First Watercooled Attempt

FL630

FL630

FL630

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Joined
9 Dec 2014
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Hertfordshire
I've been running an air cooled Parvum case for the last year or so, but I stumbled upon a water block for my now old fashioned Asus Strix 980. I snapped it up thinking I may water cool at some point, but ended up with a little but of budget creep and got it built straight away :D

So, on board we have lots of last-gen gear. Still gives me plenty performance for the games I play, so wont be upgrading any time soon.

Photography is from my mobile shot on my dining room table with crap light, do not expect amazing photos ;)

Intel i7-4790k
Gigabyte Z97N-Gaming 5
Asus Strix GTX 980
HyperX Savage DDR3-2400 8GB RAM
HyperX Savage 240GB SSD Boot Drive
Samsung 850evo 500GB Steam Drive
EVGA Supernova G2 750w PSU
NZXT Manta mITX case
NZXT Grid+ v2 fan controller
NZXT Hue+

For Watercooling:
EKWB Supremacy MX
EKWB Strix 980 GPU Block
EKWB 100mm Res / D5 combo
EKWB Vardar 140mm fans x2
EKWB Vardar 120mm fans x2
Magicool 280mm Rad
Magicool 240mm Rad
XSPC compression fittings x10
XSPC 90deg connectors x4
XSPC 45deg connector x1
XSPC 14mm PETG tubing

Here is my old build, dodgy back drop and all:
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And it shall all be transferred into this curvy beast:
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** Do Not Hotlink Images **

First things first I decided to strip down the chassis. It's a small case when you take the bulging side panels off so it's a whole lot easier to access things with everything off and removed:

(told you the photography was going to be bad :D)
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The next thing to do was change the colour of the motherboard. Typically for a last gen Gigabyte "gaming" board it's black and red. I wanted this build to be pretty tame colour wise, apart from coolant, so pulled the heatsinks off, plus the RAM and SSD for a quick spray.

I'm using a spray called Fulldip. It's like plastidip but has a lot better coverage. I got it from a local shop called matt-pack, only about £6 a can so good value too, I'd certainly recommend the stuff.

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I'm quite happy how it turned out, especially the motherboard which IMO looks great in all black.
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Next I fitted the rads to the case. NZXT claim this thing can hold two 280mm rads, which is a lie. I've looked at the specs for the Kraken X61 and the radiator is really narrow. I think there are perhaps one or two rads that are that slim which could easily be used for the top mounts. However, the common rads are all 5-10mm too large, hence why I had to use a 240mm rad.

Next issue, the cut-outs for the radiator ports are about 5mm too narrow for the radiators I'm using, see a theme here? My solution was to mount the radiator in the case and use the fans as pull only, not ideal but what's a degree or two going to matter?

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Wrong I was! Due to Gigabytes stupid 8 pin CPU connection location, something is going to have to change. There is simply no way of getting the cable attached with the rads installed like this, especially with the quite inflexible stock EVGA cables.
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So out comes the hacksaw, grinding discs, wet and dry and plenty of bad language. I have no idea what they make this case out of but my dremmel had real trouble getting through the steel, but fortunately a junior hacksaw made relative easy work with it, but not as neat. A quick spray of black paint to cover the silver edge and the chassis was made wide enough to support the radiator ports.

It's still really tight to fit the 8 pin in with the fans, but they're 5mm thinner and a bit narrower so if I installed the cable before the fans I could get it to work, as you can see.
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As you can also see in that picture there is virtually no space for the res/D5 combo. I could mount it horizontally but I'd need to fashion something up to mount on the rads/fans which wasn't going to happen. I decided therefore to mount the pump in the basement, keeping it out of the way and leaving much more space in the chassis.

More to come later...
 
Off to a nice start. Good choice of case too, it should give you some room to move stuff around etc without tearing your hands to bits :)
 
Thanks all. The manta is not a bad case but really for a first watercool it's probably not the easiest. I used to have the Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ATX before going ITX, that would have been far easier.

