Scratch Build – In Progress MiniMe - Smallest (ever?) Watercooled mITX PC - 22/03/2010 COMPLETE!

Yes, you can see it in the pic too.. I covered the side of the radiator in blue electrical tape because it's about 1-2mm from the back of the videocard.

It's nowhere near as hardcore as oliverw92's custom design, but technically it's still watercooling. It could be better too, I used the pre-applied thermal paste instead of my AS5 or MX-2, and didn't tighten the screws till they stopped.. They're firm though and I didn't want to ruin the thread. I've got a low speed fan fitted that runs 500-1350rpm, and both the fan and pump are speed controlled. Despite all that it barely breaks 60C with prime95 so far.

Some links to bit-tech reviews:
DFI MI P55-T36 mini-ITX motherboard review
SilverStone SG05
Corsair Hydro H50 CPU Cooler Review (note, the backplate I got was different)
Intel Core i5 and Core i7 Lynnfield review (note extra load power and lower game performance with HT on)

 

I take it that you've removed the optical and HDD mounting locations. What are you doing about storage?

 

Nope, mine is smaller in volume

Yeh mine is smaller

Yeh i have seen that motherboard. It wasn't released when i started the project 7 months ago, or i would have got it! I would get it now, but there isn't an 1156 bracket for the Swiftech Apogee Drive (my pump/block combo). I would actually go for the Zotac H55 over the DFI p55, since the zotac has 6 SATA ports, overclocks better AFAIK and has better customer support.

Personally i don't see the h50 as proper watercooling. Partly down to performance, partly down to functionality and partly down to the whole 'ethos' of it. The purpose of watercooling as i see it is to either make the PC look 'bling' or allow you to overclock much further. The h50 doesn't really do either of these. It looks awful unless you change the tubes IMO, and it performs no better than a lot of air coolers, beaten by a few. Comparing it to real watercooling, like the stuff in MiniMe, i was maxing out at 50 after 3 hours of Prime95 and that is with a GPU in the loop too. I did consider an H50 for my build, but realised it isn't really watercooling and nobody would really appreciate it. Don't get me wrong, it is a great cooler and i put one in my friends rig, but it just isn't 'watercooling'.

 

AMAZING, I love SFF builds!

Matty

 

As far as storage goes, all i've got in it is a Gskill Falcon 128GB SSD. I did remove the whole optical bay mounting assembly, it got in the way and I was planning on getting an external anyways for the laptop i'm looking at. The Falcon is hard mounted using a bracket, and actually sits between the psu and the side of the case. You can see it and read the specs through the top vent


As far as it not really being watercooling goes, I mostly agree. The main reasons I chose the H50 were that it fits in this case without needing modification if you remove the drive bay assembly, and that it is more than enough to handle my OC without needing a small / loud fan. I can appreciate the time and effort involved in custom setups, but I didn't feel it was worth the expense, in time and money, over something simpler like the H50. Installing it was actually easier than the TRUE I've been using for the last few years, and that was pretty easy itself.

Also, as far as looks go, all you can really see inside the SG05 with the cover on is the videocard, the ssd and psu, the block/pump on the cpu, and if you get close enough you can see the radiator fins through the grill on the front



Do you think the tradeoff of smaller size with smaller videocard is worth it ? I don't think I could go back to a midrange card after having the high end stuff for the last 3 or 4 years.

Hmm.. it would be awesome if someone could make a gaming pc that fitted a 5970 inside.. it could sit sideways on a stand like a giant wii
You'd even have space to fit a 120mm radiator between the end of the motherboard and the end of the card, and it could intake on one side of the case and exhaust on the other. A giant wii for running an eyefinity setup

 

I don't play crisis, and i don't play Far Cry 2 on 2650x1600, so the 4670 handles all i need. I am thinking about getting a 5670.

I'm trying to work out if my motherboard is actually broken in some way. I changed the RAM and it booted properly again, except it couldn't get into windows. Trying to reinstall windows now to see if that is the issue.

If the motherboard is broken, i may consider getting a corsair H50, a Zotac H55 board, some DDR3 etc and mod the h50 to have custom tubes and use my Black Ice Rad. My only issue is, most people are saying it is impossible to put 1/2" OD tubing on the H50.

 

I can't see you getting 1/2inch tubing on the H50 either.. The only way you could would be using some kind of extension + adaptor fitting, because there's a lip which is just the right size for the original tubes, with the sleeved pump 3pin connector in between iirc.. Maybe using a right angle connector of the original size, and then an adaptor.

The 5670 seems nice, though I still don't really think I could live with less. This 512mb 4870 annoys me, stuttering in borderlands and can't play the BF bad company 2 beta on high smoothly at 1080p. I tried a 5850 as was impressed by it, and it happens to be the most powerfull card that fits the physical and power limitations of the case I have atm. I barely played crysis tbh.. apart from when I had that 5850 for a week, ran very high 1080p smoothly, and the gameplay was still very fun.

Even for some of the other older games that I play.. I've made pc's that were an upgrade for other people, but still noticed the difference from my main pc. A 9800GT is decently quick.. but the difference between "good enough" and perfection is jarringly noticable when you've been at or near perfection most of the time for years.. "good enough" just isn't in my case.

