Well the last part of my rebuild is here, sort of. The Core i7 6900 is at my friend's house, and if I don't go pick it up tonight I'll certainly have it by tomorrow.
 
The thing is, my custom wood case project isn't done yet. I'm actually close to where I could actually install all the parts, but it would be horribly unfinished, and building the parts into it would make it 95% likely I'd never pull them out again to finish it.
 
So, I'm thinking seriously of doing the rebuild inside my current case. The primary reason this might not be such a great idea is that I'm currently cooling my Xeon 5680 and 1080 SC/EKWB off a single Swiftech 2x120 radiator with 1 push and 1 push/pull fan setup. It's been fine, but I don't know if this is going to be sufficient if I overclock the i7 6900 to 4.1 or 4.2 ghz. The new case, of course, will have a massively overkill water cooling capability (the same Swiftech 2x120 plus two 2x180 radiators).
 
Also, I have to look around and make sure I have the proper mount for the 2011-3 socket for the Swiftech block. Doh, should have looked for this already.

So, should I be patient and try to hold off until I can get my case finished? Or should I just go for it and do this rebuild in my current case? I really, really want to. :-)

Desktop build ----its for testing only --- ya that's it testing
 
You know you wanted a spare AIO anyways
 
Just going to have to sand faster
 
Three day weekend coming
 
In the end when you are done - you can stand back and take some pics to post --saying I built that puppy
 
I did several test assemblies in my Primo case when figuring the custom loop with 2 120 x360 radiators, reservoir and pump placement
 

 
 

Just don't OC. With stock clocks you're at maximum capacity of the heat exchanger. Even slightly OCed 2011-3 will instantly draw excessive amount of power. 150-160W that's borderline enough on such small rad just for CPU. 
 
Rule of the thumb. For every OCed component you need at least 240/30mm heat exchange area. 
 
Patience my Friend. Finish the case and do it properly as planned. Impulse/emotion is worst advisor most of the time. The only thing you should do at this moment in time is test board/cpu/ram combo for possible DOA.

I'm typing this from my laptop. LOL.
 
No, I didn't fry anything. I had the old mobo out, the new mobo in, the 1080/EK mounted in the slot, the new cpu in the slot, the TIM laid out on the cpu, and the Swiftech water block laid down on top of the cpu ready to be fastened down.
 
That's when I discovered that the spring-loaded screws on the Swiftech block weren't the right ones to mate up with the threaded holes around the socket 2011-3. They've too narrow. Apparently there were different spring-loaded screws that came with the Swiftech that are for the 2011-v3 mounting, and they were different than the ones I had, which mated up with my socket 1366 mounting plate. The H220-x claims to come with the correct ones, but where the heck were they? I had no idea. So I spent the next three hours (not an exaggeration) cleaning up my office, which was a complete wreck.

My office looks much better, but now I think I've checked every nook and cranny in it, and never found any larger-diameter spring-loaded screws. I could probably call up Swiftech and see if they'll send me out a set, but I'm just slightly doubtful about that because the Swiftech tech support guy had told me that if I already had the 1366 mount on the block, all I had to do is leave the backplate off and use the screws that were already on it. Apparently he doesn't know what he's talking about. Also, on the Swiftech site they sell some spare mounting plates, but no 2011-v3 spring-loaded screws.
 
So I scoured the web to see if those spring-loaded screws are standard, and used by all different coolers. I discovered that apparently every company has their own. I seriously considered driving up to Fry's Electronics today to look at their cheapest air coolers to see if any had spring-loaded screws I could cannibalize. I decided that I'd probably pay half as much as a brand new high quality water block anyway, and still not have the screws that are designed to fit properly in the Swiftech water block mounting plate. Not exactly something I wanted to take a chance on.

So, what to do?

Order an EK Supremacy EVO X99 cpu block, of course! Duh! So before I finally went to bed last night I ordered this.
 
I'm not entirely unhappy forking out the money for a new water block even though I had a perfectly good Swiftech block. While researching I found two separate reviews that tested the EK Supremacy EVO against other common blocks, including the Swiftech block, and both reviews showed the EK Supremacy EVO block beating all comers in thermal performance by like 5 or 6 C. That's an astounding result, if true.
 
So, rather than think about this as me spending more money on my machine because I was stupid and lost whatever extra parts I had from Swiftech when I first installed the H220-x in my X58 machine, I think of it as I just bought a fantastic upgrade for my new i7 6900 machine. Given the 2011-3 chips' reputation for putting out lots of heat when overclocked, I'm more excited by this upgrade than disappointed or mad at myself for not being more organized. I yam what I yam.
 
