Project Bright Panel: Corsair 800D, Liquid Cooled, Illuminated Mid Panel

Re:Project Bright Panel: Corsair 800D, Liquid Cooled, Illuminated Mid Panel (Drerex)

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 05:54:40 GMT

Looking great! Loving this build.

Re:Project Bright Panel: Corsair 800D, Liquid Cooled, Illuminated Mid Panel (nookie420)

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 20:07:44 GMT

I really like your build. The clear tubing with the blue coolant really brought it together over the blue tubing. Great use of stuff in that case.

I feel yah on that 900D case

Re:Project Bright Panel: Corsair 800D, Liquid Cooled, Illuminated Mid Panel (Mr_Armageddon)

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 10:27:04 GMT

Oh I definitely want to, but cost is always factor, and the time involved in doing all my cables again. The toughest part for me is going to be convincing my wife that I need a bigger case than what I already have.

She is always making comments about how ridiculously large my 800D is, sitting next to me on the desk.

Re:Project Bright Panel: Corsair 800D, Liquid Cooled, Illuminated Mid Panel (zophar)

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 09:26:33 GMT

Do it, you know you want to. I can't afford one, so I will encourage everyone else to get them so I can lust after their builds. Awesome case and if I had the coin I would most definitely get one. I know that Afterburner is planning on getting one. But haven't heard much about others getting them.

Re:Project Bright Panel: Corsair 800D, Liquid Cooled, Illuminated Mid Panel (Mr_Armageddon)

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 09:10:02 GMT

Anyone seen the announcement of the Corsair 900D case? The thing is a monster, and internally its codename during development was "Godzilla". I really like my 800D, but definitely drooling over the new case. Looks like they took a lot of user feedback, mainly about lack of space for additional radiators, and went well overboard with the new implementation.

Here is the Launch page: http://www.corsair.com/900d

And here is a video shot at CeBit showing off the inside: Corsair Obsidian 900D chassis walkthrough

I had convinced myself I wouldn't be doing another build for a while, but with this case launching, I may reconsider...

Re:Project Bright Panel: Corsair 800D, Liquid Cooled, Illuminated Mid Panel (Mr_Armageddon)

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 08:05:50 GMT

nikkocortez

one sik build!

Phoenixx45

Someone give this man his Blue Ribbon! Looks awesome!! Great work

Thanks! Glad to have everything done. Now time to sit back and enjoy some games.

I suck at BF3, but maybe if I actually play for a bit I can improve my K/D ratio . Also played a bit of Black Mesa this weekend. Brought back some great memories. The original Half-Life is pretty much the title that got me in to PC gaming.

Re:Project Bright Panel: Corsair 800D, Liquid Cooled, Illuminated Mid Panel (nikkocortez)

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 20:05:53 GMT

one sik build!

Re:Project Bright Panel: Corsair 800D, Liquid Cooled, Illuminated Mid Panel (Phoenixx45)

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 15:49:53 GMT

Someone give this man his Blue Ribbon! Looks awesome!! Great work

Re:Project Bright Panel: Corsair 800D, Liquid Cooled, Illuminated Mid Panel (Mr_Armageddon)

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 14:37:55 GMT

So I was looking for a new case to help protect my Samsung Galaxy S III, and came across the Trident Aegis. I have one of these on my kid's Nook Tablet to help protect it from the abuse they put it through, and it has done an excellent job so far. So when I noticed that one of the color options was almost identical to my current build... I had to get one.

Its a pretty solid case, and offers a lot more protection than my standard TPU, but at the expense of added thickness. I will probably end up going back to my TPU case at some point, but had to get a quick picture first of the color coordination between my tech gear

Re:Project Bright Panel: Corsair 800D, Liquid Cooled, Illuminated Mid Panel (Mr_Armageddon)

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 20:41:00 GMT

JasonHoyt

Very nice build.

cblaxx

I saw that. I thought it was pretty funny cause yours is definitely nice in my opinion.

raw2dogmeat

This is the first time I've ever seen this build...very impressive! Amazing attention to detail..congrats!!

Thanks guys! The detail work made it very time consuming to finish, but the end result was worth it.

Re:Project Bright Panel: Corsair 800D, Liquid Cooled, Illuminated Mid Panel (JasonHoyt)

Sun, 09 Sep 2012 16:39:53 GMT

Very nice build.

Re:Project Bright Panel: Corsair 800D, Liquid Cooled, Illuminated Mid Panel (raw2dogmeat)

Sun, 09 Sep 2012 10:34:53 GMT

This is the first time I've ever seen this build...very impressive! Amazing attention to detail..congrats!!

