Fractal R2 watercooled [pics inside]

[grandpatzer]

Some days ago I started on watercooling a Fractal R2 PC, this is my 2nd computer to be watercooled and I'm much more happy with how smooth things went and how neat it is compared to my Haf 932 watercooled.

I was originaly planning on having the radiator internally but having it externa allows for slower fan and noise so having the heat get outside of case.

I did not get cpu block because it is not really necessary to watercool this cpu.

The air cooler is massive but I was able to nicely reroute tubing, with cpu block it would look more spacy ofcourse but also needs more pump power.

The pump and shoggy sandwich is not attached anyway to case, instead it is hold in place by the tubing, hopefuly this works OK.

Ive yet been able to fill it with water because I haven't figured out how to get my pump working, worst case scenarion I need to order a brand new pump and wait 1-2weeks.

 

[AndyMosh]

I don't mean to sound harsh but try and convert this post into points on what to do next time.

I'm no watercooling expert but that loop doesn't look tidy, I know it's not really a watercooling case and the external rad is pretty necessary but having it distanced from the case like that looks ugly.

Having the red tubes and the blue pump(?) isn't to my taste either, and the PSU cables going over the mobo could be improved I think.

I don't want to sound like a dick but I'm just expressing my opinion.

 

[FTLN]

Good effort mate,,, but I think you need to put a little bit more work into your cable management

 

[grandpatzer]

Thank for the comments

I need to have the rad away from case because of eyefinity (display cables and adapters require space).

I was actually wery satisfied with my cable management hehe.

Also case has no window so red tubing and blue pump makes little difference for me, In hinsight I would have ordered clear tube to see air bubbles and water levels.

I guess other than that is't fine?

 

[AndyMosh]

Thank for the comments

I need to have the rad away from case because of eyefinity (display cables and adapters require space).

I was actually wery satisfied with my cable management hehe.

Also case has no window so red tubing and blue pump makes little difference for me, In hinsight I would have ordered clear tube to see air bubbles and water levels.

I guess other than that is't fine?

Looking now I think a 360 rad is a bit overkill for just cooling 2 graphics cards, you could've fit a 240 rad in the front and not have it external I think, that would have been tidier.

 

[grandpatzer]

Looking now I think a 360 rad is a bit overkill for just cooling 2 graphics cards, you could've fit a 240 rad in the front and not have it external I think, that would have been tidier.

The 360 that I have actually could fit in front, obviously I would have to move pump.

Having it internally however means the heat get dumped back into case, so I would need high rpm fans and more fans, also the PSU would heat up making it noisy.

the GPU's at stock are about 370watt, overclocked they spend 450w+, I think it's actually undersized, obviously a 480 or 1080 would have been better but it would need more work and planning to have such rad with this case.

 

[AndyMosh]

The 360 that I have actually could fit in front, obviously I would have to move pump.

Having it internally however means the heat get dumped back into case, so I would need high rpm fans and more fans, also the PSU would heat up making it noisy.

the GPU's at stock are about 370watt, overclocked they spend 450w+, I think it's actually undersized, obviously a 480 or 1080 would have been better but it would need more work and planning to have such rad with this case.

I'd have put it in the front and have the fans on the front exhausting and the ones on the taking in air, like a normal system but the other way round, then the heat from the rads is being exhausted straight away and you get a nice rad set up inside.

 

[grandpatzer]

I'd have put it in the front and have the fans on the front exhausting and the ones on the taking in air, like a normal system but the other way round, then the heat from the rads is being exhausted straight away and you get a nice rad set up inside.

This crossed my mind aswell, but as it is now I only have one exhaust fan inside case because the 90% of the PC heat is moved outside the case to the external rad.

This way I have 2 fans(500rpm) in front intake, 1 cpu fan(500rpm) and only 1 exhaust fan(700-800rpm).

Also the external rad has 3x 500rpm fans, so in total it is 7x ultra slow silent 120mm fans + PSU fan.

Edit--->

I finally got the pump running and have filled the loop with water there are some airbubbles still in gpu's, do these disappear if I run 24-48h the system?

Maybe I should keep moving the case to make the airpockets move aswell.

Too long filltubing, wet floor and difiiculties filling:

This is better, I should have had a bit longer fill tubing, now I must have 2 short filltubings attached to each other for easier fill/bleeding:

This bottle turned out to be a life saver, so glad I bought it:

All connections seem to be sealed well: