It is not possible to buy a mac. To buy one would mean that you own it - and no one owns a mac. They're just allowed to use it by the true owner - Apple.
@@Zyncra cnc isn't at all necessary for this. It's a quality of life thing that if you have you can use, but anything here could be done with any typical tools someone with a home would have. You might need to buy a file.
Nah you could do this on the cheap. He's very restrictive on his intake but you could absolutely fully air cool a drawer-mounted PC with the latest TDP monstrosities by creating any kind of air tunnel. Heck, you could use tubing and dump the hot air outside or in your shower if you wanted. As long as you go with jank there's always a solution. Try to purchase your way to a proper solution and shy of rack mounting you're only going to run into more issues
As a woodworker who recently got into PC building, I've always thought "why don't I just build my own case?" Your channel is so cool! Perfect blend of tech and woodworking, and the production is next level. Very well done!!
When you use solid wood, the wood will likely warp from the temperature differences. Also, a metal case can remove up to 50% of the heat inside the case (for a typical fan-cooled desktop system). You will need a better and more elaborate cooling system. Back in the days I built two class A monoblock amplifiers out of wood (and electronic components). 150W of heat, when idle, per unit. I started by designing the (passive) cooling system first.
@@marcjones5862 The metal case is s heart exchanger (a heatsink) which transports thermal energy from the air inside to the air outside. Note that I was referring to a "typical desktop PC". An industrial PC, dissipating 10W inside a sealed, watertight IP67 metal "cigar box" will require no other cooling, as long as the outside temperature is 40°C or less. But that's not a "standard PC". Same for the gaming system which dissipates 700W under full load. I estimate an Rth of maybe 2 K/W for an average steel PC enclosure. At 20W, the air inside the enclosed would be 40°C warmer than the outside air - too much already. But with fan assistance, and an observed temperature difference of 20°C, we can see that half (50%) of the thermal energy is transported via the fan, and the case takes care of the other 50%. Of course, if you insulate the case, temperature will rise and the fan will run faster. You will have a noisier machine, and, since the fan only speeds up at a higher temperature (at standard settings), your machine will also run hotter, reducing the lifespan of its compliments. In case of the 700W gaming PC running at full tilt, the enclosure will still be responsible for maybe 1.5% of the thermal energy transfer. That's why I said "standard PC", and "up to". And now you know why installing "anti noise mats" might make your PC quieter...or noisier, if it's not very energy-efficient to start with.
"I don't know why more people don't do this?" $3,000 on hardline fittings and parts later... I kid Zac. This looks great! If I had the means and money, I'd do something like this myself.
Why "kid" this clown??? ALMOST NOBODY HAS THE TIME OR MONEY TO DO ANY OF THIS!!! This CLOWN is as BAD AS LINUS! Which is WHY he is HEMORRHAGING VIEWERS just like LTT!
Honestly, my first hard line water cooled setup was made out of 1/2" copper pipe from the big box home improvement store. it was cheaper than the hard tubing costs through newegg. Also, I feel better about sweating the pipe than bending some plastic. I also bough a small pump off of amazon. It was usable but it was loud in comparison to a D5 water cooling pump. The most expensive bit is getting a good cpu and gpu block.
@@S4NSE just like some car channels where they said its easy and only takes a lot of work. Then you see their videos of them building a car from scratch where they got schematics from car manufacturer cuz they knew someone in the company to even get it. Then they also had a friend who has CNC and milling machines that has their own equipment and they themselves are CNC specialist. Like dude, regular people aint got money like that or connections and friends who can do all that sht for free for them lol Just paying someone to CNC or mill car parts cost a lot of money. lol Find it funny how they are out of touch in that aspect.
how loudly the ignorant scream. dude, you can do something like this a lot cheaper. nobody forces you to use the same tools and materials, let alone the pc parts. dude you can just as well buy a used pc and a used desk with drawers. and the 1 plate you need to mount the pc parts on it won't cost you a kidney if you don't even have the money for that stuff i think you got other problems
1. do not use a saw on the plastic tubes, it can cause micro cracks all the way down the tubes. Use a pipe/tubing cutter 2. if you run a tube and use an Apex Fillport you can have a high side fill port right above the res (Alphacool makes them) 3. if you want to spend the time you can build a custom wire harness
yea about 1 ... make sure it's a high quality tube cutter, if it's a cheap one meant for flexi tubes you'll end up with a oval tube if you use it on PETG...also if you use it on acrylic it'll shatter...kinda only use that on PMMA to be safe as it doesn't shatter and is strong enough to resist becoming an oval. also is everybody okay with just jamming a tube in there? cause there's kinda O rings in the fitting that wile not the only seal is a extra seal you probably don't want to mangle with a sharp corner >.> step 1 soften the edges with a regular deburr tool, or sand paper, or use a tube specific debur tool on a power drill. step 2 apply some soapy water to the end to lubricate it and slightly twist upon pushing it in, should go in pretty easy and it won't mangle half - 2/3rds of the O-rings on your fittings >.> addendum to 1, Alphacool sells a pull saw tube cutting kit, EKWB sells a tiny metal saw tube cutting kit, it's fine to cut tubes if your cracking the tubes from one end to the other your doing something horribly wrong...or working with strait up acrylic which seems annoying.
1. No. If you use a pipe tubing cutter, you still run the risk of cracking the tube. Literally every pipe cutter cuts them by applying pressure against the tube/pipe. I've seen more hardline tubing crack from that than I ever have from a saw.
Any cutter is bad if not used properly, it's enough to have a small hand saw or whatyacall it, similar to what he used in the video too and apply less pressure while cutting also spraying it with water while cutting helps. You don't rush and yank around with this type of cut and you will be fine.
You've probably thought of this, but when benchmarking, try flipping your fans around to pull cool air in the front of the case, and all of the radiator fans blow out the back, and see if it helps with thermals. This way you don't get radiator-heated air inside the drawer, and bonus: you don't have hot air blowing at you out the front of the PC this summer! You have more than enough fans at the back to keep up with (slightly) warmer air coming from inside the drawer over the big radiator. I'm jealous of the woodworking shop! haha
I'll probably try it at some point, but my logic was that I want the radiator to have access to the coolest air possible. That prioritizes the main heat generating components. Honestly i dont think it would change much in either direction though. My coolant temps barely even get into the 40s when the machine is going full tilt.
@@ZacBuilds Any heat that gets picked up by the rest of the system on its way through the enclosure will be minimal, compared to what the radiator kicks out. There'll be plenty of heat capacity left for the radiators to work and the fans at the front have to do less work exhausting all that heat out of the case. Additionally, you'll make better use of the fans because that shroud on the one side of the radiator is designed to ensure a gap between the fins and the fan blades, so you lessen the dead zone where the fan hub is. When fans push through a radiator, the middle of the fan blocks airflow. Temperature differences are minimal, but the bonus is that by drawing air through the front of the case, you can easily filter that intake and access the filter for easy cleaning.
Not trying to be rude its absolutely WILD he went through all that work just to plumb the heat BACK into the wooden box. Christ. Looks really great though.
1. The recessed "tray" for the mother might cause you some issues. Not because of electrical fires, as wood acts as a resistor and not a conductor at very low voltages. Computers work at very low voltages. The issue is getting airflow to any metal and components on the back side of the motherboard. IMHO, I would have bought a metal "open air" bench case and built the drawer around it. 2. Your Max Z height wasn't as limiting as you think. There are PCIe risers that let you rotate the card 90 degrees from the motherboard, so you're looking at the fancy side with the fans (or your RGB water block) instead of the top of the card. This means your computer can be much thinner than if you plugged the card directly into the motherboard. So the "recessed tray" is more an aesthetics choice over a technical limitation. Also, this takes care of "GPU sag" (It's the card that sags, not the processor on the card.), as the center of mass goes through the center of gravity, so parts don't flex like when they're laid out flat. A lot of newer cases have this feature. (And the graphics card can be placed in a way to hide some of the cable routing. 3. NEVER USE THE MOTHERBOARD AS A DRILLING TEMPLATE!!! Why? The short answer is you can and will create a fire hazard if you damage the board around the screw holes. Short answer is the standard uses some of those screw holes as grounding points, and you could chip away at protective features and the substrate of the motherboard exposing traces for other systems to short out to ground. If you don't believe me, just ask Steve of GamersNexus about the NZXT H1 PCIe Riser card fires. This guy's research was used by the FTC to force NZXT to issue a recall for the cases. The reason was poorly designed traces around the screw holes that created grounding points and fire. The really idiotic thing is, The ATX, Mini-ITX, and Micro-ATX motherboard standards are just that, STANDARDS. You were already using your CNC machine to route out a cavity for the motherboard. You could have just as easily downloaded the standards template for the motherboard and have the screw holes in the right position and orientation for you. Likewise, you could have printed off a paper template of the standard and have the screw holes exactly where you needed to place them. You could have even placed the motherboard on a piece of paper and drew up a paper template. There was no reason or need to put the motherboard at risk of damage for your custom case. Oh, and using your motherboard itself as a drilling template will 100 PERCENT void the warranty, even if the issue isn't directly associated to drill damage. There's wiggle room for the water-cooling mods. 4. Zip ties? Really? They make hook and loop straps called "cable ties" for this exact use case. Why cable ties over zip ties? They look better and they're reusable. Need to change out a wire? You're good to go with cable ties. Need to tie cables to soft tube without the possibility of crushing the tube? Cable ties. Cabling an entire data center? Oh, you bet your sweet bippity you're using hook and loop cable ties or you're getting fired. Save those zip ties until you need to cuff a bad guy.
As someone that has done both hard and soft tubing, I prefer soft. That's simply because I'm often getting into the pc to swap out parts and perform maintenance. I find it's a hell of a lot easier to work around soft tubing, being able to move it around, to get to things and apply new paste. Also the first time I tried to do hard tubing I made it way too overly complex with the angles and bends. Ended up wasting huge swathes of the stuff.
i agree. Hard tube looks nice, but soft tube is way easier - plus, and this my be bs, i feel like the connection on a soft tube is more reliable, at least more user friendly than hard tube.
