Fractal Design ARC Mini R2 Green UV, Watercooled, Rigid Tubing (Completed)

[ciobanulx]

Hi everyone,

 

This is the completed build, more photos on the last page.

 

Specs:

 

Fractal Design ARC Mini R2 (Case)

Asus Maximus V Gene (Motherboard)

i7 3770K (CPU)

2 x EVGA GTX 670s (Graphics Cards)

16GB (4 x 4GB) Corsair Dominator GT 2133MHz C9 (Memory)

120GB Corsair Force GT (SSD)

1TB 2.5" drive from a random external hdd that I had

Corsair AX860 (Power Supply)

 

Cooling:

 

7 x Gelid Wing 12PL Silent 120mm PWM Fans UV Green all with 7V adapters

Alphacool NexXxoS ST30 Full Copper Radiator 360 in the top with 3 fans in push

Alphacool NexXxoS UT60 Full Copper Radiator 240 in the front with 4 fans in push/pull

EK Supremacy CPU Block Nickel Plexi CSQ Design

EK Monarch X4 Dominator GT Waterblock Nickel Plexi CSQ Design

EK-Mosfet Asus M5G Waterblock Copper Acetal CSQ Design, could not find Nickel Plexi version 

2 x EK GTX 670 Waterblock CSQ Design one is Nickel Acetal and one is Nickel Plexi, both CSQ Design with backplates

EK FC Bridge Dual Parallel Clear Plexi CSQ Design

Laing DDC Pump

Bitspower DDC Pump Top Full Acrylic

Bitspower Water Tank Z-Multi 250

Various Bitspower angle and extension fittings mat black

Primochill Ghost Green Rigid Compression Fittings

Primochill Clear Rigid Acrylic Tube

Mayhems X1 Emerald Green UV Coolant

 

I also bought the Monsoon 13mm Full Bending Kit which is a really good kit for rigid tube bending. Took me about 6 hours to measure, bend and install all my tubes and this is my first time using and bending rigid tubing. Really good bending kit from Monsoon.

 

Also Phobya 60cm RGB LED Flexlight with controller for lighting

 

Not the most extreme specs according to today's standards, I'm just a uni student, however this build is more than enough to play any game at max at 1080p so I'm happy with that. The parts where bought from various stores in Australia and US, including PC Case Gear, The Koolroom, GAMMods, PerformancePCs, Frozen CPU and the 3770k and dominator memory I scored a real good deal on ebay, also the motherboard was purchased from Gumtree.

 

I have polished all EK plexi waterblocks that I have, used 1500 grit wet sand paper and meguiras ultimate compound polish.

 

Overview of the case:

 

 

Stripped the whole case apart, removed all drive cages, 5.25" bays, and most of the front panel cables, was left with only the power and reset switch

 

 

Got a small piece of very thin metal cut to size, cost me $5 lol, I mounted it into the case to mask the area next to the motherboard to help me better with cable management. Used the screw holes that where holding the drive cages

 

 

Used some foam to cover up the front panel usb holes, mainly took it out because I don't like the thick cable and didn't see much use to it

 

 

Motherboard overview

 

 

CPU:

 

 

Memory:

 

 

SSD:

 

 

Power Supply:

 

 

Graphics Cards after taking them out of my old build

 

The tube there used to be clear... wait till you see what was inside the blocks

 

 

EK GTX 670 Nickel Acetal block after about 6 months of Mayhems X1 Blood Red

 

 

After cleaning with a toothbrush and some toothpaste, I reckon it came out pretty good

 

 

For some reason the other block came out much better and was not even that dirty

 

 

Polished the plexi top

 

 

Both GTX 670s with clean waterblocks installed

 

 

Gelid fans with detachable blade. Really like the look of these fans. They all came with white LEDs but I decided to cut them out as I think it ruins the UV effect of the fan blades. I know I could of purchased the ones without the LEDs but these were on special at The Koolroom and got them for $9 each and they were the only ones available. Only left the white LEDs on the 2 fans that will be seen through the front mesh

 

 

Alphacool NexXxoS ST30 Full Copper Radiator 360. This is a 30mm thick rad that will be going in the top of the case, I could of used a thicker rad or go push/pull but wanted to be able to see my whole motherboard and this fits just perfect

 

 

Alphacool NexXxoS UT60 Full Copper Radiator 240. 60mm thick rad going push/pull in the front of the case

 

 

 

Both rads next to each other

 

 

CPU block after getting pulled out of my old build

 

 

And cleaned, also with a toothbrush and toothpaste

 

 

Polished CPU block before and after

 

 

It looks much better installed in the build with fluid

 

 

EK RAM Block Polished

 

 

Pump

 

 

Pump top

 

 

250 res

 

 

Primochill Ghost Green Rigid Compression Fittings

 

 

Primochill Clear Rigid Acrylic Tube. I bought way more than I needed in case I messed up the bending lol

 

 

 

That's it for now as it's getting really late here, nearly 1am on a Sunday night. Hope you enjoyed an overview of most of the components. I will be uploading more pics tomorrow.

[Paralectic]

Wow this looks really good! All clean and sleek 

[KamiKatze]

subbed. Welcome to the forum, i guess. That looks amazing so far.

[NuraXx]

That looks great! Planning my own new build in this case right now - very helpful and nice quality photos.Iam not going for an custom watercooling system but i have a h100i for the CPU at least.

[Nit3Rid3R]

Looks good so far, looking forward to see the final build! 

[tryphaa]

Cant wait to see the finished product!

[FlamingDefibs]

DSLR Master race? Yes please.

[Lays]

@ciobanulx

 

How did you polish the CSQ blocks? I have a csq cpu block, I really wanna polish it but IDK how.

