Project TARDIS! At last! M-ITX Watercooled Ryzen 3900X Build

Phate

Phate

Phate

Caporegime
Joined
1 Nov 2003
Posts
35,691
Location
Lisbon, Portugal
Hello everyone,

So yeah, finally here is a build thread :p - this was hugely delayed for 2 months due to my motherboard being DOA originally :'( - but its here now, without further ado here is Project Tardis!

The original idea was to have a small M-ITX build with a high spec, IE a lot of power in a really small package. The colour scheme is to be a mainly mono build of greys, blacks and a dot of white with small red accents to compliment it being a #TeamRed build

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So the spec:

Case: Fractal Design Define Nano S
CPU: Ryzen 3900x
Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 I Aorus Pro Wifi
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB DDR 3200mhz
Storage: Gigabyte PCIe 4.0 1TB Aorus NVMe
Graphics: Gigabyte Radeon 5700XT 8gb Reference card
PSU: Seasonic Prime Platinum 650W Modular
Cables: Cablemod custom length PSU Cables

Cooling

Pump/Res: Alphacool Eisstation
CPU Block: EKWB Velocity AM4
GPU Block: EKWB Radeon 5700XT
Radiators: 2 x Hardware Labs Black Ice Nemesis 240GTS X-Flow
Fans: 4 x Noctua Chromax NF-F12 120mm
Coolant: Mayhems Pastel Light Grey
Fittings: Bitspower
Tubing: Mayhems Glass - 12mm OD

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So as mentioned, originally some 2 months ago, when I finally had all the parts. I assembled the PC on stock cooling with the intention of doing some stability testing. The motherboard however, had different ideas. The PC posted twice, then after that it just wouldn't :(

Frustrated, I returned the motherboard and only got a replacement on Friday just gone (October 25th) so a whopping 2 months for the RMA process, annoying...but outside of my hands, oh well.

Anyway, so this Friday just gone. I assembled it all on stock cooling and booted up. Updated BIOS to Gigabyte F6b and got Windows installed, all running exactly as it should :)

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After 48 hours of testing, I am happy. Time to get the WC installed...this is the tough bit.

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First bit, GPU block on the GPU

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Using the original reference backplate as I think it looks great with the red accent.

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It's on!

Next up is CPU block

Original cooler coming off

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CPU Shot

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Stand-offs in

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Block on

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After this I decided to get the radiators fitted and identify the correct position for them

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Radiator position confirmed, time to do the first tube fitting, also arguably the most awkward. So these radiators are X-Flow rads, now I had this "brilliant" idea to save space by having 2 corners of the opposing radiators line up, so it was just a straight connection between them.

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And in my defence, it did work!

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But christ was it awkward :D (sorry for potato phone pic on this last one, forgot to snap one with the actual camera!

Now, throughout the day I quickly found that cutting the glass tubing was damn difficult with the tools I had available so decided to rethink my strategy and call it a day at this point. I am going to take a different approach using a Dremel and diamond cutting disc.

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Pump/Res isn't fixed yet, just getting an idea of spacing.

But today my Cablemod custom PSU cables arrived...I am in love!

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Therefore tonight, the cables got fitted!

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And my god, I freaking love them :cool:

So clean with the exact look I was hoping for! :cool:

Next Steps: Diamond cutting discs have been ordered and due to arrive Wednesday. From here I can then finish plumbing in the loop and look to fill it. I also need another 4 pin PWM Y-Splitter to hook up the pump/res to the power properly.

Oh, also take a sharpie to the edge of the GPU PCB :p

Thanks for reading this far. More updates later in the week all being well :)
 
Phate I really hope you going to game on that mind and not just watch movies.

nice build man! It’s a good job you didn’t take the photo with a good camera though. When I zoom in I can see your gmail open but not enough of a good photo to read your screen lol.
 
mrbell1984 said:
Phate I really hope you going to game on that mind and not just watch movies.

nice build man! It’s a good job you didn’t take the photo with a good camera though. When I zoom in I can see your gmail open but not enough of a good photo to read your screen lol.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah for sure its going to be gamed on! The purpose of it for:

- PC Gaming Master race
- Photography & Videography
- Possibly try out streaming

But thanks :D - I'll be sure to use a better camera next time :D
 
Quartz said:
Excellent photos. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished build. How was performance and temperature on air cooling?
Click to expand...
I didn't check the GPU but the CPU was anywhere between 35-70c depending on what I was doing. So glad I am going WC though the stock coolers from AMD are awfully loud both on GPU & CPU.

