# [Build Log] H2O-Micro (<3 Liter watercooled gaming system)



## QinX (Jan 29, 2015)

*Intro*
I’ve be very intrigued by the Alienware Alpha and the ASUS ROG GR8, systems that are marketed as console replacements. However after doing research on them one thing became evident that made me cry.
The graphics card in them aren’t as good as the can be in that size. Don’t get me wrong we should all be happy they are trying to make a Console replacement, but they only slightly improve on graphics with the Alienware Alpha listing “GTX Graphics” or better known as GTX 860M and the ASUS ROG GR8 has a GTX750Ti.


*The Goals*
I have 5 goals that I wish to accomplish with this build
1)    Under 3 Liters in volume
2)    4K Gaming
3)    Watercooled CPU and GPU
4)    Clean design
5)    Quiet when gaming

*The Specs
CPU *- Intel Core i7-4790
*GPU *- Palit GeForce GTX 970 4GB
*Motherboard* - Asus Q87T
*RAM *- 2x8GB SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz
*Storage *- SanDisk X110 128GB (might upgrade it to 256GB)
*WiFi *- Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 Plus Bluetooth
*PSU *- HD-PLEX 250W DC-DC board and 350W External power brick

*The Hurdles*
In order to get under 3 Liters AND fit a complete watercooling loop in it I’m doing a lot of custom designing for it, here is the shortlist:

CPU Waterblock
Full cover GPU Waterblock
PCIe 4x to 16x Riser PCB
Custom 2x80mm Radiator
Reservoir
Case

*The Progress*
I have already made a lot of progress which you can find right here

*Case*
This design is close to ready, once I have all the internal parts completly laid out I will be ordering the case, I would like to hear your opinions on the aesthetic of this case.
Version 1




Version 2








*PCIe Riser PCB*
I made my initial design as seen and ordered it. Almost finished and ready for testing







*Radiator*
A supplier of the company I work at made me this custom radiator. You can see a 120mm Fan and a 280mm radiator as a size comparison








*CPU Waterblock*
I finished the design form my CPU Waterblock






*GPU Waterblock*
No real progress to show yet, I’ve been doing some designing based of web images but until I’ve gotten my own GTX970 I won’t have a final design to show

*Power Supply*
So I’m going with a Thin M-ITX motherboard together with a HD-PLEX 250W DC-DC board and an external 350W Power brick. The way it is going to be setup is like follows:
Thin M-ITX motherboards generate their own voltage onboard, just like any notebook motherboard. I have a DC Jack on the back I/O that supplier 20V and the motherboard turns it in 12V, 5V, 3.3V, you name it.
However, Thin M-ITX motherboard are not designed to run with discrete graphics cards, the motherboard only has a physical PCIe 3.0 4x slot and those are limited to only supply 25W instead of the 75W a PCIe 16x slot can deliver, also there are no PCIe 6pin or 8pin connectors present.




This is where the HD-Plex 250W DC-DC board comes in. It is meant for small systems to have an external brick but still have the 24pin, CPU 8Pin, GPU 8Pin and some sata connectivity. I’ll only be using the GPU 8Pin and the board 12V rail to supply the GPU with power.
The PCIe raiser disconnects the 12V that normally comes from the PCIe slot itself in order to allow the HD-Plex board to supply all the needed 12V power to the GPU.

 I still have a ways to go but I’m making good progress.


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## krusha03 (Jan 30, 2015)

Wow looks really interesting and kudos for the old school custom water cooling with all custom made parts  

For the CPU
Is it really worth while designing and manufacturing your own CPU block? Also how does it look on the inside?

For the GPU
How are you gonna connect the VGA to that riser? Also maybe this Gigabyte GTX 970 would be better fit due to the smaller pcb, if you are making a custom block anyway?

For the PSU
I need to look into how that works. Sorry for all the questions and good luck with the build


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## QinX (Jan 30, 2015)

krusha03 said:


> Wow looks really interesting and kudos for the old school custom water cooling with all custom made parts
> 
> For the CPU
> Is it really worth while designing and manufacturing your own CPU block? Also how does it look on the inside?
> ...



