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Custom PC Parts and Tools

Discussion in 'Projects' started by WheresWaldo, Mar 12, 2017.

  1. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    So I found another use for my Robo3D R1+++ printer. Custom parts and water loop jigs for the CAD workstation I am building. Now that I have some experience with just completing my first custom water loop in a PC, I now have two more chances to get it right.

    First I have my daughter's PC to finish up. Her's is a rebuild but is waiting on EVGA and Newegg. Different story and only has two 3D printed parts. Here is what I am doing with my soon to be specified CAD workstation. It will have lots of 3D printed parts, mostly done on the Robo.

    I already have a case, power supply, radiators, fitting, reservoir, pump, and various other bits and pieces. I started with the case. I wanted something big. After fighting with my first loop to cram everything into a mid-tower case, this one is a bit bigger and more versatile. Starting off with a be quiet! Dark Base Pro 900. It is plenty big enough to have large radiators and a few other goodies all inside the case. As a bonus it has a Qi Charger built into the top of the case and a tinted tempered glass panel on the side. One of the big pluses for me was the fact that the whole case can be disassembled down to the frame and reassembled inverted. That is how I am starting. I got the Black/Orange colorway version of the case.
    dark-base-900-series-bequiet-title-cover-logo-gamoha.png

    Solid orange Hatchbox PETG was almost a perfect match for the existing orange trim of the case

    The first thing I wanted to do was to dress up the fan screws supplied with the case. I have cup washers on all the screws on my multi-rotor and wanted the same look for the PC, so I modeled and printed out a dozen of these little things.
    fan_screw_cup_washer.png
    Perfect size for the fan screws and dresses up the installation without a lot of overwhelming details.

    Next up I needed parts for the custom water loop. I started off with the radiators, Alphacool NexXxos X-Flow. The radiators are both 280 mm (2 x 140 mm fans) in two different thicknesses. In the front there is a NexXxos ST30 X-Flow slim and in the top a NexXxos XT45 X-Flow.
    1012474-1.png 1012477-1.png

    The interesting thing about these radiators, aside from being X-Flow, they were one of the few cross flow radiators I could find that had fittings on both sides! They could have the fittings swapped depending on the orientation. At the same time this caused an issue with the PC case. Since the case was to be sandwiched between the radiator and the fans and a plug needed to be used on that same middle radiator face, the plug interfered with the mounting area. I solved this by modeling and printing a 5 mm thick spacer. radiator_spacer.png Since I could not print a 280 mm long object on the Robo, it was split in half and printed as two separate pieces. They were printed simultaneously and the model follow the profile of the radiator mounting area. It sort of works as a fan shroud which has an added benefit of a minutely slight lowering of the air resistance the fans see before being pushed through the radiator.

    Radiators and fans (Corsair ML140 Magnetic Levitation Case Fans) in place. I now looked for a place to mount the reservoir/pump combination. A perfect spot was in place of the drive cages. I will be running with just an m.2 NVMe PCIe boot drive and a single 4-6 Gb HDD, so I didn't need 7 drive cages cluttering up the inside of the case. Removing the cages left gaping holes in the case back plane and nothing to fill them with. SO back to Fusion 360 to design some covers. Each drive bay is a separate piece so I modeled a cover that would snap into the holes and not require any hardware or obscure any of the mounting surfaces I might want to use later.
    drive_slot_covers.gif
    By grouping edits together in Fusion 360 I use the same base model to create blank covers, stenciled covers and engraved covers.

    With the slots covered I needed a clean way to mount the reservoir and the pump. I am using a combination setup to minimize installation space and wanted to use the existing holes in the case to mount the assembly, so I came up with these two models. The first one holds the top of the radiator in place, the second mounts to the pump top and secures it in place.
    barrow_reservoir_top_bracket.png
    barrow_reservoir_bottom_bracket.png

    All the fittings are made by Barrow (available from various retailers in China and some in the U.S. as well as eBay). I am using clear PETG tubing. There are a few miscellaneous small items that I also modeled and will be printing such as wire combs, escutcheons and others. Some of the more generic items I have placed on Thingiverse for downloading.

    One last thing that will need the Robo is tubing jigs. Why freehand bends, especially complex ones when you can print a jig to do the same thing for you. So when I finally decide on a CPU, motherboard and GPU and it comes time to plumb everything together, I will be modeling and printing one time use jigs to make sure the tubing bends are smooth and come out right.