To me hardline feels like a commitment to never touching the inside of the PC again (at least until you're ready to rip everything out and start a fresh build in that case)
@@MarcusTheDorkus ehh, i wouldn't go that far at all. hardline is a significant upfront commitment, but once all is said and done, assuming you actually take time to plan your routing, its not bad to work around. the connection points around "GOOD" fittings are very reliable and slight bumps and nudges are inconsequential. just be sure everything is seated well before putting pressure back into the system. Ive had a hardline pc for over 8 years now and i do general maintenance on it every 2-3 months or so, i.e. dusting, cleaning, etc and annual fluid flushes. i also have a very complex routing including 2 same side port rads, cpu, gpu, mobo and ram in a previous iteration (yes i know its stupid but i was a 16 year old with a slightly too well paying job). It is 100% true that softline has a stronger connection than hardline tubing as the soft fittings actually bite into the tubing locking it down as opposed to a squeeze friction mount, but ive moved my pc without draining it well over a dozen times without any problems to date.
@@bottlecapog I've been building loops since 2003, and hardline is awful. I did it once in 2012 with acrylic tubing and I will never do it again, and I don't understand why so many people would ever build another hardline loop after doing it once. Any polymer based hardline will slowly leech plasticizers into the coolant if you don't stay on top of religiously changing it out, otherwise you get build ups in the turbulent areas of your radiator and blocks which is a nightmare to completely clean. Hardline also drastically lowers the maximum safe coolant temp which means you need more radiator area or more noise to keep coolant temp from exceeding ~40C, and if you don't keep the coolant temp as low as possible the thermal expansion/contraction of the tubing dries out the o-rings in fittings and joints and will eventually cause them to leak. It's nothing but headaches and all for a subjective improvement in aesthetic. Does not make-a-sense. Since that misadventure, I will only run EPDM 7/16" ID soft tubing with 1/2" barbs and tube clamps, with a t-line and no reservoir (reservoirs encourage microbial growth and it slows flowrates), and I run automotive coolant at a 10/90 ratio to distilled water. That setup means the only maintenance my loops ever see is an occasional dusting out of the radiator every 8 months or so.. or if coolant temp is up a bit because I forgot to dust it out, otherwise I don't open my loops for several years at a time. Once they're built, I don't want to think about them again. The longest stretch I've ran a sealed loop with automotive coolant and EPDM is 8 years, and when I finally overhauled it, all the components still looked new inside.
Just some advice: orientate your fans so they're pulling air through the radiator, rather than pushing, as they currently are. Having your fans pull air makes maintanance much easier, as you don't have to take the fans off to clean the radiator. Either that, or get a dust filter.
I was going to post same thing...except add the front fans need to be reversed too. As of video this system will be pushing the hot air from rad into PC space...then front fans will be pulling the hot air out and blasting it at user.
Great video. Watercooling your components does not void your hardware warranty unless you break it during the disassembly or reassembly process though 👍
@@danstiurca7963 Those stickers are not legit. Removing or damaging that sticker cannot and does not void your warranty in the United States-It is against the law for a company to enforce this.
@@danstiurca7963 It does make sense, you are allowed to open and tinker around with anything you purchase. You own it. That being said, if you damage it, the company is very unlikely to repair it for you. They can see what is accidental damage and what is a warranty defect.
@@danstiurca7963it makes sense cause its working. on people like you. who dont know the law and that the sticker is unenforceable and you can sue them and easily win. However they will likely cave and fulfill the warranty before that happens. and no no warranty is void if the sticker is tampered with in any way unless what you did actually did cause it to break. Which THAT makes sense. the sticker is completely legal. they can (for some reason) put it there to scare you. they cannot however void your warranty on the grounds "he tampered with the sticker therefore warranty void" as it is not a valid legal argument that a court will uphold.
You need a grounding wire to connect to one of the standoffs for esd. Cases normally do this automatically by connecting to the screw of the power supply.
I don't believe that is part of the modern day ATX standard. It was in the old AT and baby AT stardards though. I've used many a ATX motherboard on top of a cardboard box, none of them have complained.
@@sparkyenergia The mounting screws (from the case to the mobo) are the Ground. HOWEVER I do agree that as long as you do not have a "peak" in your current (usually after an outage) you'll be fine.
That's an expensive solution for something better cable routing can acheive for next to nothing. 11 lian li fans will cost $350 while something like decent arctics will be barely over $70. An extra $280 to get rid of cables that will never be seen has a debatable cost/benefit.
@@jmwilsoNDBuilding a computer into a desk with $300 worth of materials, $500 in watercooling parts, and $4000+ in tools also has little to no tangible benefit over spending $200 on a case and air cooler (total), but here we are.
@@tyrdchaos All of those compnents you mentioned added value. There's value in the pc and loop components as they contribute to things like his video editing in a way that adds productivity and more $, there's value in the materials of the desk as it's a more reliable and lasting piece of furniture as well as a video opportunity. His tools do the same thing. Your lian li fans provide 0 extra value.
@@jmwilsoND and building the PC into a desk also provides zero value over using a case. I just don't get your point. The "value" you talk about is subjective and has no objective basis. It seems to me you have little to no experience buidling a computer. The number of cables you have to manage can be frustrating if there are a lot, especially when you have to do maintenance, such as cleaning the rad, cleaning the fans, replacing fans, etc. So the value resides in ease of maintenace and management. Saying something provides no value when the total cost of that thing is literally less than 15% of the overall cost of the build. He spent $1500 on a graphics card that provides almost no value over a 4070 TI (half the price). Like, your takes seem to make no sense in comparison to the overall build. And again, I stated the value, which is to clean the literal rats nest of cables zip tied to the side of the radiator. The value of this build is around hiding the PC and making the whole setup look clean. There is no actual value in the build outside of that. The temps are higher than they would be a similarly configured computer case.
Great build. Really love the clean aesthetic and look of the system as a whole. I would caution bending the 12vhp connector to the graphics card. If not fully seated the connector can be a major issue whether its the Nvidia adapter variant or a direct line to the PSU like yours. They have melted and burned up routinely when first released and people weren't aware of the cable limitations. Cable mod makes a 90 degree adapter that solves the problem though and looks way cleaner. Being so close to the edge of the sled, it wouldn't be a bad 40 dollar investment to keep that cable from getting pinched and possibly causing a very bad, 450 watt fire hazard.
Thanks for the concern! I've seen all of those videos so I was pretty cautious when using the 12vhp connector. The bend isn't that severe coming off the GPU and I made sure it was in the nice and tight.
@@ZacBuilds you could actually use a Riser Cable for the GPU that way you can place the GPU however you like (maybe even as a Cable cover just in case your 3D printed cable cover doesnt take cover from friendly fire) anyways awsome build i hope for more!
For your internal cable cover panels: Model a shallow recess into the flat front surface that can then accept another material. Metal, carbon fiber, wood, etc. It could be a nice little inlay panel.
I can say that one nice thing about water cooling is that there's a decent chunk of it that is arguably a one-time expense. For example, you don't usually have any reason to replace radiators or pumps between builds. Of course, large changes in the build parameters (e.g., the case) can dictate whether that's necessary. Albeit, that may also suggest going with parts that have a bit better compatibility. An example of that is if your larger case says it can fit a 420mm radiator (3x140mm), consider going with a 360mm (3x120mm) instead. It will likely have worse performance, but it should be more compatible with other cases. CPU blocks can often be used between different sockets, but they may require different mounting hardware (e.g., Intel LGA-115x blocks usually require some minor accessories to support LGA-1700). Unfortunately, GPU water blocks tend to be a one-and-done as blocks are rarely compatible between dissimilar GPUs. Although, even with all of that, I don't water cool all of my computers. Why not? It isn't the cost... it's the hassle. I use water cooling to build very quiet computers and it isn't uncommon to run into situations where you can install your parts, but the layout just doesn't allow for great tubing runs. Recently, I actually switched one computer from water back to air, and let me tell you... it was *NICE* to have such an easy build for once. I do kind of enjoy the puzzle aspect of figuring out how to manage a good water-cooled build, but there are times where I just have too much other things to do to spend it trying to get a build setup. Oh, and one other thing... if you aren't as careful about the layout, you can end up looking to spend extra money on angled adapters for your fittings. One goal that I've had recently is to avoid the glut of angled adapters that I used to use and just use longer runs... or finally stop wimping out and use hardline tubing. 😋
Hey Zac, cool build. I also like the fact, that you're talking about problems that you have after finishing the job and also brainstorm possible solutions. Keep on going.
Amazing build, just noticed you may be new to water cooling, just a heads-up on a few things. You will need to clean your water cooling loop every year or so and have some kind of bacteria inhibitor in your loop to prevent algae and other bacteria from growing in your loop. You can also install a drain port at the lowest part of your loop to make it easier to drain your loop in the future. You could also have a flow indicator in your loop to see if the pump is working and coolant is flowing in your loop as you went with frosted hard tube. Must say though, that desk does look amazing, and maybe you could try relocating the power button to a small whiteboard piece of wood that you could place on your desk to turn on your PC, almost like the start button in a car, then you don't need to open the PC drawer all the time, just a suggestion though. Love your videos, waiting impatiently for the next one.
Thank you! I appreciate the info I'll definitely keep that stuff in mind. I love the idea of a start button up top, but it would have to be something custom. Honestly I rarely ever use the power button. Just wiggle the mouse and it boots up. Still I like the idea.
You don't have to clean the loop every year, especially not with a hardline build. Just use a ethylene glycol based coolant (assuming the tube isn't PETG). I have a custom loop that hasn't been apart in 6-7 years and has never been fully cleaned and runs opaque dye, and it still works 100% fine. Cools nearly as well as it did day 1 once I clean the dust out of the radiators. It has had the fluid changed 2-3x simply due to the dye fading (about every 2 years), but that was simply via the method of opening the drain slightly and cycling through 6-7 gallons of distilled then adding new dye, never taking anything apart or even draining/re-bleeding it. Cleaning is really only needed if you use soft tubing as the plasticizer leeches out over time and gums up the blocks. Dye doesn't do this really, especially not clear dyes, it gets blamed for plasticizers problems. It can also be needed if you let the system run with just pure distilled and heat up for a long period of time, THEN it will grow shit in it, but if you use proper coolant from day 1 this won't happen.
