Log Another Dual 240 Rad NCASE Build

[rcodi]

I've had my NCASE V5 for years now and it's been through a multitude of hardware changes (being so easy to work in is a blessing and a curse). This week I was able to get an ASUS EKWB 3070 from a Newegg shuffle and shortly after I started placing orders for everything I would need including a hefty order at the EK shop. You'll notice I may have ordered more parts than necessary and some that I may not even need - I tried to over-order so I'm not stuck waiting or paying a premium for the quickest available. I also am guesstimating that all of this will fit properly, we'll see once I have everything inhand to test fit.

It's certainly not going to be flashy, my current build is literally anti-RGB and is all black inside. I plan to continue this theme with all black components for the loop where possible and zero RGB. The cost is substantial and certainly not worth it by any stretch for the components I currently have, I'm just doing it because it'll be fun (hopefully). I will certainly have thermal headroom so I'll consider a 5900X if they're ever readily available again or just hang tight for a refresh generation.

Almost everything is still in transit so I'm just going to put the full material build list here and update as I go.

Component Base (Updated 1/18/22):

• Ryzen 5800 Non-X
  • Curve Optimizer:
    • -15 All Core
    • Boost Limit +200mhz
  • FCLK 1866
• ASUS B550-I
• Crucial Ballistix MAX 32gb 4000 CL18
  • Running at 3733 CL16 with these timings
• ASUS EKWB 3070
  • 1860 core
  • 1000 mem
  • 900mv
• WD Black SN850 2TB
• Corsair SF600 Platinum
• Silver NCASE M1 V5
• 2x Noctua NF-A12x15 Chromax
  • Bottom rad, secured with M3x20mm countersunk screws
• 2x Noctua NF-F12 Chromax
  • Side rad

Loop Parts List (Updated 5/15/21):

• 2x EK-CoolStream Classic SE 240
• 1x EK-Quantum Velocity - AMD Nickel + Acetal
• 1x Iceman Reservoir DDC (No Pump)
• 1x Alphacool Laing DDC Black, Nickel
• 10x EK-Quantum Torque STC 10/16 - Black
• 1x EK-Quantum Torque Drain Valve - Black
• 1x EK-Quantum Torque Plugs - Black
• 1x EK-Quantum Torque Rotary 45° - Black
• 7x EK-Quantum Torque Rotary 90° - Black
• 3x EK-Quantum Torque Extender Static MF 14 - Black
• 1x EK-Quantum Torque Extender Static MF 7 - Black
• Aquacomputer G1/4" Inline Temperature Sensor, Female to Male
• 10ft EK-Tube ZMT Matte Black 15,9/9,5mm
• 2x EK-CryoFuel Clear (Premix 1000mL)

Additional Tools

• EK-Loop Soft Tube Cutter
• EK-Leak Tester
• EK-Loop Multi Allen Key
  • The GPU came with one of these for its specific plugs
• Filling Bottle 1000mL

 

[rcodi]

5/15/21 Edit - Build Completion Notes and Information

For reference here is a repost of the loop layout posted later in this thread:

Loop Parts Breakdown
These are in the exact order from each tube end to end.

1. Reservoir to CPU block
   • EK-Quantum Torque Rotary 90°
   • EK-Quantum Torque STC 10/16
     to
   • EK-Quantum Torque STC 10/16
   • EK-Quantum Torque Rotary 90°
2. CPU block to bottom radiator
   • EK-Quantum Torque Rotary 90°
   • EK-Quantum Torque STC 10/16
     to
   • EK-Quantum Torque STC 10/16
   • EK-Quantum Torque Rotary 90°
   • Aquacomputer G1/4" Inline Temperature Sensor, Female to Male
   • EK-Quantum Torque Extender Static MF 14
3. Bottom radiator to GPU block
   • EK-Quantum Torque STC 10/16
     to
   • EK-Quantum Torque STC 10/16
   • EK-Quantum Torque Rotary 90°
4. GPU block to side radiator
   • EK-Quantum Torque Rotary 45°
   • EK-Quantum Torque STC 10/16
     to
   • EK-Quantum Torque STC 10/16
   • EK-Quantum Torque Rotary 90°
   • EK-Quantum Torque Extender Static MF 14
   • EK-Quantum Torque Extender Static MF 7
5. Side radiator to reservoir
   • EK-Quantum Torque Extender Static MF 14
   • EK-Quantum Torque Rotary 90°
   • EK-Quantum Torque STC 10/16
     to
   • EK-Quantum Torque STC 10/16
6. Other Reservoir Fittings
   • EK-Quantum Torque Plug
   • EK-Quantum Torque Drain Valve

Additional Notes

• I recommend just buying two sets of 6 STC fittings so you have a couple extras incase of thread stripping and to use with a drain tube connected to the drain valve later on.
• Use the low profile plugs that come with the GPU block (they are nearly flush with the ports), you will have clearance issues with the fans below if you use EK-Quantum Torque Plugs.
• The MF 7 extender on the inlet of the side radiator is to offset the tubes slightly due to the way I'm running them, you could skip this if your 24pin is tucked around the side of the PSU vs mine which loops over.
• Check in your motherboard bios if temperature sensors are supported - this board has specific headers but yours may not. In that case you could either skip it and use a taller extender or get a controller that does have one.

Final Shots

 

[rfarmer]

Did you measure the height of the GPU block? Pretty sure the TUF block is too tall.

 

[rcodi]

Did you measure the height of the GPU block? Pretty sure the TUF block is too tall.

The EKWB 3070 has a special block installed, inlet/outlets are on the side rather than top of the card so I think I'll have a substantial amount of room:

 

[rfarmer]

Sorry for some reason I thought you had a TUF. Good luck with your build.

