Worklog: Project Thief - Fully Watercooled Dual PC

[stren]

R9-290s in quad crossfire providing the gaming power:

You may ask why not nvidia - generally quad scaling seems to be a bit superior with AMD even if Nvidia has the edge on single card performance. Lightboost of course still works with AMD, and now that I'm done with the build I can focus on getting some Swift monitors

LED strips reflect off the custom ebony veneered panelling:

Close up of the EK X3 anticyclone acrylic:

Monsoon fittings and hardline tube was again used to give an ultra clear look feeding into the EK Supremacy EVO block that cools the 4820K:

As this was a gaming computer primarily I went with a 4820K to acheive slightly better clock speeds, as that seems to influence high fps more than cores do though that is starting to change for some games. I love bridges to connect GPUs - they not only give a clean look and make hooking up the blocks easy but they also give a rigidity to the cards that can help reduce sag:

Some people have problems fitting them because it requires you to be comfortable sealing a block with an o-ring - but honestly if you are water cooling then you should be comfortable with taking a block apart and resealing it anyway. I also love the clean look of a backplate - and the EK 290 backplate also includes thermal pads that help to keep the hot R9-290 VRMs and core a little cooler:

The X79 Dark was one of the very few boards that EK did not make a motherboard block for. Luckily Natemandoo stepped up to make blocks for the board instead. Hopefully we will see some EK blocks for the EVGA x99 boards now that EK also supply the classified waterblocks:

A motherboard full of GPUs is a joy to see:

Powered up with RGB leds set to red:

 

[stren]

You can see an error code on the motherboard simply because there is no boot drive or monitor connected. I need to have some friends over to help me carry this 100-200lb behemoth upstairs.

All the radiator fans are Gentle Typhoons. Some are 1850RPM while some are the 2150RPM units shown here:

Gentle typhoons can't be beaten for noise/airflow performance through a radiator, and running in push and pull means great performance while being able to dial them down to silent levels.

The bottom radiators even use 120mm Gentle Typhoons even though they are 560 sized. The use of a 120mm->140mm fan adapter makes this possible. You can also see the 4 screws (2 at either end) that hold the radiator side mount in. This side mount makes it very easy to remove radiators for cleaning out dust:

Even the Mora 1260 radiator (140x9) does the same thing:

The red ringed fittings are fill ports - one for each loop making filling a breeze.

The amount of display outputs just gets silly:

The monsoon hardlining is great for "mounting" pumps too. As it can carry significant load the pump itself can simply hang rather than being mounted:

This also has the benefit that vibration isn't transmitted through the mount. It even works with the EK Dual D5 top:

While the EK Ascendacy fan controller controls the fans and can measure temperatures I wanted to be able to have a quick glance to check out my coolant and air temperatures and so I built in these Phoby temperature sensors into a wood panel on the pedestal:

The temps here are a little off as the computers are powered on, and the pumps were not running so they're not indicative of real performance yet

Lastly the LED strips that are pretty well hidden in each chamber at the top and bottom:

Here are some vids that show the LEDs cycling through colors:

http://youtu.be/LvSCPImtu5Y

http://youtu.be/nBoBcF-hfTo

So that's it from me and thief and it's nearly time for us to say goodbye, throw a party and move this fridge sized beast upstairs! Again a big thank you to sponsors for their generosity in making this long project happen!