    More pictures as I move forward, this will be a multi-month long project and I will only be working on it as time and finances permit. so don't expect regular updates like I do on the Marlin 1.1.0 Firmware thread. Links are scattered throughout the post. That's it for now.
     
    #1 WheresWaldo, Mar 12, 2017
    Last edited: Mar 12, 2017
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  2. OutsourcedGuru

    OutsourcedGuru Active Member

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    Some of the multi-thousand dollar computer cases I've seen at the Microsoft store and at the back of Fry's involves glow-in-the-dark tubing and a blacklight somewhere up in the case. Might be worth considering...

    Another cool approach is to use a clear or semi-transparent surface with etchings or letterings/symbols on it and then light it from the edges. It's like this edge-lit panel technique.
     
  3. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    Been there, done that. My last three PCs have all had custom water loops and 3D printed parts installed either on the motherboard or in the case.
     
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  4. OutsourcedGuru

    OutsourcedGuru Active Member

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    Color me "jealous". :laugh: These things are works of art to me and more worthy of a place in a modern museum than half the stuff they have in there.
     
  5. KTMDirtFace

    KTMDirtFace Well-Known Member

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    Nice,

    I have never had the desire for a custom water loop. I'm just using a all in one cooler master unit.

    But I like seeing other peoples builds.
     
  6. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    @KTMDirtFace Custom loop runs quieter and cooler at the same time versus all the all-in-ones. Doesn't matter which AIO you buy they are all made by Asetek, they hold all the AIO patents and they control the entire AIO marketplace. If it isn't currently made by Asetek then it violates their patents and will very quickly get removed from the market. Plus with a custom loop I get to decide how I want the loop to run and what components are included.

    Both my PC and my daughter's PC have custom loops, we run about 60°-65°C under 100% load on all cores. idles just about 5°C above ambient temps, all fans run less than 1000 rpm. It makes the system very quiet. Both of our loops are CPU and GPU so we are cooling nearly the entire PC, only missing VRMs on the motherboard.
     
  7. KTMDirtFace

    KTMDirtFace Well-Known Member

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    Orignally I had a corsair all in one... when i went to install it a hose blew off and shot lime green antifreeze looking liquid into my face and all over the ceiling Took a bit but new egg exchanged it. been running a cooler master all in one for 4-5 years now with no trouble. overclocked and it works great.

    Yes someday I want to do what your doing. I like watching Jayz2cents. I liked that all alluminum kit he posted recently

    One good thing with all in ones is its easy to change parts out. not that I ever had to.

    post pics of your build, i want to see it with all the 3d printed glory!

    I'm on a haswell i7 still. overclocked to 4.3ghz.
     
  8. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    I am running a Skylake OCed to 4.8 Ghz, but I have a half built AMD Ryzen 1700 waiting on a new video card and waterblock. It will be my third custom loop. I was running a non-coverclockable Sandy Bridge before that. So the move to Skylake was a big performance jump. Since I only play a game or two on my PC, I decided to go Ryzen on my next build. I still like playing on a console and my daughter plans on getting an XBX (Scorpio) when it ships later this year. My Skylake has a lame R9 390 video card and since I have a 4K monitor I want to be able to play in 4K. The 390 is underpowered and works like a toaster oven. There was no way to run it without water cooling.
     
  9. Kilrah

    Kilrah Well-Known Member

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    2.5 year old 4.2GHz OCd 5960X with 2x GTX970 here, but proudly aircooled ;) Never saw the point in watercooling.
     
  10. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    @Kilrah well, aren't you a plank flyer? ;)
     
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  11. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    My son had a water cooled system a couple of machines back, it is easier to design since you don't have to worry nearly as much about over clocking it. Since gone back to direct air cooling, but may flip back to water cooling with his next one.
     
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  12. Kilrah

    Kilrah Well-Known Member

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    I just go with MASSIVE air coolers. My Noctua NH-D14 is happy to dissipate my CPU's 280W when needed, and even stays silent :)

    Water cooling is actually still air cooling anyway, it's only moved a bit further away :D
     
  13. Ryan TeGantvoort

    Ryan TeGantvoort Active Member

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    Just got the go-ahead to build myself a new computer at work! Working on getting all the components now. I would be curious to see some of the components you are using? I thought about going the Xeon route but I don't think my SolidWorks usage justifies it.

