[Complete] KRAKEN Prodigy build; duel close loop CPU & GPU cooling; 4670K with Corsair H75 and R9 290 with kraken X40

[ross06187]

Ok i have been struggling along on my laptop for about 3 years buying games on stream sales that then suck ass hard as my laptop cant handle anything more than ftl.   This is a £1250 build

I never seen anyone doing a duel cpu/GPU closed loops cooling build in a small form factor case.   Although I would not be surprised if there was one buried away in this forum somewhere. Hopefully it will encourage others as if all goes to plan it should all fit to fit together nicely although I sure sacrifices will need to be made. (Seems to be the biggest problem with the BitFenix Prodigy M MATX Cube Case )  if you haven’t guessed the idea her is to  use a Kraken G10.

 

 

Specification

CPU
Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (Haswel )            £177.78 (Scan)

CPU Cooling
Corsair H75 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler                                      £64.50 (Scan)
Motherboard

MSI Z87M GAMING Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard                   £104.24(Scan)

Memory
Crucial Ballistix Tactical 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory             Already Have

Storage

Sandisk Ultra Plus 256GB 2.5"  SSD      SDSSDHP-256G-G25     £119.10(Scan)
Hitachi Product Series:7K1000 Travelstar 1TB 2.5"                        £56.12(Scan)

GPU Video Card

Asus Radeon R9 290 "Voltage Unlocked" 4096MB                       £335.98(overclockers.co.uk)

GPU Cooling

NZXT KRAKEN G10 GPU                                                             £35(overclockers.co.uk) on preorder

Kraken X40 All In One Water Cooler with 1 x FX-140mm                 £73.68(scan)

CASE

BitFenix Prodigy M Midnight MicroATX Mini Tower Case                 £66(overclockers.co.uk)

Power Supply

Silverstone SST-ST75F-GS Strider 750W 80+ Gold Modular            £98.10(Scan)
Silverstone SST-PP05-E Short Cable                                             £16.78

Optical Drive

USB External DVDRW Samsung SE-208DB/TSBS                         £21.21(Scan)

Expansion Cards / Networking

Asus PCE-N15 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter              £15.95(Scan)

Cooling/FanStuff

Corsair Air Series SP120 Quiet Edition (2-Pack)  120mm Fans 1     £20.99(Scan)

30cm Akasa Fan Cable 4 pin to 4 pin                                            £1.62(Scan)
AK-CBFA04-15 4pin PWM 2 into 1 power Splitter cable                   £2.38(Scan)
3831109867808 EK-Cable Splitter 4-Fan PWM Extended                 £5.45(Scan)

Bluetooth

Lycom Internal Motherboard header                                                £4.30(Scan)
Dynamode USB Dongle Bluetooth Nano V2.0                                  £2.15(Scan)

Tin
Arctic Cooling MX-4 Thermal Compound       1                                  £4.78(Scan)

ScanFX TIM Clean CPU and Heat Sink        1                                   £2.87(Scan)
 

I spend an extra £15 on fan splitter and extenders that I nor sure will work or need but I did not want to have to order them later.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/2DlB2

 

Waffling ramblings of choices.   I’m dyslexic be kind

 

Case Selection
I considered many small form factor cases for my build.
EVGA Hadron – just two small with not enough drive space/future proofing.

Asrock M8 Compact – man this thing was sexy but that power supply did not seems to have enough beans for my needs. But you can fit allot of drives in this thing.
Silverstone Raven Z RVZ01- looks good but I am not sure at this time you can even pre order it.
 

BitFenix Prodigy – a top contender but out of stock when I was buying.
So I went for the BitFenix Prodigy M basically the same as the BitFenix Prodigy but with a Matx board rather than a micro ATX but on the outside the same case. It also support water cooling options. And the Matx board has more versatility.
 

CPU selection
This was the simplest thing to do as I its small form factor and I think cooling will be an issues so a Haswell processes seem appropriate. Of which there are two of note the Intel Core i5 4670K, S 1150 and the Intel Core i7-4770K. from what I can tell they are basically the same component but the I7’s are the belter ones of the batch and are clocked higher. So when overcooked the i7 do better but not by much. So I went with the I5 as it saved me a good chunk of change.
 

Motherboard
I could still have went with a micro ATX board as I am really only going to need the one pciE slot. But looking forward having the extra slots seemed like a good investment. I choses the MSI Z87M-GAMING as it support many ram options and oc configurations. To be honest the board all seemed to be the same once you get to £100+ so I went with the one in the middle that had good oc support. I am not doing extreme overclocking so 20 point to take voltage with a multi-meter are not needed so no point wasting the money.
As a after though I got a PCIe 2.0 x1 Wi-Fi card that I am going to try fit in but am not sure the space will be there.

