Log 'Ebony' NCase M1 3080 FE EKWB custom loop / AXP-100

PixelatedScraps

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Jan 26, 2021
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My aesthetic is pretty minimal. I like subtlety, silence and performance with a throwback to almost any decade from the early 1900s to the late 1970s. Not always the easiest combination when it comes to building PCs ;)

I am still very much a water / liquid cooling noob. This is only my second attempt at building a custom loop - I even skipped the AIO stage cos I knew I wanted to tinker and pick my own parts. A big thank you goes out to 80ishplus on Instagram for months of careful advice and cajoling. Apologies in advance for the wildly differing lighting, a young toddler and long working hours means there's very little time in the day or evening to complete builds.

This build was originally on an open Yuel Beast Monument but with the oncoming summer in a sub-tropical region and a cat in the house, I felt the need to move this into the sealed, liquid domain. I took parts I had lying around and managed to put a custom loop on the GPU and a Thermalright AXP-100 Copper for the CPU. GPU Memory Junction temps so far are impressive compared to an earlier NR200 build I did with a Galax RTX 3090 SG in an NR200 so I'm pretty happy - particularly with my ITX builds mining ETH when they're not used for gaming.

Ebony
CPU - AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 4750G
GPU - Nvidia RTX 3080 Founders Edition
MB - Gigabyte B550i Aorus Pro
RAM - 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-3600 C18
PSU - Corsair SF750
SSD - 1TB Western Digital Blue SN550
CASE - NCase M1 v6.1

COOLING
  • EKWB Quantum Vector Silver Special 3080 FE block
  • EKWB Coolstream SE 240mm radiator
  • IceMan pump / reservoir with Bitspower Laing DDC pump, soft ZMT 10/16 tubing
  • Thermalright AXP-100 Full Copper



I initially started out by keeping the Noctua Redux fans I got a couple of years ago after there was a chromax.black drought. After a bit of disassembling and convincing myself it was worth it to crack open two fresh Noctuas, the Redux were replaced and a custom PSU cable from PSlate was tested.

Changing almost anything in cases this size or smaller generally means removing almost everything and starting over. One is constantly mindful of always giving the fittings a quick squeeze to the right after removing and putting components back in, just in case they've been nudged. These are hard lessons if you've been crouched over a build that suddenly develops a sneaky leak.



While the PSU cable looks great, it turns into an issue later on and is replaced by the original - this style of cable may work best with intricate hard tubing or an air-cooled system but that isn't my goal here.



A custom 12-pin GPU cable from DreamBigByRay on Etsy is used, however. More zip tying, pinning, sleeving to do (note for the future).
 
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PixelatedScraps

Caliper Novice
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Jan 26, 2021
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The copper of the AXP-100 is otherworldly and perhaps one of the best machined heatsinks I've come across. I could have wiped all the fingerprints off but by the time I was encouraged to post this, it was too late.







I set a 'goofy' fan orientation to match that of the fans pushing and exhausting air from the case through the 240mm EK Coolstream SE radiator I have on the 3080 FE in there. The ventilation holes on the side panel behind the motherboard also help bring in cool air over the mosfets (I hope).

Due to the EK Torque fittings below the heatsink, there wasn't enough space to fit an A12x25 Noctua in there but the A12x15 is still an excellent fan. I do have a concern there may be slight turbulence due to the different fan RPMs but this build is going to be sitting in a fairly busy office so I'm not too concerned with strict silence - that will be for another build.
 

PixelatedScraps

Caliper Novice
Original poster
Jan 26, 2021
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And before anyone notices I am a total noob at water cooling / ITX builds, yes, I encountered a lot of issues with this build. Leaks, buzzing pumps - and waiting days for a replacement while it buzzed away in our spare room - rolls of kitchen paper entwined all over the build for hours on end - the works.

For the life of me I couldn't work out why. First it was an ill-fitting O-ring between the pump and the IceMan. Then it was accidentally knocking one of the 90' angled fittings loose from the IceMan while rebuilding it for what must have been the 6th or 7th time. Then it was a punctured radiator (from fitting A12x15 fans to the rad and using the same screws for a 25mm fan. Doh!). Hot mess.



Time to learn how to sleeve my own cables too.
 
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PixelatedScraps

Caliper Novice
Original poster
Jan 26, 2021
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44
GPU Memory Junction Temps are amazing using the 3080 FE Silver Special block from EKWB, particularly when mining ETH (Phoenix Miner 5.5c). Previous air-cooled temps using a Yuel Beast Monument would hit 108-110C easily with ambient room temps of 23C.

With the SS block, I'm seeing temps of between 86C to 94C depending on the memory clocks (between +1200-1500)