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water cooled project

J

jrturbo

n00b
Joined
Dec 25, 2011
Messages
37
Hi guys

Lately I have been pondering making myself a new pc, my last couple of builds a few years ago, a shuttle sx48 and sb5ig, how ever I consider shuttle boxes larger than I would like. because they take standard sized optical drives and that wastes a lot of space.

I searched the net and lurked in the forums looking for the most suitable box to use, my inspiration is a chap called " Mia Hallen" and his series of builds Gaming in tight spaces max volume 11 litres, in particular his V3, where he managed to cram inside an sg06 , a mini itx z77, with a 3770k,a gtx 580, a 630 watt psu, optical drive and full water cooling with a 240 mm rad, quite amazing really.

Well having searched net, I still cant find a box more suitable than the sg05/06, so that's what I am going to use, because if you start considering larger mini itx cases, you might as well consider getting a shuttle.

The SG05/06 is the most compact mini itx case that will take a top of the range graphic card and even then, it might require modding, as 276mm depth for the case is about same length as a powerful graphic card or a 240mm rad, with the added complication that I would like to go one up on Mia Hallen, and in addition to the 240mm rad, I want to fit another single 120mm rad.

At present, I am at the planning and purchasing stage, finances are tight, so its quite likely I will purchase the graphic card last.

So far I have bought the following components of the net, and will arrive in a couple of weeks.


SG 05 case
Asrock Z77 mini itx board
Intell 3770k
swiftech H220 water cooling

I still need to get a suitable psu, my research leads me to the NEXUS NX 5000 V1, unless I find something better with a similar size (only 125mm deep). I going to recycle a 120gb ssd and some ddr 1600 memory to begin with and will probably upgrade to faster and larger memory later on.

My intended GPU will depend on my finances, but my shortlist is gtx 680, gtx 770, or titan even, depending on what's available cheap on ebay, I would like to keep the whole build below a 1000 euros.

Once the swiftech cooling kit arrives I can start measuring, and see if its feasible to use the use the swiftech rad or not and try diferent psu sizes, as I would rather use a platinum psu since they are more efficient, however the nexus is not too bad since its silver, I am open to sugestions regarding this build.


Regards

Joe Rubido
 
Hi Joe, welcome to [H] :)

Looking forward to see what you can do. It will be a very tight fit!

(ps. it's Miah Allen ;))
 
Have you considered using Silverstone's 450w SFX PSU? If you check out the SG05 thread here, some of the guys are running Titans on said PSUs. Also, I do recall that build that Miah did. IIRC, he used an ATX PSU because the best SFX PSU available at the time was 300w.
 
There was the 450W bronze just released, and Miah was an early adopter (early post about Max11Lv2), but the first version of that power supply had a problem with coil whine. I think that's one reason he used the ATX PSU, but also because he had the idea to use the PSU's fan as one of the radiator fans.
 
Hi guys

Yes I have considered using Silverstone sfx 450 psu, but in order to cram water cooling inside the case , the idea is to use the psu fan to push the air through the rad, and the nexus psu is ideal for this purpose, since its only 125mm deep, about the same as 120mm fan. A sfx psu uses a 80mm slim fan. so that would need to modified.

How ever a sg05 is 276mm deep and the radiator provided in the swiftech kit is slightly longer because it has a built in reservouir, this may allow me to consider a psu 140 mm deep, and at this size platinum units are available with the required watts 500/600. such as the antec earth watts range and for a similar price as the nexus.

Regards

Joe Rubido
 
Why another 120mm rad? Unless you're watercooling your GPU I fail to see the point.

Lots of folks including myself have had varying mileage with those Switfech 35X based setups. They're slick, but...
 
Hi Guys

The idea is to watercool the gpu also, and since I dont intend to install an internal optical drive I thought I would put that space to use with another rad.