Closed loop Cooling
This system idea is based on the Kraken™ G10 - NZXT. I not against custom loops I just did not think it wise in my first major system build. So I had the idea to use 2 closed loop coolers.

So I picked up a Corsair Hydro H75 (120 mm rad)  and as it turns out I could fit a 140mm fan on the case a Kraken X40 (140mm rad) as the second. Why 2 different one. Well I want to see what was better and they are both 1150 and Kraken G10 compatible. There is also only one place a 140mm will fit. I think I am going to have to mod the case to get 120 mm Hydro H75 to fit. But after looking at the case it looks feasible.
Unfortunately the best I can do to get the Kraken™ G10 – right now in the uk is pre-order it but when I get it I should have the closed loop all planned out.
 

GPU
With these grand plans I needed a a gpu that could truly benefit it from water cooling and if not may overheat in such a small case. Enter the Asus Radeon R9 290 "Voltage Unlocked" from overclokers uk. This thing looks like a beast. From what I have heard this thing should run hot and loud with the stock cooler. This not a pre re-flashed R9 290X
 

PSU
Originally I was going to get a Corsair 650W full module PSU but my plans were dashed. First the Asus Radeon R9 290 "Voltage Unlocked" said it required a minimum of 750W, no big deal get a bigger Corsair but I want short modular cables to make my building life easier. I could only find one set Silverstone SST-PP05-E Short Cable Set for SilverStone PSU Strider Series. So enter the Silverstone SST-ST75F-GS Strider 750W 80+ Gold Full Modular Power Supply.
 

Storage
SSD
And a 1tb 7200rps 2.5” drive
These 2.5” are out of caution as I think I may need to sacrifice all of the 3.5” drive options and only use the 2 ssd mounts on the case side panel. We will see. My second choice was a 2tb SSHD a sort of middle ground. The WD black 2tb 2.5” drive was also an option but man is it expensive.

 

 

Pictures and building progress reports to follow

 

(edit keep fixing grammar)

 

Next Update

 

More Photos HERE

 

Old title

Small(ish) form factor duel close loop CPU & GPU water-cooled BitFenix Prodigy M MATX. 4670K

 

if you are thinking of copying this watch this first. It picks up allot of the same issues but not water cooled

Edited February 14, 2014 by ross06187

[Chatzev]

Sounds awesome, can't wait!

[ross06187]

Pre Build Planning case setup/modding ideas

 

 

The H75 CPU cooler will exhausts out the base. In this position it may make contact with the ram on the mother board but the whole of the base is moderately perforated with round holes. Holes can be drilled to move the H75 further out from the mother board if need.  It may also be a good idea to cut a square hole under the radiator in order to maximum air flow.  The only thing moving out the H75 would do is put it in conflict is the vertical hard dive bracket that can hold 3x 2.5” drive and 2x 3.5” drives. 

 

The 140mm X40 should fit natively as it is the only 140mm fan mount in the case.  The biggest issue will be looping the x40 tubes round the GPU past the power supply.  In some builds this gap is very small so hopefully the tubes are long enough and there is enough space.  The Silverstone psu is shorter than standard (they say that anyway) which might prove invaluable.

 

More to follow mid week when everything arrives.  We will see if it goes to plan.  Fingers crossed

 

 

Next Update

[Witt]

Looking foward to see progress on this. Sounds interesting! 

[MogIsWinning]

im more excited to see this build in the prodigy m then i eas to build mine in the prodigy m

[Impact Blue]

Why not dual 120mm AIO CPU cooler on the top part of the case?

[ross06187]

Why not dual 120mm AIO CPU cooler on the top part of the case?

 

you could do this but you will lose allot of the PCI card space doing it.  i would like to be able to uses both x16 slots and possibly the 1 x1 slot.

 

In 1.5+ years I want if can to move the fans to external ones on top and put in a second R290 with a good air cooler. As it's at the top it would get good air flow.  basically keeping my options open.  Additionally a lot of 120mm radiators are a bit bigger then 120mm and can cause issues putting two next to each other.

[Impact Blue]

you could do this but you will lose allot of the PCI card space doing it.  i would like to be able to uses both x16 slots and possibly the 1 x1 slot.

 

In 1.5+ years I want if can to move the fans to external ones on top and put in a second R290 with a good air cooler. As it's at the top it would get good air flow.  basically keeping my options open.  Additionally a lot of 120mm radiators are a bit bigger then 120mm and can cause issues putting two next to each other.

 

I see, I get it then.

