Scratch Build – In Progress H2O-Micro (<3 Liter watercooled gaming system)

I don't get why it makes you smile, it must be because I'm not a native english speaker.
Could you explain why it makes you smile?

 

Nexxo has a lathe.

And - correct me if my memory is failing - is Dutch?

Though posting to and from Birmingham might be a false economy.

 

Here's a nice update:

The blocks have been made and are on their way now!

The copper is fairly scratched judging from the pictures, but nothing a bit of spit and polish won't fix
They should arrive early this week and I will be taking some better pictures of them so stay tuned!





Really looking forward to trying them out!

My case manufacturer will lathe the fitting, als we will mill away a small 1mm deep pocket out of the case(2mm alu) to accomodate this failure of mine, that fitting now only needs a little bit of material removed so it shouldn't be an issue anymore.

 

I've made some good progess and had some setbacks

First the progress:
I've received and assembled waterblocks, I had a small problem with the GPU waterblock but you can read that a little later in this post.
I also assembled and tested the complete system, for 2 days....

Here is an overview photo of the assembled system, all that is missing is the case and the HD-Plex board.

Click the image for a larger version

It seems the GPU has given up on me. I was in the middle of stress testing the system when all of a sudden the screen went black.
Systems seems to be running okay with the video output on the IGP, but no video output from the GTX970. Windows/BIOS also doesn't see the GPU.

I'm going to have to disassemble the system and remount the air cooler to test in on a secondary system. If it's dead I will have to RMA it.

Also a slight problem with the GPU block itself.
The micro-channel design I made has not been implemented correctly. This is leading to higher then expected temperatures on the GPU Core and imbalanced flow between GPU and VRM.
My supplier is going to look into it, where they made the translation error and send me a new block free of charge, that's some good service
To give an indication of what has happened, here are some Computational Simulations I've run.
The differences do seem very small but it is enough to make the GPU throttle the Boost clock because it is getting to warm.

CAD Drawing

Click the image for a larger version

CFD Difference in Flow, This shows a highlight of all the parts where the Velocity of the Water is 1 meter/s you can see that the velocity in the original design is smaller around the VRM

Click the image for a larger version

CFD Copper Temperatures: Here you can see the difference in Temperature of the Copper where it touches the RAM/VRM and GPU the Original Design has slightly darker colours, which means it is cooler. Especially the GPU Core is visibly cooler

Click the image for a larger version

CFD Core Temperature: Here I samples the average temperature of the GPU core. You can see the average has gone up by about 2C. Again the colour shows that the temperatures are higher.

Click the image for a larger version

I'm expecting the case to be done this week.

 

Wow, this is absolutely incredible! I think every modder has thought about making the the smallest and most powerful system possible before, but this goes so far beyond what I thought was possible!

I love all the things you did with this. The 4x to 16x adapter, the split power supply, The cooling block, the custom radiator... Making custom parts that contribute to the the aesthetics of a case is cool, but making all these custom functional components is another level of cool.

Not to sound too much like a fanboy, but this is the sort of stuff I dream about being able to do.

You are definitely putting all the new steam machines to shame with the performance to volume ratio of this thing and probably noise too!

I don't want to think about what it must have cost to have all this fabricated though.

 

Love it! Right up my alley

 

Well we can fanboy eachother, because the manual labor you are doing to actually build your own case is something I am dreaming of myself
I look through your build in one long swoop, amazing to see such handcrafting. I'm going to have to try then sometime.

Noise is seems to be okay, I'm not really satisfied with the pump when the system is horizontal, it seems to suck in air occasionally which gives a very irritating sound.
Also I need a better way to control the fans, running them on the CPU header makes the 1) ramp op to fast and 2) not ramp up under low CPU but high GPU loads.
I'm considering a small PCB that controls the PWM of the fans using the water temperature and a PID control loop.

 

Thanks, appreciate the compliment.