I need the CPU waterblock custom because of the height constraints. measured from the motherboard to the top of the CPU block it's only 18.3mm high. The only small waterblock I know of is the apogee LP and it is 31.5mm above the processor almost 40mm if you count from the motherboard up, mine is half of that

I'm waiting on the PCIe 16x socket it was out of stock at my supplier, they have new stock on 02-02-15 so that should be coming soon. Als I had a ASUS GTX970 mini but the PCB is 10mm taller which makes the case bigger then an reference GTX970.
Also with regards to the Gigabyte GTX970 mini it has dual slot I/O which I can't have I can only fit Single slot I/O cards

I'll be making a schematic of how the PSU setup will look in the future.


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## micropage7 (Jan 30, 2015)

wow pressing the size is pretty challenging 
since the room inside is limited, i hope it has nice airflow so you dont make it oven inside


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## QinX (Jan 30, 2015)

micropage7 said:


> wow pressing the size is pretty challenging
> since the room inside is limited, i hope it has nice airflow so you dont make it oven inside



Inside the case itself there will be zero airflow, so it is much like a passive system and with the real heat producing parts, CPU and GPU being handled by the watercooling I expect little problems with heat buildup. The only question about the CPU VRM and Chipset and what temperatures they will reach.


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## QinX (Feb 2, 2015)

Here's a mockup of my design, I won't be showing the waterloop for now, I will be showing this off later on when I have the physical blocks in hand, gotta keep people guessing somewhat


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## Ja.KooLit (Feb 2, 2015)

sub for this. interesting build considering making it as compact as you could

Good luck with your build

edit: 


QinX said:


> Inside the case itself there will be zero airflow, so it is much like a passive system and with the real heat producing parts, CPU and GPU being handled by the watercooling I expect little problems with heat buildup. The only question about the CPU VRM and Chipset and what temperatures they will reach.



you may have a problem cause the mobo needs to cool to. Not unless you water cool the mobo VRM and PCH as well. 

and also, where will you locate the pump?


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## [Ion] (Feb 2, 2015)

That's awesome! 

Subscribed!


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## T-Bob (Feb 3, 2015)

Compact build... Custom WaterBlocks
Subbed, I've got to see this.


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 3, 2015)

I am watching you


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## FireFox (Feb 3, 2015)

Keep us updated, I beg will be a Beast.


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## BiggieShady (Feb 3, 2015)

It's a motherboard/cpu_block/graphics_card/gpu_block sandwich!
Subbed.


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## QinX (Feb 6, 2015)

Well I had myself a small problem, how do you test a PCIe riser that can only be folded over a Thin M-ITX motherboard?

Luckily on another forum a member (l3p) was interested in my riser, upon asking why he was interested he answered "Ik dacht dat hij wel handig kon zijn als je een GPU plat op een E-ATX bord wilt leggen. (Dus bovenop de andere PCI-e slots"

Wait what?
Let me Englishify that: "I thought it could be useful for folding a GPU flat over an E-ATX motherboard. (On top of the other PCI-e slots)".

Gotta love when other people turn on the lights in your head. I had an Maximus IV Extreme laying around but no CPU for it. quickly got myself a used Pentium G860 to test with.

*fingers crossed*





It works!
the slot it is running in is only 4x 2.0 so fps aren't great, but at least it works!

Here it is all soldered up.





Also, why would l3p want to fold the GPU over the motherboard? Well you can slim down you build and show of a waterblock.

He did something similar before but at a 135 degree angle and with a flex riser


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## czr (Feb 7, 2015)

Subbed.

I had similar idea for my Asrock H81TM build, but with an air-cooling, lowprofile FirePro or Quadro GPU and 19V 90W external PSU.
For the moment I'm waiting for Delock Riser (41788) to arrive.

What are exact dimensions of the case shown in conception?


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## QinX (Feb 8, 2015)

I've finished up the GPU waterblock




Now on to the finishing touches and doing a sanity check of everything.



czr said:


> Subbed.
> 
> I had similar idea for my Asrock H81TM build, but with an air-cooling, lowprofile FirePro or Quadro GPU and 19V 90W external PSU.
> For the moment I'm waiting for Delock Riser (41788) to arrive.
> ...



