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Building A Liquid-Cooled MicroATX Gaming Monster

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  • Monster
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Last response: in Reviews comments
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October 5, 2011 4:00:07 AM

You don't need a massive case to cram in tons of computing muscle. With a little help from a few manufacturers, our excessively-overclocked GeForce GTX 580 SLI build is small enough to sit atop most desks (and smoke our $2000 SBM machine).

Building A Liquid-Cooled MicroATX Gaming Monster : Read more

More about : building liquid cooled microatx gaming monster

October 5, 2011 4:32:58 AM

I really like this setup. The Maximus Gene-Z is very swank, and it's on my short list even though the last thing I need is more motherboards laying around.

I was a huge proponent of uATX cases until I needed space for an Asus Essence STX and a Killer Networks 2100 NIC. I found a compromise with the Lian Li PC A05NB -- it's one of the smallest ATX cases around, not much larger than the uATX enclosure I was using prevously. The diminutive Gene-Z is perfection for uATX boards, and wouldn't be out of place in larger cases -- but it's nice that you were able to cram so much into such a modest enclosure.
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12
October 5, 2011 4:48:28 AM

Question: why does the Mobo choice have a 'bad voltage regulator?'

Anyways. Love these kind of articles. Helps other users get more of what they assume. Keep it up Tom's.
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a b 4 Gaming
October 5, 2011 5:02:04 AM

dogman_1234Question: why does the Mobo choice have a 'bad voltage regulator?'Anyways. Love these kind of articles. Helps other users get more of what they assume. Keep it up Tom's.

it doesnt have a BAD voltage regulator, it just doesn't deliver enough stable power for overclocking much, nor do the VRM's have good cooling on them in that gigabtyte board. This was the assumption for the poor overclcking perfromance in the SBM.
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October 5, 2011 5:17:23 AM

iam2thecroweit doesnt have a BAD voltage regulator, it just doesn't deliver enough stable power for overclocking much, nor do the VRM's have good cooling on them in that gigabtyte board. This was the assumption for the poor overclcking perfromance in the SBM.

How does one avoid this?
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a b 4 Gaming
October 5, 2011 5:21:54 AM

Man... I was thinking custom water cooling loop when I saw this. I guess not. Not a huge fan of manufacturer pre-made loops, I find them expensive for their price. I.E All the Corsair Hydro series products.
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October 5, 2011 5:30:58 AM

Question: is the overclocked i7 passing the Intel Burn Test @ Extreme Preset? I am asking this because my 2600k cant pass this test @ 4,4 Ghz, it simply shuts down (thermal protection kicks in, no errors :) )
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October 5, 2011 5:40:55 AM

Love this build, i love mATX builds, maybe the most interesting build I've seen here. Good Job!!
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October 5, 2011 5:47:29 AM

crisan_tiberiuQuestion: is the overclocked i7 passing the Intel Burn Test @ Extreme Preset? I am asking this because my 2600k cant pass this test @ 4,4 Ghz, it simply shuts down (thermal protection kicks in, no errors )

Eight threads Prime95 small FFTs for max CPU.
dogman_1234How does one avoid this?

On the Gigabyte board you could probably see that half of the voltage regulator had no heat sink, but some crap boards have sinks so it's only a little helpful. Otherwise you have to pick a board you like, then use your search engine to find out what other people are getting from their overclocks.

In the case of that board, it was stable at 1.35V, fluctuated quite a bit at 1.36V, and dropped all the way down to 1.36V when it was set to 1.38V.
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October 5, 2011 6:07:36 AM

CrashmanEight threads Prime95 small FFTs for max CPU.On the Gigabyte board you could probably see that half of the voltage regulator had no heat sink, but some crap boards have sinks so it's only a little helpful. Otherwise you have to pick a board you like, then use your search engine to find out what other people are getting from their overclocks.In the case of that board, it was stable at 1.35V, fluctuated quite a bit at 1.36V, and dropped all the way down to 1.36V when it was set to 1.38V.

sry, i retract what i was saying :(  i tried Burn Test again (with 20C room temp not with 30 :p  ) and it passed @ 4,5 GHz). I have an AsRock MB and used "Load optimized overclock settings for 4,4Ghz, and i dont know why, it sets the PLL voltage to 1,75V, witch is very high. I have set the PLL to 1,55 V and now it works great @ 4,5 GHz ... What can i say, i am always learning something :p 
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October 5, 2011 6:25:00 AM

