discussion Work in progress AquaTerra

[stlouis1]

A few months back, I picked up a Fractal Design Terra case. I had just seen it a couple weeks earlier and kind of fell in love with it so when I had some extra cash I picked one up. Then I brought it home and slapped some parts in to size it up. I started with an older i7 something and a gtx1060 I had kicking around



After sizing it up, noting that if the GPU only took up one slot, and it's PCB wasn't too long, there should in theory be space for a rad and fans to run parallel to it on the side and room toward the front corner for a reservoir and pump and some other parts left over from a previous build and thought that maybe for not much money I could build a complete water cooled rig in here, nothing super fancy or bleeding edge, but full custom loop and it seemed like a fun challenge. Well, as it quickly turned out, there was no re-using the existing EK tube reservoir I had. height wise it was fine because it was short, but it was too fat to fit the space.

At this point I figured I'd have to be looking at a flat reservoir that integrates a DDC pump. There's mounting behind the PSU for a 120mm fan or something of that profile, and using that, I was limited to a GPU with a PCB length of 170mm. I also figured that with a single 240mm rad I'd be looking at a max TDP of about 200w so I went hunting and picked up a Ryzen 5 5600 (65w) for almost half price, a mobo for 40% off, and an Asrock RX6600 (130w) which brings me to 195w tdp between the CPU and GPU. I was skeptical of buying an ASRock card, but the price was right and it was one of 3 options I found that I could extrapolate from product images that the PCB didn't exceed my theoretical max



I proceeded to put the system together on air and did some testing. Got a chance to play starfield a bit that I got free on promo with the GPU. She's tight though



This setup ended up being shortlived. The ASrock card ended up dying within 9 days of ownership and less than 10 hours of use bench testing and what not. After getting the return/refund processed with newegg I walked into my local CC and they just so happened to have an Asus card on sale for the same price I had picked up the ASRock

 

[stlouis1]

So now time for the first Dazmode order... picked up an Alphacool ST20 240mm rad. I think a 280 could fit but then fittings and other things start to obstruct, so 240mm it is. Also picked up a universal Koolance block and some fittings as well as a flat reservoir. At some point in my research it dawned on me that fitting a flat res and pump combo wouldn't work because even with a DDC pump it becomes too thick. I opted for the EK Volume FLT120. I really wish they made an 80mm variant like the do for the Kinetic FLT though



I spent some trim trimming PSU cables shorter as well



With the realization that I can't fit a pump/res combo though, I went on the search for a CPU block and pump combo. I nixed the EK option due to port placements and it's overall dimensions being too big, but I came across the Modultra LOBO block. Quite possibly the most expensive block I've ever purchased, but it is a thing to behold

 

[Bond007]

Wow. Lots of work and changes going on with this one! Nice case!

 

[stlouis1]

After this was my next issue. Fitting the reservoir.... The mounting holes were about 1.5mm too close to the GPU so I couldn't mount the res flush.

Initially I thought maybe I could make some sort of shim to allow me to slide the reservoir more toward the front, maybe it could even be made out of walnut to match the front of the case but then I concluded that due to the PSU being mounted on the back side of the same bracket and the reservoir covering the entire surface, there's no way I could be able to mount such a time.

On to plan B, I figured I needed about a 7mm spacer which would be enough to allow the edge of the reservoir to overlap the end of the GPU. Again, I really wish there was an 80mm variant of the Volume FLT..... I picked up this kit of nylon standoffs on Amazon. The reviews were hit or miss about some of the standoffs in the kit having bad threads but it came with varying lengths and they were an M4 thread that matched the reservoir, and I only needed 4.



I ended up using 4 that were 8mm long and this seems to clear the GPU just right, but it's tight



And now this leaves me about 45mm of clearance from the reservoir when factoring the thickness of the side panel. In this space, I still need to leave air space between the res and fans, then there's 20mm thickness for the rad, fans will _have_ to be 15mm thick, and a bracket needs to be fabricated to hold the rad and fans so there's another 1-1.5mm


At this point, I still need to cut heatsinks to glue to the ram and VRMs on the GPU. I've already found some heatsinks that should work well and were shown in one of the above pics. I've also started mocking up a cutout to hold the rad which will give me a few different options for height adjustment and let me slide it front or back. I could also hold a 280mm rad. I figured I'd plan for this design to work for more than my use case and in theory, I think a 280mm AIO could fit in that space in a system without a discrete GPU so I thought this might leave some options if I get a few of these produced. The case is pretty popular right now anyway and I have a friend with machining equipment that I saw last night to take some measurements and jot out ideas on mounting it so he's on the first mockup now



