Watercooling the 1200

reiyushin

reiyushin

reiyushin

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Bangor NI
reiyushin said:
I intend to watercool before the year is out but until the end of summer at least I'll be running on air.
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I said that on the 20th of January :) and now it's happening!

Rig Specs:
Case: Antec 1200
CPU: Phenom II X2 550 - Unlocks to X4 B50
Motherboard: Gigabyte - GA-MA790X-UD3P
RAM: Corsair XM2 PC-8500 - 5-6-6-18
Graphics: Sapphire 5850 - Asus Bios @ 900/1200
PSU: Corsair TX650

Watercooling Specs:
Res/Pump: XSPC Dual Bay X20 750lph Pump/Res.
Rad: EK 240 Coolstream XT
Block: EK Supreme HF Full Nickel
Fittings: EK 12mm High Flow Barbs
Tubing: XSPC Black 7/16 ID
Fluid: TFC bidistilled "ultra pure" water
Other: Blue antikink coils, PT_nuke, killcoil, MX-2, Lego crook.

The goal from this initial step into watercooling was mainly to explore, build and learn. Hands on work has always been more interesting to me that a simple bought upgrade.
An SSD or a GFX upgrade would have given a much much bigger boost to performance but it's all plug and play.

You'll have to forgive the pants camera used...I'll take some real shots when my parents bring the decent camera back from their holidays :D

Without further ado....

The mighty 1200
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ignore the curtains, this was taken in my old student digs :p

The old innards
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That cathode inverter would normally hide in one of the spare drive bays but it was having a bad day!

More to follow ofc!
 
cool project love looking at these
always wanted to see a w/c 1200 looked like was going to get this case
Off-Topic: Whose the figurine does he stand watch over the internals?
 
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The first delivery to arrive, EK EK EK! Block, Rad and Fittings!
At the side there is the braided 8-pin extension cable, I braided this a few months ago, just never got round to installing it...and then when I do I end up killing a few of the connections so I ordered a presleeved 8pin and resleeved a couple of wires blue to match the theme :)
 
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Some good lookin' fittings :)

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And a damn fine block to match

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The HDD cages needed cut down to size in order to fit the rad and res in place :)
7 for the rad + 2 for the HDDs + 2 fot the res/pump + 1 for the optical = 12
 
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Fans depinned in order to be routed through the slots in the drive bays, keep things nice and neat :D

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The block being AM3'd

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And there we have it, I do like the orientation. Makes the EK logo look even more transformersish!
 
This is going to be a good project. I can tell. Just a heads up mate, if you find at any point that you'll need a rotary fitting, then those EK barbs won't work, you'll need to get some different barbs.
 
Have fun with the build mate. Shame you have just started building it because ive have literally just deleted all my old pics of my 1200 watercooled rig. I could have sent you them for some reference notes. You have made the right call chopping down the hdd cage. It just makes things so much easier.

How are you planning to hold the rad in place in the front drive bays? If your lucky like I was you can actually mount the rad onto the bottom tricool fan if youreverse the screws!

Have you thought about adding a second dual rad into the roof? Its very very easy to do and all you have to do is drill 4 extra holes!!
 
TheCenturion said:
That cpu block is one very sexy thing. I've got one myself :D
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Yes indeed :)

ChrisLandin said:
How are you planning to hold the rad in place in the front drive bays? If your lucky like I was you can actually mount the rad onto the bottom tricool fan if youreverse the screws!
Click to expand...

I'm gonna use a couple of L brackets to hold it in place, it should screw right into both the rad and the holes for the drive bays :)

ChrisLandin said:
Have you thought about adding a second dual rad into the roof? Its very very easy to do and all you have to do is drill 4 extra holes!!
Click to expand...

I'll probably add a second rad when I add in the GPU, just doing the CPU for now. There's so much space at the top, it'd be a shame to waste it :D
 
reiyushin said:
I'll probably add a second rad when I add in the GPU, just doing the CPU for now. There's so much space at the top, it'd be a shame to waste it :D
Click to expand...

Your not wrong pal:D

I had my cpu and 2 gpus on that setup and cooling was good, and temps were canny as well.

But I found the noise of the antec fans to much, so instead of swapping the fans I swapped the case haha, went for an 800d did a load of modding and im now using akasa vipers and they are whisper quiet
 
Cleaned out the rad, twas dirty!!!!!
Used hot water for the first 2 runs then the distilled stuff for the final run.
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The third time it was clean and drinkable (yummy ;)) though the pic doesn't show it :/ probably my greasy paws all over the glass...I blame the nuts!
 
This looks to be a good project, good luck :)

I just bought a 1200, and I too am impressed by the size of it, I'm also considering watercooling it in the future.
 
Good luck on the project.
I did WC my 1200 as well. I swapped the front fans with AC F12's, I couldn't bare the LEDs because I use the PC to watch movies in a darkened room and they were too bright for me. But later fixed 2 of the original front fans to the back of the RAD, so now it is a Push-Pull with 2 fan husks acting as shrouds as well.
I might just cut a drive cage when I get my hands on a SSD.
 
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