Realized today that moving the 140mm fans above the case divider causes the top lid to no longer attach to the case. The fans are simply too wide and block the lid from attaching. Have to move down to 120mm fans before reassembly can be finished completely.

I trimmed the water lines to get a cleaner appearance and reduce the overall length of my loop. I managed to remove about a foot of tubing.

After getting the water cooling installed I moved on to overclocking. Currently I am using the i5 3750K on the ASRock Z77 Extreme6 motherboard. The Ivy Bridge CPUs use thermal paste to connect the CPU die to heat spreader. I was having issues with one of the cores being 8-10 degrees hotter than the others. After delidding the CPU, cleaning up the thermal paste and applying some Arctic Silver 5, I got the temps to be grouped closer together. This was my first attempt delidding a processor. It ended up only taking 5 minutes, where other people took 45 – 60 minutes.

After delidding I was able to overclock to 4.5GHz on stock voltages with “Level 3” vdroop with temps around 60-70 degrees. Prime95 for 30 minutes was successful.

Got my 120mm fan today from Amazon, broken of course..

Organizing more of the cables for the fan controller and pumps. Out of sleeving at the moment 🙁

Coming together nicely 🙂

Decided to implement some water cooling in my CM 690 II Advanced Case during my PTO. The following parts were used:

– Alphacool NexXxoS ST30 280mm radiator
– EK Supreme LTX Intel CPU block
– XSPC Dual 5.25″ Bay Resevoir / Pump Combo with D5 vario pump
– PrimoChill PrimoFlex Advanced LRT Tubing (3/8″ x 5/8″)
– 3/8″ x 5/8″ Bitspower compression fittings all around

The Alphacool radiator is 30mm thick. Unfortunately it will not fit perfectly into the case, it’s about 1/2″ too long. I will drill a few holes in the divider of the case to get the radiator to mount slightly diagonally.

Tubes cut to size and assembled for a leak test attempt.

Back of the XSPC resevoir / pump combo.

Compression fittings on the radiator.

CPU block with fittings.

Front of reservoir, filled with water and running!

I also grabbed a 120mm radiator from Alphacool, i found it to be too small for my liking, although it fits better than the 140mm one. I might use it in future improvements to get the GPU cooled.

Size comparison of the 120 vs 140mm radiators.

I assembled the loop outside of the case, then slid the radiator, CPU block, and reservoir in through the front of the case. I then mounted the CPU block to the motherboard then the motherboard to the case. The rear panel doesn’t have enough room to access the entire socket area of the ASRock Extreme6 motherboard, it needs to be removed to attach the CPU block.

Installed in the case and leak testing. After I get a few more parts in I will remove the cooling and shorten up the excess tubing connecting the pump to the radiator and CPU block. This is all before wire organization is done, of course.

Front of case with the FC5 6 Channel 30W fan controller. Still some bubbles in the reservoir to work out. I have not been able to find any bubbles within the loop, not sure if I just got lucky there.

I ran out of my Arctic Silver thermal compound. I am currently using the thermal compound left over on the CPU from the previous heatsink. Prime95 temps are around 60 degrees. I am hoping those temps will drop after new thermal compound is installed.