Water Cooled - Fractal Design Node 804 - Devils Canyon

Nickonthenet · 15 Oct 2014 at 12:55

Hi everyone, this is my first post and my first water cooled PC build!
-Please feel free to offer up any encouragement or advice that you have

My objective for the build is a small form factor pc with some oomph. I enjoy gaming, no surprises there, and have Oculus Rift DK2 on order -woop! I also plan to work with 3d rendering/printing, some audio and video as part of my work.

I hope to create something that looks good and performs very well while being quiet. Of course I'll be overclocking, but nothing major to begin with.

Onto the build...

My Spec:

Fractal Design Node 804
ASUS Maximus VII Gene
Intel 4790k
Corsair Vengeance 16Gb 2400Mhz
Crucial M.2 240Gb SSD
Seagate 2TB Hybrid HD
ASUS GTX 980 Ref Design
Corsair RM1000
-packing a fair bit more power than necessary here as I plan to SLI in the nearish future, and may take the leap to Haswell-E in couple years.
ASUS AC1900 dual band wifi
Black Braided Cabling
White LED lighting

Water Cooling:

XSPC Raystorm
2x Hardware Labs ICE GTS-Lite 240
4x Noctua F12
1x Corsair SP120
1x Corsair AF140
Aquatube Delrin Res Black
Aquastream XT Pump
Aquaero 5 LT
12x Monsoon 10/16mm Free Centre Matt Black Fittings
1x Koolance 60' swivel Fitting
1x Koolance 90' swivel Fitting
Monsoon Quick Disconnect
10/16mm Orange Primochill Primoflex tube
Mayhems Pastel White
-unusual choice here. As the tube is orange, the only place you'll see the liquid is in the Res, which will be lit using the Aquaero RGB LED, which gives a quick visual indication of temperature.

Now for the tech porn...please excuse the quality of the some of the images, the lightings not ideal and I've been too excited to sort that out!

Nickonthenet · 15 Oct 2014 at 12:56

The Fractal Design Node 804! A beautiful case IMO, and so far has been a pleasure to work with.

Stuff. Lots of expensive stuff! Hopefully the case will be a tardis...it will fit, I'm a bit OTT when it comes to measuring.

Fittings, disco's and sensors...turns out I'm using the AquaComputer inline sensors now.

Monsoon Matt black Fittings! I'm planning a clean build, but these add a little 'bling'!

EK Nickel Water block on the Ref Design ASUS GTX 980...installation was a little nervous, but all seems well. I used the Gelid GC-Extreme thermal paste on both CPU and GPU here, warmed in hot water to make it easier to use. This card was incredible when we tested it!

The small form-factor of the case really limited my possibilities here. The Hardware Labs GTS-LITE made everything possible, even then turns out its still pretty close getting the GPU in there!

So the airflow plan is a simple one...in at the front, extract at the back, with the top clear for any heat that wants out thata way. If necessary I can get some more fans in the top on either side, just not sure its necessary atm, and wouldn't be quite as aesthetic.

Test fitting...all seems well at this point!

Raystorms in, again using the Gelid GC-Extreme paste. Here I'm fitting the M.2 SSD. This was new tech to me, amazingly small and helped make things easier in the small node.

All done on the Mobo. Got the sound card that comes with the ASUS M7G in there too just between the SSD and CPU.

*I'm just gonna sort through some of the other images and upload in a while*

Nickonthenet · 15 Oct 2014 at 13:17

Cheers DynoDaz, put a lot of effort into getting this right, specs and visually...just resizing the images now to display better! Give me 10 minutes

Nickonthenet · 15 Oct 2014 at 13:43

Lols

First set of pics are up...wasn't expecting to have to resize them all!

I'll move onto the next set and get some more up in a bit...

Nickonthenet · 15 Oct 2014 at 14:43

Lets continue...

This is where I'll be mounting the AQ Delin Res. It'll be lit by an RGB Led that varies with temperature so wants to be visible through the case window. The tubing-routing I have planned should make this an interesting and also well-functional feature! Its close to the rad, but I hope will not hold too much heat.

First then, I need to make some custom mounts for the Res and Aquaero seen here. I thought using mesh would help with airflow. Easy to work with too.

Heres the finished Aquaero mount in the HD bay...I've chosen to abandon this method as the bay takes up too much space when considering all the cabling...but the basic idea works!

Also here you can see the Aquastream pump, which conveniently aligns with the cable-hole at the bottom of the case divide. Its a little close to the rad, but space is premium in this case.

