Stalled H2O-Micro (sub 3 Liter Custom Watercooled Gaming Rig)

[QinX]

Intro
I’ve be very intrigued by the Alienware Alpha and the ASUS ROG GR8, systems that are marketed as console replacements. However after doing research on them one thing became evident that made me cry.
The graphics card in them aren’t as good as the can be in that size. Don’t get me wrong we should all be happy they are trying to make a Console replacement, but they only slightly improve on graphics with the Alienware Alpha listing “GTX Graphics” or better known as GTX 860M and the ASUS ROG GR8 has a GTX750Ti.


The Goals
I have 5 goals that I wish to accomplish with this build
1) Under 3 Liters in volume
2) 4K Gaming
3) Watercooled CPU and GPU
4) Clean design
5) Quiet when gaming

The Specs
CPU - Intel Core i7-4790
GPU - Palit GeForce GTX 970 4GB
Motherboard - Asus Q87T
RAM - 2x8GB SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz
Storage - SanDisk X110 128GB (might upgrade it to 256GB)
WiFi - Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 Plus Bluetooth
PSU - HD-PLEX 250W DC-DC board and 350W External power brick

The Hurdles
In order to get under 3 Liters AND fit a complete watercooling loop in it I’m doing a lot of custom designing for it, here is the shortlist:

CPU Waterblock
Full cover GPU Waterblock
PCIe 4x to 16x Riser PCB
Custom 2x80mm Radiator
Reservoir
Case

The Progress
I have already made a lot of progress which you can find right here

Case
This design is close to ready, once I have all the internal parts completly laid out I will be ordering the case, I would like to hear your opinions on the aesthetic of this case.
Version 1


Version 2


Final Design in 4K goodness


PCIe Riser PCB
I made my initial design as seen and ordered it. Almost finished and ready for testing



Radiator
A supplier of the company I work at made me this custom radiator. You can see a 120mm Fan and a 280mm radiator as a size comparison


CPU Waterblock
I finished the design form my CPU Waterblock


GPU Waterblock
GPU SneakPeak


Here's a picture of the blocks after they have come of the CNC machine


Power Supply
So I’m going with a Thin M-ITX motherboard together with a HD-PLEX 250W DC-DC board and an external 350W Power brick. The way it is going to be setup is like follows:
Thin M-ITX motherboards generate their own voltage onboard, just like any notebook motherboard. I have a DC Jack on the back I/O that supplier 20V and the motherboard turns it in 12V, 5V, 3.3V, you name it.
However, Thin M-ITX motherboard are not designed to run with discrete graphics cards, the motherboard only has a physical PCIe 3.0 4x slot and those are limited to only supply 25W instead of the 75W a PCIe 16x slot can deliver, also there are no PCIe 6pin or 8pin connectors present.


This is where the HD-Plex 250W DC-DC board comes in. It is meant for small systems to have an external brick but still have the 24pin, CPU 8Pin, GPU 8Pin and some sata connectivity. I’ll only be using the GPU 8Pin and the board 12V rail to supply the GPU with power.
The PCIe raiser disconnects the 12V that normally comes from the PCIe slot itself in order to allow the HD-Plex board to supply all the needed 12V power to the GPU.

I still have a ways to go but I’m making good progress.

 

[PlayfulPhoenix]

Holy cow, I don't know how I've missed this That's an incredibly ambitious project - and all the custom blocks (and the positively adorable radiator) are fascinating. The front and back plates, which interchangeably become a horizontal/vertical stand, are also really clever.

Can I ask what your background is in this sort of thing? You're doing everything from metal fabrication to PCB design, none of which are for the feint of heart, so I'm curious.

 

[QinX]

Don't have an educational background in this.
I got lucky and found a company where I had the chance to explore my abilities.
Currently I work as an R&D Engineer, working out the design and function of a product A to Z.
My knowledge is as follows in order of aptitude CAD, CFD/Thermals, 3dsmax/Vray, Electrical, PCB, Software.
Electrical,PCB and Software are outsourced once it has to into a production machine, but for prototypes I do it myself.

 

[Matthew]

This is completely awesome! I find it funny that with a bit of know how one person can do so much more than these massive companies and without having to invent a custom form factor...

 

[jeshikat]

You just picked up enough knowledge to design your own PCIe riser? That's incredible!

That's great to see a company willing to invest in its employees like that, the world would be a much better place if everyone did that.

 

[rawr]

Excited as ever for more updates!

 

[QinX]

I'm currently leak-testing the blocks and preparing to have them running all night.
I have to admit, filling the loop without any drips is the biggest pain in the ass I have ever had.
So that is going to have to be changed in the next version.
Also connecting the blocks together is going to be too finicky for 95% of people, so gonna have to rethink that.
My pump also seems louder then it was before, but that might be solved once everything is mounted and I have some foam to absorb some of the noise.

 

[QinX]

Some small problems unfortunately.

It seems the GPU has given up on me. I was in the middle of stress testing the system while all of a sudden the screen went black.
Systems seems to be run okay with the IGP, but no video output from the GTX970. Windows/BIOS also doesn't see it.

I'm going to have to disassemble the system and remount the air cooler to test in on a secondary system. If it's dead I will have to RMA it.

Also a slight problem with the GPU block itself.
The micro-channel design I made has not been implemented correctly. This is leading to higher then expected temperatures on the GPU Core and imbalanced flow between GPU and VRM.
My supplier is going to look into it, where they made the translation error and send me a new block free of charge, that's some good service
To give an indication of what has happened, here are some Computational Simulations I've run.
The differences do seem very small but it is enough to make the GPU throttle the Boost clock because it is getting to warm.

CAD Drawing

CFD Difference in Flow, This shows a highlight of all the parts where the Velocity of the Water is 1 meter/s you can see that the velocity in the original design is smaller around the VRM

CFD Copper Temperatures: Here you can see the difference in Temperature of the Copper where it touches the RAM/VRM and GPU the Original Design has slightly darker colours, which means it is cooler. Especially the GPU Core is visibly cooler

CFD Core Temperature: Here I samples the average temperature of the GPU core. You can see the average has gone up by about 2C. Again the colour shows that the temperatures are higher.

 

[jeshikat]

Mistakes happen, to me the true test of a vendor is how they deal with it and it sounds like they're doing the right thing.

What are you using for CFD?

 

[QinX]

Mistakes happen, to me the true test of a vendor is how they deal with it and it sounds like they're doing the right thing.
What are you using for CFD?

I'm really glad that he recognizes the mistake and suggested himself to send a new one free of charge. That is someone with customer satisfaction in mind

I use Autodesk CFD Simulation, it's fairly easy to use once you understand basic setup steps you have to do and where to look when someone spits out an error.

 

[QinX]

Stop! Update time.

So as mentioned before the GPU stopped working, I thought the GPU itself might have died but after I disassembled the system I found the cause.
It was my own fault, I hadn't checked my sources enough.
One of the purposes of the Riser was to disconnect the 12V from the motherboard and only supply 12V via the HD-Plex 250W Board.
I used http://pinouts.ru/Slots/pci_express_pinout.shtml as my guide, but Pin A3 is stated as reserved.
However according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express Pin A3 is a +12V line.

Sooooooo... upon inspection the trace got vaporized, causing the 12V to be disconnected and the GPU to stay off, apparently the GPU requires a 12V supply via the PCIe slot. So after connecting the the 12V from the HD-Plex to the PCIe RIser, as I had foreseen in my design but had not done yet, everything worked like a charm again.

So I finally got the case. This is just the 2mm bare Aluminium. I have 1 more of each and they should be coming back from anodizing late next week. I will transfer to the new case and send the other 2 out for powder coating.




So next up is the BIG Squeeze. It all fits nicely. Only the HD-Plex board is not the way I had intended but works fine as it is now.





Having it up and running


System is running nicely with decent temperatures, running Unigine Valley at 1920x1200 8xAA.


But I do have a room ambient of only 15C so add at least 10 for the summer and the system can be classified as running toasty but stable, the fans are running at about 50%-60%.

The pump is rather noisy but I think I damaged it when I was drilling a hole, so I will be replacing it.

And as a final image at least for now, when drawing in CAD you sometimes forget to put things in perspective in terms of size. So when I received the O-rings I needed for the build I had a chuckle about the smallest one.


