Swiftech H220 inside a Cooler Master Elite 120? YES!!!

[Mousemagician]

It's been awhile since my last SSF build. It was August 2012 when I moved from a ThermalTake Armor A30 to a LianLi PC-A04 (link).
The LianLi PC-A04 fixed all my issues with temps and noise due to a CrossFireX with two HD6950, it was of a beautiful and unintrusive silver brushed aluminum; it was spacious, cool, and silent. In other words... BORING!
Recently, I sold the two HD6950 and bought a Sapphire HD 7950 3GB dualX boost (wonderful card by the way) and so I did not need the double PCI-E slots anymore.
Time to go back to a m-ITX form factor.

Two things were really inviting for the build:

1. The very cheap CoolerMaster Elite 120 case ($40 from Newegg)
2. The freshly produced Swiftech H220 water cooling system ($130 from SideWinder.com)

Most of all, I was tempted by the challenge of fitting the H220 inside the relatively small Elite 120

 

[Mousemagician]

The components of the build:
Case: Cooler Master Elite 120 (from Newegg)
Motherboard: ASUS P8Z77-I DELUXE/WD Intel Z77 Motherboard mini ATX (from eBay)
CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K (already owned)
PSU: SeaSonic X650 Gold (already owned)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD7950 3GB Dual-X with boost (already owned)
CPU cooling: Swiftech Compact Drive II Plug-and-Play Liquid Cooling System (H220) (from Sidewinder)
HD: OCZ Vertex 4 128GB (already owned)
RAM: 8GB (2 x 4GB) Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (already owned)

 

[Mousemagician]

The Elite 120 has been designed to host the PSU on top of the CPU

It has a 12 cm intake fan on the front and a riveted HD cage just behind

It has a slim 8cm fan on the right side (intake)

These things must be changed in order to fit the H200 water cooling system

 

[Mousemagician]

First of all, get rid of the thin side fan:

...then, dremel down the rivets of the HD front cage and DVD drive:

...flip out the hooks that were below the HD cage:

...thus, the PSU can go to the front of the case!

 

[Mousemagician]

Man, I was thrilled when I heard that Swiftech was going to commercialize the H220!
As soon as it was availabel, and I had some buks, I got it!
What made me to go strait to the H200 was the review from MartinsLab, thanks a lot Martin!!!

Black-white theme, with long and high quality tubing:

24cm radiator, brass tubes, copper fins, PWM adjustable 1200 ~ 3000 RPM pump designed to operate 24/7 for 6.8 years:

The fans are oriented to operate as an intake:

I already knew that I was going to change the fan orientation to be exhaust. With very limited space between radiator and MoBo, I did not really want to have warm air blowing directly onto the board!

The radiator needed to go on the top of the case lid:

 

[Mousemagician]

Mounting the CPU block was relatively easy, with the backplate and the screw-in system:

Excellent copper surface:

Only problem, the holes of the plate did not firmly stay in line with the MoBo holes:

And I needed pliers to move them into place:

I applied the provided thermal paste onto the CPU:

Here, the CPU block/pump installed:

 

[Mousemagician]

Next step: to make holes for the radiator and fans on the case top lid

Magic Dremel!

...followed by some sandblasting.

 

[Mousemagician]

With the PSU and the VGA, there is not much space...

Routing cables would have been almost impossible.
I soon figured out the the PSU needed to be oriented differently!

 

[Mousemagician]

I wanted to make a push-pull fan setting on the radiator, with the original Swiftech fans on the bottom and two Scythe 12cm Kaze-Juny PWM fans, 1,300 RPM (that were laying around) on the top. This further decreased the clearance between the top of the case and the rest (MoBo, RAM, and PSU).

Clearly, the only way to fit everything is having the PSU protruding to the front of the case (more "dremeling"):

The clearance between videocard and PSU barely suffices (I added some electric tape between them, just in case):

Thus, also the front lid of the case needed some modding. This time, I used a professional hand cutter (pretty hard to do, honestly). I first had to cut the metal plate, and then the plastic. After that, I inserted the PSU frame in the hole and slipped the front lid of the case on top of the PSU:

AAAARGH!!! Awful scratches
I will add some black brushed aluminum vinyl sticker as soon as it comes with the mail:

 

[CMadki4]

Yikes. That is all I have to say at the moment.

Well, actually that's a hell of a attempt. It works I guess. Just not sure how I feel about the PSU exposed out the front. Not to crap on your mod, but it seems all too often that the main objective off some SFF enthusiasts is just to cram as much hardware into a tiny box, regardless of aesthetics or graceful/elegant modding. Otherwise, well done!

Edit: If you had opted for SFX (regardless of having already owned the ATX PSU) and turned the 90* with the exhaust towards the side you wouldn't have had to destroy the front panel.

 

[sladesurfer]

You could have gone with the Alphacool NexXxoS Monsta 120 Radiator and have the same performance of the swiftech 220 without ruining the case.

 

[Mousemagician]

With the former system, I was able to overclock my i7 2600k up to 4.7 GHz with 1.345v. This was my top with the ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z inside the roomier LianLi PC-A04. For this ITX transplant, I expected no more than 4.5GHz.
Instead, I reached 4.8GHz pretty easily. I first set it with an aggressive 1.385v, then scaled down step by step to 1.31v. At the end it was stable at 1.325v.

