workstation Bumblebee: mATX Workstation Build (Extreme, Watercooled, Small Form Factor)

[Quinquangular]

Bumblebee: mATX Workstation Build

Watercooled, mATX, small workstation build.

Purpose: Run many virtual machines, occasionally game.

Small form factor needed for 'portability' to bring to college.

 

Any and all feedback is welcome.

During the first few days/week(s) of the build, I am open to changing some hardware.

Things I am pretty set on: 1080s in SLI, and having a dual 240mm radiator and a single 240mm radiator to cool the entire loop (CPU + 2 1080s.)

** Let me clarify: The only two radiators I will have in this case for cooling my CPU and 2 1080s are a dual 240mm radiator and single 120mm radiator.

Here are the links for these:

https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-coolstream-pe-240-dual

https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-coolstream-pe-120-single **

 

Any complements or feedback on paint jobs, watercooling set up, how I am setting up/installing things, are also welcome!

I hope you enjoy this journey - it's my first water cooling build, and my first small build.

 

Here's my watercooling loop plan (the placement for the parts are not accurate, as you can see in the pictures, the pump is mounted towards the back now.):

Spoiler

 

PCPartPicker List: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/P3Yfr7

Basic summary of parts - 10 core Xeon, 2 GTX 1080s in SLI, dual 240mm radiator and single 240mm radiator.

Purchasing parts over time. Each build update will include a date, which parts were ordered/arrived, and what progress has been made!

 

5/28/2016: Case arrived few days ago, motherboard as well. All watercooling components are ordered, reservoir, some blocks, and other parts came today. Other things, such as the 1080 block, backplate, single 120mm radiator, and some others are still processing from EKWB's website and will ship soon, coming late this coming week (most likely June 3rd or so.) Painted the case, mounted motherboard, and mounted the reservoir. As you can see from the images, I had to mount the reservoir at the front of the case, where 2x 80mm fans would be - there is no other space to mount this (back of the case will have the single 120mm radiator and powersupply, along with cable management), thus it needed to be mounted there. As I cannot drill holes and such, I was able to thread two screws through the ventilation holes. It's sufficient to hold even with shaking, but I also ziptied the other two sides which were not able to be screwed into the case. It doesn't budge when shaking and such.

Also, I have painted the case fan filter and mesh to match my color scheme - black and yellow (tubing and coolant is yellow as well, along with cable ties, I know, yellow cable ties sound lame but I wanted another thing to color match.)

Spoiler

http://i.imgur.com/vFjjMDP.jpg]/img]

 

Painted case:

 

 

[awesomeness10120]

Did you buy the Xeon yet? You can get Broadwell EP Xeons on Ebay for 85-200 USD. Best bang for buck I've ever seen.

[2FA]

4 hours ago, awesomeness10120 said:

Did you buy the Xeon yet? You can get Broadwell EP Xeons on Ebay for 85-200 USD. Best bang for buck I've ever seen.

They are engineering samples though and aren't guaranteed to have their full instruction sets enabled.

[awesomeness10120]

2 minutes ago, DeadEyePsycho said:

They are engineering samples though and aren't guaranteed to have their full instruction sets enabled.

Eh, if it were me, I'd take the risk

 

 

[2FA]

4 hours ago, awesomeness10120 said:

Eh, if it were me, I'd take the risk

 

 

Yeah, chances are the really cheap ones aren't fully enabled or fully stable.

[Quinquangular]

27 minutes ago, awesomeness10120 said:

Did you buy the Xeon yet? You can get Broadwell EP Xeons on Ebay for 85-200 USD. Best bang for buck I've ever seen.

As mentioned above, I heard the "ES" - engineering samples, are sketchy in terms of being previously abused and may not reach its fullest/advertised potential.

I'll, sadly, have to pay the $700-800 or so price for the processor through a retailer. But no, I have not ordered that yet, or my 1080s (still waiting for retailers to have stock for them.)

 

However, all watercooling components have been ordered, they are listed on my PCPartPicker.

If anyone has any suggestions, changes, please let me know immediately! I am already dead set on using the dual 240mm and a single 240mm radiator to cool the Xeon (not a super power hungry/hot chip compared to i7s) and my 1080s in SLI. It should be sufficient. Might be able to OC the 1080s a little bit.

