NZXT M59 watercooling build.

haste

Supreme [H]ardness
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Sep 27, 2005
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I have had my thermaltake armor for what seems like forever now. Its definitely old and beat up looking, and it tends to rattle here and there...decided recently to switch to a new case but wanted a mid-tower that didnt cost me an arm and leg. did quite a bit of research and came across this case...the placement of everything seems to work perfectly for what i had in mind.

i ordered the case off newegg 1 1/2 weeks ago for $60 with a $20 MIR. so, a little over $40 for the final cost of this case. i figured what the hell, its only $40! if it doesnt work, i could just sell the case...

got the case and figured out id have to downsize my watercooling just a tad. i ordered 2 rads, one dual 92mm black ice gtx rad for the top of the case and a single 92mm gtx rad for the rear. for now, this will be cooling an i5-750 o/ced to 3.8ghz. i MIGHT add a gpu to the loop later depending on fitment of everything.

yesterday i was able to do a rough fitment of the rads and reservoir, seems like its gonna work!

here are some pics for now. i will update this thread as i get further along with the build.

comments and suggestions are welcome, negative or positive of course. :)
current rig:

i5_waterdone2.jpg




pics of new case :

fitment_test5.jpg


fitment_test4.jpg


fitment_test.jpg
 
everything should fit! even with two optical drives. :)

should i run the rad fans as push or pull from the current positions...this case only has one fan in front of the hard drive cage.

fitment_done2.jpg


should have plenty of clearance for the ram on the mobo...

fitment_moboclearance.jpg


fitment_done.jpg
 
It may not look as nice, but IMO you should mount the radiators outside of the case. Your cooling performance will be much better because they will be in a colder atmosphere instead of in the hot case.
 
looks promising. try to do something about the surface look in the next pictures, and the cables.

i like that build in the pic you linked to.

im not sure what you mean by "surface look". i will be doing some wire management depending on the room that i have. got my stubby 1/2" fittings today, so i can start the build! i hope to have some pics up later.

It may not look as nice, but IMO you should mount the radiators outside of the case. Your cooling performance will be much better because they will be in a colder atmosphere instead of in the hot case.

i understand where you are coming from but the whole point of this build was to have everything internal, in a small-ish case. i dont want any rads hanging off my case. im hoping between the dual and single rad my temps will be fine.


would it be better to have the rear rad pulling cool air in and then have my top rad exhaust out the top? or the other way around?
 
up and running for about an hour now. everything is a touch quieter in this new case. suuuuuper tight fit, but it all works. temps are the same plus a couple degrees for ambient temps. it just started being 80f+ outside a few days ago and i havent been running the a/c.

leak tested for about 1 1/2 hours before booting it up. some pics!

just making sure everything is gonna fit here...i had to change the mounting of the pump to the top of the bracket. the height worked out perfectly though. :D

last_fitment_test.jpg



about halfway through hooking up tubing in this pic

halfway.jpg



all the tubing done. leak testing in this pic... some wiring and such still needs doing.

first_leak_test.jpg




here is everything crammed in there...i had to unmount the rad from the case and swing it out to slide the 5870 in there. notice the wires running to the right of the pic, i have a psu on the floor running the pump.

leak_testing2.jpg


leak_testing.jpg



the back side panel definitely has a bulge in it due to the small space left for wiring...but the panel slid on easily enough and i was able to attach thumbscrews


thanks for looking!
 
I meant the metallic reflection, the one in the picture I linked looked more “mate”, maybe something about the lighting or camera. never mind you’ve done a great job and the final pics are great. so what’s the load temps?
 
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