My current dimensions are just under : 21.5cm x 26.5cm x 5cm
how do you intend to air cool the CPU with the GPU overtop of it?


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## krusha03 (Feb 8, 2015)

QinX said:


> I've finished up the GPU waterblock



Is that a render? can we see more?  Also did you draw and render the whole card?


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## QinX (Feb 8, 2015)

krusha03 said:


> Is that a render? can we see more?  Also did you draw and render the whole card?



Yes it's a render, I'm thinking of doing a small composite render of the GPU, CPU and case.
I've drawn the entire card, though not all components.


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## czr (Feb 9, 2015)

QinX said:


> how do you intend to air cool the CPU with the GPU overtop of it?



With custom-made copper radiator and 80mm fan mounted next to the LP GPU.
It's i3-4130 (54W TDP including iGPU), with a slight undervolting it should be fine.


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## micropage7 (Feb 9, 2015)

QinX said:


> Inside the case itself there will be zero airflow, so it is much like a passive system and with the real heat producing parts, CPU and GPU being handled by the watercooling I expect little problems with heat buildup. The only question about the CPU VRM and Chipset and what temperatures they will reach.



ehm, it could affect your components for long term btw maybe you could make it passive by using the case as heat spreader for your vrm


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## QinX (Feb 12, 2015)

Hey guys,

Just a quick question I am curious about. What kind of finish would you like to see on the case? 
A. Normal Black Anodized Aluminum
B. Brushed Black Anodized Aluminum
C. Black Powder Coating


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## krusha03 (Feb 13, 2015)

I think A or C would be the best.  I think brushed would give rougher "industrial" look which doesn't suit this case.  Why don't you make renders with the different finishes so we can get a better picture


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## QinX (Feb 22, 2015)

Just a small update as it has been rather quiet now.

I’ve ordered the waterblocks and reservoir from my supplier, they should be getting milled come Monday, so with a bit of luck I’ll have them in my hands before the end of next week.

I’m also close to ordering the case itself from another supplier. Because of pricing I will be getting 2 Horizontal cases and 2 Vertical cases.
1 Horizontal and 1 Vertical case will be sand-blasted and then anodized either black of “space grey”
The other 2 will be powder coated black, matte and with a structured finish.

The only thing I need to order now are the O-rings for the blocks and the interconnects.


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## QinX (Feb 24, 2015)

I kinda made a mistake 

The fitting that goes on the reservoir is not going to fit.

Now I have to hope I can find someone to lathe a lot of material of the fitting and hope the fitting doesn't mind being über skinny


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## wagana (Feb 24, 2015)

I've a question @QinX 
How do you plan the hdplex psu to turn on when you press the button? PS_on must be shorted...


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## QinX (Feb 27, 2015)

DEcobra11 said:


> I've a question @QinX
> How do you plan the hdplex psu to turn on when you press the button? PS_on must be shorted...



I will be turning on the hdplex using a mosfet to short PS_ON to GND.


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## QinX (Feb 27, 2015)

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!


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## QinX (Mar 9, 2015)

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.


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## wagana (Mar 10, 2015)

Pics not showing  ...  I'll suppose it's on tweakers' side


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## krusha03 (Mar 10, 2015)

DEcobra11 said:


> Pics not showing  ...  I'll suppose it's on tweakers' side


Work fine for me. And damn nice to see cfd simulations for the block. What program did you Use? And what is the heat input of the different components? I see the gpu is 150W or is that for everything?


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## QinX (Mar 10, 2015)

DEcobra11 said:


> Pics not showing  ...  I'll suppose it's on tweakers' side



They are up on my end, maybe try and clear your cache?



krusha03 said:


> Work fine for me. And damn nice to see cfd simulations for the block. What program did you Use? And what is the heat input of the different components? I see the gpu is 150W or is that for everything?



