No compromises M-Atx water cooled build log <Feedback appreciated!

[Sean W.]

Thanks! I think it turned out pretty prefect!

[asusfan]

nice case and little mods make it stand out. 

shame about the heat sink screw on the motherboard, it will take some precision tools to get that out. but not impossible

[Sean W.]

Alright guys,

I made the LED strips Ill be using to light up the inside of this build today, I figured that I could hook them up to the fan controller and control their brightness with it, and it worked! When I want the computer to be super quiet and dark, I turn the controller all the way down and the lights will turn off.

 

 

 

[Sean W.]

Big update coming soon, guys! Stay tuned!

[hearthofsin]

why did you go for the micro res btw? i think a small tube res would look sicker. just IMO tho  

[Sean W.]

The biggest reason is because of space, this is a very small case. Space is a major concern and Im already jamming a lot of hardware into this case, things are going to be quite dense. 

 

 Also... I already had it haha

[Sean W.]

Alright, had more time to work on the build today, just waiting for the waterblocks and radiators! This build should be put together shortly!

 

 Still lots of little detail work to do tho!

 

 For example, With this being an M-ATX build, I needed to use every square inch of this case that I could, so I removed the drive cages to make room for watercooling gear. Normally this isnt a problem and I would just use double sided tape and stick an SSD anywhere it would fit. This time I wanted to be a little more elegant, so I made a drive cage that is going to get double sided tapped to the top of the power supply.

 

 This is going to look crazy at first, but stick with me, there is a method to my madness!

 

 First thing I did was find something that I could use to make the cage out of. I wanted to use metal, but ended up using this little plastic drawer. Since im only mounting SSD's, plastic will work just fine!

 

 

 This is the drawer I used.

 

First cut the end off and mark from the new cut in the length of the drives

 

Then cut the other end off. The middle bit is what we will use to make the drive cage. 

 

Then remove the middle between the two sides. Forgot to take a picture of this step, so MS Paint to the rescue

 

Then what youre left with is two " L " brackets that you can drill holes in and mount the drives to!

 

Drill two sets of holes, so you can mount two drives

 

 I was also able to permanently mount the LED strips today! The bottom strip I drilled two sets of holes in the bottom of the case and used twist ties to hold it in place. The vertical one I used double sided tape to mount it.

 

 

 

 

Looking pretty sharp if you ask me!

 

 

 

Since I wired the LED strips to the fan controller, I can control their brightness, or even turn them off!

Thats all for now!

 

[hearthofsin]

fair enough  

looks cool man. that custom hdd cage is a bit odd tho :lol: but it's nice to see you went custom instead of just buying some cage and taping it in  

[Sean W.]

fair enough  

looks cool man. that custom hdd cage is a bit odd tho :lol: but it's nice to see you went custom instead of just buying some cage and taping it in

 

 

Thanks haha, yea its a bit weird. Function over form haha

[Sean W.]

super quick update today.

 

 Just painted the radiator screws that I already had, black. 

 

 

 

its all in the details kiddies

[Sean W.]

Im starting to get everything I need to finish the build! All I'm waiting for at this point is the waterblocks for the 980's which are on their way. So hopefully by this time next week she'll be all done and running!

 

 Today I received the radiators I'll be using to cool everything. The 2x Alphacool NexXxos ST30 240 and 1x ST30 120. I only use Alphacool radiators in my builds, to my knowledge they are the only radiators on the market that are made almost entirely out of copper. The important thing here is that the fins are made out of copper and not aluminum. In a build like this where there isnt a lot of room, you need to make the space you do have perform as efficiently as possible, short of a radiator being made out of a precious metal that has better conductive qualities than copper (like silver or gold), these are the best radiators on the market (IMO). Not to mention, with an almost all copper radiator, they reduce your chances of electrolysis occurring in your loop, so long as you use all copper blocks, like I do. The final thing I like about Alphacool rads is that they are relatively low fin density, which allows me to run my fans at lower RPM's, which keeps everything quiet. 

 

I reached out to Alphacool to sponsor me for this built, but unfortunatly they declined. That didnt stop me from happily shelling out my hard earned money for them anyway. They are the best.

 

Anyway! Here they are! So pretty!

 

In this picture, you can really see the copper fins on the radiators. Another thing I like about these radiators is that while they do have copper fins, they DID NOT paint over them ( much ) which would have severely reduced the cooling capability. 

 

A pic of all the radiators that will be in this build a combined of surface area of a 560mmx120mm of copper finned radiator goodness. These build is going to be nice and cold, but more importantly, quiet

 

Also, this is why you flush your radiators kiddies. See all those black specs, each one of those would be bad news bears for your pump!

[Sean W.]

So first thing I did with the new radiators is remove the " Acool " decal off the show side of each of the new radiators!

 

 It was a PITA and took forever 

 

Here is the case with all the radiators installed! Things are starting to get tight in there! Keep in mind Is till need to shove two GTX 980's in there!

 

In the next couple pictures, you can get an idea of how tight things are and just how challenging plumbing this is going to be!

 

Here you can see that the fan from the top radiator is actually touching the radiator on the back. Also, getting an 8pin CPU cable to that CPU power plug is going to be difficult. You can also see that there is about 1/16" clearance between the motherboard and the fans on the top radiator

 

Here you can see how tight the barbs from the front rad and the top rad are, its going to be challenging getting tubing on those barbs, but I dont think impossible.

 

To give the barbs from the front and top radiators as much space as possuble, I had to set the fans up as "PULL" on the front radiator

 

 Ive never done just pull on a radiator before, but I stuck a small piece of napkin on the front intake and was delighted to see that the air current from the fans pulling air through the radiator, kept it there! 

 

 

Thats all for now!

[favorito]

Where are the updates? bring it on!