However, I am no longer certain, wether it will all fit. Yesterday I measured the available space above the motherboard, and if you measure from the upper point of the IO rear panel to the top you have aprox 120mm, Atx psu height 86mm + Slim rad 30mm = 116mm., so the rad and the psu would fit, but at present I have no idea how tall is the swiftech pump/block combo, but I still dont have the cpu or the cooler and estimate that it would only leave 30mm between cpu and psu, I have looked at the swiftech site, and various reviews and cant find that data for the dimensión of the pump/block, so I will have to wait for these parts to arrive, but a present its not looking good, and I may have to rethink this build.

Regards

Joe Rubido
 
I have only Corsair H60 experience to work with but the hose fittings and the hoses themselves tend to require way more clearance than what is required by the block itself.

I may have the wrong picture of your layout idea but it sounds like you're talking about putting the radiator hard up against the PSU. A radiator has to have good clearance on both sides or it won't get any air through it.
 
I couldn't find the dimensions of the pump/block, but judging from a picture I found, and other pictures, it looks to be about 2", or ~ 50mm, which I believe is close to the height of the i/o shield. But you'll probably have to wait for it to come in to see just how well everything will fit.

Edit: I believe the i/o shield is ~45mm, and the h220 rad is 29mm, so 86mm + 29mm = 115mm, so it's going to be very close, within a millimeter or two, whether it will fit or not. You may have to try to find slim fans 15mm or 20mm, to make it fit.

5188_15_swiftech_h220_compact_drive_ii_cpu_water_cooler_review.jpg
 
Last edited:
Hi Guys

The H 220 kit has arrived, so after unpacking to check its contents, I have measured the height of the pump blobk combo aprox 56mm tall, or 48mm with the plastic top cover removed.





In addition to this there is another problem, due to the position of the socket within the motherboard, it will only allow fitment with the swivel joints touching the vrm heatsink and the memory modules, if you turn it the other way the swivel joint will interfere with graphic card.





This should not to be too hard to solve, If I am willing to use low profile memory and remove a bit of aluminium with the help of the dremel tool.

But vertical space appears to be problem, looks like I am going to be 1 cm short.

I am going to borrow an SG05 from my friends computer shop, then I will know for certain if all fits, but its not looking good,

Have been looking at low profile ram, seems Samsung Green ram is excellent but hard to find and cant find any larger tan 8gb kits, the only alternative I can find is Crucial ballistic sport or tactical, 16gb kits are available.

Does anyone else know any other memory worth considering ?

regards

Joe Rubido
 
Hi guys

I borrowed an sg05 case and there is no way the water cooling set up is going to fit unless I relocate the motherboard like Miah Allen did in gaming in tight spaces v3, and even then I would be limited to a single 240mm rad, so having looked at the various mini itx cases market available on the market I have decided to go with a CM 130 elite

In the mean time I have been busy on the net purchasing components for the build, and I am currently waiting for the parts to arrive. I still need to get an SSD, and more cooling components, my list of parts so far is as follows

CM 130 elite
Asrock Z77 ITX
i7 - 3770k
16 gb crucial ballistic tactical low profile DDR3 1600 cl 8 , low volts 1.35v
MSI GTX 680 lightning
Western digital hybrid 2.5" hard drive 1 Tb with 16gb of nand for secondary storage
Antec earth watts 650 watts platinum psu
Swiftech H220 expandable water cooling kit

Once I have the case, I will study it and try to figure out the largest water cooling rads that will fitm if possible I would like to fit a 280mm + 140mm rad, in which case I will get aquagrafx full cover water block for the GPU.

I will post some pics when the rest of the components arrive.
 
Hi there

Update regarding this Project, my new ssd arrived in the post this morning a Samsung 840 pro, along with a Antec platinum 650w psu and the western digital 1tb hybrid 2.5" hdd.

Still waiting for the CM 130 elite to arrive, but worst of all, is the retailer with whom I ordered and paid for the memory, has let me down, he now tells he hasnt got any crucial ballistic tactical LP memory in stock and doesnt know when he will get more in, he is offering me crucial ballistic sport VLP, and it looks like I may have to take up his offer as in the last couple of months low profile memory has shot up in price. Dam I need that memory to start testing the components,

I also pulled the trigger on a aquagrafix 680 lightning GPU block, I expect it to arrive sometime next week.

I will take some pics tomorrow.

J A Rubido
 
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