# Old meets New [WIP]



## SN2716057 (May 12, 2020)

Hello all,

I just wanted to make this post so I won't spam the Your PC ATM thread all the time.

Anyway, I have a lot of spare parts and I just can't/won't get rid of it, therefor a new small project is in order.
It had to be water cooled as I no longer have the original cooler for the graphics card.

All, except the case, are spare parts.

Old parts
Mobo: MSI Z97i Gaming ACK
Cpu: i7-4790k
RAM: 2x 4GB G.Skill TridentX 2400MHz
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 980 SC GAMING ACX 2.0
SSD: Kingston something -> will be replaced
PSU: Corsair SF600
---
Water cooling bits: EK, Bitspower, Alphacool, Koolance, and various others

New Part(s)
Case: Fractal Design Define Nano S

*The build*




A lot of eye balling and searching the web for ideas.


Spoiler: The rest of the pix






Finally use for the fan hub!




So the tube from the cpu to the reservoir isn't horizontal. Yep, I know but I don't mind.




Water & leak testing after I finished the air test. Frosty tubes? Ugh, too much work.




After a couple of hours of testing.




Added a drain. The ball valve will be straighten out and the fitting and tube will only be attached when it needs to drain.




I did try to tie the tube to the chassis but OMG that was a PITA, so no.







I will also add a fill port, cause why not? I will, unfortunately, need to buy a stubby fitting.






The res barely touches the gpu but thank tech jesus for gpu sag 

*To do list*
- Clean sh!t
- Flush stuff
- Buy a fitting
- Wait for cables
- Play games

Thanks for visiting!


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## SN2716057 (May 18, 2020)

Currently in the process of cleaning and flushing. Took the cpu and gpu waterblock apart and found nothing noteworthy.
I also bought a fitting for the fillport, and some other things.

Things I need to address:
- the fan hub doesn't stick  might will have to screw it in.
- still waiting for the cables..





Spoiler: 2 more pix






Solved the fan hub issue. I had to remove the sticky side on the foam, which was a wonderful easy thing /S


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## SN2716057 (Jun 2, 2020)

The cables have FINALLY arrived! I'm gonna wait a few days before reassembly cause of the heat.


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## SN2716057 (Jun 29, 2020)

Sorry for the long wait but health took a dive (not pandemic related). Anyways, more cables arrived. I'll soon be ready for full assembly.



Cable test fit. Good on this side.


Spoiler: 1 more




Will have to do some work on this side.


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## SN2716057 (Jul 1, 2020)

Well sh!t, 1 tube decided it was too long and now turns out too short. 
Back to sifting through my rejected pile of tubes in the hope I have one that fits.



I also noticed I need some additional fittings.


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## FreedomEclipse (Jul 1, 2020)

Just out of curiosity. I hope you know Corsair recently did a recall on all recent SF PSUs

I hope yours isn't a unit that's affected


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## Caring1 (Jul 1, 2020)

SN2716057 said:


> Well sh!t, 1 tube decided it was too long and now turns out too short.
> Back to sifting through my rejected pile of tubes in the hope I have one that fits.
> View attachment 160784
> I also noticed I need some additional fittings.


If you have an extension fitting you can use that on the pump, similar to the one on the base of the reservoir.


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## tabascosauz (Jul 1, 2020)

Looking good as always. Any cable combs planned for that PCIe set?

On a side note, how much minimum Vcore does your 4790K need at 4.4GHz all core, specifically? Been playing with mine 5 years late to figure out what mine needs to be stable.


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## SN2716057 (Jul 1, 2020)

FreedomEclipse said:


> Just out of curiosity. I hope you know Corsair recently did a recall on all recent SF PSUs
> 
> I hope yours isn't a unit that's affected


I did, thank you anyway. Luckily my psu isn't in the affected range.



Caring1 said:


> If you have an extension fitting you can use that on the pump, similar to the one on the base of the reservoir.


I could if I had another one (in that color), alas. Plus I have plenty of spare tubes. If possible I try to avoid extenders.



tabascosauz said:


> Looking good as always. Any cable combs planned for that PCIe set?
> 
> On a side note, how much minimum Vcore does your 4790K need at 4.4GHz all core, specifically? Been playing with mine 5 years late to figure out what mine needs to be stable.


Thank you! I probably will use these for the gpu, the rest aren't necessary and too tight.

I honestly don't remember the OC I had, sorry.

---

So this is another update. And again still a work in progress.
I placed the FD pump bracket back so I could at least use the bottom filter again. Plus this will make things easier; I now only need to shorten the tube from res to pump.
Unfortunately I don't have a long enough tube for the front rad to gpu line cause that extension is an eye-sore to me. I just can't and won't allow it  
Nor is the tube from the cpu back to the rad long enough.

On a positive note I finally got to use the Bitspower Five Rotary Snake-Style adapter!

I apologize for the dark pic, still learning how to use the dslr.

So (sigh) I will need to buy some more things; extra tubes, a Bitspower 3-way rotary fitting, a sealing plug, and maybe another fan (just maybe).


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## SN2716057 (Jul 3, 2020)

Update!

Took most things out to redo the tube from res to pump. This bit is finally done!

Next up: must redo the line from pump to front rad. There's a 2mm difference in height so I must shape the bend a bit.
Looking forward to that 

Okay, I tried the easy way but it looked horrible.

So I tried to bend a tube ever so slightly to get it sort of right.
And...

Tada!

Still not perfect but good enough.

I'll do the air leak test either Sunday or Monday cause I'm waiting on a couple of products.


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## SN2716057 (Jul 5, 2020)

Update!

Tomorrow I'll, hopefully, receive the new air test kit. And, if it pleases the gods, all goes well it will be finished!


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## SN2716057 (Jul 7, 2020)

Update!

Yesterday I was baffled why the psu didn't start. It turned out the cheap power strip reached its eol, lol.

Anyway, I did some air tests and it failed every time. Baffled I looked for a leak but none was heard. Adding a bit of water in the loop and then air testing did show 1 fitting bubbling. So now I'm testing with pure water and after a couple of hours running, an hour turn-off, and running again (with no leaks or water drop) I'll fill it with the real deal.





Spoiler: 2 more


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## SN2716057 (Aug 7, 2020)

A turn of events. I've decided that the old(er) 4790k & GTX 980 will go on the bench rather than in the cramped FD.
And so it will get soft tubing with most likely QDC's for ease of use.




The Fractal Design Nano will get the Gigabyte B450 I AORUS PRO WIFI mobo that was previously in another build (AMD Chopin). I updated the bios to the latest stable version (F50) but I don't have a cpu yet (help?). This system will be air cooled as it was a pita to work in.




I'll update on both cases.

Things I'm not sure at:
- just one 240 rad on the bench for the 980 & i7? Or only wc the 980 and air cool the i7?
- What cpu for the B450?
- Buy a second hand gpu or brand new..
- Find a nice solution to hide the water cooling holes in the Fractal Design.

Cheers


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## xman2007 (Aug 7, 2020)

just a suggestion, use thumbnails instead of full images as it's taking an age to download all your images as you have numerous posts in the thread dating back to May with lots of full res pics in each, I'm also downloading a torrent but have QOS enabled in my router so it shouldnt take 5 minutes just to download every picture you have posted. Try imgur or www.techpowerup.org, otherwise great build log, suggest 3600/X for the CPU for your B450


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## tabascosauz (Aug 7, 2020)

SN2716057 said:


> Things I'm not sure at:
> - just one 240 rad on the bench for the 980 & i7? Or only wc the 980 and air cool the i7?
> - What cpu for the B450?
> - Buy a second hand gpu or brand new..
> - Find a nice solution to hide the water cooling holes in the Fractal Design.



I think the B450I Aorus has an artificial current limiter that will prevent you from using 3900X or 3950X at full performance before the thermals actually become a problem. It will handle a 3700X somewhat okay at near-stock 3800X power draw and clocks, but I'm not confident in its ability to handle a 3800X. 6-core SKUs will be perfectly okay.

Use that rear fan to keep air flowing over the VRM heatsink; it's not got a lot of heatsink area as it's just a big L slab and the 4-phase Vcore will heat up under load. The IR3556s and IR35201 are very nice Infineon parts however, and will provide you with current monitoring visible in HWInfo, as well as (more importantly) MOSFET temperature in HWInfo.

