Water Cooled mITX Gaming Rig - Overview

Communities Blog
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So I decided to build myself a watercooled mITX rig.. and believe me when I say, this build really tested my patience. Now my choices with parts wasn't optimal, but thats only cause I live in Dubai and it would cost an arm and a leg to ship what I wanted. Here's what I used:

  • Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe
  • CPU: 3570K i5
  • GPU: Asus 670 GTX DCU2 Top
  • Memory: Patriot Viper Extreme 1866 4gb x 2
  • SSD: Patriot Pyro SE 120GB
  • Storage: had 2 old 2tb mechanical drives 7200rpm
  • PSU: Corsair AX850
  • Case: BitFenix Prodigy.

For Cooling I went with:

  • EK-Kit H3O 240 HFX + EK-FC670 GTX DCUII
  • 4x 120mm Bitfenix Spectre Pro (For rad)
  • 1x 140mm Bitfenix Spectre Pro (Exhaust)
  • 1x 200mm Bitfenix Spectre Pro (Case Front)

I'd like to point out that this build was only made difficult due to the fact that the EK rad isnt slim. Not to mention the push-pull setup with the 120 fans, made it a really tight squeeze. But I managed to fit everything without having to remove the drive cages. Tho i'd recommend going with a smaller rad if possible.

The EK kit + GPU block is a beast, it managed to get me awesome results considering its a 240 rad. The tests were made in an ambient temp of 21-24'c. I got 4.5 Ghz from the cpu with load temps of 70'c (I actually reached 4.7ghz but clocked it down since i was using the same loop for both CPU and GPU). And i pushed the GPU Boost clock to a max of 1345mhz before it started crashing, this is along with +200mhz offset to the gpu memory (max of 6262mhz) giving me max load temps of 45'c.

Sound levels were very quiet, even under full load theyre still less audible than the stock fans/heatsinks at idle. The front 200mm fan really pushes in a ton of air. I actually bought a 230mm fan but had to switch it out for the 200mm to make things fit better. As for the pump, theres a not so loud hum in the background, and im thinking it might be the first thing i swap out in the future. Not that its annoying or under performing, im just being picky :P

With gaming, I've only got guild wars 2 installed so far. It ran at 67-77 fps when there isnt much going on, and dipped to 45-50 fps when there was. Settings were all maxed out at 2560x1440 resolution.

 

Final Thoughts: The Bitfenix case is one of the best cases ive had so far. There are a ton of things you can do to it. Also, the EK products i got really exceeded my expectations. Going in to this, i dint think id get the results that i got. This experience has made me lean towards mITX Gaming builds when going with 1 GPU. Which isnt that bad considering you can fit a 690 GTX in the case aswell. Well thats all I've got to share. Let me know what you guys think :)

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Wow, wc in the prodigy? thats awesome, does the pump make a lot of noise?

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Not really, it isn't that noticeable... tho if ur in a quite room u can hear a really quite hum.... yet again I'm just being picky

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like the setup can u get a more detailed pic of the water block?

 

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nice rig man 

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Radical dude, seriously rad.  I'm still debating whether going the extra mile for that editing rig build, or doing a H100, seriously big debate, I miss zany WC builds, my old Athlon XP 2.7ghz was always at sub-ambient temps idle, which was 68-72F, and load, never went over 82F.

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@platj5983 - Uploaded to the top. This is the best i can do for the cpu block, since its such a tight squeeze. the vga was easy. still thinking of a way to light up the gpu block.....

@CaptainPancakes - i never had the guts to do sub-ambient. I live in the middle east, and summer is like 45-55'c here with 80%-99% humidity.... ye i kno..... so going sub ambient would be a huge challenge with condensation issues. Tho, ive always been tempted.

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cheers :)