Re:Project Bright Panel: Corsair 800D, Liquid Cooled, Illuminated Mid Panel (cblaxx)

Sun, 09 Sep 2012 09:09:53 GMT

I saw that. I thought it was pretty funny cause yours is definitely nice in my opinion.

Re:Project Bright Panel: Corsair 800D, Liquid Cooled, Illuminated Mid Panel (Mr_Armageddon)

Sun, 09 Sep 2012 02:29:51 GMT

Well, I did get their attention, and they re-posted my build log on both their Twitter and Facebook pages.

Maximum PC - Facebook Timeline

Look for it around September 4th on their timeline. Funny thing is, MaximumPC thought that I "recreated" their Dream Machine with my build. Sorry guys... I started mine last April

Re:Project Bright Panel: Corsair 800D, Liquid Cooled, Illuminated Mid Panel (Mr_Armageddon)

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 09:58:41 GMT

So I was reading the Sept 2012 issue of MaximumPC, and was wowed by the hardware specs on this years "Dream Machine". Not 1 but 2 GTX 690s for some Quad SLI action, and a total system price of over $14,000 !!

The hardware in that build is no doubt amazing, but what I wasn't impressed with, was the quality of the build itself. Ya they spent $700 on a custom paint job, but the way they set the innards of the case up just doesn't do that hardware justice (even if they used the same color Mayhem dye as I did ). Take a look at a side by side comparison.

I think they need to commission me to build next years Dream Machine... and then after the benchmarking and photo-shoot, allow me keep the hardware .

Re:Project Bright Panel: Corsair 800D, Liquid Cooled, Illuminated Mid Panel (Mr_Armageddon)

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 08:35:09 GMT

Final Build Pics !

Time to wrap this build log up . It has taken much longer than anticipated, but its finally done, turned out better than I had expected, and of course it also overclocks and performs like a champ.

I am going to post a smaller version of each picture in the post, and below each picture, a link to a full size version of the image for those who want some close ups.

Here we have an angled side shot of the case with the window removed. Really pleased with how the colors of the liquid turned out, matching the Corsair fan rings.

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Here we have another shot, directly from the side.

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Shots with the windows installed. Looks great.

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Here we have my attempt at cable management. I did what I could to keep it clean back there, but it was difficult to deal with that many cables, along with their added thickness due to the sleeving, which looks awesome by the way .

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Here are some artsy fartsy close up shots I'm really not that great with a camera, but I wanted to try and get a few shots with my Nikon D80 of the build that were different from the usual side and angled ones we typically see.

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Now on to the Workstation. Using a Dell 3011U as the main display, flanked by a 2007FP on each side for a total resolution of 4,960 x 1,600. I really like how everything works together, and all of that screen real estate is great for productivity... and of course gaming .

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Well... that's it! Time to put away the modding/build hat for a while, and enjoy my PC. Thanks to everyone for their support and input. If you guys have any questions for me, I am more than happy to help out. Thanks for looking.

Re:Project Bright Panel: Corsair 800D, Liquid Cooled, Illuminated Mid Panel (HeThing)

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 02:39:49 GMT

Mr_Armageddon

HeThing

Mr_Armageddon

HeThing

Nice screen you got there.. :D

Have you tested it yet?

Im considering to get one of those dell screens, but Im worried about the game-experience on such a screen.. What do you think of it so far?

I have only had time to loaded up 2 games on it so far on the new monitor. One was MineCraft... so not the best by which to judge monitor quality
I did play Mass Effect 3 a bit on it, and everything looked great. Colors really pop, excellent clarity, and no ghosting from what I could tell. I am going to try some Battlefield 3 tonight, and maybe some Supreme Commander or StarCraft II for some RTS action as well. I will comment on my experiences.

Sounds great, Im looking forward to hear your comments :D

Well, found out that Nvidia Surround only works if you have identical displays, and they are rotated the same way (ie, all landscape or all portrait but not mixing of the two even if the vertical resolutions are the same). So looks like I will be gaming on the main display and will continue to use the sides to monitor temps and performance.

But as far as gaming goes on the 3011U... WOW! I really like this monitor

Just got done touching up the last of the pictures. Will be posting them tomorrow along with and updated index in the OP.

.. Can't wait for pictures :D

Re:Project Bright Panel: Corsair 800D, Liquid Cooled, Illuminated Mid Panel (Mr_Armageddon)

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 22:22:27 GMT

HeThing

Mr_Armageddon

HeThing

Nice screen you got there.. :D

Have you tested it yet?

Im considering to get one of those dell screens, but Im worried about the game-experience on such a screen.. What do you think of it so far?