If you are using a large air cooler (DRP4, D15, D15S, C14S, etc.) make sure you plug in what you need at the top of the board first. The socket is offset significantly to the north.

Last thing, the board underreports power draw significantly and comes in at roughly 76% at full load under HWInfo's Power Deviation metric. 100% reporting is standard and accurate power draw and current information with most boards including my current TUF coming in at 90-95%, so the ~25% deviation isn't good. This is true of the F50 BIOS that I was on, not sure if Gigabyte ever pulled it and reuploaded a different revision of F50. Doesn't really pose much of a thermal problem, however, as long as you're using a 3700X or lower.

The underreporting does mean that the boost pushes chips very hard, stock boost being equivalent to high PBO settings on other boards. Good if you want performance and have good cooling (or if you static overclock, in which case it'll be irrelevant), bad if you want lower temperatures and lower Vcore.


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## SN2716057 (Aug 8, 2020)

xman2007 said:


> just a suggestion, use thumbnails instead of full images as it's taking an age to download all your images as you have numerous posts in the thread dating back to May with lots of full res pics in each, I'm also downloading a torrent but have QOS enabled in my router so it shouldnt take 5 minutes just to download every picture you have posted. Try imgur or www.techpowerup.org, otherwise great build log, suggest 3600/X for the CPU for your B450


Thank you for the reply. In the future I'll use both imgur for the big pix and thumbnails for the phone pix. The 3600 is indeed on my short list.



tabascosauz said:


> I think the B450I Aorus has an artificial current limiter that will prevent you from using 3900X or 3950X at full performance before the thermals actually become a problem. It will handle a 3700X somewhat okay at near-stock 3800X power draw and clocks, but I'm not confident in its ability to handle a 3800X. 6-core SKUs will be perfectly okay.
> 
> Use that rear fan to keep air flowing over the VRM heatsink; it's not got a lot of heatsink area as it's just a big L slab and the 4-phase Vcore will heat up under load. The IR3556s and IR35201 are very nice Infineon parts however, and will provide you with current monitoring visible in HWInfo, as well as (more importantly) MOSFET temperature in HWInfo.
> 
> ...



Thank you for your reply. The X versions of cpu's are a bit on the pricey side for me, and by your reply not really handy on this board, so I most likely will go for the 3600. It will be air cooled by the Noctua NH-U12S, maybe in push-pull.
So I guess setting everything manual in the bios is the way to go with this board?


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## tabascosauz (Aug 9, 2020)

SN2716057 said:


> So I guess setting everything manual in the bios is the way to go with this board?



No, not exactly. The U12S is plenty capable for a 6-core or 8-core and fairly quiet, don't think you'll have problems. The Aorus' aggressive firmware really just causes a lot of noise headaches for running smaller, whinier and faster spinning 92mm coolers like the D9L, U9S, C7 or L9x65. No reason to shy away from a 3600X or 3700X if they happen to be on sale, and you want them.

The old recommendation is to put voltages on Normal instead of Auto in Gigabyte BIOS (just type in "Normal" or "N" and Enter), but as of F50 I haven't noticed any substantive difference to temps and noise. Look at it this way: Gigabyte's aggressive approach also means that you automatically get all the CPU performance you're paying for, and you don't have to dig into Precision Boost Overdrive for it. 

In my experience, all-core static overclock is just better noise/temps wise because you're no longer listening to the fans/temps ramping up and down all the time with load, and the absolute minimum voltage necessary for an overclock will always be lower than what the chip usually calls for at that speed. But being able to do that highly depends on the quality of your chip. If your chip can do say 4.3GHz or 4.4GHz completely stable all-core at 1.275V or lower, then it would be a no-brainer.

But if your chip ends up being like mine and barely does 4.2GHz at over 1.3V, it makes a lot more sense to leave the decisions to the CPU and get that higher single core boost. If you do decide to let it boost, go into BIOS fan control and set the CPU fans to an Interval of 3, might smooth over the fan speed spikes a bit. You can also bind your case fan speeds to VRM temp, chipset temp, or system sensor temp.

Yields have improved significantly since July 2019, however, and you now have a decent chance of getting a 3600/3600X/3800X that'll do that kind of excellent overclock. Stay below 1.3V at good temperatures on the overclock, and you shouldn't have to worry about CPU lifespan ever. Use the SVI2 TFN sensors in HWInfo for Vcore and VSOC, they are most accurate for overclocking purposes.


