Modding Watercooling a TJ08-E

[Chris_Waddle]

Hi,

At the moment the case has a front 180mm Penetrator fan sucking air into the case with the CPU cooled by an Antec 920 in a push pull with 2 x Scythe gt's (3000rpm version) at the back. My GPU is an EVGA 680 sig II, which sadly blows the hot air into the case. When gaming the system gets very noisy.

I have therefore decided to watercool it. I have bought a Phobya 200mm Rad to go with the penetrator fan at the front and a single 120mm rad for the back. My plan is to go from the bay res (with a built in pump) to the 200mm rad, CPU, 120mm Rad, GPU and then back to the res.
I've also bought a 3.5" 3 x fan controller to go at the front of the case in the bottom right hand corner where there is a fixing for one.

My question is this; ideally I want the heat from both rads to be pushed out of the case, but if I do this the air flow will be screwed up as there isn't really another clear air intake.
What would you suggest I do to get around this?
I am contemplating modding the side panel so that I can affix a fan as an intake or do think there is a better way for me to create an air intake?

I'd would really appreciate your help on this as I don't want to mess it up.

[Combatus]

Personally I would have just used the 200mm rad for the CPU and maybe used the rear fan slot as an intake - the 200mm rad should be fine for dealing with most overclocked CPUs. Alternatively, your idea for the side panel is pretty much the only option as there's no point doing anything with the roof with the PSU in the way. You could always just fit a large mesh section here instead of another fan though. The negative air pressure from the two rads will be more than enough to draw air in through the mesh.

[Chris_Waddle]

Thanks for replying.

I am still thinking on using both fans as exhausts and then cutting 2 holes in the bottom of the case to fit 2 x 120mm Scythe GT 1850rpm to work as intake fans (sucking in air from under the case). I would also have to use some dust filters such as these.

Do you think that this would work ok?

[Combatus]

Yep I would have though so. I was thinking more along the lines of reducing the noise - a vent would probably suffice tbh, rather than adding even more fans as it's such a small case. But the base would be just as good as the side panel really.

[atc95]

I have this case and have planned (awaiting finances) to watercool it. My idea was to mod the top panel to fit a 120mm fan where the top drive bay is as an intake and have the same rad configuration as you. You would need a slim drive bay res like one of these and then use an apogee drive II as a cpu block as the pump built into it can easily run a cpu gpu loop.

The other option which isn't as good is use a swiftech radiator with the reservoir built in in the 120mm slot and then you could push for a 140mm fan or even radiator where the drive bays are.

Hope that helps

[Chris_Waddle]

Originally Posted by atc95

I have this case and have planned (awaiting finances) to watercool it. My idea was to mod the top panel to fit a 120mm fan where the top drive bay is as an intake and have the same rad configuration as you. You would need a slim drive bay res like one of these and then use an apogee drive II as a cpu block as the pump built into it can easily run a cpu gpu loop.

The other option which isn't as good is use a swiftech radiator with the reservoir built in in the 120mm slot and then you could push for a 140mm fan or even radiator where the drive bays are.

Hope that helps

Thanks for the reply. I did consider that as an option, but in the end, I went for a complete EK setup (I am also going for a 'look' with the build). I also wanted the pump built ito the res to hide it out of the way, so it meant I had to go for a double bay res.
If what I am going to try doesn't work, then I am sure I will convert to a single bay res and fit a rad in the roof as you suggest.

I'm looking forward to building it, just hope I don't screw it all up.

I did consider going for this res combined with this pump, but didn't like it as much as the EK one.

[atc95]

Are you going to be doing a project log? It would be really cool to get some inspiration

I might watercool mine after my current mod but at the moment the gpu temps only go to mid 60s in gaming so not really any need.

[Chris_Waddle]

Originally Posted by atc95

Are you going to be doing a project log? It would be really cool to get some inspiration

I might watercool mine after my current mod but at the moment the gpu temps only go to mid 60s in gaming so not really any need.

