# White Dragon - watercooled mini ITX project build log



## mr.doom

Hi.

As of today I started on my most ambitious project build yet, and I'd like to share it with all of you. As I go through it, I would like to ask for inspiration and ideas as to how to proceed. I will be photographing the whole process, sometimes I will use my video camera as well. I will try to post in as regular intervals as possible, so visit this thread sometimes.

General outlines of this project are:

1. Mini ITX form factor;
2. Core i7 processor that will be overclocked to the limits;
3. High-end graphics card - overclocked as well;
4. Minimum of 1TB storage;
5. White, black and blue tones;
6. Watercooled;
7. Maximum 23 dB;
8. Look stylish and presentable;

Any comments, criticism, ideas and inspiration is very much welcomed.

Here we go. Yesterday, I received the case and started to prepare it for the components. Case in question is the Bitfenix Prodigy in white. Here are some shots of the case itself:


































































I started by removing all the insides, preparing for the watercooling. First went the top HDD cage,





then the top 5.25" bay,





next was the bottom HDD cage,





and finally, off with the stock fans:






First question: how would you cover the electronics for the side panel (on button, reset, etc.)?

Stay tuned, I'll be updating the thread often.


Update!!!

I just received my radiators. It will be time to paint them matt white


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## spirit

Looks pretty good, what hardware are you going to go for and how are you going to get a high end graphics card in there once you've got everything else installed?


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## mr.doom

spirit said:


> Looks pretty good, what hardware are you going to go for and how are you going to get a high end graphics card in there once you've got everything else installed?



Thanks. General specs will be:

Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe - motherboard
Intel Core i7-3770K - processor

there will be an SSD + 2.5" drive and since this case can take the Radeon 7990, then I presume there won't be much issue with the watercooled GTX 680. I will squeeze in 2, 240mm radiators too  At the end of the day, I will have to do little maths, length of the case minus radiator width and minus the fan with. If it doesn't fit, then it's the modding time!


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## spirit

Hmmm - do you mean a 7970? Looking at that case it will be a tight squeeze, but it should be OK for temperatures because of your water cooling.


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## mr.doom

spirit said:


> Hmmm - do you mean a 7970? Looking at that case it will be a tight squeeze, but it should be OK for temperatures because of your water cooling.



I meant 7970  I just checked. I will have 335mm clearance in the case. Radiator is 30mm and fans are 25mm thick. GTX 680 is 270mm long. That gives me whole 10mm of clear space between them


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## spirit

Ah yes the 680 is shorter than the 7970 - not sure why but Radeons always seem to be longer - weird!  Is the 680 going to be water-cooled too or not? 

Anyway, I look forward to seeing the completed build!


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## mr.doom

spirit said:


> Ah yes the 680 is shorter than the 7970 - not sure why but Radeons always seem to be longer - weird!  Is the 680 going to be water-cooled too or not?
> 
> Anyway, I look forward to seeing the completed build!



I have no clue why, but Radeons tend to be a bit longer. GTX 680 will be watercooled as well. Watch out for more pictures, I will be updating this thread as I go.



abc123DYNaSTY said:


> Good LucK! Do u know how much the case is? she is very pretty



I paid around 80 Euros for the case and so far I'm pretty impressed how well thought through it is.


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## spirit

mr.doom said:
			
		

> GTX 680 will be watercooled as well. Watch out for more pictures, I will be updating this thread as I go.


Awesome!  I did my first case mod and a build thread a few weeks back - all I did was add some holes into the board tray of one of my cases for cable management, worked a treat!

On that line, are you going to get a modular power supply? Would seriously reduce the cable clutter, especially in a little case like yours where there won't be a great deal of room to hide excess cables.


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## mr.doom

spirit said:


> Awesome!  I did my first case mod and a build thread a few weeks back - all I did was add some holes into the board tray of one of my cases for cable management, worked a treat!
> 
> On that line, are you going to get a modular power supply? Would seriously reduce the cable clutter, especially in a little case like yours where there won't be a great deal of room to hide excess cables.



Yeah, I will be going for the Corsair AX series with the set of white braided cables.