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## SN2716057 (Aug 9, 2020)

Thank you very much, @tabascosauz.

I've decided to start a new thread cause it is taking forever to load all.

Again thank you all for watching.

Edit: The mods have told me that I shouldn't start a new thread and the next time use the spoiler insert.
So I'll continue, thank for sticking


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## Caring1 (Aug 9, 2020)

SN2716057 said:


> Thank you very much, @tabascosauz.
> 
> I've decided to start a new thread cause it is taking forever to load all.
> 
> Again thank you all for watching.


Using thumbnails instead would help that issue.


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## SN2716057 (Aug 10, 2020)

Caring1 said:


> Using thumbnails instead would help that issue.


Yeah, the mods have giving me advice on that.


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## SN2716057 (Aug 14, 2020)

The backup gaming rig is done for now. The gpu is not so great for 1440p gaming though and will be replaced in the near future.
Specs
Case: Fractal Design Meshify C
Mobo: MSI B450M Mortar
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600
Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4
RAM: Corsair LPX-V 3200Mhz 2x 8GB
GPU: MSI GTX 1060 6GB (to be replaced)
SSD: Samsung 970 500GB & 850 500GB
Add. fans: Noiseblocker NB-Loop (4x)
PSU: Corsair RM550x




Tiny album on imgur


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## SN2716057 (Aug 26, 2020)

I just wanted to share a bit of news.

Currently work is slow and money is very tight. Therefor it will take a bit longer before there will be an update on this build.
At this moment the GTX 980 and i7-4790k sit on the Streacom BC1 (test) bench.




I'll probably remove the rads, and opt for just one Alphacool UT60 240.

Cheers, and have a great day.


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## phill (Aug 26, 2020)

Hi @SN2716057 

Loving the thread   I was wondering would you like this moved into the Projects Thread??  I feel it's a bit more of a project


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## Deleted member 24505 (Aug 26, 2020)

Noticed with the tubing as it is, the cpu block will not drain properly.


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## SN2716057 (Aug 26, 2020)

phill said:


> Hi @SN2716057
> 
> Loving the thread  I was wondering would you like this moved into the Projects Thread?? I feel it's a bit more of a project


Thank you and yeah, go for it. It's taking longer than expected. <sigh>



tigger said:


> Noticed with the tubing as it is, the cpu block will not drain properly.


I'm not to worried about that. If and when it's time to drain I'll take the cpu block/pump off.

New proposed setup, this way will make the tubing shorter. The rad also has a drain port which will make life easier. I'll still buy qdc's for the gpu.


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## phill (Aug 26, 2020)

SN2716057 said:


> Thank you and yeah, go for it. It's taking longer than expected. <sigh>
> 
> 
> I'm not to worried about that. If and when it's time to drain I'll take the cpu block/pump off.
> ...


I know the feeling well, so far one project has taken me nearly 5 years with one thing and another and I'm hoping in the next week mines finished, so I know your pain!! 

Best thing ever is drain ports!!  I use the Koolance drain blocks and they work very well, small bit of tubing off one of the ports and away we go   Loop drained baby!


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## SN2716057 (Aug 26, 2020)

phill said:


> I know the feeling well, so far one project has taken me nearly 5 years with one thing and another and I'm hoping in the next week mines finished, so I know your pain!!
> 
> Best thing ever is drain ports!!  I use the Koolance drain blocks and they work very well, small bit of tubing off one of the ports and away we go  Loop drained baby!


5 years?! Okay, I'll try and beat that (quicker I mean) 
The alphacool UT60 rad has a drain port. Nothing wrong with tilting the bench to drain a bit of fluid.


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## Deleted member 24505 (Aug 26, 2020)

Here's my drain setup. works pretty well, its pretty much the lowest point in the loop. Changed to 16/12 hardline but drain is the same


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## phill (Aug 26, 2020)

SN2716057 said:


> 5 years?! Okay, I'll try and beat that (quicker I mean)
> The alphacool UT60 rad has a drain port. Nothing wrong with tilting the bench to drain a bit of fluid.


