Planning Watercooled HTPC rig

[Thatguy119]

Hi all, my build is now a few years old and I am looking to upgrade to Ivy bridge, but at the same time fit it in a HTPC due to space issues among other things, including the location of my big screen.

Due to desire to overclock and 3770k and the surrounding tech giving off heat I am looking to watercool, and wondered if anyone has had experience watercooling a HTPC case using a custom loop (I don't want to use one of the corsair pre made things due to noise) I will be using a micro atx board most likely and looking to fit a dual rad.

Thanks

[Bindibadgi]

I want to see the outcome whatever it is!

1) Pick your budget
2) Pick your HTPC case to fit the hardware
3) Pick watercooling kit to fit the case

Wait - why do you want a 3770K in a HTPC? It's a gaming machine too?

[Thatguy119]

Yeah it's a gaming machine as well, my sole PC apart from a download server.

Case budget including any required mods - £250, hopefully that will not be a limiting factor.

The hardware I will be using:

Asus maximus v gene
Corsair AX 850w
1 SSD, no mechanical drive
GTX 670

The case is the question, I have no idea which one to go with. I am thinking that the only option may be a roof mounted rad, not sure how that will work though. I was considering a Lian li pc-C60b, but I do not want to spend £160 just to see it and maybe find out I will not work.

Watercooling wise, a double rad, a triple would be ideal but I think unrealistic. I want to watercool the CPU and probably the graphics card, not sure whether that is too much heat for a double rad though.

[Bindibadgi]

I cooled a GTX 480 and 2500K on a triple 120, so a 670 on a double is do-able I recon.

[bdigital]

Originally Posted by Bindibadgi

I cooled a GTX 480 and 2500K on a triple 120, so a 670 on a double is do-able I recon.

And I'm doing exactly that on a triple right now in the Sig rig. Although to be fair I will be upping it to a quad in a few weeks.

Sent from my HTC Wildfire S A510e using Tapatalk 2

[Thatguy119]

Well after spending many hours looking at various HTPC cases I can see why this has not been attempted before to any success that I can find. There seems simply to be not enough room in a HTPC case for a double rad without roof mounting it, which is obviously not practical. Even using the Lian li pc-C60b which seemed like one of the most promising options does not work because, even if I cut out the 5.1/4 inch bay and have no optical drive, the motherboard still gets in the way. Alas, I think a custom case would be the only way for this to work most likely, unless anyone has a way of making a lid mounted rad work of course :P

[dunx]

Re-position the PSU under the CPU vent, and using a Gene you have three PCI-E slots free, lose the HDD cages and there's acres of room, IMHO.

dunx

[Thatguy119]

Not quite sure what you mean mate, but I am intrigued. What CPU vent did you mean? And are you implying there will be room for a rad and PSU using the empty expansion slots?

[dunx]

PSU above I/O panel sucking in through the top "blow hole" and exhausting out the back...

And yes, empty PCI-E slots + PSU relocated = lots of space !

Brave to chop up an expensive case though !

dunx

[Thatguy119]

Would a CPU above the I/O panel at the back not be way to long and interfere with the CPU block. And it would not be me cutting, don't worry - this kind of work is the reason Chilled PC exists.