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## spirit

mr.doom said:


> Yeah, I will be going for the Corsair AX series with the set of white braided cables.



Good choice!


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## Quickpaw

when you've got this all up and running I would love to see a complete list of all the parts you used and how much it all cost.

wouldn't mind putting something like this together for myself, sounds like a neat little project!


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## mr.doom

So I received my radiators (see the first post), and I'm off to paint them


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## claptonman

Very nice. Only thing stopping me from getting a miniITX build would be heat, but yours will be super cool. How far can you overclock on an ITX board, though?


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## mr.doom

claptonman said:


> Very nice. Only thing stopping me from getting a miniITX build would be heat, but yours will be super cool. How far can you overclock on an ITX board, though?



I read the reviews of the board I'm getting and you can push the CPU to 4.6-4.7 GHz.


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## mr.doom

*Radiators are painted*

I guess I will have to be adding new threads as there's a limit of 20 pictures per thread.

The radiators are now painted! Excuse me if the craftsmanship is not top, but that was the first time I spray-painted anything. 






And mounted  What do you think so far? I need to think of some sort of shroud on the top radiator.


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## mr.doom

Tomorrow I will receive some fans and other things that need to be attached, so I decided to pay attention to details and painted the screws.


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## kdfresh09

im not sosure that painting the fins on the radiators was a good idea.  by doing so, you may have actualy insulated it,  preventing heat fron disapating properly.  hope it still works theway it was designed to


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## mr.doom

kdfresh09 said:


> im not sosure that painting the fins on the radiators was a good idea.  by doing so, you may have actualy insulated it,  preventing heat fron disapating properly.  hope it still works theway it was designed to



I hope they do  I chose non-insulating paint to do this


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## wolfeking

Even with non insulating paint it will still decrease performance of the radiator. It leaves a layer between the metal (copper?) and the air. The radiator is made to have only three layers, Air, Fins, and Water.   

You should have went with either some sort of a white plating tech, or taped off the fins before painting.


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## mr.doom

wolfeking said:


> Even with non insulating paint it will still decrease performance of the radiator. It leaves a layer between the metal (copper?) and the air. The radiator is made to have only three layers, Air, Fins, and Water.
> 
> You should have went with either some sort of a white plating tech, or taped off the fins before painting.



Oh well... We shall see, I used to cool the 2600K overclocked to 4.5GHz and the GTX 590 with the single 360mm radiator and got some great results, so having 2x 240mm should (with the GPU that will produce significantly less heat too), compensate for the paint.


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## wolfeking

It should. With a standard non insulating paint, I would only expect about a 5-10% loss in performance. So you should be good.


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## mr.doom

Today I received fans and the reservoir. Of course I noticed, I ordered incorrect amount of fans, should've ordered 5, but instead I ordered 4  Took me a little time to mount everything but eventually I did.

Turns up I had to make little compromises here and there. The fans for the top radiator had to go on the top, otherwise I wouldn't be able to mount the 45 degree fittings properly. I will have to order some nice shroud to cover the fans, as well as buy some white perspex to cover the fans and the radiator from all the sides (sort of perspex box with the shroud on the top. Similar story to the front radiator, only here I could mount the fans in between the radiator and the front of the case. Finally, with no room to spare, I installed the reservoir. That, of course, presented another challenge: The hinge of the side panel doesn't fit in between the case and the reservoir bracket. Luckily there's enough clearance between the panel itself and the reservoir, and tomorrow I get my Dremel kit delivered, so I will be able to cut away the 5 cm or so of the hinge that otherwise would intrude onto the reservoir bracket. Here are some pictures from today:


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## mr.doom

I finally got my Dremel and I managed to make cut in the side panel hinge. Give it, it's not the most pro cut you'll ever see, but it was my first time with a Dremel tool, and this will be completely out of sight, so I'll just spray paint it white. Anyway, I didn't paint it yet, as the window kit will be coming sometime soon and there will be much more cutting done to this side panel (this time with much more precision).