[awesomeness10120]

1 hour ago, Quinquangular said:

As mentioned above, I heard the "ES" - engineering samples, are sketchy in terms of being previously abused and may not reach its fullest/advertised potential.

I'll, sadly, have to pay the $700-800 or so price for the processor through a retailer. But no, I have not ordered that yet, or my 1080s (still waiting for retailers to have stock for them.)

 

However, all watercooling components have been ordered, they are listed on my PCPartPicker.

If anyone has any suggestions, changes, please let me know immediately! I am already dead set on using the dual 240mm and a single 240mm radiator to cool the Xeon (not a super power hungry/hot chip compared to i7s) and my 1080s in SLI. It should be sufficient. Might be able to OC the 1080s a little bit.

The case looks really tiny for two 240mm rads. Maybe use thin ones?

 

[Quinquangular]

1 hour ago, awesomeness10120 said:

The case looks really tiny for two 240mm rads. Maybe use thin ones?

 

Standard 40mm radiators will fit, which are the sizes for the dual and single radiators.

[NaLu]

Well, I got the same case and I'm doing almost exactly same thing as you. And...

 

Quinquangular bro, if you want to do this build properly you must be sure what you want. Like really, cos any changes in future can be hard to do. 
So two 240 rads will fit easily in carbide but be prepared to two scenarios. 

First: front mounted PE+fans and passive SE at top, since matx size wont allow you to mount fans 
Second: front mounted PE+fans and second PE+fans mounted above the PSU
Naturally second scenario requires tools, screws (and a lot of work since not only drilling holes is required...) and I assume you don't have any? Then this build will be very hard to you IMO.

Also can you draw your idea of placing/mounting WC set up? I could give you some tips what kind of problems can you have.
I would do it now by analyzing WC set up picture in first post but I guess it is not current now?

One thing that caught my eye, pump. I would say 'mount this pump properly dammit!!!" but... yeah, lack of tools mentioned before is painful.

Color scheme? SPLENDID. And yeah, yellow coolant looks amazing but, it will make blocks 'dirty' I assume? Personally I went with clear coolant and black 13/19 tubes.

13 hours ago, awesomeness10120 said:

The case looks really tiny for two 240mm rads. Maybe use thin ones?

 

*says with russian accent* No, no, no my friend. This case with little modding can fit three 240 rads easily. XE, PE and SE at the same time (60mm, 38mm, 27mm) where XE and PE have fans.
 

Also one thing I would do is to throw the hell away this 2.5' SSD bay, You can mount SSD's just below motherboard on those 'rails with holes', well it will be screwed by two screws but since SSD don't vibrate I think this is good solution. And third SSD can lay somewhere or be glued by velpro stickers.

 

Honestly this case is VERY, VERY well designed but you need to know where to look, and you need your 'vision' of how system will look and what you want.

PS. My post may look chaotic well... I wanted to answer some questions even without right order
Also I strongly RECOMMEND this topic for inspiration and more or less 'how to': http://www.overclock.net/t/1528947/corsair-carbide-air-240-owners-club (interesting part starts from 188~ page but... look at all pages :))

[Quinquangular]

6 hours ago, NaLu said:

Well, I got the same case and I'm doing almost exactly same thing as you. And...

 

Quinquangular bro, if you want to do this build properly you must be sure what you want. Like really, cos any changes in future can be hard to do. 
So two 240 rads will fit easily in carbide but be prepared to two scenarios. 

First: front mounted PE+fans and passive SE at top, since matx size wont allow you to mount fans 
Second: front mounted PE+fans and second PE+fans mounted above the PSU
Naturally second scenario requires tools, screws (and a lot of work since not only drilling holes is required...) and I assume you don't have any? Then this build will be very hard to you IMO.

Also can you draw your idea of placing/mounting WC set up? I could give you some tips what kind of problems can you have.
I would do it now by analyzing WC set up picture in first post but I guess it is not current now?

One thing that caught my eye, pump. I would say 'mount this pump properly dammit!!!" but... yeah, lack of tools mentioned before is painful.

Color scheme? SPLENDID. And yeah, yellow coolant looks amazing but, it will make blocks 'dirty' I assume? Personally I went with clear coolant and black 13/19 tubes.