 

Thanks for the h50 info. You wouldn't be able to measure the height of it above the mobo would you?

Yeh the 4870 1GB was the most powerful card i have owned, so the 4670 wasn't much of a step down. I massively noticed the difference if i switched to the onboard 9300 chip on this mobo though, its shocking! It can't even run TF2 on the lowest settings at 1900x1200.

 

The height from the motherboard pcb to the top of the H50's block/pump is 60mm. The recess where the tubes come out is about 15mm deep going by eye, from the top of the block/pump.

I had an overclocked GTX 275 for the last 8 months or so, and stepping back to the 4870 was a bit of a nasty surprise in some games, like borderlands. I think it's more to do with it running out of vram though for the most part, the 1gb version was around 14% faster on average. I'm experiencing micropauses and momentary slowdowns with the 4870 in newer games like GTA4, MW2 and BF BC2 beta, even after turning things down a notch or two. Runs Dirt 2 and TF2 / CSS like a dream though, so I can make do with this till I get the 5850.

If you're considering the performance upgrade to an i5 setup, here's some data i've got on my current setup so far:

Code:

Multi	Mhz	Vcore	SuperPI_1M	3DM06_CPU
24	3840	1.264	11.242		****
*************************************************
*************************************************
21	3360	1.186	******		5138
20	3200	1.136	13.431		4863
19	3040	1.104	14.199		4578
18	2880	1.088	14.742		4398
17	2720	1.056	15.605		4171
16	2560	1.024	16.648		3937
15	2400	1.008	17.638		3718
14	2240	0.976	18.914		3469
13	2080	0.944	20.302		3261
12	1920	0.928	22.076		3007
11	1760	0.912	24.134		2770
10	1600	0.880	26.279		2545
09	1440	0.864	29.749		2314

This is just me measuring performance at each of the P-states available, by changing the max processor state in win 7's advanced power settings. Bclk stays at 160, ram is at 1600 CL9.

 

Ok thanks for the info

Good news! I have managed to get everything working! None of the actual hardware is broken except for one stick of ram.

 

I have been looking at this build thread for some time now on and off. I really like what I see.
Well done

 

Thanks Big F!

Ok you guys on bit-tech, so things have been slowed down massively. THe only progress is, my RAM is back from RMA, eBuyer are sending me an XFX 5670 as a replacement for the 4670 and stuff is getting sorted out about the motherboard too!

I leave you with these pics to keep you going:

 

Damn that's small. The build turned out very well, excellent work.

 

Update #21

Ok so the original ETA of the 14th is not gonna happen! I managed to wire up my CD drive and fan up the wrong way and something blew up and burnt in each one. I have fixed the CD drive (one of the tracks had exploded - i think it is a build in safety measure) by soldering it up again and it now works! However the enermax cluster is well and truly dead except for the LEDs. I also realised that with two drives it is necessary to use right angle sata cables. However i still have an update for you!



My dead 4670 got replaced with a 5670! Thanks eBuyer.



XFX have done a really nice job on the aesthetic design. The nickel plated backplate, black heatsink cover and black pcb really go well together.



The fan is very very quiet during operation. It also runs ridiculously cool! I am running at 3% fan speed and it loads out at 50C.



And with a nice aluminium background.



XFX even nickel-plated the X-clamp!



My original pics didn't do Duniek's block justice.





I bought a few more fittings so when i come to assembling it for the last time i have some options as to how i run the tubing.



I love black velvet as a backdrop!



The sweetest fitting i have ever owned! It is a Bitspower black shining rotary T.



Should have polished it first.



White 1/2" OD tubing.



White coils.



Unfortunately my custom PCB decided it would be fun to die. So I bought in a load of coloured 2pin and 3pin connectors to replace the PCB. Yes, that means no fan control now, unfortunately.



Purple is the pump, red is the CD drive and the two white ones are the two fans.



Finally, I bought a 320GB WD Scorpio Black 7200RPM 2.5" laptop drive. Fastest i could get for a reasonable price.


I am now just waiting for a replacement fan and some sata cables!

 

The 3200BEKT is a blazing fast drive. If you're running XP it will boot so quickly, it will seem unreal

Shame to hear about the custom PCB - do you plan on doing another one, or are you going to live without fan control?

 

Don't have time to make another Or the money tbh. Costs about £40 in components to make each one!

Thanks for the info on the drive I saw you had it in your project, glad to know it is so good! This paired with the Crucial SSD will be perfect

 

Nice work on the build! I am also in agreement on the WD Scorpio Black being very fast. I have the 500GB (rare now it seems) model in my laptop and it's fantastic!

 

Thanks Yeah i nearly went for the 500GB but it is £90 from eBuyer! I'm not paying £40 for an extra £180GB lol.

 

MiniMe Smallest ever Watercooled mITX PC Update 13/03/2010

Damn I love the TJ07 even if it has been done to death theres always something new that someone pulls out of the bag.. cant wait to see how this turns out especially when your hardware is so top notch.

ps. that koolance block looks AWESOME