My build has been finished last month. I was really busy recently as I was trying to secure a new job.
Sorry folks I'm too lazy to post pictures here. And I didn't take many when I worked on the build. Anyway, all I want to do here is leaving some advice for the folks who want to do this crazy build as I did.
I will just ramble about everything I can remember when I talk about all the key parts.
PARTS: CM NR200(I have to say this case is amazing. Also it's only 80~90 bucks you can do any modification you want and don't worry about the potential loss)
(I wouldn't do the drilling/hammering stuff on my premium cases like NCase M1)
1x BlackIce Nemesis 280GTS X-flow. (Do get the X-flow version, it's less restrictive than the regular version)
You will have to modify the radiator bracket. Otherwise, the rad is too big to fit in. A hammer would do the job.
1x XSPC TX240 x-flow at top
For the one on top, I used a radiator bracket from Barrow. You will have to drill 4 holes on the NR200 so that you can secure the bracket.
Also, you need to clip the plastic "honeycomb" at the top to make room for the radiator. After the modification, you can easily fit in a TX240 + two Noctua A12x15. It won't interfere with the RAM clips on the motherboard.
CPU block: Apogee drive ii. It includes an 18W DDC pump. It's A MUST AS YOU WILL NEED TWO PUMPS TO DRIVE THIS MONSTER. I will talk about this part later.
GPU block: Bykskky 5700XT red devil. Tips here: BUY REFERENCE DESIGN BY ALL MEANS!!!! The red devil version of my 5700xt is always the pain in ass because you can't find any slim water block for it. For example, my block is about 6~8mm thicker than the 2080Ti reference design water block by EKWB. I lost a tremendous amount of space here for the bottom fans. I could have used two regular-sized 25mm fans but end up with 1x 15mm slim fan and 1x25mm regular fan.
Motherboard: NR200 is big enough for all kinds of ITX boards. I used the Crosshair VIII Impact which is a Mini DTX board.
1x XSPC TX240 at bottom
Nothing interesting about this part. CoolerMaster could easily improve the case in the next generation to cater a 280mm rad at the bottom. It already has enough space, but there are some structural lines at the bottom that restrict the radiator to be 240mm. Let's wait for the next generation, maybe they will change the design for the bottom tray.
Here I used 1x 15mm slim fan and 1x 25mm regular fan like I mentioned before. If you're using slim gpu block like those made by EKWB, you can put two regular fans without any issue. You could even think about upgrading to blackice 240gts(30mm thick). It's not an option for me tho.
14cm fans for the side rad: ThermalFake toughfan 14.
Yes, they're basically the copy of Noctua A12x25. Same blade, same material, almost the same motor. What can I say......... I've been waiting for Noctua to provide the 14cm version of their A12x25 for too long I guess. I hate ThermalFake copies others' designs but hey..... I need a high-performance yet quiet fan. More importantly, they are fking BLACK!
NZXT rgb&fan controller and Gigabyte Titan Ridge thunderbolt card.
NR200 is big enough for some other components. I put the fan controller box between the PSU bracket and the internal side of the case. No problem at all. I need this one because it's one of a few gadgets to enable me to controll the PWM in HACKINTOSH. There is a program called "liquidctl", you can use it to adjust the PWM in macOS without BIOS.
The Titan Ridge thunderbolt card is the highlight of my build. I need it because I'm running an AMD-based hackintosh and I need something to drive my 5K monitor. It's the only solution.
I used a jumping cable converter to get a pciex4 from the M.2 Nvme port. Then I put the thunderbolt card INSIDE THE FRONT PANEL.
YES, the front panel is BIG ENOUGH TO HOLD ANOTHER PCIE CARD AND CABLES!!!! Please use your imagination in this case. You could probably fit in something more crazy than I did.
ICEMan Res Pump Combo
I really want to discuss the water flow rate here because there are LOTS OF MISCONCEPTION on the internet about it.
