Watercooled NZXT s340 Elite (white)

[Problader]

I'm sorry in advance that I did not actually took pictures of the whole building process. But some people might remember the air cooled version of this white/black/red build (I had a custom painted Be Quiet Dark Rock 3). Well time as now come for me to step into the custom water cooling arena (this is my first water cooled build) and I decided to not cut any corners and go all out with hard tubing. 

 

It took me 1 day to put together, but nearly 3 months of planning/ sourcing the different parts for this upgrade. As most of you guys know already the NZXT s340 Elite is not a water cooling friendly case, although I had seen some creative use of that case in other build before. 

 

So the idea was to buy (and make fit) parts that I could reuse in a future build if I ever got bored of the s340. (which is why I managed to fit a D5 pump instead of taking a smaller DDC).

 

The specs :

 

Asus Prime z270-A

Core i7 6700k @ 4.6ghz (1.325V)

Gigabyte GTX 1080 Founder Edition

16gb G.Skillz Trident Z @ 3200mhz

Kingston 250gb SSD

Western Digital 1tb HDD

NZXT Hue+

Thermaltake Riing (white) 2x140mm & 120mm (frame is painted in white, might upgrade to some Noctua fans, but right now temps are under control)

Custom sleeved extension (by Mainframe Custom)

 

Since I know I had a hard time figuring out what would fit inside of this case, as there is not a whole lot of people who actually do a full custom loop in the s340 (there is quite a bit of soft tubing build, but it is difficult to find some inspiration/ compatible parts for a hardline build) I figured I would let people know what I used.

 

Water cooling gear:

 

EKWB Supremacy EVO (retention screw were painted red to match the rest of the painted screws in the build)

EK-FC GTX 1080 + Plexi terminal (again red screws)

EK-FC GTX 1080 Backplate (with you guessed it red screws.)

DarkSide fittings

DarkSide 130mm Reservoir

Bitspower Mini valve (Deluxe white) for drain port.

Bitspower 140mm radiator mount for reservoir

Bitspower 12mm OD PETG tubing

DarkSide D5 Vario pump + Plexi housing

XSPC EX120 White

EXPC EX280 White

 

Thats about it. Now for some PC pictures (As I am writting this post the Noctua fans Amazon had apparently lost in the mail just arrived. Will put them in the build, althought right now the pictures were taken with the thermaltake riing)

 

There are some bends that I would like to redo in the future (mainly the one that goes from CPU to 120mm radiator) it is funtionnal but just not as straight as I would like it to be)

 

Any comments or criticism will be more than appreciated! 

 

 

[Gungpae]

mmm peppermint

[emosun]

There's some sort of irony in hard line tubing in computers. looks good though. I can appreciate the effort in the photos

[Not_Sean]

nicely done man, Looks really good, Would of loved it in the Thermaltake View27 show off that sexy Waterblock, 

 

Love how the white rad blends in beautifully with the front. 

[Problader]

58 minutes ago, Not_Sean said:

nicely done man, Looks really good, Would of loved it in the Thermaltake View27 show off that sexy Waterblock, 

 

Love how the white rad blends in beautifully with the front. 

Thank you!

 

Well I really like the clean aesthetic of the s340 Elite, it just looks so clean. But I agree that the view27 would have put the emphasis on the ek waterblock for the graphic card!

 

[wildgg]

uuugh makes me miss my s340

 

great build dude! love that all the screws are painted as well nice little detail!, allot of people skip those

[zubiecup99]

I'm digging the color scheme! 

 

Have you you been unhappy with the Riing fans? I thought about buying fans directly from EK when I got my water cooling setup, but my GPU idles between 24 and 28 degrees Celsius and has never gotten past 48. I really dig the aesthetics of the Riing fans, but I have wondered if better fans would make a noticeable difference if I ever decide to go SLI.

[Problader]

Well so far it's been just fine, I have some noctua fans that i'm waiting on some sleeving supplies before I actually switch them, my graphic card never really go above 45C even after long gaming sessions (which is an amazing improvement over the stock founder edition cooler) my main issue right now is that my overclocked 6700k is dumping a LOT of heat, just in general, in the day to day gaming sessions its just fine never really go above 50-55C, but I was trying to increase my overclock and prime 95 really heats it up, I've been thinking about delidding it and swapping the TIM to liquid metal but at the same time for what I actually do with the system I don't think it is really necessary (so is any higher overclock to be fair.)

 

Anyway i'll be able to tell you this weekend if the noctua fans actually do a better job at cooling the rads than the Riing (I think they should, they are some of the best fans after all) but I don't think i'll be seeing 10-15C drops in the temps just with the fans. The delidding of the CPU might just do the trick at lowering the overall temperature of the loop.

[zubiecup99]

1 hour ago, Problader said:

Well so far it's been just fine, I have some noctua fans that i'm waiting on some sleeving supplies before I actually switch them, my graphic card never really go above 45C even after long gaming sessions (which is an amazing improvement over the stock founder edition cooler) my main issue right now is that my overclocked 6700k is dumping a LOT of heat, just in general, in the day to day gaming sessions its just fine never really go above 50-55C, but I was trying to increase my overclock and prime 95 really heats it up, I've been thinking about delidding it and swapping the TIM to liquid metal but at the same time for what I actually do with the system I don't think it is really necessary (so is any higher overclock to be fair.)

 

Anyway i'll be able to tell you this weekend if the noctua fans actually do a better job at cooling the rads than the Riing (I think they should, they are some of the best fans after all) but I don't think i'll be seeing 10-15C drops in the temps just with the fans. The delidding of the CPU might just do the trick at lowering the overall temperature of the loop.

Cool, I'm looking forward to hearing about the results.

[Problader]

In the end it took me a little more time than expected before I could get around draining the system and swapping the fans. 

 

In the end the new Noctua fans are actually a pretty significant change. Not necessarely on the component that are watercooled but their power gives a much better airflow through the case wich helps with the vrm etc. 

 

Also switched to mayhem pastel red. Re-did the cpu to rad bend (much cleaner) and fixed the really akward bend in my 8pin pcie. 

 

Let me know what you guys think of the final version! 

 

[Hasle]

Looks great man! Clean build, the lighting is spread evenly without being overdone - lovely! I haven't seen that pump top/housing before, but it fits the build very well.

[Problader]

Might get some dark red dye to deepen the red of the coolant.

[Problader]

Btw the housing for the pump is from darkside. Wanted an EK because they are clear and not frosted acrylic but the lack of port on the oumo top made the drain port a nightmare to plan