Watercooled Fractal Design Define Nano S

[thenzfarmer]

On 04/11/2017 at 12:59 AM, GrumpyBear17 said:

Hey Mike, this is a super inspiring build and I'm definitely going to take on a few things from it! I stumbled across this whilst looking for ideas with my nano S build.

 

I have a similar one in the works but on a z370i strix/zotac 1080ti mini arcticstorm. w/c components are similar, the z270i block also fits on the z370i so I'm going to use that. I'm going for the d5-res combo and will have the CE 280 at the front in push only (fans in the front). Thankfully this board has a USB2 header so I've got a Aerocool Project 7 hub doing the fans/RGB control (very cool little piece of kit - $25 RGB and PWM fan hub!). Sadly they got rid of the 4-pin RGB header on this edition of the board, and instead replaced it with a programmable 5v header for LED strips.

 

I wanted to ask how you mounted the top radiator, as I have the same RAM and I know from eyeballing it will cause clearance issues with the SE240+25mm high fans. How far did you mount it away from the standard mounts, and how did you do it? When pushed closer to the side window, only the screw holes from the far side of the radiator will line up for me. I was thinking of fabricating a bracket and screwing it in from the rear of the case, just to hold the radiator up on that side - I'm not sure yet. I already scratched the paint on my SE just from lightly test fitting it.. did they coat these things wafer thin or what!

 

I can't believe how difficult it is to find fans that have decent static pressure, are PWM controlled and use a standard 4-pin RGB connector.. I think that's the component I struggled with the most!

 

One suggestion I can make is for the moduvent, if you wanted to raise it up evenly to give it a meaner look (and some airflow to those top fans), some screws with bump stops over the mounts might do the trick.. I was going to try and do something similar. Something like this but with a larger rubber bump stop that you can cut to your needs.

 

Cheers for any information you can provide, and again - awesome build.

 

Sean

 

[GrumpyBear17]

Thanks for the pictures and info - appreciate it.

 

I'm doing the same, except I am using a perspex "L" shaped shelf bracket, cut to size, which will connect the two fans that intersect at the back of the case to support the other side of the radiator.  By doing this I can use the standard fan holes/screws - minimal modding required. Hard to explain but it sort of looks like this (the bracket is in red)

 

 

Cheers

 

ps. I also discovered you can slip a piece of paper between the top of the CE280 and the case lid to prevent scratches when angling the radiator into place. It also makes the job a lot easier.

 

 

[thenzfarmer]

23 minutes ago, GrumpyBear17 said:

Thanks for the pictures and info - appreciate it.

 

I'm doing the same, except I am using a perspex "L" shaped shelf bracket, cut to size, which will connect the two fans that intersect at the back of the case to support the other side of the radiator.  By doing this I can use the standard fan holes/screws - minimal modding required. Hard to explain but it sort of looks like this (the bracket is in red)

 

 

Cheers

 

ps. I also discovered you can slip a piece of paper between the top of the CE280 and the case lid to prevent scratches when angling the radiator into place. It also makes the job a lot easier.

 

 

Ah! yes, paper is a great idea! And I like the L bracket idea too! 

Might give that a go myself ?

Good luck!

[thenzfarmer]

On 11/10/2017 at 2:03 PM, GrumpyBear17 said:

Thanks for the pictures and info - appreciate it.

 

I'm doing the same, except I am using a perspex "L" shaped shelf bracket, cut to size, which will connect the two fans that intersect at the back of the case to support the other side of the radiator.  By doing this I can use the standard fan holes/screws - minimal modding required. Hard to explain but it sort of looks like this (the bracket is in red)

 

 

Cheers

 

ps. I also discovered you can slip a piece of paper between the top of the CE280 and the case lid to prevent scratches when angling the radiator into place. It also makes the job a lot easier.

 

 

Hmmm given this a bit of a look - the left most fan of the top rad sits above the rear fan, hence no screw or L bracket needed.
If a L bracket was needed, it would be to attach the rightmost fan of the SE240 to the front rad in your scenario.