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## mr.doom

I's been a while, but the rest of my watercooling parts got delivered. Here it is:






Now, I chose this pump, because of its small dimensions and 17 Db noise output. I gather, it's not a big, full tower PC, so it doesn't need a super powerful pump to keep the coolant flowing.











Next, I decided to go for the Nvidia GTX 670 in my build. It will be powerful enough, it's still quite a high-end card, and it will leave some room in the case, once the block is mounted. I decided to go for this block, as it has a transparent front making it perfect for my choice of coolant:











As for the CPU block I went for one that has great reviews. In fact it seems to be one of the most efficient CPU blocks on the market now. I decided not to go for the transparent cover as it will be right behind the GPU, and therefore out of sight. Might as well go for the performance part.






I got whole bunch of these babies (straight, 30 degrees and 45 degrees, revolvable):






And finally, here is the coolant I chose for the system:







As for todays work, this is what I've done so far. I will be ordering PC parts soon and will then mount the CPU and GPU block.
















Any thoughts?


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## mr.doom

Next batch of parts came in today. I had no time to work with them all yet, but here are some pictures of new components that arrived:

First of all is the CPU. I decided to go for the Intel i5 3570K, instead of i7 3770K. From the reviews I read, it seems that 3570K is much better overclocker, and that with the right overclock, you can almost match its performance to the 3770K. I decided to be persuaded and bought one:






As for the RAM, I went for the Corsairs' Vengeance 8GB Low Profile, in white. Not that easy to get hold of them, but I got them anyway 






Thirdly, is the motherboard. After reading, and watching many reviews, I am convinced, that there is no other motherboard currently on the market that could match this little beast:






Here is the motherboard in a bit more detail:











Here, with the CPU ready in place:






After I've done that, there was a little party I needed to attend but I still managed to fit the CPU block






and the RAM, after I came back:







Now, off to bed, and tomorrow I will be mounting it all in the case.


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## claptonman

Looks sweet, can't wait to see it finished!


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## mr.doom

claptonman said:


> Looks sweet, can't wait to see it finished!



Thanks! I can't wait too. This is why I decided to think through my plan, and to see the PC working asap, I decided to close the loop for now. I will add the GPU as the very last component, but I do want this PC up and running before.

So I've installed the motherboard and closed the loop:






and then I connected the side panel cables:






I have to figure out if there is any other way I can route these cables so they don't ruin the simple and pristine look I'm going for... Any ideas?


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## mr.doom

Just to let you guys know, I will be finishing off the project from the hardware side on monday (my parts are coming, yey!)


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## mr.doom

Well, I forgot to buy molex to 3-pin connectors... Doh! Need to wait till tomorrow to run the whole computer, as i will overheat without the running fans. But the computer is now tested for leaks, and there are none.

Here's a little teaser of the things to come 

Since I have some problems embedding the video, I'll just give you a link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5mGNB3WEeU&hd=1


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## jonnyp11

Ever thought about same LED's behind the resivoir? might look nice.


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## mr.doom

jonnyp11 said:


> Ever thought about same LED's behind the resivoir? might look nice.



Thanks. Such a nice idea! I'm getting extra ones now, so I can put it up


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## jonnyp11

mr.doom said:


> Thanks. Such a nice idea! I'm getting extra ones now, so I can put it up



would be awesome to get some sort of defuser soyou can't see the individual little dots of light but a bar instead of they don't come that way but should look cool no matter what. i'd get plain white for that and blue for the rest if you plan to put them on the case too (sounded sort'a like that)


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## jonnyp11

mr.doom said:


> Thanks. Such a nice idea! I'm getting extra ones now, so I can put it up



would be awesome to get some sort of defuser so you can't see the individual little dots of light but a bar instead of they don't come that way but should look cool no matter what. i'd get plain white for that and blue for the rest if you plan to put them on the case too (sounded sort'a like that)


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## mr.doom

jonnyp11 said:


> would be awesome to get some sort of defuser so you can't see the individual little dots of light but a bar instead of they don't come that way but should look cool no matter what. i'd get plain white for that and blue for the rest if you plan to put them on the case too (sounded sort'a like that)



Just bought 3 additional stripes, so that I can place them properly. But definitely a perfect idea to put one behind the reservoir. Got a 12cm strip for it so it shouldn't extend too much from the top of the reservoir (as to say, it should be well hidden behind it).