@@JathraDH Does putting a silver coil in the reservoir still work if you're using regular distilled water? That's how it was when I water cooled my PCs and never had a buildup problem (I didn't use hardline tubing though)
@@ccricers Silver kill coils are really not advised as biocide because they completely screw your galvanic balance. For metals in contact with any type of electrically conductive fluid you really ideally don't want more than a 0.15 galvanic spread, the higher the spread the more the galvanic anode (highest anodic index metal) will corrode and deposit itself onto the rest of the loop. This is why the entire industry moved away from aluminum blocks because it has a galvanic index of 0.95 making it basically the highest metal in the loop and what gets corroded first, the blocks were literally getting destroyed by this. Silver has a index of 0.15 making it basically the low point of your spread, but most components in a loop these days are nickel (0.30) copper (0.35) and brass (0.40-0.45). As you can see, if you stick with only nickel/copper/brass you have a spread of 0.30 > 0.45 keeping it within the 0.15 range. If you throw silver in there however then your spread is 0.15 > 0.45 which is a 0.3 range and it will quickly corrode the highest metal without corrosion inhibitor. However, there is one other metal in your loop which is almost always overlooked, and that's tin/lead from the solder in your radiators. Tin is 0.65 and lead is 0.70. So realistically even with nickel/copper/brass you are looking more at a 0.3 -> 0.7 spread of 0.4, but with silver in the mix it gets far worse being 0.15 -> 0.7 0.55 spread which is quite bad. On top of this the anodic metal is literally the thing holding your radiators together and keeping it from leaking. This is why you really WANT to use ethylene glycol because it is a strong corrosion inhibitor and also a good biocide, well its bio-neutral but it still prevents growth. We have a GIANT industry in the world which deals specifically with water cooling car engines, and they all use radiator fluid which is literally just ethylene glycol. They probably know what the hell they are doing. People who refuse to use it because its slightly poorer heat capacity/transfer really are just shooting themselves in the foot, its used world wide in radiator systems for a reason.
I always see this comment for custom loops. My Corsair AIO has been going for 10 years on my 2600k at 4.5ghz and zero issue. Do the AIO get out of needing maintenance in some way? Could you just get a holder to put an AIO onto a GPU and then never need to clean either loop?
I've been looking at my new motherboard and looking at an empty box in my desk with such a temptation, while waiting for an actual case to arrive, but now thankfully to your video, my adventurous spirit has been satisfied, and I will patiently wait for a case to arrive.
I'm a woodworker and I build a custom wood case for my 32 core Threadripper with a complete hard line custom loop! I never had a problem with overheating. Runs like a dream!
pipe cutters will work on PETG tubes but will shatter acrylic, so, use where it makes sense :) Oh and anyone using PETG should be burned at the stake, this thing is for plastic bottles :P
As some poeple have Pointed out, Flip the fans around on the Rad(or turn the front Exaust Fans on) you want to keep some fair flowing over the VRMs and other non water cooled parts, otherwise, a very cool build.
I've always liked my PCs out of sight. In one home office, I kept my PC towers in a closet, and drilled a hole through the wall to run the cabling over to my desk. I ran a power button all the way over to the desk as well and it was awesome. Totally silent and a super clean setup as I hid all the wiring. Then when I moved and no longer had the closet, I build the PC into the desk itself. NOTHING as complicated as your setup, but honestly it doesn't need to be. Yours is an extreme setup. Mine, was hidden behind a door- a super clean look. When you opened the door, the motherboard was mounted to the side walls of the interior desk. I then literally hung the SSDs and made a spot for the PSU. I had holes drilled in the back for vents. I always used it with the door closed and the PC was silent and completely out of sight. I only gave it up when I realized I didn't need even that much of a PC anymore. (I now rock a two Mini PCs and a Mac Mini, along with my laptops, all mounted under the desk.)
I use rack-mount server cases. Wire management - pvc slotted duct comes in various colors, depth/width and slot sizes - panduit is a good brand. The cables can enter and exit via the slots while the cover hides all the mess. Used in electrical wiring control panels and the larger variant in data cabling patch panels. Look up "Umbilical Cable Management" / "Cable-Snake Cube" regarding your wire chain.
"I don't understand why more people don't do this", he says, as he installs $1000+ worth of water cooling onto a $1500 PC. Gee, I wonder why. Nevermind the amount of work it takes to do this, the amount of work to troubleshoot a custom water loop, or how much harder it is to perform maintenance on a system with rigid tubing.
The GPU and CPU by themselves is roughly 1,800$ USD, + Motherboard - 2,100$ + DDR5 - 2,250 + SSD - 2,500 + 850/1000w PSU = (approximated) 26 / 2,700$ BEFORE all of the water cooling stuff. If you're a PC enthusiast like myself, like Zac and like many many other hardworking people; chances are you enjoy the build process, the equipment itself and the end result enough to put the effort in. If you don't care or don't enjoy it, then don't build PCs. 🤷 If you want something in your system bad enough and you're genuinely passionate about the hobby and your gear, you'll save money to make things happen, regardless of how long it may take you. Zac's just fortunate he gets to do things like this for a living.
I, very much, LOVED the build.. You earned my subscription.. I as a retired master carpenter & computer tech, love the combo of tech and woodcraft.. Also something you might want to consider, since you added nice RGB Lighting, why not on the inside wall of the desk, cut out an add a window, so it can be on display.. That in itself would be an awesome build.. Thank you for sharing..
I really love your work. I highly recommend that you basically create an aluminum "case" that acts as a buffer between your computer and the wood. This will reduce the interference your computer creates with your wifi access point, and other electronics in your house. (nothing to do with heat.)
Nice job! Take my like. Edge banding makes such a HUGE difference and people don't realize how easy it is done and it's not that expensive. I screwed up assembling a cabinet and left the unfinished edge to the front (and I had used wood glue so disassembling it was impossible. Just a strip of edge band, some stain and utility knife to trim and it looks perfect.
I loved this video, since it really reminded me about my first experience with watercooling. Would be nice to see you do a collab with LinusTechTips and show when how to properly make a nice wooden desk with some integrated stuff. Theirs are always so janky and "low" craftsmanship.
Nice build. You should mount a power button on the underside of the desk with some slack on the wire so you don't need to open the drawer to turn the computer on. For the GPU, you could get a vertical mounting bracket, which would also hide a lot of that wiring.
When you are doing upgrades it would be fun to see you move the radiator somewhere remote to dump the waste heat into something useful, or just outside when you don't want it heating up your room
I am stunned by this video. It makes me feel like I am a kindergartner. Even reading the comments below makes me feel like I do not know anything. I looked at all of your previous videos and I did not see any about you specifically. What is your background ? It appears to me that you are an engineer, builder, craftsman and so many other things. How did you come to do all of these things ? What made you decide to make a youtube channel ? This was very impressive to me. Beautiful work. You have another subscriber for life my friend. Looking forward to the next video and also slowly going through all of your previous videos.
77 celsius isnt too hot for a cpu under load, most computer hardware will be safe up to 100'c. but a cpu IDLING (doing mostly nothing) at over 60'c would likely be problematic.
You probably already thought of this and chose not to, but if you moved the power button to another location you wouldn't have to worry about the constant opening and closing with the wires. Sick project, new subscriber now!
Very nice build. On the cable management subject, especially for the fans on your radiator, I'd look into fans that link together. Lian Li has a bunch of models at this point, as they were first to market, but there are a bunch of brands that do it now. And dropping from 9/18 cables to 3/6 is a huge improvement in cable management annoyances. And since they use a controller box, you could have that mounted in the back near your radiator and have a single cable to manage to your motherboard. You could also wire your front fans with the same type of fans, reducing the cables from the front as well.
Water cooling has been a safe and reliable go to for pc builders for a long time. I still go with air cooling because it has better gpu temperatures for gaming but if I was building a heavy cpu work machine I'd go with liquid
I didn't get anywhere near this fancy, but back in the early 00's, I mounted my secondary PC to the underside of my desk to save on desk space. Worked out pretty well. Cool to see a modern take on the idea :)
I did something similar. Yours is MUCH cleaner. I opted for a steel frame and a 1/8" ply to mount the MB to. The back side of the desk is 100% open though so I have lots of flow through for air cooling.
Maybe I missed it, but I'd suggest using dust filters. Also having to pull out the pc to turn it on, is a hassle. Also, as already some1 suggested: flip the airflow from front to back, or u'll most likely end up with negative preassure inside the "case" which result in a dust trap no matter if/where and how dust filters are used.
Is there a reason you wouldn't put the fans on the inside of the cabinet blowing out so the back panel can just be the black radiator material and not have all the fans and wires outside?
you should get some cablemod custom cables and a cablemod 12v high pwr adapter. it might clean up some of the cable mess and you can have some more color in the build. i was also thinking you should get a EK-Quantum Velocity² - 1700 Lignum Edition - Walnut water block. it would go perfect with the cabinet. you shoud also get some walnut fittings to go with the waterblock. i think it would look great in this build.
i did something similar, but instead of using a radiator like you did with 20 fans, i direct buried 250' of 3/8 copper in a vertical bore about 30' deep which happens to put me in the water table . i added a pump sized to handle head pressure and the liquid temp stays at 50F all day
If you mount the powerswitch and some additional USB connectors to a popp out on your desk, you dont even have to open the drawer once (except maybe for cleaning the system once a year). If you want to power it on, popp the thing up, press the button push it down afterwards. If you need to connect your phone or any other temporary usb device popp it up and plug it in.
Looks great! 😎 I am left wondering about how much airflow the front of the drawer is actually allowing in.. Perhaps some project for 3D printing a nice front panel, that would sit inside a more open flow design for the front cover of the drawer.