 

What I meant by dual 120mm AIO are actually 240mm AIO like the H100i 

[ross06187]

I see, I get it then.

 

What I meant by dual 120mm AIO are actually 240mm AIO like the H100i 

You can defiantly put in a double 120mm rad in the top. You could even get one of the expandable ones (Cooler Master Glacer 240L CPU Water Cooler) and do the cpu and gpu in the one loop.  But I really wanted to avoid custom fittings at least on my first venture into water cooling.  I did think about doing the 240L but I was unsure if there was enough space in there as it’s thicker.

[Impact Blue]

You can defiantly put in a double 120mm rad in the top. You could even get one of the expandable ones (Cooler Master Glacer 240L CPU Water Cooler) and do the cpu and gpu in the one loop.  But I really wanted to avoid custom fittings at least on my first venture into water cooling.  I did think about doing the 240L but I was unsure if there was enough space in there as it’s thicker.

 

I totally get you, as I am thinking of a similar build but with the new Obsidian 250R. Currently saving up for the build.

 

Good luck on yours! 

[ross06187]

The Build

 

Getting the power supply in
Turns out the thumb screws that came with the power supply were not so ideal as they would not slide through the hole in the base when on the bracket.  Instead you need to put one screw in first then put the bracket in place. With the case upside down 2 more screws can be added.  The 4^th screw will not fit as the power cable gets in the way.
 

 
Motherboard Install
Nothing special.
 
Install CPU cooler
The case has a really good cut out so there is no need to put the cooler on before putting the motherboards in the case.
 

 
The First conflict
Once adding the ram. It became clear that the 120mm radiator was hitting the ram.  There was no problem with width with a second 120mm fan fitting without any problem next to it in the base of the case. But there is plenty of space to move the radiator out toward the side door.
 
The radiator needed to be screwed down.  Luckily this case came with 2 brackets for holding the 5.25” bay front panel back on if you snap it off.  Using these I was able to add some mounting points to the fans.  Then after making some of the holes in the base bigger I was able to feed screws through the based perforations very firmly securing the cooler to the base of the case.  Doing this meant the 120 mm fan was not able to fit next to it anymore.
 

 
Second Conflict and Third Conflict
Once adding the back 140mm fan and radiator it became clear that the radiator would prevent a 120mm fan in the base of the case at that position (same 120mm fan radiator in base conflicted with).  It also intruded on the first PCIx16 slot on the motherboard.  This was a shame as it was this one I hoped to install the graphics card in.
 

 
After looking at the problem I had two options. Drill hole and drop the 140mm radiator down 10 mm or use the higher x16 slot.  As my k10 has not turned up yet and I don’t have an ETA I went with the fix it later philosophy and put the GPU in the upper slot.  I did put the 140mm cooler in though mainly to get the air flow from the 140mm fan.
 
Cable management
The shorter cables set although a bit pricy for what it is was useful here.  The only full length cable used was the 6pin for the motherboard.  The only place to put excessive cable length is above the power supply where there is some limited space to cable-tie things to the front of the case.
Getting cables passed the GPU in general is very difficult if not impossible once it is in.  The side panel has power/reset switches, sound and usb3 on it. With the side panel of these would need to be put in first then the gpu not really an option.  The side panels are interchangeable so the IO can go on the motherboard side of the case (upside down) which is what I did.
 
Cooling
The top two 120mm silent fans were put on splitter and attached to case fan 1 on the motherboard
The CPU pump was put on CPU1 fan head and the two 120mm fan on splitter on fan header CPU2.
The 140mm fan on the back radiator was put on case fan 2.  Currently the pump and fan headers have not been attached.  I am thinking of directly powering the pump from the psu or getting a fan controller, need to think this one through some more.  There is space for push pull on the 140mm fans.  Might go down that way, not sure yet.
 
Hard dive and storage
There are two 2.5” drive bays in case door side but when back of the motherboard side they will have no air flow at all.  Instead I choose to put the hard drive braked back in.  This fitted without a problem with no radiator conflicts allowing for up to 3x 2.5” drives to be added to the system.  If you were to drill the case and move the bracket further to the front you could also fit 1x 3.5” drive on the other side at the top.  It needs to move to the left to avid conflating with the back 140mm radiator and fan.  The bottom 3.5” mount is fully obstructed by the CPU 120mm radiator and  fans.
 

 

MORE Photos HERE
 
What’s coming Next

• CPU overclocking
• Arrival of the K10 and the cooling of the GPU.  I might make a tutorial post out of it. I am planning on benchmarking my GPU now stock cooler, with the k10 and then with some custom heat sinks on the VRM to get the vrm temps down as well.

