No compromises M-Atx watercooled build log

[Sean W.]

Alright guys,

Had a bit of time to work on the build today, there still isnt a lot that I can do without the motherboard, which should be here on Wednessday. Money is also a bit tight so itll be another couple weeks before I get the radiators and 980 Waterblocks.

So today I focused on something I could do, painting my ol' faithful Enzotech Sapphire Rev. A CPU waterblock. Ive had this old gal since the Phenom II 965 Black edition days. It has prooved time and time again to be an amazing performer and has always served me well, Not to mention, its something I already have so thats just one less thing I have to buy.

The only thing about it is that it has a kinda gunmetal blue paint scheme on it, that wont serve this new build very well, so today I painted it.

Here it is as a virgin, un-messed with and in all its original glory. Forgive the appearence of the block its self, looks a bit like brass instead of copper, but she's an old gal, give her a break.

After scuffing it up real good with a scrub pad and making sure its perfectly clean, I tapped off the barbs and prepped it for paint.

Here it is after 3 light coats about 5 minutes apart with Krylon matte black metal paint, I think it turned out awesome.

This is the paint I used.

Thats all for now! thanks guys!

 

[Sean W.]

Alright guys!

Update time!

So, the Corsair RM850 PSU I was going to use for this build initially..... Erm... Exploded..... During testing, so I will not be using it.

If you want to read more about that, check out the thread I made on that topic here:
http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/358789-corsair-rm850-exploded/

INSTEAD! I returned the corsair unit to the store I bought it from and got an EVGA 850W G2 power supply instead. After a few hours of testing, Im confidant it wont explode... hopefully.

So.... Pictures of the replacement different moar better psu that will be powering this beast for the foreseeable future!

Packaging and presentation is much much better than the Corsair.

and the unit itself, in all its glory!

That is all for now! Huge update coming tomorrow!

 

[PP Mguire]

I find it funny how the lady told you exactly what they said yet you didn't listen. Not real sure why you posted there to begin with if you'll just ignore what's being said.

I like how hard their dicks get over eVGA units. My friends 1300 gets way hot under only 2 290x but my old faithful 1kw Thermaltake barely makes heat under two fully over clocked Titan X.

In any case I agree with the majority of them. Was just a bad unit and a quick replacement if you sent it in would have done the trick just fine. Impatience leads to disaster in the enthusiast land.

Sent from my D6616

 

[Sean W.]

I find it funny how the lady told you exactly what they said yet you didn't listen. Not real sure why you posted there to begin with if you'll just ignore what's being said.

I like how hard their dicks get over eVGA units. My friends 1300 gets way hot under only 2 290x but my old faithful 1kw Thermaltake barely makes heat under two fully over clocked Titan X.

In any case I agree with the majority of them. Was just a bad unit and a quick replacement if you sent it in would have done the trick just fine. Impatience leads to disaster in the enthusiast land.

Sent from my D6616

Not sure what you're talking about here, but thanks for checking out my build, PP. Was wondering when you were going to stop by.

 

[Sean W.]

Alright guys!

Big update today! The motherboard came in early today, So I was able to test fit it and check clearances for everything, so far everything is looking like its going to fit well!

She's beautiful!

Installed it temporarily just to see how things were going to line up and marked a hole where I needed to drill a hole to make routing the front panel connectors easier.

Silver Sharpe mark is where I drilled a 1/2" hole

With the color scheme for this build being kinda, murdered out black, I was going to pull off the red bits on the motherboard heatsinks to paint them black. Luckily the red parts were for just looks and had nothing to do with the actual cooling and were just held on with screws.

Unfortunately, Hercules tightens these screws and they were extremely tight, I stripped one of the screws trying to get it off :'( The only other option was to remove the heatsinks from the motherboard and drill out the screws, I didnt feel like doing that, So I decided Ill just live with the red accents on the motherboard.

Anyway, with that out the window, I moved onto the next project for the build. Sound proofing the case! I reached out to Silverstone and they sent me over a set of their sound proofing material for me to use! Its a great material to work with and Im really looking forward to hearing how much of a difference it makes.

First I use graphing paper to make a template of the area I want to make a patch for

Then I transfer that template to the back of the sound dampening material

Test fit the patch

Then I remove a small portion of the the paper that protects the sticky side

Then stick part of the pad to the surface and slowly start to remove the rest of the backing while guiding the rest of the pad into place

Success! I covered every possible surface in the case I could!

Another thing I was able to get done today was permanently mount the reservoir

and cut a 1" hole in the top for access to the fill port in the top of the case

Anyway! thats all for now!

 

[PP Mguire]

Not sure what you're talking about here, but thanks for checking out my build, PP. Was wondering when you were going to stop by.

Been watching the thread. I just don't typically post in build threads.

What I was on about was the LTT guys told you exactly what Corsair would say and you pretty much ignored it.

 

[Sean W.]

Had more time to work on the computer today.

Having a fan controller is essential on my builds, I like to under-volt my fans so they run quieter, thats the whole reason why I water cool my computers, to make them quiet. Unfortunately the Raidmax Hyperion does not have a built in fan controller, So... I installed one

The fan controller I decided to use was the Zalman Fan Mate 2, Ill use it to control all the fans in the case simultaneously. The controller can support up to 6Watts. The fans im using all use .10Amps at 12v, but I will be under-volting them to around 5-6volts which makes them draw around 0.6Amps each. So Ill be able to run all 9 fans from the fan controller.

The first thing I did was rewire it to be powered by a Molex connector instead of a 3 pin motherboard header.

Then I drilled a small hole in the bottom right of the front fascia

The applied the double sided foam tape, being careful to cover as few the ventilation holes as possible.

Then installed the fan controller.

Hidden but easy to get to

Cant even tell its there!

Anyway, thats all for now!

 

[Sean W.]

Alright guys,

I made the LED strips Ill be using to light up the inside of this build today, I figured that I could hook them up to the fan controller and control their brightness with it, and it worked! When I want the computer to be super quiet and dark, I turn the controller all the way down and the lights will turn off.