ITX Fractal Nano S Build

Phemo

Phemo

Phemo

Soldato
Joined
6 May 2004
Posts
6,067
Location
Fareham
Hi guys,

Still a slight work in progress here and I haven't really got any pics of the process up till now (because they're not really that interesting anyway) but it should still be a pretty decent little system when it's fully finished. It's not the smallest of ITX cases, but it lets me get all the hardware I wanted in there with pretty much no compromises.

Full specs are these new components:

Fractal Design Nano S Case
EVGA SuperNOVA 650w G3 PSU
i7 7700K
Asus Strix Z270i Motherboard
16GB 3200MHz Corsair Vengeance LPX
Asus GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition
2TB Western Digital Blue (Storage)

Then recycled from another system:

Samsung SM951 NVMe 128GB SSD (for OS)
500GB Samsung EVO SSD (for games)
750GB Crucial MX300 SSD (for games)

Up until yesterday, it had a Corsair H100i GTX doing the job of cooling the CPU and it looked like this:

iphone12.jpg


Since I needed to buy another cooler to replace the one in the system I'd just nabbed the H100i GTX from, I figured I may as well go all out. I grabbed the EK Slim 240 kit since space is at a bit of a premium and for now, here's how it's looking:

iphone30.jpg


Making better use of that small amount of free space in the case :) I need to get the pump/res mounted properly as it's just sat on the graphics card for now so that's today's job. At the moment as you can see, only the CPU is under water. I will be buying a second radiator and block for the GPU hopefully later in the month and likely a couple of angled fittings to get the tubes to run a little bit neater.

I did think about hardline tubing but I know I'd make a mess of it and although it doesn't look as good, I prefer the ease of rubber tubing should I ever need to move things about from time to time.

So, to do list at the moment whenever I get round to it:

* Mount the pump properly
* Add a second radiator and GPU block
* Replace those damn red and blue SATA cables with black ones

Haven't put much effort into overclocking the CPU yet but I have delidded it:

iphone27.jpg


Probably a bit premature especially if I got a poor overclocker but since even if I did I wouldn't be the type to return it anyway, it doesn't really matter. Temperature reduction under the H100i was pretty good, from 72 degrees C at stock under Prime95 (non AVX) load to around 60 degrees C under Prime95 load. From looking at the paste pattern left on my CPU and the H100i block when I removed it, I'm not entirely sure it was fitting quite right anyway so it'll be interesting to see what I'm getting with the EK kit now :)
 
It's a decent case. One of the cheaper ITX ones that's in this format but it's solid and well built. Doesn't feel flimsy at all and it's nice and quiet with this setup. Loudest part is the 1080 Ti but since it's an FE that's no surprise. Will fix that when I get the GPU block later :D
 
It's getting a bit tight in there now but it's just about alright :) Annoyingly I thought I had two EK fittings laying around but I didn't, so I'm two short. All the kit's in now, aside from the fittings on the GPU block and obviously the tubing still needs sorting. Luckily there's a place 10 minutes away that has some fittings in stock so I can pop down there in the morning and get it all finished up.

iphone37.jpg
 
All sorted. Quite tight in there, but it's all working so that's good. Now to work on the overclocking :) Will probably change the coolant for some coloured coolant at some point when I decide what colour I want but it's all good for now.

iphone41.jpg
 
I don't know if there's any space up the back top behind the rad/fans, but if so, your tube runs could be made much cleaner by going from Res/Pump → GPU → CPU → Top Rad → Front Rad → Pump/Res. It may necessitate a couple of 90 degree fittings though.

Even if there's no space to behind rad/fans to run a length of tubing between the two rads, it would still be possible to do it underneath.

In-case what I say makes no sense lol...

wc-loop.jpg
 
Last edited:
There definitely is scope for improving the tubing. I thought it was best to have the flow going radiator -> waterblock -> radiator -> waterblock rather than radiator to radiator though? As otherwise the GPU would be taking the water already warmed up from the CPU.
 
Phemo said:
There definitely is scope for improving the tubing. I thought it was best to have the flow going radiator -> waterblock -> radiator -> waterblock rather than radiator to radiator though? As otherwise the GPU would be taking the water already warmed up from the CPU.
Click to expand...


Not that doesn't matter. Temp equalises in any loop over time, so loop order makes no practical difference.
 
as in the picture above, 2x 90 , 1x 45 and a spacer for top back rad port and your sorted.

rad would have spacer and 90 to link to front rad.
90 on the GPU with 45 on the outlet of the pump should link almost straight
 
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