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## mr.doom

Sorry for a little delay, I've been so busy with work recently.

Here are some photos of the latest parts I got:


























And a teaser of the system in testing (for those who missed the video in a previous posts):






I'm going to give this system some proper shoot, now that it's almost complete and post the pictures soon.

Since I'm struggling with placing the window on the side panel (just don't seem to have enough skill with the Dremel I suppose), I wanted to know if any of you know a company I could send the side panel to and would do it for me?

Thanks for any advice.


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## jonnyp11

http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_9704.html

if u in the uk, may be able to convince them to ship US but would be expensive.


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## gigabiteme

try this if u can't find someone to cut it for u
equip- jigsaw/fine blade(metal) thinnest blade you can find- 1/2 thick plywood/and some clamps- trace your cut on panel, clamp panel to pylwood
so it is tight on wood with no air gaps<-willreduce vibration) with dremel you
have cut a hole in center of cut out- make sure you go all the way thru the wood too-start cutting with saw in the hole you made to the edge of your
trace mark and follow it very slowly,make sure you are cutting the wood too. you shud make some practice runs with a piece of metal similar with same properties. opps forgot to mention your project looks great.


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## mr.doom

jonnyp11 said:


> http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_9704.html
> 
> if u in the uk, may be able to convince them to ship US but would be expensive.





gigabiteme said:


> try this if u can't find someone to cut it for u
> equip- jigsaw/fine blade(metal) thinnest blade you can find- 1/2 thick plywood/and some clamps- trace your cut on panel, clamp panel to pylwood
> so it is tight on wood with no air gaps<-willreduce vibration) with dremel you
> have cut a hole in center of cut out- make sure you go all the way thru the wood too-start cutting with saw in the hole you made to the edge of your
> trace mark and follow it very slowly,make sure you are cutting the wood too. you shud make some practice runs with a piece of metal similar with same properties. opps forgot to mention your project looks great.



Thanks guys. I'll give Kustom PC's a go, but they need to do it to my specifications. The whole is already there. They just need to even it out and cut the acrylic into it. And not just bolt it on with screws, I want this to be mounted with rubber molding.


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## spirit

Great choice on the SSD. Used several and liked them all, using a 120GB Extreme  now!


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## mr.doom

spirit said:


> Great choice on the SSD. Used several and liked them all, using a 120GB Extreme  now!



Thanks. This is one piece of the SSD. Very, very quick. I was surprised about how quick it really is.

I'll be posting more benchmark results later on tonight, but here's one to show how quick the SSD is.


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## spirit

It can much faster than that, here's mine.

I'm using ATTO, but we can see the Extreme 120GB can hit over 500MB/s read and write.


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## mr.doom

Here's a little ongoing torture test. I lowered the overclock, because I didn't feel comfortable with the temps, but settled on 4,23GHz for now. Also overclocked the GPU slightly.

Here are the amazing temps:


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## jonnyp11

that sort'a sucks, should be at like 4.5+, i know ivy is supposed to run hot but didn't think that hot. you can get a 2600k at 4.2 or 4.3 all day long with good temps with a 30 buck cooler.


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## salvage-this

Something is wrong.  I am at 4.5 with 1.27v and I am getting about the same temperatures with my h100 on low.


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## mr.doom

jonnyp11 said:


> that sort'a sucks, should be at like 4.5+, i know ivy is supposed to run hot but didn't think that hot. you can get a 2600k at 4.2 or 4.3 all day long with good temps with a 30 buck cooler.



I know, I hit 4.6 but despite extensive cooling, it still hits 90 degrees. I had 2600K before and it was far better for overclocking. Although I can't fault the efficiency. Despite overclocked CPU & GPU, overall it draws 200W on 100% load.


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## spirit

Could possibly be the fact that you're using such a small board. They were never the best for overclocking. Looks like Salvage is using a 3570K with a UD5H, the UD5H should have more power phases than your little board, so it will be better for overclocking. I think 4.2 is fine for a little board like that.


