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Had an idea about water cooling this case(updated)

G

garritynet

Senior member
I have this case and I was wondering if I could fit a small WC setup inside.

I am still in the process of refining my potential setup so any suggestions would be appreciated.

I want to use this pump. Its the Danger Den DD-CPX1. I would probably use industrial velcro to mount it to the case floor so I can remove it if ever I need to swap out/remove my HDD. I can fit a much bigger pump but I liked this one due to the three pin connect and the fact that my MB has a three pin very close to where I plan to mount the pump.

I want to put a pump right here. Thanks evil!

I could just go with a Swifftech H20-220 kit but I need to look into it some more. I plan on using the 220 rad regardless of whether or not I go with the kit. I live in Houston and it gets hot as hell like nine months out of the year. Ambient temps will be in the high 80s for about six of those months. I don't run the air conditioner. If I did I couldn't afford to do things like WCing 😛

I would mount the rad externally with a radbox to the 80mm fan on the back of my PSU. The whole WC setup rest on my ability to mount the rad to the PSU because there really aren't any other externally accessible fan mounts on my case and as such, no where else to mount a rad. I have no problems voiding warranties. Antec makes multiple PSUs with rear mounted 80mm fans all the way up to 850 watts so I am not worried that having to get a new PSU would ruin my WC setup.

My video card occupies the second slot, the first is a PCIE-1X, so I would have no problems routing the tubing out the back to the rad.

I really want to use a 5.25 bay reservoir like this. I have a free 5.25 bay and not a whole lotta space anywhere else to mount one.

I still have not picked a water block, tubing or any of the items that are not specific to making it all fit in my case just yet.

I just want a simple loop for my cpu. I have no desire to cool the chipset or anything else. I want to be able to OC a Phenom II 940. I also wanted to know if 1/4" tubing would be big enough.

My case has no issues with keeping the video cards cool and is very well designed in that regard. It dose however have a maximum height for a CPU cooler of 82mm which kinda leaves me SOL in regards to performance cooling with air.

The ThermalTake 8700 heatsink seems to work well enough according to reviews so I do have an option to WCing but I just think it would be cool to have a SFF case with a GTX 295, OCed PhII 940 and a WC set up thats mostly quiet to boot.

So what do you guys think? Can I make it work?

 
Tsk, tsk... Why such a tiny case? It makes either air or water cooling more difficult. Obviously it can be done (thanks WB), but I doubt it's worth the effort and certainly not worth the expense. re. noise- you'll still have fans and you're adding a pump. I doubt you'll come out ahead.

.bh.
 
to be honest i dont touch SFF's when it comes to watercooling.

as zepper says, you need to be DAYAM creative. Evil is an exception.
 
water cooling sff cases is hard to do but it can be done if you think it through . i have water cooled my sff cases i built for myself and am very happy with all of them i have done

hugs

Jen
 
Thanks Jen! After I read your post I thought it through some more and I updated my OP to reflect what I came up with.

Lets see what you guys think.

As for why the small case? Well I just enjoy having the computer on the desk next to the monitor instead of on the floor. Also; I am just plain don't like towers. The little cube appeals to me visually much more than a tower would so when I decided to build my next rig I decided that I would try to have it all: A compact, quiet but powerful rig in a nice looking box.

I found an attractive compact case that would fit a full sized video card and with proper cooling and Nvidia came out with Hybrid Power but I could only find it on AMD 8200 boards at the time.

I was all set, all I need to do was wait for Deneb and then figure out how to OC and cool the damn thing when it came out. Thats the point I am at now.
 
You don't want a single bay res. They are noisy and inefficient, (too shallow), use a T-line instead. The bay can be better used for a fan control and another HD.
For the mounting the rad use angle, 1"- 1 1/2", two pieces as long as the mounting for the two fans, ten or so inch long. Screw one to the case, one to the rad and then the two together. It will hold the rad an inch or more off the case or off-set above so the rad gets free air.
 
