Log My Humble NCase M1 (Dual 240mm Custom Loop)

HottestVapes

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Original poster
Oct 13, 2018
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So, this is the current culmination of my small form factor habit. It all started in January 2018 when I downsized from a Core V21 to a Cougar QBX. Since then I've moved around, tried out the DAN A4 SFX V2 (fantastic little case), then moved back to the QBX for a short time before finding this NCase V5 on eBay.
And some background on the build.
The CPU was an eBay special. It was already binned, delidded, cleaned up with the STIM removed and replaced with liquid metal and the copper IHS. It cost me £430, which was a fucking steal if I do say so myself. I was quite happy with the 9600K I was previously using, but a man just couldn't say no at that price.
The RAM is a holdover from when I was running a Ryzen 1600 in a DAN case. I removed the heatsinks to better fit a 545LC in the case and I really like how they look with the ASRock motherboard. They've been running absolutely fine ever since removing the heatsinks at 3200mhz/C14.
The CPU cooler I've had it since I downsized to the Cougar QBX and always liked the look of it. However it's on the list for upgrading because needless to say, even with the delid, the 9900K can still smelt metal. I've left it running at 4.7Ghz all core for now since it won't come close to throttling for my current use cases but I'm looking for something better and quieter.

Currently waiting on custom cables to arrive, but I'm quite pleased with the cable management for everything apart from the USB header.



SPECS:
i9 9900K delidded with the stock IHS replaced with a Rockit Cool copper IHS.
ASRock Z390i Phantom Gaming
16Gb Team group Dark Pro 3200mhz
Gigabyte Windforce OC 2080Ti with the stock cooler replace with an Accelero III
SF750
1Tb Crucial MX500 M.2 SSD
1Tb Samsung 860 Evo 2.5" SSD
Noctua D9L along with two NFA12x25 fans and two NFA12x15 fans

PICS:



 

rfarmer

Spatial Philosopher
Jul 7, 2017
2,588
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Just saw this on reddit, build looks good. I have never seen anyone mount an intake fan over the top of one of the Noctua 92mm tower coolers, does it make a noticeable difference?
 

HottestVapes

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Original poster
Oct 13, 2018
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Just saw this on reddit, build looks good. I have never seen anyone mount an intake fan over the top of one of the Noctua 92mm tower coolers, does it make a noticeable difference?

I think it only fits with the D9L. I don't know if it makes a difference for the CPU, I just wanted to try something different/weird with it. I was running a 9600K with the D9L and two redux fans up until today without the side bracket fans so I can't compare the temps with that to the temps now with the 9900K. It does seem to help the GPU temps though. All the extra airflow in the case seems to help the bottom exhaust config on that.

I will say at least it did surprise me, I was expecting near instant thermal thottling but it took three runs of Cinebench R20 to reach 87c. HWInfo reported 189w on the CPU package, so surely no easy feat to cool.

Currently trying to decide whether to go with a C14S, AIO or custom loop with two 240mm rads and external pump/res. I don't think a 240 and 92 rad would cut it if I started overclocking this little monstrosity.
 
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Tazpr

Master of Cramming
Aug 7, 2018
553
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But do you have a 4k 120hz monitor so you can have the ultimate siege experience? Runs so well on RTX cards that it's one of the few games you can take full advantage of the high refresh 4k panels on XD

Great looking build :D
 

Wyd4

Cable-Tie Ninja
Oct 21, 2018
196
218
Awesome little rig You have there

I can say that 240+92 won’t do it if you want to overclock as I had a delidded 8700k and a 1080ti in mine with a 240 and 92 and it was fine but not great.

Running 240+240 allowed me to run my 8700k at 5300mhz and 1080ti at 2025 without any dramas about temps. Got for water yes but nowhere near throttling.

I have to ask.

I have since upgraded to the gpu you have and was wondering how the accelero goes? I have one from a previous ncase build.

I ran my ncase per below with 1080ti and 8700k


D9L + accelero
U9s + accelero
C14s + accelero
240mm rad
240+92mm rad
240+240mm rad

And now currently
240mm rad + stock 2080ti cooler.
 

