Not a Corsair One (Fractal Terra Water Cooling)

ShadowChaser · January 1

I really enjoyed the way Corsair engineered their compact gaming/workstation computers in the way that the whole system is cooled by a single fan (a la Mac Pro Trashcan), but could never bring myself to buy one due to the high asking price. The NZXT H1 is similar in size and footprint and I personally liked it, though the One does a much better job with the rear i/o so I wanted to build something that had easily accessible i/o (front and rear), was liquid cooled using a single fan pulling air through the chassis, and was still performant yet quiet under load, all while costing less than an equivalently specced Corsair One (doubtful). I'll keep a running total of all parts costs pre-tax through the writeup and include a PCPP list at the end!

My parts choices were distinctly last gen and probably not the best use of the money, but I was happy with how I spent it and that's what matters, right?

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The build was primarily motivated by LTX 2023 and the lackluster performance of the 3060Ti in my main system at the time. Summer of 2023 was a wonderful time to upgrade as the 5800X3D had price cuts and the 6950XT was on fire sale, dipping under $600 for the first time. For someone like myself who doesn't use RT whatsoever, the choice was obvious. Running total: $880

With CPU and GPU selected, I picked the cheapest non-garbage AM4 ITX board available at the time to complement the two, the AsRock B550 PG ITX. I initially was going to reuse the motherboard I owned, but ultimately decided that I would treat myself to the first 'All New Parts' build since 2016 after landing an internship for the summer. Would I still have chosen the X3D cpu knowing that I'd be buying a platform to go along with it? Probably, so I didn't feel too bad about this decision. Running total: $996

Storage and memory followed a similar path - cheap but decent - and landed me with 32GB of Mushkin 3600CL16 and a 500 gig Samsung 970 Evo Plus. Nothing to write home about here, though the SSD could certainly be larger. My active steam library rarely goes above 300GB, and there's a second M.2 slot, so I was not worried about this. Running total: $1094

You may have noticed that I have not picked a case yet. To be frank, I was not too sure what case I wanted either. The Meshlicious felt like an obvious choice at first until I realized I had no idea how to route the airflow through it. The H1 v2 had an internal layout that would not play well with a custom loop. I considered the Dan C4-SFX and had begun drawing up plans on how to arrange parts until Fractal threw its hat into the ring in June with the Terra.

When I saw the Terra, I instantly knew I had to build in it. The green color and wood accents called to me in a way I didn't think possible for a computer case. After consulting the manual for CPU and GPU clearances, I determined that it should be able to support the custom loop I wanted to build, but I would not be able to tell until all the parts arrived. Running total: $1274

I already had a rough idea for how the water loop would be constructed. My very basic math told me that, with a low profile cpu block, there should be enough room in this case to fit dual slim 240 rads, the TX240 from XSPC. The CPU block I selected was the Nuovolo Aquanaut Extreme. The reason why I chose this over the Modultra Lobo was for cost and cost alone. I purchased a Heatkiller GPU block and backplate, as well as an alphacool DDC pump. Fittings, tubing, and QDCs were all 10/13 spec instead of 10/16 because I (foolishly) thought that the thinner tubing was worth the smaller footprint despite being easier to kink. All in all, the watercooling bits added significantly to my cost, as is to be expected with custom loops Running Total: $1971 (ish)

The final main component I had yet to choose was the power supply. Conventional wisdom dictates that I should get the best and most efficient power supply possible, especially when dealing with high end components in a small chassis. However, due to the way the psu mounts in the Terra, I had the most wonderfully terrible idea of "why not use the PSU intake as extra airflow through the radiator?" and picked the Lian Li SP750. This power supply has a notoriously bad fan curve that has it spin up at less than 250W of load and it was perfect for my uses. Running total: $2086 (ish)

I planned on using an Arctic P12 for the single exhaust fan in this system, but seeing that the P12 Max had better performance and a higher performance ceiling I ended getting one of those instead. I figured that the extra noise from the ball bearings would be drowned out by the fan noise itself, plus being able to ramp it to 3000 rpm would probably be useful should both the CPU and GPU get hammered for some reason. Running total: $2095 (ish)

And how did I do compared to a (roughly equivalent) Corsair One? The a200 is specced with a better 5900X but an inferior 3080, and is the closest analogue to my build here. That computer cost $2600 compared to the $2100 I spent, though it does have a 2.5" HDD in it and double the SSD storage... With that said, the Terra also supports a 2.5" drive and there's a spare M.2 slot on the back of the board. Had I spent a little more on storage I'd reach parity there and still have saved hundreds! Using "saved" in this context is rather meaningless considering the cost of all the superfluous watercooling hardware though, haha.

Building the system itself was quite tedious. I came in prepared to be frustrated and I was proven correct as there just is not a ton of room to work with.

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All of the 90 degree fittings on the waterblocks needed to have their threads sanded down on the outer edge to allow the side panels to close properly.

To guide airflow through and around certain parts, I modeled and printed a guide for the PSU exhaust as well as panels that covered up gaps in the rear of the chassis and half of the bottom vents.