Next Update

[hiyayhi]

looks awesome!

[Lost2Frostbite]

I have the same case and I would recommend putting the SSD and 2.5 inch drive in the side panel and the HDD on the bottom right. This also means you can put the whole panel on the other side and have a window. Here is mine so far. Apart from that everything looks good

[ross06187]

I have the same case and I would recommend putting the SSD and 2.5 inch drive in the side panel and the HDD on the bottom right. This also means you can put the whole panel on the other side and have a window. Here is mine so far. Apart from that everything looks good

 

I did think about getting a window but i don't think you be-able to see anything.   I have put the power button panel on the motherboard side of the case.  I did not put the drives in it though as there is no air flow on that side. 

With all the tubes going everywhere and the size of the radiators I do not think there is any way to make it look clean.  Your build look relay neat though very very clean looking.#

[Lost2Frostbite]

I did think about getting a window but i don't think you be-able to see anything.   I have put the power button panel on the motherboard side of the case.  I did not put the drives in it though as there is no air flow on that side. 

With all the tubes going everywhere and the size of the radiators I do not think there is any way to make it look clean.  Your build look relay neat though very very clean looking.#

Thanks I was going to get closed loop and instead opted for for air cooler that matches my theme. I am looking to salvage a 2.5 laptop drive to replace my big one and install fans at the bottom. 

[ross06187]

Case Modding

 

Ok so before i was using brackets to hold the cpu cooler on today i went and drilled the base of the case in order to fit the cooler on properly i also drilled the back of the case to drop the 140mm radiator down 15mm to allow full use of the pci slots.

 

It took a while as i had to fully disassemble so not to get drill metal fibers anywhere.  I also swapped the fans about.  i got another 2 fans for the top of the case this time high air flow fans and i put the silent pressure fans on the cpu cooler.  I took the opportunity to do some cabal management on the cpu cooler and in general.

 

Dropping the 140mm fan down

 

 

 

Using a 120mm fan as a drill jig CPU cooler

 

 

 

CPU Cooler cable management

 

if you look closely you will see the fans are pointing at each other. lol, fixed it when i noticed later so both exhausted out the base.

 

 

Drive options

 

 

So it looks like i can fit 3 2.5" drives and 1 3.5" if i move the bracket to the left by one hole.  even with push pull on the 140 and 120 rads

 

Both Radiators in

 

www.overclockers.co.uk/‎ got the K10 in stock and its in the mail so it made me finish of the modding.

 

More Photos Here

 

 

Next Update

Edited February 12, 2014 by ross06187

[ross06187]

It has been some time since an update but the Kraken is finished.

 

Installing the Kraken G10 on the R9 290 is a bit unnerving when you disassemble your graphics card

 

 

 

The on things I will say about the G10 is its very fiddly make sure your thermal computing is not conductive as it can get around. The biggest piece of advice I would give is get heat sinks for the vrm.  I was getting vrm temperatures of 120oc+ under maximum overclocking conditions.

 

You can see the full break down here on VRM temps  here and speed numbers

In the end I cable strapped on a cutup heating using the thermal pads from the stock cooler.

 

 

And then the temps were much better on the VRM.  Under the maximum crazy overclock the temps were below 100oc.  Under normal overclocking conditions at 120% power and 1150mhz they remained below 80oc.  This is much safer.

 

Final Cooling setup

 

2x 120mm pulling air in the top of the case (high flow rate)

2x 120mm cooling the CPU radiator In push pull (silent static pressure)

2x 140mm in push pull  cooling the GPU radiator  (original x40 fan and flow rate corsair fan)

1x 80 mm(?) on the Kraken cooling the VRM.

 

With the drives back in

 

Final Build thoughts

 

Putting a side window on the case is possible if you just go with an ssd as you can strap it out of the way.  You could even uses the side mounts on the other side but there not cooled so it will be toasty.  But I would rather have the extra drives options as I am going to put 1x 3.5” drive in at some point.

 

I am planning to add a second r9 290 in a year or two but there will be motherboard PCI slot location problems.  Linus even found this in his latest build guide.  The problem is the Kraken cooler is just over 2 slots wide obstructing the second x16 slot.   It looks like with a bit of better planning I could have saved some money in the future if I had got the Gigabyte Killer GA-Z87-G1.Sniper M5 but that video came out after I was almost done building.  The second problem that Linus also found was case fans in the top of the case become an issue with 2 gpu cards.  The Prodagy M is the same case as in the video so allot of the issues are the same.

 

 

Finished Build with my BenQ 9H.L7PLB.DBE 24" 3D 144Hz LED Monitor (don’t think this is the monitor Linus is recommending [but its close] it looks really good anyway),  I also have a second crappy square TN panel next to it a second monitor.