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## salvage-this

spirit said:


> Could possibly be the fact that you're using such a small board. They were never the best for overclocking. Looks like Salvage is using a 3570K with a UD5H, the UD5H should have more power phases than your little board, so it will be better for overclocking. I think 4.2 is fine for a little board like that.



I think the problem is in the cooling.  He is at 1.23v that should be nothing for a custom liquid system.  

What voltages were you using for 4.6?


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## spirit

Could be some issue with the cooling but I think the board could be partly to blame too perhaps. Could it be a possibility?


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## mr.doom

salvage-this said:


> I think the problem is in the cooling.  He is at 1.23v that should be nothing for a custom liquid system.
> 
> What voltages were you using for 4.6?



You see, I still had no time to attend to the overclock myself, so I decided to try out the asus's auto overclock software. The voltage seems to be set to 1.232V. Plus I don't think that the cooling is to blame. Even at 4,23 GHz and with overclocked GTX 670 I get 66 degrees on the CPU and 45 degrees on the GPU, all under 100% load simultaneously.


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## WeatherMan

If you still need help with that side window, give Kustom's a call and ask for Graeme. 

I am sure they would be more than happy to help you out!


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## salvage-this

spirit said:


> Could be some issue with the cooling but I think the board could be partly to blame too perhaps. Could it be a possibility?



The way I understand it the big part that the motherboard has in cpu overclocking and temperatures is how the power is being delivered to the cpu.    Boards that are not as good at delivering the power might need higher voltages in order to over compensate for the power not being as reliable as other boards.

This board is really good for an ITX board.  The 10 phase power design that it has is definitely in the range or being able to provide power to the cpu for a good OC.  So far the limiting factors for the OC is the temps not the voltages as far as I can tell.  That might have something to do with mr. doom using the auto OC features.        



mr.doom said:


> You see, I still had no time to attend to the overclock myself, so I decided to try out the asus's auto overclock software. The voltage seems to be set to 1.232V. Plus I don't think that the cooling is to blame. Even at 4,23 GHz and with overclocked GTX 670 I get 66 degrees on the CPU and 45 degrees on the GPU, all under 100% load simultaneously.



The reason that I am thinking that there is something wrong is that I doubt that the auto OC is using much more than 1.4v for 4.6GHz.  Which should be way overkill for that speed.  If I remember correctly I was getting upper 80s and breaking into the 90s when stress testing at 4.9GHz with 1.5v.  comparing the cooling you have twice the radiators that I do, they are better rads to begin with.  A better cpu block with more water flow from a better pump and larger tubing.  Now I understand that you have a GPU on the loop as well but the temps still doesn't add up to me.


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## mr.doom

salvage-this said:


> The way I understand it the big part that the motherboard has in cpu overclocking and temperatures is how the power is being delivered to the cpu.    Boards that are not as good at delivering the power might need higher voltages in order to over compensate for the power not being as reliable as other boards.
> 
> This board is really good for an ITX board.  The 10 phase power design that it has is definitely in the range or being able to provide power to the cpu for a good OC.  So far the limiting factors for the OC is the temps not the voltages as far as I can tell.  That might have something to do with mr. doom using the auto OC features.
> 
> 
> 
> The reason that I am thinking that there is something wrong is that I doubt that the auto OC is using much more than 1.4v for 4.6GHz.  Which should be way overkill for that speed.  If I remember correctly I was getting upper 80s and breaking into the 90s when stress testing at 4.9GHz with 1.5v.  comparing the cooling you have twice the radiators that I do, they are better rads to begin with.  A better cpu block with more water flow from a better pump and larger tubing.  Now I understand that you have a GPU on the loop as well but the temps still doesn't add up to me.



I'll be looking into that tomorrow, as I have all they off for that.  I will do some manual overclocking. Are there any approximate values I should bear in mind, or anything that needs to be turned off in the BIOS to get more stable overclock? Never overclocked Ivy Bridge before.

Edit:
I've just manually set 4.4 GHz @ 1.344V, and I will be testing it overnight. Please do write with the suggestions still.