*says with russian accent* No, no, no my friend. This case with little modding can fit three 240 rads easily. XE, PE and SE at the same time (60mm, 38mm, 27mm) where XE and PE have fans.
 

Also one thing I would do is to throw the hell away this 2.5' SSD bay, You can mount SSD's just below motherboard on those 'rails with holes', well it will be screwed by two screws but since SSD don't vibrate I think this is good solution. And third SSD can lay somewhere or be glued by velpro stickers.

 

Honestly this case is VERY, VERY well designed but you need to know where to look, and you need your 'vision' of how system will look and what you want.

PS. My post may look chaotic well... I wanted to answer some questions even without right order
Also I strongly RECOMMEND this topic for inspiration and more or less 'how to': http://www.overclock.net/t/1528947/corsair-carbide-air-240-owners-club (interesting part starts from 188~ page but... look at all pages :))

This build is being done properly - I said I'm open to small changes in parts if people recommend me to change. I'm confident in what I chose and those are the parts I want, on the PCPartPicker.

No, two 240 radiators do not fit in this case with an mATX board. Only a single 240mm dual radiator, in the front. I can use the rear 120mm fan to mount a single 120mm radiator. Due to the size of using a mATX board, I can only have one dual radiator.

I have plans for airflow so that the case is adequately cooled.

I did draw it, it's in the OP. I advise you read through the whole post.

The pump is mounted sufficiently - it does not move when I move it by hand, and it does not move at all when I shake the case. It's stable and won't move. Plus, it's easy to fill when I remove the top panel, where I can fill through the top port.

I won't need additional tools. I have tubing cutter, but I won't need any mod tools like a dremel or a power drill. It's unnecessary.

Pastel fluids have had issues, I'm using a different type of coolant that has had good reviews in terms of not having any gunk building up. That is not a concern to me. Again, this case cannot hold those three radiators as you claim - I'm using an mATX board, there isn't any room to mod the case so that a radiator can be mounted on the bottom. The only areas I can have radiators mounted, and I will, are the front and the side panel (a single 120mm radiator for the side.)

I plan on removing the SSD bay, thanks for the suggestion. I'll mount SSDs onto the side of the case with some 3M tape or something similar, so I have more space in the back for cable management.

I have a great vision for this build. Again, there isnt any other place I can mount this radiator (I would have to mount it sideways if I wanted to put it behind the motherboard, and I don't want to do that. That area will have the single 120mm radiator and the PSU, plus cable management. I don't want the pump/res there.)

 

Thanks for the help. I'll read through that link you gave me.

 

[Quinquangular]

Let me clarify: The only two radiators I will have in this case for cooling my CPU and 2 1080s are a dual 240mm radiator and single 120mm radiator.

Here are the links for these:

https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-coolstream-pe-240-dual

https://www.ekwb.com/shop/ek-coolstream-pe-120-single

 

The loop for the watercooling is in the OP.

[NaLu]

I have uneasy feeling that I triggerd you a little by my previous post? Stil wanted to help but I'm guess you know better what you want...

2 hours ago, Quinquangular said:

No, two 240 radiators do not fit in this case with an mATX board. 

Again, this case cannot hold those three radiators as you claim - I'm using an mATX board, there isn't any room to mod the case so that a radiator can be mounted on the bottom.

Well people could fit them in 240 owners club so...  Also not bottom but top.

 

My bad I thought you changed you plans about radiators. The 'dual' word in front of '240mm radiator' confused me. Simple '240 rad' is clearer to me, everyone know it is for dual fan 

[Quinquangular]

1 hour ago, NaLu said:

I have uneasy feeling that I triggerd you a little by my previous post? Stil wanted to help but I'm guess you know better what you want...

Well people could fit them in 240 owners club so...  Also not bottom but top.

 

My bad I thought you changed you plans about radiators. The 'dual' word in front of '240mm radiator' confused me. Simple '240 rad' is clearer to me, everyone know it is for dual fan 

Sorry about that.

No, I did not get offended by your post, I just wanted to clarify everything!

 

Can you link me a mod for someone using an mATX case, using a 240 radiator on the top AND side? I never saw that, I would love to try to do it, if it works.

[NaLu]

In previous post I linked '240 owners club', pretty much I learned a lot from that forum. Good part starts from 188 page. 

