Cosmos 2 Build log - [In Progress] ...continued

{UPDATE 1}
Firstly I would like to thank all of those who took the time to reply to my "feedback" thread which got almost 90 replies; all of your suggestions has been considered in the finalisation of my watercooling orders.

FrozenCPU package contents:
-Black Ice GTX Extreme 240
-Black Ice GT Stealth 360
-Alphacool VPP655 pump + Bitspower pump mod kit (Chrome)
-Koolance 370 cpu block
-Koolance R4E mobo block
-Koolance TNK-501 single bay reservoir
-Primochill PRO LRT 3/8" - 5/8" tubing
-IandH Dead Water Copper Sulfate Biocidal additive
-ModRight Mod Mat

So my package from FrozenCPU arrived Thursday arvo and I thought I should get the ball rolling and start the installation of key components. I spent the afternoon and early Friday morning+evening installing the Koolance mobo water block, CPU, RAM, CPU waterblock, 6x 45degree compression fittings onto the blocks, motherboard into the case, bottom Black Ice GTX Extreme 240 rad in the bottom, PSU, GPU, and soundcard.

Came across some issues, and worked around them, further issues came up and I am yet to get around to them and I am willing to take on-board the suggestions, solutions and possibly hands-on help from the community (anyone around Riverton-Perth? haha).

So, it all began with the ModRight mat, which I do recommend for anyone.



First things first, I had to remove the stock heatsinks and replace them with the Koolance blocks:




Next, installed the CPU, CPU block and then the RAM:




Now, get the compressions onto these blocks:


Now to get the board into the case:


GPU into first 16x PCIe3:


Installing the X-Fi Titanium; now the instruction manual says that you can plug it into a full length PCIe slot, but the card only has these two plug-in points:

I wasn't sure if I could just plug it into the next PCIe3 8x slot here(yellow) or here(blue):

I was thinking if I had been running dual-GPU I would have to plug it into the "yellow" socket otherwise the 2nd GPU wouldn't fit into the second 16x PCIe3 slot; but seeing as it fit the PCIe2.0 x1_1 slot perfectly I decided to leave it there...can someone shed some insight into this? Is it normal to plug it into a full length PCIe 3.0 slot or would it only work where I currently have it installed? Currently it is in here:

Also you might not notice in this picture but when the computer is placed upright the GPU seems to be so heavy that the card is actually on a slight slant towards the back..is this normal? I don't remember any other GPUs I've installed to have such a bend near the back of the card; then again I've always used reference cards up until this point, maybe the non-reference Gigabyte cards are not as rigid??

Next came the Black Ice GTX Extreme 240 radiator for the bottom mount:

Now this is where the next issue came up due to me not using normal 25mm thickness fans. The Ultra Kaze's are 38mm thick, and the screws provided with the rad is catered for 25mm fans so I had to go to Searle Fastenings in Riverton to get 40mm versions of the exact same threaded screws:

So this proved to be the exact length I needed to mount my 2 push Ultra Kaze's, but proved to be too short for the 2 pull Ultra Kazes at the other side, because there was an additional layer (rad bracket) of a couple of millimetres the screw had to go through.

So back to Searle Fastenings it was to get 8 of the same screws but this time 50mm lengths. Now you might start to say "err 50mm is way too long it will hit the fins", I knew this so I also purchased about 80 plastic washers to match the screws. Fitting 10 washers each screw compensated for about 9mm of excess length I had to get rid of which meant I didn't have to hacksaw them off. I might add it doesn't actually look as bad as I imaged it to either.

Here's a shot of the rad installed with the two 90degree rotary compression fittings:


At this point I was well tired and about ready to call it a day, but I thought I should investigate the roof of the case to see how I would go about installing my Black Ice GT Stealth 360 radiator. I was under suspicion that the "hooks" on the inside of the case (that hold up the front-most top fan in junction with 2 screws) will be in the way of mounting the rad, and after investigating I realised that was the case. So I just got a nice robust pair of pliers and bent those "hooks" flat into the roof seamlessly:

The "hooks" are those two front bits that are slightly scratched up. The scratches don't bother me as the front sliding mechanism covers that area completely anyway.

After dealing with those "hooks" I could line up the radiator to get a ball-park idea of where it will go, and upon doing so I realised another problem:
(might not be visible in pictures)


Basically what is happening here is (I know it's hard to see in these pics), after I line up the first two thread holes of the rad, there is a gradual misplacement of the bracket mounting holes on the Cosmos 2. I don't know how to describe it but what I'm trying to say is, if I line up the first two holes, then the last 2 holes are too far along to be able to mount all of the fans in their corresponding 4-hole configs. Does that make sense?

So what I was thinking is that I need to extend the mounting holes on the Cosmos 2 to be able to mount the radiator, but I don't know how...
First thing that came to my mind is filing the holes across to allow access to the thread holes, or using a Dremel but I don't have such a tool, and I don't really feel like removing the motherboard, but I will if I have to.

