Hardline Water Cooled PC Build Log - Yes, you can play Battlefield on it
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2015-05-07
·
3,055 words · ~15 min read
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so this is a funny story i'm having a deja vu moment are you yeah a little bit
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a little bit so guys welcome to the hardline build log that uh was doomed
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for failure from the very start between bent a little bit too far
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bent a little too far it got misshapen and uh you know when that happens at the
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wrong moment trust me awkwardness and pain can ensue so let's go ahead and do
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a quick introduction to the project i'll show you guys the tools we'll be using
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to do your very own hardline system uh so
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basically we're running an Intel core i7 5960x octa-core CPU we've got that
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running on an x99 deluxe motherboard from ASUS graphics cards
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we got two 980s which are both heart piped into the system as well and water
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cooled with a couple of blocks from ek water blocks they actually provided all
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of the water cooling we're powering this sucker with an ax 1500i power supply
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because overkill we know it's overkill we could have used
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something half that capacity that would have been just fine
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speaking of half that capacity would have been just fine we've got 32 gigs of
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ddr4 memory in there that's dominator platinums what else have we completely
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overdone massive reservoir but i actually like the fact that we have a massive reservoir because topping this
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thing off is gonna suck and oh right of course all the hardline
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tubing tools so uh it starts with the
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hardline tubing and hardline tubing is important because compared to flexible
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tubing you want one of these
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or you want one of those
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that's awful one of these really thin but yeah one of these uh and it's petg
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yes so that's important because petg is
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more is less fragile so it's less prone to breakage and cracking it allows for
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more re-attempts at bends and is just generally much easier to work with it's
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less likely to lose its shape when you're bending it with this fuel line
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stuff that we'll be using what else we got here oh compression fittings so
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these are special hardline compression fittings um that we'll be using
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throughout the build they're from primo chill they actually sent us a couple different styles we like the knurled
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black ones um gloves are actually surprisingly
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important because while you're bending uh the the tubing the petg tubing is
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probably gonna be really hot so you're gonna want some kind of gloves you don't need anything too crazy and we got this
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baby to do the bender yeah do the bender oh wow uh so this is the
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uh this is the bend the rigid bender from primo chill the last thing is i
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guess we've got a saw and uh and the heat gun also extremely important how
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did i forget the heat gun i don't know because you also have to heat up the pg
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that's why you need the gloves so that you can bend it around the bender and
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maybe size it with the saw so guys this is going to be an absolute blast um i
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it's going to kind of start in the middle it was an absolute blast yeah it was a blast because we're done and we've
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lost some footage so we're redoing our intro
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enjoy
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fractal design listens and the define r5 case was made with feedback from you the
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pc community so click wherever you want
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to learn more how about here and here and then it's like
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step two continued remove the rest of them like okay why don't i just remove them
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all right moving the screws part 1a
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yeah sounds like a minus media group video
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do this
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it's a good thing ek includes enough thermal pads to basically do this twice
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so you achieved a hole in a piece of metal in the last uh you know 20 minutes
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here's what i did not 20 minutes i didn't i've done better cool you're not
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done dick
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hey lined up never got the whole angelina jolie thing
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um i don't know if i've ever said that on camera before
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i'm sure it will oh yeah incite riots yup talented yes
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attractive no all right and then it's like
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i had kind of a panic moment because ek sent two of the CPU blocks two different
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kinds and i kind of went oh they sent two GPU blocks
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wow i really hope when i asked for two GPU blocks they knew that i meant i
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wanted matching ones and they were going in the same system they're okay though
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okay they're the same so
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we're getting close to
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starting okay there is something that we do still
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have to do though we have to get this radiator mounted
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so that means we have to decide like how that's how that's working
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exactly um so the pump wait so the pump
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is going to take from here oh yeah we gotta drill the holes to mount the reservoir as well okay so we're not
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we're not that close to starting and the problem is that that radiator
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actually has a variety of different holes it can mount to
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none of which it can access because you see how this
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radiator is actually a touch wider than a 120mm fan most rads are flush with the
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fan so i actually can't quite get over
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far enough this way and quite can't quite get over far enough that way to
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hit these mounting holes how about right there
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you're supposed to see like the alignment and stuff no you're here is
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that like is it super awful or is it like it's not directly in line yeah i
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don't know if we're gonna get that without just doing new holes and like
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having some places where the where the grill is just there we can't screw it in
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because it's not like it's gonna feed directly from that we might have some
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but it wouldn't be there there wouldn't be any kind of organized system to them
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okay so all those spots i marked basically the holes that are there need
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to be widened okay so i got a ghetto drill
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or find a bit that's good for it
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if i'm ghetto drilling no i found a bit that's good for it i think
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forget it really then don't film it okay you remember how our genius plan was to
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fill up from the top and there's a radiator so no
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wait what yeah unless the this is oh no that wasn't the
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whole we were planning to go through that so i think that's too small i think it was
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oh that's not what i was planning to do it's okay it definitely wasn't over here
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we can come in here though and just go just and just curve it sure
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yeah i think i think it'll be fine um
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but i believe i believe i can fly
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wow this has never been opened i believe i can touch the sky
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i think about
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i think this is gonna work but this will come out at a bit of an angle but it might be okay because it's gonna come
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out at this angle and then go up to the CPU so i think
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we should be golden as long as there are no clearance issues with the
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graphics cards where are they oh but then we were doing our test fit
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with um freaking air coolers on
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there's a drill bit here my ocd is uh really angry i legitimately went and
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bought a whole new set of that after whole room water cooling because people
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lost a couple of the pieces from it so that is now officially the LMG set with
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its missing pieces that will make me crazy if i have to look at them you want
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to like hold it for me sure
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can brandon watch
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i mean like i guess if he's into that
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so he's into that okay we should do this outside though i
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think because you got to take it out to do those um the dremel thing anyway
