Build Log: Project Rampage III

Cedesria

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Hi guys, It's been 3 - 4 years ever since I completed my Project Rampage II (http://www.overclock.net/t/1419602/...-gtx-780ti-tri-sli-caselabs-sth10-custom-mods).

Family, Wife, kid, and work had took up most of my time for the past few years. Some known me as kaiqi07 at the blue side, and some known me as congrade07 over here. Created this account as the mods seems to have issue with my sales thread using congrade07.

Build Log of Previous Builds

Project Rampage: http://www.overclock.net/t/1278500/build-log-project-rampage-corsair-800d-full-wc-setup/10

Project Rampage II: http://www.overclock.net/t/1419602/...-gtx-780ti-tri-sli-caselabs-sth10-custom-mods

Project Siren: http://www.thetechrevolutionist.com/2014/07/project-siren-custom-aesthetic-rog-mod.html

Project Rampage III's Main Aim
The last build, Project Rampage II is a full tower WC using caselabs STH10, and it had served me well for these few years till I decided that it's time to do an upgrade for my current rig.

The main aim of this build is to house the whole rig into a normal ATX case without compromising performance. Instead of using extreme series of x99 boards and LGA2011 processor, I decided to use Z270 board with Kaby Lake processor. I chose to get Asus Maximus IX formula Z270 and as well as Intel i7 7700K. Had decided to go with this mobo due to its various WC friendly functions as well as aesthetics.

For the GPU section, in 2017 Feb, I had bought two pieces of Gigabyte 1080 GTX intending to do SLI. Within two weeks after my purchases of the 1080 GTX SLI, Nvidia announces 1080 TI GTX. Sto instead of keeping the 1080s, I decided to sell them off and decided to went ahead to get two Custom cooler 1080ti. I had chose to get two pieces of Asus Strix 1080TI GTX to do SLI.

For storage, I have a total of 4 SSDs (Samsung Evo 850 250gb m.2 X1, Samsung Evo 850 500gb X3), 2 HDDs (Seagate Constellation 3TB X2). The m.2 drive would be installed as boot drive, the rest of the SSDs will be used for Applications and Games drive. The dual 3TB drive will be running in raid mode and be used for storage purposes.


List of System Components

Processor: Intel i7 7700K
Mobo: Asus Z270 Maximus IX Formula
Memory: G Skill Trident Z RGB 8gb X 4 DDR4 3200
Graphics: Asus Strix 1080TI GTX OC edition X 2 (2 way SLI mode)
Storage (SSD): Samsung Evo 850 250gb M.2 X1, Samsung Evo 850 500gb X3
Storage (HDD): Seagate Constellation Drive 3TB X2 (RAID)
Power Supply: Seasonic X1050
Case: Phanteks Evolv ATX Tempered Glass (Grey)
Display: Philips BDM4350UDC 43inch 4K monitor
Audio: Audiolab M Dac, Aktimate Maxi
Peripherals; Razer Blackwidow Chroma, Razer Mamba Chroma, Razer Naga Epic Chroma, Razer Firefly
Cooling: NZXT Kraken X52 (for the time being, will change to custom wc), NZXT Aer fans, NZXT Grid+

Custom Watercooling Components

CPU waterblock: Bitspower Summit EF-X
GPU waterblock: Bitspower Asus Strix GTX 1080ti Acrylic Clear X2
Reservoir: Bitspower Z Multi 100 (gotten 40mm res tube as well)
Pump: Swiftech MCP655
Pump Top: Bitspower D5 Pump Top with Bitspower D5 Mod kit
Radiator: Alphacool St30 240 and Alphacool St30 360
Fittings: Bitspower EMLs, Rotaries, Valves, Extenders
Tubes: Copper Pipes (12mm OD), will be nickel plated once bended and cut to length
 
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Cedesria

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The initial plan of this build to keep it simple and not to do any custom WC loop. Will only do air cool for GPU and AIO CPU cooler. I had chosen to use Phanteks Evolv ATX Tempered Glass for my new rig. Love the looks and design of the case. This is my first Alu ATX case beside my previous Caselabs STH10.

