks that bug me.

 

Xigmatek Elysium

 

 

Honestly, I do love this case. My biggest annoyance with it, however, is the fact that the HDD bays (technically ODD bays, as they are ALL 5.25") are not perpendicular to the case, so all the wiring for the HDDs would be sticking out towards the graphics card, not towards the right panel like I'd like. On the other hand, this thing can support up to 3 (maybe 4) radiators, as well a dual-bay reservoir, a controller panel, a media-card panel, Blu-ray player, etc. It even has a damn built-in HDD dock on the top, so you can just stick in a spare HDD and use it like it was internal (which is damn nifty in my opinion, I hate external docking stations). I don't like the fact that any top fans would be exposed, however--not covered by a mesh like with the HAF case.

 

Corsair 800D

Not a bad case, but a bit dated. My biggest gripe with it is the absence of a side panel fan. If I was going to water cool my GPUs as well, I'd consider this case. As I am sticking with air cooled GPUs, however, this case just doesn't fit the bill. As a pure water cooling case, it rocks, but as an air cooling or hybrid cooling case, it is terrible. Any air cooled graphics card I put in this case would overheat like a son of a bitch.

 

 

Then there are cases like the NZXT Phantom, which, although they look awesome, are so cheaply made that they fall apart if you look at them funny.

 

But essentially, my main concerns as far as the case go are these:

• The HDD bays should be mounted sideways, not parallel with the case. I want the SATA connectors to connect from the right panel, not from near the graphics card.
• It should have room enough for 5+ HDDs
• There should be enough room to mount an RX360 radiator internally at the top of the case. Preferably in a push/pull configuration.
• It has enough ODD bays to hold a 2-bay reservoir, Blu-ray player, and if possible a controller panel and multimedia card reader. (So 6 ODD bays, though 7 would be even better). The top ODD bay would probably be left empty due to the RX360 radiator.

My preferences as far as appearance:

• Black, matte finish
• Blue lighting (though I can do this myself if need be)

Right now, I'm more leaning toward getting a Cooler Master HAF X, but I'm going to keep looking.

 

EDIT: After further research, I may go with the Elysium. I didn't realize just how fucking massive the thing was. Even with a GTX 580 in it, there's about 5 inches of room between it and the HDDs, so I don't think I'll have as much trouble getting to the connectors as I do with my Antec 1200. Plus, the Elysium with silver accents and a side window looks pretty damn badass, and leaves me plenty of room if I want to add my GPUs to the cooling loop in the future. I may end up building a shroud for the top radiator fans though if I can't find a prebuilt solution, just so I don't have exposed fans where stuff can drop down into the computer (and silver fan grilles look stupid)

Edited June 1, 2012 by MH6~SPARTA~

[EBE]

second thought (i looked in to it a bit)

 

If the case does what is needed to do (your requests ; damn alot ..)

 

GO FOR IT !!

 

greetz

 

 

have fun on ya new build

[MH6~SPARTA~]

I just pulled the trigger on the Xigmatek Elysium.

 

 

 

Out of curiosity, I looked up how much it'd cost to get it shipped overnight (so I get it Saturday). $100 in shipping charges.

Obviously I wasn't going to pay that much. So then I decided to cash in my free 6-mo Amazon Prime membership (all students get this). Shipping went down to $8.99.

 

God damn I love Amazon.

Edited June 1, 2012 by MH6~SPARTA~

[EBE]

I just pulled the trigger on the Xigmatek Elysium.

 

 

 

Out of curiosity, I looked up how much it'd cost to get it shipped overnight (so I get it Saturday). $100 in shipping charges.

Obviously I wasn't going to pay that much. So then I decided to cash in my free 6-mo Amazon Prime membership (all students get this). Shipping went down to $8.99.

 

God damn I love Amazon.

 

 

NICE

[Athlon64~SPARTA~]

Have a look at some Koolance cases.

[MH6~SPARTA~]

All the goodies have arrived, time to commence the build!

 

That is, once I get home from work in about 1.5hrs.

 

I've also decided that I am going to build a 5.25" bay fan/lighting controller. It will control all 6 fans on the radiator, as well as the front case fans and all lighting in the case. The goal being that I can make the PC silent and dark @ night, as it sits in my bedroom and I rarely shut it down. I may even add an AtMega chip to it so it can turn itself on/off automatically at set times (i.e. go silent and dark at 11PM so it doesn't annoy me when I go to sleep, and wake back up at 5PM so it's ready when I get home). A little extreme perhaps but I'm always looking for something fun to make with the numerous AtMega chips I have.

 

Have a look at some Koolance cases.

 

 

I looked at them but they are fairly pricey and fairly ugly, at least in my opinion.

Edited June 5, 2012 by MH6~SPARTA~

[MH6~SPARTA~]

My water-cooling loop has been running in the case (sans components) for a solid 16 hours now, and is leak-free thus far. Did have a minor hiccup with the pump last night, resulting in a fairly massive leak, but that has since been resolved. Was a noob error in regards to the placement of the O-ring.

 

Time to drain it (filled with distilled water currently), fill it with the coolant I bought, and put the PC together!

[MH6~SPARTA~]

PC is built and running smooth @ a 4.7GHz overclock. Think I may try to bump it up to 5.0GHz tonight. Temps were excellent under full load, never going above 65 degrees.

 

It's also dead quiet (until I bump the GPU fan up to 100%). Loving the water-cooling system I have so far, even if it was a bit of a bitch to setup initially.

 

Future plan: Buy a second overclocked GTX 580, and stick GPU waterblocks on both of them. Will probably need a secondary radiator as well, ideally a 240mm.

 

Performance PCs sent me the wrong damn Cathode lights though, so I'll have to return them before I can stick them in the case. They will also be controlled by the front panel, along with the case fan LEDs and radiator fan speeds.