I have only had time to loaded up 2 games on it so far on the new monitor. One was MineCraft... so not the best by which to judge monitor quality
I did play Mass Effect 3 a bit on it, and everything looked great. Colors really pop, excellent clarity, and no ghosting from what I could tell. I am going to try some Battlefield 3 tonight, and maybe some Supreme Commander or StarCraft II for some RTS action as well. I will comment on my experiences.

Sounds great, Im looking forward to hear your comments :D

Well, found out that Nvidia Surround only works if you have identical displays, and they are rotated the same way (ie, all landscape or all portrait but not mixing of the two even if the vertical resolutions are the same). So looks like I will be gaming on the main display and will continue to use the sides to monitor temps and performance. For future reference, here is the link for what exactly is supported by Nvidia Surround.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/3d-vision-surround-system-requirements.html

But as far as gaming goes on the 3011U... WOW! I really like this monitor

Just got done touching up the last of the pictures. Will be posting them tomorrow along with and updated index in the OP.

Re:Project Bright Panel: Corsair 800D, Liquid Cooled, Illuminated Mid Panel (HeThing)

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 00:32:48 GMT

Mr_Armageddon

HeThing

Nice screen you got there.. :D

Have you tested it yet?

Im considering to get one of those dell screens, but Im worried about the game-experience on such a screen.. What do you think of it so far?

I have only had time to loaded up 2 games on it so far on the new monitor. One was MineCraft... so not the best by which to judge monitor quality
I did play Mass Effect 3 a bit on it, and everything looked great. Colors really pop, excellent clarity, and no ghosting from what I could tell. I am going to try some Battlefield 3 tonight, and maybe some Supreme Commander or StarCraft II for some RTS action as well. I will comment on my experiences.

Sounds great, Im looking forward to hear your comments :D

Re:Project Bright Panel: Corsair 800D, Liquid Cooled, Illuminated Mid Panel (ana3mic)

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 18:56:35 GMT

Amazing work! So much work incorporated with amazing knowledge to use all the advanced components, I'm in awe .

Re:Project Bright Panel: Corsair 800D, Liquid Cooled, Illuminated Mid Panel (Mr_Armageddon)

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 15:34:59 GMT

HeThing

Nice screen you got there.. :D

Have you tested it yet?

Im considering to get one of those dell screens, but Im worried about the game-experience on such a screen.. What do you think of it so far?

I have only had time to loaded up 2 games on it so far on the new monitor. One was MineCraft... so not the best by which to judge monitor quality
I did play Mass Effect 3 a bit on it, and everything looked great. Colors really pop, excellent clarity, and no ghosting from what I could tell. I am going to try some Battlefield 3 tonight, and maybe some Supreme Commander or StarCraft II for some RTS action as well. I will comment on my experiences.

Re:Project Bright Panel: Corsair 800D, Liquid Cooled, Illuminated Mid Panel (HeThing)

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 10:47:14 GMT

Nice screen you got there.. :D

Have you tested it yet?

Im considering to get one of those dell screens, but Im worried about the game-experience on such a screen.. What do you think of it so far?

Re:Project Bright Panel: Corsair 800D, Liquid Cooled, Illuminated Mid Panel (Mr_Armageddon)

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 08:38:07 GMT

Uh oh... I may need to upgrade my graphics cards now after the newest edition to my workspace. Going from a resolution of 1920x1200 to 2560x1600 is going to put even more stress on my good ole 580s in SLI.

I finally scored a Dell 3011U monitor! Been wanting a 30in panel for a while, and now my workspace / man cave is in my eyes complete. I will be flanking it with a Dell 2007FP Ultrasharp (1600x1200) on each side, rotated in portrait mode, giving me a semi 3D wrap-around effect with a total resolution of 4,960 x 1,600. I noticed that Nvidia Surround is now an option in the Nvdia Control Panel, so I am going to see if I can actually span Battlefield 3 across all 3 monitors. I will be sure to report back on whether or not it actually works like I hope it will. If not, I will be fine gaming on the 30in and using the side ones to monitor my temps and such like I currently do.

I am still sorting through the last of the pictures, and will be posting them all soon. Stay tuned!.
.

Re:Project Bright Panel: Corsair 800D, Liquid Cooled, Illuminated Mid Panel (Mr_Armageddon)

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 09:19:23 GMT

Hey guys! I haven't forgot about the final pictures, but I have 1 more item arriving tomorrow, that will finish up my work space, and make it worthy of a high quality photo shoot. I'm pretty excited about it.

