Project Silent Steam

[adwol48]

Well folks its another aerocool dead silence build, currently have a basic system built into my DS cube but will be upgrading components and removing parts to fit in a watercooling loop with a 240 rad in the top and also a 200 rad in the front.

current spec is

cx500 psu (my main testing rig psu)
i5 3570k
Asus P8Z77 I Deluxe
4GB Corsair dominator ram
60GB seagate HDD
MSI 6970 Lightning

In due course i will be swapping in the following

M500 480Gb SSD
Corsair RM650
Most likely a pre waterblocked GTX 770
Might also change ram to vengeance pro blue

watercooling will be the final goal.

here is a few pics to show the hastily built base i chucked in today to get the system up and running.

Spoiler

as you can see i experimented with moving the front 200mm fan to the front of the chassis but this wouldnt spin up due to an obstruction on the front panel so my plan now is to remove the 3.5 drive cage which looks like its only held in place by 5-6 screws and that will give me tons of room to work in and wont affect me too much as i'll be using a large capacity SSD. Also looks like i'll have plenty of space to fit a nice thick rad in the roof as the clearance over the MB is huge and it shouldnt really impede the rear fan which is now and intake.

should also say i'm probably gonna swap out all the stock aerocool fans as they dont really fit the build at all.

 

[hakank68]

this is looking good

 

[adwol48]

quick update managed to remove drive cage not as straightforward as 5 screws as originally thought you need to remove the entire base

Spoiler

you need to remove the black rubber feet from the front and one from the 2.5 drive side foot then slide the base forward to be able to access the screws

Removing that cage gives so much room will be able to fit at rad and pump in very easily now

Spoiler

 

[adwol48]

Well the first of my upgrades has arrived a nice shiny new M500 480Gb SSD, there are other faster drives on the market but crucial is a brand i trust since i own several M4 drives and the price was right at the time.

Spoiler

the drive itself feels better made than the M4 down to its metal casing instead of plastic

mounting system on this case is simple but effective rubber washer held in place with a screw and this is then slide into the rear SSD bay.

 

[Morfinel]

My plan was to get that case so I'm looking forward to this project.

 

[dandubi]

I changed my mind on the DS Cube when the Bitfenix Prodigy was on offer Friday. Looking forward to seeing more of this build.

 

[adwol48]

minor update folks

after looking at jrodga2k5 red silence build and how he managed to fit 2x120mm fans in the front i decided to have a closer look at the mounting options and thats when i saw these. a set of what look like tooling holes for 120/140/180 fans right above the current recessed fixing points. so i drilled them out with a 5mm bit as you can see

Spoiler

so now i have a securely screwed in fan that can help support a raditator, using this method it does go into the 2 drive bays but i dont intend to use either of the bays so it doesnt greatly effect me in anyway

Spoiler

for the time being i'm gonna replace the stock cooler i've got with a H55 that was going to be for my NZXT kraken but that shows no sign of being in stock yet.

 

[adwol48]

just to give some info on the watercooling side of things was looking at this earlier today.

Spoiler

YOUR BASKET
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-DCP 4.0 X-RES (Incl. Pump) £79.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-Supremacy Clean CSQ £49.99
2 x EK Water Blocks EK-CoolStream PE 240 (Dual) £39.95 (£79.90)
1 x Monsoon 16/10mm (ID 3/8 OD 5/8) Free Center Compression Fitting Six Pack - White £27.95
2 x Mayhems Pastel - Blue Berry Coolant 1L £14.99 (£29.98)
1 x XSPC HighFlex Hose 3/8" ID, 5/8" OD, 16/10mm, 2m, Clear/UV £6.49
2 x Monsoon 16/10mm (ID 3/8 OD 5/8) Free Center Compression Fitting - White £5.45 (£10.90)
Total : £294.79 (includes shipping : £8.00).

Any thoughts I did post something similar in the water cooling section but didnt get too much feedback over there.