I had a 'desk pc'. I didn't find that I needed any CNC, etc. And cooling was excellent. I built it 'for' the extra cooling, and also to keep the components dust-free. Although, I was working with a home-made desk, which I designed for the purpose. And moving air further away from any "re-ingestion" was one of the main reasons. The 2 main features were that the pc was force-fed air by a separately plugged in HEPA filter. And the warm exhaust air was vented in 2 ways depending on season... with the moving of an internal shelf, it would exhaust warm air down to your feet (winter configuration), or out the top (summer configuration). I don't think you need a 1080mm rad though. That might be overkill. Granted my desk-build was back when we were all using heat pipes instead of water loops. As long as the airflow is good, "wood" should not be a problem at all. As far as "fire hazard" goes, wood isn't any more flammable than plastic, and there's a lot of plastic or partially plastic cases out there.
that radiator panel is totally overkill :D i love it. Btw regarding the fans on your radiator panel. There are other brand of fans which connect together without excess wires. So it vastly reduces the wires your have there.
Man, awesome build. It is something that I would love to build myself. The only thing I would change for now is that air holes in the wood. I would open it more to look like a wood mesh to improve airflow. But its awesome the way it is already. Congratulations.
This is interesting: I had some time ago thought about using drawer slides for a couple of ideas, mounted side-by-side horizontally (or "floor-mounted"). But I then considered that the bearings were not designed to be used in that orientation. It seems you have done just that, which makes me reconsider provided weight is not an issue.
Awesome project, loved your idea, but if you have suficient space, i would consider moving the fans to the interior pulling air from the case ( and the other drawer on the side) through the radiator, so in the outsite you have only a plain surface that would be easier to clean
Between the near solid panel at the front and placing the rad against a wall at the back, i feel like you could take off all the fans and get the same performance, just due to the sheer volume of water! ...could get more clearance by stickin the fans on the insde but that sounds like one hell of a faff.... I must say it is beautiful though!
I could see there being issues later with wear on the wires and tubes. I would consider moving the power buttons outside so you're not having to open and close the drawer constantly.
7:33 - Really hope the CPU waterblock has some pre-applied thermal paste 16:50 - You are blowing into the enclosed space? Flip the fans so they are drawing air through the radiator and outside the cabinet. the cabinet will have a negative pressure, but it will be cooler air being dragged over your components, including the Power supply. As long as you allow for plenty of air vents in the front to side you should be good to go. (The wall behind the desk may be a bit toasty though.) (More thoughts at 19:32) 18:14 - Well at least you have the front fans to vent out the front. I'd still rather have the front fans drawing air in, or not even being there at all, and have the rear fans pull the air from the cabinet. The interior of the space will be cooler, but as said before the wall behind the desk will be warmed up. 19:32 - The rear fans look to be spinning opposite of what I expected, so it looks like this is drawing from the case, if that is so, and the front tans are pushing cool air from the front into the case, ignore my previous comments. Great project though
In the next iteration, why not use a riser cable for the GPU? You'd need a bracket to help support the weight, but it would solve both your clearance issue and remove sag. Might even help hide some cables.
nice job I would like to do something like this but use a horizontal drawer, mount a test bench inside the drawer with a tempered glass section above the drawer in the countertop, so the PC is visible through the top of the desk.
I went watercooled 3 years ago and wont ever go back. Nothing as fancy as what you have but a basic 200$ bolt on water cooler gets it done for this general user. CPU running at 29C - Anyways - My point about drag chains - Been following the Voron community for a long time. They mention drag chains rubbing and breaking wires a lot if they are not properly gapped through the chain. Just a heads up so that is not overlooked as you keep improving your system. Looks great!
Nice build. One comment though, are there any vents for the air to escape? You’ve got fans pushing air in to the compartment from both sides. That might just be a little sub-optimal without ventilation ports somewhere?
I have been inspired to build a very similar PC about half a year ago and I just found a set of passive radiators. I put them into the loop ahead of the active radiator - and now the fans on the radiator won't even spin when there is no load!
Definitely should have used daisy chain fans for the radiator, so you wouldn't have so many cables. Could have gotten away with i believe 4 cables in total for all 9 fans with like Lian Li uni v2 fans or something. Either way, super cool and unique build.
this was a cool build. I wonder if you put the power switch and front iso under the desk would that help instead of using a track. I really love the over all look of your build.
Been watercooling since 1998. we had to make our own blocks from 2"copper endcaps., buy liang pups from industrial supply, and copper Honda accord heater cores for 120mmx2 radiators. 1998 ypung Pawan. I remember EK posting their VERY first block design ... We also had triple stage phase change coolers in 2003 ish.
I used to have a small dorm refrigerator and thought about turning it into a pc case for extra extra cooling. Instead I decided to leave it behind for the next class of students, as it had been left for me. I hope they continued the tradition.
Not sure if you're still working on this project, but EKWB makes a vertical GPU mount that mounts through the motherboard mounting holes... could make your GPU more stable in its mounting, as well as give you more z-axis room as stated.
Not sure if anyone said this already but i recently rebuilt my pc and decided to go with some Lian Li fans that interlock together as a cluster leaving you with only one connection do deal with rather than each individual fan needing it's own power wire. Quiet, easy and has RGB! Thought maybe this might eleviate some of the headache the radiator setup might have caused.
If you ever decide to take advantage of the 18 possible fans, remember to get fans that pull the air the same way, but run the blades the opposite direction. This creates greater static pressure than the other way.
Increasing the static pressure doesn't really make much of a difference when you are running enough fans that they can effecitvely run with low rpms. He doesn't even need to add anymore fans with his current setup to let alone need to worry about increasing static pressure.
Word of advice. If you've got anywhere near as many fans in one place as you have on your rad, cable manage them as you're installing them. It will save you a lot of trouble when you're doing your overall final cable management at the end.
i gotta say that sponsor spot, was the first one i actually rewound to check out instead of trying to skip, once i saw the case you charge them in. lol cool stuff!
You're pushing all the dissipated heat from the radiator back into your drawer with 9 fans @16:48 (clearly they push inward) and only exhausting out of the front with 2! Reverse all fans; blow the heat out of the back with intake air from the front blowing inward. Excellent build, just take a look at which way things are blowing... over your RAM, memory controller, motherboard etc., the GPU/CPU have no issue obviously with cooling, but you'll get better performance with the fan reversal!
What direction do you have the fans on the rad moving the air? Hopefully you don't have the fans blowing air through the rad and hitting the wood it's mounted to. Also when you benchmarked the system did you let the system equalize? Running the test for like 10 mins to heat up the water in the system to get a more accurate benchmark. The score from running it right after booting it up is not accurate because the water is still cool.
You should have channeled the hot air directly outside somehow. water cooling doesn't actually make things cooler, it just dissipates the heat faster. the 4080 and cpu will still generate the same amount of heat, and end up heating up the room (actually they have the potential to generate even more heat if they never have to thermal-throttle). I just did my first open loop build in my pc, and it gets my closet hotter, faster than before, it's just quieter. Overall I admire this project and your craftsmanship, but all that heat so close to wood... doesn't seem like a good idea. Was the finish you used on the wood flammable?
or... you can just buy a mac... 🤷♂
Or a Windows Gaming laptop :D
I guess you could if you enjoy trash
Ewww.
It is not possible to buy a mac. To buy one would mean that you own it - and no one owns a mac. They're just allowed to use it by the true owner - Apple.
Pin of something
Looking at everything, I actually understand why people don't do this.
Between all the CNC, expensive cooling solutions and general impracticality...it makes sense why nobody does this 😂
@@Zyncra cnc isn't at all necessary for this. It's a quality of life thing that if you have you can use, but anything here could be done with any typical tools someone with a home would have. You might need to buy a file.
Nah you could do this on the cheap. He's very restrictive on his intake but you could absolutely fully air cool a drawer-mounted PC with the latest TDP monstrosities by creating any kind of air tunnel. Heck, you could use tubing and dump the hot air outside or in your shower if you wanted. As long as you go with jank there's always a solution. Try to purchase your way to a proper solution and shy of rack mounting you're only going to run into more issues
yea same here and I have built probably a dozen computers or more…
i dont either. It's actually stupid. and a complete waste of time.
As a woodworker who recently got into PC building, I've always thought "why don't I just build my own case?" Your channel is so cool! Perfect blend of tech and woodworking, and the production is next level. Very well done!!
When you use solid wood, the wood will likely warp from the temperature differences. Also, a metal case can remove up to 50% of the heat inside the case (for a typical fan-cooled desktop system). You will need a better and more elaborate cooling system.
Back in the days I built two class A monoblock amplifiers out of wood (and electronic components). 150W of heat, when idle, per unit. I started by designing the (passive) cooling system first.
Bruh use aluminum metal sheet,
@@klausstock8020😂 a metal case does not remove “50%” of the heat. Ventilation, fans and or radiators are what dissipates the heat.
@@marcjones5862 The metal case is s heart exchanger (a heatsink) which transports thermal energy from the air inside to the air outside.
Note that I was referring to a "typical desktop PC". An industrial PC, dissipating 10W inside a sealed, watertight IP67 metal "cigar box" will require no other cooling, as long as the outside temperature is 40°C or less. But that's not a "standard PC". Same for the gaming system which dissipates 700W under full load.
I estimate an Rth of maybe 2 K/W for an average steel PC enclosure. At 20W, the air inside the enclosed would be 40°C warmer than the outside air - too much already. But with fan assistance, and an observed temperature difference of 20°C, we can see that half (50%) of the thermal energy is transported via the fan, and the case takes care of the other 50%.
Of course, if you insulate the case, temperature will rise and the fan will run faster. You will have a noisier machine, and, since the fan only speeds up at a higher temperature (at standard settings), your machine will also run hotter, reducing the lifespan of its compliments.
In case of the 700W gaming PC running at full tilt, the enclosure will still be responsible for maybe 1.5% of the thermal energy transfer. That's why I said "standard PC", and "up to".
And now you know why installing "anti noise mats" might make your PC quieter...or noisier, if it's not very energy-efficient to start with.