    So this is my current plan:
    i7-7700K or i7-7740X

    Quadro P4000 GPU

    (2) Samsung 960 EVO M.2 NVMe PCIe 3.0x4 500GB SSD (possibly a WD Black for additional storage if needed)

    Motherboard: ASUS Prime X299A or Prime Z270A/Strix Z270F, depending on the CPU I decide to go with. I try to stay away from anything with Wi-Fi as it is useless here since we are all direct connected plus it's more expensive. We already have a few ASUS boards in house so I'd prefer to keep the same as I have to work on all the computers.

    As for RAM, I have not decided. 2x16GB to start with, and maybe DDR4 3000MHz (If I go with the 7740X, I will probably get 4 sticks instead of 2) Currently looking at Corsair Vengeance LPX or Dominator Platinum, G.Skill Ripjaws V or TridentZ, HyperX Predator or Fury, I have been reading good things about the Team Group RAM though (Vulcan or Elite Plus). There are so many to choose from!

    More than likely liquid cooled (All-in-One) with multiple case fans so I can safely OC if needed. NZXT Kraken or Corsair Hydro. Possible interest in a custom loop though (first time going liquid cooled on a build)

    Case - Don't really care, something all components will fit in lol! Or I will use one from the boneyard.

    Power Supply: Probably EVGA, Seasonic or maybe Corsair (might have one laying around too)

    Some of your input would be greatly appreciated!
     
  14. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    Either Intel CPU is a good choice. This time around I decided to go AMD, but honestly the first round of AMD motherboards are not anywhere near as stable as the Intel platform. Not a huge fan of X299, seems Intel doesn't know where to position this platform and there are a lot of caveats based on the CPU you finally decide on.

    I can't afford a Quadro, did you look at the AMD VEGA FE GPUs just released and appear to perform better than the Quadro and a fraction of the cost. There is some value in staying with nVidia as it is a known quantity.

    No comments on SSD NVMe is the way to go. Gains are marginal when comparing brand to brand. Can't go wrong with Samsung's.

    If you ram is anywhere near 3000Mhz then you should give very serious consideration to DDR4 3200 CAS 14 RAM. any vendor selling that spec means it is made from Samsung B-die chips, which are by far the most robust and easily overclockable RAM you can buy, as well as very fast too. Don't forget that anything over DDR4 2133 is already overclocked, so you can't use the excuse that you aren't overclocking RAM.

    If you are going to do All-In-One I would consider the Alphacool Eiswolf. It's an all-in-one that is expandable. Extreme cooling isn't just for overclocking, it can also make a PC nearly silent (only passive cooling is quieter). I have 5 fans in my case and not a single one runs faster than 1000 rpm simply because they don't need to.

    Seasonic, Corsair, they are all about the same, current trend is for single rail PSUs so that you 12v rail has all the available current to run anything you might need. That is versus multi-rail.
     
  15. Ryan TeGantvoort

    Ryan TeGantvoort Active Member

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    I have always had good luck with Intel CPUs so I tend to steer in that direction. I do agree with you on the X299 or simply the Xtreme CPU series, not much to choose from for Motherboards. They don't come with onboard graphics which I don't really care about since I'll be adding the GPU. But they can run Quad-Channel RAM instead of just Dual Channel like the "Normal" Series'. It also appears the X299 boards run RAM at 2666MHz without clocking instead of 2133MHz.

    Do you prefer MSI or ASUS boards? Currently, we only have 1 ASUS board in-house and plan on rebuilding most of the computers in the office, so I guess I wouldn't mind going the MSI route and just having to deal with that 1 ASUS board. The MSI board I have been considering is the MSI Pro Carbon.

    The AMD Vega FE definitely caught my eye after looking into it. They do appear to be alot better on paper, but as you stated the NVIDIA is known for their quality (which may go away if these Vega FEs catch on). I may end up going the AMD route for GPU, now. Not sure if I will wait for the Liquid Cooled one to be released or not though. They are a bit more expensive than the P4000 (but that's with the 34% discount currently on Newegg). Otherwise the P4000 is about $300 more. So technically the Liquid Cooled one is about the same price as the P4000.

    I have had excellent luck with Samsung SSDs in the past and would not go any other way. More expensive than other brands, yes, but they have always lasted, and typically outperform.

    I have looked at multiple DDR4 3200MHz CAS 14 RAM, fairly hard to find but kind of what I was planning on getting. Do you have a personal preference? It would appear G.Skill is dominating the competition in the market of RAM with that low of a latency at 3200MHz. Not sure if I will OC the RAM or CPU but I would like to have the option.

