Corsair Obsidian 250D - White & Red watercooled

[Boonstick]

So, having just moved into my new house and also having a shiny new motorbike to ride I decided to break down my 750D and use certain parts to make a tiny powerhouse mini ITX rig. I don't really get much time to play games or do anything else on my PC so I saw the 780ti SLI as a bit of a waste and I've also been looking for an excuse to do a miniITX build

I broke down my 750D and sold all the parts that I wasn't planning on using anymore. This covered the cost of all the new parts that I planned on using.

It may seem a bit overkill but that was the whole point of this build. Here's the spec.

Corsair Obsidian 250D Case
Asus Maximus VI Impact mITX Motherboard
Intel i7 4790K CPU
16GB Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR3 2400MHz
EVGA GTX 780ti Superclocked w/ACX
120GB Corsair Force LS SSD
420GB Corsair Force SSD
WD 750GB Black HDD (2.5")
Corsair AX760 PSU
Corsair White Individually Sleeved Cables

Watercooling specs:

EK Water Blocks EK-DDC 3.25 X-TOP CSQ - Plexi
EK-BAY SINGLE RES CSQ - Acetal
EK Water Blocks EK-FB ASUS M6I - Nickel (Original CSQ)
EK Water Blocks EK-FC780 GTX Ti - Nickel
Hardware Labs Black ICE Radiator GT Xtreme 140 - (In Push/Pull)
Hardware Labs Black ICE Radiator GT Stealth 240 - XFlow - (In Push)
XSPC EC6 Coolant Blood Red
XSPC HighFlex Hose 7/16" ID, 5/8" OD, 15.9/11.1mm, 2m, White
2x Akasa AK-FN058 Apache Black Super Silent 120mm Fan - 4 Pin PWM
2x Akasa AK-FN062 Apache Black Super Silent 140mm Fan - 4 Pin PWM


The i7 4790K may seem like a strange choice but there is reason behind my madness. After watching TTL's review and seeing how well it undervolted at a pretty decent clock speed I decided to go for this as at the time of planning the build I was concerned about the cooling capacity of only having 1x 240mm and 1x 140mm rads. Having said that I still haven't found time to play about with the overclocks yet but even at stock with "auto" volts the temps are surprisingly low.

This has definitely been the most challenging build I've done to date. The amount of alterations to my original spec has been amazing but I won't go into that. Trying to squeeze all that I've got in there has taken a very long time but having said that, it's been really fun.

It's not 100% finished yet so keep that in mind but any comment/suggestions are very welcome

Anyway, enough of my waffle, here's some pictures.

 

[MadShadow]

Thats impressive that you managed to fit that all in there, and make it look relatively clean. Good job!

 

[Cru]

very nice
quite tidy considering what you've put in that tiny case

 

[GadgetGarrett]

Wow! Just proves that you can pack a load in to a tight space and still keep it tidy. Impressive job there.

 

[tinytomlogan]

Is it just me that notices that ALL of the fans are blowing OUT?

 

[Boonstick]

Is it just me that notices that ALL of the fans are blowing OUT?

Yes, sir. You are correct.

 

[RadeonHDx]

Is it just me that notices that ALL of the fans are blowing OUT?

I noticed that, I'm not saying that it isn't amazing that you packaed all of that hardware in there and the tubing is relatively tidy but are you sure you couldn't have arranged it so that the tubing doesn't crossover itself? I think this is just a personal thing and I know it is very hard to arrange everything so there isn't crossover but it's probably just a pet peeve of mine ^_^.

 

[Boonstick]

Having the fans blowing out wasn't really an option to be honest (and I can't really see the problem as well ). With the case being so small having the fans blow inwards seemed to heat the entire system up even more. I re-arranged the fans so they where all blowing out and it seemed to make a huge difference to the temps.