I use Autodesk CFD Simulation, the GPU is set to output 150W all the other components I had set to 5W. So total heat is a little more then the actual TDP, but better be safe


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## krusha03 (Mar 10, 2015)

I start to like your project more and more because it''s not just visual design and combining parts together but also thinking about the thermodynamics of the system and designing the cooling from scratch 


DEcobra11 said:


> Pics not showing  ...  I'll suppose it's on tweakers' side


Here is a link to the thread on tweakers with the pictures but it's in Dutch 
http://gathering.tweakers.net/forum/list_messages/1623069/2


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## wagana (Mar 10, 2015)

QinX said:


> They are up on my end, maybe try and clear your cache?
> 
> 
> 
> I use Autodesk CFD Simulation, the GPU is set to output 150W all the other components I had set to 5W. So total heat is a little more then the actual TDP, but better be safe


Now shows 
Looks nice. Also for the gpu thing, if it works in a different system check if the mb supports gpus over pcie. IK That asrock for example in some of their thin Mini itx mbs they don't support gpus.


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## QinX (Mar 10, 2015)

DEcobra11 said:


> Now shows
> Looks nice. Also for the gpu thing, if it works in a different system check if the mb supports gpus over pcie. IK That asrock for example in some of their thin Mini itx mbs they don't support gpus.



The thing is, it has worked before. So I do think motherboard support should be fine with the GPU, I need to reserve some time to disassemble everything, because it is a very delicate process.


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## QinX (Mar 18, 2015)

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!


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## xvi (Mar 18, 2015)

QinX said:


> Stop! Update time.









That's.. very compact.


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## krusha03 (Mar 19, 2015)

looks nice adn those are nice temps, we are waiting for the coated case now


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## QinX (Mar 19, 2015)

xvi said:


> That's.. very compact.



Yes it is, I don't know about the volume of my current notebook, an ASUS G750JH-T4065H, but it is lighter. The entire system weighs just shy of 3kg.



krusha03 said:


> looks nice adn those are nice temps, we are waiting for the coated case now



I will be stressing both the CPU and GPU during the weekend to verify stability.


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## QinX (Mar 20, 2015)

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


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## QinX (Mar 26, 2015)

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


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## QinX (Apr 3, 2015)

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!


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## krusha03 (Apr 3, 2015)

QinX said:


> Hey all, just a quick Easter update!
> 
> Please read until the end, I need your opinions on something
> 
> ...


That looks even goldish but i like it. I am not probably your target costumer due to lack of funds for something like this but if you like my input read on:

Really like the case design and how clean it is except for that power button. A small black micro switch would look much better
Since you are not overclocking I dont see why not go for the lower class board 
I wouldn't mind 2 power bricks as long as they are made to look like 1 meaning a bracket that holds the 2 together, a braided cable to the PC and a common power plug connector. You could go fancy and make a dual voltage dc connector but that would be too much work i think
2.5" drive mount would be useful, 1.8" hdds/ssd are hard to come by, expensive and low capacity so pretty much useless


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## QinX (Apr 3, 2015)

krusha03 said:


> That looks even goldish but i like it. I am not probably your target costumer due to lack of funds for something like this but if you like my input read on:
> 
> Really like the case design and how clean it is except for that power button. A small black micro switch would look much better
> Since you are not overclocking I dont see why not go for the lower class board
> ...



The goldish tone is probably because of the incandescent bulbs that are on with that picture
Also with regards to your input:

This power switch will not be used in the final design, I think a vandal switch is the best way to go, a micro switch would be to small and fragile I think
As mentioned in my post I will probably support the Gigabyte GA-H81-TN and GA-H87-TN, same features but cheaper. also with the Q87 you already couldn't overclock, it is a business class board.
That was the plan, a nice matching bracket that holds both bricks together and a spliced AC cable to supply both with juice, dual DC voltage connector isn't an option, the motherboard would has a hard soldered DC inlet so it would have to be 2 DC inlets.
I know, but a 2,5" drive might not fit even with the internal DC board removed, but I will be staring at my screen trying to squeeze it in at least until my eyes are dried out


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## krusha03 (Apr 3, 2015)

QinX said:


> The goldish tone is probably because of the incandescent bulbs that are on with that picture
> Also with regards to your input:
> 
> This power switch will not be used in the final design, I think a vandal switch is the best way to go, a micro switch would be to small and fragile I think
> ...