Same method for the Res mount in the case front, but this time it will hang from the case top.

Finished the Res mount and paint applied...happy with this!

Test fitting the Res...its a slightly awkward location. Not only that but I want to mount it upside down so the outlet is underneath it. Requiring some careful thought about filling. This is where the 'Koolance 90' and 60'' fittings come into play. The Delrin res has recessed ports further complicating things as they limit the size of adapters. The Koolance are smaller than most, and should fit. The 90' will provide a fill port with access through the case top using a threaded funnel. While the 60' will help navigate around the RAM at the rear. These should be the only angled adapters required in the build, to help maintain good flow in the system.

*Thats all brackets made, tubing-routing planned. I can start now to mount the components*

Nickonthenet · 15 Oct 2014 at 14:57

First in the MObo, followed by GPU...its close, very close. My measurements were off somewhere, I thought I had 5mm to spare...

I didn't, theres about 2 mm between the GPU coverplate and Rad...I hope this'll be ok...?

Also close, was the coverplate to the RAM clips. Thankfully this Mobo only has moving clips on the top of the RAM, so this was also close, but no cigar!

After abandoning the drive bay in the rear, the HD found its home in the case front, just below the Wifi adapter. Slight concern here about the heat generated by the Wifi card, as theres a fairly big what-looks-to-be heatsink on it! Is this proximity a concern?

I'm also largely cabled up here! All looking very tidy from the front

Less tidy is the rear...I've done my best, but its just very small!

Finally, the Aquaero's new mounting. I'm happy with this, I've got the heatsink close to the 140 Fan to help keep it cool as they do get hot, not that I'm pushing it all that much, but every little helps and its in a good position to work with, and away from the bundle of cables below.

*So this is whee I am at right now. I'm waiting on a couple of parts to begin the plumbing, but ready to go when they arrive!*

Nickonthenet · 15 Oct 2014 at 15:01

Any comments or advice on the build so far are appreciated

I do have a question about cabling...

The braided cables are extensions, so the PSU cables have to fit in there also! I've looked but cant find anywhere that makes short cables? Is this possible to replace the standard cables to save space?

Nickonthenet · 15 Oct 2014 at 19:10

Thanks for the help and comments guys!

I'm sure the custom brackets will be fine, they're extruded steel. Although it has been a consideration, the Aquearo is very light. The Res although aprox 500g once filled will have added support from the tubing; the outlet will work much like a leg to stand on and the inlet will stop any 'sway' when moving the PC. Should look pretty cool too and function well to gravity feed the pump. Worst case scenario, first sign on any give and I can remake them in stronger stuff.

Just can't wait to get it finished now, hopefully over the weekend!

Nickonthenet · 15 Oct 2014 at 22:55

Thanks MMBlack, hopefully it'll work out. The idea for the rest it that it'll look like its floating somewhat.

Nickonthenet · 16 Oct 2014 at 09:40

Had chance to check out the lighting and colours last night!

Nickonthenet · 18 Oct 2014 at 18:40

Some of the remaining parts arrived, although I'm still waiting for a couple of adapters to finish the build...

Here's my Res setup, which is a little fiddly. I had to use Koolance adapters as they have a smaller outer diameter -the Delrin Res has a recess around the inlets limiting the proximity of larger fittings.

The top left in the image is a 90' adapter -this will serve as the fill point, and point towards the top of the case.

Right one there is a 60' fitting -this will be the inlet and has to navigate around the RAM on the mobo.

Right one from that there is a clear plexi LED plug -this was originially to house a RBG Temperature controlled LED, however! I've since discovered the Mayhems Pastel is too opaque to trasmit any light through it, so the RGB LED will now replace the LED in the on/off switch

Down the right side on the image, top there is a plug. Below that a fitting for the outlet to the Pump.

When in situ, the outlet will be directly down from the bottom of the res, which should nicely help gravity prime the pump, while the other fittings will be out of view behind the Res.

*All going well the final bits should be with me on Monday and I can begin plumbing! Hopefully by Wednesday I should be ready to fill her up!*

Nickonthenet · 18 Oct 2014 at 18:50

Thanks Snips86x! I've done so much research on here, its been fun sharing something back

Nickonthenet · 20 Oct 2014 at 21:07

PLUMBING UPDATE!

With the last couple adaptors having arrived today, I set about getting the tubing on...

I had to start with these as it gets real tight once the Res is in. Navigating the Mobo from the Rad made for some serious bends, but no kinks!

Pump ready with QDC(outlet) and tubing(inlet), ready to feed through from the back of the case. Inlet goes to the front of the case along the floor and up onto the Res.

