Project Ecthelion: Fluid Color Additive

Leak testing... Completed
Benchmarks... Completed
Stress Tests... Completed

Now its time to add pretty colors to the fluid loops!



Sticking with Mayhem's Pastel additives, as I used the Pastel Blue in my current rig, and after 1 year, it still looks great.  Haven't experienced the particulate settling issues some have reported, possibly because of the speed my pumps run.  Whatever the reason, it has been great for me, and I'm excited to see how it looks in this build.



The fill process is pretty basic, but be sure to keep paper towels handy, as this stuff can stain if it makes contact with a wood counter top, clothing, or other porous material.  I used a little funnel to help keep things from spilling and make it easier to fill the reservoirs.



If the system is running while you are pouring the color additive, it will quickly move through the loops as the pumps whip it around pretty fast.  The loops were fully mixed within just a minute or two after adding the colors.



Huzzah!  Kind of looks like "Whole Milk" next to "Blue Milk" from StarWars.  Really pleased with how these 2 colors look together, and how well they complement the case and hardware.

Its taken a while to get this far, but next up... FINAL BUILD PICS!

Project Ecthelion: Leak Testing, Benchmarks, and Temps

After a lot of frustration, the cables are done and its time to move on to the more fun parts of finishing up the build.  Now that everything is in place, we can begin to make sure our connections are sound and start filling up the loops.  Being that we are dealing with 2 loops here, leak testing is going to take a while. Bring on the distilled water!



In the picture above on the left is the rig ready to be filled. The the right we have gone through that process, and have booted up for the first time with liquid. I basically let it sit like this for a few hours, with paper towels placed in a few leak prone locations to see what would happen. Thankfully, we had zero leaks!  Now that we are verified to be leak free at ambient temperatures, I also want to begin stress testing to make sure it holds true when loop temps increase.

While I have a few stress tests running for the CPU and GPUs, lets play with the case lighting. Below you can can the standard White LED output using the NZXT hardware in the system. To the left is a cool blue alteration.  Thinking I will stick with the clean white look for this build.



Here is a shot of the back of the case to showcase the cable management and "hidden" tubing. Not going to win any prizes for inconspicuous cable runs here, but it works and is easy enough to manage.



I let the stress tests run for around 2 hours, and am happy to report there are no leaks, and temperatures are really looking good, as they should with this much cooling hardware. CPU stays around 42C when stressed and the GPUs never went above 47C.  That being said, these numbers are reported at stock clocks, so I would expect the temps to climb a bit once overclocks are applied. 

When at idle and during "regular" computing, temperatures sit at around 30C. Again, this is without overclocks applied and in my basement, so the ambient temperature is a tad lower than normal.  But still... really happy with the temperatures shown below to the left.   On the right is a quick run of 3DMark's Time Spy to get a general idea of system performance. Score of 17,042 at stock settings, better than 99% of all systems tested. Not bad!



Link to the Time Spy test:
https://www.3dmark.com/spy/3770997

Now that we are verified to be leak free and all the hardware is working as it should, we can move on to adding some color to our loops.



Will be showing that in the next post.  Almost done!

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http://mrarmageddon.blogspot.com/2018/04/project-ecthelion-thermaltake-tower-900.html

Project Ecthelion: Sleeved Cables... CableMod sucks

Been a while between my last post and this one.  During that time we sold our home and moved, had various work trips, and went on a family vacation.  Back from all that, and ready to finish this build!

With the tubing done, and the small stats display screen involved, it is time to run all the various power cables to the components in the case. In the past I have always made my own sleeved cables and they came out really well. For this build, the owner wanted cables from CableMod, so we took to the configuration tool to get the length and colors he wanted. The tool works really well, and the cables were ordered.  Unfortunately, the ordering process was the ONLY positive experience we had using CableMod cables. More on that farther down the post. 

Once the cables finally arrived (a few weeks as they came from Hong Kong), they looked pretty good.  I was a bit disappointed to how thin they were compared to the custom cables I have made on my own builds (my cables on top, CableMod below), but the colors look great and should work fine despite how thin the cables / sleeving are.



In addition to the PSU cables, I needed to make a custom fan splitter for the 2x 140mm exhaust fans in the case, so that can run off the same motherboard header, and spin at the same speeds with minimal configuration.  Could have ordered these as well, but had all the parts to make them, so did that instead.



With the fan cables done I moved on to routing the cables from the various components, through the case, and back to the PSU. The process was fairly easy with this case, but despite how large the case is, running this many cables can still be a lot of work.



During the cable routing process, I ran into my first issue with CableMod.  Even though I specified which Power Supply we were using during the ordering / configuration process, the 8pin CPU Power cable had the wrong head installed, wouldn't fit in the power supply as can be seen in the picture below. 



I was hoping with the 8pin head swap out of the way, I could quickly move along with the system....
I was wrong. This is where the issues with our CableMod order really came to light.  Their quality control is horrible.  Turns out every single cable we purchased from them had to be re-wired.  Huge waste of time. I'm not exactly sure what they did to screw this up so bad, but I think they wired these cables as you would extension cables, not ones that go directly from the PSU to your components.

