Build Advice: Water Cooling CaseLabs BH8

LuxTerra

Limp Gawd
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Jul 3, 2017
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I'm in need of some water cooling radiator planning help.

I'm considering getting a BH8 case and setting up a water cooled "workstation" and gaming PC with a custom loop. I rather like the Bullet series layout, but the smaller cases just don't have enough radiator space to satisfy my desired build, the BH8 should. I'm currently running a OC 4770k on a mini-itx MB and 1080ti, all in a Fractal Node 304. Typically I want to either build small, air cooled systems or relatively compact, high-performance water cooled systems. What has me excited about water cooling my next build is the idea of ThreadRipper 1950X or Core-X holding high all core turbos.

I've never bothered with SLI/Crossfire. I prefer to run one high-end GPU instead. However, I want to consider a dual GPU loop setup just in case VR heads down the split-eye rendering path. Also, the BH8 has plenty of slots and I doubt I'd use them all.

I'm not interested in water cooling everything just because. CPU and one or two GPUs and that's good enough. RAM, SSD, VRMs, etc. just isn't necessary IMHO. The solid cross MB airflow of the Bullet series should really work well with air cooling the remaining parts.. I'd consider a mono block if it fit into my plans, but it's not a requirement. I have no need for large storage as I have a dedicated 32TB NAS. I intended to run high performance SSDs in PCIe slots, not 2.5". Also, for this project I'm not cost sensitive...I'm quality focused. I do hate noise though.

System Use Cases (ordered):
1. 4k gaming and VR
2. Limited engineering simulations/analysis.
3. Occasional video/photo editing, but it's just for fun and very bursty. I've made do with a 4770k, but I hit go and find something else to do...CPUs have been so boring for too long!
4. Several VMs for various projects.

Goals (not prioritized...seeking balance across all goals):
1. Water cool to allow for high all core turbo on 10-18c CPU. Est. ~300W TDP OC
2. Water cool to allow for one or two high-end GPUs (Titan/Ti). Est. 300-600W TDP OC.
3. Minimize noise to the extent possible. Ideally, nothing louder than a Noctua 1200-1500RPM 140/120mm fan.

Illustrative Build:
- ThreadRipper 1950x / 7900x - water cooled
- One or two Titan/108Ti - water cooled
- Intel 900P PCIe SSD - air cooled (stripping is possible, but unlikely)
- 10GbE PCIe or MB integrated - air cooled (would consider 25GbE if switches ever made available at a reasonable cost)
- 64-128GB RAM - air cooled


Now to the questions...
The BH8 has the option to have dual 140.2 (280mm) top mounted radiators. Given the potential TDP of the desired build and my dislike of noise, it seems obvious that I should run dual top radiators. However, the standard clearance for the radiator above the GPUs is 55mm. That's basically a 25mm fan and a slim 30mm radiator. After some research, HardwareLabs Nemesis 280 GTS seems like an ideal slim, low-noise radiator. According to ExtremeRigs, the 280 GTS can handle ~250W@1300RPM and 10C delta. That's right in my moderate noise window and 500W for the pair; peak is ~650W with faster fans. http://www.xtremerigs.net/2016/02/15/hardware-labs-nemesis-280gts-radiator-review/5/

The catch with the GTS is it's very restrictive. That can be worked around with dual pumps or using the single pass x-flow versions.

However, that barely handles the CPU OC and a single OC GPU. Radiator in air temp should never exceed 25C. Dual OC GPUs are out of the question unless...

1. I let delta temps rise. 15C yields 750W nominal and ~1000W peak. Rather tight given my goals.
2. I add additional radiators, but the BH8 is limited in location. I could *maybe* add a front slim radiator (140.2), but it will make the two top mounted radiators less efficient since they'll see warmer than 25C air. May provide no benefit.
3. I leverage the bottom mounted 120.2 radiator and/or the dual 80mm fan spots for a mini 160 GTX radiator.
4. I replace the CPU side, top mounted slim radiator with a thicker GTX/GTR core and push/pull fans.
5. Some combination.

Thoughts? What's do you think is the optimal configuration to water cool 500-1000W in the BH8? 500W or less and dual Nemesis 280 GTS should work just fine, but I want to plan for expansion capacity.
 
Nothing says the top mounts have to be exhausts. Mount the top radiator fans as intakes. Mount the bottom radiator fans as intakes as well. You could do the front and rear fans as exhausts. Three radiators should be plenty (or at least enough) for your CPU and GPUs, plus you'll have good airflow to keep the rest of the components cool.

The BH8 is the top contender for my next build (February 2018 or so) and that's how I was planning on doing it.
 