As far as the cooling goes, yes, having just the single 2x120 (3 fans, ie: half push/pull, half push) to cool both the 6900 and the 1080 did bother me, and I didn't want to have to run this machine at stock clocks just to keep the heat down, so I'd already decided to take one of the two 2x180mm radiators that I already have for my new case and splice it into my loop. I have nowhere to mount it, but my machine's been lying open on its side for weeks under my desk as it is, so I'm just going to fashion a simple plywood frame to hold the radiator and some fans.

I am aware, through my original research, that fans are the weak link in 180mm radiators. It's sad, but it's a vicious cycle unfortunately. Most people can't fit a 180mm radiator into their case, so the fan companies mostly don't make radiator-specific, higher static pressure fans for radiators. Those people who could fit a 180mm radiator then avoid them because of lack of fans, further disincentivizing companies from making better fans.

That's why I went unconventional in my original design for my radiator chamber. That design assumes that I'll get enough flow from three 140mm high airflow quiet edition fans running at 100% to provide good cooling. The fans will see less backpressure because there are two whole 2x180mm radiators for the air to flow through, which is like 3 or 4 times as much radiator area for the fan area as compared to directly mounting fans on the radiator. More area for the air to flow through means lower resistance. In the end, though, I have so much more radiator factored into this design than needed that any airflow at all through these two 2x180mm radiators, plus the 3-fan Swiftech 2x120 will certainly be enough cooling.
 
The 180mm fans I have are only 20mm thick, and my fall-back plan, which may become my primary plan, was just to mount them inside to the radiators inside the radiator chamber of the new case, and rely on the pressure provided by the three 140mm fans to help push air through the 180mm fans on the radiators. It should be a similar effect to push/pull mounts, where each fan in a push/pull setup reduces the backpressure felt by the other so you get closer to full unrestricted airflow through that segment of radiator. I need to double-check my exact clearance in my radiator chamber, but I think there's enough space for this.
 
I should have the EK block tomorrow. Today I'll fashion a simple wood mounting bracket for one of my 2x180mm radiators and get it ready to splice into the loop tomorrow when I mount the new blocks. The mounting bracket will just be clamped to the side of my case under my desk. Since I have four 180mm fans, I'll probably do some experiments with push/pull and push-only and see what kind of airflow and temps these achieve with that 2x180mm rad. It'll be kind of fun, and I'll learn something.
 
I'll crank really hard on my wood case project this weekend, but with what I have to do left, I figure it's going to be another two weeks minimum before I finish it, possibly three if my neighbor isn't around to let me use his table saw when I need it.
 
ps: I made sure when I bought the two 2x180mm radiators that they are full copper or brass. 
 

The version I ordered is the Supremacy EVO X99, which is claimed to have the best insert for socket 2011-v3 chips already installed in it. The concept of water block inserts is new to me, so I'll certainly read up on it, but I bought that version specifically because it said it was already optimal.
 
I did order two EK 10mm barbs, since I'm using flexible tubing (secured with hose clamps). I have a couple of extra Bitspower barbs already, but I wanted to use the EK ones with the EK block just because of all connections in my loop, that one has to be good.

Have some MX-4 on hand to get good numbers or do you have a different favorite flavor of TIM ?

Cool GTX
Have some MX-4 on hand to get good numbers or do you have a different favorite flavor of TIM ?

I put the last of my Prolimatech PK-3 on there last night before attempting to mount the Swiftech block. The block never actually touched the cpu because of the mounting screws, so I put the block back over it to keep it from being contaminated. If it looks undisturbed when I go to put the EK block on tomorrow, I'll leave it on there. If I don't feel right, I'll clean it off and use the EK ektoplasm or whatever they include.

gtxjackbauer
If the TIM looks undisturbed from the way you applied it, it isn't a good seating.  You will just get a spike in high temps and possibly a thermal shutdown.  
 
Just be careful you don't over tighten it.  It only needs to go as much as finger tightening in a cross pattern.

Sorry I wasn't clearer: the TIM was undisturbed because I figured out that spring-loaded screws were the wrong ones for the 2011-v3 socket before the bottom of the cold plate touched it.
 
