ケイ - Watercooled Enthoo Primo

[Kei]

Greetings. New to the site. I came across TinyTom's CM690II youtube videos whilst looking around for info on the options available for water cooling so signed up. (Big thanks to Tom for the video as it was a great help)

Bit of an elderly machine compared to most as I have been running this system since 2009. The most recent changes were the CM690II case, an HD6950 and a xonar essence ST which were done in November 2011.

My system Specs are,

Case: Coolermaster CM-690 II Lite

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P

Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 955BE C2, Overclocked to 3.7GHz

Ram: 12GB Corsair Dominator 1600MHz / Kingston HyperX Genesis 1600MHz

Graphics card: Sapphire HD6950 Toxic

Soundcard: Asus Xonar Essence ST Deluxe

PSU: Corsair TX650V2

SSD / HDD's: 128GB Crucial M4, 640GB WD Blue, 500GB Seagate barracuda, 250GB WD, 200GB Samsung, 80GB WD, 74GB WD Raptor

CPU cooler: Prolimatech Megahalems + Scythe S-Flex 1600rpm

Other Bits: Enermax 2x2 fan controller, LG BD-RW, 2xs coolermaster 120mm fans, 120mm akasa amber fan, 120mm deepcool fan, 140mm BeQuiet Silentwings

This is how it stood with just basic air cooling. No window presently, not sure if i'll bother getting one yet.

Inside

I've always run all of my systems on air cooling for the last 15 years, swapping both gpu and cpu coolers out for zalman & thermalright. For a change i left the standard gpu cooler in place as things like the accelero and MK-26 were getting quite expensive and extremely big. These are the temperatures i had been enduring.

Idle

Load

Apart from it running very warm, it was also quite noisy, particularly the gpu cooler. The watercooling plan aims to reduce the temperatures significantly whilst also making the system much quieter. Future plan will be to add another radiator or two where i can squeeze them in.

This was the parts list i cobbled together for the initial build (I later swapped the EK block for a koolance):
YOUR BASKET
1 x XSPC D5 Vario (Body + Screwring) £56.99
1 x EK-Supremacy - CPU Waterblock - Copper Plexi £51.98
1 x Aqua Computer AquaGrATIx - HD 6970 Typ2 Water Block £49.98
1 x XSPC EX240 120mm Radiator - Black £41.99
1 x XSPC Acrylic Tank Reservoir for Laing D5 £28.98
1 x XSPC HighFlex Hose 7/16" ID, 5/8" OD, 15.9/11.1mm, 2m, Clear/UV £5.99
8 x OcUK 1/2" G1/4 - FatBoy Style - Shiny Silver - Barb Fitting £1.69 (£13.52)
Total : £249.44 (includes shipping : FREE).



This was the initial loop design.

This is what arrived.

Fitting threads treated with PTFE tape (for that extra bit a reassurance)

Pump assembled and barbs fitted to rad, pump and res.

Koolance CPU-380A and Aquacomputer 6970 II waterblocks prepped (gloves used to avoid acid issues and finger marks)

 

[SeekaX]

only one rad? and that's a 35mm one if i'm not mistaking. you need more and thicker rads.

 

[Kei]

Some building shots.

The cable stash that you can't see. Looking into offloading the smaller drives and recreating them as partitions on a larger one. (so i can free up the space for another radiator)

The fans in the roof. - not using the amber fan on the radiator

Removed the megahalems, nice looking contact patch.

Koolance bracket fitted ready for the TIM and block

Koolance block fitted

One sapphire toxic HD6950

Stripped ready for cleaning and new pads/TIM

GPU block fitted

After faffing about with potential rad locations I mounted the EX in the roof with the scythe s-flex and deepcool fans pulling air through. I put the pump in the best location for running the tubing to minimise tight turns.

Got on with the tubing then. Not too bad for a first attempt, though not the best as some lengths aren't quite perfect but perfectly functional and zero kinks. Took about around 2 hours leak testing and bleeding. Zero leaks during the testing and none so far after just over a week. The little bubbles took about 2 days to disperse.

Pictures of it reassembled. I stuck the pump/res on top of a folded piece of motherboard packing foam which has totally isolated it from the case.

Temperatures settled down after a few days. (initially the CPU temps were really high) I'm wondering how much of an improvement the extra 240mm rad and pair of scythe AP15's will make.