A Core i7-3930K sounds good for the next $2000 build if it's out by then. GTX 580s are horrible bang-for-buck, so I'd step down to two Radeon HD 6970s for 2560x1600 gaming. It should be comparable in gaming to this one and much faster in multi-threaded. It remains to be seen how much X79 motherboards will cost, but I think a great system could be made on that 'budget'.
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October 5, 2011 6:26:12 AM

Sweet rig. I hope I'll be able to build something like that one day - never had a WC setup :) 
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October 5, 2011 7:09:10 AM

I take it the 750Gb HDD's were some of the parts just lying around, coz I think it would be better to use 1TB HDD's. Great article I loved it. I would like to see you work in the PNY setup in future SBM builds if it is not stupidly priced.
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October 5, 2011 7:19:21 AM

i hope they give it away .
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October 5, 2011 7:36:04 AM

perhaps the best conscientious decision making of parts and build Tom's has made in years.
loved the whole build despite the micro atx form factor
really love the heatsinks being built and used from the board to the memory to the water coolers.
if some one could come up with a sli/crossfire dual card set up that flipped one cards gpu's so both cards could share 1 gpu pump and sink mount sandwiched between them i do not think there could be any improvement in this build at all.
(it could be argued that a dual burner drive could add some small benefit depending on how many back up movie discs you make every week.)
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October 5, 2011 8:00:20 AM

You paid 300$!!! for RAM?
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Anonymous
a b 4 Gaming
October 5, 2011 8:08:53 AM

What a ugly case, can you guys balance the GPU spending with a better looking case, the one used here is not attractive at all.
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October 5, 2011 8:46:28 AM

The article is spot-on! Kudos Tom's.

BTW, I was eyeing the exact same Fractal Design case for my home server, because it was small, cheap and well-ventilated. Besides, I really dig its sober design; I had enough with frills, bells & whistles. If it copes with this setup, then I guess it must be safe with my required ~35 W server power footprint XD
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October 5, 2011 8:47:41 AM

What about noise?
I didn't find any mention about it.
At least, at what speed fans are running while the gaming test is being done?
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October 5, 2011 9:18:06 AM

This is one sweet build imho.
Btw, I'm with gti88, I would really like to know about noise.
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October 5, 2011 9:27:54 AM

Does the article says the load temp for both gpu and cpu? would love to take a look and noise too!
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October 5, 2011 11:56:46 AM

Another vote here too! Post the noise levels please. 2 radiators/fans has got to make some racket, and if it didn't knock the CPU temps out of the park, and it isn't silent... why do I want it again?
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October 5, 2011 12:08:45 PM

wow, nice and faster built
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Anonymous
a b 4 Gaming
October 5, 2011 12:17:21 PM

""Maximus IV Gene-Z’s habit of disabling low idle power states when XMP memory mode is enabled""

WHAT? How come you can cheat all you fans? This is absolutly wrong. I think you should do your homework before posting such false information. 1.6GHz idle @ 1v easily done.

This board OC like a dream, forget this article and Google for GENE-Z owners and you'll find valuable information. The RoG forums also have an OC guide and another guide how to use the Offset mode.

Sorry but almost 20yo Toms just lost some credibility...
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October 5, 2011 12:25:15 PM

Wow, nice build!
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October 5, 2011 12:32:14 PM

I love the Fractal Design ARC cases (mini and midi).. so tired of the ridiculous 'gaming' cases
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October 5, 2011 1:10:30 PM

That is a sexy machine. Nice job guys.
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October 5, 2011 1:32:39 PM

hyteck9Another vote here too! Post the noise levels please. 2 radiators/fans has got to make some racket, and if it didn't knock the CPU temps out of the park, and it isn't silent... why do I want it again?

Same question.
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October 5, 2011 1:34:20 PM

it's cool and all that but to be honest, I'd be happy with SBM Q3 unit and rock on..
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October 5, 2011 1:38:40 PM

Asetek does not equal liquid cooling.

