Log Tesseract - Cerberus X

NRG

Airflow Optimizer
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Oct 30, 2015
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Ladies and Gentlemen...

...I'm at it again.

Granted, not as extravagant as in the past but a mans gotta slow down in his later years, so you understand.

Lets start with a brief history as there's a build log that I skipped before this one.

I started Here with James' first prototype of the now current Sliger Cerberus. I dubbed it Nova Prime and it ended up something like this

I sold the complete system to a young chap here in Aus, So the case itself is god only knows where.

After that I went full water-cooling in a P5, Don't really have much photos so we'll gloss over that over 20L monster and continue on.

Following that little hiccup, I actually bough a Ghost S1 with the intention of shrinking down. I got so annoyed about having to not use my ATX mobo and mono block that I ended up designing my own P5 inspired open air case - Here

I learned a lot from the experience. Made some measuring mistakes and underestimated the weight of everything but all in all, it was mostly a success. I still have it, Currently has an old 1080ti and 6600k in it and is used as my pc for my 4k TV.

From then to now, I bought a Cerberus-X and kind of jammed all my stuff in there to the point that it was packed. This posts namesake is because of my Cerberus-X's current configuration. The Tesseract...



Yeah Yeah Yeah I know... Blue...on blue...on blue. It's the denim jacket and denim pants of PC's. I'll be real with you, It actually looks great in person with all the panels on and the windowed side panel. The blue seems to bug my camera out and I can't seem to capture how it really looks, I did however try to tweak it in Lightroom to look about as realistic as it does to me (Should probably note I'm also colourblind, Please don't tell me if it's actually been purple this whole time).

Lights off



And nude



With all that out of the way, Lets focus on the rebuild.



The star off the show isn't actually in the photo. It's a 9900k. A decent upgrade from my 9600k and a bit of future proofing for the eventual 3080 install once they're available again. The pump shown is the new VTX pump by EK. Will it be better than my DDC 3.2? Dunno, Ain't gonna test it or nothing, was just an upgrade path I took to motivate me to pull apart my loop and do the maintenance. I've also decided I'm not particularly big on the FLT240. It's cool, really, but in a SFF case it just takes up too much room, especially with solid tubes. Which leads me into that small fortune of tasty fittings pictured above. Kind of hoping flexible tubing will make maintenance slightly easier, might not, more of an excuse to change things up really. I can say that here because I know my partner won't be reading this :')

The plan is to do a sweet parallel loop between GPU and CPU. Also shifting fluid colours from blue to something else, but that can wait until further into the build log. The best part of replacing all my nickel fittings with the newer black fittings from EK is that I get to reuse them in my best mates PC. He's finally agreed to let me build him a complete custom loop with 3080 and 10900k. Will most likely chuck the FLT240 in there too. But that's a story for another thread. Will also being changing up the configuration of the fans. I stupidly have the bottom fans exhausting out...exhausting hot air from the front rad out the bottom. I swear it was intake, but it's done and should hopefully improve temps. Also configuring the front rad in push pull with the Noctua slim 15mm fans, So that should be interesting. I read an EK article about push pull on slim radiators being 6-7 degrees better, I'll post that here.



And I was reading another the other night about how the A12x15 perform very similarly to the 25mm variant, I'll post that here too.



Anyways, It's late, I'm tired. I'll keep you posted on my progress over the next couple of weeks. Thanks for joining me :)
 
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NRG

Airflow Optimizer
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Oct 30, 2015
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Alright! Big weekend of much needed maintenance and upgrades. Let's get into it.

The star of the show, replacing my 9600k.



Yes, this photo does look a little odd. You would not believe how difficult it was trying to capture the writing of the CPU. The sunlight was being a storming fool and was not letting me have my way. So it's and upside down photo rotated around haha.



Mostly a bit of a glam shot to show off the freshly cleaned RAM.



As you can see the Monoblock is a tad dirty. Something I've picked up from my last maintenance is to one, wear gloves and two, dry all components before reassembly. The stain on the very bottom is from water I didn't dry fully from last time. Will also note there's a few fingerprints on the nickel that wearing gloves would have prevented. I went at it with a toothbrush and some toothpaste before thoroughly rinsing with distilled water before putting it all back together. I didn't get a photo of it back on, but I will just state that it looked near new with no fingerprints or smudges on the nickel or Plexiglas.



Cold plate still has a mirror finish.



It looks cool but it's entirely unnecessary and if I'm being honest, makes more problems than its probably worth. I'm a little committed to LGA1151 given that I'm at 32gb ram and a 9900k. Next gen of upgrades I won't be water-cooling my Ram.