For a visual example, to the left is the stock EVGA PSU cables for the 24pin motherboard connection, and I am holding together the two cables that connect on the PSU and Motherboard connectors. On the right are the connecting cables from the ones purchased at CableMod. Notice they are not the same, and the Motherboad will not power on in this configuration. The Graphics Cards also didn't power up until I fixed the cables.



This held true for every individual cable,with every cable.  So I went to task re-wiring every... single... cable.  At this point I was really regretting the decision to order sleeved cables instead of making them myself as I usually do.  Pretty sure I could have made my own set faster than the time spent taking apart the CabeMod ones, and wiring them back together correctly.



With that daunting task out of the way I set out to run the cables through the case again.  But this time I tested each component before running the cables through the grommets just in case. Luckily, my work is better than CableMods, and everything powered on as it should.



Cables and Sleeving is always a time consuming process, but this particular instance was especially frustrating as we purchased these cables to avoid the typical time suck, only to spend MORE time fixing them than what had been required had I just built my own from scratch.  I will never purchase from CableMod again, and will be contacting them to let them know their quality control is non existent.

Project Ecthelion: Stats Screen & Case Lighting

Now that the bulk of the components have been installed in the system, I wanted to add a small display screen to the case to show loads and temps at a glance using NZXT CAM as a dashboard. Same idea that I used on my current build, Project Open Core as seen below, although the display on that case is larger than what we will be using with the Tower 900.

We are also using NZXT HUE+ to control the exhaust fans and RGB LED strips on the case, so it will all tie together nicely.  I wasn't sure what size screen to go with at first.  A 5.8in photography display would have fit the space perfectly, but I couldn't find one that had the display inputs located in an ideal place to mount the screen, and I was also worried about it being too small to be useful unless directly in front of the screen. After careful measurements, I decided on a 7in display, which is a tad larger than the space it would be mounted on the case, but should still look great. Here is the link to the screen I am using. (Togaurd 7in LCD Display)



As mentioned before, I didn't want any cables showing for the display, so I needed a right angle HDMI input, and had to make a 12v, 5pin Molex Plug to Barrel Plug (Rt Angle) converter as well. The process is pretty simple, and allows for the display to turn on with the PC, so there aren't any additional button presses needed.



Now that the power and display signal has been addressed, time to mod the look of the screen to better match the overall build theme... and hide the ugly buttons on the bezel. Before I started "modding" the display, figured I should probably test it out to verify it was in working order. Plugged it in to one of my RetroPie systems, and everything came up just fine.



Picked up a matte white vinyl with adhesive backing that should do the trick. Measured the dimensions of the outer display and screen, and transferred the measurements to the back of the vinyl. Then carefully used a hobby knife and metal ruler to cut where needed.



With the cutouts made, I started to slowly wrap the vinyl around the display, being extra careful around the edges. This particular wrap is pretty flexible, and was easy to work with.  Seems to have good adhesion as well, which is plus.



With the wrap installed, I worked any lingering bubbles out and then mounted the display to the case using some extremely strong double-sided tape. It feels really secure, so going to leave it like that for now.  Here is a sneak-peak at what CAM will look like as a dashboard on this display.



With the Stats Screen up, moving on to the Case Lighting.  In most of my builds, I prefer to leverage the built in RGB LED motherboard headers to control all aspects of system lighting, to get consistent colors and brightness. With this build, the user will be working in a multi-OS environment, and didn't want the RGB elements to be dependent on an OS specific application, such as ASUS Aura in Windows. That is the reason for using the HUE+ unit. Once the colors have been selected, they will stay as-is, even when booting into a different Operating System. In addition to controlling the fans, the HUE kits also have some pretty nice RGB LED strips, so it should work out really well once everything is installed and configured.

In the picture to the right, just showing as a reminder to always line up the small arrow with the voltage input on these strips. Usually it will be 12v, but in the case of the NZXT Strips, 5v is used.



With that completed, here is a quick shot of the the case lighting in effect!



Still have a lot of work to do with the power cables, and verifying the loops are leak-proof, then adding the color to the liquid, but getting closer to being done.

Project Ecthelion: Pumps & Tubing

Now that all the waterblocks and radiators have been installed, its time to get the tubing runs completed. This build will have a combination of hard and soft tubing. We are using 2x Thermaltake Pacific PR22-D5 Res/Pump Combos for power our loops. These are supposed to be fairly silent, so hoping for good results here.



For the Hardline parts, we are using standard PETG Tubing 1/2" ID, 5/8" OD (16mm). To connect to these tube, we will be utilizing Monsoon Hardline Economy fittings v2.  I have used Monsoon fittings before with good success, but this was my first time using the v2 fittings.



