Mini-ITX build - Queries

[pantbash]

I am in the process of updating my 5 year old system into something newer, smaller and faster.

Currently I have an i7 920 2.66Gz and a Radeon 5850 with a custom watercooling loop, EK block on the GPU and CPU.
This machine will have the watercooling removed for use in the new Mini-ITX build and the old machine will then be installed into the living room as a Civ5/Media PC.


I intend to wait untill the new Radeon card(s) comes out (R380X, 390x or whatever it may be in ?Feb?) and then buy the bits to build the system. I am currently AMD, but happy to move over to NVIDIA if that works better in system.


I have the following items for the build already.
Case = Coolermaster Elite 130
PSU = Zalman zm850-hp
Rad = Thermochill TA 120.1
Fans = Noctua NF-S12B REDUX 700RPM x3
Laing D5 Vario and various watercooling parephenalia.


What I want from the system is:-
1. Gaming @ 1440p
2. Silence (as much as possible)
3. No overclocking required
4. Assume cost is irrelevant

Given all the above information, I would like your learned opinions on the following points. This will then inform my purchasing come Feburary.

1. Will a single 120mm rad be enough to cool both CPU and GPU. Assuming i5 @~90W and GTX980 @ ~200W?

2. If the answer to 1 is no, has anyone ever had experience of mounting 120mm rads in series. Ie Inside -> Fan -> Rad -> Fan -> Rad -> Fan -> Outside. (There is no room for radiator larger than 120mm.)

3. Living room PC - If I remove the acrylic from the 5850 waterblock and direct a low speed 120mm fan at it, would there be enough heat dissapation from the copper block to keep the GPU cool. (Civ5 will be the most the card has to cope with.) My guesstimate at surface area and temp differences would have heat dissapation of about ~100-150W.

4. The PSU is the one from the old machine and has been running fine for the last 4 years or so. Do PSU generally have a lifespan after which they should be replaced?

5. To keep the inside of the ITX case as tidy as possible I would like to create my own custom power cables. This would involve cutting the existing cables and shortening them to what is required on the board. Anyone done this? Is it difficult? (Seen a couple of guides on the net and it looks OK, but I would like a RL opinion.)


Thanks for looking!

 

[VincentHanna]

1) There's no way a 120mm rad would cool both a CPU and GPU. My suggestion would be to get a better case.

This is from personal experience. I own a 295x2 GPU which has a 120mm radiator and IMO that is barely enough to cool the card under the throttle level. Ok it has two GPU's on one PCB but even so, It wouldn't cool a CPU as well.

There's not even many pre-built AIO liquid coolers that have enough grunt to do both. Usually the pump isn't strong enough or the radiator is too small. Realistically the Swiftech H240-x is your only option without a customised system.

If I'm assuming cost is irrelevant and you absolutely need a small case, why not get the Ncase M1 V3?

https://www.ncases.com/product/M1/span

Re: Question 4 - It's my understanding that PSU's lose about 10% efficiency year on year. It'll probably be ok if you aren't overclocking and will only have 1 GPU.

5) Ncase M1 will mean you can use a tiny SFX PSU (600w) and not really have much of a problem. It's fully modular.

 

[Ronald]

Re: Question 4 - It's my understanding that PSU's lose about 10% efficiency year on year. It'll probably be ok if you aren't overclocking and will only have 1 GPU.

10% year on year sounds way way too high... There is a discussion at Toms that quite clearly indicates it must be far less: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/300392-28-capacitor-aging



As for silence and 1440p: See sig... I'm very very happy with the noise. It will take most 980 GTX as well and see little issues for other options, but obviously current high wattage AMD GPU's will make more noise more quickly.

PSU was on offer at black friday, else I would have used a 650 Leadex or Golden green 550. For silence the Leadex is king as I don't think it has used its fan so far... so very much recommended over lower power and more expensive full passive models.

I undervolted the CPU by 0.07 Adaptive and Cache by 0.05 Adaptive.
Max turbo to 4.4 on all cores. Cache multiplier was fixed at 40x by default, but I clock it down to 8x so it Follows the cpu multiplier until it turbo's beyond 40.

Stock fans replaced with a 200mm Bitfenix Spectre Pro (exhaust, removed filter) (Which required some physical tweaking, so you may wish to opt for an alternative) and 120mm Parvum F1.0s (intake). All on very conservative custom profiles managed by bios.

At idle a mechanical hard drive is by far the most noisy component. Non-turbo workloads only marginally more than the hard drives.

My goal is keep negative pressure at all times, as this draws cool air over the GPU, and this works great until the Parvums overpower the Bitfenix at Prime95 level loads. If I can stop that it would keep the GPU fans a near 1000 rpm during gaming rather than 1200+.

 

[pantbash]

Thanks guys,

It looks like a different case will be required, if I wish to keep the watercooling loop.
I could mod the Elite 130 for more radiator space, but with my dremelling skills it will end up looking terrible.

The Corsair Graphite 380T looks nice to me, with a lot more radiator options.

 

[Ronald]

Hmm, I don't have to like the looks of that case fortunately. I think it is slightly larger than the 250D overall, but it seems very much less efficient in space use.

In the 250D Drives and PSU go side by side under the motherboard tray, leaving the front completely clear.

Pretty sure I could fit 240x120 rad (side), 180x180 rad (front), and Pump in the 250D if I wanted. Maybe even a 80x160 rad in the back, but that'd look terrible.

I could even keep the full size Optical,the PSU I use is 170mm which fits without bending tabs.

The 380T has more height for a Tower cooler, but that is not your priority I think?