I also found a great review on multiple 120mm Radiator Fans. The Corsair SP120s that I am using got top marks. Looks like they were a good choice for this build for both looks and performance.

AnandTech - Choosing the Best 120mm Radiator Fan: Testing Eight Fans with Corsair's H80

With the Aquaero 5 I am running at a barely noticeable noise levels, even during most gaming sessions. Really pleased with both these fans, and that controller unit..

Re:Project Bright Panel: Corsair 800D, Liquid Cooled, Illuminated Mid Panel (Mr_Armageddon)

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 15:00:08 GMT

Exiting News... I pulled an all-nighter and this morning around 4:30AM, I officially finished my Build!!

Revived my new Koolance RP-401X2 yesterday to replace my leaking XSPC unit. I really like the look and quality of this new reservoir.

I had to cut the feet off of my Switech MCP355 pumps for them to work with this Res/Pump combo. Once installed they have a lot of head pressure and are pretty quiet.

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I then proceeded to bled the entire loop of air bubbles and everything is running cool and quiet. I am going to work on getting some really good photos of the case, and cable management. Hope to have them posted by this weekend. Stay tuned.

tester300

Aweesome project!
Keep us posted

Thanks!

Re:Project Bright Panel: Corsair 800D, Liquid Cooled, Illuminated Mid Panel (tester300)

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 14:31:05 GMT

Aweesome project!
Keep us posted

Re:Project Bright Panel: Corsair 800D, Liquid Cooled, Illuminated Mid Panel (Mr_Armageddon)

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 14:15:16 GMT

XrayMan

Alot of time and effort in that. Looking absolutely great. :)

Thank you. I was frustrated at the lack of info found on these controller units, so hopefully my video walk-throughs can help someone else out down the road.

Mr.MattyV

This build looks amazing. I cannot wait to see the finished result. Also how did you get corsair to sponsor it? I never understood the purpose of sponsoring a computer build.

They contacted me to see if I would be willing to "showcase" a few of their products after seeing my original 800D build on the Corsair Forums. I didn't request the sponsorship. And if EVGA wanted to do the same, I wouldn't be opposed
.

Re:Project Bright Panel: Corsair 800D, Liquid Cooled, Illuminated Mid Panel (MexicanPlumber)

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 00:43:40 GMT

This build looks amazing. I cannot wait to see the finished result. Also how did you get corsair to sponsor it? I never understood the purpose of sponsoring a computer build.

Re:Project Bright Panel: Corsair 800D, Liquid Cooled, Illuminated Mid Panel (XrayMan)

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 00:14:34 GMT

Alot of time and effort in that. Looking absolutely great. :)

Re:Project Bright Panel: Corsair 800D, Liquid Cooled, Illuminated Mid Panel (Mr_Armageddon)

Sat, 04 Aug 2012 22:40:01 GMT

dipzy_v

Epic build log dude, enjoyed reading through it and the work you have put in is amazing, well done

Thanks! Getting close to being done

And now its time for a similar walk-through for the AquaComputer Aquaero 5 LT.

Click on the link below to launch a YouTube video I made that shows both the hardware and software in action.

Video - AquaComputer AqauSuite 2012, Aquaero 5, and PowerAdjust 2 Overview

AquaComputers makes a variety of prodtucts that all communicate together via the Aquasuite software. They have flow sensors, pumps, radiators, reservoirs, cpu blocks, etc. I have the main controller unit, the Aquaero 5 LT, and two PowerAdjust 2 modules to control my MCP355 Pumps.
The Aqauero 5 can be pushed up to a maximum of 1.65 amps per channel (20 watts) or 5 amps total. AquaComputer designed the output based on the temperature of the fan amps themselves to prevent damage. The cooler you keep them the closer to 1.65 amps they will push. For this reason, I installed a larger heatsink on my Aquaero, to keep things nice and cool and retain the ability to limit the RPMs as to keep things quiet when maximum performance isn't needed.
This will vary greatly depending on the fans you have, but 1.65amps is enough to run roughly 20x fans at 100%. However, the load and heat increase as you dial down the RPM's so the real limit is probably closer to 12 - 15 fans, fewer if you use higher amperage units. This is an amazing amount of fans to control off a single channel and is also enough juice to run a water pump such as the MCP355 or D5.

Even though it is possible to run a pump off one of the fan channels, it is better to use the Poweradjust 2 due to the high start up power draw of these pumps. Each PowerAdjust2 also has a large heatsink to keep the unit cool when you lower the speed of the pump. If you want to just run a pump at 100% all the time, you could probably just add it to one of the fan channels on the Aquaero 5. But if you do a lot of power based throttling like me, it is better to use the Poweradjust 2 for the pumps, and keep the fans on the Aquaero just to be safe. So, that is how I have set the hardware up. Lets jump into the software now.