 

[rcodi]

Status update: Nearly everything has arrived, the only parts I'm waiting on are the reservoir and temperature sensor which should both be here by Friday.

Today's project was sleeving the pump. I'm still looking around for a donor cable to take a black male molex from. I've also considered directly wiring it to the SF600, but I don't have a tool for removing the pins from the PSU side connection.

Edit: Decided to brute force the pins out of the PSU side connector (they bend back on themselves fairly easily) and directly wired it, can't get cleaner than a direct PSU connection!

 

[rcodi]

Got started on this yesterday afternoon and was generally successful. Had to use the plugs included with the GPU versus the torque plugs due to clearance between the fan so that took some tubing gymnastics to swap while the loop was full.

I didn't order enough coupling/90deg fittings and the wrong 45deg fittings so I've settled on a single rad for the week. I should be able to add the second radiator in on Friday. I plan to redo a few of my tube runs to minimize some of the bends and make more room for the side rad.

Here's how it's sitting for now, not ideal but I can keep using the window panel for a little longer to admire it:

 

[Questors]

I know most people don't show the cable runs, just the neat cable part. I am different. It would be nice to see how you ran the wires from the outside pump/res and the rest of the cables in the build. I also like to see all the tube runs that so many hide. Of course the tube runs in this case are pretty easy to find

It gives others ideas on how to do things. Maybe someone is stuck at a point in build and your idea allows them an epiphany.

I like the build. The tube looks like EKWB ZMT. Is that right? It's great stuff and a pleasure with which to work. Haven't a single problem using it with any of a half a dozen or so brands of fittings.

 

[rcodi]

I know most people don't show the cable runs, just the neat cable part. I am different. It would be nice to see how you ran the wires from the outside pump/res and the rest of the cables in the build. I also like to see all the tube runs that so many hide. Of course the tube runs in this case are pretty easy to find

It gives others ideas on how to do things. Maybe someone is stuck at a point in build and your idea allows them an epiphany.

I like the build. The tube looks like EKWB ZMT. Is that right? It's great stuff and a pleasure with which to work. Haven't a single problem using it with any of a half a dozen or so brands of fittings.

Totally get where you're coming from, the knowledge barrier to entry is one of the reasons I'm trying to list out every loop part I'm using. The other builds I had looked at for inspiration were generally helpful but very sparse on details, this almost didn't happen because I was so unsure at first. It's pretty intimidating trying to get into custom loops when you not only have no idea what fittings you need and how they all work together but the stress of having to route tubing after!

I'm planning to document the final tube runs when I add the 2nd rad this week, right now some of them are in temporary positions/longer than necessary. The tubing is in fact ZMT - my goal with this build is to avoid the stigma of custom loops being a maintenance nightmare so I went with ZMT since it seems to be very robust, along with EK clear to keep maintenance to a minimum.

For the pump wiring I took a donor pcie slot cover from an old build and snipped 1/3 off the bottom:

Most cables I have oriented so they come out at the backside of the case and can then be tucked behind the bottom radiator (pump and fan cables). Anything that needs to run to the top of the case runs along the front edge of the motherboard under/behind the 24pin cable before getting bundled and tucked (essentially hidden once the top panel is on).

 

[rcodi]

Last batch of fittings arrived today so I drained the loop and proceeded to bust my knuckles and blister my fingers installing the second radiator and new tube runs. This picture should be pretty comprehensive as far as tube runs are concerned:

I kept things simple and short where possible and planned the tubing route for the side rad so I would have enough slack to pull it off when necessary. The only new cable runs were for the fans and since they're positioned nicely with short connectors, I was able to use the same 2 to 1 Noctua cable I used for the bottom fans but without an extension cable:

The end result is not much to look at from the outside, just looks like another NCASE. The only tell is the reservoir hanging off the back, it's essentially silent under load with fan curves set to go off the temperature sensor (positioned after the outlet on the first radiator).

Don't let the small number of pictures and brief updates fool you though, this was definitely a labor intensive process and I had to redo many of the runs 3+ times and had great difficulty with some of the fittings depending on their orientation. Overall a fun project with great results and should serve me well for the foreseeable future.

I'll post the fitting combinations for each tube run soon for anyone trying to replicate this.

 

[rcodi]

This is my final build update - I've updated the 2nd post I reserved with the complete fitting layout from tube end to end and also updated the parts list in the first post to be exactly what I used, nothing more. I do advise buying some spares in case you run into any weird build specific obstacles/stripped threads.

Feel free to comment or PM me if you're trying to tackle something yourself, I'm happy to help where I can within reason.

 

[Alphap4p4]

This is my final build update - I've updated the 2nd post I reserved with the complete fitting layout from tube end to end and also updated the parts list in the first post to be exactly what I used, nothing more. I do advise buying some spares in case you run into any weird build specific obstacles/stripped threads.

Feel free to comment or PM me if you're trying to tackle something yourself, I'm happy to help where I can within reason.

Wow! thanks for this detailed build. I will reference this with my similar build. Thank you

 

[macrooli]

Glad to know I'm not the only one running fans as exhaust on my dual radiators. It seems the majority of people decide on intake but everything inside heats up very quickly.

 

[rcodi]

Small change, new unsleeved pslatecustoms GPU 12 pin since the sleeved cable was de-pinning itself over time due to the harsh angle. I've been running the case as pictured without a side panel nowadays because of the airflow restriction to the bottom rad with the V5 panels.

This build is going to transition into a Sliger S620 soon because of this (new build thread within the next couple weeks), I originally planned to order a V6 panel set but with the discontinuation of the M1 they decided not to restock the panel kits as well.