I was wondering before how you would get the air out of the loop without a reservoir. Maybe you could fit a tiny one somewhere?

As for the fan control have you considered the Aquacomputer Poweradjust? It's pretty small and has lots of features.

 

Awesome engineering you are doing here! I especially like the heat dissipation simulation, that's some serious business. Of course subscribed and looking forward to the next update.

P.S.
What program are you using for those simulations, and how hard is it to learn ?

 

I had not considered it, but I don't even have space for it anyway. I am considering to build my own 12V PCB, to replace the HD-Plex, but I seriously have to think about. It would be nice to have an osciloscope to test ripple and I would really need to improve my electronics knowledge.

I use Autodesk Simulation CFD. It's fairly easy to use once you understand the steps you need to follow.

 

Been following your log for a while. Glad to see it finally in the Project Logs where it belong

 

Stop! Update time.

So as mentioned before the GPU stopped working, I thought the GPU itself might have died but after I disassembled the system I found the cause.
It was my own fault, I hadn't checked my sources enough.
One of the purposes of the Riser was to disconnect the 12V from the motherboard and only supply 12V via the HD-Plex 250W Board.
I used http://pinouts.ru/Slots/pci_express_pinout.shtml as my guide, but Pin A3 is stated as reserved.
However according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express Pin A3 is a +12V line.

Sooooooo... upon inspection the trace got vaporized, causing the 12V to be disconnected and the GPU to stay off, apparently the GPU requires a 12V supply via the PCIe slot. So after connecting the the 12V from the HD-Plex to the PCIe RIser, as I had foreseen in my design but had not done yet, everything worked like a charm again.

So I finally got the case. This is just the 2mm bare Aluminium. I have 1 more of each and they should be coming back from anodizing late next week. I will transfer to the new case and send the other 2 out for powder coating.




So next up is the BIG Squeeze. It all fits nicely. Only the HD-Plex board is not the way I had intended but works fine as it is now.





Having it up and running


System is running nicely with decent temperatures, running Unigine Valley at 1920x1200 8xAA.


But I do have a room ambient of only 15C so add at least 10 for the summer and the system can be classified as running toasty but stable, the fans are running at about 50%-60%.

The pump is rather noisy but I think I damaged it when I was drilling a hole, so I will be replacing it.

And as a final image at least for now, when drawing in CAD you sometimes forget to put things in perspective in terms of size. So when I received the O-rings I needed for the build I had a chuckle about the smallest one.


I wasn't quite expecting this small

What is on the ToDo list?
1) new GPU waterblock
2) anodized cases
3) Powerder coated cases
4) new reservoir and pump
5) more stress testing and finetuning the fans

If I can gather enough interest, say 10-20 people, I will look into a small batch production and a revision 2 that takes what I learned and make it easier to assemble and maintain, so I would appriacte some feedback about the design and "featureset". Pricing for the kit would depend on the amount of people, I can't give a real estimate, 5 or 15 people will make a big difference.

Hope you enjoyed the update!

 

Congrats! Amazing work.

By the looks of it your temps are still better than the stock cooler. Hope you get the pump sorted out.

 

So I have been running some tests to check out the stabillity of the system.
It is nice and quiet when idle, gets a bit louder when running Unigine Valley and Heaven.
Running Furmark (1920x1080 0xAA) and 3 threads of Prime95 small FFT, puts the highest possible stress on the system, it keeps then fans at max RPM (2900) and maximum power consumption at the wall is 295W.
Though because of the extreme torture test it will be loud this kind of load is not even remotely realistic when playing games.
Also because I want to make this a fair as possible I have not undervolted the CPU and have give the GPU a OC of +125MHz.
Undervolting the CPU should reduce those extreme Furmark temperatures by 10 degrees easily.

