suggestion about full water cooled gaming pc under 6L

nightmr

Chassis Packer
Original poster
Apr 8, 2017
19
8
It has been a long time since i had the idea to build a fully water cooled PC including PSU in an extreme small volume. So i figured out one layout, which can put all the hardware in volume of under 6L.
But the biggest problem is definitely the cooling. After watching Linus successfully cooled down a PC with 8700k and 1080 ti with a single monster 120 mm radiator, i was eager to have a try!
In this concept i use a single slim 140mm radiator (ST 30 from Alphacool) as the only heat dissipator and a pump combo as the only pump. The tubes are with 6mm inner diameter for volume reduction.
In order to show off the rgb lighting of ram, i make the ram, cpu ect. face the outside on purpose, which i can change the block to CPU air cooler someday. I choose xt140 pwm from cryorig (110 m³/h; 1,49 mmH2O) for the compact design, adequate air pressure as well as the low noise.
So i build this layout as the first attempt.









In this situation the cpu hottest core reaches 94 C during the fpu+ gpu stability test of aida 64. I an it for 20 min and just saw this crazy temp.
The gpu temp reaches 80 C and is about to hit the wall of 85 C.

And then i move the rad with fan a little far from the GPU block, the temp during test dropped dramatically.
The CPU hottest core is 86 C after 30 min test and all the lines stop increasing.

It shows that the airflow is the bottleneck.

So i will put the fan on the outside, which pull the heated air from the radiator. Hope to see any difference.

Just last week i came across the 92mm dual radiator from alphacool. It is 45mm thick. I have now a new plan to use this rad to cool both of the cpu and gpu. But i don't know if it will perform better, given the same adequate air pressure and flow as the 140 mm one.

Thanks a lot for viewingXD
 

nightmr

Chassis Packer
Original poster
Apr 8, 2017
19
8
For the case i will use 3d printer. Material will be ABS.

Another Problem is that i have already delided the CPU and re-pasted it with grizzly bear liquid metal.
But the "CPU temperature" on Aida 64 is always 10-12 C lower than the core temp during the test. Many say the "CPU temperature" show the temp of the CPU surface, the big gap between the two temps just indicated that the heat transfer from die to HIS is not good. But i have tried re-pasted several times, the temp gap is still not narrowed. So i just confused, that there seems no sensor on the external surface of IHS, how could aida 64 know the "CPU temperature"? I have found that the " CPU temperature" is from the sensor embedded in the Motherboard. So what kind of sense does this temperature make?
 

nightmr

Chassis Packer
Original poster
Apr 8, 2017
19
8
have already placed the fan on the outer side of the rad, letting the fan pull the air from the rad. The airflow have been much improved, even if there is only 15 mm distance between the rad and gpu block. This time i ran the test for an hour (ambient temp 25 C), the max temp of the core is 89 C. The GPU temp remains only 68 C. For normal gaming I think this is enough. But the tubing must be changed to adapt the layout.
 
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nightmr

Chassis Packer
Original poster
Apr 8, 2017
19
8
As for rads there is a good source of reference performance from Hardware Labs.

http://hardwarelabs.com/nemesis/

You can find that the slim 140 mm fan performs no better than the 120 mm one, considering the statistic air pressure of 120 fans is always better. The thickness of the rads does influence the cooling capacity by much just as in theory. The only thing that must be sacrificed on is the noise.
 

nightmr

Chassis Packer
Original poster
Apr 8, 2017
19
8
Where did you source your unit? I'm having trouble finding a reliable retailer to pick one up.
I am from China and now studying aboard. So I got the PSU from Taobao, searching "优特诚", click one of them and you can get options from 400w to 600w. He just change some of the parts as well as the silent fan, at the same time makes it modular. Based on the amount he sells and the feedback, it seems ok.
For more solid choices i found the followings for you:
500w:
https://******/bZtqC7
https://******/hxtkPD
https://******/S8Jfvs
https://******/GjQPo8
https://******/9hbmem
https://******/GfnYss
https://******/2fboMF

300w modular:
https://******/iHw2Tx
at last, you can check this project https://******/Ygfpt1from sff. On thefirst page he has some recommendation.

Most of the 1u are under 300w. So it is hard to find ones with more power. They are all from my collection. I have only bought once and the choice is just limited, so i don't know which retailer is more reliable.
Hope what i found can help you
 
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Damascus

Master of Cramming
Feb 27, 2018
550
387
@nightmr my issue is that I'm in Canada, so most of those options don't apply to me :(

I'll probably wind up ordering from GEEEK just for the quick delivery time