Performance itself was superb, really really happy. I played Gears 5 & Metro Exodus both on the highest settings at 3440x1440p and it was maxing my monitors framerate (70hz) and holding it there. Which means my monitor is actually bottlenecking the system, that is a first!
 
mrbell1984 said:
Once that loops put in that’s going to be some bad ass rig!!!! Can’t wait for you to cut that glass. Are you putting any neon liquid in? What colours is the liquid going to be?
Click to expand...

The liquid is just going to be Mayhems light grey :) - pretty subtle but it should compliment the rest of the build/colour scheme well :) - I am on the fence about additional RGB strips just to add some white glow to the inside but I'll see how the finished project is and go from there tbh. I prefer subtle over everything.
 
Excellent choice in rads, ive been toying with the idea of getting back into custom watercooling for quite some time and builds like yours make the itch harder to ignore!, kudo's to you on a helluva neat build. :)
 
Thanks VoG! Yes those rads are well recommended it seems even if they're not "that" popular, and they suit this purpose very well. Cannot wait to see how they perform. :)

So a small update on this one, yesterday the diamond cutting discs arrived and I decided to give it a test....


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And well...

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So like most people in doubt and in need of an answer...I turned to youtube! And I was doing it wrong! doh! So I was trying to use the disc to make a clean cut all the way through. Youtube experts show turning the glass tubing continuously and using the Dremel to just score around the edge repeatedly until eventually you can snap it off with a strong gust of wind. So I'll be trying that tonight :)

Following from that also, tomorrow it is bank holiday here, so I'll be going into this with both barrels - expect more updates and pics :)
 
Alright so here we go. The final installment of the project log for the time being.

So following on from the other day, I got the diamond cutting discs on Wednesday.

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And I thought I would give these a go. I found trying to cut directly through in one slice would end up with the results as mentioned above, just shattering the glass. So looking into this more online I found that the trick was to turn the glass tubing slowly with the Dremel spinning the disc to score a deep line all the way around, eventually it would either pop off or you could snap it off.

Knowing this, and today being a bank holiday in Portugal, I set aside today and however long it took of the weekend to get the PC up and running with the WC loop finished. Well...here we go :)

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I used the drill to hold the glass and rotate it slowly while trying to hold the dremel in one position, this proved to be very successful. With the end result being a nice clean cut.

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And with some fittings attached

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Now the loop itself I already had planned out in terms of which fittings and the route it was taking, so I spent the next several hours cracking on with it! I had the odd "snag" but nothing which stopped me from finishing it.

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Slowly taking shape...

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Res fitted and final connections made...

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Boom, loop complete!

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And the surrounding aftermath, including 2 cups of coffee!

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From here I cleared up and took the rig to the bedroom, it was time for a leak test and fill... *gulp*

It was at this stage I was legitimately nervous. I knew what I was doing or rather, had to do and how to do it...but having never done it before and knowing there is a lot of money potentially about to go up in smoke it did raise the heartbeat a little :o

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So initial leak test done, and I did have a small leak from the GPU-IN fitting but it was just slightly loose, finger tightened it up and its all good otherwise :)

So without further ado...completed Project Tardis...

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A few things to note...

- Having pretty much done back-to-back comparison with temps and noise from stock cooling the difference is...well, incredible. I've set the fan profiles to silent and you can't hear the pump noise, just the odd trickle from the pump, thats it.

- Temps are fantastic. Ran some CPU stress test for 10mins and it was averaging 60-62c - that will do. Need to do more with the GPU under load as well though :)

Idle wise CPU & GPU are sitting around mid 30s. Very impressed :)

With regards to anymore work to the build, looking at this now I think I will add a couple of RGB strips to glow white just to show off the build more inside the case. Otherwise thats pretty much it.

Oh, and glass tubing just looks BALLER - it was tough but I am glad I did it, what a fantastic challenge. I will get some close ups on the tubing tomorrow when there is better light :)

Dead chuffed Jake :)
 
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