I've ordered 3x Gentle Typhoon 3000's to go with the rad. These are the standard 25mm thick fans...because I don't want to deal with custom screws and washers again lol.

After examining the rest of the stuff from FrozenCPU, I had a look at the tubing. I got the Primoflex PRO LRT 3/8" - 5/8", and corresponding Bitspower compression fittings. I got one of the fittings and tried to fit it onto the tubing, but for the life of my I couldn't get the tube to go over the inner barb. The tube is massively thick walled... I don't think it can physically fit the fittings that I have...or am I just weak? lol

Here's a shot of the tube and the compression fitting:
Judging by the looks of it it's supposed to fit... but I can't get it on for the life of me and I promise I'm not weak! haha



I will be sure to update the log as I get more stuff done.

If anyone is around where I live, have the competency, and willing to help with the top mount of the radiator, I'd be happy for you to lend a hand, not just for the radiator mount! I'm sure we can come to an agreement along the terms of number of stubbies of beer and the number of hours spent


{UPDATE 2}
I've decided to move all my work-log updates into my initial post, so that people can read one consolidated post rather than fishing through the different pages.

My GT3000's finally arrived today!! Along with my second Kingston HyperX 120GB SSD, and additional compression fittings for the Koolance drain valve

So with the fans in my possession I was able to size up the top radiator, and file down the mounting holes to accommodate for all the fan bracket. Here's some shots of the top mount fitted on.




For everything to fit smoothly I had to remove the top sliding mechanism that houses the native fan controller which wasn't hard. So here's a shot with the top sliding part back on, and it's looking very sleek. I quite like how the part flows over the fans to make it seem more mysterious haha probably just looks like that to me


Now with both rad+fan combinations installed, time has come to figure out where to place my pump. I am considering removing the middle HDD cage, and putting my HDD in one of the hotswap bays at the front and just mounting the two SSD's to the case itself using high quality Velcro... What are your guys' suggestions on that? I have concerns that I might have heat problems if I have no air blowing directly onto the SSD's which will be ran in RAID0.

After I did the filing...holey crap there was so much metal dust everywhere. I blew it out as much as I could and wiped it up with a damp cloth but I cannot be certain it's all gone and if it might be displaced from the corners they are stuck in once all the fans are running. I might actually bring my old man's air compressor from his place to make sure there is no metal fragments left in the case before putting the mobo back in..

Thoughts?


{UPDATE 3}
I have finally decided to take some time off playing DotA2 and finish the tubing and complete my water loop. All that remains now is to leak test the system for some (undetermined) amount of time to see if there is any problems before boot up. I've taken a plethora of images, so I will try to caption them appropriately.

There were a few things I decided to do during the construction of the loop which I think you guys might appreciate. You may be able to spot these in the pictures.

Here's a shot of the front and back of the single-bay reservoir, you can see the direction of the tubing.


As you can see I've routed the res>pump through the back of the case, and positioned the pump accordingly (see below). I think this configuration makes the loop look much more neat and tidy. This is the part where I really started to appreciate the sheer width of the Cosmos II, it is an absolute breeze to work with, much recommended.

Here's a shot of the back showing the way I've routed the res>pump and pump>bottom-rad, also you can see where I've positioned the Koolance drain valve with the drain hose fixed into place via small strips of the industrial strength Velcro that I used to mount the pump and ssd's with.


What do you think about this config?

Here's a shot of the side showing the bottom rad connections and the first QDC going up to the mobo block. Pay no attention to the voluminous amount of front IO cables, these will be managed later on.


Sorry about the glare of the flash.

Here's a couple of shots showing the nitty-gritty of the loop.


At this point you're probably thinking the bottom QDC is going to be in the way of the GPU.. stay tuned..

Here are some close-up shots of the intricate mobo and cpu connections. My phone's camera isn't great but you can clearly see that there are no kinks. The tube I bought turned out to possess excellent flexing characteristics (thanks Creekin for recommending Primoflex among other things).





Finally here are a few shots with the GPU installed and you can clearly see that the way I've routed the bottom QDC naturally clears the GPU easily.




That is all for now, I will keep this space updates as I do the leak test. If there turns out to be problems in the leak test you will surely hear about it!

 

Dip the tubes in boiling water for a bit and then try again.

 

Looks good so far mate. With the tube, primoflex can be a bit stiff, easiest way is to dip the end in hot water to soften it a little, it should go over the fitting easier.

Hope that helps

I think your best to remove everything from the chassis, as a spec of metal dust could cause issues. What you probably need to do is drill new holes or file them bigger if its just a few mm. Do you have a drill or a file? If not you can get a file for a few $ at bunnings.

 

God that case looks amazing. Got more space down in the PSU area then I first thought.

 

I think you're right about the hot water trick, I double checked the product description and it's the right wall thickness for the compression fittings that I have, just very stubborn and stiff.

