[BUILD LOG] Tiny Liquid Thunder: mATX with internal water cooling!

Update (Jan 2013): the 3770K has been de-lidded, with pics and results here. I've also swapped out the fans for an AP182 in the front and an AP-29 in the back, as well as added a water temp sensor prior to the 180mm rad.
Update 2 (June 2013): Upgraded to a 4770K, Maximus VI Gene, and a GTX 780! Pictures on post 31!

Hey folks, welcome to my build log! This is my first rig in many years (last one was an AMD Socket 939 system! ), and my first ever with water cooling, so I'm really excited about this! Since it's been so long, I'd really appreciate any tips or comments if anyone notices me doing something a little weird.

I definitely have to give shoutouts to fakeblood and sexpot on the overclock.net forums, whose own build logs were the inspiration for this particular setup (here and here. I highly recommend checking out fakeblood's; his pics are SO sexy ). Also, to our very own MattNo5ss, who's excellent review of the TJ08-E convinced me to go with that case in the first place.

So, what's in it?

Intel Core i7 3770K
EVGA GeForce 680 4GB
G.Skill RipjawsX 2x8GB DDR3-1600
Asus Maximus V Gene
Intel 520 240GB SSD
Seagate 2TB 7200RPM HDD
Asus Blu-Ray Writer
OCZ ZT Series 550W PSU
Silverstone Temjin TJ08-E mATX case

Cooling:
EK Supremacy CPU Waterblock
EK FC680 GPU Waterblock
Swiftech MCP35X Pump
Magicool 1x180mm Rad
Black Ice GTX 1x120mm Rad
Swiftech MCRES Reservoir
Primochill 3/8" - 1/2" Red UV tubing

On to the pictures!



Parts are here!




Most of the components. Can't wait to start opening stuff!
You'll notice there are two GPU's...I accidentally ordered a FTW+ version of the GTX680, which doesn't have a reference PCB design so I can't use the EK waterblock. I didn't realize the mistake before newegg shipped it out, so I had to order the reference version separately, and return this one. Still, pretty cool to see that much horsepower sitting in my room! Good thing ShopRunner has free return shipping!


Disassembling the case to its bare bones. It's gonna have a lot of stuff crammed inside!


Comparison between the massive 180mm fan that comes with the case with a 120mm AP-15. So much more surface area!


Front panel removed.


Opening the PSU. Very nice! The PSU itself comes in the drawstring bag on the left. Under the flap on the right are...


Lots of cables!


PSU installed!


Sexy mobo.


RAM and CPU installed! Man, I felt like I was gonna break the CPU when I pushed that lever down! Kinda scary! Not like a CPU with pins at all!


The routing holes in the mobo tray makes wire management a piece of cake.


Crap. Just realized where I wanted to put the SSD requires me to take off the mobo.


There are some ventilation holes in the mobo tray; I just screwed the SSD into that. Saves space out front! Got the idea from here: http://www.overclock.net/t/1249322/buildlog-tiny-temjin-pic-heavy/60

That's all for now, time to start prepping the rads and waterblocks! Any tips you have here, let me know...this is my first water build!

Got the rads and blocks soaking for a bit...those rad had a lot of crap in them! Looked like paint flecks, maybe?




First setback: Screws aren't long enough! Unfortunatly, it's 9PM now and Home Depot is closed. Guess I'm done for today. Anyone know what size screws I need?

More pics from today:


Testing my AS5 application skills...been a while since I've done this, so I did a trial run. Just a little too much here...


Same mount, on the WB.



Oh man. I opened this up and just started grinning ear to ear. You can just feel the power....last GPU I used was a pair of 8600's in SLI...this is about the weight of both of those combined. And of course, like 10x the power.



Unscrewing the backplate...



Cooler removed! And yes, it is a reference PCB! Excellent! Way too much TIM though...



Cooler side, for reference.



An hour later, after scrubbing with rubbing alcohol and qtips...that took FOREVER! See those little silver dots all around the die? They like to grab onto both TIM and your qtip. The keep TIM in between the cracks, and they shred your qtip to pieces. Such a pain to clean those out!



Normally I wouldn't use thermal pads, but the EK manual conveniently reminded me to only use non-conductive TIM. Of course, AS5 is very conductive, and that's all I have, so pads it is.



Success!




Annoyingly, the cooler comes attached with M2 sized nuts, but EK uses M3's for their block. So you can't use the original screws on the block. The block comes with screws of course, but they're not intended to be used with the backplate, just a washer directly on the PCB. So only a couple of the screws actually fit (the four around the core and one more off to the right, above-right of the A in EVGA). It seems sturdy enough though, so I'm fine with that.