"I don't know why more people don't do this?" $3,000 on hardline fittings and parts later... I kid Zac. This looks great! If I had the means and money, I'd do something like this myself.
Just get a better job! ez! /s
Why "kid" this clown??? ALMOST NOBODY HAS THE TIME OR MONEY TO DO ANY OF THIS!!! This CLOWN is as BAD AS LINUS! Which is WHY he is HEMORRHAGING VIEWERS just like LTT!
You forgot, ''buy a CNC router''
Honestly, my first hard line water cooled setup was made out of 1/2" copper pipe from the big box home improvement store. it was cheaper than the hard tubing costs through newegg. Also, I feel better about sweating the pipe than bending some plastic. I also bough a small pump off of amazon. It was usable but it was loud in comparison to a D5 water cooling pump. The most expensive bit is getting a good cpu and gpu block.
yes the $10k CNC. Then a few other woodworking tools for at least $50k.
Builds a custom watercooled $3000 PC inside a custom desk built with $50k worth of tools and asks why dont more people do it.
YTers don't get how hard it is to earn money as someone that wasn't lucky with social media lmao
@@S4NSE just like some car channels where they said its easy and only takes a lot of work. Then you see their videos of them building a car from scratch where they got schematics from car manufacturer cuz they knew someone in the company to even get it. Then they also had a friend who has CNC and milling machines that has their own equipment and they themselves are CNC specialist. Like dude, regular people aint got money like that or connections and friends who can do all that sht for free for them lol Just paying someone to CNC or mill car parts cost a lot of money. lol Find it funny how they are out of touch in that aspect.
You could do all that with a drill and saw, just takes more time.
@@S4NSE skill issue
how loudly the ignorant scream.
dude, you can do something like this a lot cheaper.
nobody forces you to use the same tools and materials, let alone the pc parts.
dude you can just as well buy a used pc and a used desk with drawers.
and the 1 plate you need to mount the pc parts on it won't cost you a kidney
if you don't even have the money for that stuff i think you got other problems
1. do not use a saw on the plastic tubes, it can cause micro cracks all the way down the tubes. Use a pipe/tubing cutter
2. if you run a tube and use an Apex Fillport you can have a high side fill port right above the res (Alphacool makes them)
3. if you want to spend the time you can build a custom wire harness
yea about 1 ... make sure it's a high quality tube cutter, if it's a cheap one meant for flexi tubes you'll end up with a oval tube if you use it on PETG...also if you use it on acrylic it'll shatter...kinda only use that on PMMA to be safe as it doesn't shatter and is strong enough to resist becoming an oval.
also is everybody okay with just jamming a tube in there? cause there's kinda O rings in the fitting that wile not the only seal is a extra seal you probably don't want to mangle with a sharp corner >.>
step 1 soften the edges with a regular deburr tool, or sand paper, or use a tube specific debur tool on a power drill.
step 2 apply some soapy water to the end to lubricate it and slightly twist upon pushing it in, should go in pretty easy and it won't mangle half - 2/3rds of the O-rings on your fittings >.>
addendum to 1, Alphacool sells a pull saw tube cutting kit, EKWB sells a tiny metal saw tube cutting kit, it's fine to cut tubes if your cracking the tubes from one end to the other your doing something horribly wrong...or working with strait up acrylic which seems annoying.
1. No. If you use a pipe tubing cutter, you still run the risk of cracking the tube. Literally every pipe cutter cuts them by applying pressure against the tube/pipe. I've seen more hardline tubing crack from that than I ever have from a saw.
a fine hacksaw is perfectly fine.
He'll find out when it starts to leak.
Any cutter is bad if not used properly, it's enough to have a small hand saw or whatyacall it, similar to what he used in the video too and apply less pressure while cutting also spraying it with water while cutting helps. You don't rush and yank around with this type of cut and you will be fine.
your system and setup is one of a kind to see you design your desk, speakers, and everything that is craft made I am a big fan of.
You've probably thought of this, but when benchmarking, try flipping your fans around to pull cool air in the front of the case, and all of the radiator fans blow out the back, and see if it helps with thermals. This way you don't get radiator-heated air inside the drawer, and bonus: you don't have hot air blowing at you out the front of the PC this summer! You have more than enough fans at the back to keep up with (slightly) warmer air coming from inside the drawer over the big radiator. I'm jealous of the woodworking shop! haha
Needs to modify the front fascia to have more perforation for better airflow. Those tiny slits wont suffice for that radiator.
I'll probably try it at some point, but my logic was that I want the radiator to have access to the coolest air possible. That prioritizes the main heat generating components. Honestly i dont think it would change much in either direction though. My coolant temps barely even get into the 40s when the machine is going full tilt.
@@ZacBuilds Any heat that gets picked up by the rest of the system on its way through the enclosure will be minimal, compared to what the radiator kicks out. There'll be plenty of heat capacity left for the radiators to work and the fans at the front have to do less work exhausting all that heat out of the case. Additionally, you'll make better use of the fans because that shroud on the one side of the radiator is designed to ensure a gap between the fins and the fan blades, so you lessen the dead zone where the fan hub is. When fans push through a radiator, the middle of the fan blocks airflow. Temperature differences are minimal, but the bonus is that by drawing air through the front of the case, you can easily filter that intake and access the filter for easy cleaning.
Not trying to be rude its absolutely WILD he went through all that work just to plumb the heat BACK into the wooden box. Christ. Looks really great though.
@@StuTubed 100% agree with this product would be cool to see benchmarks
1. The recessed "tray" for the mother might cause you some issues. Not because of electrical fires, as wood acts as a resistor and not a conductor at very low voltages. Computers work at very low voltages. The issue is getting airflow to any metal and components on the back side of the motherboard. IMHO, I would have bought a metal "open air" bench case and built the drawer around it.
2. Your Max Z height wasn't as limiting as you think. There are PCIe risers that let you rotate the card 90 degrees from the motherboard, so you're looking at the fancy side with the fans (or your RGB water block) instead of the top of the card. This means your computer can be much thinner than if you plugged the card directly into the motherboard. So the "recessed tray" is more an aesthetics choice over a technical limitation. Also, this takes care of "GPU sag" (It's the card that sags, not the processor on the card.), as the center of mass goes through the center of gravity, so parts don't flex like when they're laid out flat. A lot of newer cases have this feature. (And the graphics card can be placed in a way to hide some of the cable routing.
3. NEVER USE THE MOTHERBOARD AS A DRILLING TEMPLATE!!! Why? The short answer is you can and will create a fire hazard if you damage the board around the screw holes. Short answer is the standard uses some of those screw holes as grounding points, and you could chip away at protective features and the substrate of the motherboard exposing traces for other systems to short out to ground. If you don't believe me, just ask Steve of GamersNexus about the NZXT H1 PCIe Riser card fires. This guy's research was used by the FTC to force NZXT to issue a recall for the cases. The reason was poorly designed traces around the screw holes that created grounding points and fire.
The really idiotic thing is, The ATX, Mini-ITX, and Micro-ATX motherboard standards are just that, STANDARDS. You were already using your CNC machine to route out a cavity for the motherboard. You could have just as easily downloaded the standards template for the motherboard and have the screw holes in the right position and orientation for you. Likewise, you could have printed off a paper template of the standard and have the screw holes exactly where you needed to place them. You could have even placed the motherboard on a piece of paper and drew up a paper template. There was no reason or need to put the motherboard at risk of damage for your custom case. Oh, and using your motherboard itself as a drilling template will 100 PERCENT void the warranty, even if the issue isn't directly associated to drill damage. There's wiggle room for the water-cooling mods.
4. Zip ties? Really? They make hook and loop straps called "cable ties" for this exact use case. Why cable ties over zip ties? They look better and they're reusable. Need to change out a wire? You're good to go with cable ties. Need to tie cables to soft tube without the possibility of crushing the tube? Cable ties. Cabling an entire data center? Oh, you bet your sweet bippity you're using hook and loop cable ties or you're getting fired. Save those zip ties until you need to cuff a bad guy.
As someone that has done both hard and soft tubing, I prefer soft. That's simply because I'm often getting into the pc to swap out parts and perform maintenance. I find it's a hell of a lot easier to work around soft tubing, being able to move it around, to get to things and apply new paste.
Also the first time I tried to do hard tubing I made it way too overly complex with the angles and bends. Ended up wasting huge swathes of the stuff.
i agree. Hard tube looks nice, but soft tube is way easier - plus, and this my be bs, i feel like the connection on a soft tube is more reliable, at least more user friendly than hard tube.
To me hardline feels like a commitment to never touching the inside of the PC again (at least until you're ready to rip everything out and start a fresh build in that case)
@@MarcusTheDorkus ehh, i wouldn't go that far at all. hardline is a significant upfront commitment, but once all is said and done, assuming you actually take time to plan your routing, its not bad to work around. the connection points around "GOOD" fittings are very reliable and slight bumps and nudges are inconsequential. just be sure everything is seated well before putting pressure back into the system.
Ive had a hardline pc for over 8 years now and i do general maintenance on it every 2-3 months or so, i.e. dusting, cleaning, etc and annual fluid flushes. i also have a very complex routing including 2 same side port rads, cpu, gpu, mobo and ram in a previous iteration (yes i know its stupid but i was a 16 year old with a slightly too well paying job).
It is 100% true that softline has a stronger connection than hardline tubing as the soft fittings actually bite into the tubing locking it down as opposed to a squeeze friction mount, but ive moved my pc without draining it well over a dozen times without any problems to date.
@@bottlecapog I've been building loops since 2003, and hardline is awful. I did it once in 2012 with acrylic tubing and I will never do it again, and I don't understand why so many people would ever build another hardline loop after doing it once. Any polymer based hardline will slowly leech plasticizers into the coolant if you don't stay on top of religiously changing it out, otherwise you get build ups in the turbulent areas of your radiator and blocks which is a nightmare to completely clean. Hardline also drastically lowers the maximum safe coolant temp which means you need more radiator area or more noise to keep coolant temp from exceeding ~40C, and if you don't keep the coolant temp as low as possible the thermal expansion/contraction of the tubing dries out the o-rings in fittings and joints and will eventually cause them to leak. It's nothing but headaches and all for a subjective improvement in aesthetic.
