Building A Liquid-Cooled MicroATX Gaming Monster

[silveralien81]

This looks awesome. I hope to do something similar once the Ivy Bridge CPUs are released. Plus I need to save some money.

 

[youssef 2010]

[citation][nom]aznshinobi[/nom]Man... I was thinking custom water cooling loop when I saw this. I guess not. Not a huge fan of manufacturer pre-made loops, I find them expensive for their price. I.E All the Corsair Hydro series products.[/citation]

And if they spring a leak, goodbye my dear PC. That's the main reason that's making me stay away from water cooling.

 

[X-GAMER]

oooooooh yeah its cool

 

[Guest]

i hope they give it away .

 

[Why_Me]

That builds a complete hose job for someone with more money than brains.

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

That builds a complete hose job for someone with more money than brains.

Alright. I have to admit, I don't know ANYTHING about WC. So what would you do with this budget? I'm genuinely interested.

 

[RedJaron]

So what would you do with this budget? I'm genuinely interested.

With $2600 I'd probably drop $2200 on the computer and put the rest toward the electric bill to run the thing. 😉

 

[amk-aka-Phantom]

With $2600 I'd probably drop $2200 on the computer and put the rest toward the electric bill to run the thing. 😉

Sorry, forgot everything is outrageously expensive in US 😀 Moreover, your PC won't use that much power all the time unless you're runnig Prime95 or something 24/7.

 

[RedJaron]

Moreover, your PC won't use that much power all the time unless you're runnig Prime95 or something 24/7.

Yes, hence the smiley face at the end. Yet another humor casualty.

 

[nukemaster]

Sorry, forgot everything is outrageously expensive in US 😀 Moreover, your PC won't use that much power all the time unless you're runnig Prime95 or something 24/7.

Folding@Home

 

[g-unit1111]

I've never really been that interested in Micro ATX before but now I'm really intrigued. I love that case, but I think in my build I'd go for a single 6970 and add in a top-mounted Corsair H100 for the liquid cooling if it could fit.

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]g-unit1111[/nom]I've never really been that interested in Micro ATX before but now I'm really intrigued. I love that case, but I think in my build I'd go for a single 6970 and add in a top-mounted Corsair H100 for the liquid cooling if it could fit.[/citation]Read the article, the top panel is designed to hold a 2x 120mm radiator.

 

[ampy60]

Do you think this build could fit 2 x non CPU 580's and a corsair H60?

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]ampy60[/nom]Do you think this build could fit 2 x non CPU 580's and a corsair H60?[/citation]Not easily, because the radiators don't fit sideways. It could be done with difficulty, but the front radiator and fan could block the optical drive bays.

 

[cats_Paw]

I dont get the point.
Prices differ, type of cooling differ, overclocking differ, and im quite sure temps and noise does as well.

So whats the point of comparing them?

 

[cmeliksah]

Guys, I could not find gtx580+cpu cooling kit. Could anyone assist me about it?

 

[voltagetoe]

Tom's Hardware, could you please come up with some "0dB" - in other works as-silent-as-ever-possible builds in three different performance classes: mini-itx, basic desktop (no muscle for gaming), then a true gaming machine with custom watercooling junction on the 3d card.

PCs are becoming loud noised junk. I'd love to know that is it still possible to create PCs that are pleasant to use. My friend needs a silent computer build for audio editing, and I have no idea what to recommend for him as everything is so goddamn noisy these days...

 

[mjmjpfaff]

Tom's Hardware, could you please come up with some "0dB" - in other works as-silent-as-ever-possible builds in three different performance classes: mini-itx, basic desktop (no muscle for gaming), then a true gaming machine with custom watercooling junction on the 3d card.

PCs are becoming loud noised junk. I'd love to know that is it still possible to create PCs that are pleasant to use. My friend needs a silent computer build for audio editing, and I have no idea what to recommend for him as everything is so goddamn noisy these days...

first take a look at silverstone cases. they have great cooling and are very quiet. cpu cooler- look at what scythe and noctua has to offer. both make very quiet cpu coolers. gpu- you might be able to get away with a fanless gpu if he is not doing anything graphics intensive. that is about everything that will make noise. oh well there is the hdd. get a 5400rpm hard drive and pair it with an ssd if the budget will allow.

