Author: Vivi The Mage

So, I have decided to water cool my Antec 300 case….which acts as my 24/7 HTPC workhorse.

Specs :

Antec 300
Q9550
2GBx4 DDR2
3 x 2TB Samsung HDD
2 x 2TB WD Drives (backups)
Asus P5N-D

I started with an RS240 XSPC kit, but found the pump to be far too loud and not adequate for my set up, so I am moving to the following build :

Water Cooling specs :

Reservoir : RS240 pump/res combo – Koolance RP-402X2 Dual 5.25 Reservoir for 1-2 DDC Pumps + RP-402X2 KIT
Pumps : Swiftech MCP 350’s
Radiator : RS240 from the RS240 Kit/Combo
Tubing : rimoFlex Pro LRT UV Red Tubing – 1/2in. ID X 3/4in. OD
Barbs : What came with the kit
Fans : 4 x SCythe SFF21G
90 Degree Fitting : 4 x Koolance G1/4 Swivel 90° Angled Barb
45 Degree Fitting : 2 x Koolance Swiveling G1/4 Threaded 45 Degree Low Profile Angle Fitting
CPU Block : Came with the kit – XSPC CPU block
Northbridge block : Custom fabbed block from a guy on overclock.net
PCI Tube G1/4 Slot : Koolance L-Bracket with Dual G 1/4 Socket Fittings (BKT-PCI-G)
Radblock Mount : Swiftech MCB-120™ “Radbox”

This is my Antec 300 water cooled as of today.

[zp src=”P1000025.JPG” album=”vivi/300″ width=”500″]

[zp src=”P1000026.JPG” album=”vivi/300″ width=”500″]

I had an issue with the rad out back, and a major kink. This is what it looked like :

[zp src=”P1000027.JPG” album=”vivi/300″ width=”500″]

This is what it looks like now :

[zp src=”P1000119.JPG” album=”vivi/300″ width=”500″]

[zp src=”P1000120.JPG” album=”vivi/300″ width=”500″]

This is my second water cooling build, ever. I think it turned out really well. My temps are rock solid at full load, the GPU’s barely move up 5C when 100% in games. Idle around 27-30C on them. The CPU hits 35C on full load, but I have not overclocked it yet. best of all, I met all of my goals I set out to do with this build.

This is more of an ‘after’ build log, as the system is up and running now :).

Now to the parts :

CPU : i5 2500k
Motherboard : Asus P8P67 PRO
Case : Corsair 600T
PSU : Corsair HX1000
Memory : 4x4GB G.Skill DDR3 1600
GPU : 2x Reference 2GB XFX 6950’s shader unlocked and oc’d
Optical : 2x Asus DVD-RW/CD/R drive
Hdd : OCZ Solid 2 120GB
Hdd : 1TB WD Black

WC Parts :

Pumps : 2x Swiftech MCP-655-B
Res : Koolance RP-452×2
Hose : PrimoChill UV Blue (1/2 ID, 3/4 OD)
CPU : EK Supreme HF
GPU Block : 2x XSPC 6970 Reference coolers
Rad – Top : Swiftech MCR220-QP
Rad – Front : Phobya 200MM
Fans : 2x Scythe S-FLEX SFF21E 1x Antec COOLER MASTER Megaflow 200mm
Water : Distilled + pt nuke
Barbs : 1 x 90 bitspower, 8+ XSPC short barbs (1/2 ID, 3/4 OD)
QDC : 2 sets of Koolance QDC’s for easy GPU removal (6 month upgrades won’t require a major overhaul on the loop with these.

Specific links for the GPU setup :

This is the connector between the two cards :
Koolance VID connector

I got 2 male QDC’s – Koolance QDC – Male
2 female QDCs – Koolance QDC – Female
1 90degree barb – 90 degree rotary bitspower barb

I had 4 goals in this build

1) Reduce GPU temps
2) No cuts/drilling/100% stock
3) All internal , serial loop
4) quiet, low-no noise
5) Get my feet wet, and progress my PC hobby skills 🙂

Issues I ran into :

1) Bleeding the RP-452×2 with inserts/serial kit was almost impossible. What I did was pulled, all acrylic inserts out, and put hte connector up top. I slowly overfilled the right side of my res with a barb-hose(roughly 14 inches), and just stop/start/stop/start as it filled the rads/pushed air out. It took about 2 hours to get it done, but now it’s silent.

This was my set up to bleed it, you really don’t need this long of a hose either :

[zp src=”P1000084.JPG” album=”vivi/600T” width=”500″]

2) The top rad was in the way of my 8 pin CPU connector, so I purchased an extender, and snipped the top off, so I could make room, you can see it in this picture :

This is where I snipped (in red) so it could fit :

[zp src=”chopchop.jpg” album=”vivi/600T” width=”500″]

[zp src=”P1000079.JPG” album=”vivi/600T” width=”500″]

[zp src=”P1000078.JPG” album=”vivi/600T” width=”500″]

3) My second issue was mounting the front 200MM rad, without having to drilled/cut anything. I managed to actually use the 200mm fan clip/mounting system that the 600T comes with … relatively ingenious if I do say so myself. I only have one fan in pull, but it works perfectly fine for me, no need for a second fan to push.

[zp src=”P1000103.JPG” album=”vivi/600T” width=”500″]

[zp src=”P1000104.JPG” album=”vivi/600T” width=”500″]

Here’s the little contraption mounted :

[zp src=”P1000082.JPG” album=”vivi/600T” width=”500″]

This was very helpful, I was able to take the rad out, and pound on it a bit, to get ALL of the air out, I could remove it entirely from the case, without having to take off any bolts. The only thing you have to do, is be very precise with the location of the stock clips, because they seem to be finicky if they are off by even a centimeter or two.

4) This was my first time ripping a part GPU’s, so I took some screens of what they looked like after I pulled the stock coolers off. Apparently taking the stock coolers off voids the warranty (says the little stickers on the screws for the mount) :D.

[zp src=”P1000081.JPG” album=”vivi/600T” width=”500″]

[zp src=”P1000080.JPG” album=”vivi/600T” width=”500″]

For reference, this was the original build, before water :

[zp src=”P1000014.JPG” album=”vivi/600T” width=”500″]

Here were my pre loop thoughts :

[zp src=”proposedWC.jpg” album=”vivi/600T” width=”500″]

[zp src=”proposed2.jpg” album=”vivi/600T” width=”500″]

Here is a little pre-tubing shot :

[zp src=”P1000083.JPG” album=”vivi/600T” width=”500″]

Some leak testing :

[zp src=”P1000085.JPG” album=”vivi/600T” width=”500″]

The complete/final build :

[zp src=”P1000118.JPG” album=”vivi/600T” width=”500″]

[zp src=”P1000115.JPG” album=”vivi/600T” width=”500″]

[zp src=”P1000116.JPG” album=”vivi/600T” width=”500″]

[zp src=”P1000117.JPG” album=”vivi/600T” width=”500″]

**Updated and added full acrylic side :

[zp src=”P1000125.JPG” album=”vivi/600T/acrylic” width=”500″]

[zp src=”P1000121.JPG” album=”vivi/600T/acrylic” width=”500″]

[zp src=”P1000123.JPG” album=”vivi/600T/acrylic” width=”500″]