Project Mayhem - First WC Build (Lian Li A05NB)

[Psyco]

Hi all, been admiring the awesome WC builds many of you guys keep posting for a good few years and have come to the conclusion recently that in order to get a quiet dual gpu machine I need to get either 1. a bigger case or 2. watercooling. I have decided upon the latter

I have been inspired by a couple of guys who have managed to fit dual 360 rads into a Lian Li A05 but have a few new ideas of my own

Firstly the specs:

Intel Xeon E5620 (6 core es) @ 4.21Ghz
Gigabyte X58A-ud3r
6Gb Corsair XMS3
nVidia Gtx 480 (w/ Accelero Xtreme Cooler) looking for second
2x2Tb Samsung Spinpoint F4's + scythe quietdrives
Creative Pci-e X-Fi

WaterCooling:

RES - 2x Swiftech MCR320QP (1 w/ Res)
Pump - Laing D5 Vario
CPU block - EK Supreme HF (Nickel Plexi)
GPU blocks - EK FC480GTX (Nickel Plexi)
Tubing - Primoflex 3/8 - 5/8
Fittings - bitspower 3/8 - 5/8 straight compression
fans - yate loon D12-sl

I already have most of the core components, yet to buy everything in bold

Current System:



Test Fit:



Pile of Yate Loons



More pics to come

[hillywav]

subs, its nice to see another a05nb build just after i finished mine .
really good watercooling parts list, but for later on, i would prefer to get smaller pump like ddc 3.25 to get more spacious area for tubing and you will need it


and MUST RESIST TO REVISE MY BUILD

[Milky1]

Wow I'm looking forward to this, I've just about finished my A05N build with a triple in the roof, but you have two! :O

[Psyco]

I'm not totally decided on tubing size or make yet or colouring for that matter, what have you guy's used and is it flexible enough for this tiny case?

I'm hearing rumours about an nvidia 590 and it sounds very tempting... may have to put getting a second 480 on hold... thoughts?

I'll leave this with a pic of the existing sound card that I'll be using... nothing special but i thought the pic was nice should be getting a 50mm prime lens soon so the pics will start getting better

[hillywav]

3/8 5/8

[Psyco]

Fitted the drives into the scythe enclosures:



got my fake dremel:



time to get to work first marked up location of bottom rad and drilled holes, then did some practice cuts in the discard section of the bottom of the case.



The shape in the middle has another purpose it made sense to cut it out at this stage, (also note the misplaced markings, had to re-measure after discovering rear intake fan would not fit with rad...)

Cut and sanded bracket...



now on to the front panel, I have some unique ideas for this



The plan for the front is to mount the PSU on its side and have an intake for it on the left side panel

After some drilling cutting and sanding the front panel now looks like this:



a bit scratched but I'm getting it powder coated so it should not be too much of an issue

I want to try and keep the original switches if possible but have seen some good examples where they have been replaced I think i have got just about enough room (the power cable will be right next to them)

[aerial]

I'm not sure about mounting these two rads on top and bottom of the case. I saw really many water cooling setup in this case, and in my opinion if you use rad on top and bottom (even 2x120 which is more popular), it ruins look of the interior, mobo is like a sandwich between rads, partially covered by both of them. Unless you want to close case with no window that shows interior. Instead I would use two 1x120 rads mounted on both default 120x120 holes. Sure it would be slightly elss efficient than 2x 3x120, but requires much less modding, and looks cleaner.

[Crazy V]

I'm not sure about mounting these two rads on top and bottom of the case. I saw really many water cooling setup in this case, and in my opinion if you use rad on top and bottom (even 2x120 which is more popular), it ruins look of the interior, mobo is like a sandwich between rads, partially covered by both of them. Unless you want to close case with no window that shows interior. Instead I would use two 1x120 rads mounted on both default 120x120 holes. Sure it would be slightly less efficient than 2x 3x120, but requires much less modding, and looks cleaner.

I myself did one with a triple up top and a single on the rear and think it turned out really nice and uncluttered. I think with the right plan of attack anything can be done!!!
Can not wait to see what you come up with. Good Luck!!!

[Psyco]

I'm not sure about mounting these two rads on top and bottom of the case. I saw really many water cooling setup in this case, and in my opinion if you use rad on top and bottom (even 2x120 which is more popular), it ruins look of the interior, mobo is like a sandwich between rads, partially covered by both of them. Unless you want to close case with no window that shows interior. Instead I would use two 1x120 rads mounted on both default 120x120 holes. Sure it would be slightly elss efficient than 2x 3x120, but requires much less modding, and looks cleaner.