Opened up the GPU block for toothpaste scrub as well while I was at it. Was in much better shape than my Monoblock. Gave the backplate a much needed clean as it had accumulated a tonne of smudges and fingerprints.



All that really needs to be said about these fittings is, Damn they're storming sexy. Really can't stop kicking myself for waiting so long to swap. I'd known for a while I wanted them in my case, but I had absolutely underestimated just how aesthetically pleasing they are. Often I found myself just looking at them. The accent rings are a nice little personalised touch. I like them, especially considering you can change them relatively easily for a new spin on the fittings.





It took a lot of time to plot a decent path with what I had. I turned the pump res around 3-4 times thinking about which way would work best etc. This was the finally configuration. I was really set on the parallel loop between GPU and CPU.



So here it is. This was my first time using soft tubing and I must say that it's SO much easier to work with in comparison to rigid tubing. It has its problems, kinking, tight on the barbs and general lack of wanting to bend in ways that you want, but, It really does hold its own in regards to looks. Super happy that I managed to plumb this up in a few hours and all in all was about a day from the start of my cleaning to reassembly and plumbing. The observant amongst you will not I've changed the fan configuration this time around. Both are pulling air into the case and the top mounted fan will be exhausting once it's reinstated.



This is where I ended up after leak testing and bleeding out bubbles. Currently on distilled water until my fluid arrives next week. I would like to note the two slim Noctua fans I have mounted in push to my push-pull configuration for the front rad. This is all very anecdotal and unscientific as the case is practically an open air chassis In this state. Under gaming loads (Witcher 3 2560 x 1440 @ 144hz) I did see a 6-10 degree drop on cpu thermals. GPU remained approximately the same, around 40 degrees. I have been cranking prime95 with my 9900k @ 5.0ghz and I will admit that the difference in temp with pump and fans running at 100% is negligible. I don't have any concrete numbers just yet but I will be doing tests with OC vs no OC with the push/without the push. So stay tuned for that.

 
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rfarmer

Spatial Philosopher
Jul 7, 2017
2,602
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Build looks great. I have used the EK ZMT in my last couple water cooled builds and it is really nice tubing. Those compression fittings are incredible looking, I think I need to buy me some.
 
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NRG

Airflow Optimizer
Original poster
Oct 30, 2015
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Build looks great. I have used the EK ZMT in my last couple water cooled builds and it is really nice tubing. Those compression fittings are incredible looking, I think I need to buy me some.

Thank you! I agree on both fronts, the tubing is so sleek and the fittings are genuinely stunning. Can definitely recommend. They are noticeably heftier than the old school type.
 
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NRG

Airflow Optimizer
Original poster
Oct 30, 2015
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Good evening all!

It has been a very productive afternoon of modding. From the picture above, I've made several iterarions of my larger case feet to accomodate for my push/pull configuration. The purple ones above are PLA. I decided I wanted Black feet so I ordered Black PLA to print them in. The problem with the feet is that PLA does not take to drilling and tapping very well, which was always apart of my plan to mount them. I then proceeded to print them in a grey PETG that I had laying around as a proof of concept. It should go without saying that PETG is a storming mess to print with and required a significant amount of time to properly dial in the printer settings. I eventually got them printed in grey. Fortunately for me PETG takes to drilling and tapping very well. So once again I ordered black PETG to use for the final "prototype". Well guess what, changing from grey to black meant redialing in the settings for my printer again. I did manage to successfully print them after layer de-lamination issues. Gave them a light sand and tap and drilled the holes.

This is the holes that are required to mount the feet. Given that the rad and fans take up so much space, I was pushed to the very ends of the case.



The first leg mounted. Everything went mostly as planned. The 3d model will require modifications to accommodate for the existing case feet mounts. Ill be updating the model before I release it so people won't have to drill the foot any more than necessary. Do excuse the chopped up chromax rubber. I couldn't find anything suitable and these seemed ideal for the prototypes.



The front feet went in just as easily as the rear. They're held in by two M3 screws, Which does a pretty good job. Again, chromax rubber feet :')



I know what you're probably thinking...
I will make it legal...



The side profile.



Also made a little jig to keep the holes consistent and everything aligned.



Had to do a little bit of filing in order to get the fan headers through the mounting slots.



Here's a shot of the underbelly with everything mounted. Must say, was a right pain getting those short fan connectors connected to extensions once everything was in place. I really do wish Noctua kept the lead attached instead of the current stubby lead iterations.



Side and front panel jammed on to get an idea of the aesthetic of the feet and bottom/front mounted fans.



