Watercool a HTPC

SavellM

SavellM

SavellM

Associate
Joined
15 Nov 2010
Posts
668
Hi there.

Im very interested in watercooling a HTPC.
The specs are:
Motherboard
Asus ROG Maximus V GENE
Ram
Kingston LoVo HyperX 1.35v KHX1600C9D3LK2/4GX
Blu-Ray
LG CH10LS28
CPU
Intel 2.6GHz 35w i3-2120T
SSD
OCZ Nocti mSATA NOC-MSATA-30G
GPU
Asus GT520 SL/DI/2GD3LP
CPU Cooler
Scythe Kozuti
Case
Moneual 312

I was wondering if you could help me spec out a good small watercooling kit?!

You can get more info and some pics of current setup here:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=129352

And this is the thread that peaked my interest:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=134589

I would love to get mine watercooled as it resides in a shelf TV unit that gets pretty warm in there.

Cpu gets up to 70c and gpu even higher...

Thanks in advance
 
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Hiya mate. I was gonna jump in with 2 feet but after googling your case it's a great deal smaller than mine.

Basically I've had the same desire as you to watercool my htpc and I'm almost done.

It's tricky and you have to work cutely to do it, that's why I went for a larger htpc case.

If you head over to the project logs section you can see how I'm getting on.

It's called first and last.
 
Thanks mate.

I'll definitely take a look!

I've never watercooled anything so be a good project for me :)

I cant find your thread, can you link me?
 
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So can anyone help?
I was thinking on the top left sticking a 120cm Rad.
http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/7558/img0228ki.jpg
And in the top right sticking a Res.
Do you think it would be possible?

I need to get that machine out and measure the space.
But would a 120cm Rad with maybe 2 fans sucking in cold air from the bottom up, be enough to call my 35w CPU and that GPU?

Also what is maintenance like on a water loop?

For pictures larger than 1024 pixels please either resize or link only. Thank you.
 
I think a 120 rad would be cutting it fine if I'm honest. Also if you did what you suggested with the rad and res what would you do about mass storage?
 
I have a 15tb Synology Nas in the other room.
So storage isnt a problem :)

There is not HDD in that case, except the mSATA which is attached to the Mobo directly.
So no space needed for any HDD's.

All I have is a Blu-Ray drive in the middle.
 
Nice storage haha.
I'm looking into getting an icy box for my 4 drives when I've got the money.

Obviously because of the high of the case you will only be able to get a gpu only block for the card so you will need ram sinks for the gpu and your still going to need some decent airflow to keep the rest of the card cool.

It's deffinately possible I would say but tricky. I'm working in a htpc case quite a lot larger than yours and I'm struggling.

But then again I'm not the most diy savvy person.

Watercooling has its benefits in temps and looks.

As for loop maintenance I used to drain my old loops once a year for a clean up.
 
Once a year is good :)
Just didnt want to have to do it every month.

Ye I *MIGHT* be able to get a card cooler as if you look where the low profile connects to the case it is actually cut down a bit. So I *might* be able to squeeze one in.

If not a GPU block will do. Will look for Ram sinks too thanks for the heads up.
 
My gut instincts tell me you case is to small for water cooling. I'm looking at my Silverstone LC17 beside me and water cooling my HTPC has crossed my mind but it's a bigger case then yours and a 120 still wouldn't fit.

BTW that other guys case is like £300+! I think Silverstone do now stock a HTPC case that uses 120mm fans (the LC17 uses old fashioned 92mm) so that would be a lot more suitable) check out the Silverstone Grandia GD08. If you removed some of the hard drive cages I believe you could get a 240 rad in there at a push.

Good luck.
 
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