The Perils of Building a High-Performance PC: A Cautionary Tale

As I sat at my desk, staring at the dock with the blown fuse, I couldn't help but think about the woes that had plagued me during the build process. It had been 16 hours of troubleshooting and problem-solving, but finally, everything was working as it should. The computer hummed to life, its fans whirring smoothly as it powered up.

The journey had been long and arduous, with various components proving troublesome at different stages. There were missing screws, loose connections, and even a malfunctioning GPU retention mechanism that required some creative problem-solving to rectify. But with each hurdle overcome, the excitement grew, and I couldn't wait to see everything come together in its final form.

As I gazed upon my handiwork, I felt a sense of pride and accomplishment wash over me. The cable management was indeed impressive, with braided sleeving adorning the cables like a work of art. And the custom power cables? A game-changer, allowing for seamless connections and easy setup. But just as I was about to bask in my glory, disaster struck.

In a shocking moment, one of my switches suddenly lit on fire, sending a plume of smoke into the air. The Enterprise XG, my trusty sidekick, lay motionless on the desk, its once-proud components now reduced to a smoldering ruin. I couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness at the loss, knowing that it had been a faithful companion throughout the build process.

Despite the setback, I was determined to press on and see everything in action. With some trepidation, I plugged everything back in and flipped the switch. To my delight, the system roared to life, its fans humming smoothly as it powered up. It seemed that the little issue with the Enterprise XG was just a minor blip on the radar.

As I took a moment to survey my handiwork once more, I couldn't help but think about the process of building a high-performance PC. It's a journey fraught with peril, where seemingly innocuous issues can blow up in your face at any moment. But when everything comes together, as it had finally done for me, there's no feeling quite like it.

And then, just as I was starting to feel comfortable, I received a note on my screen that read "find the cavern." It seemed that the final piece of the puzzle, the pièce de résistance, was hidden somewhere in plain sight. Rather than running cables directly up to the monitors, as I had initially intended, I realized that I could have used DisplayPort wall plates to create a more seamless and elegant solution.

As I pondered this revelation, I couldn't help but think about the lessons learned during the build process. One of the most important was the value of taking the time to ensure proper cable management. It may seem like a minor detail, but trust me, it makes all the difference in the world. And then there was the matter of remote power control – something that I knew would become an essential feature for future builds.

With my system now up and running, I couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement and anticipation. What other challenges lay ahead? How would this setup perform in real-world applications? The questions swirled in my mind as I prepared to put everything through its paces.

And then, just as I was about to dive in, I remembered the sponsor that had made it all possible – CableMod. Their new StealthSense cables featured their exclusive technology that eliminated the need for sense wires, allowing for a more streamlined and efficient setup. It was a game-changer, one that would elevate my system to new heights of performance and reliability.

As I concluded this chapter in the build process, I couldn't help but feel grateful for the experience. It may have been fraught with peril, but it had also taught me valuable lessons about perseverance, creativity, and the importance of proper cable management. And as I looked out at my system, humming smoothly in the background, I knew that it was all worth it – every sleepless night, every frustration, every triumph.