I also removed the fan speed alarm from my enermax fan controller the other day too. It's only been annoying me for the last 8 years. :lol: I can finally drop the fan speed below 1000rpm and still have peace & quiet.

This leads onto the changes that are due. Noise levels are not great yet, but a big improvement over what they were. I finally figured out that my TX650V2 does not seem to be adjusting the fan speed and it's just running at a fair rate making a lot of noise. ( circa 50dB ) I could RMA it but then I'd be without a PC for however long that takes and taking it apart and swapping the fan voids the warranty and i've had too many experiences with psu's dying to want to take the chance. I've decided to go for a seasonic supply either the fanless platinum 520W, the 660W XP modular or the X-Series 650W modular. I really regret not going for the HX now as i really would benefit from a modular supply, but I couldn't afford it at the time back in 2011.

As said in a previous post, I am waiting for an alphacool XT45 240mm radiator which i will run along with the xspc EX240 which should hopefully provide a fairly big boost to the cooling performance. I also have some 45 & 90 degree fittings coming too which should help with tube routing. Not certain which fans I'll put on which radiator yet, though it probably makes sense to put the higher pressure scythes on the higher FPI rad. I'll probably have some trouble with managing to loose 4 of my hard drives and finding somewhere to put the res/pump so i can fit the rad in the bottom. I'll be ghosting the raptor 74 and the WD 80GB drives onto the 250GB WD so that they can be removed. I'll then need to put 2 drives into the 5.25" bays either on rails or get me one of those fancy looking icybox backplanes. It'd be nice to loose some of those SATA cables, as there are 8 of them in there at present. I really need to get a single 2TB WD black and then i can dump the 200 & 250GB drives too.

only one rad? and that's a 35mm one if i'm not mistaking. you need more and thicker rads.

Presently waiting for an alphacool nexXxos XT45 240mm radiator to arrive. :lol: I have been up & running for just over a week and I was quite surprised how good the EX has performed and how quietly it has managed considering the demands I've put on it.

 

[SeekaX]

so you are gonna rip the entire thing apart in a few days?
anyways, it does look nice. i really like the colour of the tubing/fluid. not a fan of the koolance block though, looks kinda ugly with the big thumb screws.

 

[airdeano]

if you are going for overclocks, you are gunna need more radiator(s)..
the EX is good, but not that good, without using 2000rpm+ fans to make the
temperature differences seem logical.

the suggestion usually is 120mm in radiator space per block plus 120mm for headroom
in cooling. so a minimum would equal a 360 for a old tech GPU and deffo as much
to be spared for the AMD overclocking ability. but if all is stock, then you might
get away with some decent temps.

on the side-panel, why one intake fan and one exhaust fan, you know they cancel
each other out in use, right? proximity of each deletes their ability for proper function.

I still have three CM690 cases.. this conjures a retro build... but not now...

 

[Kei]

Both side panel fans are intakes as is the front fan. The other 3 are exhausts. Once the second 240mm radiator arrives I will be semi dismantling the loop in order to add it. It'll give me some experience of draining and refilling the loop, hopefully without making a mess.

Overclocking wise, I am already as far as my old C2 stepping 955 is willing to go. At 3.8GHz it is no longer stable even if the temperatures are good and I feed it more volts. (A C3 stepping would probably be better in this regard) I've been thinking about either going to a 990fx and fx8350 or getting an x6 1090T.

 

[alpenwasser]

The XT45 is a very good rad for low fan speeds, you should see quite an improvement in temps I think.

As airdeano mentioned, have you tried out different side panel fan configs? Since it's not that much work to try this out and he raises a valid point imho I think this is worth looking into.

Looking good though, the 690 is a nice case.

EDIT: Forgot to reload page and didn't see above post, disregard second paragraph of this one

 

[Kei]

I've sorted out the hard disks now. Taken 3 out, the two small ones have been ghosted onto the 250GB drive and the 200GB drive is now in an external caddy. I've just got the 640GB, 500GB and the 250GB which i put into the 5.25" bay using a set of rails. Still haven't got a clue where i am going to put the pump/res once i fit the bottom 240mm radiator, which should be arriving tomorrow

 

[hmmblah]

This is an old pic, but with a 240 in the floor, there isn't much room left. I went with a bay res and was able to cram my pump behind the floor rad between the side panel.