When first opening up AquaSuite 2012, go the the settings tab to set up your basic units, and language. You can choose what units to use for temps, and flow measurements. This is also where you configure the software's startup options.

Next head over to the System tab to make sure you are running the most current firmware for your hardware components.

Now we can jump to the Overview page where you can set up how you would like to view the data that Aquasuite (and Open Hardware Monitor as mentioned in the above video). You can choose what data points you want displayed, and add graphs to monitor temps, flow rates, RPMs, ect. You have the ability to customize the look of all the items on this page (colors, fonts, opacity, etc.) But what you see below is just using the default look. You can set this page to launch automatically when Windows starts so you can monitor everything from a glance.

This is also a view of another Overview page, but this one has a picture of my case, with the various temp and RPM boxes placed over the hardware components in my system. Its a neat idea, but I personally think it looks a bit too cluttered. I prefer the look of the above page instead.

Next up is the Sensors Page. Here you will see the temps that Aquasutie brings to the table via physical temp sensors (like my in-line temp sensor in my loop), along with software sensors from 3rd party programs like Open Hardware Monitor or AIDA64. You can modify the names of the various sensors to better suite your needs.

Now we will take a look at the Fan Setup tab. Here you can name your fan banks, set minimum / Maximum RPM levels, and a ton of other stuff that I haven't had a chance to play with yet. :D

On the same page you can see that my pumps are also visible. This is because they are connected in the following manner:
Aquero 5 HighSpeed Aquabus connector -> PA2 Aquabus connector 1 / PA2 Aquabus connector 2 -> PA2 Aquabus connector 1
So with that setup, I have 1 pump on each PA2, and they are can both be controlled via the Aquaero 5 in Aquasuite. The PowerAdjust 2 is a controller which was optimized for the use with a DDC pump (or anything else with a constant load of up to 25W at 12V.) The maximum surge current can go up to 48W so you have enough reserves for the massive starting current that some pumps or fans generate. A configurable startboost allows you to make sure that for example a pump has enough time to spin-up before it is getting slowed down by the controller. This Startboost setting can be seen in the image below.

Now we get into the really cool part of the Aquasuite 2012 software... Controller Curves.With custom controller curves, you can make it so your system runs silent when high power isn't needed, and rev up to 100% when you need that kind of power. I have set up 3 different curves so far, and they are working extremely well. When my system first boots up, it is near silent, yet everything stays nice and cool. My curves don't look "pretty" at the moment as I haven't had much time to really tweak them, but at this point they are very functional. Once I get everything overclocked, I may have to adjust the temperature variants of these curves.

Controller Curve 01 - CPU Temp controls the 3 fans on the top radiator
Controller Curve 02 - GPU Temp controls the 4 fans on the bottom radiaor
Controller Curve 03 - Liquid Temp controls the speed of my pumps

There are a lot of other tabs in the AquaSuite 2012 software, but I either haven't had a need for them yet, or I don't own components that will register with those pages (Aquacomputer pumps for example). Overall, I am very pleased with the Aquacomputer components and the new software to control them. In the past my system was near silent except for the pumps. Now even the pumps are silent during basic computing tasks.

AquaComputer Aquaero 5 vs Corsiar Link Kit

AquaComputer Pros

Extreme Customization and Options

Multiple Components available for liquid cooling systems

Easy Hardware installation

Works with most fans and pumps currently on the market

Controller Curves

Software seems stable and is feature rich

Build Quality

4 Fan Connectors (Upgradable To 10)

Optimized for liquid cooling systems

AquaComputer Cons

Much of the documentation is only in German (English Forum is a big help)

Setup isn't as straightforward as could be

Cost (for some)

Corsair Link Pros

Easy Hardware installation

Controller Curves

Software is easy to setup and use

Build Quality

5 Fan Connectors (Upgradable with more Control Nodes)

Can read CPU & GPU temps on its own (doesn't require 3rd party programs)

Advanced RGB LED lighting control

Corsair Link Cons

Customization and options not as advanced as competition

Not really made for liquid cooling (unless using self contained Corsair cooling products)

Fairly new software, can be buggy at times

I have enjoyed taking time to use both units, but after going through various scenarios with my hardware, I will be using the AquaComputer products to control my system components from this point on. Both kits offer their advantages, but the Aquaero 5 fits my needs better at this time.
I received my Koolance reservoir to replace the leaking XSPC one, so working on getting that installed soon. More pictures will follow.