High power Mini ITX scratch build

[kiwisincebirth]

So the 3770k arrived on Friday. It is in there now and benching 14,500 on GB with a mild overclock. To test if this can be transferred to a smaller case with some re-structuring I disconnected the GPU, put the system on the mSATA and installed my 160w picopsu. Pleased to report that the board ran faultlessly including the small overclock.

Time to "Cube" it!

Interested to see how you go with this. The way I read it you are going to shrink the cube, but keep the i7 performance, keep water-cooling, but loose discrete graphics, and move to pico PSU. Is that about it?

One thing to look at is the following "commercial" build of a new case, they have some interesting design ideas especially around modularity.

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ncase-m1-prototype-a-mini-itx-case

Kiwi

 

[minihack]

Hi Kiwi,

Yes, you are right.....

I am preparing to put my build into the G4 Cube case without the GPU (as I need that for my other project right nowso it is a great time to do some playing with my Cubes!). Important difference is that while it'll look standard on front, left and right, at the back both the perspex and the inner case will be cut to provide a straight exhaust path for a 120 radiator. Air will be drawn from bottom and top to go out the back.

I am modifying a Corsair H80 so that I have an all in one water cooler. At present there is a 120mm Noctua and the radiator inside the case (held by the HDD holder bracket) and set to blow to the hole in the back. There is no room inside the case for a second Noctua 120 with this board.

I will be posting pic.s in a new thread, but for the moment the case and the hardware are being developed separately - so the case modding is going on in parallel while I work out where the practical limits of the hardware selection using a picopsu are.

On the board side, as we speak I am running geekbench stress testing on the Zotac/3770k/pico combo and watching the Watts from the wall.
Peak power draw while stressing and watching TV through my EYETV dongle and web browsing hits 120W at 4GHz turbo boost settings. I consider that there is no point trying to go more than that with a picosupply. I'm currently at 35 minutes of stress test and the CPU temps in my open case are topping out at 77C using my custom cooler, motherboard temps staying at a low 28C but I do not know yet if a modified H80 will cope (that comes later) and if it will cope in the modified Cube.

Ceasing stress testing reduces Watts from the wall to 45W (as my i7 is only set for a higher turbo boost and not overclocked for normal tasks. Five minutes after the stress tests stopped CPU is at 35C.

As far as the case mod part is concerned, once the H80 has had the pipes shortened and is refilled and tested to make sure all air is out, I will be focusing on two different configurations - one with a single internal Noctua and the other configuration using a second (removeable) Nocuta 120 attached to the case back so that full performance should be extractable from the H80. This second Noctua round the back of the case would never normally be seen, but should add significantly to the cooling potential.

Anyway, that's what I'm working on right now!

 

[minihack]

Oh gosh darn it (don't want to set off the obscenity filtering...).

The H80 modding is driving me bananas. Maybe I should have stuck with NOT re-transplanting my system into a Cube.

The mechanics will all fit, but having removed the H80 tubing and fitted some shorter stuff I am having the devils own job of trying to make a sensible job of bleeding air from it.The distance from pump/block to radiator is small and needs the pipes to turn so I do not have the luxury of a lot of piping to work with to try and bleed the system of air. I don't want a reservoir - for obvious reasons - and I am not even sure if there is room for a T-line to try and extract the air.

So far I have tried assembling in a bowl of water (tricky trying not to let the pump electrics get under water) and using needles and syringes to extract air from the hoses near the rad joint. Each time I think I may have got it close another bubble appears from nowhere.

I think I may have to look at getting some sort of plug put on to the other end of the radiator so I can manually fill the rad at a point remote from the tubing. Perhaps fit a temporary reservoir to let the air come out over time and then cap it all off.

If anyone has any bright ideas please speak. There HAS to be a way. My googling has not come up with much to help me out here yet!!!

