Deepcool Maelstrom 120
We're told that this is an original design from Deepcool, and not another Asetek clone. The pump's resemblance to Asetek's design is purportedly coincidental.
Be that as it may, we're also told that, due to the patent situation in the U.S., certain design changes have to made before this closed-loop liquid cooler can be sold here. Right now, it's only available in Europe.
Deepcool has a Maelstrom 120 and a Maelstrom 240. The latter sports a double-wide radiator, but both models have the same pump. It goes without saying that we picked the smaller cooler for the entry-level Intel Pentium CPU. The water cooler comes with a complete accessory set, including mounting kits for all current AMD and Intel interfaces, screws, a manual, a fan, and the water cooler assembly itself.
Depending on your processor and interface, you need to pick the corresponding bracket and mount it on the pump. Then, you attach four screws to the one-size-fits-all back plate and secure the screws with plastic shoes. An audible click confirms that a screw is locked in place.
Next, you stick the screws through the motherboard’s holes (on AMD motherboards, you need to remove the back plate first).
Then, you place the pump/water block combination on the four screws and secure it with as many thumb nuts.
In order to mount the motherboard into the case, remove the enclosure's rear 12 cm fan and install the I/O shield. Complement the installed motherboard standoffs as needed. The case comes with a tiny thumb tool for tightening them.

Carefully lower the mainboard onto the standoffs and attach the radiator to the rear wall of the case.
Finally, you put the case on its back and mount the water cooler’s red fan with the enclosed long screws.
Attach the pump’s cable to the motherboard’s case fan header, boot the board into the BIOS, and ensure that the water pump is not subject to automatic fan control. The pump requires a steady, unmodulated +12 V supply.
The fan’s cable is attached to the motherboard’s CPU fan header, but perhaps you want to set the fan to run a tad faster than the default, as it also has to handle some of the graphic card’s heat. For the GeForce GTX 750 Ti, however, we found this not to be necessary. When we tried a Gainward GTX 760 Phantom for test purposes, it was.
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- Building a Budget Intel-Based MicroATX Gaming Cube
- Deepcool Steam Castle
- MSI H97M-G43 and Intel Pentium G3258
- Deepcool Maelstrom 120: Closed-Loop Liquid Cooling
- Storage Installation
- PSU Installation and Cabling
- Installing the Graphics Card and Finishing Touches
- Overclocking Temperature and Sound
- Picking Parts For Your Own Build







I would get a X4 760K with a better GPU instead of a G3258 with a more expensive motherboard...
Yeah a I5 would totally be better, but as for gaming, it would not push a 750 TI much more than a G3258 would. But you are right to think that a water cooling is not a good idea budget-wise
AIO $ 80, ODD $16 , RAM 8GB (2x4GB) $73
Most of these budget build makes no sense when there is no strict budget cap. Next time when there is another budget build and there is something that just got to have it, but cost like $100 more, let's up the price cap and still call it a budget build!
exactly my first thoughts. I'd go with a Fractal Design Core 1000, an EKL Alpenfohn Sella, and just get a MX100 256GB instead of the HDD. If you really need more space, you can always get a big HDD later, or just buy an external USB 3.0 one, or use an NAS or cloud. Also a good 300W PSU should be more than enough for this system, even if you overclock to 4.5 GHz.
exactly my first thoughts. I'd go with a Fractal Design Core 1000, an EKL Alpenfohn Sella, and just get a MX100 256GB instead of the HDD. If you really need more space, you can always get a big HDD later, or just buy an external USB 3.0 one, or use an NAS or cloud. Also a good 300W PSU should be more than enough for this system, even if you overclock to 4.5 GHz.
Yeah, but in a budget build I would use a HDD only. Games these days are about 20-40gigs. That's a lot. SSD's will only increase the loading times, nothing else, no graphical improvements. I would just go with a WB black and spend the saved money on a better CPU/GPU.
And a 400-500W PSU would be the better way, since good 300W PSU's are hard to find everywhere. Plus if the graphics card gets pumped up, the power will too. The Seasonic S520II is the best budget PSU right now.
G3258 $79
MSI Z87M GAMING motherboard $179
Kingston hyper x fury black $99
western digital caviar blue $69
2nd hand 500W psu $15
2nd hand GTX 660 $140
3 coolermaster sickleflow x green fans x3 $12 ($36)
1 bitfenix spectre pro 200mm green $27
gigabyte k7 force keyboard $59
razer naga hex green $79
and a generic cd rom $19
this is a nice looking budget build and performs really well
and if you where to buy a new GTX 660 it would be $199
and a new 500 w psu it would be $49 so it would be $895
and the G3250 can be overclocked to 4.5 on the stock cooler for me.
I play watchdogs a lot high textures and ultra graphics setting and I get between 25-50 fps average is around 40fps
this is a high performance budget build and stays really cool