 

[alpenwasser]

Still haven't got a clue where i am going to put the pump/res once i fit the bottom 240mm radiator, which should be arriving tomorrow

I first thought maybe on top of the bottom radiator, but if looks like it would bump up against the GPU. Provided you want to keep this pump/res combo, you might able to squeeze them between the PCI card and the side panel on top of the PSU? Totally unsure, can't tell from the pics.

Alternatively, with a bit of improvisation they might be bolted to where the rear exhaust fan is now. But even if that works tube routing is probably going to be neither pretty nor practical.

I'm presuming you absolutely need the DVD drive, if not you might be able to squeeze them horizontally into the drive bays.

 

[pcjunkie429]

Still haven't got a clue where i am going to put the pump/res once i fit the bottom 240mm radiator,

If it were me, and you don't use the disk drive often, I'd take that out and just buy an external for that as well. That way, you could pick up a dual 5.25" bay res/pump combo if you have the money. It'd make the loop a little tidier as well, because you could have the GPU-out tube running from the right-top port, into the bay res, and eliminate that long tube going from the top rad to the pump/res you have now. Again, just my 2 cents

 

[Kei]

The bluray writer is brand new and used frequently which rules out it's removal. I also intend to get a 2x 5.25" backplane to house three 3.5" hard disks, which eats up all of my free bays. A small tube res and a top for the D5 would be ideal, but the budget is non existent now.

My guess is the pump/res will end up sat on top of the radiator. (as my thickest rad is only 45mm) I'll trial fit it in various locations once the system is drained. (should have done this back when i first built the loop, but didn't think about it)

 

[alpenwasser]

but didn't think about it

Happens to the best of us :lol:

Good luck!

 

[Kei]

Second radiator and a few other bits & bobs have now turned up.

 

[Kei]

All the new fittings have had their threads treated with PTFE tape.

I've swapped the xspc EX over with the alphacool. The XT45 is a very tight fit in the top of the case. All I have left to sort out is the tubing and the location of the pump/res. One minor cockup on my part is that the barbs for the bottom rad need spacers in order for an angle fitting to clear the fans so I've had to fit standard barbs for now.

 

[jamesriley94]

Why's the PSU changed?

I love the CM690. Kind of regretting swapping mine for the Switch.

Sort out the cables a little more - hide the front IO and USB cables under the motherboard maybe? Also, is that a ribbon cable I see? :S

It's getting there, but it kind of looks like a random array of parts. 5 different fans?

It would look better to replace them all with Scythe GTs or something.

Just find it a little weird that you haven't used two parts by the same manufacturer really... All different fans near enough, 1 XSPC rad, 1 Alphacool, Koolance CPU block, AquaFX GPU block, CM case, Gigabyte Board, Corsair RAM, Antec PSU... Just makes it look more like randomly thrown together rig tbh.

Maybe look at getting Bitfenix extensions on the PSU, along with swapping the fans so it looks more uniformed. And sort out the cables near the optical bays.

 

[Kei]

Was wondering if anyone was going to spot the change of PSU. I swapped the corsair out as the fan noise was just too much. ( near 50dB ) The cable problem round the optical bay is the fan controller cables. I'm going to get the grommets for the cm690 II off the coolermaster site at some point so that any cables that show in the holes presently will be covered.

To be honest my pc always has been a thrown together system as i generally combine stuff i already have with new stuff. (like the akasa amber fan which is from 2005) I'd prefer to get new stuff that matches the old but usually it gets discontinued. (the scythe s-flex fan being a prime example) Some of it is bargain bin purchases, like the kingston ram and the alphacool. I am slowly working towards unifying it all, but it'll take time as the car always seems to want money.

This is how things have gone so far. Res/pump will have to sit slightly covering the edges of the fans. (I've fitted some guards so the blades can't contact anything) The tubing seems to be ok now, although i'm dreading the bleeding time.

Some kind soul on another forum has just pointed out that having the xspc end tanks at the psu end would make the tubing shorter and neater. (why the hell didn't I think of that?)

 

[Kei]

It's much tidier this way around. At least it was nice and easy to turn the radiator, very glad i hadn't started filling it. Going to start the filling/bleeding/leak testing in a minute.

 

[TheySt0leMyName]

I'll be keeping an eye on this one.
I'm hopefully going to be starting the watercooling on my 690II in the next week or so.

 

[Kei]

Bleeding is taking forever. Don't think I'm going to manage to finish it tonight. No leaks anywhere which is a good sign though.