There was very little in the way of documentation with these fittings, and I didn't notice that there were 2 "channels" where O-rings needed to be inserted (the v1 fittings only had 1 O-ring).  Luckily I was able to find a YouTube video that showed a cut-away of the fitting and where the o-rings needed to be installed.



With that, just a quick note on cutting the tubing for these particular fittings.  There is exactly 10mm of distance between the top rim of the fitting and the base of where the tubing will sit.  It is important to have the tubing pass both o-rings inside the fitting for a secure fit, so make sure to cut long enough for that to happen.



As is standard, here is a quick shot of all the tools involved in making hardline bends. The Barrow Bending Jig is a new addition, and makes multi-angle bends a bit easier.  Also shown is my pipe cutter, heat gun, and various bending mandrels.



We also had to cut holes in the acrylic backing for the tubing to pass through.  Measured, taped, and drilled them out.



The hardline runs for this particular system are pretty simple, a few 90 degree bends is all, so the process didn't take long at all. Being that we have a few lines that are parallel to each other, I wanted to make sure everything was level.  Used a small level to ensure we are lined up where needed.



Here is a shot of the tubing passing through the acrylic backing and transitioning to the soft tubing with compression fittings. I toyed with the idea of wrapping the tubing behind the acrylic with LED strips so they would glow, but decided against it as the opaque fluid we will be using doesn't transmit light well.
















I used some weather stripping and zip-ties to secure the tubing so it won't move around, and ruin my nice level tubing runs in the front.  Should also prevent any possible leaks from occuring since they are nice and snug.



Now we connect the soft tubing for the remainder of the loops, going to the radiators and drain ports. Here you can see a T-Block that will allow us to have a temperature sensor and drain port coming out of the radiators.



And here is the completed soft tubing portion of the loops.  I did kind of a"X" design with the loops, and it should look pretty neat once the different color fluids are crossing each other back there. Using a basic Ball Valve and stop plug to seal the drain port when not needed.



Here is the drain hose for the system.  It will thread into the ball valve, and allow for easy fluid maintenance when needed.



And here is a quick shot showing the drain hose installed to give you an idea of what it will look like during that particular operation.

My Custom PSU cables from CableMod have finally arrived... and although they look great, we have some major issues. More on that soon.

To jump to other parts of this build log, head over to the Project Index.

Project Ecthelion: Radiators & Fans

This will be a fairly quick update at there isn't much to this part of the build, but there are some important steps that I didn't want to skip over. As seen in the earlier loop diagram, this build will have 2 loops, and dual Radiators.  We will be using XSPC EX360 Radiators that have been painted white. For the fans, Corsair ML120 Magnetic Levitation Static Pressure x6.



Before we started installing the actual radiators, we flushed them with white vinegar to remove any particulates. These particular radiators weren't that bad, but still had some floaties to deal with (zoom in to see).



With that done, we flushed again with distilled water, and set out to install them on the case. The Tower 900 has 2 dedicated areas for the Radiators, situated so the fans are on one side of the mounting bracket, the radiators on the other.

We decided to not go with any LED fans for the radiators, as they are not visible when the case is fully assembled. Going with a push configuration with the fans, and the hot air going into the case after passing through the radiators will be vented out via the top 140mm exhaust fan.

I have been waiting for a few random parts to get in, but should be able to make some good progress towards finishing up in the coming days.

Project Ecthelion: Custom RGB LEDs Strips

With all the waterblocks assembled, its time to get our block lighting squared away.  The case lights will be RBG, but will most likely stay a soft white glow to allow the case components to we lit well. The waterblocks on the other-hand will take full advantage of the RGB elements of their own LED strips.  The EK Monoblock has its own RGB strip, so we are going to make 2x additional ones for the waterblocks.



Heatkiller apparently has a RGB strip  for these blocks, but I didn't know that when I started making these, and its not really that difficult to make your own. I measured the length we wanted to cut the strip, and did some basic sleeving to cover up the color wires. There was a bit of soldering involved to attach the 4pin adapter to the wires, then applied some heat shrink to keep things secure. Here I am testing my strips to make sure they light up and change colors before installing them on the GPUs.



To attach the LED strips to the Acrylic part of the GPUs, I am using transparent electronics tape. This stuff is commonly found in phones and tablets, holding the back of the device to the body. Its pretty adhesive, and holds up well to heat.  Given that its transparent, it doesn't hurt the light transmission as the LEDs shine through the acrylic. Prepped the surface with an alcohol swap, then applied the tape.



Here we have the LED strips attached to the GPU Waterblocks.  I have the cables set to route directly through the gromet holes beneath the GPUs and Motherboard.

 

Now its time to see how the look with the lights turned on...

Lights ON



Lights OFF



GPUs installed on the MoBo again, and full RGB action is in effect! 



Below is most likely the color that we will end up going with on the blocks, kid of a blueish white, but we will finalize the decision once we have color liquid flowing through the loops.



Another side shot of the GPU block, with the cool blue glow in action.



To jump to other parts of this build log, head over to the Project Index.