Honestly I am seriously impressed with the build and quality of the Phanteks Evolv ATX TG, although it's not full aluminium. But the aluminium exterior panels are very well build. The case itself also able to fit in all the components inside at ease.

Downside of this case is the air flow is bad, seriously bad. Front panel gaps are too small to allow ample fresh air to draw into the case and the TOP vents are just two tiny strips of vents to exhaust the heated air. Often the heated air will be circulated back into the casing which in return will caused the system temps to rise gradually.

Initially when I am running 1080GTX in sli, the temps were fine, will only hit 74 - 80 degrees C max for the GPUs. As intel KB are known to run at higher temps, temps will hit 55 - 68 degrees C.

Gigabyte 1080GTX G1 Gaming SLI


But after I made the switch to Asus Strix 1080TI GTX SLI, the cardsare 2.5 slots thick, and due to the thickness, the TOP card temperature are +15 - 20 degrees C higher than the bottom card. During load, the both cards temperature would hover between 65 - 90 Degrees C.
 

Cedesria

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Color Scheme

As I made my own cables and had also been doing my Custom PSU cables as my side business for a few years. I had planned to use gold sleeves in this build initially and had actually made them. As I am using RGB lightings in this build, very often the gold sleeves does not work well with the rgb lightings.

In the end, I decided to stay with the Neutral Color tones for my sleeves. I took the whole lot of PSU cables out and resleeve the gold sleeves. I decided to use Grey, White and Black sleeves for this build.


Before: Gold, White, Black


Final: Grey, White, Black
 

Cedesria

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Cable Management

As I made my own cables, I am able to plan the cables routing route. Once the cables routing route has been finalised, I am able to measure the required length of cable needed for this build.

List of Custom made PSU cables;

24pin ATX X1
8pin CPU X1
6+2 PCIe X 4
Sata Power (1 Connector) X1 (front SSD)
Sata Power (4 Connectors) X1 ( HDD cage, Peripherals)
Sata Power (2 Connectors) X1 (2 SSD at rear panel)
Sata Power (2 Connectors) X1 (fan hub, AIO cooler)
USB 3.0 Extension Cables X1

For the sata data cables, I had chose to go sleeveless and also chose ultra thin sata data cables.All of the sata data cables are measured and ordered accordingly to their closest length ranging from 18cm - 40cm.

Working with Phanteks Evolv ATX cable management is a joy. Rubber gomets are present and the rear panel has Velcro strips to help the managing of the cables a lot easier. But the downside is that both side panels are tempered glass. So cable routing can be easily see through the tinted glass panels.

It is not helping especially with the fan hub at the dead center of the rear panel. It will be an ugly sight to have all the fan cables routed to the mid rear plate.

Before: Planning Phase

*was using previous build SSD but had changed to Samsung Evo 850s

Color Sleeve Trial



Removing the provided fan hub had helped the rear panel tidies up the look, improves on the mess the fan hub create. To have the fan hub, one has to have at least 2 - 10 cables running to the mid section.

To held the cables in place, I had use various types of Cable Combs as well as various types of cable clips to route the cables. Some cables are also routed underneath the motherboard as well.

Final: Custom Cables installed and Cable Management Completed

Rear Panel


Mobo Area
 

Cedesria

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Aircool to Custom Loop WC

For the past few builds, I had always used custom wc. Custom loop scores In terms of aesthetics and cooling capabilities. I started out watercooling my lga2011 i7 3930k back in 2013. Back then there isn't any hardline tubings avail in the consumer market and we were using soft tubings. But I loved the idea of straight lines of pipes running around the loop, so by using compression fittings and extenders / rotaries I had acheieved the "hardline" look.