I did make some slight alteration to my initial thought that would make it easier to cut more out by hand depending on the final position used for the rad in order to reduce the amount of airflow being blocked. can't wait to test fit the first mockup though



and that's all for now

 

[stlouis1]

Wow. Lots of work and changes going on with this one! Nice case!

it's been slow progress. Lots of research to find just the right bits, and even then once I think I have something right, there's another challenge lol. I think I started the build around September and have been picking away at it slowly as I have time. I had hoped to finish it for the holidays but given the current date, and that I'm working toward a custom bracket for the rad I don't think I'll make that target and that's okay.

Every single piece I swear is another challenge, but I did set out for a cool challenge build with this one and that is what I got.

I still question whether the single slim 240mm rad will be enough to cool the CPU and GPU. I may have to underclock and undervolt, maybe even replace the CPU with a 35w 5600GE or 5650GE but once I get it all fitted together, I can figure out changes from there. I actually would have liked to get a 5650GE and an RX7600 but cost was a factor when this build is a bit of an experiment as it is. If it works adequately though I can look at those down the road but otherwise I'm hoping it makes me a half decent portable 1080p gaming rig though.

 

[Bond007]

it's been slow progress. Lots of research to find just the right bits, and even then once I think I have something right, there's another challenge lol. I think I started the build around September and have been picking away at it slowly as I have time. I had hoped to finish it for the holidays but given the current date, and that I'm working toward a custom bracket for the rad I don't think I'll make that target and that's okay.

Every single piece I swear is another challenge, but I did set out for a cool challenge build with this one and that is what I got.

I still question whether the single slim 240mm rad will be enough to cool the CPU and GPU. I may have to underclock and undervolt, maybe even replace the CPU with a 35w 5600GE or 5650GE but once I get it all fitted together, I can figure out changes from there. I actually would have liked to get a 5650GE and an RX7600 but cost was a factor when this build is a bit of an experiment as it is. If it works adequately though I can look at those down the road but otherwise I'm hoping it makes me a half decent portable 1080p gaming rig though.

I think you should be fine on the 240 with your components as is. I know you will see the performance when built, but I doubt you will need an underclock. A bit of negative offset on the CPU and mild undervolt on the GPU will do wonders in even further lowering temp with the same or higher performance!

 

[stlouis1]

Yeah, I'm fairly sure it will be enough but I am winging it a bit lol. I came to the conclusion that a 240mm rad should be enough mostly based on EK's configurator that tells me a 240mm rad is good for 200w. They don't make rads as slim as the Alphacool ST20 though, but after checking reviews on that rad that I could find, it seems to keep up well despite it's thickness being offset by higher fin density so I'm reasonable confident it will handle the job. The slim fans might hold me back as well but I won't know until it all comes together, but as stated, hopefully some simple undervolting will be enough to cover any gap.

It was suggested to me elsewhere that I might consider an even slimmer rad with normal thickness fans though. There's some 17mm thick rads on AliExpress that were suggested. I'm not ready to explore that option yet but I've put a pin in it for now until I get it together. Maybe in the new year I'll try it anyway just to compare but we'll see

My plan is to have the rad essentially sandwiched to the side of the case and the fans pushing out. My hope is that with them pushing out, they'll also be able to pull enough air around the heatsinks I'm putting on the GPU's VRM and memory to keep them in check as well. I just ordered a pair of SilverStone SST-AS120B fans yesterday. After looking up some reviews they really do seem to be the best fans in the list of slim fans available. I'm curious what the acoustics will be like when it's done given the Terra has already been found to not be great when it comes to acoustics. Only time will tell though

 

[MosheErdman]

Your system is good. Can I ask some questions about it?

 

[stlouis1]

Small update, though nothing to show just yet. But my guy making me the custom bracket for the rad has acquired the material so hopefully I'll see a bracket soon because that's really the only missing piece now.

Also, I picked up a lot of water cooling parts from a guy at work for really cheap and considering selling some to recoup the cost, but that's not the point here. The point is that in the lot, there was an XSPC TX240 slim rad that's the same thickness as the Alphacool I bought for this build. The alphacool has more rows but the XSPC has slightly higher fin density so now I'm not sure which one to use....