I am not convinced 2x120 rads would be capable of cooling the components I have chosen quietly, I considered using 2x 2x120 rads (one top and one bottom)
and 2x 1x120 at front and back however there was not enough space in the bottom right corner looking at the case from the left hand side for this to be possible. also the use of the scythe drive holders would not fit in the two drive bays with the 2x120 at the top of the case.

[aerial]

I was thinking 3x120 top, and 1x120 rear + 1x120 front. Or even 3x120 top, and thick 1x120 front (even 2 push and pul, since there is lot of space above psu). Top 3x120 radiator must be there, due to cooling requirements, I agree, my post was referring to mounting rads on floor of the case. With rads on floor and ceiling, motherboard is covered, slim radiator + 25mm fans is pretty thick in this case. There is similar disadvantage of 1x120 rear radiator, with fan it is 55mm thick, and if you look at case vertically from side, it seems to cover big part of motherboard (almost covers cpu block). So in my opinion, in terms of looks, least invasive spots to mount rads are at the front above psu (since this spot is hidden) and top, since there is just no other option and that 3x120 big rad is mandatory to cool modern rigs.
I am aware that you already decided what to do, just sharing my ideas, maybe will be useful for someone else.

Here is some old project pic that shows thick thermochill rads and miniatx mobo:

[Church]

I'd suggest changing sandwiched rads to single one on top of PSU. +Add fans on the floor or sidewall to even out airflow & to not cool part of rads with preheated air by other rads.

[aerial]

This was just overkill setup to check how much space is there, thermochill sandwich is indeed terrible idea.
Btw, I'm wondering, what is best direction of airflow on top radiator (assuming there is only one radiator in the case)? Taking cold air from outside of the case, and pushing it downwards (against convection), or pushing slightly warmer air from inside of the closed case through radiator on top? I wonder if there are tests of these two setups, what has more impact on temperatures.
I have feeling that convection is much weaker force than airflow generated by even low rpm fans.

[Church]

I wonder if you move PSU to where rad sandwich is, maybe you can put 3x120 on bottom of case? (with needed cutouts for airflow in floor of course). 2x120+3x120 should be enough for rather hot & extreme hardware.
+1 on imho no need to take convection into account. Simple illustration - how fast warm air is rising on top of apartment heater rads near windows compared to airflow from those slow fans? If it's 5% less airflow - so be it. But 5C colder air from outside might mean much more for resulting temps imho.
EDIT
Hmm, and if there is only one dvd drive (slim one at that) in case, maybe there can be put one 3x120 on top aswell?

[aerial]

3x120 on top was already discussed, possible, takes 1 cd drive, which is fine, you can put there fan control panel, or even aquaero. I wouldn't consider hdd space at all, since these days everyone should use SSD which are tiny and can be fit almost everywhere. In my rig, if i ever plan regular hard drive, it would be data storage 2TB 3,5'' one in scythe quit drive, laying on bottom of the case.
As for psu mount, there is very nice trick for this case, eats up 3,5'' bay and requires little cut:



It isn't my picture, belongs to user MS1000 from pclab forums, I belive mounting psu like this was his idea as well.
This case is really interesting, you can put full atx sli rig with enough rads, despite fact case is so small.

[hillywav]

@ariel
interesting way to mount it, never crossed in my mind somthing like that,

yeah this case is perfect if lian li extend the height around 10/15mm even 7mm for to able to mount everything internally in scenario full atx, 6 pci space is used, normal size of fans ,mcr360 on the top and bottom.

[Psyco]

it would be data storage 2TB 3,5'' one in scythe quit drive, laying on bottom of the case.
As for psu mount, there is very nice trick for this case, eats up 3,5'' bay and requires little cut:

whats wrong with a little cutting

also there would be no space at the bottom of the case when a triple rad will be there

more pics coming later of radiator cuts

[Church]

Also one might probably save thickness for top rad by placing fans outside case with something like this Koolance shroud to get better looks vs plain fans & wiregrills outside. Hmm, such reasonably sized case with two 3x120 .. i start to like idea. In addition to this I'd probably would cut some 2x2x120 fans on the sidewall to blow air out + both rads to take in air from outside.