I noticed that, I'm not saying that it isn't amazing that you packaed all of that hardware in there and the tubing is relatively tidy but are you sure you couldn't have arranged it so that the tubing doesn't crossover itself? I think this is just a personal thing and I know it is very hard to arrange everything so there isn't crossover but it's probably just a pet peeve of mine ^_^.

It's also one of my pet peeves but I really couldn't find another way of running the tubing. I'm probably wrong but I was assuming that even tho loop order doesn't really matter it was important to at least have res -> pump? If that's not the case then Ill be able to tidy up this loop a fair bit.

 

[JaffaCakes6]

Those little glimpses of red amongst the white :wiseman1:

That and the GPU block, making for one of, if not the prettiest 250D loop I've seen, as far as colours go. Certainly one of the tider ones, too.

 

[Lucas Bezerra]

Love that small builds. Have you thought about making a acrylic side panel to be able to see the graphics card?

 

[JR23]

That is THE best 250D I have ever seen and having built just a simple air cooled system in one without a graphics card I am amazed you got it that clean it must of been uber tight, monumental respect to you.

Also that coolant looks amazing in the GPU block, i'm getting that for αclass, thanks for helping me decide.

JR

 

[Boonstick]

Thanks for all the comments everyone. They are all much appreciated.

I've decided to change the res/pump config to try and tidy up the loop. The parts are on their way so I'll hopefully get this done sometime next week.

 

[Friction]

The problem you're going to have with all those fans blowing out, is you have created a vacuum inside that case. If there is no way you can change a few of them around, you will definitely need to filter any open areas when dust can come in.

Other than that, that is one mighty impressive job of getting all that in there and making it clean.

 

[Superiby123]

That looks amazing - really quite impressed that you managed to fit it all in!

 

[Boonstick]

Thanks for all the comments everyone.

I've slightly updated the waterloop to try and tidy up the tubing inside and create a bit more space. Instead of the seperate res & pump, which was causing a bit of a problem with space, Ive gone for an EK pump/res combo. This has enabled me to massively tidy up the loop. See Pic below.

Next on the list is the fans. A few people have mentioned about the negative pressure setup I currently have and I'm going to look into changing them around, at least just the front fans.

The last change that I'm thinking about, again, (this was on the original spec list) is going to hardline tubing. I gave it a go early on in the build but found it a lot harder to do than I first thought and I didn't have enough time to commit to the build to do it properly so I went back to flexi. I've still got all the bits, so I might give it another go.

 

[Friction]

Definitely looks cleaner. Great job!

 

[iTokin]

The last change that I'm thinking about, again, (this was on the original spec list) is going to hardline tubing. I gave it a go early on in the build but found it a lot harder to do than I first thought and I didn't have enough time to commit to the build to do it properly so I went back to flexi. I've still got all the bits, so I might give it another go.

Would enjoy seeing this!

 

[paulstung]

Such a clean little space, well done mate, I'd leave the tube the way it is, even though the 250D is tinny the thick tube works.

 

[The_Governour]

Nice build and very nice to see some WC in such a small case.

What are your temps, OC, deltas etc?

 

[Boonstick]

Thanks again everyone

I'm still playing around with the step up a bit. I decided not to bother with the hardline tubing in the end. I gave it a go but some of the bends we so tight and complex I just couldn't get them looking nice.

Nice build and very nice to see some WC in such a small case.

What are your temps, OC, deltas etc?

As I said I'm still playing about with the setup and I'm currently away on holiday so I can't remember the exact figures but my last test & OC's were roughly:

CPU: 4.6GHz @ 1.25v - Max core temp after 6 hours OCCT 65c - 70c

GPU: Reflashed with Skynet BIOS GPU= 1300mhz @ 1.2v - MEM= +550mhz - Full load temps 46c

I don't leave it at these OC's. I usually scale it back a bit for everyday use. This was just to see what I could push it too but overall I was quite surprised how well this tiny loops keeps everything pretty cool. I did manage to get the CPU to OC up to 4.8GHz but the jump I wasnt happy with the jump in voltage required to keep it stable.