The spacing for the perforations on the side panels isn't quite right for 120mm fans/radiators and I could only fit 4 screws per radiator.

To seal the vented areas around the radiators, I trimmed black cardstock to fit and secured them to the side panels with electrical tape. The same method was applied to the top panel to prevent PSU exhaust from being reingested.

I was very disappointed with the Aquanaut Extreme as the coldplate was extremely rough. The final machining pass could be felt very distinctly and I'm fairly certain that CPU thermal performance suffered because of this. I did not have my lapping setup available or I would have remedied this.

Custom cables for this psu took forever. It was worth it for the ease of cable management though. I used 16awg silicone wire and didn't sleeve any of it because you can't see it and sleeved cables are a nightmare to get dust off of.

With that said, the performance of the system did not disappoint. While it would saturate the loop if both CPU and GPU were running full tilt, the water loop was able to dissipate about 300W under steady state. Given that only about half of each radiator was being used to its full potential, I am happy with this result. That was more than enough power budget for gaming, and that is what I brought with me to LTX 2023.

I really like the Fractal Terra! The reps at LTX were also super stoked that I managed to cram this much hardware into a case as small as this guy here. The case itself just looks stunning and the internals are very well laid out. I wish the power cable and GPU support bracket weren't so intrusive as to prevent installation of a second fan (the screw holes are even there!) and that the front i/o included a second USB-A port, but apart from those two minor gripes, there's really very little to complain about. The materials feel premium and justify the price, plus it's very easy to build in. None of my difficulties encountered in the build process were fault of the chassis itself, after all.

Beauty shots of the Terra in its natural habitat:

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The Internals:

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After LTX, I decided to swap components between my two systems. My main rig got the new CPU and GPU, and the Terra got the 5800X and 3060Ti out of my NCase. These two components were far better suited for the ~300W power budget afforded by this build and it has run beautifully in the months since. Maintenance has been fairly simple - I placed the QDCs in the loop in such a way that I can unhook both side panels easily for dusting. It also makes the loop easy to service. I can fill or drain the whole thing next to the sink and bleed each radiator individually. It is more time consuming, yes, but not a headache like other res-less builds I've done.

Was it worth spending $600 on water cooling components for this build? Absolutely not. Those same parts would perform the same if not better in this case air cooled! What about the hours I put into the build? Also probably not worth it. I spent so much time tuning power and thermals, modeling and making small modifications, all for a silly idea.

The end result, however, is something I adore. I love how it looks almost completely stock from a distance. I absolutely love this computer now that I never have to go through the pain of building a custom loop inside a case utterly incompatible with one. I love how a full setup can travel in my LTT backpack to LANs and events. I've learned a lot that can be applied to future impractically small water cooled builds. I feel like I've redeemed myself from the horrid Node 202 loop I did years ago with something that I can feel good displaying on my table

Having used this computer for about 6 months, I have some small housekeeping items I'd like to address in this build in the future. I want to lap that coldplate so that there isn't a 30 degree C delta between my CPU and GPU temps under full combined load (F@H I'm looking at you). Shame on Nuovolo for skimping on this considering that the block was almost $150! Some nice to haves would be fan speed control based off of coolant temp - this board doesn't support a temp sensor so I'll probably have to go with something like an Aquacomputer Quadro. I think I should also install a second fan or wire up the PSU fan to the motherboard/quadro to keep it running constantly and improve thermals.

PCPP List:

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PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/QkwgCd

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D 3.4 GHz 8-Core Processor ($279.99)
Motherboard: ASRock B550 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ax Mini ITX AM4 Motherboard ($116.24)
Memory: Mushkin Enhanced Redline Stiletto 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL16 Memory ($77.99)
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($19.99)
Video Card: AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT Radeon RX 6950 XT 16 GB Video Card ($599.99)
Case: Fractal Design Terra Mini ITX Desktop Case ($188.98)
Power Supply: Lian Li SP 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply ($114.99)
Case Fan: ARCTIC P12 Max 84.04 CFM 120 mm Fan ($8.99)
Custom: Nouvolo Aquanaut Extreme ($123.00)
Custom: XSPC TX240 ($49.99)
Custom: XSPC TX240 ($49.99)
Custom: HEATKILLER V for RX 6800/6900XT - ACETAL ($137.51)
Custom: HEATKILLER V eBC - Backplate for RX 6800/6900XT - Black ($50.28)
Custom: Alphacool Laing DDC-Pumpe 12V DDC-1T Plus PWM ($69.50)
Custom: Koolance Fitting Single, Swivel Angled for 10mm x 16mm x8 ($79.92)
Custom: Watercool HEATKILLER EPDM TUBING 13/10 - 3M ($14.99)
Custom: Koolance QD3 Male Quick Disconnect No-Spill Coupling, Compression for 10mm x 13mm x4 ($57.96)
Custom: Koolance QD3 Quick Disconnect No-Spill Coupling, Female Compression 10 x 13mm x4 ($63.96)
Total: $2104.26