I am very pleased with how they turned out. They don't look all that different in appearance to the stock look of the default feet and given that it opens up your cooling options I would say that the taller feet should ship with the case. Currently bleeding the loop and will get it all up and running in the comings days. I am still awaiting my new fluid to arrive, So I've still another tear down to do before I do a final assembly, which will include testing the fan configurations. I also have the 6 pin power for my pump to sleeve before the final build too.

So going forward I have these things to do:

Adjust the 3D model of the case feet to accommodate the existing feet mounts. Potentially have the feet milled in aluminum and anodized in black.
Sleeve the power cable for my pump. Tis the only unsleeved cable left. Should also point out that I acquired a "shorty" cable for the 24 pin. Which means I will
be completely remaking that at some point.
Drain the distilled water and fill with new fluid. Ideally the last time that I'll be draining the loop, at least for a year or so. Will also aim to do proper cable management within the case, the last opportunity for any major changes as draining the loop and removing components is a pain in the rear.
Conduct proper testing to either validate or invalidate my fan configurations. I plan to get something to log noise as well, would appreciate any suggestions on that front.


As always, Thanks for tagging along :)
 
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NRG

Airflow Optimizer
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Oct 30, 2015
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Your build is demonstrating maximum cooling capacity of Cerberus-X..:D Impressive!
Thank you Sir! I had it it fully ramped up today with all fans and pump @ 100%, definitely makes a bit of noise :’)
 

NRG

Airflow Optimizer
Original poster
Oct 30, 2015
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Hey all!

Small update!



I'm kind of done for now. I got everything in and as far along as I can for now. As you can see, Violet is this maintenance's fluid of color. It does have a little something something though that I like a lot.







It's UV reactive baby! I had the intention of getting full blown UV lights to really make it pop but the truth is I ordered a blank side panel to replace my windowed one. The windowed panel has always been this sore spot for me. It's really not that great and is warped and bent and doesn't seat flush with the case. Not only that, the panel is sandwiched behind a cut out panel. The result being that the panel sticks out the width of the window and does not look all smooth and seamless like the standard panel does. It's a shame but I'm a little over it.

So with the rant out of the way, it seems completely unnecessary to bother with UV LEDs given that it's all closed up. I'm content with where it's at atm. The 24 pin cable still needs to be remade, but that's not a huge priority.

Lets talk temps.

So, 9900k huh, runs hot aye bud? No, really, It's toasty. I've dabbled with OC @ 5ghz, stepping all the way down to 4.7ghz. I've even given the ASUS AI OC a chance to have a go. It still runs super hot, Or should I say, it idles hot. I'm looking at anywhere from 35-40 degrees on idle @ 4.7. I even climate controlled the room to 22 degrees and that only brought me to 33 with nothing running. I am starting to think my fans are perhaps making things a little difficult? I do know the internal fans are a 2000 RPM fan and my external slims are running at 1850 RPM. I do have each rad running on a single pwm. I wouldn't think that the few % difference of RPM between the internal fans and external fans should be creating any sort of airflow issues? Anyone with knowledge on the topic, feel free to chip in ya two cents. Under Prime95, I didn't see any temps over 85 when I had it at 5.0, I forget the voltage. Fans where pegged at 100% though and yeah, It do get noisy hahah. I did some reading on reddit and it seems that 9900k just simple do be a hot CPU. I'd be happier if it was lower but 40 degrees isn't horrible, just not what I'd like.

Next post will be some actual testing to either prove or disprove my push pull on my fans, so stay tuned for that!

Edit: I do just want to say that I may have been using the wrong metrics for performance. I had fans set to ramp up pretty aggressively to cater to my suspected bad thermals. Upon preliminary testing, When playing wow @ 1440p Ultra (I know, not the most graphics intense but bare with me) the temps don't seem to change at all when I dropped fans from 60% down to 20%. The only notable change was the noise. The idle temp of around 40 degrees is also the same. So perhaps the CPU just runs toasty and that's that. I do reference GPU temps and the idle of that is always much lower. Proper testing is required.
 
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spdfrek

Trash Compacter
Nov 26, 2019
36
64
I just swapped my build from a sm570 to a Cerberus x this week. It's been in pieces since June, and withdrawals were hitting hard! Was curious what your water/loop temps are at given your cpu temp at idle? I was also hoping for ideas on cooling the motherboard with a full loop in place, sadly, a mono block isn't an option for my mobo. At any rate, you have a good looking build there!
 