About temps and noise, I was looking for the most silent setting possible:

Under stress (prime95) the CPU never goes over 60C, thus keeping the pump at 25%.

Idling, the CPU stays at 39C and the pump/fans are dead silent. At max CPU stress (prime95), the system is still very quiet, way more than when it was a micro-ATX with the ThermalRight AXP-140 with a NoiseBlocker PK-2 installed.
Moreover, during one cycle of 15 min with Furmark, the overclocked HD7950 tops at 74C (less than the 77C inside the LianLi PC-A04).

Here, a 3DMark score:

 

[Mousemagician]

You could have gone with the Alphacool NexXxoS Monsta 120 Radiator and have the same performance of the swiftech 220 without ruining the case.

I know, and I enjoyed reading your thread where you made it. It was quite inspiring! !
I preferred to go with a pre-assembled but expandable solution, I am really naive to watercooling. The Elite 120 was affordable enough to risk to destroy it during this process of "modding/vandalism". Moreover, I now have an expandable water cooling system, in case of future projects.
By the way, I love your Elite 120 with the 12cm NexXxos Monsta.

 

[xyexz]

I know, and I enjoyed reading your thread where you made it. It was quite inspiring! !
I preferred to go with a pre-assembled but expandable solution, I am really naive to watercooling. The Elite 120 was affordable enough to risk to destroy it during this process of "modding/vandalism". Moreover, I now have an expandable water cooling system, in case of future projects.
By the way, I love your Elite 120 with the 12cm NexXxos Monsta.

Nice looking build Mouse, I've seen a couple of others try to put the PSU in the front, in all honesty I would've just sprung for the Node 304 as it already had that internal layout - but I know that's not what modding is about

Also, the Monsta rad build was mine Pretty sure I was the first to WC this case as most people were hating on its cooling potential at the time - I definitely miss that build but I can never stick with anything for too long it seems lmao, seems like you can't either

 

[Mousemagician]

Nice looking build Mouse, I've seen a couple of others try to put the PSU in the front, in all honesty I would've just sprung for the Node 304 as it already had that internal layout - but I know that's not what modding is about

The Node 304 is a beautiful case, I thought about it initially and I'm sure it would have been easier to fit the H220 inside. But it is more expensive, even when it was on sale for a few days on Neweeg, and bigger. I did not feel comfortable gutting it, since it was my first attempt to water cool.

Also, the Monsta rad build was mine Pretty sure I was the first to WC this case as most people were hating on its cooling potential at the time -

xyexz, right! I am sorry for the confusion. I do not know how I confused your thread with the one of sladesurfer, that is still at the beginning of the build with the Monsta radiator.

I definitely miss that build but I can never stick with anything for too long it seems lmao, seems like you can't either

You got it, pal! Same here!

 

[Mousemagician]

Yikes. That is all I have to say at the moment.

Well, actually that's a hell of a attempt.

Ah, ah! It has been pretty painful. Several times I asked to myself what I was thinking when I started (I thought a lot about doing it, by the way).

It works I guess. Just not sure how I feel about the PSU exposed out the front.

I can definitely say that it works. I kinda like the PSU grille in the front, especially because I can see the internals of the circuits.

Not to crap on your mod, but it seems all too often that the main objective off some SFF enthusiasts is just to cram as much hardware into a tiny box, regardless of aesthetics or graceful/elegant modding. Otherwise, well done!

No crap taken I wasn't motivated by pushing as much as possible inside a shoe box, I wanted to have the smallest SSF possible, as much silent as possible (I hope it sounds different, to me it does!)

Edit: If you had opted for SFX (regardless of having already owned the ATX PSU) and turned the 90* with the exhaust towards the side you wouldn't have had to destroy the front panel.

Agree, but I already had the 100% modular SeaSonic X650 Gold and I did not want to sell it for a SFX PSU.

 

[Volkswagen]

Cool attempt but I think an Corsair H80/i would of been enouh to cool the CPU. The PSU front cutout just kills it but I don't see a way arround it- anyways great attempt

 

[Mousemagician]

Cool attempt but I think an Corsair H80/i would of been enouh to cool the CPU. The PSU front cutout just kills it but I don't see a way arround it- anyways great attempt

Thank you VW
The H80i was in my initial Newegg wishlist, then I couldn't resist to the H220
I don't think I could have overclocked the CPU @ 4.8GHz with the H80i, but I'll never know. Anyway, I just stopped at 4.8GHz without further testing higher clocks.
Of course the 12cm corsair radiator would have guaranteed an easier life to me and to the poor Elite 120, but now I'm in love with this solution. Man, it's incredibly silent all the time, even when I play games
Thank for for your feedback

 

[Mousemagician]

I finally could take care of the scratches on the front of the case with a handy vinyl wrap sticker decal film mimicking black brushed aluminium.

It came out pretty decent

I would like also to change the power connection with an angled flat one.

Footnote: I had to keep the computer on this entire night to clean up a 1TB HD for re-selling on eBay. The PC is in the master bedroom, 6 feet from the bed and my wife, that is EXTREMELY sensitive to any kind of noise, didn't even notice that the PC was on. To me, this is pretty amazing!