It's hype like this that really cause people who aren't in the 'know' to think they are.
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October 5, 2011 1:45:34 PM

I do mATX's. This article really went straight to my heart. Thank you Tom's.
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Anonymous
a b 4 Gaming
October 5, 2011 1:53:43 PM

If only I had 2 grand to blow.
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October 5, 2011 2:34:08 PM

RizllaI take it the 750Gb HDD's were some of the parts just lying around, coz I think it would be better to use 1TB HDD's. Great article I loved it. I would like to see you work in the PNY setup in future SBM builds if it is not stupidly priced.
They actually were picked for thermal and weight considerations, REALLY!
DeltaLima""Maximus IV Gene-Z’s habit of disabling low idle power states when XMP memory mode is enabled""WHAT? How come you can cheat all you fans? This is absolutly wrong. I think you should do your homework before posting such false information. 1.6GHz idle @ 1v easily done.This board OC like a dream, forget this article and Google for GENE-Z owners and you'll find valuable information. The RoG forums also have an OC guide and another guide how to use the Offset mode.Sorry but almost 20yo Toms just lost some credibility...
It's 100% accurate and honest information. On the other hand, I see you wrote "Can be done" and see a scam coming...

OK, so lots of things can be done but weren't done because automatic settings were used. BTW, I just tested a Gigabyte board that did NOT disable the feature automatically and did NOT require it to be manually re-enabled.
rubix_1011Asetek does not equal liquid cooling. It's hype like this that really cause people who aren't in the 'know' to think they are.
Hype? Are you trying to say the Low Cost Liquid Cooling company's products are not the epitome of performance? Because that wasn't even suggested here.
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a b 4 Gaming
October 5, 2011 2:40:56 PM

All of these careful tests and considerations lead us to two conclusions. First, we were spot-on by stating that the only deficiency in the SBM $2000 PC was the motherboard’s voltage regulator, which only limited its overclocking capability. Second, it’s now obvious that most power uses can get even more performance in an even smaller size through careful parts selection.

Excellent! I really enjoy it when, despite the nattering of drones, you guys can show that the points your experienced authors made were correct.
I too like to take minimalist approach(es) on builds; it could be any or all of budget, power use, noise, and/or size. This one shows that the micro-ATX platform is perfectly viable for an "enthusiast-class" build. I also think that if you're going to use liquid cooling, from a practical standpoint this is the only way to do it; no muss, no fuss, it's just done. I'll add my voice to those asking about the noise on this one though.
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Anonymous
a b 4 Gaming
October 5, 2011 3:04:29 PM

No scam. You need to enable the Offset Mode and for that to happen you need to change the VCore Phase Control option from Extreme.

Please read http://www.asusrog.com/forums/showthread.php?2787-Maxim...

Sorry for name change, when I try to post comment it says error, I say fine I'll register but it says email already exist then I try to retrieve password and it says email does not exist in database.
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October 5, 2011 3:09:57 PM

jtt283
All of these careful tests and considerations lead us to two conclusions. First, we were spot-on by stating that the only deficiency in the SBM $2000 PC was the motherboard’s voltage regulator, which only limited its overclocking capability. Second, it’s now obvious that most power uses can get even more performance in an even smaller size through careful parts selection.
Sorry jtt283, noise wasn't tested. I can tell you that it's similar to the Antec SBM build at idle, so I'm guessing low 30's. And it's similar to the Antec SBM build at full CPU power, so I'm guessing mid 40's. Unlike the Antec SBM build, it doesn't jump out of the high 40's under full GPU load because the fans on the cards don't speed up very much.
DeltaLima_No scam. You need to enable the Offset Mode and for that to happen you need to change the VCore Phase Control option from Extreme.Please read http://www.asusrog.com/forums/show [...] erclockingSorry for name change, when I try to post comment it says error, I say fine I'll register but it says email already exist then I try to retrieve password and it says email does not exist in database.
That's certainly easier than "correcting" what happens when you set some Asus boards to 100.00 MHz. Because when you do that, they jump all the multipliers to 38x yet keep that menu hidden. And when you unhide the menu, they jump all the multipliers up to 42x. So you're forced to set EVERYTHING manually just to get "default" settings :p 
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October 5, 2011 4:11:49 PM

Isn't the Power Supply the cause of your bottleneck?

You're using an 850W PSU on a rig that's pumping 900W.
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October 5, 2011 4:17:24 PM

I have always equated micro boards with my pos Dell slim-line and wondered why anyone would give up the expansion potential of a full ATX for my horrid experience. Seeing a well-appointed build that does more than I would ever ask of my home pc is a revelation.

As always, a great review.