NRG

Airflow Optimizer
Original poster
Oct 30, 2015
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I just swapped my build from a sm570 to a Cerberus x this week. It's been in pieces since June, and withdrawals were hitting hard! Was curious what your water/loop temps are at given your cpu temp at idle? I was also hoping for ideas on cooling the motherboard with a full loop in place, sadly, a mono block isn't an option for my mobo. At any rate, you have a good looking build there!


Thank you, It's finally at a place where I'm content with it :)

I actually ordered a Water probe a few days ago for the loop measurement. I will have a better idea of water temp in a few days time :)

As for the mobo, I have 4 fans intake up front and 4 intake from the bottom, with the top mounted fan running a little faster to exhaust. Definitely will have a positive air pressure but my NVMe SSD sits at about 66 degrees for reference.
 

Tuscany

Cable-Tie Ninja
Apr 26, 2020
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I have one question - was it possible to make the new feets a bit lower? Or the lesser space for the fans will create turbulence sound? I am thinking of my future build with SM570 (currently owning SM550) but I don't like the look of pictures of these cases on higher feets. What is the actual clearance with these new legs?
 

NRG

Airflow Optimizer
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Oct 30, 2015
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Is that 66C? In heavy use or just normal usage?

66 Degrees in C, yes. The SSD temps where during a 5.0ghz run of prime95. So absolutely the worst case scenario for temps.

I have one question - was it possible to make the new feets a bit lower? Or the lesser space for the fans will create turbulence sound? I am thinking of my future build with SM570 (currently owning SM550) but I don't like the look of pictures of these cases on higher feets. What is the actual clearance with these new legs?

The feet are 25mm tall. The Noctua fan is 15mm, that gives a 10mm clearance. Honestly, I haven’t yet found myself looking at it thinking they’re are unsightly or too large. I actually think they look better. I’ll take some photos for you so you can get a better idea :)
 

MarcParis

Spatial Philosopher
Apr 1, 2016
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66 Degrees in C, yes. The SSD temps where during a 5.0ghz run of prime95. So absolutely the worst case scenario for temps.
SSD @66°C degrees at idle, even under prime 95 remains too close from throttling temperature (around 70°C, depending on model).
What is your model?

Absolute worst case is while writing To of data...just try Steam library copy/paste..:D
 

NRG

Airflow Optimizer
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Oct 30, 2015
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359
SSD @66°C degrees at idle, even under prime 95 remains too close from throttling temperature (around 70°C, depending on model).
What is your model?

Absolute worst case is while writing To of data...just try Steam library copy/paste..:D

Samsung something something. Its heating up due to the ambient heat of the Rads.

I still haven't done any testing, Everything seems to run a little warmer at idle than I'd like. Only 65 degrees on the 9900K and 50 degrees on my 2080ti whilst playing Blacks Ops CW. I do have a little plan in mind that involves quick connects ;)
 

MarcParis

Spatial Philosopher
Apr 1, 2016
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Samsung something something. Its heating up due to the ambient heat of the Rads.

I still haven't done any testing, Everything seems to run a little warmer at idle than I'd like. Only 65 degrees on the 9900K and 50 degrees on my 2080ti whilst playing Blacks Ops CW. I do have a little plan in mind that involves quick connects ;)
As you have common loop on CPU and GPU, I can just say that 50°C on GPU while on load is perfect for watercooling.

65°C on 9900K could be linked to too thick IHS on the CPU...nothing related to your watercooling setup.

Best move to improve CPU temperature? Go for 5900X..:D
 

NRG

Airflow Optimizer
Original poster
Oct 30, 2015
289
359
As you have common loop on CPU and GPU, I can just say that 50°C on GPU while on load is perfect for watercooling.

65°C on 9900K could be linked to too thick IHS on the CPU...nothing related to your watercooling setup.

Best move to improve CPU temperature? Go for 5900X..:D

I’m not really too worried about it. Considering that the system is dead silent with fans running at 600 rpm.

It’s all good temps, especially for how quiet it it :)

Nah, I’m committed to my 9900K system. I will be incorporating an external radiator in a week or so. I’ve a 480 Coolstream XE layout around that I will install under my desk :D
 

MarcParis

Spatial Philosopher
Apr 1, 2016
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I’m not really too worried about it. Considering that the system is dead silent with fans running at 600 rpm.

It’s all good temps, especially for how quiet it it :)

Nah, I’m committed to my 9900K system. I will be incorporating an external radiator in a week or so. I’ve a 480 Coolstream XE layout around that I will install under my desk :D
LOLOLOL..:)
That's what I was guessing when you refer to quick connect/disconnects....

It will be interesting to see actual performance improvement...this will be overkill setup (480 external+240X2 internal). Are you also adding another pump in the loop as it will be way larger?
 
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