Corsair Obsidian 650D watercooling

[jackman175]

Hello.
I'm new in this stuff, so i thought that i should ask someone smarter than me..
My plan is to put adequate and silent cooling system to my pc.

My pc conf is next:
CPU: i5 4670K
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 770 4GB
Memory: Corsair Dominator GT 16GB (4x4GB)
Case: Corsair Obsidian 650D
Motherboard: Gigabyte G1.Sniper M5
PSU: Corsair RM650
Cooling: stock

I selected some cooling components, but I'm not sure that they are ok.
CPU block: EK-Supremacy Clean CSQ - Nickel
GPU block: EK-FC770 GTX GW - Nickel (Original CSQ)
Mem block: EK-RAM Monarch X4 - Nickel CSQ
Rads:
280mm: EK-CoolStream RAD XTC (280)
120mm: EK-CoolStream PE 120
Res: EK-RES X3 150
Pump: EK-DCP 4.0

Loop will be (starting from res):
reservoir-> pump-> GPU -> 120mm rad (mounted rear and will suck air in) -> CPU -> Memory -> 280mm rad (mounted top, sucking air out) -> reservoir

Is my choice OK?
Should I change something?

 

[Tristor]

If you are planning to build a custom loop you are better off with a different case. As you noted above, you can maximum fit a 280mm rad + a 120mm rad in the chassis without extensive destructive modifications. I have a 650D with the build in my signature (although it's in flux currently) and I am dissatisfied with the case. I think the new 450D that is currently on the Anandtech front page would have fit my use case better, and I think it would fit your use case better as well. The 650D is definitely not intended for water cooling, and it's definitely not intended for significant heat-load builds.

That said, you may be okay as you don't seem to have the expectation of dissipating a lot of heat. It seems though you'd be greatly limiting your future expandability by staying with this case. You want to add a second GPU and put it in your loop down the road? Well then you've got more heat generators than you have dissipation for. I'd honestly argue you need at least 480mm worth of radiator space what you have now, rather than the 400mm you've proposed.

 

[dma0991]

Is my choice OK?

You have to double check whether that radiator would fit with the fans inside the case. One of the issues I had was clearance and the tall VRM heatsink was blocking the radiator, which I then had to circumvent by placing the fan outside the case. Some case makers offsets the fan hole placement further away from the motherboard tray rather than centering to allow more radiator clearance. Unless you measure its clearance properly, I doubt that a thick 280mm radiator would fit.

 

[Tristor]

Fun story, to fit the H110 at the top of the case properly in the best orientation (despite it being made by Corsair and claimed to have been supported in the case), I had to modify the case. The "hotswap" drive bay on the top has a plastic piece that extends right up to the edge of the fan mounting positions in the top. I shortened it with a dremel and then epoxied the bay shut after removing the hardware since I will never use the bay (in fact, I wish people would stop putting them in higher-end cases, I'd rather have support for a 360/480 or 420/560 rads).

The H110 is a 29mm thick 280mm rad, I'd say a 35mm thick rad would fit, but a 45mm would not, there's simply not enough space between the motherboard tray and the top of the case. The 650D is just not really very watercooling friendly. Sorry.

 

[Z15CAM]

The Fractal Design Midi ARC R2 allows you to offset a 280x60x140 rad on the Top thus clearing the MB by a fair margin. You may have to cut a little chunk out of the top 5.25" bay but you can still load an optic there and place something like a Koolance 401x's2 Reservoir/Pump in the lower Bay leaving room for another 280x60x140 Rad mounted in front in Push/Pull for SLI or Crossfire - Look at the Coolgate Rads with the Drain Plug - NICE ;o)

I run a Corsair H110 mounted off-set on top in a MIDI ARC R2 with this method. I assume the Corsair D450 case can do the same with a 280x60x140 rad mounted up front.

I say either the Midi ARC R2 or Corsair D450 are better then the heavily modified Shinobi approach, no matter how sweet she looks.

The Corsair D650 really does not turn me on in respect to water cooling - Too many useless 5.25" Bays eating up rad space.

A less then $100 descent MID Tower case with 2x's 5.25" bays is all you need for water cooling.

As far as the Corsair H110 AIO CPU cooler goes - Great product and the BEST CPU Cooler on the market.