In the end, it was a reminder that building a high-performance PC is not just about slapping together components and hoping for the best. It's an art form, a delicate dance of hardware and software that requires patience, skill, and dedication. And when everything comes together, as it had finally done for me, there's no feeling quite like it.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enIn our last pool cooling update,we got to the point where everything was workingwell enough, actually more than well enough.The performance was absolutely greatuntil everything hit the fan.This pipe fitting cracked.Well, the flex tape isn't working.The glorious bucket reservoir leaked.And as predicted, some of that gravel from the pipingdid end up in my water blocks,but none of that was the killer.The killer was this.What happened to that tube?That is a very interesting story indeed.One that killed the motherboard in my gaming systemand the one in the server under it.It started when we accidentally unplugged the pumpwhile working on the Sonos audio wall,continued when the over temperature protectionon my system didn't kick inand ended when my aesthetically pleasingbut highly conductive metal CPU blocktransferred so much heat into my tubingthat it deformed causing a catastrophic leak.Don't ask me how, because I'll never be able to explain it,but the water leaked out of the CPU blockcorroding my gaming motherboard,bypassing Yvonne's system and the server under hers,making it all the way to the fourth system down in the rackcorroding this board here, here, here,here, basically everywhere.The good news is we have a plan.And by the end of this video,we are going to have a professional gradeplumbing system set up.Not because he's helping.Hey, because we brought in a professional plumberand we brought in this segue to our sponsor.Cable mod, their new stealth sense cableseliminate the need for sense wires,which means no more fragile pins in your cablesthat disconnect at the slightest insult.Like, I don't know, buffing head.It's barely even offensive.Learn more at the end of the video.The setup we showed you guys last time was really simple.We take heated water from the computers in the rack.We pump it out to the pool where there's coilsof this tubing embedded in the walls and the floor.All that thermal energy gets dumped into the pool.And then we pump the cold water back in hereover to the rack.Unfortunately, that setup had quite a few problems.I was hoping that a simple filter would be enoughto prevent our water blocks from getting gunked up.But the bad news about that is water blockshave extremely fine fins.So in order for us to have a filterthat would remove enough of the crud from the loop,it would have to be so finethat it would destroy our flow rates,which could hurt our cooling performance.So instead, we did what we should have donein the first place and installed a titanium heat exchanger.That makes the loop more complicated,but also makes it way more reliable.So instead of dumping our heat into the pool,taking that cold water and running it all the wayto the server rack, we take it here to pump reservoir.Ah, yes.To the heat exchanger where that cold waterdoesn't physically mix, but exchanges heatwith the hot water from the server rack,cooling it off where it can be recirculated,all inside, all clean style.Our next big improvement is our reservoirs.These are actually RV freshwater reservoirsthat come entirely sealed,leaving you with a blank canvasto jigsaw the holes that you like.So on the top, we have an access slash fill hatch.Then on the sides, we've added bulkhead fittingsfor inlet, outlet, and a drain.The pool side also gets an upgraded pumpsince the old one was really struggling.It's a quality pump.It's just that it's a really long loop.But enough chitchat.After Jake and his stepdad Danspent the better part of yesterdaygetting the pool side hooked up,I'm sure they want to know if it works.All we got to do is plug in the power,which is ah, oh, oh good.Not janky at all.Thank you, Alex.In all seriousness though,hacking the end off of a power cableand then just using the conductors inside itis not actually jank.It's totally fine.Please look up the proper color codingin your region before trying to do anything like this.Yeah, it's completely differentin Australia and New Zealand because reasons.All we gotta do is plug it in.A flow indicator might've been not a terrible idea.Well, that was anticlimactic.This is supposed to be a self-priming pump,but this is also a pretty chonky loop.So we're gonna do it the way we originally planned, sort of,by just turning this aroundso that the water is gravity fed into the pumpfrom the reservoir up here.Time for our second attempt.You guys are on the spigot.All right, here we go.What? The easiest way to tell if it's workingis gonna be if we're getting some air glugsfrom this boy, I guess.We are.Yes, we are. I can feel them.Once it really starts filling,this is gonna turn a shade of greenbecause there's glycol in this loopto keep it from freezing in the winter.I don't wanna have to drain this thingor pain in the butt.Hey, I heard some glugs there.All right, cool.Alex, I think this is just working.No, it's just- It's green.All right.Hey, that went great.Now to do it again.Looking outside, none of our fittings are leaking anymore,which is awesome.And the setup is exactly what I planned on doing last time,but the plumbing supply store just screwed it upand I got the wrong fittings.Anyway, what's also differentis that we're now using this red PEX tubinginstead of the white stuff that I had before.This stuff right here is finefor most of your house plumbing needs,but you want to use this red stuff for closed loop systems.That's because this red barrier on the outsideprevents oxygen from getting in or out.This is awesome for a closed loop systembecause once you have a little bit of corrosion,it will oxidize a little bit,but