1. You are right vandal switch is even better (didn't know the name before  )
2. Yeah what i meant is no need to go fancy on a board if running stock or even undervolting. If the board supports the CPU it will work with the cpu
3. I see what you mean. So the 2nd DC inlet would be going directly to a PCI-E cable?
4. What if you take something like the sandisk ultra plus and take it apart from it's case? Look how small it's the PCB inside


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## QinX (Apr 5, 2015)

krusha03 said:


> 1. You are right vandal switch is even better (didn't know the name before  )
> 2. Yeah what i meant is no need to go fancy on a board if running stock or even undervolting. If the board supports the CPU it will work with the cpu
> 3. I see what you mean. So the 2nd DC inlet would be going directly to a PCI-E cable?
> 4. What if you take something like the sandisk ultra plus and take it apart from it's case? Look how small it's the PCB inside



yes, the second DC inlet would be dedicated to the GPU power, it would supply 12V through the PCIe cables, but also to the PCIe slot 12V connections.

That sandisk is very small, the mSATA version is just as small, so support that isn't usefull, 2,5" drive support would be aimed at HDD support, although one could also use it for SSD in stead of mSATA, but the mSATA is meant for a SSD drive.


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## krusha03 (Apr 5, 2015)

QinX said:


> yes, the second DC inlet would be dedicated to the GPU power, it would supply 12V through the PCIe cables, but also to the PCIe slot 12V connections.
> 
> That sandisk is very small, the mSATA version is just as small, so support that isn't usefull, 2,5" drive support would be aimed at HDD support, although one could also use it for SSD in stead of mSATA, but the mSATA is meant for a SSD drive.


I understand that i was just giving you options because sata ssds are cheaper and you only have one msata slot. I find 256GB total storage not enough. 512GB would be a minimum


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## QinX (Apr 6, 2015)

krusha03 said:


> I understand that i was just giving you options because sata ssds are cheaper and you only have one msata slot. I find 256GB total storage not enough. 512GB would be a minimum



Not true in fact, you are from the Netherlands like me, so Tweakers.net pricewatch should be known to you I think?

2,5" 500GB SSD:
Crucial BX100 500GB €0,342/GB € 170,95

mSATA 512GB SSD:
Crucial M550 mSATA 512GB €0,367 € 187,95

It's only €17,00 more, so cheaper yes, should you care, not really . The benefit of supporting 2,5" drives would be that people can use their existing 2,5" SSD if they want. But for the price it doesn't really matter.


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## krusha03 (Apr 6, 2015)

QinX said:


> Not true in fact, you are from the Netherlands like me, so Tweakers.net pricewatch should be known to you I think?
> 
> 2,5" 500GB SSD:
> Crucial BX100 500GB €0,342/GB € 170,95
> ...


I know tweakers but wasn't aware of this. Last time i was looking at that (october i think) msatas where a lot more. I agree 2.5" would be great if possible thou


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## QinX (Apr 21, 2015)

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


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## QinX (Apr 26, 2015)

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.


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## QinX (Apr 27, 2015)

Today I spent some time making a short animation of the fans.


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## czr (May 3, 2015)

What software did You use to make this animation?


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## Devon68 (May 3, 2015)

> What software did You use to make this animation?


Yeah I'm curious too. Probably blender but still want to know.


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## QinX (May 3, 2015)

czr said:


> What software did You use to make this animation?





Devon68 said:


> Yeah I'm curious too. Probably blender but still want to know.



I model in Autodesk Inventor then import the model into Autodesk 3ds max + Vray


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## QinX (Aug 24, 2015)

Hi everyone,

Sorry about the lack of updates, I've been busy with the new design and getting my BOM and pricing complete.
I'm close to final but you will have the bear with me for a little longer 

For now all I can show you is a small teaser of the new design.


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## lZKoce (Aug 24, 2015)

It's not just a build log as far as I can see. It's a business unfolding in a few pages.  I wish you the best, dude. I like your work, pretty well done with all the research and flow calculations.


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## QinX (Aug 24, 2015)

There is actually more to it, but the updates have been a bit lacking on this forum, my apologies.

However from now on I will keep it in sync with the other forums.


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