1st Time WC Build: Fractal R3

[blitz_911]

I have finally taken the plunge and decided to watercool my new build, which is going to replace my old media centre mish mashed together out of old spare parts.
The brief I had been given to work within was:
1. It must be quiet - as silent as possible
2. It musn't dominate our living room
3. It must, under no circumstances be ugly or look like a computer box.

This led me to the Fractal Define Series cases which are very quiet and hides all the messy bits behind a nice shiny door. A bit of reading around revealed that its a poor watercooling case and struggles to hold a 240 radiator without modding, but its the only case to be given approval so I had to find a work around.

Final Parts list is:
Fractal define r3 in black
R3 windowed side panel black
Asus z68 v pro 1155 motherboard
2500k sandybridge processor
Corsair vengeance low profile ram 8gb
Be quiet straight power 580w modular psu
Xspc ray storm rx240 kit
Ek uv blue pre mixed coolant
Icybox external 5.25" bay
Liquid Extasy HD5770 Water Block.

I was meant to build this over Christmas but the waterblock was delayed as it was shipped over from Germany so it only arrived yesterday.

 

[blitz_911]

sounds pretty good. maybe add a 120mm rad up front and remove one of the hard drive bays to allow you to run fans slower and there for less noise

The hard drive cage is a single unit in the r3 which is a pain, especially as there are only 2 optical drive bays. I like the bay reservoir pumps but I also need an optical drive since its going to be a media pc.

I looked at removing one of the front fans and widening the opening slightly I get it in the 3.5" bays but found the hdd cage one piece. I considered chopping off the top part to do this but I havnt got the fruits in case I wreck the front panel.

The cages are bolted in and I'm still considering drilling the rivets out and putting the rad in the front and re mounting the cages behind, but this would make it a pig to access and also I'm not sure about the airflow with some hard drives sitting behind it.

The r3 doesn't actually have space for the rad in the top, the mob is set too high so if you use the top fan screw holes it won't clear the mb heats inks ram or back plate, this is why the mob is installed already. I got that first and make a mock radiator 35mm deep and 60mm deep to see if I could clear all that by off setting the radiator sideways. If you don't mind offsetting it a bit sideways and off the back then you can get the rx series rads in the top and still clear the back of the reservoir and pump. I have been quite thorough in my planning see.

The only things I'm concerned about is whether having the rad partially covered (about 2inches) will affect cooling performance, which I doubt, and also about getting an air block in the top of the rad when filling the loop. Can anyone tell me if that will be a problem? Or will tipping and shaking the case get rid of that. I'm considering filling the loop with the case on its back to get round this.

 

[blitz_911]

Looking good mate. Will be nice to see finished what did you think of the quality of the fractal case i am over the moon with me node 304

I was really impressed, it's a solid case, weighs a ton and the finish is sweet. The only thing I was disappointed in was how limited it was in terms of accepting water cooling without some kind of modding. You would think all high end cases would h e provision to mount atleast a 240 internally

 

[blitz_911]

Looking forward to seeing this finished, i have the r3 and its a great case but it annoys me there is a 240/280 mount on top and not enough clearance for a rad and fans to sit properly. I too looked at mounting it on the front but with the door closed it seemed pointless. I finally managed to get my hands on one of those windows side panels yesterday too, only took 4 months lol.

Yeah, it's especially annoying because it's wider than the arc which can fit a top rad in, the problem is the motherboard fixings are positioned too high up so the clearance is reduced.

The side panel is great, I was considering modding the stock one but thought it would looke too messy. They could have put the sound damping stuff on the non windowed part like

 

[blitz_911]

Rage.
Started yesterday putting this all together, thought I'd put the water block on the GPU first as I stripped the old computer down. Checked fit - grand, test mount to see how the tim spread - fine, but then, whilst putting the thermal pads on the other components - *crick* - Iv'e only gone and broken a R23 VRM. I was absolutely gutted.

Its not come off the borad or I would have resoldered it, its just loose and my soldering iron isnt hot enough to take it off and do it again. Tried putting it back on th stock cooler and putting it in the computer, it powers up but no visual, fan speed up and down a bit.

A bit of googling and I tired the "oven bake" but to no avail. I work next door to an electronics shop who do repairs so I'll see if they can fix it, but considering either trying to pick a Second hand 5770 up to carry on in the mean time or just changing the card and block all round. Does anyone know if this is repairable?

Was fuming all of lst night but realised today that the computer had been BSOD'ing a bit recently - I just thought the other hardware was too old and not properly compatible w/ the card, but its possible that it was already coming loose and having power issues, and pushing the pad on just took the biscuit.

Just another delay in my build, Have been waiting since christmas to do this! If they can repair it it should be back by mid week, otherwise I'll be looking at a new card. Its a shame that the MM is so far off

 

[blitz_911]

The electronics shop next door said they were unable to repair it. However managed to source a 4870x2 with a ek water block locally for £60. Bargain for a decent upgrade and i picked it up just before. Build is back on for tommorrow

 

[blitz_911]

pics of new hardware...