 

Could you post the materials I'd need?

[ciobanulx]

That looks great! Planning my own new build in this case right now - very helpful and nice quality photos.Iam not going for an custom watercooling system but i have a h100i for the CPU at least.

Thanks. Glad my photos could help. Yea it's a really good case, love it. H100i will fit just fine in it. What will your other specs be?

[ciobanulx]

DSLR Master race? Yes please.

Haha I'm not really a pro but I try my best to take quality photos

[peaking duck]

Looks great so far!

will follow with interest!

[ciobanulx]

@ciobanulx

 

How did you polish the CSQ blocks? I have a csq cpu block, I really wanna polish it but IDK how.

 

Could you post the materials I'd need?

It's really easy. All you need is some really fine sanding paper and some car polish, I used 1500 grit because its the finest I could get. And I found that it works better if you wet the sand paper. Give it a sand for about 5 minutes, then a good wash, dry and apply polish and then another wash, dry and you're done. If you're not happy with how it came out then just repeat the process until you're happy. The car polish I used was Meguiars Ultimate Compound Polish. But others should work too. Just make sure it's all good to use on acrylic or plastic. I've seen more complex videos on youtube saying you have to spend hours polishing it. But they way I did it was quick and easy and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Hope this helps. Let me know if you need more tips.

[ciobanulx]

Thanks everyone for the kind words   Stay tuned for more updates 

[bamerx98]

Gaahhh amazing

[Quantum]

Oh boy...  :wub: .  Can't wait for the updates!

[UselessBread]

I think I just learned why some people don't like coloured fluids. All that gunk in the loop...

[NuraXx]

Thanks. Glad my photos could help. Yea it's a really good case, love it. H100i will fit just fine in it. What will your other specs be?

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3bosN

Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3bosN/by_merchant/

Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3bosN/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($219.00 @ Amazon)

CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($97.16 @ Amazon)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87MX-D3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($122.98 @ SuperBiiz)

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($79.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Corsair Force Series GS 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk  ($99.99 @ TigerDirect)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($54.98 @ OutletPC)

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card  ($329.99 @ Amazon)

Case: Fractal Design Arc Mini R2 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($89.99 @ Newegg)

Power Supply: Be Quiet Dark Power Pro 10 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($179.99 @ NCIX US)

Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer  ($19.98 @ OutletPC)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit)  ($99.98 @ OutletPC)

Total: $1394.03

(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-17 09:38 EDT-0400)

[CtW]

I'm excited to see how this turns out. I love builds with hard tubing as they always look so clean. Good luck with the bending!

[Foxxer]

Sweet! Subb'ed!

[Almercenary]

AMAZING.   Great build and GREAT pictures.  Lovely build, I love the R4

[ciobanulx]

Thanks everyone for the kind word and for showing interest in my build.

 

Here's a small update:

 

 

A comparison between my old case the NZXT Phantom 820 and the ARC Mini R2

 

Installing the Maximus V Gene mosfet waterblock

 

Really wish I would of found the Nickel Plexi version of this block. But I think it blends in quite well in the build as once it's installed you can't see the copper at all

 

This is where I discovered I had a small problem with the waterblock. As I was fitting it one of the screws just didn't wanna screw in. So I took it off, and as you can see, one of the threads is actually smaller! I think it was an M2 thread and all the screws supplied by EK where M3. There was nothing I could do really as I didn't wanna delay the build so I just left it like that, only used 3 of the screws. However I think its secure enough and shouldn't impact on performance. It probably would of taken like a month to get this replaced as I bought it from FrozenCPU in the US and I'm from Australia.

 

Motherboard waterblock installed. Ready to install the CPU block

 

CPU block

 

Really like the look of the Dominator GTs

 

Stay tuned for the next update

 

 

[ciobanulx]

I think I just learned why some people don't like coloured fluids. All that gunk in the loop...

Haha yea but I still went back to coloured fluid. I really like the look of it. I gave everything a good flush with distilled water and it came out all good in the end. Mayhems is actually not that bad, it's one of the best I think. And they have many colour options.

[ciobanulx]

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3bosN

Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3bosN/by_merchant/

Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3bosN/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($219.00 @ Amazon)

CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($97.16 @ Amazon)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87MX-D3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($122.98 @ SuperBiiz)

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($79.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Corsair Force Series GS 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk  ($99.99 @ TigerDirect)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($54.98 @ OutletPC)

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card  ($329.99 @ Amazon)

Case: Fractal Design Arc Mini R2 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($89.99 @ Newegg)

Power Supply: Be Quiet Dark Power Pro 10 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($179.99 @ NCIX US)

Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer  ($19.98 @ OutletPC)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit)  ($99.98 @ OutletPC)

Total: $1394.03

(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-17 09:38 EDT-0400)

Really good specs mate. Those parts would probably cost way more here in Australia. You should do a build log as well when you get everything. I would love to see what other people do with the same case.

[KamiKatze]

Can't wait for dem temperatures and dem overclocks! The Dominator GT heatsink looks epic.

[Lays]

It's really easy. All you need is some really fine sanding paper and some car polish, I used 1500 grit because its the finest I could get. And I found that it works better if you wet the sand paper. Give it a sand for about 5 minutes, then a good wash, dry and apply polish and then another wash, dry and you're done. If you're not happy with how it came out then just repeat the process until you're happy. The car polish I used was Meguiars Ultimate Compound Polish. But others should work too. Just make sure it's all good to use on acrylic or plastic. I've seen more complex videos on youtube saying you have to spend hours polishing it. But they way I did it was quick and easy and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Hope this helps. Let me know if you need more tips.

 

Thanks, I'll definately try this if I'm ever bored and in the mood to do it!