I'm glad to hear it    Hopefully though, it will be worth the wait, I believe the delivery of the parts I've ordered should be here tomorrow, so.....  Here's hoping I can get it finished and put back together again 

Looking forward to another update  



tigger said:


> Here's my drain setup. works pretty well, its pretty much the lowest point in the loop. Changed to 16/12 hardline but drain is the same


Best things ever   Makes life sooooo much easier, soft tubing/hard tubing, doesn't matter, they are just a god send!


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## SN2716057 (Aug 27, 2020)

Update!

Rethinking a lot and checking what I have in stock. This is the latest result:




As per suggestion I've added a ball valve fitting for much easier draining. Only thing to buy are some tube clamps but I'll get those from the local hardware store. 
Then it's on to filling the loop!



Spoiler: 2 more pix


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## phill (Aug 27, 2020)

That is one thick rad!!   EK Vadar fans I think on the front??  

I'm not sure I'd have stuck the rad that close to the motherboard personally, maybe if possible get a bigger rad and mount it away from the system a little or on it's own, kinda like one of those MORA rads I think they are called?  I think the fans won't push masses of air through onto the board for the cooling side of things, so maybe some slow spinning fans where the thick rad is to help get some air over the VRMs and the back of the GPU card?  I think that would be my only real suggestion to be honest...


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## SN2716057 (Aug 27, 2020)

phill said:


> That is one thick rad!!  EK Vadar fans I think on the front??
> 
> I'm not sure I'd have stuck the rad that close to the motherboard personally, maybe if possible get a bigger rad and mount it away from the system a little or on it's own, kinda like one of those MORA rads I think they are called?  I think the fans won't push masses of air through onto the board for the cooling side of things, so maybe some slow spinning fans where the thick rad is to help get some air over the VRMs and the back of the GPU card?  I think that would be my only real suggestion to be honest...


Those 2 are Scythe Gentle Typhoon AP-15's, I've had these in numerous builds, including my main pc; Merc (see signature).
As for ease of use, mobility, storage, and I don't want to spend too much on it considering I won't use it daily I'm not going to spend my money on a lovely Mora. But I won't say never. 
I had several cases were there was hardly any airflow over components (Node 202, In Win Chopin, and several more) so I'm not that worried. Thank you for your input, though. I'll most definitely put the MORA on my wish-list.


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## SN2716057 (Sep 8, 2020)

Update! 

Bought several clamps from the local DIY store. And currently air testing, everything seems to hold after 3 hours. It's too late for me now to work on it plus I'm behind on my gaming. 








Only one extender used. For now I'll leave it but when money flows again I'll buy two 45° angle fittings.

Cheers


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## SN2716057 (Sep 10, 2020)

Update: leak test by fluid







http://imgur.com/AgRPrXX


And finally done!!!  





Thank you all for watching!


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## SN2716057 (Sep 13, 2020)

I've added a 'front panel'. In the near future I'll cut some holes for usb ports.


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## SN2716057 (Sep 17, 2020)

Well fudge. As it turned out the single 240 rad wasn't adequate to cool both the cpu & gpu.
So I went back to one part air cooled and one part water cooled. Incidentally this way I can replace the mobo without having to deconstruct the whole setup.   
This time I used a more traditional setup, a ddc pump with reservoir and one EK Coolstream 240 radiator with 2 Noctua NF-A12x25 FLX fans. The cpu cooler is the Gelid Solutions Phantom.




To keep stuff short I mounted the pump bracket on the 'front panel'. 




Even after all the set-backs I am very pleased with this setup. It is at least a lot easier to fill and drain now.

Cheers!


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## SN2716057 (Sep 18, 2020)

Running Heaven benchmark





I had to disconnect the anti-vandal button as it was shorting out the pc  I'm pretty certain it should contain a o-ring..so for now I just use the mobo switches.




Still running..

And the temps after the run. Pretty good on the gpu, the cpu cooler was really cheap but still held up nicely.





Replaced the stock fans on the cpu cooler with 2 Noctua NF-A12x25 FLX.




As you can see I removed 2 of the heat-spreaders on the ram modules, otherwise the fan wouldn't fit.

Running Heaven again.








From 51C with the stock fans to 46C with the Noctua's.

Next will be something more intensive: superpostion.


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