Does not make-a-sense.
Since that misadventure, I will only run EPDM 7/16" ID soft tubing with 1/2" barbs and tube clamps, with a t-line and no reservoir (reservoirs encourage microbial growth and it slows flowrates), and I run automotive coolant at a 10/90 ratio to distilled water. That setup means the only maintenance my loops ever see is an occasional dusting out of the radiator every 8 months or so.. or if coolant temp is up a bit because I forgot to dust it out, otherwise I don't open my loops for several years at a time. Once they're built, I don't want to think about them again. The longest stretch I've ran a sealed loop with automotive coolant and EPDM is 8 years, and when I finally overhauled it, all the components still looked new inside.
@@K31TH3R
That makes sense. So you just use a reservoir for filling the System and remove it?
Just some advice: orientate your fans so they're pulling air through the radiator, rather than pushing, as they currently are. Having your fans pull air makes maintanance much easier, as you don't have to take the fans off to clean the radiator. Either that, or get a dust filter.
I was going to post same thing...except add the front fans need to be reversed too. As of video this system will be pushing the hot air from rad into PC space...then front fans will be pulling the hot air out and blasting it at user.
but then arent you pulling some warm or hot air through the rad?
@@nednerB107 Not if he installs the fans on the desk side. If he just flipped them, then the bigger issue would be lack of airflow, not heat.
if possible do a push pull config for more performance and you can keep the rpms on the fans lower
and youre blowing youre now warm air over your pc, turn the fans around...
Great video. Watercooling your components does not void your hardware warranty unless you break it during the disassembly or reassembly process though 👍
@@danstiurca7963 Those stickers are not legit. Removing or damaging that sticker cannot and does not void your warranty in the United States-It is against the law for a company to enforce this.
I've noticed he says this when he opens up his electronics. Not sure if it's just a joke.
@@danstiurca7963 It does make sense, you are allowed to open and tinker around with anything you purchase. You own it. That being said, if you damage it, the company is very unlikely to repair it for you. They can see what is accidental damage and what is a warranty defect.
@@danstiurca7963it makes sense cause its working. on people like you. who dont know the law and that the sticker is unenforceable and you can sue them and easily win. However they will likely cave and fulfill the warranty before that happens. and no no warranty is void if the sticker is tampered with in any way unless what you did actually did cause it to break. Which THAT makes sense.
the sticker is completely legal. they can (for some reason) put it there to scare you. they cannot however void your warranty on the grounds "he tampered with the sticker therefore warranty void" as it is not a valid legal argument that a court will uphold.
Great job. Glad you chose to use frosted hard line tubes, they look beautiful!
You need a grounding wire to connect to one of the standoffs for esd. Cases normally do this automatically by connecting to the screw of the power supply.
I don't believe that is part of the modern day ATX standard. It was in the old AT and baby AT stardards though. I've used many a ATX motherboard on top of a cardboard box, none of them have complained.
@@sparkyenergia The mounting screws (from the case to the mobo) are the Ground. HOWEVER I do agree that as long as you do not have a "peak" in your current (usually after an outage) you'll be fine.
No, its connected thru the power supply, there is only one ground plane, connecting multiple ground planes is a bad idea due to ground-loops.
If you wanted to clean up the fan setup, I'd recommend some of the Lian Li Uni fans. I think you'd basically need 3 cables for all 9 of your fans.
yep you can even get it to only 1 cable for all 9 with the v2
That's an expensive solution for something better cable routing can acheive for next to nothing. 11 lian li fans will cost $350 while something like decent arctics will be barely over $70. An extra $280 to get rid of cables that will never be seen has a debatable cost/benefit.
@@jmwilsoNDBuilding a computer into a desk with $300 worth of materials, $500 in watercooling parts, and $4000+ in tools also has little to no tangible benefit over spending $200 on a case and air cooler (total), but here we are.
@@tyrdchaos All of those compnents you mentioned added value. There's value in the pc and loop components as they contribute to things like his video editing in a way that adds productivity and more $, there's value in the materials of the desk as it's a more reliable and lasting piece of furniture as well as a video opportunity. His tools do the same thing. Your lian li fans provide 0 extra value.
@@jmwilsoND and building the PC into a desk also provides zero value over using a case. I just don't get your point. The "value" you talk about is subjective and has no objective basis. It seems to me you have little to no experience buidling a computer. The number of cables you have to manage can be frustrating if there are a lot, especially when you have to do maintenance, such as cleaning the rad, cleaning the fans, replacing fans, etc.
So the value resides in ease of maintenace and management. Saying something provides no value when the total cost of that thing is literally less than 15% of the overall cost of the build. He spent $1500 on a graphics card that provides almost no value over a 4070 TI (half the price). Like, your takes seem to make no sense in comparison to the overall build. And again, I stated the value, which is to clean the literal rats nest of cables zip tied to the side of the radiator.
The value of this build is around hiding the PC and making the whole setup look clean. There is no actual value in the build outside of that. The temps are higher than they would be a similarly configured computer case.
Great build. Really love the clean aesthetic and look of the system as a whole. I would caution bending the 12vhp connector to the graphics card. If not fully seated the connector can be a major issue whether its the Nvidia adapter variant or a direct line to the PSU like yours. They have melted and burned up routinely when first released and people weren't aware of the cable limitations. Cable mod makes a 90 degree adapter that solves the problem though and looks way cleaner. Being so close to the edge of the sled, it wouldn't be a bad 40 dollar investment to keep that cable from getting pinched and possibly causing a very bad, 450 watt fire hazard.
Thanks for the concern! I've seen all of those videos so I was pretty cautious when using the 12vhp connector. The bend isn't that severe coming off the GPU and I made sure it was in the nice and tight.
@@ZacBuilds you could actually use a Riser Cable for the GPU that way you can place the GPU however you like (maybe even as a Cable cover just in case your 3D printed cable cover doesnt take cover from friendly fire) anyways awsome build i hope for more!
For your internal cable cover panels: Model a shallow recess into the flat front surface that can then accept another material. Metal, carbon fiber, wood, etc. It could be a nice little inlay panel.
4:14: "I don't understand why more people don't do this"
Me: $$$$
I can say that one nice thing about water cooling is that there's a decent chunk of it that is arguably a one-time expense. For example, you don't usually have any reason to replace radiators or pumps between builds. Of course, large changes in the build parameters (e.g., the case) can dictate whether that's necessary. Albeit, that may also suggest going with parts that have a bit better compatibility. An example of that is if your larger case says it can fit a 420mm radiator (3x140mm), consider going with a 360mm (3x120mm) instead. It will likely have worse performance, but it should be more compatible with other cases. CPU blocks can often be used between different sockets, but they may require different mounting hardware (e.g., Intel LGA-115x blocks usually require some minor accessories to support LGA-1700). Unfortunately, GPU water blocks tend to be a one-and-done as blocks are rarely compatible between dissimilar GPUs.
Although, even with all of that, I don't water cool all of my computers. Why not? It isn't the cost... it's the hassle. I use water cooling to build very quiet computers and it isn't uncommon to run into situations where you can install your parts, but the layout just doesn't allow for great tubing runs. Recently, I actually switched one computer from water back to air, and let me tell you... it was *NICE* to have such an easy build for once. I do kind of enjoy the puzzle aspect of figuring out how to manage a good water-cooled build, but there are times where I just have too much other things to do to spend it trying to get a build setup.
Oh, and one other thing... if you aren't as careful about the layout, you can end up looking to spend extra money on angled adapters for your fittings. One goal that I've had recently is to avoid the glut of angled adapters that I used to use and just use longer runs... or finally stop wimping out and use hardline tubing. 😋
Hey Zac, cool build. I also like the fact, that you're talking about problems that you have after finishing the job and also brainstorm possible solutions. Keep on going.
Amazing build, just noticed you may be new to water cooling, just a heads-up on a few things. You will need to clean your water cooling loop every year or so and have some kind of bacteria inhibitor in your loop to prevent algae and other bacteria from growing in your loop. You can also install a drain port at the lowest part of your loop to make it easier to drain your loop in the future. You could also have a flow indicator in your loop to see if the pump is working and coolant is flowing in your loop as you went with frosted hard tube. Must say though, that desk does look amazing, and maybe you could try relocating the power button to a small whiteboard piece of wood that you could place on your desk to turn on your PC, almost like the start button in a car, then you don't need to open the PC drawer all the time, just a suggestion though. Love your videos, waiting impatiently for the next one.
Thank you! I appreciate the info I'll definitely keep that stuff in mind. I love the idea of a start button up top, but it would have to be something custom. Honestly I rarely ever use the power button. Just wiggle the mouse and it boots up. Still I like the idea.
You don't have to clean the loop every year, especially not with a hardline build. Just use a ethylene glycol based coolant (assuming the tube isn't PETG). I have a custom loop that hasn't been apart in 6-7 years and has never been fully cleaned and runs opaque dye, and it still works 100% fine. Cools nearly as well as it did day 1 once I clean the dust out of the radiators.
It has had the fluid changed 2-3x simply due to the dye fading (about every 2 years), but that was simply via the method of opening the drain slightly and cycling through 6-7 gallons of distilled then adding new dye, never taking anything apart or even draining/re-bleeding it.
Cleaning is really only needed if you use soft tubing as the plasticizer leeches out over time and gums up the blocks. Dye doesn't do this really, especially not clear dyes, it gets blamed for plasticizers problems. It can also be needed if you let the system run with just pure distilled and heat up for a long period of time, THEN it will grow shit in it, but if you use proper coolant from day 1 this won't happen.
@@JathraDH Does putting a silver coil in the reservoir still work if you're using regular distilled water? That's how it was when I water cooled my PCs and never had a buildup problem (I didn't use hardline tubing though)
@@ccricers Silver kill coils are really not advised as biocide because they completely screw your galvanic balance.