 

[blitz_911]

Yeah, but then I hit another snag.

Originally I measured up where the rad would go assuming that it would need to clear the ram. Then I drilled extra holes in the top of my case is I could mount the rad offset to clear this.

However I installed the raystorm block and 2500k chip last night (il put pics up 2mo) then tried to mount the rad in the top using my carefully measured holes. Epic fail. The mounting screws for the raystorm block protrude further than the ram quite considerably meaning il have to offset the rad pretty much to the edge of the case.

This is a pain cos I now have horrible extra holes in the top of my case and maybe 1/3 of the rad will be covered by the top of the case reducing airflow. I'm not sure why I didn't consider that the CPU block would be interfering!!

Boiled my p**s it did last night, and i Considered changing the rad position. Think I'm gonna stick with the top internal mount tho. Hopefully temps won't be affected too much by the rad being partially covered.

I have this weekend free, so further mishaps notwithstanding the project should be fin by then.

 

[blitz_911]

Ive mounted the MB w/ Raystorm block attached and marked up where the new holes for radiator need to be drilled. Ive now drilled the new holes, fixed the old holes up with epoxy putty and it sand it down and paint it over and hopefully you wont see a thing at 2 paces.

Heres some pics of the raystorm mounted, are the bolts looking tight enough do you think, the nuts and the spring nuts are both hand tight and the a squeeze.

Gonna try and finish this this weekend!

 

[blitz_911]

Spent most of last night installing the water cooling kit which went without a hitch, leak tested over night and everything was looking good. Plugged my hard drives and stuff in powered up and went into the bios. I have my old had with w7 on and a new one I had sitting in the drawer. Put them both in but when I went to the boot options only the new one was showing up as a primary boot, I could boot into the one with windows but couldn't make it the default. I tried changing the sata ports and stuff but no joy. Then I disabled "Marvell" and the computer has died.

The motherboard is showing the VGA light and there is no post and no visual output, not even through the onboard graphics. Tried unplugging my VGA card from power and pci slot, unplugged the sata drives, tried flashing the bios via USB - nothing. I can't move the dimms cos the tubes are in the way, the CPU power atx looks like its in, I can't think of anything else but the motherboard is dead. I really don't fancy taking it all apart again.

Major downer.

 

[blitz_911]

Nah, not really. Rma'd the motherboard and a new one has arrived today soil test it out of the case then reinstall everything tonight hopefully. Just gnna ask a few temps about mounting the raystorm ad temps in the water cooling forum.

 

[blitz_911]

New motherboard arrived and I tried the components in - booted up first time, no problems.
So I've reinstalled the the motherboard and the water cooling:

This is the top after filling in the wrong holes, painting them over and drilling some new ones. Im in the middle of painting the screws black so they're less noticeable as well

Tubing starting to go in. even with heating the ends over a boiling kettle, 7/16 over 1/2 barbs is a damm tight fit!

reservoir in... I tried to mount it on rubber washers to reduce the noise and vibration but there wasnt enough space and everythime i slid it in they would just fall off, even with double sided sticky tape to hold them in position. Just gave up on the for the pump in the end. all the other radiators anf fans, drives etc are mounted on rubber washers.

loop filled and leak testing begins...

over night leak testing and no leaks. Just one spillage when i over filled the res. cleans up pretty well though for being blue this stuff. The Wife hasnt noticed. Probably cos its still covered by the card board.

reserboir now full. I had these bubble in the pipes but they'rs gone now, but theres still some bubble left in the reservoir, does this matter? Also, as the air bubble are dissapating out this is causing the fluid level to drop slightly, does it need to be right at the top of the radiator?

Not sure why I bothered taking this shot as I couldnt be bothered to do any more cable management than this. Its tight for space behing the MB on this case, its a push getting the side panel back on.

Thats the final loop, I think it loks mint, hopefully you guys think its alright. The cables aren't too messy, the tubes have a bit or swerve and curve, I'm pretty happy with this.

lighted up in the dark it looks pretty cool. Couldnt get a full picture of it in the dark as I couldnt get the settings on my camera to take it properly, kept coming out all dark with a little bit of light from the spu, even on slow speed and big apeture. I bought the UV blue EK coolant and the pic shows that it glows in the dark but if the leds are off there is no glow from them. Do they only glow if you shine a uv light on them?

*****

Well thats the build pretty much complete, I just have to install it in the living room. CPU idling around 32 at stock with the fans on low so you cant hear them, the fans are silent and theres slight hum from the pump but that isnt audbile if youremore thn 2 feet away from the computer and you can only hear it if the room is silent.

Will post some more pics once its in place. But there you go, a top mounted rad in a fractal r3. some minor problems along the way but if I was to do another one I think it would be no bother.

 

[blitz_911]

Cheers guys, now that it's unused I'm well happy with it. Ran mark 3d vantage today and temps are:
Idle - cpu= 31c gpu= 28c
Load - CPU= 51c gpu= 35
Il take some final pics this week