I wasn't quite expecting this small

What is on the ToDo list?
1) new GPU waterblock
2) anodized cases
3) Powerder coated cases
4) new reservoir and pump
5) more stress testing and finetuning the fans

If I can gather enough interest, say 10-20 people, I will look into a small batch production and a revision 2 that takes what I learned and make it easier to assemble and maintain, so I would appriacte some feedback about the design and "featureset". Pricing for the kit would depend on the amount of people, I can't give a real estimate, 5 or 15 people will make a big difference.

Hope you enjoyed the update!

 

[rawr]

Oh my god. That's very nice. Nice to see it all together.

 

[PlayfulPhoenix]

That's just crazy. The engineering work that went into realizing this is just so, so neat. I really wish I could do something like this haha.

Are you planning to keep the metal bare, or are you going to paint/anodize/color it eventually?

 

[4RTEX]

This is a complete package to me. Just optimize for better temps and maintenance free operation and hit the market. I think the way to do this would be to get a stand on something like Gadget Show in UK which is in April (but maybe next year for you) and show it to people. It's serious competition for steam business.

 

[QinX]

So I have been running some tests to check out the stabillity of the system.
It is nice and quiet when idle, gets a bit louder when running Unigine Valley and Heaven.
Running Furmark (1920x1080 0xAA) and 3 threads of Prime95 small FFT, puts the highest possible stress on the system, it keeps then fans at max RPM (2900) and maximum power consumption at the wall is 295W.
Though because of the extreme torture test it will be loud this kind of load is not even remotely realistic when playing games.
Also because I want to make this a fair as possible I have not undervolted the CPU and have give the GPU a OC of +125MHz.
Undervolting the CPU should reduce those extreme Furmark temperatures by 10 degrees easily.

Here are some screenshots:
Furmark 1920x1080 0xAA with Prime95 3 threads small FFT's in the background running for 11 hours and 30 minutes


Heaven 4.0 1920x1200 8xAA running for 1 hour

Oh my god. That's very nice. Nice to see it all together.

Thanks for the appreciation, I'm glad it mostly fit together the way I intended aside from some this, such as the DC board and the GPU I/O not being aligned.

That's just crazy. The engineering work that went into realizing this is just so, so neat. I really wish I could do something like this haha.

Are you planning to keep the metal bare, or are you going to paint/anodize/color it eventually?

Well lets bounce that ball back, I really wish I had more of a business/commercial mind. In the end I'm mostly an engineer so I tend to be overly technical

I have 2 cases out of anodising and when those are back the 2 I have here will go out for powdercoat. Then I will be looking for a photoshoot for some final pictures.

This is a complete package to me. Just optimize for better temps and maintenance free operation and hit the market. I think the way to do this would be to get a stand on something like Gadget Show in UK which is in April (but maybe next year for you) and show it to people. It's serious competition for steam business.

I think going to something like Gadget Show or Gamescon might be one bridge to far right now, but yeah next year who knows
The only way I feel I can provide valid competition to Steam machines is trying to get much better pricing on the custom parts and getting the total BOM low enough.
Hardware is hardware I can't save much on that, especially compared to a Dell, ASUS or Zotac.
One benefit I might have is I should be able to release a new version fast.
I noticed some larger companies tend to be slow to update a desktop parts when a new CPU or GPU is realised.

 

[4RTEX]

I think your MAJOR advantage is water cooled. I don't quite follow these steam machines, but is any of them water cooled?

 

[QinX]

I think your MAJOR advantage is water cooled. I don't quite follow these steam machines, but is any of them water cooled?

The Tiki from Falcon Northwest should have an AIO for the CPU. but the others I have no idea.

 

[rawr]

I think a lot of the more expensive (and imo redundant) ones should have aio coolers for their cpus.

None of them have open loops though, that's for sure!

 

[QinX]

I've setup a couple of strawpolls, so if you guys would be so kind and vote on them
Though I'm not really expecting a lot of votes from this forum yet

Poll #1:
http://strawpoll.me/3968083

Poll #2:
http://strawpoll.me/3968130

Poll #3:
http://strawpoll.me/3968139

 

[PlayfulPhoenix]

Voted!