For metals in contact with any type of electrically conductive fluid you really ideally don't want more than a 0.15 galvanic spread, the higher the spread the more the galvanic anode (highest anodic index metal) will corrode and deposit itself onto the rest of the loop.
This is why the entire industry moved away from aluminum blocks because it has a galvanic index of 0.95 making it basically the highest metal in the loop and what gets corroded first, the blocks were literally getting destroyed by this.
Silver has a index of 0.15 making it basically the low point of your spread, but most components in a loop these days are nickel (0.30) copper (0.35) and brass (0.40-0.45).
As you can see, if you stick with only nickel/copper/brass you have a spread of 0.30 > 0.45 keeping it within the 0.15 range.
If you throw silver in there however then your spread is 0.15 > 0.45 which is a 0.3 range and it will quickly corrode the highest metal without corrosion inhibitor.
However, there is one other metal in your loop which is almost always overlooked, and that's tin/lead from the solder in your radiators. Tin is 0.65 and lead is 0.70.
So realistically even with nickel/copper/brass you are looking more at a 0.3 -> 0.7 spread of 0.4, but with silver in the mix it gets far worse being 0.15 -> 0.7 0.55 spread which is quite bad.
On top of this the anodic metal is literally the thing holding your radiators together and keeping it from leaking.
This is why you really WANT to use ethylene glycol because it is a strong corrosion inhibitor and also a good biocide, well its bio-neutral but it still prevents growth.
We have a GIANT industry in the world which deals specifically with water cooling car engines, and they all use radiator fluid which is literally just ethylene glycol. They probably know what the hell they are doing.
People who refuse to use it because its slightly poorer heat capacity/transfer really are just shooting themselves in the foot, its used world wide in radiator systems for a reason.
I always see this comment for custom loops. My Corsair AIO has been going for 10 years on my 2600k at 4.5ghz and zero issue. Do the AIO get out of needing maintenance in some way? Could you just get a holder to put an AIO onto a GPU and then never need to clean either loop?
I've been looking at my new motherboard and looking at an empty box in my desk with such a temptation, while waiting for an actual case to arrive, but now thankfully to your video, my adventurous spirit has been satisfied, and I will patiently wait for a case to arrive.
so cool when carpenter guy and computer nerd come together
I'm a woodworker and I build a custom wood case for my 32 core Threadripper with a complete hard line custom loop! I never had a problem with overheating. Runs like a dream!
As a real viewer, I can confirm I like it when Zac goes HARD
In what sense?
@@smashyrashy It is an adult joke
That's the best kind of joke 😀
It's always comforting to hear Canadian raising in RUclips videos
I use a pipe cutter for tubes. Primochill also do a deburring tool for drills that is super useful! Love the video btw.
Neat! I had no idea, I'll pick one of those up for my water cooling build
pipe cutters will work on PETG tubes but will shatter acrylic, so, use where it makes sense :)
Oh and anyone using PETG should be burned at the stake, this thing is for plastic bottles :P
As some poeple have Pointed out, Flip the fans around on the Rad(or turn the front Exaust Fans on) you want to keep some fair flowing over the VRMs and other non water cooled parts, otherwise, a very cool build.
Why don‘t more people do this? Because lots of folks don‘t have a workshop remotely like this, if any at all. That‘s why.
I've always liked my PCs out of sight. In one home office, I kept my PC towers in a closet, and drilled a hole through the wall to run the cabling over to my desk. I ran a power button all the way over to the desk as well and it was awesome. Totally silent and a super clean setup as I hid all the wiring. Then when I moved and no longer had the closet, I build the PC into the desk itself. NOTHING as complicated as your setup, but honestly it doesn't need to be. Yours is an extreme setup. Mine, was hidden behind a door- a super clean look. When you opened the door, the motherboard was mounted to the side walls of the interior desk. I then literally hung the SSDs and made a spot for the PSU. I had holes drilled in the back for vents. I always used it with the door closed and the PC was silent and completely out of sight. I only gave it up when I realized I didn't need even that much of a PC anymore. (I now rock a two Mini PCs and a Mac Mini, along with my laptops, all mounted under the desk.)
I use rack-mount server cases.
Wire management - pvc slotted duct comes in various colors, depth/width and slot sizes - panduit is a good brand.
The cables can enter and exit via the slots while the cover hides all the mess. Used in electrical wiring control panels and the larger variant in data cabling patch panels.
Look up "Umbilical Cable Management" / "Cable-Snake Cube" regarding your wire chain.
"I don't understand why more people don't do this", he says, as he installs $1000+ worth of water cooling onto a $1500 PC. Gee, I wonder why. Nevermind the amount of work it takes to do this, the amount of work to troubleshoot a custom water loop, or how much harder it is to perform maintenance on a system with rigid tubing.
The GPU and CPU by themselves is roughly 1,800$ USD, + Motherboard - 2,100$ + DDR5 - 2,250 + SSD - 2,500 + 850/1000w PSU = (approximated) 26 / 2,700$ BEFORE all of the water cooling stuff. If you're a PC enthusiast like myself, like Zac and like many many other hardworking people; chances are you enjoy the build process, the equipment itself and the end result enough to put the effort in. If you don't care or don't enjoy it, then don't build PCs. 🤷 If you want something in your system bad enough and you're genuinely passionate about the hobby and your gear, you'll save money to make things happen, regardless of how long it may take you. Zac's just fortunate he gets to do things like this for a living.
I would say most expensive part of the build was woodwork.
1500 is midrange pc, thats no midrange pc
I, very much, LOVED the build.. You earned my subscription.. I as a retired master carpenter & computer tech, love the combo of tech and woodcraft..
Also something you might want to consider, since you added nice RGB Lighting, why not on the inside wall of the desk, cut out an add a window, so it can be on display.. That in itself would be an awesome build..
Thank you for sharing..
Would be cool if places like Home Depot or Lowe's has a workshop area that people that don't have a workshop can use/rent.
See if there is a makers pace near you!
I really love your work. I highly recommend that you basically create an aluminum "case" that acts as a buffer between your computer and the wood. This will reduce the interference your computer creates with your wifi access point, and other electronics in your house. (nothing to do with heat.)
Amazing project and execution! Good job!
Thank you!
Nice job! Take my like. Edge banding makes such a HUGE difference and people don't realize how easy it is done and it's not that expensive. I screwed up assembling a cabinet and left the unfinished edge to the front (and I had used wood glue so disassembling it was impossible. Just a strip of edge band, some stain and utility knife to trim and it looks perfect.
I loved this video, since it really reminded me about my first experience with watercooling. Would be nice to see you do a collab with LinusTechTips and show when how to properly make a nice wooden desk with some integrated stuff. Theirs are always so janky and "low" craftsmanship.
I'd love to work with them, but I don't think they'd give me the time of day 😂
Nice build. You should mount a power button on the underside of the desk with some slack on the wire so you don't need to open the drawer to turn the computer on. For the GPU, you could get a vertical mounting bracket, which would also hide a lot of that wiring.
When you are doing upgrades it would be fun to see you move the radiator somewhere remote to dump the waste heat into something useful, or just outside when you don't want it heating up your room
Water cooling isn't heating up his room any more than air cooling. So there is no need to dump the air outside the room.
Just google LTT swimming pool 😅
I am stunned by this video. It makes me feel like I am a kindergartner. Even reading the comments below makes me feel like I do not know anything. I looked at all of your previous videos and I did not see any about you specifically. What is your background ? It appears to me that you are an engineer, builder, craftsman and so many other things. How did you come to do all of these things ? What made you decide to make a youtube channel ? This was very impressive to me. Beautiful work. You have another subscriber for life my friend. Looking forward to the next video and also slowly going through all of your previous videos.
in what world do you think 77c is over heating?
77c is the motherboard temp which means cpu is much hotter and those temps could damage the motherboard by deforming it
77 celsius isnt too hot for a cpu under load, most computer hardware will be safe up to 100'c. but a cpu IDLING (doing mostly nothing) at over 60'c would likely be problematic.
@@jrmyg1621 How is he even getting 77C with that huge AIO
@@Milan_M95 placement of the aio + CPU running at 100%
You probably already thought of this and chose not to, but if you moved the power button to another location you wouldn't have to worry about the constant opening and closing with the wires. Sick project, new subscriber now!
because not everyone is rich enough to build a fully water cooled PC
Very nice build. On the cable management subject, especially for the fans on your radiator, I'd look into fans that link together. Lian Li has a bunch of models at this point, as they were first to market, but there are a bunch of brands that do it now. And dropping from 9/18 cables to 3/6 is a huge improvement in cable management annoyances. And since they use a controller box, you could have that mounted in the back near your radiator and have a single cable to manage to your motherboard. You could also wire your front fans with the same type of fans, reducing the cables from the front as well.
introducing water to several hundred dollars or thousands of electronics just goes against conventional wisdom.
Expensive electronics have been water cooled for many decades. I expect all high performance/high dollar electronics to be water cooled if possible.
@@CraigOpie With all that sad, it still goes against conventional wisdom.
Water cooling has been a safe and reliable go to for pc builders for a long time. I still go with air cooling because it has better gpu temperatures for gaming but if I was building a heavy cpu work machine I'd go with liquid
Conventional wisdom says buy pre-built PC. Which is what I'd recommend. And I build my PCs as a hobby. Very, very expensive hobby.
@@Shini1984 huh?
I didn't get anywhere near this fancy, but back in the early 00's, I mounted my secondary PC to the underside of my desk to save on desk space. Worked out pretty well. Cool to see a modern take on the idea :)
You can leak test the loop with an air pressure pump btw. EK sells one. It’s a bit easier to manage.
A pull saw sounds smart! I used a band saw to cut my hard tubing and it wasn't too clean and def needed cleanup after.
I did something similar. Yours is MUCH cleaner. I opted for a steel frame and a 1/8" ply to mount the MB to. The back side of the desk is 100% open though so I have lots of flow through for air cooling.
18:50 AMEN! They also place the PC case on the desk, so it may glow more than the display next to it.
