ITX! Epos7 Liquid Cooled NCASE

Epos7

Gawd
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Aug 31, 2015
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Starting this thread as a build log now that I'm close to breaking ground on my next project. My current system is built in an M1 v4. I plan to move those parts into a v6.1 and incorporate liquid cooling. I'll also be attempting custom sleeved cables. I made my current cables but didn't sleeve them.

Case: NCASE M1 v6.1
PSU: Corsair SF600 w/ Noctua 92mm fan
Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 I Aurus Pro WiFi w/ Noctua chipset fan
CPU: Ryzen 3900X 5900X
GPU: EVGA RTX 3080 XC3
Memory: G.Skill 32GB B-die kit
Drives: 1TB HP EX920 & 1TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus
Fan Controller: Aquacomputer Octo

Liquid Cooling parts:
 
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12/20/2020
I received my IceMan reservoir a week or so ago. It's missing one of the screws holding the steel backplate to the acetal body. I contact the seller and they don't know they specs of the screw. It's a very unique one - torx T9 head with M3 threads. Flat head, but unlike typical M3 flat heads, it has a head diameter of 4.2mm instead of 6mm. The closest thing I've been able to find is the set screw used on carbide lathe bits, but even that is far from a perfect match. I had to ask the seller to send me the missing screw, for which they charged me 50 cents 🙄 Hopefully it will arrive soon.

I was able to install the pump and heatsink.



1/8/2021
I installed my water block last night. Took a couple hours. EK included 6mm screws with the backplate, though the parts list says they should be 7mm. So the included screws are too short. The screws are there after all. The box has a "secret compartment" you can only access if you open that end. Thankfully I hadn't recycled the box by the time I found this out.

1/14/2020
Missing screw for the reservoir arrived from China. I've made all the sleeved cables for this build. In hindsight I'd make the 24-pin cable fractionally longer to make installing and removing easier, but I didn't feel like making another one.

I started putting the liquid cooling fittings together and ran into a big snag - the ports on my bottom radiator are underneath the graphics card, and there isn't enough room there for a 90 degree rotary fitting (too tall). I ordered a couple non-rotary fittings which should fit. I'll just have to hope they point in roughly the right direction once tightened down.

1/20/2021
As mentioned below, the non-rotary fittings didn't work as one pointed the wrong way when tightened. :facepalm: I have some Koolance low-profile rotary fittings on the way. These are 19.5mm tall, which I can almost certainly make work. Since I was ordering direct from Koolance, I took the opportunity to get some QD3s as I've become suspicious of the Barrow QDCs I was planning to use.

During the process of installing the lower 240mm radiator, I used a screw that was a little too long and ran into the cooling fins. Luckily XSPC doesn't have any of the liquid tubes under the screws, but I used my EK leak tester to be extra sure I didn't do any damage and thankfully it all checks out. Leak tester has already come in useful.

1/23/2021
Almost there. After working furiously all weekend the loop is complete. Leak test passed with the EK leak tester, now it's filled with liquid and circulating on an external PSU.
 
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Some pictures of the build process

Made some cables.
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Installing the GPU block.
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Bump for the last few updates. My 90-degree non-rotary elbows are supposed to arrive on Sunday. Just hoping they point the right way tightened down.
 
Bump for the last few updates. My 90-degree non-rotary elbows are supposed to arrive on Sunday. Just hoping they point the right way tightened down.
Oh man, I hope they do as well. I do not want to be a downer but I have never had that be the case. Rotary 90's are the only way to go.
 
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Yeah I screwed up and ordered all non rotaries, and sent them all back because they all pointed in different directions from what I needed. For you, I'd suggest low profile rotary 90. I'm using giant monsoon ones, but there are many small rotaries out there.

And welcome to the club of fools doing itx custom loops. I'm going on like 6 weeks since I started ordering parts and my loop is still dry.
 
Yes, you dont have to get triple rotaries, you can have the convenience and have the space savings.
Assuming your compression or barb fitting isn't too big as well 😉 it's a bit of trial and error. I ended up placing 4 orders before I got everyrhing right!
 
So I have about 19mm to work with (not including threads) and both types of rotary 90s I bought are much too tall.

It looks like Koolance does make a low profile rotary 90 that will fit, but it's out of stock just about everywhere, so I'm really hoping I get lucky with these non-rotary ones. There's about 270 degrees I could work with, but if they wind up in the 90 degrees facing into the radiator I'm in trouble.
 
i found those on highflow.nl, they ship world wide... but it says they are 2cm. cant you make the extra 1mm work?
Sweet. I've ordered from there before with no issues. Looking at the spec sheet, it comes in at 19.5mm. I think I can make that work - I believe there's a small amount of sag in my card so the fittings could double as a support.

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And welcome to the club of fools doing itx custom loops. I'm going on like 6 weeks since I started ordering parts and my loop is still dry.
Several months for me :ROFLMAO: I started tracking my costs for this project but have since given up because I don't want to have a heart attack.
 
Cool, I managed to find the low profile Koolance fittings here:

frozencpu.com

Edit - even better, they're available here, and they're located in my state.

koolance.com

Not black, but oh well. Ordered a couple as a backup in case these non-rotary elbows don't work. I also snagged some Kollance QD3s as I'm a little skeptical of these Barrow ones I have and they're kinda huge. The QD3s look much smaller.
 
