The build is nearly complete, a few things left to deal with, I write this nearly two months after the build was effectively complete. The machine is in place and being used in anger, having fun with Elite: Dangerous and the Oculus Rift DK2.
I’m will waiting for red braided cables for the PSU, I’ve spoken to Corsair, they are still being manufactured, but my supplier just isn’t getting them. This is one of the few things left to do in terms of making the inside look nicer.
Given the case has a window I should probably think about lighting things up in there, the Aquero 6 has a RGB PWM output, so knocking something up should be easy enough. It can also be used to demonstrate the state of the cooling circuit.
Speaking of cooling, after running FurMark and Prime95 constantly in warmer weather it looks like the cooling loop isn’t capable of handling everything at full load. I’m unsure how much of an issue this is at current, it’s unlikely I’ll ever naturally hit those conditions, but I might in the future.
There are two options to address this, nosier/more volume fans (something I want to avoid) or a second radiator. The case has room for one at the top, but still. It needs more pondering.
I purchased an aquacomputer D5 pump to add more control/data into my cooling loop, unfortunately it appears its faulty. Credit to aquacomputer though, they’ve taken it back and will send me a replacement.
Given my current demands of the Oculus Rift DK2 and games like Elite: Dangerous I’m starting to reevaluate if I shouldn’t have just gone for 1 x GTX 780 Ti, rather then 2 x GTX 770. They would have roughly been the same price, especially when you consider it’d only need one cooling block.
While I accept that both Elite and the Rift are beta/development products which have far more efficiency tuning todo, I can’t help but feel these 770’s might not last a particularly long time in terms of running games are near full settings.
Apart from these few niggles I’m happy with the build, I’ve reached a level of quiet PC I was wanting at the start, especially its acoustic performance when running flat out.