Project Rampage: Corsair Obsidian 800D






 

Cedesria

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A year later in 2014, I ventured into the idea of expanding and upgrading. Going full steam, I decided to use Caselabs STH10 for the new build and named it as "Project Rampage II". Migrated the mobo, cpu and partial of the WC parts to the new case. Caselabs is huge, really huge especially with the Top and bottom pedestals. Instead of the usual- 2 way SLI or Xfire, I decided to run Tri SLI with the newly launched Nvidia 780ti GTX.

More planning was done, more pumps, radiator was added. I had two Aqc Aquaero controlling the thermals such as pump speed, fan speed and right down to controlling of the RGB led strips' Color and brightness according to the system's temperature.

I had also started to do my own Custom PSU cables as to route cables around this case requires seriously long cables with some reaching 120cm in length.

I also had also used Laser Cutting machine to design and cut acrylic panels for various pass throughs for cables. During this period was also the start of the increased popularity of using hardline acrylic tubings which I decided to use in this Project Rampage II build.

Project Rampage II: Caselabs STH10









 

Cedesria

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After doing these two builds it pretty much exhausted me and with my Wife had just given birth to my beautiful Daughter in 2013, I decided to take a break to spend some quality time with my Wife and my Daughter as well as focus on my job.

Three years later, in Feb 2017 I decided to downsize my Caselabs STH10. I am due to shift house soon as my apartment is coming very soon in 3rd quarter 2017. My new place have no space to house this towering giant of mine. So I had decided to sell off the whole rig and gotten a humble tiny little case, NZXT S340 Elite. But this case only stayed with me barely a week before I couldn't stand such a tiny case and personally felt the build was not as good as it seem. I was too used to having a towering STH10 beside my table and comparing the price point I had paid for caselabs and nzxt so are the differences in the build quality as well. So I went to search for a larger case. I set my eyes on the Phanteks Evolv ATX Tempered Glass (grey). It had all the things I wanted, RGB lighting, Tempered Glass side panels, Great cable management system.

Went ahead and made my purchase. I am really happy with this new case, great build quality, nice aluminium panels. I had actually decided to run air cooling with this initially till I had changed from 1080GTX SLI to Asus Strix 1080ti SLI.

My temps increased, GPU increased during load hit to 90degrees celcius. This was when I started researching and found out that this case had issues with air flow.

The front panels are too close to the main frame of the case causing air intake from front is highly restricted.

The top vent holes are too small, heated air are often circulated back into the case. In order to counter the air flow issues, I decided to do some case mods to improve the air intake and exhaust.

I had drawn some drawings in autocad and sent both the front and top panels to have them cut using Waterjet Cutting. After which I will also sent them powder coated to White. Chose white as the rig Color is to maintain the Project Rampage series of case mods and build case Color scheme.

Top Panel Vent Holes


Beside the case mods I had done, I also also decided to go have them watercooled. Since I still have all the huge collection of fittings, and pump/pump kit and tools. It wasn't hard for me to return to watercooling.

Collection of Bitspower Fittings
 

royfrosty

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Bro can't wait to see your full setup.

Do let me know how your CPU temps are. Cause for me, i used to use that CPU block, the temps arent that good imho.

But perhaps since nowadays components are moving to energy saving, i hope it is enough to cool a simple i7 7700k.

Back then when i did my 5820k with that block, i hit 75degC easily. Very hot chip and did not like the temps on it.

Till i used the EK supremacy i got temps improvement to 64degC.

Back then i still try my AQC copper block, i managed to get it hovering around the high 5XdegC.
 

Cedesria

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AQC is always the best, but this time round I am opting for using just bitspower. Save on shipping as the only blocks maker for my Stix 1080ti are either EK or BP. EK gave me nickel flaking issues before so I am avoiding them at all cost.

Too bad AQC never made any blocks for my GPU. But since right now I be only using BP, any issues it will be easier for me to raise up.

Temps wise, I hope the panel mod which will improve the air flow. I am still thinking if I should delid my 7700k...
 

Encrypted11

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The silicone gasket on skylake, kaby lake is not that thick like DC/Haswell, but the TIM is insufficient for proper heat dissipation when oced.