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## salvage-this

Take a look at this guide.  I used it when I first OCed my chip.  It will have the basics as well as some good pointers if you want to really tweak your OC.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1247413/ivy-bridge-overclocking-guide-with-ln2-guide-at-the-end


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## mr.doom

salvage-this said:


> Take a look at this guide.  I used it when I first OCed my chip.  It will have the basics as well as some good pointers if you want to really tweak your OC.
> 
> http://www.overclock.net/t/1247413/ivy-bridge-overclocking-guide-with-ln2-guide-at-the-end



Thank you for the link. It helped a lot! I also figured out what was wrong with the temperatures. And all thanks to the particles in the Mayhems coolant  I noticed they were gone. And this got me thinking, they where there before, why not now? Conclusion: the pump doesn't get enough power. And then it clicked. I used 4-pin to 4 x 3-pin splitters by Zalman (to reduce the cable clutter), but they must not provide enough power for the fans and the pump. So I changed them to the singular ones (straight 4-pin to 3-pin adapter) and it worked a charm! Using the guide, I got the stable overclock of 4,533 GHz @ 1,352V and it's rock solid. Temps for the CPU don't go beyond 78-80 degrees with the GPU that I overclocked even further too (GPU temp sits around 46 degrees) 

Thank you so much for getting me thinking.


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## mr.doom

Since I'm pretty much done (apart from putting the windows on the side and changing PSU cables to white - I will post an update on that in January or so), I thought to post some pictures and a rundown of parts I used. I will also post prices, as requested by you.


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## mr.doom

As for the parts I used and the overall cost:

*Components:*
Bitfenix Prodigy - White case: 79€
Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 2 x 4 GB DDR3-1600 PC3-12800 CL9: 58€
Asus P8Z77-I DELUXE motherboard: 185€
Intel Core i5 3570K: 221€
Palit Nvidia GeForce GTX 670: 358€
Corsair AX750 750W PSU: 185€
Sandisk Extreme SSD 240GB: 184€

_*Subtotal: 1270€*_


*Watercooling:*
2 x MagiCool SLIM DUAL 240 Radiator: 92€
5 x Fractal Design Fan Silent Series 120mm: 45€
1 x Filling bottle 500ml: 4€
1 x Phobya Balancer 150 black nickel reservoir: 25€
1 x Masterkleer hose PVC 3/8 Clear: 8€
1 x Phobya DC12-220 12Volt Pump: 34€
1 x EK EK-FC670 GTX waterblock: 89€
1 x Phobya CPU block UC-1 LT - Black: 45€
7 x 13/10mm straight matte black fitting: 27€
4 x 13/10mm rotating 90° matte black fitting: 20€
1 x 13/10mm rotating 45° matte black fitting: 5€
1 x Mayhems "Aurora" - Nebula Blue Coolant 1000ml: 17€

*Subtotal: 411€*


*Accessories:*
1x BitFenix Alchemy Aqua 6x LED Strip 20 cm White: 25€
3x BitFenix Alchemy Connect 6x LED-Strip 12cm - white: 54€
2x Silverstone 120mm Fan Grill & Filter Kit : FF121: 20€

*Subtotal: 99€*


*Peripehals:*
LG IPS235V-BN LED Monitor 23" Full HD: 147€
Razer Vespula Mouse Mat: 34€
Cyborg R.A.T 3 mouse: 58€
Logitech Illuminated keyboard: 59€

*Subtotal: 298€*


*Tools:*
Hose cutter: 9€
White pray paint: 11€
Dremel Kit: 97€
General toolkit: 31€

*Subtotal: 148€*


*Grand Total: 2226€ / 2882$ / 1790£*



Did I miss anything?


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## Virssagòn

Nice mini watercooled pc you got there! Some parts you could have cheaper though ;P
Looks great with the blue leds behind the can.


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## mr.doom

SmileMan said:


> Nice mini watercooled pc you got there! Some parts you could have cheaper though ;P
> Looks great with the blue leds behind the can.



Thanks! Those are white leds, liquid itself is blue


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## Virssagòn

mr.doom said:


> Thanks! Those are white leds, liquid itself is blue



I thought so 
How cool is it? Can you post some results?


