BeQuiet Silent Base 600 Custom Water-cooled External Radbox
Looks boring right? :P That's what I wanted.... hidden under my desk and out of site, out of mind.... the tubes heading off out the back lead to most of the work. Assembling the case and hardware was easy.
More than aesthetics I wanted quiet.... whilst still maintaining a good solid overclock for stable 24x7 use. This is why I chose the BeQuiet case, Noctua Fans and materials selected for my external Radiator Box. I decided to replace a Mountain Mods U2UFO case I have been using for a few years now (available if anyone wants it).
My core goals for the build were:
1. Low Noise 2. High overclocks 3. Low Delta T and capacity to operate stable in a frequently hot office. 4. dust free/easy to clean 5. Keep hot air away from me
I use an external radiator (Phobya 1080 and 140.2) and have pump/res and other components in the PC.
I decided to offload the pump, res and all unnecessary connections to the external rad box. Less risk of leaking (been down that path once some may recall) and I can place the pump and most fans away from me - which helps with criteria 1 and 5.
To that end I started reviewing a number of smaller cases (ATX as I already have my mainboard and don't want to replace it just to downsize further) - including the known good performers like Fractal. I ruled out many cases due to the significant open vented surface area for many fans.
In the end I ordered a Be Quiet! Base 600 from PCCasegear.
The External rad box is MDF which is dense, deadens vibration and most high frequency noise (have to be careful though as it can act as an excellent resonating chamber :P).
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Update: I initially built this with 4x 180mm fans and a manual fan controller but that was not as easily controlled based on PC load so I decided to go PWM and run a control lead from the PC with the power cabling for the pump/fans and now have it regulated based on temp.
Regarding Fans I have used:
Silverstone 180mm Air penetrators - great pressure but bad low RPM operation and clicking. High/Low switch is an advantage only if you don't have any form of fan controller. The shape of the casing causes a reasonable amount of noise due to turbulence. I won't buy these again.
EK 180mm fans - *ok* performance but not amazing pressure for the airflow. Quiet fans though with unobtrusive pitch.
Coolermaster 120mm fans (x9 on Phobya Rad): moderate noise, modest airflow and prone to becoming destabilised with some dust buildup or after cleaning (maybe cheap bearings.... they appear to be a sleeve bearing on the models I have).
Silverstone 140mm Air Penetrators: Better than the 180mm models. Not as noisy (ironically) as they don't click and make so much mechanical noise. They have lasted longer overall.
Noctua 140mm NF-A14 - Good airflow, very quiet with low pitch, and decent pressure. PWM control allows them to operate below startup voltage so they have that advantage over the ones I used above which were 3pin on manual controller.
As a general rule I will say Noctua are my "go to" brand for fans. Variety of models is decent, and the design base used across all models gives reliable operation. I don't have issues with them becoming unbalanced or noisy when dusty and especially after cleaning. I have never had to replace one due to failure and still have several used across multiple builds that have lasted years.
My biggest gripe has been cost which is less of an issue as the "Redux" range has provided a much nicer point of entry into their brand. A shame they don't have the SSO2 bearing and other minor motor changes that would provide for the same performance as the normal retail box models but I have yet to compare them 1 on 1 and thus can't state what quantifiable difference there is in operation.
Redux are also in shades of grey which is much more palatable than the normal terrible beige'ey sort of look. You can see the 120mm fans I have in the BeQuiet as an example of that, and my server writeup (DIY NAS review & Worklog) has good info on the Redux 140mm range. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I used old stuff lying around so...
Rad Box: Phobya 1080 Rad 140.2 Rad 4x 140mm PWM fans (Noctua NF-A14) D5 pump EK D5 Pump Top (also tried the Revo-X Pump Top and it's similar in result to the V2.0 square type) Aquatube Res temp sensor Primochill Tube (internal) A few metres of old 1/2" tube for the external link to the PC.
Desktop PC: Intel i7 4930k @4.7 currently Titan X (Series 9) @ 1450MHz
EK Supremacy EVO CPU Block EK Full Cover Titan Water Block
16GB DDR3 2133MHz Ram Asus Maximus Hero VII ATX mainboard Intel X540-T2 10GBase-T Server NIC
various mechanical and SSD drives - WD Red 3TB, Samsung 960 EVO. BR player (limited some cases due to no 5 1/4" or poor access to it). Noctua Redux 140mm fan Noctua 120mm Fan (old SB series I had). Noctua 60mm fan (cools the hot running 10GBe NIC) A bunch of EK and BP fittings internally Koolance QDC fittings to connect the rad box (1/2" high flow). Primochill Tubing (internal)
Asus 1440p 144Hz G-sync IPS monitor - 27" Samsung 60Hz 1440p monitor monitor - 27" Ducky Shine 3 mechanical keyboard (Cherry Brown and o-ring mod with cheap PBT Doubleshots) Roccat Kone XTD mouse Logitech 5.1 sound
See that lazy cabling? I don't really care - the airflow is not impeded, it's tidy, and hey.... no windows to see anything under my desk!
Building the Radiator Box...
It's not so clear in the images but the fan mounting plate (4x140mm) screws onto the back and forms a removable panel that allows me to access the interior for any fiddling around in the box. Also the top is removable. Each time I have elected to use different fan sizes I just make a new rear panel with round cut-outs.
I decided to use silicone soft mounts instead of screws this time to see if it dropped the resonance from the case. It faces the wall, so the ugly appearance isn't an issue.
Internally I used bulkheads for the in/out tubes and zip ties to form cable relief. I prefer this to having bulkhead mounts externally where bending or pulling tube can cause it to come out of a compression fitting.
All power and fan RPM info runs through a single cable I have wired to a mini din plug on the rear of the PC so connection/disconnection is simple.
Some of the below pics have the old fans and fan controller present... they give an idea of how it's all laid out and working though.
Simple, quiet and does exactly what I want. Being a sealed loop there are no issues of head pressure but I do find that there is a resonance the D5's exhibit that occurs at a different speed depending on loop restriction. I had to alter the rad box loop to straighten the pump-> rad box outlet in order to stop resonance at the speed I needed it to run (A balance of noise vs flow).
I have used the EK Revo-X pump top (the round one) and the old Rev 2.0 of the Square EK D5 pump top. In the end I kept the square one in as it allowed a forward facing output. The round model is slightly quieter though and has a novel mounting setup.