Anyway, this is my planned tube layout. It goes Res/Pump > GPU > CPU > 240mm Rad > 280mm Rad.
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First bend! Looks good but was around 85 degrees, perhaps salvageable.
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Two bends done!
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A blurry GPU > CPU bend. This wasn't so straight forward as it's not quite lined up. Looks OK to me though.
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So the biggest bending challenge I found myself facing was the CPU to 240mm rad. Because I mounted the CPU block with the ports horizontally and the EK logo in the correct orientation, it made it overly difficult to route the tube. I did a lot of the bending as I went along with little planning (note: bad idea) and this is the one that shows the most. So I ended up bending by hand 5 bends to get it where it needed to be. Result, a bit messy but does the job. This is one to be re-done when I feel brave enough.
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Then it came to filling time. because of the res location its really easy to use the port on the top of the res to fill using a barb fitting, some tubing and a funnel. Sadly however I tried that and coolant ended up ****ing everywhere, mostly down to a poor o-ring on the barb. I tilted the chassis over and filled directly from the bottle to the res via a funnel and it eventually made it's way around the system with 5 or 6 fills.

I'm using Mayhems pastel blue, which looks great!
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I set it to one side for a few hours stuffed with paper towels and thankfully didn't get a single drop of coolant leaking, despite the somewhat wobbly XSPC rotary connectors.

Next up, cables, lights and overclocking
 
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Hehe yeah them wobbly rotary connectors always concern me also, i'm guessing with rigid pipes they're not gonna move again once they're connected up though so if they're not leaking now they're probably gonna be good.

Looks like you got the hang of the pipe bending quickly, looks great, are you gonna keep your eyes open for a gpu back plate to finish the matt black look or are you leaving that for a future GPU upgrade?
 
Can't see me upgrading the GPU in this generation if I'm honest. I normally just play overwatch, GTA V, Doom and even at 1440p I don't struggle with 60fps. Perhaps when the 11 series comes out I'll look into upgrading, but GPU costs are a joke these days.

I'd love an EK backplate for the GPU but I'll be dammed if I can find one. I could possibly mod the original Strix ones but I intend to keep that stock as if I sell the card I'd put it back on. I dare say I'd have some luck in the MM but I'm a few hundred posts from there and the usual auction sites are or bringing up anything right now.

I've just put the lights in and wow, looks incredible! Pics to follow later
 
Forgive me if this is a dumb question but should the piping for the GPU not be going in from the bottom right if it leaves at the top left? When setting up my loop I was under the impression that if it went in / came out on the same side the liquid doesn't actually cool the whole card or something?

Absolutely stonking build though, got me jealous :p
 
Really nice job, I like it! Those bends is not easy! On one of mine I had about 8 attempts before I got it right, but I am a perfectionist and this is a bad thing when it comes to bending haha! I think you would benefit from some case lighting, that would really make it pop. :)
 
I really like that cpu - rad pipe! This is excellent for a first attempt.... I also really like that coolant. Might switch to that myself.... Making my case to a "Mei" theme from overwatch :)
 
Forgive me if this is a dumb question but should the piping for the GPU not be going in from the bottom right if it leaves at the top left? When setting up my loop I was under the impression that if it went in / came out on the same side the liquid doesn't actually cool the whole card or something?

Absolutely stonking build though, got me jealous
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Thanks! Asa to your question, I'm not sure I can see why it would make any difference? The GPU block is filled with fluid so the direction it enters is largely irrelevant. I may be wrong however but it's essentially just another bend in the loop.

Really nice job, I like it! Those bends is not easy! On one of mine I had about 8 attempts before I got it right, but I am a perfectionist and this is a bad thing when it comes to bending haha! I think you would benefit from some case lighting, that would really make it pop.
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Wow I love your build Legend, really nice. Is that UV blue coolant?

I'm not 100% happy with any of the bends in this case but as a first shot I thought I'd leave it. I ordered 3 meters of tube and was left with only 0.5m spare, I considered re-doing a few but it looks okay for now. I'm tempted to switch to a lime green coolant, if I do I'll change the tubes and routing.

Case lighting is in, but was the last thing to do so the above build pics don't show it particularly well. I'm going to dig out the DSLR tomorrow and see if I can take some better shots.