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Predictably, the non-rotary 90s will not work. They arrived a day early, and one of them lines up quite nicely, but the other points straight into the radiator :facepalm:

With Monday being a holiday I'm hoping these Koolance fittings show up by next weekend.
 
Predictably, the non-rotary 90s will not work. They arrived a day early, and one of them lines up quite nicely, but the other points straight into the radiator :facepalm:

With Monday being a holiday I'm hoping these Koolance fittings show up by next weekend.
My stuff was delayed like two weeks over the holidays. Good luck, hopefully you get it soon!
 
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Koolance fittings are out for delivery. I don't think I've ever been this excited for what are basically plumbing fittings.
 
Knock on wood but I think I'm almost there. Spent all weekend working on the loop. Didn't see any issues with the EK leak tester, so I filled it with coolant and now it's circulating hooked up to an external PSU. Provided no unforeseen leaks appear, I should be able to flip the switch tomorrow :D
 
And I'm up and running!

Fans are all spinning at 100% for now. I installed Aquasuite, excited to see what the Octo can do. It detected the Octo, and said it needed a firmware update before I can use it. It also said I need to disconnect all fans and sensors from the device before updating the firmware. You gotta be f***ing kidding me. Very thankful I put QDCs on the side radiator, so the Octo is easy to access. Still a bit of a PITA though.
 
I updated the Octo firmware. I have the pump plugged into my CPU header for now, but I expect I'll move it over to the Octo as well.

Some data playing Cyberpunk for about 45 minutes. She's soooo quiet now 😄

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I updated the Octo firmware. I have the pump plugged into my CPU header for now, but I expect I'll move it over to the Octo as well.

Some data playing Cyberpunk for about 45 minutes. She's soooo quiet now 😄

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nice! Today I fixed my error of hooking the fans up to the CPU header and moved them to the chassis fan header. CPU header is only controlled by cpu temp, while chassis can be (and is now) tied to water temp sensor. So much better. Nice and quiet!
 
nice! Today I fixed my error of hooking the fans up to the CPU header and moved them to the chassis fan header. CPU header is only controlled by cpu temp, while chassis can be (and is now) tied to water temp sensor. So much better. Nice and quiet!

Sweet! That's the same issue I'm having - CPU temp jumps around a lot so I need to bind it to the water temp.
 
I've been so busy with other stuff I completely forgot I pre-ordered a 5900X back in November. It arrived today, so I swapped out my 3900X. Was very grateful for the QDCs and soft tubing as I was able to swap the CPU out in about 30 minutes without draining the loop.

I've also moved my pump over to the Octo. I set up a virtual sensor in Aquasuite that averages my two liquid sensors. I can now use the average to control my pump and fans. Too freaking cool :ROFLMAO:
 
I've been so busy with other stuff I completely forgot I pre-ordered a 5900X back in November. It arrived today, so I swapped out my 3900X. Was very grateful for the QDCs and soft tubing as I was able to swap the CPU out in about 30 minutes without draining the loop.

I've also moved my pump over to the Octo. I set up a virtual sensor in Aquasuite that averages my two liquid sensors. I can now use the average to control my pump and fans. Too freaking cool :ROFLMAO:
lucky! swapping a CPU literally isn't an option for me.

https://hardforum.b-cdn.net/data/attachment-files/2021/01/421738_20210118_075855.jpg
 
D'oh! Looks great, though! What CPU are you running? I like the blue. I went purple, but it's not really visible unless you peer around the back of the case at the res.
3950x. I will get a 5950x in a year or two, whenever AM4 is end of life and there isn't anything better. I went with blue only because it was on clearance and I didn't want to run distilled alone. I leave the side panel off as long as it's on my desk so I get to enjoy looking at it :D
 
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As promised, some pics of the finished build.

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I'm not using the two USB-A ports on the front panel, so one of my projects when I find time over the next few weeks is to put the included "stealth" front plate on a mill and cut USB-C and 3.5mm holes.

Case is a Pelican 1550. The included foam liner for the lid is a little too thick to work with the NCASE, so I used some foam tape instead. Trouble is, the case is HDPE, so after a couple weeks the tape falls off. I might have to use CA glue or something similar to get it to stick.
 
so what do those bottom fans actually do? :D I wish my TU150 had a fully perforated side panel like that.
 
so what do those bottom fans actually do? :D I wish my TU150 had a fully perforated side panel like that.

Yeah the fully perforated side panel is a big upgrade over my older NCASE. You could really feel it trapping heat near the bottom, though I expect that's less of an issue with liquid cooled cards.

Slim fans are set to intake through the lower 240mm radiator. Seems to work, as the liquid coming off the CPU is cooler than the liquid coming off the GPU, so the lower rad is removing more thermal energy than the CPU is adding. It doesn't hit the side radiator until after it goes past the CPU sensor, so makes for a nice way to isolate the performance of that lower rad.

Flow is Pump > GPU > GPU Sensor > Lower Rad > CPU > CPU Sensor > Side Rad > Reservoir
 
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That's a dream build!! Whenever I get around to liquid cooling I would love to do it the same. I bought the same pump/res combo too for when I finally get around to it. Great stuff!
 
That's a dream build!! Whenever I get around to liquid cooling I would love to do it the same. I bought the same pump/res combo too for when I finally get around to it. Great stuff!
Thanks! Good call picking up the IceMan res, it's a great combo with the NCASE.
 
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