Maybe I missed it, but I'd suggest using dust filters. Also having to pull out the pc to turn it on, is a hassle.
Also, as already some1 suggested: flip the airflow from front to back, or u'll most likely end up with negative preassure inside the "case" which result in a dust trap no matter if/where and how dust filters are used.
For future projects there are pressure gateges you can us to test for leakes befor putting any liquit into the loop
Is there a reason you wouldn't put the fans on the inside of the cabinet blowing out so the back panel can just be the black radiator material and not have all the fans and wires outside?
This was awesome, man! Great to see you finally watercool that rig of yours!
you should get some cablemod custom cables and a cablemod 12v high pwr adapter. it might clean up some of the cable mess and you can have some more color in the build. i was also thinking you should get a EK-Quantum Velocity² - 1700 Lignum Edition - Walnut water block. it would go perfect with the cabinet. you shoud also get some walnut fittings to go with the waterblock. i think it would look great in this build.
thats awesome, would you ever consider putting a tempered glass pannel on the side to see it when its shut?
i did something similar, but instead of using a radiator like you did with 20 fans, i direct buried 250' of 3/8 copper in a vertical bore about 30' deep which happens to put me in the water table . i added a pump sized to handle head pressure and the liquid temp stays at 50F all day
i often wonder how to do this and its nice to see someone go the distance. looks really cool, great work.
If you mount the powerswitch and some additional USB connectors to a popp out on your desk, you dont even have to open the drawer once (except maybe for cleaning the system once a year).
If you want to power it on, popp the thing up, press the button push it down afterwards. If you need to connect your phone or any other temporary usb device popp it up and plug it in.
Looks great! 😎 I am left wondering about how much airflow the front of the drawer is actually allowing in.. Perhaps some project for 3D printing a nice front panel, that would sit inside a more open flow design for the front cover of the drawer.
I had a 'desk pc'. I didn't find that I needed any CNC, etc. And cooling was excellent. I built it 'for' the extra cooling, and also to keep the components dust-free.
Although, I was working with a home-made desk, which I designed for the purpose. And moving air further away from any "re-ingestion" was one of the main reasons.
The 2 main features were that the pc was force-fed air by a separately plugged in HEPA filter. And the warm exhaust air was vented in 2 ways depending on season... with the moving of an internal shelf, it would exhaust warm air down to your feet (winter configuration), or out the top (summer configuration).
I don't think you need a 1080mm rad though. That might be overkill. Granted my desk-build was back when we were all using heat pipes instead of water loops. As long as the airflow is good, "wood" should not be a problem at all.
As far as "fire hazard" goes, wood isn't any more flammable than plastic, and there's a lot of plastic or partially plastic cases out there.
that radiator panel is totally overkill :D i love it.
Btw regarding the fans on your radiator panel. There are other brand of fans which connect together without excess wires. So it vastly reduces the wires your have there.
Man, awesome build. It is something that I would love to build myself. The only thing I would change for now is that air holes in the wood. I would open it more to look like a wood mesh to improve airflow. But its awesome the way it is already. Congratulations.
This is interesting: I had some time ago thought about using drawer slides for a couple of ideas, mounted side-by-side horizontally (or "floor-mounted"). But I then considered that the bearings were not designed to be used in that orientation.
It seems you have done just that, which makes me reconsider provided weight is not an issue.
with the 1080mm Rad, you can also use 4x 18cm fans, you just need the special bracket, sold separately
Awesome project, loved your idea, but if you have suficient space, i would consider moving the fans to the interior pulling air from the case ( and the other drawer on the side) through the radiator, so in the outsite you have only a plain surface that would be easier to clean
Luv the wooden frame at the back.
Between the near solid panel at the front and placing the rad against a wall at the back, i feel like you could take off all the fans and get the same performance, just due to the sheer volume of water!
...could get more clearance by stickin the fans on the insde but that sounds like one hell of a faff....
I must say it is beautiful though!
I could see there being issues later with wear on the wires and tubes. I would consider moving the power buttons outside so you're not having to open and close the drawer constantly.
Spectacular design and workmanship. I love it!
Thanks man!
7:33 - Really hope the CPU waterblock has some pre-applied thermal paste
16:50 - You are blowing into the enclosed space? Flip the fans so they are drawing air through the radiator and outside the cabinet. the cabinet will have a negative pressure, but it will be cooler air being dragged over your components, including the Power supply. As long as you allow for plenty of air vents in the front to side you should be good to go. (The wall behind the desk may be a bit toasty though.) (More thoughts at 19:32)
18:14 - Well at least you have the front fans to vent out the front. I'd still rather have the front fans drawing air in, or not even being there at all, and have the rear fans pull the air from the cabinet. The interior of the space will be cooler, but as said before the wall behind the desk will be warmed up.
19:32 - The rear fans look to be spinning opposite of what I expected, so it looks like this is drawing from the case, if that is so, and the front tans are pushing cool air from the front into the case, ignore my previous comments.
Great project though
I like raw plywood edges.
I also use fans that daisy chain to make cable management easier
In the next iteration, why not use a riser cable for the GPU? You'd need a bracket to help support the weight, but it would solve both your clearance issue and remove sag. Might even help hide some cables.
Absolutely awesome. Never seen anything like this. Hands down the coolest PC build ive seen yet.
The level of knowledge necessary to pull this off is astounding
just wondering if you've ever heard of clamps for your drill press... would have made the bit with the bulkhead a lot safer
I mean the fear of loop failure on $500+ parts is one way to keep people from water cooling.
nice job I would like to do something like this but use a horizontal drawer, mount a test bench inside the drawer with a tempered glass section above the drawer in the countertop, so the PC is visible through the top of the desk.
I went watercooled 3 years ago and wont ever go back. Nothing as fancy as what you have but a basic 200$ bolt on water cooler gets it done for this general user. CPU running at 29C -
Anyways - My point about drag chains - Been following the Voron community for a long time. They mention drag chains rubbing and breaking wires a lot if they are not properly gapped through the chain. Just a heads up so that is not overlooked as you keep improving your system. Looks great!
Nice build.
One comment though, are there any vents for the air to escape? You’ve got fans pushing air in to the compartment from both sides. That might just be a little sub-optimal without ventilation ports somewhere?
I have been inspired to build a very similar PC about half a year ago and I just found a set of passive radiators. I put them into the loop ahead of the active radiator - and now the fans on the radiator won't even spin when there is no load!
Definitely should have used daisy chain fans for the radiator, so you wouldn't have so many cables. Could have gotten away with i believe 4 cables in total for all 9 fans with like Lian Li uni v2 fans or something. Either way, super cool and unique build.
this was a cool build. I wonder if you put the power switch and front iso under the desk would that help instead of using a track. I really love the over all look of your build.
Been watercooling since 1998. we had to make our own blocks from 2"copper endcaps., buy liang pups from industrial supply, and copper Honda accord heater cores for 120mmx2 radiators. 1998 ypung Pawan. I remember EK posting their VERY first block design ... We also had triple stage phase change coolers in 2003 ish.
I don't do any woodworking, but am addicted to your builds.
I used to have a small dorm refrigerator and thought about turning it into a pc case for extra extra cooling. Instead I decided to leave it behind for the next class of students, as it had been left for me. I hope they continued the tradition.
Not sure if you're still working on this project, but EKWB makes a vertical GPU mount that mounts through the motherboard mounting holes... could make your GPU more stable in its mounting, as well as give you more z-axis room as stated.
Not sure if anyone said this already but i recently rebuilt my pc and decided to go with some Lian Li fans that interlock together as a cluster leaving you with only one connection do deal with rather than each individual fan needing it's own power wire. Quiet, easy and has RGB! Thought maybe this might eleviate some of the headache the radiator setup might have caused.
If you ever decide to take advantage of the 18 possible fans, remember to get fans that pull the air the same way, but run the blades the opposite direction. This creates greater static pressure than the other way.
Increasing the static pressure doesn't really make much of a difference when you are running enough fans that they can effecitvely run with low rpms. He doesn't even need to add anymore fans with his current setup to let alone need to worry about increasing static pressure.
You could also use a pressure test kit.. saves using any paper towel and locate a leak without expensive replacement of parts.
Ive never had a desire to mess with custom loops and all that, but I sure do like watching other people do it.
You could connect an extended switch and secure stick is somewhere on the desk ao you need to keep on pulling the PC out.
78c is not overheating. Make sure you are using a high temperature plastic for hte 3d printed parts.
Word of advice. If you've got anywhere near as many fans in one place as you have on your rad, cable manage them as you're installing them. It will save you a lot of trouble when you're doing your overall final cable management at the end.
i gotta say that sponsor spot, was the first one i actually rewound to check out instead of trying to skip, once i saw the case you charge them in. lol cool stuff!
The only bad thing in this build - you can't even see the gorgeousness of your work! It's hidden!
4080 FE runs cool stock.. 60 degrees max load. nice build, impressive!
You're pushing all the dissipated heat from the radiator back into your drawer with 9 fans @16:48 (clearly they push inward) and only exhausting out of the front with 2! Reverse all fans; blow the heat out of the back with intake air from the front blowing inward. Excellent build, just take a look at which way things are blowing... over your RAM, memory controller, motherboard etc., the GPU/CPU have no issue obviously with cooling, but you'll get better performance with the fan reversal!
What direction do you have the fans on the rad moving the air? Hopefully you don't have the fans blowing air through the rad and hitting the wood it's mounted to. Also when you benchmarked the system did you let the system equalize? Running the test for like 10 mins to heat up the water in the system to get a more accurate benchmark. The score from running it right after booting it up is not accurate because the water is still cool.
You should have channeled the hot air directly outside somehow. water cooling doesn't actually make things cooler, it just dissipates the heat faster. the 4080 and cpu will still generate the same amount of heat, and end up heating up the room (actually they have the potential to generate even more heat if they never have to thermal-throttle). I just did my first open loop build in my pc, and it gets my closet hotter, faster than before, it's just quieter. Overall I admire this project and your craftsmanship, but all that heat so close to wood... doesn't seem like a good idea. Was the finish you used on the wood flammable?