RAIJINTEK THETIS + 2x Sycthe Fuma 2

[MIAHALLEN]

Just bought this case, $90 at newegg.

Just a few quick notes. I have been stuck on the Silverstone SUGO series for many years now, such a good combination on price performance and small size. But, after living in Belize for a few years now, where the climate is very hot, and having just gone through a 5 week heatware with 100F+ temps everyday, I decided it was time to get real about cooling...and the SG13B just didn't have the airflow or space required for a good enough cooling system for CPU OR GPU.

These are the system specs I'm currently working with:
- MSI Z370I AC PRO.....blah blah blah - mITX
- Intel i5-8600K
- MSI RTX 2060 Ventus
- Silverstone 550W Platinum PSU
- 32GB G.Skill DDR3-3000
- 2TB SABRENT Rocket Q M.2
- 4TB Seagate HDD .... replaced with 2x Seagate 5TB external 2.5" x 15mm drives (RAID1)

My 4TB drive failed and although it was 5+ years old, I expect the high heat recently was a contributing factor.

I live off-grid on solar power, so SFF & high efficiency are very important for me. But I have enough power at home now to feel quite a bit more relaxed about gaming & even OCing a little bit. The RAIJINTEK THETIS seems to be one of the smallest full ATX cases on the market, and while I do not need full ATX as I'm currently running mITX, the flexibility in mobo form factor for future upgrades (Zen 3 anyone?) was icing on top. The real goal, was to have enough space to strap a bigger cooler on my 2060, while still keeping the case as small as possible.

The recent Scythe Fuma 2 reviews caught my attention recently. Back in the days when I was reviewing HW, I always was impressed with Scythe, and I was living in Japan at the time and had a little bias maybe? Anyway, the Fuma 2 looked like an excellent choice to keep my CPU temps under control, plus I also wanted to increase cooling for my GPU....so I ordered 2 of the Fuma 2 coolers, for $60 each, I was feeling good about the value proposition.

The case also has room for 2x 2.5" drives on the back of the mobo tray, and space for 2x 3.5" drives internally, but one of the spaces I knew would be blocked by the CPU cooler, and the other space would potentially limit future GPU upgrades. So I decided to stick to 2.5" drives, but wanted 2 units for RAID1 while still having as large a capacity as possible. The external Seagate 5TB drives seemed to fit the bill, but I could not find information about the amount of clearance I would have....and whether the 15mm drive height would fit under the tempered glass case side. So I scoured the internet for pictures and after looking as closely as possible, I crossed my fingers and ordered the drives. (Keep in mind, its practically impossible to return things because of my location and the import duties I pay bringing things into Belize).

So everything got here, and I rebuilt the PC Thursday night. Things went very well, except for the GPU, I knew the CPU mounting brackets would not work, so I had to figure out a way to mount the Fuma 2 cooler to my 2060. I 3D printed some prototype brackets to mount the cooler. It came out very nice on my first try, so I'm quite please with that. The cooler fits nicely in the case right now, but I think the final brackets will need to offset toward the top of the graphics card so that if I get a larger motherboard int eh future, I will not have clearance issues. So, now that I have the spacing & sizes figured out, I will replace the prototypes with metal brackets as soon as I can get some made....as the 3D printed material is a little weak, and I don't know how long it will last.

Also, as you can see, there was sufficient space for the 15mm drive height under the back of the case.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with the upgrades. The components are FAR cooler, I have quite a bit of OCing headroom now....running the CPU at 4.8GHz @1.25V now....the 2060 is staying under 70C at this point (overclocked), PLUS the system is far quieter than it was before.

GPU cooler installation log:


1st test fitting of the bracket prototypes


RAM sinks applied and brackets attached


Screws reversed for better heatpipe clearance


You can see here the heatpipe clearance, its a little tight, but it fits


You can see here how "low" the cooler is...nearly touching the mobo tray. If I switch to a mATX or full ATX, this wouldn't fit. This is why I must offset the final bracket design.


Looks like beast mode right???


Everything installed...what do you think?


In case anyone else was wondering...YES, 2.5" 15mm drives do fit behind the mobo tray of the RAIJINTEK THETIS

 

[bmwbaxter]

Very nice! How worried were you about the 3D printed bracket stripping?

 

[MIAHALLEN]

Very nice! How worried were you about the 3D printed bracket stripping?

I will replace the prototypes with metal brackets as soon as I can get some made....as the 3D printed material is a little weak, and I don't know how long it will last.

But actually, I'm not too worried as I did not and would not crank down the cooler with a lot of pressure, because the GPU die is exposed, I'm more worried about damage to it.

 

[Zerileous]

Wow awesome project, love seeing a tower cooler strapped to a GPU! I guess with the inverted design the GPU has a little more support? Is the entire IO bracket resting against the case? Are your memory temps OK?

 

[EarthDog]

Hey MIA!!! Good to see you! Hope you are well!

 

[godevskii]

Everything installed...what do you think?

Very cool indeed!

I guess with the inverted design the GPU has a little more support? Is the entire IO bracket resting against the case?

