I see customized PC builds cross by my newsfeed on a regular basis, and my normal response is “meh”. One I’ve been maintaining a tally of for some time now, although, has lastly reached its conclusion, and it is such an excessive construct that I’m in absolute awe of its creation.
The unfilled radiator itself was initially estimated to weigh 50 kg, or as Billet Labs places it, “catastrophically heavy”. As it is a forged iron unit, it is also susceptible to inside rust, which proved to be a thorn in our intrepid builder’s facet all through the mission.
The aim initially sounds remarkably easy—construct a high-spec gaming PC round an object designed to radiate warmth away from its elements, in a method that it may be used daily. However, the sheer quantity of additional effort right here is downright herculean.
The three-month mission concerned 3D scanning of the underside of the radiator for part placement, which then led to the creation of a 3D-printed tray to carry the internals, integrating the system inside the backside loops of the radiator chassis itself. The elements picked included a Ryzen 7 9800X3D, an RTX 5080, and 32 GB of RAM. Luxury.
However, when it came to the water cooling loop, things became even more complicated. Billet Labs fabricated a sequence of copper pipes with a built-in filter to hook up to the radiator’s internals, in an effort to prevent internal debris from messing up the pump.
The radiator’s existing bleed port was used for air removal purposes, although a custom T-piece system was created to allow the filling of the radiator and PC cooling system with water separately. This means the system itself can be removed from the loop without draining the radiator itself.
Break out the braising torch, I guess. The plumbing itself looks like some sort of steampunk nightmare, but appears to be remarkably well designed as Billet Labs breaks down its internal workings, complete with two pressure gauges mounted to the front side.
Cast-iron radiator water-cooled gaming PC build 9800X3D/5080/32GB – 99kg from r/PcBuild
As for the facility button? Why, it is an vintage brass gear lever of unknown origin, in fact. It’s all in regards to the particulars, this mission.
A serious hiccup occurred, nevertheless, when filling the hybrid cooling system with 18 litres (!) of water after cleansing. The first try resulted in an eight-hour slog involving the chasing down of assorted air bubble issues. This, nevertheless, was merely the start of Billet Lab’s points.
Beyond the truth that the PC now weighed 99 kg (a fast little bit of maths revealed that the preliminary radiator weighed roughly 80 kg, not the 50 kg initially thought), one of many followers caught on the shroud at startup. Then the pump started to click on, as a result of it was stuffed with copper particles. A brand new pump (full with extra noises) steered the system was stuffed with air, which meant Billet Labs needed to push the crammed radiator round his house to take away potential bubbles. Which did not work, so fittings have been re-braised to remove leaks.
Then the CPU temperature spiked, which was attributable to the filters clogging up with radiator particles. Which meant the addition of eight meters of hose connected to the construct for draining and flushing functions.
(Very) lengthy story brief, after a lot draining and cleansing, the PC now runs, albeit with fairly a loud pump due to the odd air bubble or spot of still-present particles. Some stress testing reveals decently low peak CPU temperatures of 68 °C in Cyberpunk 2077 with the followers off and the coolant temperature at an equilibrium.
But it is not in regards to the finish efficiency, because the result’s a gaming PC with a very distinctive cooling setup and aesthetic. After all of Billet Labs’ troubles, I doubt many will search to repeat the design—however I’m glad there’s somebody on the market nonetheless pushing customized PC builds to new and unique extremes.
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