Hopefully Res should help gravity feed the pump, and the tubing also helps support the floating looking Res.

Rear face of the Res...you can see the 90' fitting(filling) face on and the 60' behind it directing the tube around the Ram.

Offside.

Top.
You can see here the AQ inline Temp Sensors on the in/out of the Rads(Rads are in serial).
Also here but hidden, one Air Temp Sensor infront of the case fans(pulling over the Rads) and another on the exhaust fan.

Nearside.

*Will hopefully have chance to fill tomorrow and deal with any leaks all going well!*

Nickonthenet · 23 Oct 2014 at 21:59

Thanks folks! I did think about painting the fans, but as theres already a fair bit of red it kinda blends.

The mesh is extruded steel from B&Q with a spray of matt black

IT LIVES!!

Its up and running as you read this!

Really pleased everythings come together despite some stupidity on my part! There was a fair bit of F-ing and blinding on the setup, due to a strangely wired molex connector powering the Aquaero that somehow didn't cause any damage!

The fill and leak test went well without a drop escaping. Not much trapped air at all and the QDC works great. Filling was simple and the downpipe on the Res worked a treat to feed the pump.

At that point the only things that could go wrong were the expensive ones, so I was growing concerned by the lack of trouble!

After leak testing for about 8 hours I was happy and set about getting the OS up and running.

I hit the first problem with the M.2 SSD...
-Its a M.2 SATA, and the Mobo only supports M.2 PCIe...grrr...so I've had to swap out the M.2 for a Crucial 2.5", not the end of the world.

The next issue was with the Aquaero...
-Once the OS was on and everything plugged in correctly, it wouldn't detect the Aquaero at all. In the end discovered that the molex adapter I was using was wired up in reverse! -the power socket on the Aquaero is tight against the heatsink and limits space so I used a 90' molex. I assumed it must be broken after that, but after fixing the molex it beeped when I powered up and has worked fine since! Phew.

I ended up exchanging the Mayhems pastel white for the UV clear blue and the green colour you can see in the Res is the Aquaero RGB LED showing normal temps which I'm really happy with, and can be tuned to what ever colour I like at my chosen temps.

My Aquasuite setup...its totally stock clocks at the moment. The rises in temp you can see in the data are from a couple short 3DMark tests(Basic, score: 14169 from memory) I did to warm things up. Temperatures across the board seem 'ok' to me. If anyone has any comments or questions about the data I would love to hear as this stuff is new to me. Worst case scenario; if some of the thermal paste has been poorly applied, better I rebuild now than later!

My Idle setup is with low fan RPM to keep the noise down, this settles the Res temp at around 22'C. Increasing the fan speed does quickly lower this. The fan speed is controlled by the Res temperature sensor as I felt this was the most accurate of the bunch.

I'm surprised to see just a 1'C difference between the Radiator IN and OUT Temp sensors, but as the fans are moving slowly, I guess this is the result. Those sensors are the AQ inline sensor; and I'm not overly impressed so far. The build quality is excellent, but the are just a plastic ring, holding an air sensor in contact with a metal fitting. Not sure how accurate that can be.

If anything seems off target, please let me know...

Next, I'll be enjoying my new PC as yesterday a package arrived containing Oculus DK2

As soon as I've dragged myself away from that I'll do some more Benchmark stuff, and once everythings settled, I shall be looking at some overclocking.

Nickonthenet · 25 Oct 2014 at 17:46

Thanks man!

Nickonthenet · 13 Nov 2014 at 21:09

Thanks folks!
PC's still performing great, I do have 2 niggles tho. I occasionally get an Error 64 code on the mobo and can't quite figure it out. Second, for the life of me I can't get Aquasuite to load on startup!

I really need to get overclocking this beast! I've tried to heat things up but never see the CPU over 36' and the GPU never reaches anywhere near 40'...

@Mullet: The parvum is great. I decided on the Node as every inlet has dust covers, most removable for easy cleaning. -I have a very fluffy husky companion called Loki, he gets in my food, my drink and I breathe his fluff...I draw the line at my PC!

@MSTRBKR: I was lucky. I did my best to measure everything over and over, and was only a few mm out out when it came to the build. Thankfully for once it fell in my favour!

@cwgk91: Planning dude! 90% planning, 10% effort. I'm glad you like it

@gradyhawks: I kinda like the industrial look of the brushed metal to the HD. Its a 'quirky' build with that Res mounted like that and the HD showing. I think the 'mish-mash' all kinda works in the end myself!