I think its also getting some support from that usb3.0 cable, dont know if it was intentional or not, but hey if it works...

 

[Blaylock]

Have you thought about opening up the PCIe cover plates or using ones that have more ventilation? Those seem like they would restrict some of the exhaust from the GPU.

Also, are those little sinks adequate for your vRam? What kind of temps are you looking at for those?

 

[MIAHALLEN]

Hey MIA!!! Good to see you! Hope you are well!

Thanks bro...we're doing excellent...big changes over the past few years. But I'm still alive and kickin

Wow awesome project, love seeing a tower cooler strapped to a GPU! I guess with the inverted design the GPU has a little more support? Is the entire IO bracket resting against the case? Are your memory temps OK?

I think its also getting some support from that usb3.0 cable, dont know if it was intentional or not, but hey if it works...

Concerning the GPU support...due to the short design of the PCB and the GPU being tucked up close to the back & rear of the PCB, the weight of the cooler is pretty well supported. I was a bit concerned, but was pleasantly surprised how strong it felt without any additional support. It's not caught on the USB3.0 cable, not really sure what you're referring to.

Have you thought about opening up the PCIe cover plates or using ones that have more ventilation? Those seem like they would restrict some of the exhaust from the GPU.

Also, are those little sinks adequate for your vRam? What kind of temps are you looking at for those?

Venting, YES.
RAM-sinks...I'll put bigger ones on when I put on the final bracket. How do I check their temps?

 

[Blaylock]

You can either check them with a hand held sensor or some cards may display vram temp in GPU-Z. It was just a thought.

 

[godevskii]

It's not caught on the USB3.0 cable, not really sure what you're referring to.

Maybe its the picture perspective then, but it sure looks like the cable is touching the gpu backplate.

 

[MIAHALLEN]

You can either check them with a hand held sensor or some cards may display vram temp in GPU-Z. It was just a thought.

Thanks...GPU-Z isn't showing anything. I'll bring a IR sensor I have at the office to check later.

Maybe its the picture perspective then, but it sure looks like the cable is touching the gpu backplate.

Oh yeah, just checked, it wasn't actually touching...I see what you mean though.


So, I noticed when I disassembled that I was not getting great, uniform contact...


I also can see that if I was to offset the cooler for better atx mobo clearance...I would run into another issue....the GPU die would only be overlapping 3 of 6 heatpipes.


So, I decided to try turning the cooler 90 degrees...not perfect for airflow, but as long as I don't get air building up in the corner, it should be OK... In order to accomplish this, I make new spacers, the included black plastic spacers were 12mm in height for the CPU...when I tried using them, the cooler would not press in far enough to make contact with the GPU die...so I made new 3D printed spacers with only 8mm height. And because the lateral hole spacing matches 1151 (75mm), I was able to use the original brackets modifies with holes for the vertical hole spacing (59mm). With only 8mm spacers, I was still unable to get bigger RAMsinks on the side ICs, but there was clearance for the top ICs.


You can see in this image the clearance looks very close on those brackets if I had a bigger mobo, but actually, I don't think it'll be an issue.


With the front fan dropped down a little pit, I should have plenty of airflow over the RAM sinks.


Seems to work fine. Temps are good, the Afterburner monitor shows the results after a quick Deus Ex Human Revolution session at 4K.


Some more finished shots...

- - - Auto-Merged Double Post - - -

At what temp do I need to worry about that Sabrent SSD?

 

[Zerileous]

This is so cool!

Did your temps change with the new mounting? Noctua did some testing with Ryzen's offset core dies and didn't find that heatpipe orientation mattered. I would imagine a similar situation happens here where the heatpipes can efficiently shuttle the heat from one to the next. Of course the stock mount working might be worth it. Also I'd maybe consider a top exhaust fan to help prevent hot air re-circulation.

 

[MIAHALLEN]

This is so cool!

Did your temps change with the new mounting? Noctua did some testing with Ryzen's offset core dies and didn't find that heatpipe orientation mattered. I would imagine a similar situation happens here where the heatpipes can efficiently shuttle the heat from one to the next. Of course the stock mount working might be worth it. Also I'd maybe consider a top exhaust fan to help prevent hot air re-circulation.

Seems like temps are pretty similar....but I didn't do any apples-to-apples testing. Thanks for the note about Noctua's testing....do you have a link?

BTW - ambient temps during testing were around 100F (38C)

 

[MIAHALLEN]

Maybe its the picture perspective then, but it sure looks like the cable is touching the gpu backplate.

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[Zerileous]

Of note, there are some key differences between your situation and the ones tested. One is overall die size, your GPU die is much larger than the Ryzen core die. Also is the presence of an IHS, however the copper base of the cooler seems to have a similar function. Similarities of course the fact that the primary heat source is not aligned over all of the heatpipes. Interesting that this never came up with Intel long skinny cores whether the line up longitudinally with the heatpipes or cross all of them. Enough of my rambling, here are the links:

https://noctua.at/fr/there-are-clai...o-varying-processor-temperatures-is-this-true

https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3544-amd-ryzen-heatpipe-orientation-does-it-matter