Honestly clearing 1 side of the glue will be sufficient relid without reapply glue. Overall no glue at all might be abit risky in the pressure, see below. Someone on OCN made a gif of his 7700k IHS spinning on the die with no silicone on PCB and die and it spins well indicating contact is quite direct already.

So if sanding/lapping the base is a consideration, may want to think twice as it increases mounting pressure on the die further imo.

Also the anodised (rough) nickel surface helps with LM adhesion and prevent it from running (esp vertical mount), painting a good boundary on IHS will restrain the LM fron flowing beyond it since "balls up" just like mercury when moving.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1313179/official-delidded-club-guide/32950#post_26062524
spinning-ihs-smaller.gif


I can sic chiu my small delid log pics if interested, starting from learning mode previously if it helps. Mostly revolves around application and I have some after pics whether what I've done leaked but no issues so far if those are the main reservations aside from temps. :).
 

Cedesria

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The silicone gasket on skylake, kaby lake is not that thick like DC/Haswell, but the TIM is insufficient for proper heat dissipation when oced.

Honestly clearing 1 side of the glue will be sufficient relid without reapply glue. Overall no glue at all might be abit risky in the pressure, see below. Someone on OCN made a gif of his 7700k IHS spinning on the die with no silicone on PCB and die and it spins well indicating contact is quite direct already.

So if sanding/lapping the base is a consideration, may want to think twice as it increases mounting pressure on the die further imo.

Also the anodised (rough) nickel surface helps with LM adhesion and prevent it from running (esp vertical mount), painting a good boundary on IHS will restrain the LM fron flowing beyond it since "balls up" just like mercury when moving.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1313179/official-delidded-club-guide/32950#post_26062524
spinning-ihs-smaller.gif


I can sic chiu my small delid log pics if interested, starting from learning mode previously if it helps. Mostly revolves around application and I have some after pics whether what I've done leaked but no issues so far if those are the main reservations aside from temps. :).


Thanks, for now I think I will not delid this chip yet.
 

Cedesria

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My parcel of Bitspower stuff just arrived.


Initially I wanted to use raw copper pipe with pipe bending tools for the pipes. But after fixing everything in, I found out that the clearance for the bending is not possible as the bend radius are too big to accommodate the bend pipes. So instead of using the bend pipes, I decided to use Bitspower 90 degrees EML, snake rotaries, as well as 45/90 degree rotary fittings for the various bends.
 
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Cedesria

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The bitspower loots had arrived so decided to start installing the blocks. Honestly the manual for installation is pretty screw up and confusing. As the bitspower waterblocks are able to use either Asus or Bitspower backplate, one has to use the correct standoffs as well as screws correctly.

Removed the original Asus Strix cooler and applied the thermal pads onto the memory chips.


Installed Bitspower Strix 1080ti waterblocks with original backplate.
 

Cedesria

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Ordered some carbon fibre vinyl wraps as well. Using the black carbon fibre vinyls to wrap the psu shroud. By covering up the vented holes with the vinyl wraps this will further reduce of coolant leaking into the psu chamber in the event of leaks.



Pretty happy with the end result.
 

merv.cheo

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Hi Cedesria
There are 2 things I like to ask.
Do you still do custom cables?
And phantek evolv x. Do u also do custom cutting or mods?

thanks in advance
Merv
 

royfrosty

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Hi Cedesria
There are 2 things I like to ask.
Do you still do custom cables?
And phantek evolv x. Do u also do custom cutting or mods?

thanks in advance
Merv
Not sure whether does he do custom cables anymore.

But i can answer the phanteks evolv moding. We were all in the same era doing custom water cooling for this particular case. This case is notorious for recirculating heat back into the case. Due the fact that the top radiator mount including the front is too far into the case. There is a considerable large gap between the radiators to the top panel and front panel. Hence the case has problems pulling fresh air in or exhausting fresh air out.

The solution, he actually water jet cut holes around the front panel or the top panel. This has to be done as for water cooling enthusiast, the temps are really high despite fitting in 360mm and 240mm. Making it hard to cool any high end stuffs inside.
 
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