 

 

 

Final Overlooking Numbers

 

The 4670k multiplier could go as high as 46 for 4.6Ghz but at that overclock it would run benchmarks but was not that stable blue screening about every 20 mins. In the end I turned down the CPU to 4.2Ghz as it was the most stable.  I could continue to fiddle with the voltages.  I currently have it set to adaptive with the C-stage power saving features enabled.  Higher stable overclocks were possible if the multiplier and voltages were fixed.  But I want it to be somewhat power efficient and  nothing really needs that much power, and if it does I can switch profiles when needed.

 

 

 

ASUS R9 920

 

The overclocking of the R9 290 before and after the Kraken was substantial.  Running the stock cooler at 100% with higher overclocks it would still hit 95oC and start dropping the clock speed.  see here

The stock cooler is very loud; it can get to vacuum cleaner levels.  With the Kraken the case fans are noticeable but they are not terrible or intrusive like the 290 was.  It is worth water cooling just for the noise levels!

 

 

Current Issues

 

sound issue

 

The on-board line in mic just won’t work with apple rated inline mics with controls.  It is  stupid II have tried it with a poundland headset and it works with that but not my £50 gaming headset.  The head set works if I use a £2 usb sound card but the static it adds is not worth it.  might have to take it up with msi

 

More Photos HERE

 

Final OC update

[AuXDubz]

BitFenix Prodigy M is such a great case to work with.... so small but so much space inside, need to get my hands on one :wub:

[ross06187]

Re-post of  Showing R290 temps and Performance

 

The issues

Very High VRM temps.

 

The Solution

Strapping some cut up heat sinks on.

 

Extreme Overclock
So I reran the card 3 times on the Unigine Valley Benchmark to max it out see how it would go.

Benchmark results

 

The temps VRM temps are better but I am not that impressed with the improvement but its allot better than it was.  It’s at least within stock cooler normal 95 zone.

 

Normal Everyday Overclock

I also ran Unigine Valley Benchmark 3 times on stock gaming mode oc mode.  Here the temps were really good the vrm never made it past 70.

The temps are much better

Benchmark results

 

Edited February 12, 2014 by ross06187

[ross06187]

BitFenix Prodigy M is such a great case to work with.... so small but so much space inside, need to get my hands on one :wub:

You think you have lots of space and you do in comparison to lot of micro or mini atx cases.  I have no room for a case in my room so i need something small and quite which this is, but when you have too take it apart 3 times to drill things and make everything fit you start to wish you had more space.  But that because i was fitting radiators in places radiators are not meant to go if i had went smaller it would have been so much harder.

 

Big fan of the case as well after this.

[POCOLOCO]

awesome setup! wondering if its possible to install the kraken g10 in the 4th slot without fans at the top? I'm running a motherboard with a 4th slot PCI-E x16

[itslegendddd]

I love the compactness of this build. Wow.

[ross06187]

awesome setup! wondering if its possible to install the kraken g10 in the 4th slot without fans at the top? I'm running a motherboard with a 4th slot PCI-E x16

 

Hi Thanks for your interesting question.  I took a quick look and I can tell you that its possibly possible (NOT SURE) but not recommended.

 

By 4^th slot I think you mean top slot.  It’s a reversed motherboard

Here is a picture that might help.  Remember the G10 is 2.5 slots wide in bits not everywhere

 

 

What I can say is the card will fix at the I/O end no problem.

 

 

The metal right-angle (using a X40 as the water block) is the thickest part and that will fit through the gap in the top of the case for the fans (you could also trim it).  This gives you a tiny bit more room.  The second thickest part on the card is the water block/fan.  These will not fit thought the hole in the top for the fans natively and will touch/impact the top of the case.

So I would say it might fit or it might be about 5-10mm to big.  I going to have to dismantle the thing again to add some rubber grommets into the radiators fan mounts.  The case perforations  are being heated so much they are expanding and warping just enough into the fan causing some noise (Casualty of moving the fans of the mount offsets).  I can take a more detailed look then but that’s not going to be soon (4 weeks+).  As I am trying to work out a way of getting a second 290 in this thing so I have an upgrade path i am also interested to see that the options are.

 

I would not recommend a G10 on the top slot unless you have some sort of way of bringing air into the case.  Slot 3 also has its issues where the right angled parts gets in the way of the fans.

[POCOLOCO]

thanks for the info and photos.

 

I'm thinking using a combo of Noctua 92x14mm fans on a trimed kraken with Prolimatech vortex 120x12mm fans on top of the case might work.