OK, decision time. Where should I put my res? This seems to be the best setup I could find, though it seems a little messy. It goes pump -> 120 rad -> CPU -> GPU -> 180 rad -> res -> pump. I don't like how the purple lines cross all the way across the case, disrupting the front to back airflow...any other ideas? I could mount the res directly above the pump, but that would disrupt the airflow even more...

Rads installed! And it looks like there's enough room to add a second fan on each rad! Good thing I ordered extras!




Nope. Just barely not enough room between the fan casing and the mobo tray for the 180mm.




Same story on the 120mm, except with the CPU WB.




Starting to cut tubing!


















Prepping for leak testing!



It's going!!!



Crap! Leak! After some testing, I discovered that the leak was coming from the spinning bit on that 45* rotary fitting, ie, the interface between the knurled part and the smooth part, where it twists. I thought the fitting was defective, but after further testing I discovered it was actually getting torqued because that hose was too short, and the tubing was actually torquing it enough to break the seal. I recut that length of tubing and tried again.

Update: After an hour, no leaks! Gonna have dinner, then wire everything up and boot it up! Almost there!

More pics:



Attempt #2!




So far so good! Installed the HDD and started routing cables.




Total rats nest! At least it's not blocking airflow!




Maybe a little better?




Done! Time to install windows!

are you only running the 1x180 and 1x120 rads? that seems quite under-radded for a cpu and two 680s....

Single 680. Read the caption under the pic with the two 680 boxes. Still though, that's the most common comment I've gotten about this build, but if you check out the thread to the other two builds I linked to, they run pretty well using a SB proc and 580's. The 680 runs much, much cooler than the 580.

Those screws are long enough, I think..

You surely don't want big screws that might damage one of the "pipes".

Yeah, I've just realized that myself. For some reason, I thought the screw had to go through the whole rad and out the other side. Good thing I figured that out sooner rather than later! Unfortunately, somehow the threads on two holes on my 120mm rad got stripped. Going to have to go to Home Depot tomorrow anyway.

Cant wait to see how this one turns out. What are opinions on the case?

Anyone else feeling jealous?

bluntpencil said:

Anyone else feeling jealous?

Click to expand...

NO! OBVIOUSLY NOT! AT ALL!

@LoneWolf, take care with the pipes anyway!! You can put a piece of cardboard between the radiator and the threads if you need to rethread it.

And for the reservoir, you could try to sell the MCRES and install one of those DCC cylindrical reservoirs.

Getting close! Installing the last cables now. Man, this case is SMALL. Backside of the mobo tray is CRAZY right now. Total rats nest.

It's alive! Will post pics soon! Soooooo stoked right now!

Cant wait to see more pics, nice job so far

You could fit another 120. :3

Just put the fan outside the case, lemme explain with a Paintbrush sketch.

Hmmm, good point. I'll think about it. Lemme see what kind of OC I can get with this setup.

More pics added to the third post above. Idle temps are 33C for the CPU (reported by AI Suite) and 28C for the GPU (Precision X). Not sure why there's such a big difference.

I ran Intel Burn Test for 3 iterations and the CPU topped out at 47C.

Are these temps with a stock multiplier on the CPU? Also, nice on the build. Even with my setup, that small form factor is awesome...

Thanks! Yep, that's all stock. I've started GPU OCing, and got it to about +150/+500. Simultaneously running 3 threads of IBT and EVGA's OC Scanner tool, my CPU temp is reported as 51C and my GPU is 43C.

EDIT: Just played an hour of skyrim with every single setting completely maxed drool:!) and the GPU temp was pegged the whole time at 40C. Also, after I quit, the temperatures dropped off back to idle surprisingly quickly. Not a bad build at all! I was a little worried myself that I was going to be a little under-radded, but this is performing amazingly!

those rotaries.. I had a simplier problem too.

my advice is that next time you do maintainance, get a new rotary or fixed 90' fitting there, cause those that leak when stressed.. then to eventually just leak for no reason, and I speak from experience here.. the fitting IS defective, so that's my quick 2 cents.

Thanks...would you advise a different brand of rotary, or just to get fixed ones? Mine are all Bitpower.

thats pretty dam good. Temp wise. Im running around the same temps on my 670. Mine ever goes over 41c while gaming. 46 or so when i furmark it. ( overclock in sig)

Be interested to see what happens when you start overclocking the CPU. I would guess you would get a few more c on you gpus load temps then. But for a small amount of rad that aint bad at all!

also it looks so small! lovely build mate!!!