Do you WATERCOOL? Leo shows you his …

There are two important things you need to know about my PC. The first is that it lives under a desk so the current colour clash between blue coolant and red memory isn’t a factor as the CPU area is completely out of sight. The second is that this is a working PC rather than a project or display of mad skillz, so the priorities are decent performance, maximum reliability and low noise levels.

Having said that, here’s the list of parts:
Phanteks Evolv ATX Glass case
Asus Sabertooth X79 motherboard
VRM and chipset coolers have been left unconnected and cool passively.

3x1TB SSD
6TB HDD

3.5GHz Intel Xeon six core Ivy Bridge-EP
Aqua Computer Kryos CPU block copper/nickel

16GB quad channel G.Skill RipJaws DDR3 RAM
EVGA GTX 980 SC graphics card
EKWB GPU block plexi/copper and back plate

EK-CoolStream XE 240 radiator

EK-X3 reservoir with Alphacool Aurora light ring
D5 pump with Aqua Computer Heatkiller top

Fittings are 10/16mm EK-ACF
Alphacool drain valve

Coolant is Mayhems Pastel Blue
Fans are EK-Vardar 3x 140mm and 1x 120mm (all running at 500rpm)

Seasonic Prime Titanium 750W power supply

NZXT HUE+ lighting kit
NZXT GRID+ V2 fan controller

Everything runs at stock clocks.

I shan’t be messing around endlessly inside my PC but I do have a couple of changes in the pipeline that I shall doubtless share here on KitGuru.

In the near future I am sure I shall make the move to X99, LGA2011-3 and DDR4 memory. That’s a big change but it wouldn’t change the looks of the PC to any great extent. Sabertooth X79 is a solid motherboard but as standard it comes with active motherboard cooling that is annoyingly noisy.

As you can see in the video above I have replaced the active coolers with water blocks but I soon discovered you don’t need to run coolant through the blocks as the bulk of the metal keeps the VRMs and chipset perfectly cool through passive means. Even so, they don’t look good and it would be gratifying to consign them to the dustbin of history.

The biggest change I could make would be to upgrade the single GTX 980 either to SLI or simply replace it with GTX 1070 or 1080. We shall have to see how that shakes out but the idea of sinking £800 on a GTX 1080 with water block and backplate is not a happy thought.

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