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Nothing says the top mounts have to be exhausts. Mount the top radiator fans as intakes. Mount the bottom radiator fans as intakes as well. You could do the front and rear fans as exhausts. Three radiators should be plenty (or at least enough) for your CPU and GPUs, plus you'll have good airflow to keep the rest of the components cool.

The BH8 is the top contender for my next build (February 2018 or so) and that's how I was planning on doing it.
I thought about several different configs like that, but at this point I think I may just test several configurations and see what happens. I actually ordered the case in anticipation of a new build, but really wanted Lime for some reason. :D

I have time. I don't have a 1kw water cooled power resistor on hand for a test rig. I should have everything else.

The HardareLabs Nemesis GTS radiator get's top marks for a thin radiator (above GPU clearance). Fairly set on those unless something better gets released before I have the BH8 in hand and take exact measurements. If I put the effort into really testing it, I'll probably just buy the GTX radiators as well and try all the reasonable combinations. Should be a fun winter project.

In the end, it's not just the final result, but journey and knowledge gained.
 
I was just looking at the BH8 and landed here. My favorite build over the last 5 years was probably an Air 540 build bc it was so easy and clean.

Pardon a newbie like question but will this case be similarly easy to build in? Seems a tad small so how hard will it be to pick components that fix versus fitting "everything" like a Kingpin GPU. Wondering also how the thermals will be for airflow. I'd want to use an AIO cooler versus custom loops.
 
I was just looking at the BH8 and landed here. My favorite build over the last 5 years was probably an Air 540 build bc it was so easy and clean.

Pardon a newbie like question but will this case be similarly easy to build in? Seems a tad small so how hard will it be to pick components that fix versus fitting "everything" like a Kingpin GPU. Wondering also how the thermals will be for airflow. I'd want to use an AIO cooler versus custom loops.
The whole Bullet line was really optimized for air cooling. CaseLabs even makes of note of that. For air it's a great layout, cool air come in and directly to the heatsinks. The smaller versions really are air first cases. I liked the general Bullet layout, but wanted something that could suit high-end water cooling; realistically, there weren't enough radiator locations until the BH8 came along and only then with the dual to vents (what I ordered). For the immediate future, I'm going to move my 4770k air cooled setup to it. Beyond that, I'm taking CaseLabs advice and carefully planning a custom water loop.

As far as fitting air cooling heatsinks and long GPUs, that's straightforward...CaseLabs does a good job publishing specifications on their website. The BH8 should fit nearly any air cooling components you want; not so much with the smaller Bullets which are very limited in CPU cooler height and GPU length. The need to be careful with custom water loops in a BH8 is due to all the fittings, tube bend radii, pumps, etc.

FYI, my NAS was building using a CaseLabs chassis and I love it. The build quality is extraordinary. You won't regret the money when you see how well made the chassis is.
 
The whole Bullet line was really optimized for air cooling. CaseLabs even makes of note of that. For air it's a great layout, cool air come in and directly to the heatsinks. The smaller versions really are air first cases. I liked the general Bullet layout, but wanted something that could suit high-end water cooling; realistically, there weren't enough radiator locations until the BH8 came along and only then with the dual to vents (what I ordered). For the immediate future, I'm going to move my 4770k air cooled setup to it. Beyond that, I'm taking CaseLabs advice and carefully planning a custom water loop.

As far as fitting air cooling heatsinks and long GPUs, that's straightforward...CaseLabs does a good job publishing specifications on their website. The BH8 should fit nearly any air cooling components you want; not so much with the smaller Bullets which are very limited in CPU cooler height and GPU length. The need to be careful with custom water loops in a BH8 is due to all the fittings, tube bend radii, pumps, etc.

FYI, my NAS was building using a CaseLabs chassis and I love it. The build quality is extraordinary. You won't regret the money when you see how well made the chassis is.

Thanks for the reply. I was always interested in CaseLabs but the prices were always pretty crazy. This is a reasonably priced case, I could actually see myself ordering one some day.

I'll be very interested to see what you build! Any chance we can talk you into making this a full build log thread?
 
Thanks for the reply. I was always interested in CaseLabs but the prices were always pretty crazy. This is a reasonably priced case, I could actually see myself ordering one some day.

I'll be very interested to see what you build! Any chance we can talk you into making this a full build log thread?

I probably will start a build thread at some point. I ordered the case earlier than I intended since they were stopping the lime color. The case arrives Wednesday, I'll probably post some pics. There's several things I want to see how they play out before committing to a build. Besides, I have been working on a power/network upgrade and just ordered 4k ft of Commscope GigaSPEED X10D Cat6A! Not cheap stuff, but the quality is absolutely the best. Going beyond 6A requires shielded cabling and that becomes a massive headache for residential infrastructure. I'll be running some fiber links as well. In short, I'm busy and don't expect to get to any thermal testing until this winter and a build sometime next year.
 
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