 

[MrAdamski]

Looking good so far, should turn out a nice little system

 

[Akagi]

Why the M-ITX motherboard may I ask?

 

[adwol48]

was originally going to do a prodigy/phenom/colossus m build in the itx form factor. when i saw this case i decided to use the itx still plus it allows me to remove the 3.5 drive cage and have no over hang of the MB into the area i plan to fit both a rad in push pull plus the res/pump. if you look at the red silence build you can see a M-ATX MB goes quite some way over the 3.5 cage

plus forgot the asus itx boards are able to chuck a lot of power at the cpu thanks to those vrm daughter boards

 

[adwol48]

right folks minor update got hold of two of these so i can run 10 pwm fans off the 2 mb headers

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CB-070-AK&groupid=1929&catid=1979&subcat=0

also thanks to legion from MM i got hold of some team xtreem lv frost edition ram to replace my old dominator set.

Spoiler

i'm looking to order most of the wc parts end of this week but kinda being held up by the radiators i want to use not being in stock at OCUK, i'm lazy and dont want to have to go to other vendors and pay for delivery either

 

[adwol48]

well just ordered these parts folks hopefully turn up monday, just need to source the rads and tubing now

EK Water Blocks EK-DCP 4.0 X-RES
EK Water Blocks EK-Supremacy Clean CSQ - Nickel
Monsoon 16/10mm (ID 3/8 OD 5/8) Free Center Compression Fitting Six Pack - White
Monsoon 16/10mm (ID 3/8 OD 5/8) Free Center Compression Fitting - White x2
Mayhems Pastel - Blue Berry Coolant 1L x2

 

[adwol48]

right folks the parts have arrived installed as much as i can but waiting on rads and tubing to arrive along with a couple of 45/90 rotary monsoon fittings

Spoiler

theres the main parts that arrived monday

really like the WB it feels really well made and should show off the coolant colour really well

it did slightly struggle getting the back plate on for the block due to the itx form factor components on the back of the MB caused clearance issues but got that sorted and mounted securely in the end

on a side note since the EK 240 PE rads are still on preorder i went and got 2 XSPC EX240 rads instead, i might change back to the EK rads at a later date though

 

[adwol48]

so rads have arrived and i've put them into the case, clearance was very tight on the vertical rad like 1mm of clearance, i could have mounted it lower to avoid this.

heres a few pics of the rads installed no tubing yet as i'm waiting for that to arrive also more than likely gonna need another 90 degree fitting for the top rad to make it a clean straight line from the other rad instead of a sharp curve.

Spoiler

originally i was gonna go with pushpull but due to the proximity of the rads to each other and the limited space for mounting the pump/res (might try a different one later on to increase space) its going to be limited to push for the front rad and pull for the top rad.

edit: would you believe it 20 mins after taking these pics the tubing showed up while i was in the shower, shall update 2moro once the final 90 degree fitting i've ordered turns up hopefully

 

[adwol48]

okay so i've got all the tubing in, bleed the loop which didnt take too long guess i got beginners luck with that, so far so good no leaks but havent done a full 24 hours just done like 7-8 as i've been out at work most of the day will most likely give it the full work out sunday.

So below are a few pics of the completed cpu loop.

Spoiler

please ignore the nasty long black sata cable its only temporary and is being replaced with a silverstone CP11 ultra slim sata cable early next week

my next job is to replace the fans I'm currently using with something a bit more suitable for quiet operation, currently using the old h100 fans I have lying around which definitely aren't quiet. Also the pump currently isn't mounted properly to the case but I'm planning on getting foam to mount it on to stop vibrations transferring across. next big purchase will be the RM650 or 750 cant decide which as I've decided if i can find that one that's not too long I'm gonna upgrade to a gtx780 instead of the originally planned 770.

One bug bear i have is the motherboard header wires currently they are just hanging next to the USB cable to i'm probably gonna buy some extenders in either white or blue to try to hide them a bit better.

All in all for my first ever WC loop i'm pleased with results maybe should have picked a easier case layout wise to start with though.