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## mr.doom

SmileMan said:


> I thought so
> How cool is it? Can you post some results?



Here are some quick results:

Idle






and 100% load:








I think it's not bad considering the size and how much stuff is packed in  What do you think?


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## spirit

It's pretty good. In bigger cases, air cooling would give you about the same sort of results, but remember though that your case is tiny and airflow isn't the greatest, so air cooling wouldn't work as well as water cooling has for you.


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## mr.doom

spirit said:


> It's pretty good. In bigger cases, air cooling would give you about the same sort of results, but remember though that your case is tiny and airflow isn't the greatest, so air cooling wouldn't work as well as water cooling has for you.



I agree, I think watercooling was the way to go anyway. Plus, I noticed that ever since I built my first watercooled pc, I just can't have normal cooling anymore. It's too loud and too hot


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## spirit

I've never tried water cooling so I wouldn't know, but I only paid £20 for my Freezer 13 and it does an awesome job at keeping my overclocked 2500K as cool as possible.


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## Virssagòn

mr.doom said:


> Here are some quick results:
> 
> Idle
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> and 100% load:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I think it's not bad considering the size and how much stuff is packed in  What do you think?



Pretty good, mine gets 67° max on 4.7ghz 1.385v. But it's a sandy bridge, yours is an ivy bridge. Ivy bridges are a bit hotter.


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## 87dtna

Seems a bit warm for watercooling at only 4.5ghz.  I mean, my 3570k maxxes out at  high 70's using a small 2 heatpipe 92mm air cooler, with a better air cooler it would at 70c or less.  But then again, my 3570k takes less than 1.30v for 4.5ghz.  I would have thought 60c or less though with a full loop at only 4.5ghz.


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## mr.doom

87dtna said:


> Seems a bit warm for watercooling at only 4.5ghz.  I mean, my 3570k maxxes out at  high 70's using a small 2 heatpipe 92mm air cooler, with a better air cooler it would at 70c or less.  But then again, my 3570k takes less than 1.30v for 4.5ghz.  I would have thought 60c or less though with a full loop at only 4.5ghz.



Now you got me thinking. I will try to lower the voltage somehow. Is there any setting in the BIOS that I could turn on or off for better stability?


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## jonnyp11

mr.doom said:


> Now you got me thinking. I will try to lower the voltage somehow. Is there any setting in the BIOS that I could turn on or off for better stability?



did you not do a manual overclock? did you use the mobo's pre-set ones or something? those tend to have a good bit extra voltage to ensure it is stable for everyone, not the minimum amount that is needed for a stable overclock on your partivular chip


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## mr.doom

jonnyp11 said:


> did you not do a manual overclock? did you use the mobo's pre-set ones or something? those tend to have a good bit extra voltage to ensure it is stable for everyone, not the minimum amount that is needed for a stable overclock on your partivular chip



Yes, I have, I might just overdone with the voltages.


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## jonnyp11

mr.doom said:


> Yes, I have, I might just overdone with the voltages.



so you did manually do it? try whoever it was with the same cpu and speed's voltage and if that works fine then lower it once or if it BSOD's or is unstable then bump it up one setting for the voltage


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## 87dtna

Just turn down the voltage .050v and see if it's still stable.


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## kdfresh09

yeah, you should try for a lower voltage running at 4.5Ghz.  im currently running a 3770k at 4.6Ghz on 1.3v, although i have a decent binned cpu, as well as using a asus maximus board, which im sure helps.  i think you might be able to get the voltage down a bit for the spped your on.  just go into the bios and bump it down a notch or 2 and test for stability.  keep dropping it till you get instability, then bump it back up 2 notchs and you should be at the minimum voltage needed for the speed your at.  good luck.  by the way, just for comparison purposes, i am using an antec kuhler 920 on my cpu, and am able to get 32c idle, and 74c max load on my 3770k at 4.6Ghz on 1.3v


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## mr.doom

So, I dived into bios again, took the voltage down, but system became unstable. I reset all values to standard, and started overclocking from the scratch. This is what I came up with:






As you can see, the voltage is very much down ( I also enabled all the little enhancment settings in the bios, that are supposed to help with overclocking). But, temps are still high, despite the voltage being ridiculously lowered. Am I missing something?