this will prevent more oxygenfrom getting into your systemand allowing that corrosion to continue.It also prevents you from just having to like top it upas air gets into your closed loop.Excellent.And speaking of converting all of it to red PEX tubing,I get to undo all of the work that I did in here last timeand change it all back into red PEX tubing.To distribute the water to the different systems,we bought these manifolds right here off of McMasterCarr.The idea is inlet, inlet on each side.Then you have all of these outletsand we just plug the ones that we don't need.Only thing is though, Jake bought these plastic manifoldsand they're really easy to screw up.NPT has a tapered thread,which means that it doesn't quite go in correctlyall the time.So if you have steel into plastic,you can very easily just completely screw up the plastic.Let's see if I did.Here's my incredible test setup.We have a stopper, a hose connection,and all of these plugged.I'm quite sure that both of these ends are going to leakbecause there's no Teflon tape on them,but as long as these don't leak, we're good.Yep.Leaking there, leaking there,but no leaking in here.That one's good.All right, second one.I'm slightly concerned about this guy right herebecause I know that I for sure cross-threaded that one,but hopefully it's fine and it's not.Right there, hmm.Well, that's bad.Solution incoming.Oh geez, you don't need to get this, Andrew.Just turn it off.No one wants to see this happening.Oh God, that's wretched.All right, we've got our silicone manifold here.I'd give this about a 4% chance of working,something like that.Huh, it's not leaking.I can't believe it.For each side of the manifold, we want these T-junctions,and to clean it all up,we're just going to attach them straight to the ceiling.Well, there is no ceiling.So to this board, which I have just cut,and hopefully it just, oh, ah, ha ha!Ha ha, friction fit.Love it.If you want a joint like this to not leak,you're going to need some Teflon tape.Now, in the past, I have just,I've used way too much compute,figuring out which way you have to put the stuff around,because you put it on the wrong way,you thread it in and it gets all mushed up.Anyway, Dan taught me how to do it correctly.So you hold it like so.In your left hand, you hold the thing up like this,go on the back side, and hold it with your thumb,hold it with your finger,hold it with your thumb, finger, thumb, ring.Wow.Now that the inside side is plumbed up,we're ready to open these bad boys up,and do a quick testbefore we actually connect any computers to it.Just make sure it's not going to startleaking all over the place.Before we do that though,I want to throw some hoses on hereto make sure that I am not just dumping waterall over the floor.On this side, I won't need antifreezebecause this water's never going outdoors.So all I need is some kind of bioside.I'm going to be using J. Crow's Lugol's Solution 2%.Basically it's iodine.So we'll just, I don't know, put some in.All right, hit it.Woo!Okay, while that goes,I guess nothing in theory would prevent usfrom firing up our pump.Uh, yeah, that'll kind of stay-ish, you know, right?Oh, I got it, I got it, I got it.There.Now it's definitely going to hold this time.We're having a little bit of trouble getting the pump primedso I have an idea.I'm just going to stick my arm in there.I mean, iodine's good for the skin.And I'm just going to stick this tuberight on the outlet of the reservoir,and then we'll try and force some waterinto the pump that way.No, no, we got this, don't worry.It's fine, it's fine.Okay, okay, no spigot now.Oh, there we go.Not the best way to do this,but if it's stupid and it works, it's not stupid.This gives us nice clean water for the inside loopand, well, water.Anyway, I did actually leak test them.They're not going to spill water all over your stufffrom these bits at least.I guess these tubes might not be as okay.Yeah, two worm drives might be the solution.One right snug up here and one here.Anyway, why I brought you in here,that's not even why we're here.We filled these with water.We did.And now we need to fill them not with water.Oh yeah, that's a good idea.Yeah, I think these just weren't tightened enough.Okay, well that was exciting.And we can just tape a rag in the middleif it starts leaking.Alex, did you mislabel every single one of these tubes?No.Well, you know that the arrow's there.Yeah.And this is where the water goes in.Yeah, and it also says in.Yeah, you labeled every single one of these in,but that's where the water goes out.Okay, do you want me to label out on this sideand in on this side for all of them?Like, it also says in on this side.No, that would be stupid.What if you just drew arrows?I could draw arrows if you want, but also-But you labeled every single side of everything.Yes, and it perfectly correspondsto the computers, which are also labeled in and out.Ah, you guys be the judge.Is this out or in?This entire side is out.I don't even know.Oh, right, the water flows that way.I even pointed in the wrong direction just looking at it.That's so confusing.No, it isn't.This is out.You guys decide.What we can do in the meantime though,regardless of any of that, is pressure test this bad boy.So I'm kind of thinking we put the capon the reservoir over there, pop this buddy on here,and just make sure that this thing holds pressure.Okay.This is gonna take a while.Yeah, this is gonna take some pumping.Oh, sick.I think it's holding.Oh, that's great news.Might be time to start filling systems into the rack.Sacrificial lamb, gonna be my rig.Okay.I'm gonna go finish it up.I think it's held though.It's exactly where we left it.Yeah.Okay, here we go.Oh, I'm so excited.This is it.This is final deployment time.First system hookup, here we go.The keen eye among you might've noticedthat my system does in fact still havea pump reservoir and radiator.That's in case I ever wanna operate it separatefrom the rest of the system.What are the odds this is going to go absolutely, ow,Perfectly?Yes.Okay, punch it.All right.Pump's on.Whoa, she's leaking.Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.Where's it leaking?Whoa, it's everywhere.How is it leaking?Where's it going?Everywhere.Hold on, here's an idea.Yeah, we probably should have done that from the start.I actually don't think any water got in here.It just sprayed on the side of the rack.The point is right now, we've got one system hooked upand then we also have a bypass just because a CPUand a GPU block are extremely restrictiveand that is a lot of pump.So it's going to create a high pressure environmentin the loop unless we've got a bypass.But theoretically, with this bypass in place,I can power up my computer.I'm hitting it.Oh yeah, she's circulating.Hey, this is awesome.It's working.It's alive.Hey.We did it.We've got Fur Mark loaded up.We are at 37 degrees on the GPU.Under load.It's drawing 350 Watts right now.It does not care.This is a 7900 XTX.The pool system, the pool system works.It's flat.It doesn't move.It's rock solid.I can't believe it's just like 38 degrees.It's nice when you have like a effectivelyinfinite amount of heat sink.Yeah.Oh, it's immediately on.Cool.Wonderful.Okay, next.Well, I hooked up the iCRON dock,which is the USB over fiber dock on both sides.I'm not getting a light.The problem is there are so many potentials here.It could be those 12 volt to 24 voltupset things we have in the computers.It could be any connection in the fiberalong the way being dirty and there's a fair number.It could be a lot of different things, but for now,I'm just going to keep on treading forward,getting the other computers workingand then we'll worry about that.Okay, so this dock just doesn't have power.What is the problem?Hmm.The fuse is blown.That is a 25 amp fuse.So it can handle 10 amps and they put a 25 amp fuse.Also, why did it blow?Yeah, why did it blow?I don't know.I mean, we can put another fuse in there and just see,but actually I don't, I only have one extra fuse.Let's YOLO and try it.Oh my God.No, okay.Yeah, that was immediate.Okay, so something about this is not right.What's that?Something mad.Okay, computer seems fine.That's good, Jesus.I believe it is to do with this SATA adapter.Okay, the computer works, thank God.16 plus hours of troubleshooting later.It's done.Ah, I'm so excited.Look how flipping sick this is.I mean, it is now.There was everything from missing screwsto missing GPU retention to extra standoffsunder one of the motherboards,but they're all fixed now.And not only that, the room is tidied.The cable management is incredible.Come check this out.I've got like braided sleeving on this one.Just gotta add a little bit here.Oh yeah, all the water whips.Look at this, exactly the right length.I can have one of these systems disconnected,slid out on the test bench for troubleshootingor BIOS updates or anything that's a little finickywith the fiber optic connections in like 45 seconds flat.And it's gonna get even better in here.Check this out, just today.Ah, I got my custom length power cablesfor the top up here.So I'm gonna get rid of all these hangers.Ew.Oh no, oh shit, what the fuck?What just happened?Something just burned.I think that switch just lit on fire.Did you see that smoke?Wow, she's dead, Jim.What just happened to that Enterprise XG?Why did it light on fire?I don't know.The good news is we shot this out of order.So let's go to it working.All that's left now is to see it in action.Ah, it's actually working.Do you hear that?No sound, no heat.I'm killing myself?Just disturbing things from your youngest daughter.There's definitely still some work to do.The undersides of these desks could usethe LTT store cable management treatment.And in my perfect world,I would love to use DisplayPort wall plates.Guys, there was a note on my screenthat said find the cavern.Rather than just run the cablesdirectly up to the monitors.But as it is now, I am just thrilledto see this come to fruition after all this timeand get these laptops off the desk,which have been kind of in the way.One of them is an engineering sample.One of them has that like weird eGPU thingthat mostly works, but then except when it doesn't,desktops, man, wires.Yeah.I would have given absolutely anythingfor a setup like this when I was a kid.They've already gotten a lot of hours out of it,but because it's not working half the time,it's been really frustrating.Now, anytime we're ready to go,the systems are ready to go.They're running flipping cool.And because they're powerful,we're not limited to just Minecraft Dungeons.Just like I'm not limited to telling you about our sponsor.And it's cooled by a pool.How cool is that?Cable mod.Their new StealthSense cables featuretheir exclusive StealthSense technologythat eliminates the need for sense wiresrunning between your GPU and your power supply.Instead, a hidden bridge signals to the GPUthat the full 600 watts is available to be usedso that your chonky boy can get straight up juiced.This is all done without tiny fragile sense pinsthat can be easily dislodged leading to black screensor 100% fan utilization.I mean, you can't take out your nemesismom underscore slayer underscore 69with all of that going on.So get all of the gaming performancewith higher reliability and cleaner aestheticsby checking out CableMod's StealthSense cablesat the link down below.If you guys enjoyed this video, then huzzah!It was worth the two sleepless nights in a row.Kidding, that was for the kids.It was only partially for you guys.That was for your cable management OCD.Yeah, it was for me to deal with cable management.And there's another thing I need to deal with.Speaking of follow-up videos,we don't have any way of remotely powering them on and off.We have ideas though.So I'm thinking maybe we test all of them in one videoand then we'll share it with you guys.See you there.\n"