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yeah it's like a disaster down there
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well i i was given a cutting edge i know that's fine minus media group push
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forward with no regard for the consequences
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these are just grabbing the edge if i was going to do this somewhat properly i'd definitely put washers on them
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because these went a little deep
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really dusty motherboard wow
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that's what happens when it sits on a test bench i guess
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so interference issue is gone
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all right
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all right i'm feeling good okay cool
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where did the power supply go so i'm
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gonna put in the power supply i was thinking maybe i would
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uh oh one of them uh yep
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okay push push push yeah okay good
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make our final decision you want to do black and white or clear
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clear would work pretty well and the res is going to be clear we can't color it
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so the res is going to look kind of out of place
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these don't look the same okay now i'm a little worried
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is one of these like uv blue or something
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you know what let's go for let's go for the home run
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swing because the black and white thing is going to either look really cool or
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super dumb yeah let's go for the home run swing
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ah hold still you bastard
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whoa put that up against there
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and oh i don't and
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90 degrees ish oh okay that's not quite
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so then you just hold it until it hardens our very first bend
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okay well here i'll i'll chat with you
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so we are deeply worried about having enough tubing because primo
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chill bless their hearts sent us one stick of each color maybe they intended
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to send it to us just as a sample so we could then tell them what color we
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wanted to do this project and they could send us a whack of it
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because we have zero room for error if we have enough
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tubing at all and we're not sure which of those is the answer right now
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so um we're thinking
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we're thinking a white run here which is going to be like
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half or more of the rest of our white oops
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okay so like kind of there to there
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then we're thinking
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uh this is gonna have to go to here
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and that'll have to be black this one
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will be white which will use up pretty much the rest of our white
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not a whole lot of room for error and then this one
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will be
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black down to here and then this one over here will be
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black as well and i think we're gonna just make it
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let's put that in yep uh clean off the marks with isopropyl first if you don't
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mind that's alcohol it's not taking it off no
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that came off these came off it's the heat aw crap
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and now i don't have my damn marks you know how you leave it off
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oh my goodness i just went the wrong way on it
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holy crap that was close okay can you just
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wow i am like no
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i didn't put the thing in see how the
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my pressure from the bend is really makes it really flat here yeah i figured
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out how to do it more like that so what you gotta do is you gotta heat
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up the rest of it so that's the least
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soft part so then when you press it against it it bends more pulls that makes sense yeah
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and it doesn't dent into it so much oh no it's ugly
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it's hideous oh come on
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i don't think so i cut it already
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right yep people are going to see this video and
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they're going to be like well if these idiots can do it maybe that's the point
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of Linus tech tips all right should we fill this sucker
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yeah man all right so we've got our fitting up there
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no no everything's okay i think i thought i saw something dripping i've
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got some half inch tubing up here that's going to take a while it's going
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to take a really long time
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so what's cool too about this hard pipe tubing
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is that its inner diameter is very small so the actual amount of liquid in the
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loop is not very much a total volume yeah it's going to be like radiators and
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reservoir basically
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and just stop
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okay that's not that bad we did all right
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yeah okay hold on okay
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you got the weight and i'll do the maneuvering some kind of like bearish
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there we go and
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i got it that was fun that was really fun that
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was actually that was really fun we learned a lot um i think thing number one that i
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learned is that two two things of piping
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is like not enough no margin for error in a case this size
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if you guys are gonna do a hard line build because it looked like long runs
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in a big case i think if you got a single color get three yeah yeah yeah um
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and then if you want to do a two-tone thing like us then
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like four yeah i'd probably say one of each two of each color sorry i mean
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jeffy made it but jeffy we probably would have put him down if we'd had the
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option to redo jeffy we probably would have so so that's something that you
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want to build into your your bill of materials um the other thing i think i
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took away from this is that i wouldn't recommend a hardline tubing
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system for your first water cooled build um softer softer tubing is way easier to
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work with like you just kind of and it's about like that
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if it's too long it's fine whatever so so there's a lot more room for error
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even for people who are experienced water coolers i i still wouldn't do this
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personally like because for me i can do a graphics card swap on my liquid cool
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build in like 10 minutes this you are
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definitely draining most of your loop if not all of it you
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are definitely redoing some bends it's it's a lot more work but
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i think the result justifies it it looks absolutely stunning so if you were
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someone who maybe you're not even building for yourself where you're going to be doing frequent upgrades
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or something yeah i think it makes the production values of the system look
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way better because i mean this isn't that this is
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definitely one of my favorite builds that i've ever done or been involved in
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like what would be better the the only ones
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like together i'd say the mineral oil build it's behind me still i really
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liked that build yep um but like for a more standard computer
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this is probably my favorite or if not my second i think
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that my overkill build guide that red one i did in the 900d with like five
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radiators and all the Noctua fans and like all that stuff i think that still
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takes it whereas but this one even though it's not like it's almost as
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high-end costs way less yeah and actually looks cleaner
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looks cleaner overall that one i just loved for the just sheer ridiculousness
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overdone this i can't even move red i couldn't even move it five radiators
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so um yeah great build lots of fun i hope you
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guys enjoyed it as much as we did but i am like super hungry
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so if we've been happy all day how long are we at this total nine hours probably oh
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yeah it must have been just as painful for whoever was shooting it and editing
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it thanks by the way yeah editing is gonna be a nightmare so guys thanks for
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