[GrumpyBear17]

6 hours ago, thenzfarmer said:

Hmmm given this a bit of a look - the left most fan of the top rad sits above the rear fan, hence no screw or L bracket needed.
If a L bracket was needed, it would be to attach the rightmost fan of the SE240 to the front rad in your scenario.

Bummer. In my build the fans intersect perfectly at the corners, and I didn't feel confident with the radiator just being held by pressure and not much else on the panel-side (even though its tight!). Keep in mind that I have the fans for the front rad on the outside, so I have a lot more room to move

 

I also noticed the rivets on the inside of the case get in the way of flush mounting a front 280mm radiator, I'm gonna grind them down and re-clamp. They stick out about 4mm.

[thenzfarmer]

22 hours ago, GrumpyBear17 said:

Bummer. In my build the fans intersect perfectly at the corners, and I didn't feel confident with the radiator just being held by pressure and not much else on the panel-side (even though its tight!). Keep in mind that I have the fans for the front rad on the outside, so I have a lot more room to move

 

I also noticed the rivets on the inside of the case get in the way of flush mounting a front 280mm radiator, I'm gonna grind them down and re-clamp. They stick out about 4mm.

Totally, forgot you have much more room up top thanks to the fans being outside - how will you manage dust?

[GrumpyBear17]

1 hour ago, thenzfarmer said:

Totally, forgot you have much more room up top thanks to the fans being outside - how will you manage dust?

I was gonna cut up some strips and glue them to the inner sides of the front panel as a dust guard. Seen a couple people do this and it appears to work quite well!

[thenzfarmer]

19 hours ago, GrumpyBear17 said:

I was gonna cut up some strips and glue them to the inner sides of the front panel as a dust guard. Seen a couple people do this and it appears to work quite well!

Oooooh I like the idea, so long as there is enough airflow considering you are feeding 2x140mm fans, possibly at high rpms (approx. 1,000rpm when gaming).

Please let me know how you go, I'm curious to know if all that airflow through the sides of the front panel will make some noise.

 

Also, make sure you keen an eye on SSD temps

[GrumpyBear17]

Hey man, ended up finishing my build. I ended up using your idea of placing the top rad on top of the rear fan - works perfectly, that thing isn't moving anywhere.

 

Redoing the top rad -> CPU bend this weekend and replacing the fans with ML120 Pro whites, but pretty happy with it.

 

I managed to retain the power button/leds but had to get rid of the USB and Audio connectors. I'll probably vinyl sticker it or something.

 

 

[thenzfarmer]

On 11/21/2017 at 3:18 PM, GrumpyBear17 said:

Hey man, ended up finishing my build. I ended up using your idea of placing the top rad on top of the rear fan - works perfectly, that thing isn't moving anywhere.

 

Redoing the top rad -> CPU bend this weekend and replacing the fans with ML120 Pro whites, but pretty happy with it.

 

I managed to retain the power button/leds but had to get rid of the USB and Audio connectors. I'll probably vinyl sticker it or something.

 

 

Oh man, love the white/black contrast in that case - looks amazing!

 

Glad the layout worked out for you!

 

I see your rear fan is in push config - what temps are you getting on your M.2 SSD during heavy load? (Gaming or other).

[GrumpyBear17]

9 hours ago, thenzfarmer said:

Oh man, love the white/black contrast in that case - looks amazing!

 

Glad the layout worked out for you!

 

I see your rear fan is in push config - what temps are you getting on your M.2 SSD during heavy load? (Gaming or other).

Cheers. My M2 is in the rear slot. The front M2 slot is an insulator - on the back I havent seen temps exceed 55c running ATTO and other disk benchmark programs

[thenzfarmer]

On 11/23/2017 at 4:13 PM, GrumpyBear17 said:

Cheers. My M2 is in the rear slot. The front M2 slot is an insulator - on the back I havent seen temps exceed 55c running ATTO and other disk benchmark programs

Oh well I guess I need to transfer my M2 to the rear slot then! That will make a world of difference to how my temps are managed.

Much appreciated!