I really like that cpu - rad pipe! This is excellent for a first attempt.... I also really like that coolant. Might switch to that myself.... Making my case to a "Mei" theme from overwatch
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Are you one of those really good, therefore exceptionally irritating Mae's that I can never beat :D Thanks though, I was unsure if it looked too messy and complex but I quite like it's look now.
 
looking forward to seeing it with the lights. have you had it up and running yet? what sort of temps are you seeing?

I would love to try a water cooler set up on mine but I really need to upgrade my gpu first as still using the 970. if I had a 980 or 980 ti I would go for it.

been tempted to start to build up the parts though and even do the cpu on a loop.
 
Guilty :D :D :D
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Agh I hate people like you :D I am useless at defense against Mei and even worse playing as her.

looking forward to seeing it with the lights. have you had it up and running yet? what sort of temps are you seeing?

I would love to try a water cooler set up on mine but I really need to upgrade my gpu first as still using the 970. if I had a 980 or 980 ti I would go for it.

been tempted to start to build up the parts though and even do the cpu on a loop.
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Yep it's up and running. Initially seeing about 28 idle and in Heaven a GPU of about 39 degrees. Overwatch has seen temp drops on the GPU from 78 degrees to somewhere around 40-50.

I've also tried a quick OC of the GPU, had initially +235 clock and +630 memory, stable in Heaven and Firestrike, but crashed after half an hour in Overwatch. I've taken it down to +200/+575 and it's rock solid, giving a total 1516MHz Boost and 4082MHz (8164MHz?) Memory. Temps raised to about 42 in Heaven and not really noticeable in games.

I've not done the CPU as I lost out on the silicone lottery with my 4790k which topped out at 4.6GHz on air, I'll try some time to see if I can push beyond.

Here's a look at the mess of cables to pack in the back of the case, before I even added lighting! It's not that the case is small, just the cables provided by EVGA naturally cater for much larger cases and there is just an excess. You can also see the reservoir here clearly and its convenient fill/drain access.
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FL630 said:
Yep it's up and running. Initially seeing about 28 idle and in Heaven a GPU of about 39 degrees. Overwatch has seen temp drops on the GPU from 78 degrees to somewhere around 40-50.

I've also tried a quick OC of the GPU, had initially +235 clock and +630 memory, stable in Heaven and Firestrike, but crashed after half an hour in Overwatch. I've taken it down to +200/+575 and it's rock solid, giving a total 1516MHz Boost and 4082MHz (8164MHz?) Memory. Temps raised to about 42 in Heaven and not really noticeable in games.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you've had a nice temp drop there, is it running much quieter than before?

RyanF said:
Forgive me if this is a dumb question but should the piping for the GPU not be going in from the bottom right if it leaves at the top left? When setting up my loop I was under the impression that if it went in / came out on the same side the liquid doesn't actually cool the whole card or something?

Absolutely stonking build though, got me jealous :p
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Your thinking of two cards in SLI/Crossfire, if you connect them up in serial then the pipes do connect in that way, you will have seen loads of systems running that way in the past. It's less common nowadays though as people will just connect the cards in parallel instead if they want both connections coming in the top, especially now some blocks have jet plates in to cool the core better.
 
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Thanks for the compliments all. Sorry for slow update but here are some pics as it sits now. I debated for a while where to route the NZXT Hue+ strips to see where it will suit the best, I think I've got them to a place I like now. Sadly my iPhone camera really doesn't cope well with all the bright pipes, so I'll have to dig out the SLR to get some proper shots at some point.

I'm really happy how it's come out, but it desperately needs some custom cables as the stock EVGA ones are ugly! However, I'm forever changing cases so getting some at a fixed length could be an expensive risk. I'm also considering a change of fluid to UV pastel green (I'm moving to Edinburgh and want to drain it for the drive, ideal to change the fluid colour), which means cables would have to change again.

Anyway, here are some shots of the bends. I've got a few bubbles in the top tube which have been there since day one and are not moving, doesn't bother me and without significant fannying around I don't see them shifting. I'm more worried about the pen mark but still too lazy to go get something to wipe it off :D
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Some of the LED strips. I picked to put a strip under the GPU, gives a nice glow when it's on in what is normally a dark area.
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And because it's a Hue+ I can do lots of fancy things with the LEDs.

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And one last shot of it sat back in it's place on my desk.
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