HottestVapes

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Original poster
Oct 13, 2018
135
131
But do you have a 4k 120hz monitor so you can have the ultimate siege experience? Runs so well on RTX cards that it's one of the few games you can take full advantage of the high refresh 4k panels on XD

Great looking build :D

Funnily enough, Siege was the driving factor behind getting a 2080Ti and an Acer X27 last year. The novelty of playing it in 4K has worn off now though, I drop it down to 1440p and enjoy the higher FPS.
Awesome little rig You have there

I can say that 240+92 won’t do it if you want to overclock as I had a delidded 8700k and a 1080ti in mine with a 240 and 92 and it was fine but not great.

Running 240+240 allowed me to run my 8700k at 5300mhz and 1080ti at 2025 without any dramas about temps. Got for water yes but nowhere near throttling.

I have to ask.

I have since upgraded to the gpu you have and was wondering how the accelero goes? I have one from a previous ncase build.

I ran my ncase per below with 1080ti and 8700k


D9L + accelero
U9s + accelero
C14s + accelero
240mm rad
240+92mm rad
240+240mm rad

And now currently
240mm rad + stock 2080ti cooler.

The Accelero is a little bit fiddly with the 2080Ti since the mini RAM heatsink will touch the heatpipes on the main heatsink. I saw someone else cut a fin off each of the RAM heatsinks so I copied them and did the same.

In terms of temps, I was a little disappointed at first. When I originally installed the Accelero I was using a Cougar QBX and I had some cheap Raijintek fans at the bottom as exhaust. Load temps would go up to 68-70c with those fans maxed out at 1200-1300RPM.
Then when I switched over to the NCase and got a couple A12x25s for it, I was expecting the temps to be 4-5c lower, but they stayed the same. That was with the D9L and two redux fans pulling air in from the rear of the case and it being exhausted out of the bottom.
I changed the fans yesterday, switched back to the single stock fan on the D9L as an exhaust fan with the A12x15 fans as intakes on the side and the GPU temps seem lower now, I need to do some testing on it but yesterday it was much closer to 60c than it was 70c.

I should mention it's undervolted to 900mv/1920mhz.
 

Wyd4

Cable-Tie Ninja
Oct 21, 2018
196
218
Awesome. Thanks for the info :)
I probably won’t bother for a while in that case for fear of warranty issues.

Yeah I also have mine at 870mV and 1870mhz respectively.

I am currently running two of the a12x25s on my radiator. Expensive but worth every penny for noise.

Looking to get another 2 for inlet on the bottom then exhaust our through the side Rad. Currently have 2 slim noctuas on the bottom as intake. Haha literally same fans as you almost in exactly the reverse config
 

HottestVapes

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Original poster
Oct 13, 2018
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Awesome. Thanks for the info :)
I probably won’t bother for a while in that case for fear of warranty issues.

Yeah I also have mine at 870mV and 1870mhz respectively.

I am currently running two of the a12x25s on my radiator. Expensive but worth every penny for noise.

Looking to get another 2 for inlet on the bottom then exhaust our through the side Rad. Currently have 2 slim noctuas on the bottom as intake. Haha literally same fans as you almost in exactly the reverse config

Which AIO did you go with by the way? I decided earlier to get one to hopefully drop my noise levels coming from the fans against the grill and I've took a chance on the eisbaer LT240. I've heard the fans aren't great on it, which is fine by me since they'll be getting swapped off anyway.
 

Wyd4

Cable-Tie Ninja
Oct 21, 2018
196
218
Which AIO did you go with by the way? I decided earlier to get one to hopefully drop my noise levels coming from the fans against the grill and I've took a chance on the eisbaer LT240. I've heard the fans aren't great on it, which is fine by me since they'll be getting swapped off anyway.

I am using the ekwb predator but with my cpu block from when I was running a custom loop. Using 2 noctua fans.

I was using this in conjunction with a second 240mm rad in the bottom with excellent results until I bought the 2080ti
 

Wyd4

Cable-Tie Ninja
Oct 21, 2018
196
218
This is my ncase thread :)
 

HottestVapes

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Original poster
Oct 13, 2018
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131
I am using the ekwb predator but with my cpu block from when I was running a custom loop. Using 2 noctua fans.