@ex4n, yea it looks like I'm going to have to mod the roof of the case slightly to get the rad and 3 fans to fit perfectly. I'm going to head over to Bunnings right now to buy a thin metal file to open up the mounting holes to accommodate the radiator thread holes.

@KriiV, yea mate I'm very happy with the case so far. There is an abundance of rubber grommets and so much open area to work in. Just at this initial stage of installing the first bits and pieces I can already picture how easy it's going to be routing the tubing to all the components.

I keep wondering if I have made the CPU waterblock tight enough. Everywhere I read people say DO NOT OVER TIGHTEN, and FINGER TIGHT ONLY. Since it's my first cpu waterblock that I'm doing I keep feeling that it should be tighter than what it is now =/

 

I'm thinking of getting a whole new batch of tubing... I think going with red tubing will have a better effect on the eye with the black compression fittings.

Anyone want to buy a brand new coil of 3/8" 5/8" Primoflex with a total length of 3meters?

 

sweet jesus, all you need is 2m imo, specially if you have everything inside the case

 

is it clear tubing?

 

No its black. Brand new still in box, only touched once!!!! haha

So going to be doing the filing soon as the GT3000's arrive, will be posting pics asap!

 

i wouldn't bother with GT 3000RPMs. i've have a set of 3 blowing on a radiator. its super powerful cooling ability is there but the noise is really like a jet engine.

they are also powered by molex which most fan controllers won't accept so you are left with a high powered fan without RPM control.

get yourself some quiet 700-1000 rpm fans that accept the 3-pin so you can use the cosmos 2 fan controller.

 

Noise levels is a luxury I can abandon, my current tower is very loud back from 8 years ago when I built it.

Besides I've already ordered the GT3000's, and I actually planned on not fancontrolling them.

I don't think getting 700-1000rpm fans on 30FPI rads is a good idea, they start performing at minimum 2000rpms according to reviews, and benchmarks if you look at the graphs etc.

Maybe my hearing is actually worse than normal and that's why it doesnt bother me, or maybe I can block out the noise sub conscientiously more-so than normal ppl when focusing on gaming or watever. either way the case will have:
4x ultra kazes in push/pull on 240rad
2x ultra kazes as "gpu" (door mount intake)
3x GT3000's in pull on 360rad
1x 140mm noctua read exhaust
edit: Oh... and a 1x 200mm Spectre Pro intake at front too, oops
above is guaranteed
1x 120mm noctua for the middle HDD cage, but I might be taking out the cage entirely, havent decided yet.

So, yes, it's going to be like turning on a F-18 jet, or maybe a Hoover...
I think it'll only be about 55-60MAX dB

 

ftfy

 

people are never gonna let that go are they

 

I have 3x Scyth GT 1800rpms on my top rad and 4x Ultra Kaze 3000s on the bottom rad. The difference in noise is gigantic. Its nearly as much noise a vacuum cleaner on low setting. But DAT AIR FLOW.

 

lol yea the AIR FLOWZ BRO

 

OP please advise when you are powering up, we'll need to give pacific region time to move to high ground, the sound wave will surely cause a tsunami.

Also, it will give the gov time to safely power down lucas heights, we don't need no fukushima here.

 

it's like multi-colour lights... the grandparents think it's cool...

I got over them pretty quickly.. especially the noise part as well.

 

My GT3000's finally arrived today!! Along with my second Kingston HyperX 120GB SSD, and additional compression fittings for the Koolance drain valve

So with the fans in my possession I was able to size up the top radiator, and file down the mounting holes to accommodate for all the fan bracket. Here's some shots of the top mount fitted on.




For everything to fit smoothly I had to remove the top sliding mechanism that houses the native fan controller which wasn't hard. So here's a shot with the top sliding part back on, and it's looking very sleek. I quite like how the part flows over the fans to make it seem more mysterious haha probably just looks like that to me


Now with both rad+fan combinations installed, time has come to figure out where to place my pump. I am considering removing the middle HDD cage, and putting my HDD in one of the hotswap bays at the front and just mounting the two SSD's to the case itself using high quality Velcro... What are your guys' suggestions on that? I have concerns that I might have heat problems if I have no air blowing directly onto the SSD's which will be ran in RAID0.

After I did the filing...holey crap there was so much metal dust everywhere. I blew it out as much as I could and wiped it up with a damp cloth but I cannot be certain it's all gone and if it might be displaced from the corners they are stuck in once all the fans are running. I might actually bring my old man's air compressor from his place to make sure there is no metal fragments left in the case before putting the mobo back in..

Thoughts?

 

Put a grill on the bottom of the radiator to ensure that the things that get sucked into it don't damage the fins.

Also, unless you need an air compressor at your house - take the case to the compressor, single trip that way.

 

Don't use the compressor on the radiator, they are damn soft!

I have 4 SSD's in raid0 about 3mm apart, they are all cold to the touch (no fans). SSD's use less power and don't generate heat. if your struggling for room, stick them to the back of your motherboard tray.

looking good.