Phantek Enthoo Mid - Reluctant water-build

cavemanoc · 16 Apr 2021 at 17:50

My current rig has been humming along nicely (3600XT / 980ti) with a couple of AIOs keeping the temps and noise under control. I swore I would never go back to custom loops as I just like the simplicity and price of AIOs. Unfortunately, a deal too good to pass up arrived in the MM and I find myself the proud owner of a 2080ti with a rather fetching EK-Vector Aorus waterblock on it.

So with the help of a couple of other forum members over in the watercooling section, in another thread, I have a plan for a full rebuild with a loop for the CPU and GPU - joy :rolleyes:

Nothing spectacular, with pretty standard bits and hopefully no modding going from:

To something like:

The idea was to keep it simple and clean, with as much of the watercooling elements hidden, as possible. I did give in when selecting the fluid though and went for the EK-Cryofluid Blood red to play off the Aorus motherboard accents. I'm sticking with black tubing as I think it will suit the overall feel of the build.

Finally managed to get all the pieces together - love the b-grade offers - managed to save a fair bit (although I am still in shock at how much the extras cost when you add it all together!) Luckily I had some helpers with the unboxing.

Finally ready to get started - should have enough haribo to get through the initial build

Unfortuantely I am away for a couple of days, so the build will have to wait for next week. I found a few missing items (need more fans, and some extension cables for said fans) - so once they arrive I should be good to go.

mickyflinn · 17 Apr 2021 at 09:44

Im guessing its a Phanteks case but which model ?

chroniclard · 17 Apr 2021 at 09:53

Heh those cats look cool, crazy markings, what are they!?

mickyflinn · 17 Apr 2021 at 10:13

chroniclard said:
Heh those cats look cool, crazy markings, what are they!?

There lovely was thinking how cool would the case be with those cat markings.

dessimpson · 17 Apr 2021 at 10:27

mickyflinn said:
Im guessing its a Phanteks case but which model ?

Looks like an Enthoo Luxe?

chroniclard · 17 Apr 2021 at 10:33

Its an Enthoo Pro case I think. Luxe is similar.

dessimpson · 17 Apr 2021 at 10:50

chroniclard said:
Its an Enthoo Pro case I think. Luxe is similar.

I think you're correct. I've just popped the side off my spare PC (In a luxe) and it's not quite the same.

cavemanoc · 19 Apr 2021 at 08:16

Good case spotting! it is indeed the Pro. The cats are Bengals - they love helping me build as it means lots of boxes to play in and with.

I haven’t had a proper look at the mounting points for the front rad, where the 200mm fan currently sits - are there mounting points on the chassis? The manual helpfully says it can be done, not how... hoping it is similar to the top.

Borealis · 19 Apr 2021 at 15:49

I've got an Enthoo Pro for my main PCand i really like it. It's a great, well made case. You can take the front drive cages out via thumbscrews to get easy access to the fan mounting points - they are just like the top mounting points in that regard.. It comes with the 200mm fan, but you can swap that out for 2 x 120mm - 140mm fans or a radiator up to 240mm. To fit a front rad, you might have to keep the drive cages permanently removed though.

cavemanoc · 20 Apr 2021 at 10:44

Borealis said:
I've got an Enthoo Pro for my main PCand i really like it. It's a great, well made case. You can take the front drive cages out via thumbscrews to get easy access to the fan mounting points - they are just like the top mounting points in that regard.. It comes with the 200mm fan, but you can swap that out for 2 x 120mm - 140mm fans or a radiator up to 240mm. To fit a front rad, you might have to keep the drive cages permanently removed though.

Perfect - thanks for that - I have a 240mm rad to mount in the front, so good to know it's the same system as the top. Not worried about the drive cage - I'm using and nmve and ssd. I do have a larger conventional drive that would be great to keep, but not the end of the world if it has to move to a differnt PC.

I received the last of the fans and the extension cables today, so all I need now is the last 90 degree rotary fitting (had a whoops with OcUK and they dispatched a static 90 that just won't align in any of the spots I need 90s

Must remember to write down which fan / pump is connected to which header or my profiles are going to be interesting...

Borealis · 20 Apr 2021 at 10:49

Yeah, I've removed my cages as I've gone all SSD & Nvme. I have SSDs just sitting loose in the space where the cages were.

cavemanoc · 20 Apr 2021 at 21:44

There is a mounting spot on the back - had you already used that or were you just not bothered?

Borealis · 21 Apr 2021 at 07:46

I'd already used it.

cavemanoc · 22 Apr 2021 at 12:14

Well... that was a long day. I finally had enough time to sit down and have a proper go at building - I'm glad I waited as it was a full day's job.

First job was to strip the case back so I could get a better idea how it would all fit together, and what space I actually had to play with. I have to say I have been hugely impressed not just by the build quality of the Enthoo Pro, but also with the accessibility. A lot of though has gone into user requirements, especially with watercooling, and it shows.

It was surprisingly easy to get down to the bones of the case, and there were none of the classic 'hidden screws' to trip me up.

The cage and frame came out in sensible pieces - neat little package all things considered -although I did have a minor moment at this point when it dawned on me that I was using a Bayres, and there were no longer any bays!

