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[Build Log] H2O-Micro (<3 Liter watercooled gaming system)

QinX
By QinX
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Asus H81T Doesn't have a PCI-e slot

Ah, oke, ill go sit in a hole for being so stupid hahah

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Hey all, just a quick Easter update!

 

Please read until the end, I need your opinions on something ;)

 

I’m still working out the costs of the DIY kit, still figuring out ways to reduce costs.

 

In the mean time I received the anodised cases back and I transplanted the entire system over to it.

Here are some quick snapshots

 

Photo of the Front

medium.jpg

 

Photo of the back

medium.jpg

 

Photo of my attempt at a closeup to show the finish.

medium.jpg

 

I personally really love the finish I’ve gone for, it’s not quite the silver finish that you find on most cases it has a little more grey mixed it.

 

Now as for progress on the DIY kit.

 

I’ve mentioned before that I am considering to support the Gigabyte GA-H81-TN over the original ASUS Q87T I used in my build. My reasoning is that besides the lack of 1 Ethernet port, who needs 2 anyway? And 2 of the 4 USB ports being 2.0 there is not a whole lot of difference between the boards.

 

Did I mention it costs almost half of the Q87T?

 

They both have

mSATA

Half-length mini-PCIe

PCIe 3.0 4x

4790K support

16GB SODIMM support

2 Fan header

 

You could even argue the GA-H81-TN has better thermals because the heatsink on the PCH is bigger.

 

Here is a side-by-side

 

Photo of Top of Motherboards

medium.jpg

 

Photo of Motherboard I/O

medium.jpg

 

Would you guys be okay with the GA-H81-TN?

 

Next is the thing I am very eager to hear you opinions about.

So right now I am running on a 20V 350W Gigantic external brick. I think it is bulky and you all should feel the same :P.

 

Recently ASUS has released the ASUS ROG G20 and it has 2 external bricks. Why? Most likely 2 smaller bricks are cheaper than 1 big brick. They made a bracket to hold them.

 

accessories-hero.jpg

 

I want to switch to a 2 brick design for 2 reasons.

Reason 1: Costs, by going for 2 seperate bricks I can reduce the costs of these bricks

Supply and demand is the cause of this. More manufacturers and consumers buy lower power AC adapters so more manufacturers make them and prices go down because of that.

 

Reason 2: Space/Cost I can probably cut the HD-Plex 250W DC-DC board by going this route. I can use a power brick that supplies 12V to the GPU, thus giving me the option to make the system more versatile, maybe I can squeeze in a 2,5” or at least a 1,8” drive mount, allowing some form of HDD storage besides the mSATA drive. Also the DC board is expensive for what is does in this system, it is a glorified 20V to 12V adapter, so why not go from 230/115VAC to 12VDC directly?

 

PS: I will make sure I have a nice bracket to discretly mount the 2 power bricks.

 

Please let me know what you guys think about this.

I’ve made a strawpoll, but if you feel the need to voice your opinion please do.


 

That is all for now have a nice Easter if you celebrate!
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Uhh, it seems pretty hard to find the Gigabyte board...are you sure they're still in production?

I was curious to see the price different, but i can only find one place with the gigabyte board.

 

Although as for your question, they're similar enough. The CPU socket is in a slightly different spot it looks like though, so that might cause issues.

It doesn't matter which you go for, at this point.

Specs: 4790k | Asus Z-97 Pro Wifi | MX100 512GB SSD | NZXT H440 Plastidipped Black | Dark Rock 3 CPU Cooler | MSI 290x Lightning | EVGA 850 G2 | 3x Noctua Industrial NF-F12's

Bought a powermac G5, expect a mod log sometime in 2015

Corsair is overrated, and Anime is ruined by the people who watch it

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Uhh, it seems pretty hard to find the Gigabyte board...are you sure they're still in production?

I was curious to see the price different, but i can only find one place with the gigabyte board.

 

Although as for your question, they're similar enough. The CPU socket is in a slightly different spot it looks like though, so that might cause issues.

It doesn't matter which you go for, at this point.

I live in the Netherlands so I can't really say about US availability.

However I was informed about the GA-H87-TN and guess what. Same rear I/O, so both could be supported at the same time.

Pricing in the Netherlands of the GA-H81-TN is about €80 so around $90.

GA-H87-TN can be had for $99,99

http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-SO-DIMM-DualBIOS-Motherboard-GA-H87TN/dp/B00FU85LRY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1428096711&sr=8-1&keywords=GA-H87-TN

 I don't how it goes in the US but over here at the more reputable e-tailers you can ask if they can supply a hard to find part.

 

Hey do you have any idea on pricing?

Working on it, as mentioned until I'm within 90% of final pricing will I say what the pricing will be.