Here are some screenshots:
Furmark 1920x1080 0xAA with Prime95 3 threads small FFT's in the background running for 11 hours and 30 minutes


Heaven 4.0 1920x1200 8xAA running for 1 hour

Thanks for the appreciation!
They are similar to the stock cooler, at least for the CPU. Pump is going to be replaced at a later date, when the new GPU block and reservoir are here.

 

I've setup a couple of strawpolls, so if you guys would be so kind and vote on them

Poll #1:
http://strawpoll.me/3968083

Poll #2:
http://strawpoll.me/3968130

Poll #3:
http://strawpoll.me/3968139

 

Hey all, just a quick Easter update!

Please read until the end, I need your opinions on something

I’m still working out the costs of the DIY kit, still figuring out ways to reduce costs.

In the mean time I received the anodised cases back and I transplanted the entire system over to it.
Here are some quick snapshots

Photo of the Front


Photo of the back


Photo of my attempt at a closeup to show the finish.


I personally really love the finish I’ve gone for, it’s not quite the silver finish that you find on most cases it has a little more grey mixed it.

Now as for progress on the DIY kit.

I’ve mentioned before that I am considering to support the Gigabyte GA-H81-TN over the original ASUS Q87T I used in my build. My reasoning is that besides the lack of 1 Ethernet port, who needs 2 anyway? And 2 of the 4 USB ports being 2.0 there is not a whole lot of difference between the boards.

Did I mention it costs almost half of the Q87T?

They both have
mSATA
Half-length mini-PCIe
PCIe 3.0 4x
4790K support
16GB SODIMM support
2 Fan header

You could even argue the GA-H81-TN has better thermals because the heatsink on the PCH is bigger.

Here is a side-by-side

Photo of Top of Motherboards


Photo of Motherboard I/O


Would you guys be okay with the GA-H81-TN?

Next is the thing I am very eager to hear you opinions about.
So right now I am running on a 20V 350W Gigantic external brick. I think it is bulky and you all should feel the same .

Recently ASUS has released the ASUS ROG G20 and it has 2 external bricks. Why? Most likely 2 smaller bricks are cheaper than 1 big brick. They made a bracket to hold them.



I want to switch to a 2 brick design for 2 reasons.
Reason 1: Costs, by going for 2 seperate bricks I can reduce the costs of these bricks
Supply and demand is the cause of this. More manufacturers and consumers buy lower power AC adapters so more manufacturers make them and prices go down because of that.

Reason 2: Space/Cost I can probably cut the HD-Plex 250W DC-DC board by going this route. I can use a power brick that supplies 12V to the GPU, thus giving me the option to make the system more versatile, maybe I can squeeze in a 2,5” or at least a 1,8” drive mount, allowing some form of HDD storage besides the mSATA drive. Also the DC board is expensive for what is does in this system, it is a glorified 20V to 12V adapter, so why not go from 230/115VAC to 12VDC directly?

PS: I will make sure I have a nice bracket to discretly mount the 2 power bricks.

Please let me know what you guys think about this.
I’ve made a strawpoll, but if you feel the need to voice your opinion please do.
http://strawpoll.me/4032713

That is all for now have a nice Easter if you celebrate!

 

I've been getting more and more question about the final price for the kit, so I guess I'll go ahead and release an estimate.

I'm still waiting on some small bits and pieces for final pricing, but the biggest wait is still the case. Also some other parts I haven't been able to calculate yet, because I still have to design them, such as the GPU power board.
If I'd have to give an estimate I would say somewhere between €350 and €450 would be end user pricing.

It will be an expensive kit, I realize that, but I think the pricing is justified looking at what the market has to offer and what you actually get.
What do you actually get for that kind of money?

Preliminary Box of Contents
1x 2mm anodized Aluminum Chassis(With Horizontal and Vertical brackets)
1x Dual 92mm Radiator
2x 92*92*15mm Fans
1x Copper/Acetal Socket 1150 CPU Waterblock
1x Copper/Acetal GTX970 GPU Waterblock
1x Acetal Reservoir
1x 12VDC Pump
1x 12VDC 180W AC Adapter for GPU
1x 19VDC 120W AC Adapter for System(CPU, Motherboard etc.)
1x AC Adapter mounting bracket
1x GPU Power Board
Miscellaneous accessories (Fittings, Tubing, Screws, Allen keys, Manual and all other things needed to build a system)

What else do you need to buy to build a working system?