 

If you still stay with your wc setup after watching that forum, I will take my time and do some revision of your plans (redraw setup and so on)

[Quinquangular]

5 hours ago, NaLu said:

In previous post I linked '240 owners club', pretty much I learned a lot from that forum. Good part starts from 188 page. 

 

If you still stay with your wc setup after watching that forum, I will take my time and do some revision of your plans (redraw setup and so on)

Thanks, I looked around!

Already ordered the watercooling parts like a week ago... So, I cannot change what I bought.

[NaLu]

K, that's fine. I will post here my thoughts about WC, in picture of course.

I think it should look like this. And there is important thing about blocks. They have inlet and outlet, it is good to mount them 'right way' so in the end we can avoid crossing tube. Also good idea would be to purchase some 90 and 45 angle fittings along with something like EK-Extender 1/4" (in my build it was problem for fittings to turn in the right position...and with that you should avoid it, also you can always use 'oroginal' ones that are screwed into radiators but... results can be different from expecations). 45 and 90 fittings are needed 'cos tube will mostly like to bend in such small case. About instalation rads I'm afraid I can't help you much, why you may ask? Well, in my 60mm XE holes from radiator did not fit holes in front of case. But! I saw some pictures where people had mounted something around 40~mm in front so you should be ok. Now 120mm mostly will lay free, but I assume you can use velpro sticker/3M tape.

[Quinquangular]

1 hour ago, NaLu said:

K, that's fine. I will post here my thoughts about WC, in picture of course.

Excellent diagram, thank you!

[NaLu]

2 minutes ago, Quinquangular said:

Excellent diagram, thank you!

Also updated previous post. Also 120 rad is where PSU is.

 

Oh, you're welcome! 

[Quinquangular]

2 minutes ago, NaLu said:

Also updated previous post.

 

Oh, you're welcome! 

I'm confused how you connect tubes.

I thought you go Outlet into Inlet?

So, the Pump/Res Outlet would go into the Inlet of the CPU, right?

 

[NaLu]

OMG, I think my brain lagged here. You are right, outlet to inlet.

[Quinquangular]

2 minutes ago, NaLu said:

OMG, I think my brain lagged here. You are right, outlet to inlet.

Can you remake the diagram so it's fully clear please?

Sorry, I'm new to all of this.

 

Do I NEED the 90 degree fittings? I know it make it look better, but the tubing I got online has a lot of good reviews (LTT also reviewed it saying its great as well) that it does not kink easily. Plus, I bought anti-kink coils to make it look better and to help not kink?

 

Do you have a Skype? PM me it, would love to continue getting help from you.

[NaLu]

Simple change 'out' and 'in' in diagram and it still will be current, since outlet and inlet in pump have some space between them and there should be marginal crossing tube if even. Well me kinda too, but there are some things that I observed in my build, so I assume we can learn from each other 

 

Mostly yes. Atleast one 90 degree, in place where is front 240mm radiator. Since 120mm rad will be in 'back' where PSU is (naturally there is no physically way to fit this in mobo part of case), it will be extremely tight bend. I can do second diagram from top of case, and maybe from front if you want.

 

Sorry but I don't have skype ^^' Plus I'm not sure If I would explain good enough my thoughts since english in no my primary language

[Quinquangular]

6 minutes ago, NaLu said:

Simple change 'out' and 'in' in diagram and it still will be current, since outlet and inlet in pump have some space between them and there should be marginal crossing tube if even. Well me kinda too, but there are some things that I observed in my build, so I assume we can learn from each other 

 

Mostly yes. Atleast one 90 degree, in place where is front 240mm radiator. Since 120mm rad will be in 'back' where PSU is (naturally there is no physically way to fit this in mobo part of case), it will be extremely tight bend. I can do second diagram from top of case, and maybe from front if you want.

 

Sorry but I don't have skype ^^' Plus I'm not sure If I would explain good enough my thoughts since english in no my primary language

I don't think I can buy a 90 degree fitting - I have nothing else I need to order, and shipping would cost a lot for a 90 degree fitting? Is it a big deal?

[NaLu]

It could be. I will make some diagram from top of case so this will visualise you what I mean, ok? 10 min please

[mikat]

why would you get a 650$ ten core xeon at 2.2 Ghz when you can get a 5820k/6800k/6850k that you can overclock? they would beat the xeon in rendering times and such and they would have much better per core performance?