I was using this in conjunction with a second 240mm rad in the bottom with excellent results until I bought the 2080ti

The temps drastically different with the 2080Ti?

I’m tempted try it out with the dual 240 rad set up but I keep hearing that the temps aren’t super great. I’ll probably try it out anyway eventually, it’s partly why I chanced it on an Eisbaer AIO since it’s full copper and I can reuse the rad for a full loop down the line.

Also bought one of those FrozenQ NCase reservoirs for £25 this morning for future use. Love a good bargain.
 

HottestVapes

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Oct 13, 2018
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100% crammed.







I didn't enjoy the mounting bracket for this Eisbaer pump. Absolute nightmare to get the screws lined up on the block and on the backplate. I swapped the fans off it with some MasterAir 120's that I I bought a couple years ago. Sadly I don't have any spare 120x25mm Noctua's, but these aren't bad at 1300RPM or less, past that and they get a bit too noisy for my liking.

Other than that, the pump is seemingly very quite compared to the last AIO I used (545LC). Happy with it.
Had to mount the radiator with the tubes on the motherboard side because they're not super flexible with the QDC in the middle of the tube, but it fits nicely. Temps are firmly in check now and I've got potentially two parts of a future custom loop already in my case.
 
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HottestVapes

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Oct 13, 2018
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Custom loop progress has been made. Got my hands on one of those FrozenQ reservoirs, and ordered most of the parts. TX240 slim radiator, Phaneteks GPU block and backplate, soft tubing and a few other bits and pieces are on the way.
Still need to get fittings and an Apogee pump/block but I'm really tempted to test out this Eisbaer pump/block first to see how well it copes with two rads and a GPU in a loop.
CableMod delivered my custom cables today too.
 

HottestVapes

SFF Lingo Aficionado
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Oct 13, 2018
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Very close to putting the custom loop together. Looking forward to showing it here.


Major changes made to my original plan. Decided to go with an Ice Man NCase pump/reservoir thingie with a DDC pump, and that's also been the main thing holding me back thus far because ParcelForce I've had it since last week at their depot, paid for the customs charges but it still hasn't updated on their end.


Alas, the plan is a TX240 on the bottom, the 240x25mm radiator that came as part of my LT240 AIO (it's full copper) on the side. Noctua A12's for the side rad and the slim Noctua's on the bottom.
Phanteks chrome CPU/GPU blocks, EK Monarch RAM heatsinks just to match the CPU/GPU.
Ice Man reservoir/pump housing with a DDC pump. Soft tubing thoughout.


Fingers crossed I'll be updating this thread come the weekend with the full rebuild done and lots of pics.
 

HottestVapes

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My Ice Man reservoir is finally scheduled for delivery!

Rebuild pics coming soon.
Edit: I only have this to show for now.




 
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HottestVapes

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Oct 13, 2018
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The Iceman Cooling reservoir/DDC housing arrived. That's what it looks like next to the FrozenQ reservoir I already had (but decided not to use).
 
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HottestVapes

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Original poster
Oct 13, 2018
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Fitted the DDC pump to the reservoir. I'm completely new to custom water cooling, so figured I'd er on the side of caution and slap a heatsink to the pump. I had intended to also mount a fan to the heatsink, but the included screws with the heatsink were a thicker thread than the reservoir's mounting holes. I had to use the screws included with the res that weren't threaded for the standoffs included with the heatsink.
 
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rfarmer

Spatial Philosopher
Jul 7, 2017
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Where did you find the Iceman pump/res? That thing is perfect, with it had been available when I did my water cooled Ncase.
 

HottestVapes

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Original poster
Oct 13, 2018
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Where did you find the Iceman pump/res? That thing is perfect, with it had been available when I did my water cooled Ncase.

Taobao. I saw another build with it on r/SFFPC, and the guy gave me the link to it. I then bought it through Superbuy.

Took a while to receive it though, I ordered it on the 23rd last month, it arrived in the UK around the 4th but got held up with Parcelforce (UK delivery service) until it got delivered yesterday.
 
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