Thanks for the advice on the bay cooler. Are there any good compact bays? Is that a good pump?

For the mounting the rad use angle, 1"- 1 1/2", two pieces as long as the mounting for the two fans, ten or so inch long. Screw one to the case, one to the rad and then the two together.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I didn't understand this at all. Guess I am just dense today 😛
 
personally i would just hang a 120x2 on the top of a SFF if i had to do one. :X

Or replace a side with a 120x2 completely.
 
Originally posted by: aigomorla
personally i would just hang a 120x2 on the top of a SFF if i had to do one. :X

Or replace a side with a 120x2 completely.
Click to expand...

@ Aigo / garritynet.

Is there enough space to do that? One side of the case seems to be taken up by the PSU (rear) and drive bays (front) and the other side taken up by the PCI cards.

Have you considered using the Swiftech Microres? You may be able to fix it to the side of the 5.25" drive bay cage.
 
Originally posted by: aigomorla
personally i would just hang a 120x2 on the top of a SFF if i had to do one. :X

Or replace a side with a 120x2 completely.
Click to expand...

My plan was to hang a 120x2 off the back with a radbox connected to the 80mm fan on the PSU. Putting one anywhere else on my case would either mean just leaving it loose or having to mod the case. I was hoping to avoid modding the case but if you can give me a compelling reason why hanging it off the back would be a bad idea or tell me why its better to have it on the side I might give it a shot.
 
Woodbutcher- Ahh, now I get it. I am definitely gonna give that a shot.

Well the first thing to do I guess is the buy the rad and get it mounted somewhere. If I can get the damn rad mounted in a reasonable manner then I can't see any reason why a WC setup should be any different for a SFF case than a full tower.
 
Good deal, lot's of different ways to go, use your imagination and then fabricate. Try to envision what you will need to do for maintenance or repair of the pc, if you need to open the box will it be a PITA?
 
I am shopping for rads and I have two major question:

1- 120x2 or 120x3?
2- Whats the score on the Swiftech rads with the built in resevoirs?

I am sure I can find something on this online, and I am searching right now but I still want your opinions.
 
Bigger is better for the rad, where and how you locate it will determine what size you can use, cpu only a double will do.
The res-rad must be mounted vertically to work. I repeat, you do not need a res, a T-line will work, bleeding takes longer.
 
Ok I am going to order one of these radboxes, one of these rads and this waterblock.

I am going to try different methods to mount the rad, but the radbox is only eight bucks so I figure I will just order one now to be safe. Petra's dose not have the pump I wanted but they do have the waterblock so I will just order one of those instead.

I will order the tubing, clamps, and barbs when I buy the pump just to make sure that everything ends up being the right size.

So I am going to put this order in a few hours.

Whadda think?


Edit: I am thinking of going 3/8" instead of 1/4. Dose it really matter?

This is the pump I am planning on getting.
 
Ok, I have been screwin' around with my case and I have it all figured out....I think.

It'll be a little while before I can post my results but it should work out nicely. Still gotta get the PhII 940 and now a bunch of WC stuff, man why dose everything I do gotta be so expensive ;p
 
"G 1/4" is thread size of the barb, G1/4 x1/2" is the barb you want with 7/16" ID 5/8" OD masterclear tubing. The pump is ok, not a top performer but quiet and small. I have 2, DB-1 and they are fine for a simple loop, more blocks and they will choke though.
 
The CPX-Pro is pretty good but it takes up more volume compared to something like the Swiftech MCP355 (I think that's the DDC 3.2?).

I originally had the CPX1 (same thing as DTek DB-1) but it wasn't powerful enough for the rad + cpu block + gpu block I have so went with the 355 with an EK top.
 
No prob, If I didn't answer others would help, this is a good community.
As thilian mentioned it is not one of the stronger pumps, one block, no more. If you use a restrictive block or impingement nozzle I would suggest the Dtek v1 or 2 because you can remove the restriction / nozzle if flow rate is a problem. Both of these can be used without nozzles and perform decently.
 
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