 

[ElAwesome]

I was just thinking that if you'd attach a small res outside, it might even look really good!
Otherwise, as said on the other forum, great idea

 

[minihack]

I was just thinking that if you'd attach a small res outside, it might even look really good!
Otherwise, as said on the other forum, great idea

Thank you!

I want to avoid an external reservoir if I can - as it'll make it that much less "Cube" like. But if in the end it is needed I'll have to make it a feature.

Currently I am thinking that as I have a Laing DDC with a pump top res. maybe I can connect that in line with the H80 block and rad and run the Laing in that loop outside for long enough and tilt everything every which way until I get all the air into the reservoir.

If I make sure I have my two hose lengths from H80 "out" to rad and from Laing out to H80 block calculated correct for the final build config, then in a last delicate underwater operation hopefully I may be able to swap one hose, take the Laing out of the loop and have a perfect bubble free closed H80 loop again. The theory is good........I think!

 

[ElAwesome]

Thank you!

I want to avoid an external reservoir if I can - as it'll make it that much less "Cube" like. But if in the end it is needed I'll have to make it a feature.

Currently I am thinking that as I have a Laing DDC with a pump top res. maybe I can connect that in line with the H80 block and rad and run the Laing in that loop outside for long enough and tilt everything every which way until I get all the air into the reservoir.

If I make sure I have my two hose lengths from H80 "out" to rad and from Laing out to H80 block calculated correct for the final build config, then in a last delicate underwater operation hopefully I may be able to swap one hose, take the Laing out of the loop and have a perfect bubble free closed H80 loop again. The theory is good........I think!

In theory, that might actually work. But in practice..

Well, when filling the loop in my desk, I guess you can imagine how difficult that was. The biggest problem was that after the res, the tube went a little upwards and then down to the pump. Which meant by simply filling the res there didn't get any water to the pump. So I started disconnecting one of my quick-disconnects and first fill the radiator... In short stuff like you are planning is probably going to be a huge hassle. I would try to rethink this idea and get it simpler.. I bet this is going to save you a ton of time

 

[minihack]

In theory, that might actually work. But in practice..

Well, when filling the loop in my desk, I guess you can imagine how difficult that was. The biggest problem was that after the res, the tube went a little upwards and then down to the pump. Which meant by simply filling the res there didn't get any water to the pump. So I started disconnecting one of my quick-disconnects and first fill the radiator... In short stuff like you are planning is probably going to be a huge hassle. I would try to rethink this idea and get it simpler.. I bet this is going to save you a ton of time

You would think that an H80 cooling loop inside a tiny case should be easier to bleed than a desk. The forums though all seem to be full of people who set out to make a different sized closed loop from their all in ones and then [surprise] they finish up with an exernal res. Mostly though these other modders were trying to go "bigger" with their all in ones - I want to go smaller!

I am guessing you are absolutely right though. However modding would not be so much fun if it was not for the occasional epic fail. and just because no one has done something before it doesn't necessarily mean it can't be done

If I do fail then plan (b) will be humble pie followed by the purchase of an external tube reservoir to put behind the Cube (on a couple of quick releases perhaps?) Maybe a nice little 15cm tube would look cool.

Anyway, i've ordered a couple of little g1/4 6mm barbs for my Laing - yes the H80 uses 6mm i.d. tubing! - and we'll see how my purging idea works. In the meantime I have plenty of things I can do to keep me busy......

 

[minihack]

Thinking again though......maybe a reservoir would not be such a bad compromise as I'd be adding more fluid volume and potentially that could be as influential on keeping temp.s down as having a second fan would be. And in the end if I had to choose between an external rear fan and an externa rear reservoir I know which I think would look cooler.

We shall see.

 

[ElAwesome]

I haven't seen a WC'ed Cube so far.
I think a little res even looks good, adding the other advantages you just listed...
And I'm acutally using 6MM ID tubing as well to connect the G5 and the desk, works just fine. Judging by the looks even seems a bit big for a ITX case?
Indeed, we shall see