Fractal Core3000 Watercooled

RicY · January 14, 2017

Welcome to join my journey of trying to watercool a case that is not meant for ir - Fractal Design Core3000 rev1 (without them USB3.0 front ports)

CAUTION! CAUTION! This build wont be for purists and aesthetics, it will consist of randomly chosen parts based on price/ease of aquiring.

Plan of attack is do do a full watercooling of the CPU and VGA using 240mm + 360mm, using soft tubing and hand comp fittings. Main aim is for cooling performance not beauty, the case has no window and sits under my desk.

Why im doing it?

For a little bit more thermal headroom for cpu, since it can do 5Ghz on air, but the TDP is just far to big for and air cooler to handle it.

And Im bored out of my mind while on my off-work season. Need to tinker with something.

A shor list/specs of my rig:

CPU:AMD FX-8350

MB:ASUS MA99FX PRO R2.0

RAM:16GB of Mixmatched set of low profile Kingston 1333Mhz 2x4GB sticks + Kingston hyperx 1600Mhz 2x4GB set

GPU:Sapphire RX480 Nitro+ 8GB

PSU:Antec HCG-750M 750W

CASE:Fractal Design Core3000 rev1

STORAGE: 120GB kingston v300 SDD + Samsung Spinpoint F4 640GB HDD

A list for W/C components:

EKWB Supremacy-MX

A chinsy aliexpress fullcover waterblock for RX480 (yeah thats the only way for a full cover block)

Magicool Slim 240 rad

Magicool Slim 360 rad

Macicool DCP450 pump/res

Not yet decided on fans completely but may be the following - Silverstone SST-FN123 - 120mm and Arctic AC F12 120mm

Coollaboratory Blue coolant

Barrow hand compression fittings for 10/13mm soft tubing.

A little roadmap for myself:

1) Order components for W/C - ~~started~~ - completed

2) Recieve all the parts before building - ~~waiting for parts has started~~ - completed

3) Build that ting! sort of completed

*will add some photos of current state of the rig later

Tagline for this build - Function over form.

Later!

RicY · January 24, 2017

So, today I got waken up by a call form the UPS guy. Yay, parts are here.

Well almost. Still waiting for the VGA block and fittings (ordering something from china isnt a good idea).

Time for a dry fit with parts i have on hands. But first, some before photos.

*remembered to take a pic only after yanking out drive cage.

Onwards with the gutting, or as car people say - weight reduction bro.

5.25" carrier going bye bye.

Time to test fit the rads.

With minor dremeling for chassis and some bit more for plastic front - removing fan retention tabs and grinding down some material, the rad + fans fit like a glove, but it got me thinking. To add back rigidity for the tront panel I'll be making an 0.8mm thick aluminium plate with cutouts for rad and fans, so it doesnt just gravity fit itself there.

Here comes the fun part - top rad. Why did I want to fit it there?! Oh right, 5Ghz daily FX-8350...

Using random screws and nuts managed to fit 30mm rad + 15mm fans in a place wich is meant for only 25mm thick fans. Not the prettiest thing, but hey, thats what happens when you want tings to be where they are not supposed to be.

Next to do list:

1) Fabricobble front mounting plate

2) Buy the right lenght mounting hardware for rads.

3) Make a pump mount bracket (could just bouth a EK one and modified it/pump brackets to fit...)

4) Buy or make Y-splitters for fans.

That is it for now. Bye.

RicY · March 5, 2017

Prepare for cringe!

It is done! Well, to a certain point.

Finally, my GPU waterblock & proper fittings came (only 45 days from order to recieving - yay)

TBH I'm quite satisfied with the quality of the block - fits perfectly, has all the needed hardware/thermalpads included.

All instaled on the card. you can even see the reflection of my wallpaper and celing on the shiny piece.

A snap just after filling, airing out and leaktesing. All power leads connected back, wires somewhat managed (not really happy with cables on this PSU, have to change that sometime later + maybe do costum sleeved cables). Yes I know, the tubing route is a complete mess, should've ordered one more 90* adapter fitting to fit between top and front rad to make that mess a little bit less messy Currently the loop goes - Pump -> GPU -> Front rad -> CPU -> Top rad -> Pump/res.

While waiting for rest of parts to arrive, fabricobbled a storage moung behind the mobo tray, it now houses my Kingston SSD + 1TB Seagate mass storeage drive. In spite being just a 5.4k rpm drive its still faster than my old Samsung SPF4 640GB 3.5" HDD. (Sata power Y splitters for the win!)