FTZ01 custom water cooled build

sam_fisher007 · December 24, 2016

Hi Everyone

I've had another bad idea that I would like to bring to fruition. I am a big fan of small form factor PC's and doing things the hard way. I also like water cooling, not because I like to push my hardware to its limits with crazy OC, but rather for aesthetics and just generally lower thermal threshold.

There are plenty of guys building awesome water cooled PC's inside of micro atx cases both soft and hard tubing, but what about a super compact mini-itx monster. Bitwit build a Node 202 with an AIO on youtube, and that's cool, but that's not quite challenging enough. I plan to use every square mm of space to cramp a full water loop, cpu and gpu, into a Silverstone Fortress FTZ01, without changing the overall look of the case inside or out.

This will also be my first Intel power computer, yay. But only because AMD doesn't have any AM3 mini-itx boards, and I don't feel like waiting for ryzen. So let get started..

Here's what I'm cramming into this build:

MSI H110I pro Mini-ITX

Core i5 6600 (with EK Supremacy EVO Nickel block)

2x8GB GSkill DDR4@2133mhz

MSI RX480 reference (with EK-FC Acetal Nickel block)

Samsung 512GB 950PRO M.2 NVM express

Silverstone SFX Gold 600w SX600-G

Silverstone Fortress FTZ01 Black (apparently a white version is available)

EK-XTOP DDC 3.2 PWM Elite pump plexi

XSPC EX120 radiator (I also have a thicker RX120 V3, but no way I could fit it in without the fan protruding on the outside)

XSPC LCD Temp display (comes with G1/4in plug sensor

This was the best layout for the radiator I could do as I will be utilising the SSD mount to the right of it to mount the pump

I used a paint marker to find my drill points. Those feet on the pump are rubber and come with this pump. They are an awesome addition!!

The outlet is on he right on the bottom

The pump came with a 4pin and a molex connector, silly and inconvenient. The molex provides 12v and the 4 pin is pwm control from the cpu header.. SO WHY NOT USE THE 12V FROM THE CPU HEADER?????? Why EK, why? I went out and bought some pins and rewired the 4pin connector using the intel fan as a guide

This is how the wiring came on the pump

Added some heat shrink to cables as they will run behind the motherboard

Card in place with the fittings lined up. The fittings will sit between the side of the case and the radiator. Not much space there but it works out

I am only using a minimal arrangement of cables for the psu. All devices requiring additional 12v or 5v power have been rewired to utilise power from either fan headers or the USB headers (more on this later). Therefore no molex or sata power cables are needed.

I was able to run these cables through the psu bracket and from behind

Tubing is EK DuraClear 3/8ID 1/2OD. Anything thicker would be impossible in such a small case... unless I was to use more 90degree angle fittings. Something I will need to do later on (spoiler) when I get a bigger rad

The SSD is mounted behind the motherboard near the pcie slot. I forgot to take a picute of it, so you'll just have to trust me

If it bleeds, we can.. run it?

This was a huge pain in the rear. There was practically no way to get rid of every bubble, but as I found out later, over time and with varying pump speeds (thanks to the pwm control) the system bled itself perfectly. Took a few days.

The brass T you see at the top is the highest point in the tower when the case is sitting upright. When the loop was completely bled, I topped off the water level in my fill tube and kinked the hose at the end then used a cable tie to keep it kinked.

The plug at the end I made using a straight fitting and a bottle cap. Some hot glue seals the two pieces.

If you look below the LCD temp readout, you can see I am using the 5v out from an available USB header. This case uses a USB3.0 header.

And there she is. PWM control keeps the fans and pump nice and quiet at idle and the motherboard allow me to control fan speeds according to temps in the uefi. And that's where I stumbled on my first hurdle, temps.

That poor single 120mm rad just isn't up to the task of cooling both the cpu and gpu. Temps are ok at idle, both about the 40 degree mark, but when I play BF1 for example, temp soar to the high 80's.

I'm already speculating a slim profile dual rad by EK, just need to do some measurements. Unfortunately, this means I will need to find another place for the pump. Quick disconnects would also come in handy when filling the loop, so I am tracking down some of those, though its proving difficult to find them in 3/8ID 1/2OD size.