Although it makes the lack of editorial attention to the news articles even more glaring. (An 8 GB HDD!!!1! :ouch:  )
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October 5, 2011 4:45:51 PM

MasterMaceIsn't the Power Supply the cause of your bottleneck?You're using an 850W PSU on a rig that's pumping 900W.
You're going backwards, the PC is using just under 770W if you read the last page :)  The rest is lost by the power supply as heat.
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Anonymous
a b 4 Gaming
October 5, 2011 4:55:24 PM

Im surprised you build such a great system and didnt really show what the gpus could do. I would love to see what they could do with a gpu renderer. Small lux or blender cycles. Sorry games fps doesnt matter much to me. But the ability to render a frame a couple seconds faster means hours of savings.
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October 5, 2011 5:03:10 PM

the last few system builder marathons made you guys look bad but this article fixes that. You took something slightly unconventional and made it beautiful.

But why the $300 ram? It can't be necessary to pay that much to oc the cpu.
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October 5, 2011 5:15:38 PM

Questions of the PNY's LC 580s has popped up on various forums. In my mind, they didn't exist until Tom's said so. Well Tom said so and now I believe it. (I was very skeptical about a cpu+gpu with 120mm rad, and putting in a 2nd one and having to mount another 120mm rad, but those concerns were addressed very well, Thanks Tom!)
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October 5, 2011 5:39:04 PM

Are those hybrid air/liquid gpus? That would explain how you are able to get away with so little radiator surface area. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw a GTX 580 and CPU on one radiator. I thought you were building a kettle for a moment.

Is it actually possible to keep the gpu fan levels low? Otherwise it strikes me they'd be very noisy right up against each other.

Though that means you have even more fans than normal, which kinda negates my original reason to liquid cool: silence.
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October 5, 2011 5:42:00 PM

clonazepamQuestions of the PNY's LC 580s has popped up on various forums. In my mind, they didn't exist until Tom's said so. Well Tom said so and now I believe it. (I was very skeptical about a cpu+gpu with 120mm rad, and putting in a 2nd one and having to mount another 120mm rad, but those concerns were addressed very well, Thanks Tom!)
I would be skeptical about using it with an overclocked LGA 1366 CPU, but it appears well-matched to the lower-heat overclocked Sandy Bridge
d0gr0ckAre those hybrid air/liquid gpus? That would explain how you are able to get away with so little radiator surface area. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw a GTX 580 and CPU on one radiator. I thought you were building a kettle for a moment.Is it actually possible to keep the gpu fan levels low? Otherwise it strikes me they'd be very noisy right up against each other.Though that means you have even more fans than normal, which kinda negates my original reason to liquid cool: silence.
Yes to hybrid but PNY did not change the fan map. In other words, the fans don't spin up because the GPU is cooled enough by the radiator to prevent it from reaching the higher parts of the fan map. Increasing the graphics card fan speed manually is require only if you want a good GRAPHICS RAM overclock.
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October 5, 2011 5:52:08 PM

I liked this build. Glad you put to rest concerns about the PSU; I was one of the ones with concerns, based on the overclocking results of the $2k SBM, and it's good to see that it can do what's asked of it!

Also, the image of the case interior once assembled is impressive. This is why people shouldn't rely on Alienware so much- with some good spatial skills and creativity, anyone can design and build a well-put-together pc, and with experience, even a gorgeous one. I also like the performance (and temps) of these liquid-cooled GPUs. Not too long ago, I wouldn't have even considered liquid cooling for my CPU or GPUs, mostly due to longevity concerns of the cooling hardware. But now, these systems are evolving pretty well and my next build will definitely include some form of liquid cooling, if only on the CPU.
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October 5, 2011 6:09:44 PM

You guys should give this computer away. :) 
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October 5, 2011 6:36:43 PM

And here I thought you guys were going to do some proper watercooling. Take that PNY crap and toss it. Christ, dont advertise that s__t as real watercooling....
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October 5, 2011 6:41:36 PM

dan103You paid 300$!!! for RAM?

Yeah, WTF are you thinking?!
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October 5, 2011 6:45:52 PM

rubix_1011 said:
Asetek does not equal liquid cooling.

It's hype like this that really cause people who aren't in the 'know' to think they are.




My thoughts exactly.
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a b 4 Gaming
October 5, 2011 6:58:27 PM

Uhhh wow I have more radiator than that just for my CPU...!!
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