I wasn't planning on it as I don't have a camera other than my phone (the BB picture quality is not that bad though). I'd be happy to do one if you want.

[atc95]

Seeing as there aren't many projects with the tj08e it would be a good and fairly unique project. Your choice though!

[Chris_Waddle]

Well this is where I currently am. At the moment it is leak testing and then I have all the cables to fit. As you can see, I have fit a dust filter to the floor and have both fans running as exhausts. Once running, I'll see if I need to run a fan in the floor to bring the air in faster for better cooling.

I may well put up a log for it but as you can see, I only have a camera phone and I'm not much of a photographer.

If you are wondering where the hard drives are, I have two SSD's secured to the back of the motherboard. I'm looking forwards to seeing how the results are when I get it finished.

[atc95]

This looks beautiful! Out of curiosity what res and pump/pumps did you use?

[Chris_Waddle]

I am using an EK dual bay res with an inbuilt pump. Very nice and very quiet.

[Chris_Waddle]

I've had a disaster. Wired it all up to test before tidying the cables, fired it up and nothing works.

After taking it apart (sob) it appears that I have bent some pins on the motherboard (thought I must have as I couldn't get any beeps of of the board when I unplugged stuff). Time to see if Asus will repair it for me.

Rather than starting a new mod log, I shall just put up a few pics in here and explain what I did.

[jrs77]

I'd go with the front rad/fan drawing air into the case, and then have the rad/fan at the back and the PSU (turn it 180°) as exhausts.

[Chris_Waddle]

Like I said, the front intake is a 160mm fan and on high speed moves a lot of air. If I have this as an intake that will be a lot of warm air being blown into the case. With only a 120mm fan at the back as an exhaust, I will end up accumilating a lot of warm in in the case.

I can see the logic in turning the power supply over and using this as an exhaust, but again, I don't like the idea of it drawing in warm air.

I am going to try with the 2 fan/rads as exhausts and see how the results go. I much prefer the idea of them drawing in cold air from below and the warm air all being exhausted. Only time will tell once I have my new motherboard.

[jrs77]

You can tell allready, without a running system, that this setup with both the rads exhausting isn't going to work very well, because they can't draw in enough cold air through the little hole in the bottom.

The only way this would work is, if you'd make the whole atleast double the current size, to match the square-area of the rads/fans.

You shouldn't forget, that the alot of the components are still dumping some heat into the case, allthough they're watercooled. The chipset for example will easily reach 50°C under load.

[Chris_Waddle]

Well I've pretty much finished it now and thankfully the air inlet that I created works fine. I've only got the two fans running at slow speeds so that the system is almost silent even with the CPU at 4.6ghz.

In case you are wondering what the odd connection is on the CPU block, it's 2 x 60deg fittings connected together. If I don't use those, the tubing wants to go straight over the ram. This was the best way I could keep the tubing away from the ram and not have to worry about any kinks (I'd also bought them, so I might as well use them)

Thanks to the article I read on here "It's time to bin your optical drive", I took note of it, and did just that.

Here are a few pics of it:

[bigc90210]

as an owner of one of these (mines got a be-quite dark pro, 2 gtx 480's in SLI and 3 laptop hard drives and a SSD stashed in the cd bays) i must say youve made something tiny look rather spacious. there is literally *no* room in mine at all as the HS/fan blocks the cd bays from normal hdd use, every ram slot is filled and the gpu's fill the rest of the case.

Good job, very inspiring for people like me!

[phinix]

Nice build. To be honest, you would be fine only with that 200mm radiator.
What are your idle/load temps?

[Chris_Waddle]

Thanks.

Only finished it last night, so not had chance to run long tests yet - It did run Intel burn test on very high for 10 passes

I've got it running at 4.6ghz on 1.25v. It idles in the low 30's and at full load will hit the mid 60's.
The GPU when under full load (Haven 4.0 or 3DMark 13) maxes at 42 degrees. I'll be seeing how far I can push it this weekend.