[hillywav]

whats wrong with a little cutting

also there would be no space at the bottom of the case when a triple rad will be there

more pics coming later of radiator cuts

he think that you might use the 3.5 bay, but since in original plan you are gonna mount your hdd with scythe so, yeah....

[Tetrafluorometh]

With the right mods it can be done. I seen one with 360, 240 and 120 in there! Thats mental. Full ATX board.

2.5'' std drives stick in easy places, ssd is now cheap

[aerial]

As for psu mount, there is one more, much more popular, no cutting, more space above radiator. Also better for cooling, since psu isn't pumping hot air into the case, in this case it is removing it as intended.

[Church]

aerial: but in this case warm air from bottom rad goes into PSU making it to heat up more and spin PSU's fan faster/louder, no?

[aerial]

It is just random picture, I didn't really look at fan orientation. If I would ever put fans on top of that radiator, it should push air down through rad. What is the point of pulling air, if you can place fans below rad, better efficiency. Imo it has really minor impact on power supply, in every normal atx case psu is taking warm aor from cpu cooler, and seems to work fine, especially these new psus with gold certificate.

Anyway, I was thinking really hard, what is best radiator setup in this case and here is result:



Of all setups I saw so far, this one has really many advantages. What is important, I'm thinking here about quality mod with window, not just contest who will pack more radiators in A05. It has extra mod, cut out 3,5'' bay to make more room above radiator for power supply, also psu can be oriented the way that fan is on top. Also power cord connector, has to be moved somewhere else, preferably in bottom corner of the case.
Pump can be installed using custom bracket, almost no impact on airflow.

List of advantages:

- full ATX capacity, all PCI slots free to use
- both 5,25 bays aviable (optical drive, scythe quiet drive for 3,5'' storage hdd)
- most efficient config of 4x120 slim radiator, every rad in push configuration air from outside of the case
- no need to cut of top of the case (often ends up with ugly grill, or requires very clean cut, easy to ruin mod)
- motherboard is barely covered by radiators, because of the angle we usually look at the case (point of view is usually above the case that is standing on our desk for example)
- possible nice reverse "L" shaped window, that shows motherboard and all water cooling parts including pump, but not showing power supply and 5,25'' bays
- space behind rad and below psu, for "T" connector (instead of reservoir), flow meter ect.

disadvantages:

- lack of reservoir (no room, but it isn't really a problem, one extra tube hidden behind 5,25'' bays as fillport)
- rear radiator fan needs to be outside of the case, not enough room inside (there is room, but imo looks worse, covers way too much of motherboard)
- lack of ventilation on top of the case (imo irrelevant, gpus are watercooled)

[Church]

Hmm, you might move tripple rad to front a bit to place rear rad fan inside? Or turn around rear rad with inlets down to place it's fan part higher?
As for no res, there are several very small ones that fit with particular pump tops. XSPC minires with DDC top, Swiftech's res for MCP35X, and probably something similar from EK or Koolance.
I'd also consider push-pull for bottom rad.
Be careful with choosing rear rad. Many thin ones have very high FPI, bad choice for going silent. Hmm, maybe middle density FPI Black Ice Pro with 28.6mm thickness?

[aerial]

Rear rad would be same thickness as 3x120, swiftech? problem is if you put both inside (rad and fan), then it is too thick for my taste. Also it is lower than floor rad, so you need to move 3x120 rad really far towards front of the case, and that ruins hole in case floor, that should be between case feet. Turning rear rad upside down would make it impossible to connect tubes to it. Too many problems. And using push-pull fans on bottom rad? Then you would need dentical mirror to see cpu waterblock I am really not worried about efficiency of rads, more than enough for any top cpu and graphic card, there are people reporting success even with sli on quad rad (and that is almost what we have used).
As for pump tops, there is also nice bitspower res. There is that slim swiftech plexi res, could be hidden somwhere behind psu. But I have custom copper laing top already, and really looking forward to use it. If you are making setup with mostly high quality metal parts, these plexi reservoirs look really poor imo. I have some experience with loops without reservoirs and it works fine. I'm not that kind of person who changes liquid dye three timer per day either :wink: (these guys should seriously consider good res and extra valve at lowest part of loop for easy water removal)

[Crazy V]

aerial,

I think you are moving away from Psyco's work-log and into a discussion on the ao5nb and rad layout.

I would suggest moving all this to its own thread since Psyco has already pointed out he has the layout already configured.

Not to mention what you have posted is nothing but your opinion and would change by builder and there needs, meaning this could go on forever...