Shopping list:
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H81TN, GA-B85TN, GA-H87TN, GA-Q87TN
CPU: Any S1150 Haswell CPU up to the i7-4790K
DRAM: SODIMM DDR3 or DDR3L, up to 16GB
SSD: Any mSATA SSD
GPU: GTX970 with short PCB and Single Slot I/O


Here in the Netherlands I can build the following system including the kit for around €1550:
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 Boxed
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85TN
GPU: Gainward GeForce GTX 970 4GB
RAM: Kingston KVR16S11K2/16 (2x8GB)
SSD: Crucial M550 mSATA 512GB
Wifi: Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 Plus Bluetooth
OS: Windows 8.1 64-Bit OEM

 

A while back I mentioned some results I had gotten with my setup but I've decided to do a quick run with some games included so here we go.

Firstly I ran an Idle test, nothing spectacular, I was streaming Youtube at the same time.

Ambient was 21C, with the radiator temperature being 30C so about 9C higher than ambient. Fans where at their minimum speed.
Power draw at the wall was about 48 Watts.

Next up we have Prime95 on 3 Cores with Furmark on 1 Core, this proved to be the most stressfull scenario I could create and is by no means even remotely comparable to a normal load.

Ambient was 21C, with the radiator temperature being 40C so about 19C higher than ambient, Fans where at full blast.
Power draw at the wall was about 285 Watts.
HWInfo64 results seem a little vague, de maximums for CPU temperature are hitting 99C, but the average is 88C, and looking at the current temperatures it jumps from 88C to 97C for 1 second and goes back down.
I this image you can also see how I had my probes for measuring temperatures arranged.

Next up I tested 2 games, Skyrim with +- 200 mods and Far Cry 3.

Ambient was 21C, with the radiator temperature being 47C so about 26C higher than ambient, fans where around 70%. Here can see that H2O-Micro can be small and quiet when playing games.
Power draw at the wall was about 233 Watts.
So with only 50 Watts less power consumed than the Prime95/Furmark run and the radiator being 5C hotter, temperatures are excellent on both the CPU(76C MAX) and GPU(73C MAX)



Ambient was 20C, with the radiator temperature being 46C so about 26C higher than ambient. Fans where at around 70% speed.
Power draw at the wall was about 207 Watts.
Again excellent temperatures and fan speeds while playing a game.


I've also received some samples this week for the kit to check out and test.
Among them a set of fans most of you will recognize instantly.

But first! I orderded some Anti-vandal switches, Both are the same model and have a white led but 1 is a Dot and the other a Ring, let me know which you prefer. I already have a preference, can you tell?

Switches in Off state


Switches in On state



I modeled the switch in CAD and pooped out a render.


And finally I was sent 2 Noctua NF-A9x14 PWM fans by Noctua. These are actually my first Noctua's and I'm looking forward to testing them. I will be comparing them to some other manufacturers but they haven't arrived yet.






Some of my models I download from a website called www.grabcad.com and someone on there already made some Noctua models, but not of the Noctua NF-A9x14 PWM.
So I went ahead and made a CAD model and gave it a lick of paint in 3dsmax. I have to say I'm pretty proud of this model, it's 99% accurate.


That was it for now.

 

Spent some time today rendering a short animation of the fans.

 

I love the concept, custom waterblocks and cramming as much as you can into a small space are some of my favorite things to see. Although, those CPU temps are a little high . If you would have squeezed in a little more rad space and an internal flexATX PSU it would be perfect in my eyes. Having a power brick that's half the size of your computer is kind of cheating .