At the very beginning, I never thought about the flow rate because everybody just told me like "ONE 18W PUMP CAN EASILY DRIVE 2 TO 3 RADIATORS".
Well, apparently it's not the case for ITX water cooling. People who used to water-cool their mid-tower build generally used the regular/beefy rads and those rads are less restrictive. Also, you will inevitably use some 45 or 90-degree fittings for your tubing given the restricted space for itx builds. In my build, I have to use 7x 90-degree fittings and 2x 45-degree fittings. If you don't work hard on optimizing your tubing, you could use more than I did. Especially when you want to put so many components in one build.
So, one so-called "strong enough" 18W DDC is not enough to drive this loop.
The Iceman pump res combo is the only solution for me to add a second pump. You might be able to fit a pump inside the case if you don't need the thunderbolt card. The cabling for TB card prevents me from putting an extra pump inside.
Also, you need some cutting tools to open a hole at the back of the case. The hole needs to be big enough to hold a G1/4 fitting.
Data for water flow: All pumps are referring to 18W DDC)
1 pump@max, 0.7~0.8GPM (Very loud)
2 pumps@max, 1.1~1.2GPM(Not ideal but strong enough. The 1.5GPM is the target)
2 pumps@very quiet noise level, 0.7~0.75GPM, already good for daily task
2 pumps@min, about 0.4GPM
Finally, this triple rad, two pump cooling loop can compress my extremely OCed 3900x below 78 celsius in any stress test. I'm at 4.6Ghz for ccx1, 4.5Ghz for ccx2, 4.4 Ghz for ccx3 and 4.35Ghz for ccx4.
It's probably unfair to judge the cooling capacity based on the cpu temp because the ryzen zen2 is notorious for its core heat dissipation. 7nm makes the die size really small and it's trapping heat. I don't have the mood for gaming recently so I have no stats on GPU temp.
If you have any questions, leave them in the comment. I might be able to answer some if I have spare time. Wish me good luck in the job market.
Sorry folks I'm too lazy to post pictures here. And I didn't take many when I worked on the build. Anyway, all I want to do here is leaving some advice for the folks who want to do this crazy build as I did.
I will just ramble about everything I can remember when I talk about all the key parts.
PARTS: CM NR200(I have to say this case is amazing. Also it's only 80~90 bucks you can do any modification you want and don't worry about the potential loss)
(I wouldn't do the drilling/hammering stuff on my premium cases like NCase M1)
1x BlackIce Nemesis 280GTS X-flow. (Do get the X-flow version, it's less restrictive than the regular version)
You will have to modify the radiator bracket. Otherwise, the rad is too big to fit in. A hammer would do the job.
1x XSPC TX240 x-flow at top
For the one on top, I used a radiator bracket from Barrow. You will have to drill 4 holes on the NR200 so that you can secure the bracket.
Also, you need to clip the plastic "honeycomb" at the top to make room for the radiator. After the modification, you can easily fit in a TX240 + two Noctua A12x15. It won't interfere with the RAM clips on the motherboard.
CPU block: Apogee drive ii. It includes an 18W DDC pump. It's A MUST AS YOU WILL NEED TWO PUMPS TO DRIVE THIS MONSTER. I will talk about this part later.
GPU block: Bykskky 5700XT red devil. Tips here: BUY REFERENCE DESIGN BY ALL MEANS!!!! The red devil version of my 5700xt is always the pain in ass because you can't find any slim water block for it. For example, my block is about 6~8mm thicker than the 2080Ti reference design water block by EKWB. I lost a tremendous amount of space here for the bottom fans. I could have used two regular-sized 25mm fans but end up with 1x 15mm slim fan and 1x25mm regular fan.
Motherboard: NR200 is big enough for all kinds of ITX boards. I used the Crosshair VIII Impact which is a Mini DTX board.