    This simply means the board will only run them at 2133 unless I overclock the RAM, correct?

    I will take a closer look into the Alphacool Eiswolf......and after looking at their website I am completely confused lol!

    It would appear most PSUs I am finding are just a single +12V rail. I have not looked into this at all, but I would assume a single rail would be better. Do you have one you would recommend?

    Thanks for the advice!
     
  16. Kilrah

    Kilrah Well-Known Member

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    The few Vega reviews I've seen suggested that while they seemed promising stability currently wasn't what you expect and look for when you buy a workstation-class GPU.
    Bit too early maybe.
     
  17. Ryan TeGantvoort

    Ryan TeGantvoort Active Member

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    So after digging more into the Vega FE, what I haven't figured out is why all the benchmarks are putting the Vega FE against the Titan Xp? Why not compare it to the P6000, 5000 or even 4000 to give a better comparison (simply because it the Quadro blows it out of the water?). They are promoting the Vega as a professional card but comparing it to a gaming card. So all the benchmarks I have seen, basically went in 1 eye and out the other. And why even benchmark games, if you want this to be your workstation GPU? I think I may have to stick with the P4000, which I know will be a solid GPU.
     
  18. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    @Ryan TeGantvoort Matched to the Titan Xp because of price only. The Titan Xp is NOT a gaming card or at least so says nVidia. nVidia claims their only gaming cards are all from the GTX lineup.

    AMD didn't benchmark games with the VEGA FE, it is the reviewers that did that. In their showcase they specifically prohibited showing any gaming benchmarks with the FE cards. But since you can actually buy one and most magazines, websites and YouTube reviewers cater to the gaming/enthusiast market, they all did the gaming benchmarks anyway. AMD specifically stated that the cards are not gaming optimized so you can safely ignore all the game benchmartks, Look at the Catia/Solidworks benchmarks only.

    Regarding RAM speeds. Most every Intel board will run DDR4 at the rated speed. Just bear in mind that the rated speed is overclocked since the specification for DDR4 limits speed to 2133 Mhz. All DDR4 must run at 2133 Mhz, some can just run faster.

    @Kilrah Most sites focused on gaming, and while the FE card can game, it is not driver optimized for gaming. It is most reviewers desire to get the scoop on VEGA RX performance that led them down this path. They all think they are Nostradamus and can predict future performance of unavailable hardware by looking at existing hardware. Since most of those predictions are just wild ass guesses I stopped watching and reading all the enthusiast previews until they actually have hardware in hand.
     
  19. Ryan TeGantvoort

    Ryan TeGantvoort Active Member

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    @WheresWaldo Well put.....I'll just shut up now! :D You said what I needed to hear.

    I am going to hold off and see how it progresses. I like the VEGA, but without proof it can handle SolidWorks or at least stable drivers, I could just be throwing money out the window. When I know the Quadros will do just fine, but the VEGA would be like getting a P6000 for $1000! But I have been seeing numbers comparable to the P5000, which is still good for the price range its at.

    Maybe I'll wait for the V100 lol, I wish!

    Some were saying the VEGA FE is going to be best suited to run with the Ryzen instead of the Intel Processors though?

    I did read that they are trying to use multiple drivers with the VEGA FE, so you can download Pro drivers or Gaming Drivers. But then it also looks like they are going to release a VEGA line of Gaming Cards.

    I was completely under the assumption the Titan Xp was not considered a Workstation or Professional Card though, but also not necessarily classified as a Gaming Card I guess either. SolidWorks does not support any of the Titan Xp drivers, currently anyways (same goes for the VEGA FE obviously though since it's barely been released).

    The wattage of the VEGA FE seems fairly high.

    That's what I figured with the RAM, thank you for clarifying.

    I agree totally with the last paragraph of your post as well. Give me some cold hard facts not all these assumptions lol!
     
  20. KTMDirtFace

    KTMDirtFace Well-Known Member

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    We used to use Quadros at work ( Video Game industry ). This was awhile ago though, I hated them( I'm a programmer though, not a modeler ). They couldn't run a game to save their life( most likely driver issues ) and I don't use Maya/3DSmax all day long. I think the artists probably liked them as they are the ones 3d modeling all day long.

    Fast forward 7? years.. all our machines are using GTX 980's and 1080s. ( newest machines are getting 1080's.)
     
    #20 KTMDirtFace, Jul 9, 2017
    Last edited: Jul 9, 2017

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