The finished loop.
Idle temperatures
Temperature readings while running the Far Cry 5 benchmark on ultra quality.
Temperature comparisons between idle and load.
The thermal pads and thermal paste are attached to the graphics card before the water block is attached.
The fans attached on the outside of the case with the front panel off.
The small radiator installation space caused by the long graphics card.
The inadequate space between the outside radiator fans and the front panel.
The thermal compound is applied to the CPU.
The Optimus V2 Signature water block is installed.
Testing the placement of the Hardware Labs GTX 120mm radiator. It is too wide and deep.
Here I show that the depth of the radiator is too much. With the fan attached it'd overlap one of the CPU water blocks' ports.
The nvme stick is installed on the rear of the mainboard.
The CPU is finally seated. It was on back order for so long.
The stand alone reservoir has lots of vertical space allowance.
The inlet is on the left to be fed from the CPU outlet.
The stand alone reservoir comes with two holders that screw into the reservoir holder that came with the case.
I installed the pump body into the bottom of the case.
The pump body now lies next to the PSU.
The pump body is secured to the bottom of the case using the provided screws.
The new radiator does not come all the way to the case edge like the Hardware labs radiator did.
There is just enough space to allow for the CPU inlet tube.
I removed the white plastic piece that was on the end of the GPU water block. I kept the screws in place for stability.
The end of the graphics card no longer has the RGB strip.
This is where the RGB strip had been attached to the GPU water block.
The new cable extensions.
The pump at the bottom of the case will be fed by gravity from the reservoir.
I turned the 240mm radiator upside-down so that the connections are on top.
I turned the 120mm radiator upside-down so that the connections are on top.
This is my proposed tubing layout.
This is the general layout of the tubing.
Running the pump without the mainboard plugged in to get bubbles out of the system.
I had to use longer tubing in certain areas to avoid excess lateral pressure on various fittings. The further the 16mm tubing is bent the more pressure it exerts on the fittings.
The bottom GPU port is a swiveling fitting so that the tubing can have leeway when I pull the reservoir out to fill.
Laying out paper towels to help detect leaks.
The CPU water block inlet could use only a barb. A compression fitting would have overlapped with the 120mm radiator fan.
The drain.
I connected the loop drain to the pump output using a T connector.
AMD Ryzen / Radeon water cooled in a NZXT H210 using Optimus Signature v2
This is a water cool build within a ITX case featuring the NZXT H210 and Optimus Signature v2. This was my first water cool build ever. I didn't try to color match anything so it looks like a mess, but I'm okay with that. ![Emoji]()
What I learned from making this build:
Check out pictures three through five in the slideshow for thermal information.
What I learned from making this build:
- Soft tubing will slowly rotate while you are rotating the compression fitting cap.
- Soft tubing does not have great flexibility. The more of an angle you try to compress the tubing the more each end of the tubing exerts sideways pressure on its fitting. I intentionally kept many tubing pieces longer than would appear necessary specifically to keep pressure on the fittings as low as possible.
- The cables that come with modular PSUs are way too short.
- Water cooling is expensive! I had to replace parts I originally bought after discovering they wouldn't fit in this smaller case because the parts manufacturers don't provide all of the measurements I had needed.
- The height of a pump and reservoir combo unit given by the manufacturer will be about 3 millimeters taller in real life if the pump cables come out the bottom of the pump.
Check out pictures three through five in the slideshow for thermal information.
Color(s): Black White
RGB Lighting? No
Theme: none
Cooling: Custom Liquid Cooling
Size: Mini-ITX
Type: General Build
Build Updates
Filling the reservoir
Tubing, filling, and finishing
Tubing mapped out and PSU extensions installed
Adjusting the 240mm radiator placement
Reservoir and Pump Installation
Installing the 120mm radiator
CPU water block installation
Installing the 240mm radiator
Preparing the GPU for a water block
Hardware
CPU
$ 395.00
Motherboard
$ 243.71
Memory
$ 66.99
Storage
$ 87.39
PSU
$ 117.49
Case
Case Fan
$ 32.95
Cooling
Cooling
$ 28.13
Cooling
Cooling
$ 63.82
Cooling
Cooling
$ 34.29
Cooling
Cooling
$ 129.42
Cooling
$ 149.99
Cooling
Cooling
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