Here's one candidate I have, maybe my pump doesn't move enough water? Could it be?


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## mr.doom

Ok, can someone enlighten me as to how is it even possible. As you've seen in the previous post, I run CPU stability test and temps were still high. Now I turned on folding@home, with 100% load on the CPU and 100% load on the GPU (which was idle in the previous test). This is what happened:






It rises to 74-75 on one of the cores sometimes, but most of the time it doesn't reach 70. I am so confused...


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## 87dtna

Yeah those temps are pretty high for that OC and voltage.  Pump being not enough is definitely possible since you are running CPU and GPU cooling.  But another possibility is issues with the CPU block mounting.  What thermal paste did you use?  How much did you use and how was it spread?  And then, is there sufficient clamping force on it?

Also just curious, why do you overclock the base clock?  Just leave that alone and use the multiplier.


Oh and on the folding, Intel burn test puts the absolute most load on the CPU possible for the absolute hottest temps.  Folding doesn't stress the CPU as much (even though it still says 100% CPU usage).


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## mr.doom

87dtna said:


> Yeah those temps are pretty high for that OC and voltage.  Pump being not enough is definitely possible since you are running CPU and GPU cooling.  But another possibility is issues with the CPU block mounting.  What thermal paste did you use?  How much did you use and how was it spread?  And then, is there sufficient clamping force on it?
> 
> Also just curious, why do you overclock the base clock?  Just leave that alone and use the multiplier.
> 
> 
> Oh and on the folding, Intel burn test puts the absolute most load on the CPU possible for the absolute hottest temps.  Folding doesn't stress the CPU as much (even though it still says 100% CPU usage).



Thanks for clarifying. I used the tim that came with the block, which is Phobya's own. I used it on the GPU too and it works fine. I'll try to tighten the screws on the mount and see if it helps.


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## 87dtna

Hmm, usually paste that comes with heatsinks is crap.  Was it pre applied or a stick to put it on yourself?

What method did you use to spread the paste?


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## mr.doom

87dtna said:


> Hmm, usually paste that comes with heatsinks is crap.  Was it pre applied or a stick to put it on yourself?
> 
> What method did you use to spread the paste?



It came in its own little tube. I applied it using an old credit card. Put about a pea size drop in the middle and then spread it thinly and evenly. I find the temps a bit odd as the CPU block was consistently one of the best in test this year, in various sites and magazines.


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## mr.doom

OK, I tightened the screws a bit, tested, untightened a bit and tested. Makes no difference whatsoever.

So it's either thermal paste that needs changing or the pump. Or both. If so is there any good and small pump that is very efficient and quiet?

Edit:

I just found this pump: Alphacool VPP655. what do you think?


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## Virssagòn

mr.doom said:


> OK, I tightened the screws a bit, tested, untightened a bit and tested. Makes no difference whatsoever.
> 
> So it's either thermal paste that needs changing or the pump. Or both. If so is there any good and small pump that is very efficient and quiet?



Try to apply the thermal paste again, just use a little bit with the size of a grain in the middle. Then just mount the cooler on it (watercooling platform). It will spread automatically. The best thermal paste I know is the AS5.
Then test again.
The thermal paste doesn't work on full power in the beginning, but that will come if you use your system more.


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## 87dtna

mr.doom said:


> It came in its own little tube. I applied it using an old credit card. Put about a pea size drop in the middle and then spread it thinly and evenly. I find the temps a bit odd as the CPU block was consistently one of the best in test this year, in various sites and magazines.



Sounds like too much paste and also wrong method of spreading.

Re apply, use 1/2 that much paste, just put the paste in the middle and apply the heatsink.  Once you clamp the heatsink down it will spread the paste itself.  Make sure the sink is pretty tight.


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## jonnyp11

yeah it's supposed to be between a grain of rice and a pea then you put it on the cpu to spread it so there is no chance of airbubbles, which might explain a core being 8C higher than another


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