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With two power bricks, I'm guessing there would be a single split cable going into the bricks, and then there'll be two seperate cables going into the computer from the bricks? Because that sounds like a lot of potential for tangled cables

LTT's fastest Valley 970, slowest Valley Basic and Extreme HD scores

 

Desktop || CPU - i5 4690k || Motherboard - ASUS Gryphon Z97 || RAM - 16GB Kingston HyperX 1866MHz || GPU - Gigabyte G1 GTX 970 *Cough* 3.5GB || Case - Fractal Design Define R5 || HDD - Seagate Barracuda 160GB || PSU - Corsair AX760
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With two power bricks, I'm guessing there would be a single split cable going into the bricks, and then there'll be two seperate cables going into the computer from the bricks? Because that sounds like a lot of potential for tangled cables

Yes, that would be the way I would do it. I might even sleeve the 2 DC cables together, but that depends on how it looks and the time it takes, but the split AC cable will be a fact.

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Yes, that would be the way I would do it. I might even sleeve the 2 DC cables together, but that depends on how it looks and the time it takes, but the split AC cable will be a fact.

I'd say sleeved together with both sockets as close as possible, as having one big heavy power brick only really causes an issue for replacing it, or transporting it.

LTT's fastest Valley 970, slowest Valley Basic and Extreme HD scores

 

Desktop || CPU - i5 4690k || Motherboard - ASUS Gryphon Z97 || RAM - 16GB Kingston HyperX 1866MHz || GPU - Gigabyte G1 GTX 970 *Cough* 3.5GB || Case - Fractal Design Define R5 || HDD - Seagate Barracuda 160GB || PSU - Corsair AX760
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psst.. 

make this little beast vesa mount compatible so you can make a super small AIO computer

just an idea anyway ^^ the asus vs gigabyte mobo thing.. i like asus motherboards but i wouldn't care which board was in there as long as it runs nicely. 
the g20 is a very cool computer but the 2 power bricks thing just seems stupid. UNLESS it is because it is 2 huge bricks with massive power delivery for more powerful hardware. 

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psst.. 

make this little beast vesa mount compatible so you can make a super small AIO computer

just an idea anyway ^^ the asus vs gigabyte mobo thing.. i like asus motherboards but i wouldn't care which board was in there as long as it runs nicely. 

the g20 is a very cool computer but the 2 power bricks thing just seems stupid. UNLESS it is because it is 2 huge bricks with massive power delivery for more powerful hardware.

Will keep VESA mount in the back of my head. it would ruin the aesthetics quite a bit and only a few people would make use it I think. 

The reason of the 2 power bricks is availability, the are running some high-end hardware and it needs over 300W of power to run it. The probably use 2 standard power bricks they already have in stock and at a cheap price instead of developing a new 400W+ AC adapter.

 

How is gaming on it?

Gaming on it is as you would expect for a 4670+GTX970, only difference it is in a tiny case :P

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Will keep VESA mount in the back of my head. it would ruin the aesthetics quite a bit and only a few people would make use it I think. 

The reason of the 2 power bricks is availability, the are running some high-end hardware and it needs over 300W of power to run it. The probably use 2 standard power bricks they already have in stock and at a cheap price instead of developing a new 400W+ AC adapter.

 

Gaming on it is as you would expect for a 4670+GTX970, only difference it is in a tiny case :P

ohh i ment like temps  :)

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ohh i ment like temps  :)

Temps are high but with their limits even when playing newer games, if I'm able to get a 2x92mm version made of my radiator it can be either quieter or have better temps.

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How would you get the two power bricks to work together?

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How would you get the two power bricks to work together?

 

2 seperate connections to the case, as long as the ground wires are connected properly it should work like a treat.

 

a simple solder job. it's no biggie :) 

this guy did it for his laptop so he could oc it further 

http://forum.techinferno.com/alienware-m18x-aw-18/4250-%5Btutorial%5D-dual-330w-ac-adapter-mod.html

(sorry if i'm not allowed to link other sites!)

 

wow, that is so over the top I don't know what to say xD

 

But I won't be soldering them together. they will have each have a seperate DC inlet on the case.

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2 seperate connections to the case, as long as the ground wires are connected properly it should work like a treat.

 

 

wow, that is so over the top I don't know what to say xD

 

But I won't be soldering them together. they will have each have a seperate DC inlet on the case.

haha well your solution is smart and doable while on the laptop he had to make it like that cause he couldn't add a second dc in. :) 

is it necessarry to have 2 power bricks?? it's not like i personally would oc a pc that size. It does seem to have good cooling but there is no reason to push it.

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what start button are you going to use???? i really like lamptron illuminated switch... 

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How would you connect the second power brick to the computer?

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How would you connect the second power brick to the computer?

like. plug it in the second dc inlet probably  :lol:

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like. plug it in the second dc inlet probably  :lol:

I mean like a pcie connector 

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I mean like a pcie connector

as hearthofsin mentioned it'll just be a second DC inlet, might be the same as the one on the motherboard, could be different, depends on what adapter I can get. I'd rather not get some obscure connector, that makes replacing the adapter difficult. one of the biggest time-sinks is taking

upgradability into account, I want to try and make the system as versatile as possible to allow people to upgrade their hardware in the future more easily.

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I bit of a double post, but I've rendered a WiP of the new case design. slightly different then the first design I had.

full.jpg

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@QinX I like that new design. It seems more practical and maybea little more conventional than the previous design not that it was a flaw though

Cpu:i5-4690k Gpu:r9 280x with some other things

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I like it allot, although the old design really was a show piece this seems like something I would easily put on my desk

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