1x XSPC TX240 at bottom
Nothing interesting about this part. CoolerMaster could easily improve the case in the next generation to cater a 280mm rad at the bottom. It already has enough space, but there are some structural lines at the bottom that restrict the radiator to be 240mm. Let's wait for the next generation, maybe they will change the design for the bottom tray.
Here I used 1x 15mm slim fan and 1x 25mm regular fan like I mentioned before. If you're using slim gpu block like those made by EKWB, you can put two regular fans without any issue. You could even think about upgrading to blackice 240gts(30mm thick). It's not an option for me tho.
14cm fans for the side rad: ThermalFake toughfan 14.
Yes, they're basically the copy of Noctua A12x25. Same blade, same material, almost the same motor. What can I say......... I've been waiting for Noctua to provide the 14cm version of their A12x25 for too long I guess. I hate ThermalFake copies others' designs but hey..... I need a high-performance yet quiet fan. More importantly, they are fking BLACK!
NZXT rgb&fan controller and Gigabyte Titan Ridge thunderbolt card.
NR200 is big enough for some other components. I put the fan controller box between the PSU bracket and the internal side of the case. No problem at all. I need this one because it's one of a few gadgets to enable me to controll the PWM in HACKINTOSH. There is a program called "liquidctl", you can use it to adjust the PWM in macOS without BIOS.
The Titan Ridge thunderbolt card is the highlight of my build. I need it because I'm running an AMD-based hackintosh and I need something to drive my 5K monitor. It's the only solution.
I used a jumping cable converter to get a pciex4 from the M.2 Nvme port. Then I put the thunderbolt card INSIDE THE FRONT PANEL.
YES, the front panel is BIG ENOUGH TO HOLD ANOTHER PCIE CARD AND CABLES!!!! Please use your imagination in this case. You could probably fit in something more crazy than I did.
ICEMan Res Pump Combo
I really want to discuss the water flow rate here because there are LOTS OF MISCONCEPTION on the internet about it.
At the very beginning, I never thought about the flow rate because everybody just told me like "ONE 18W PUMP CAN EASILY DRIVE 2 TO 3 RADIATORS".
Well, apparently it's not the case for ITX water cooling. People who used to water-cool their mid-tower build generally used the regular/beefy rads and those rads are less restrictive. Also, you will inevitably use some 45 or 90-degree fittings for your tubing given the restricted space for itx builds. In my build, I have to use 7x 90-degree fittings and 2x 45-degree fittings. If you don't work hard on optimizing your tubing, you could use more than I did. Especially when you want to put so many components in one build.
So, one so-called "strong enough" 18W DDC is not enough to drive this loop.
The Iceman pump res combo is the only solution for me to add a second pump. You might be able to fit a pump inside the case if you don't need the thunderbolt card. The cabling for TB card prevents me from putting an extra pump inside.
Also, you need some cutting tools to open a hole at the back of the case. The hole needs to be big enough to hold a G1/4 fitting.
Data for water flow: All pumps are referring to 18W DDC)
1 pump@max, 0.7~0.8GPM (Very loud)
2 pumps@max, 1.1~1.2GPM(Not ideal but strong enough. The 1.5GPM is the target)
2 pumps@very quiet noise level, 0.7~0.75GPM, already good for daily task
2 pumps@min, about 0.4GPM
Finally, this triple rad, two pump cooling loop can compress my extremely OCed 3900x below 78 celsius in any stress test. I'm at 4.6Ghz for ccx1, 4.5Ghz for ccx2, 4.4 Ghz for ccx3 and 4.35Ghz for ccx4.
It's probably unfair to judge the cooling capacity based on the cpu temp because the ryzen zen2 is notorious for its core heat dissipation. 7nm makes the die size really small and it's trapping heat. I don't have the mood for gaming recently so I have no stats on GPU temp.
If you have any questions, leave them in the comment. I might be able to answer some if I have spare time. Wish me good luck in the job market.
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