Antec 1200 v3 & watercooling

[Alan_FX8150]

Hi everyone,

I'm wondering if people could offer some advice with customising my Antec 1200 v3.

Currently I have only one GPU, but I intend on getting a second one to have both GPU's watercooled.
Is it easy to attach water cooling blocks to GPU's?
Do I need to remove the fans that come as stock?
Can waterblocks be fitted to two GPU's next to each other in SLI?

I understand that the following might be a little complicated so please see my diagram and photo to make sense of this all:



The initial phase of my plan is to:
1) Remove the top front 3xdrive bay cage, mounting bracket and fan.
2) Install a dual bay reservoir and a single HDD cooling bay beneath
3) Fix a dual fan radiator to the exterior at the rear of the case
4) Then use the fan mounting bracket and fan (from step 1) to attach to rear of my second front fan (similar to what I've done with the bottom front fan).
Then that'll be the GPU's hopefully very cool and not sacrificing much air power.

Secondly, there's the final part to the plan and this is the bit I'm really not sure about...
1) Remove Antec Kuhler 920 and replace with Antec Kuhler 1220
2) Remove top 240mm fan and attach the new dual radiator beneath it (so its top mounted inside the case)

My question is whether this is do-able? I saw another Antec 1200 v3 user who'd mounted a Corsair H100 in this way so I'd like to mount the Antec in that way (I prefer the styling of the Antec).

(Before anyone might suggest watercooling the CPU and GPU's together, I want to cool them using this method if I can!)
Thanks in advance & happy OC'ing,
Alan

 

[Rainagul]

Is it easy to attach water cooling blocks to GPU's?

Fairly easy yes. Basically, you just need to remove the cooler that comes with the card. Clean the old paste, apply some new paste and mount the water block.
There are plenty of guides, maybe even for the 680 that you can reference, just google it.


Do I need to remove the fans that come as stock?

I presume you mean the fans that come with the graphics card? In which case, yes.

Can waterblocks be fitted to two GPU's next to each other in SLI?

Should be no problem, especially with the ASUS Crosshair V Formula, plenty of room and PCI ports on it.

1) Remove Antec Kuhler 920 and replace with Antec Kuhler 1220

Hmm, if you can use the same mounting points that you use for the 920, then I don't see this being a huge issue.

2) Remove top 240mm fan and attach the new dual radiator beneath it (so its top mounted inside the case)

It's been a long time since I've looked inside 1200, but so long as the mounting points are there then swapping out the 240 with the rad shouldn't be a problem either.

 

[Alan_FX8150]

Is it easy to attach water cooling blocks to GPU's?

Fairly easy yes. Basically, you just need to remove the cooler that comes with the card. Clean the old paste, apply some new paste and mount the water block.
There are plenty of guides, maybe even for the 680 that you can reference, just google it

Do I need to remove the fans that come as stock?

I presume you mean the fans that come with the graphics card? In which case, yes.

Sorry Rainagul, yes its the pre installed fans I was referring to mate. Thanks a lot for the reassurance. I've had a look through quite a few guides but I've found it difficult sometimes to find the specific information I'm after, as there's too much information to sift through!

Can waterblocks be fitted to two GPU's next to each other in SLI?

Should be no problem, especially with the ASUS Crosshair V Formula, plenty of room and PCI ports on it.

Cool thats good too. I wanted to use the second slot down as its a faster speed than the 3rd and I have the Asus Soundcard in the 4th .I was looking at the width of the card and thinking "hmmm, hows another one gonna fit with watercooling" :/ ... but that answers the question

1) Remove Antec Kuhler 920 and replace with Antec Kuhler 1220

Hmm, if you can use the same mounting points that you use for the 920, then I don't see this being a huge issue.

2) Remove top 240mm fan and attach the new dual radiator beneath it (so its top mounted inside the case)

It's been a long time since I've looked inside 1200, but so long as the mounting points are there then swapping out the 240 with the rad shouldn't be a problem either.

I think a guy had installed the Corsair H100 beneath the actual fan itself but I could be wrong. After looking at the case last night, I'm not even sure where I could screw the radiator to but there must be somewhere (I hope!)

 

[Rainagul]

Well I don't know what water block you are going for but the EK guide to mounting it here would be what I would follow, has pretty much everything you need to know.

http://www.ekwb.com/shop/EK-IM/EK-IM-3831109856314.pdf

In terms of mounting something at the top of the 1200, take a look at what this guy did with his corsair H100. Could give you an idea on what you could do.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1079868/h100-and-antec-1200-case/30

If that isn't to your liking then I think the only answer from what I can gather is that you will need to drill new holes.

 

[Rainagul]

Also just to note, that graphics cards themselves aren't actually that thick. It's mainly the coolers that make them quite bulky.

That said, most water blocks are generally thinner than most air coolers. This means mounting two GPU's with water blocks on the first two PCI ports isn't usually an issue.

 

[Alan_FX8150]

Thanks very much for the guide. Thats a god-send!

Yeah that guy with the 1200 is the one I was talking about too

Looks like he was using a 1200 v1 I think and I wondered what the difference is with the v3. I might need to do some adjustments... time will tell

 

[Alan_FX8150]

Hello again Guys,

Sorry its been a while, I forgot I'd made this post :-/. I have good news though so its not all bad!

I did manage to drill through the steel to top mount the Antec 1220. I wanted to install 2 more lights in the bottom of the case so was waiting until then, before I posted my pictures. But... I did take some pictures and it still looks the same at the moment (havent done the lights yet) so here it is

Here's the top from the GPU upwards:


Then here's the full side view:


Then here are two from the side with the cover on too: