Alrighty then, all the parts have made it in and it's time to finish this thing......for now of course. I'm sure I'll want to change things around more once I get my hands on a 47X0G APU. Anyways, got the radiator in and tried to use the stock barbs at first, but they were just too big and the angle of them wouldn't have worked with the pump anyways. So those got chopped off and new holes drilled.
I was originally planning on soldering in those brass G1/4 to G1/8 adapters, but I again decided to try to route of less resistance and just tap the aluminum. It had a decent amount of thickness from the base where the barb went through the tank, so I decided I'd go with that first.
It's not the greatest fit, I had to bend the edges of the metal away to get the fittings to seat and still had to use plumbing thread tape to be sure. I originally ordered 2 radiators just in case I messed one up. The second one hasn't arrived but I think when it does I'll most likely try the soldering method on that one. Because of the outer diameter of the G1/4 to G1/8 adapters I got I'll probably have to turn those down so that they can actually fit in the side of the tank as it doesn't extend super far out from the body of the radiator.
Little bit of leak testing and bleeding of the system just to make sure. These are not the final tube lengths, just some that I cut to test with.
Next I test fit it on the system and ran some proof of concept tests to make sure it would actually get enough airflow to cool anything. Didn't bother changing the tubes yet. As you can see the "clearance" that the Festo fittings have to the RAM clips is about -0.4mm. Luckily the little clips have just enough flex to allow the pump/block to fit with the fittings installed.
Now we come to final assembly. The tubes had to be shortened, one by about an inch as it wraps around the bottom of the CPU block, the other needed to be only about an inch as the radiator inlet and pump outlet fittings ended up basically touching. You can just see them on the left in this picture. You can also see how cramped everything is in there. I still think I might be able to squeeze a 2.5" SSD next to the RAM, that might be a plan for the future.
Next went in the PSU to really squeeze the last of it in there. Also decided it would be a good idea to somewhat insulate the radiator from the C15 plug there.
Threw on the top cover with the fan and this is what you get. Without the Noctua A9 sticking out like a sore thumb it looks even more like a bog standard PSU in there. If there weren't the GDC Beast cables sticking out the front and the rear I/O, you'd be hard pressed to notice that it's actually a watercooled PC in there.
As for cooling and thermals, well that's another story. I did a little testing with the L9a in there before hand and the temps for Cinebench R15 runs go to about 70C and by the end of an R20 run it was peaking around 80C. Not the greatest of tests or testing methods, but it's at least something. Running with the watercooling I see R15 runs stay in the ~65C range and R20 runs hit ~77-80C still. So all in all, not much better cooling than an L9a, but at least not worse.
The future will probably see a new APU, maybe a 2.5" SSD or two, and potentially replacing the radiator with one that has soldered in G1/8 adapters. I'm sure I won't get to any of those any time soon as who knows when the APUs will arrive in the US consumer market, plus I have an idea for a 3L custom brickless case that fits ITX motherboards and a full size GPU. I think I'll work on that next....