Clearly Phanteks had thought this through better than me, as I soon realised that the top drivebay and the side support all go back together, and you are just left with a perfect space where the HDD cages were.

Time for a bit of cleaning:

I really like the EK Waterblock - Not as shiny a surface as I'd like but my days of wet/dry sanding are long gone!

My chosen method:

I had had a small issue with the fittings, and one of the rotary 90 degrees turned out to be an imposter. I did try to use it, but sod's law it was almost perfectly out by 90 degrees in all of the blocks.

OcUK were brilliant and sent a replacement out pretty much next day - not only did it arrive just as I was attaching the CPU block, but they let me keep the fixed piece, and gave me another bag of Haribo - can't beat that kind of service

cavemanoc · 22 Apr 2021 at 12:39

The original plan was to use 2 50m extension pieces between the CPU block and the GPU block to give the appearance of a hard line setup. This did mean a slightly more complicated tube run, but it would be hidden so was worth it.

Fillport is integrated into the bayres, so I needed a drain - obvious spot was at the base of the case, so I planned to mount the 280mm rad at the front, with the barbs at the bottom to allow a low point drain. What was wrong with a blue plastic t-piece and a cheap ball joint? Oh well... at least it's shiny.

I was relieved to find that the Rad did just screw straight into the mount points on the case, and that the provided screws were long enough to go through the case, fans and intot the rad. I decided to mount the fans to the case as it hid them, and also gives me the option to add more for push/pull at a later date without having to take everything apart.

Being able to remove the top panel completely meant I could mount the rad to it before reattaching it to the case - given how fiddly holding the fans and rad in place while crewing it together was this was a godsend. Made a tricky job much easier:

Not sure if it was luck or clever design, but a couple of the 90 degree barbs were sized almost to the millimeter. - Could have been a disaster on the GPU block, but ended up pretty cool in the end.

The digital mock up I did in the planning phase showed the GPU barbs about 50mm down, and significantly offset to the left of the CPU barbs - hence the plan to have the 50mm extensions bridge the gap, and then loop the tubing down and back round to the GPU barbs. The model was not accurate!

No part of the original plan was going to work. I had a brief flare of inspiration and though how neat it would actually look if I just joined them all together - luckily I realised the stupidity of that before cutting anything.

With everything in place it was finally time to start cutting and fitting.

cavemanoc · 22 Apr 2021 at 13:40

I picked up the EK matt black tubing - throughout the build I stuck with them for everything I could, not out of any loyalty, but just to avoid the risk of variation in fitting sizing which can lead to leak horror stories. No expense spared I still had some high teck tube measuring equipment kicking about.

Pipe cleaners are still my favourite ghetto build hack. There's a colour for every occasion:

Prior to this build I was certain I would never again go for a custom loop, and even more certain, I would never be taking a dremel to my case. So I went and go my dremel as the drive bay had no routing for the tubing coming in and out of the bayres :rolleyes:

Not my neatest work admittedly, but most frustrating was I still have some rubber beading in the garage from cutting holes in cases to route the head from my old Mach 1 phase change unit back in the day - but I couldn't find it anywhere - job for another day. I did file down the edges, but I still built up a couple of layers to avoid snaggin and damaging the tubes.

I had to sack my helper - and schedule a thorough leak test

Speaking of which

I used deionised water to fill and run the loop on a hotwired PSU for about 30 mins - I needed to flush the loop anyway and it also meant if there was a catastrophic failure I wouldn't have red cryofluid everywhere. Fortunately it held and the loop seems well sealed.

There were a few minor niggles to be sorted before reassembly and closing - there was plenty of warning that the phanteks vertical GPU mount may require modding of the rear grill on the case - I felt pretty smug as it fitted straight in (with a minor hack to make room for the GPU securing screw, and then I checked the back... the horizontal bars between the slots now completely blocked the cable sockets for the monitor - I'm not proud to admit it, but it was late, the tin snips were right there... I'll clean it up latewr

You can just make out the screw in the bar above that I have to make of hole for too. I guess the only solution for the case companies is to have those bars removable.

I was able to get it all buttoned up and ready to go. Neadless to say I was crossing everything there was to cross at this point, but it worked first time (much to my surprise!). There are still a couple of minor niggles. The fans on the front rad are using the case hub. There seems to be an issue with it, and when connected as per the manual (CPU header, and a 12V supply) it sets everything to full - those Noctuas are pretty loud in max mode! There seems to be a lot of debate about how to solve the issue - but removing the 12V supply from the hub worked, and with only 2 fans on the hub I have no concerns about overloading the mobo header.

I am using an nmve drive, a SSD in one of the rear mounts (such a slick system!), but there was nowhere to put my 5tb conventional drive. The PSU in now beyond reach, so I had to get creative with what cables were within reach - fortunately a splitter and a bit of padding allowed me to hide it against the rear case out of sight - it's not messy if you can't see it!

Last item is an extension cable for the RGB built into the Vector block on the GPU - frustratingly I can't get to the headers beneath the GPU now, and the ones on the side of the board are 3 pin only (can I use them with a 4 pin d-RGB system?) I can reach the CPU header, so will wire it through that way when the cable arrives.