 

[RedJaron]

Tom's Hardware, could you please come up with some "0dB" - in other works as-silent-as-ever-possible builds in three different performance classes: mini-itx, basic desktop (no muscle for gaming), then a true gaming machine with custom watercooling junction on the 3d card.

PCs are becoming loud noised junk. I'd love to know that is it still possible to create PCs that are pleasant to use. My friend needs a silent computer build for audio editing, and I have no idea what to recommend for him as everything is so goddamn noisy these days...

I'm not sure it's reasonable right now to have a completely silent system. Optical drives and HDDs still spin and hum a little, and most components need at least a little airflow ( though arguably convection alone is sufficient for many things like drives and mboards. )

I have a Silverstone Raven and it is indeed rather quiet compared to many other cases. The Raven itself is also not designed specifically as a "silent" case so you may be able to improve upon it. And yes, Scythe makes some very smooth operating fans ( I have three in my Raven and the rustle of air is almost louder than the fans. ) My current rig has some nice power and it runs at just over a dull hum. At stock speeds, I could probably take the fans off the CPU sink since the 180 case fans blow right across it.

Cooling on air with proper planning can be reasonably quiet. Some cases have foam lining to deaden noise, and many cases can have foam added without hindering airflow. Also look for cases that have rubber drive mounting grommets. These absorb vibrations from drives so they don't get transferred to the case itself. The biggest offender will be the GPU since the newest cards require massive cooling. If you're running heavy games, you'll always have the GPU exhaust to deal with.

But I suppose if you wanted to go all out, you could rig some liquid cooling and mount the radiator about 10 feet away from your desk, on the other side of some kind of acoustic baffle. 😉

If you're doing audio editing, a decent performance machine running at reasonable noise levels isn't much of a distraction. If you want better audio isolation, get some full coverage headphones to block out external noise.

 

[Altonymous]

Why didn't you mount the thinner radiator and fan along the bottom beside the PSU? There should have been good clearance and the ability to move the cables out of the way. If it fit wouldn't that enable you to leave the top fan as well as pull in cold air directly over the radiator?

 

[Guest]

I'm so impressed by the Fractal Design case. My next build will include one.

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]dadadi[/nom]Question: is the overclocked i7 passing the Intel Burn Test @ Extreme Preset? I am asking this because my 2600k cant pass this test @ 4,4 Ghz, it simply shuts down (thermal protection kicks in, no errors )[/citation]I disable thermal protection in firmware and the CPU can shoot all the way up to 100C before it throttles. The temperatures here are real deltas taken from a real system using eight threads of Prime95, so you'd need a fairly hot room to reach that threshold.

When you see people reporting unrealistically low Prime95 power and temperature numbers, it's because they're not running enough threads to occupy all the cores.

 

[kishow]

This is by far one of the sexiest builds ever put together by T.H.

 

[rontanamo]

This is by far one of the sexiest builds ever put together by T.H.

^ Can't deny that

 

[wysiwygbill]

I've gotten to the point where I dread maintaining my monster custom LC rig in a heavily modded TJ07 case with quad-gpu, separate cooling loops for CPU/GPUs, Innovatek coolant, etc. It's just too much of a PITA for me anymore. I've been using the same case and cooling loop since I had 8800GTX's in dual and then triple SLI. I've just been upgrading the components for years while the cooling is pretty much overkill; triple radiator + double radiator. Maybe it's just my back but I want to go small and simple with less noise than a straight air cooled rig.

I was thinking about this exact type of build and here it is! Perfect. I don't have to even worry about whether or not it would fit in the case. Mind, there aren't alot of GTX 580's with sealed cooling systems out there. Zip for the 7900 series and anything for the new Nvidia 780's seems like a long way off. I suppose I'm waiting to see if Sapphire actually comes out with the Atomic WC but it might not fit even if they do. I'm thinking of just going with the featured case and PNY cards just like they are in the article even if it's not the latest. At least it'll be easy to upgrade.