I made a wood mounting bracket this evening that will allow me to include one of my 2x180mm radiators w/fans on the side of my old computer case so that the computer can be run to its full potential until I finish the wood case project.

 
 
It lives. I'll post some pics in a few minutes showing my kludgy 2x180mm radiator mounted to the wood bracket I made last night that is now clamped to the side of my case. For those doing the math, I now have the equivalent of 6.5 120mm radiators cooling this thing.
 
I did run a leak test for about an hour tonight, that included trying to purge the air out of the system and top it off then letting it run for a while, checking all the fittings and whatnot very carefully for any signs of leakage.
 
For the 180mm fans, knowing that they're notoriously weak, and having previously gotten some random 180mm fans (on sale for $14 each) that probably would suck as radiator fans by themselves, I set them up in push/pull mode on the side-mounted radiator. With the switches set to medium on the 180mm fans I'm getting some respectable airflow through that rad.
 
Haven't overclocked anything yet, nor really done anything else. I'll OC the 1080 back to what I'd been running before and run some benchmarks with the cpu/RAM on stock settings, just to establish a baseline. Then I'll see about changing things up a little.

Congrats, hope it continues to run well 

Btw, not having an external reservoir makes it quite a PITA to fill and bleed this thing. My Swiftech is oriented with the fill port at nearly the lowest part of the system. I filled the system via one of the end caps on the 180mm radiator.
 

Yeah, as this is my temp solution, I have no real drain port and will have to disconnect the line to the pump in order to drain it when I do the move into the new case. I'm thinking long and hard over what my drain port will be in the new case. I'm pretty sure I'm just gonna put a T into the lowest line of the case and put a ball valve into the part that goes down to the bottom of the case. I'll cut a hatch into the bottom of the case to run a drain line out of. As far as filling goes, in the new case the Swiftech will be at the highest point of the system. I'm thinking of putting a fill line to the port in the Swiftech and just capping it off when not filling, and pull the fill line up through a hatch in the top of the system while filling.
 
The room temperature is about the same as it's been for all my other testing with my Xeon system. It's in my basement man-cave with the A/C in the basement set to the same temperature.

I'm going to restart the machine now, crank the "cpu fan speed" ie: the Swiftech PWM pump and PWM fan speed at 100%, set the RAM to run on the 3200 MHz XMP profile, and run my tests again. The cpu overclocking will come next. I'm still familiarizing myself with the new bios. The bios on my old MSI Big Bang X-Power system is downright primitive by comparison, and not having to screw with bclck with this unlocked cpu is a real blessing. I had to overclock my Xeon with bclock, and that complicated everything, especially setting my RAM speed. I'm just going to use the XMP profile and not give RAM another thought.

ypsylon
 
I wouldn't recommend Swiftech at this moment in time. CPU blocks are sub-par when compared to every single one of 4 mentioned competitors - especially at higher flow rates where micropins become liability. Micro-pins are nowhere as effective at heat transfer as micro-channels are. 
 

My last two CPU blocks, plus this one have all been Swiftech, including the GPU's from EVGA.  No issues what so ever other than oxidization from using distilled and silver.  With a DDC or D5 premium pump, block restrictions aren't an issue anymore.  And this goes to the OP as well.  As long as the flow is within the range of 1.0-1.5 GPM, your loop is flowing efficiently.  Any less and its not enough and anything more, diminishing returns.  There's data out there on this from Martin's site.
 
Also, make sure to leak test for 24 hrs the first time.  Leak testing for one hour isn't enough.  I've seen people leak 8-12 hrs later into their leak tests. 

Please show us the finished product, either in a mods rig profile or a build thread. Sounds to be pretty cool, nice hardware.. I'm jelly!! :)

Yeah I plan to work hard on the new case this weekend. We'll see how much progress I make.
 
I think I made a mistake in my design though. I thought I'd left enough room to be able to add 180mm fans inside the radiator chamber if the 3x140mm fans don't provide enough airflow. I must have miscalculated, because actually taking measurements it looks like I'm 3 or 4mm short in width to allow this.  I'm looking in to some possible solutions. I may be able to use my dremel tool and a router-like bit to remove 3 or 4mm of wood in a ledge around the inside of the case where the 180mm radiators are mounted. As I play around with this 2x180mm side mount radiator with the cheap 180mm fans on it, I'm thinking I'd like to have those on the radiators inside the new case. Not in push-pull, but even just in push mode, with a little pressure from the 140mm fans I think the airflow will still be fine.