Build Log: XSPC / Fractal Design Water Cooling Project

This build was a 2 stage process in that we tested the components first on air cooling with a Noctua NH-U14S first and then installed the water kit for the final result. This means that we won’t be worrying too much about neatness in the initial build because most of the gear will be removed to allow leak testing.

The Case

Stripping down the case gives you your first real look at exactly where the cables can go. This involves basically removing just about everything on the case that comes off easily., removing the temporary drive plate, redundant drive cages and any front panel drive bay covers All case panels were removed and placed in a safe spot to avoid any scratches etc – these won’t be needed until later and they are best kept out of the way until then.  The Arc Midi R2 has great capacity for storing hard drives – in fact way more than we need for this build so we will be removing the middle cage in favour of improved airflow. We moved the hard drive cage around so actually “see” how much room we would have, then ended up attaching it back in its original position. We also used the thumbscrew head/socket that Fractal Design included with the Arc Midi R2 to fit the motherboard standoffs in place for an m-ATX board. While you can just screw them all into the motherboard plate, I like to double check against the motherboard I’m using to be sure.

The Arc Midi has the front fans attached to the removable front panel which makes fitting them easier than  into a case where they are attached to the chassis. The front dust filter is easy to remove to install the fans but we put it back in place  when done to reduce the amount of clutter on the test bench. A front mounted radiator would also be mounted on the front panel as per the front fans – the typical mounting for front fans/radiators is into the chassis itself but the Arc Midi R2 feels secure. The main complication is that with a front mounted radiator, if we needed to remove the front panel for whatever reason, the hosing to the attached front radiator may cause a problem. This was a consideration that we made when mounting the radiator in the roof.

Fans

We knew that we wouldn’t be leaving the top 140mm fan in place because our end game was to have a 240mm radiator there so we could have removed it at the start of the build. We left the top 140mm fan in the case for the initial air cooling build and to check clearance with our Noctua NH-U14S and see how the case performed out of the box.

When fitting multiple fans next to each other, I also try to have the cables coming out at the same place so the length is as close as possible and the routing can be combined. A good example of this is the pair of 120mm fans fitted to the radiator, the cables are grouped in the middle of the unit at the read so they can be passed straight out the back through a well placed hole in the case. The fan controller is located at the front of the Arc Midi R2 at the top so eventually any fans using this controller need to be routed accordingly and we also need to make sure that we can neatly get a Molex power connector close enough to provide the 12v. We ran the rear and lower front 140mm fans off of the motherboard system fan headers, reducing them to 5v with adapters – the main reason for this was to reduce the number of Molex adaptors in use.

Power

I always install the power supply (PSU) first. This has usually been because the PSU cables are generally thicker and need to be routed more carefully so that the smaller other cables can go around them. Modular power supplies like the CX-600M that we used here make this less of an issue but I still like to get the PSU in first and feed the CPU power cable to the top corner of the chassis. Depending on the case and PSU combination, sometimes it’s necessary to feed this cable up through the CPU cut out but in the Arc Midi R2, we were able to run it through a cable cut-out hole in the motherboard tray which will make life easier if we end up wanting to replace the PSU with a review sample of something else later on.

CPU and Memory

After fitting the motherboard, the case was laid flat on the bench where the CPU and RAM were installed. Usually we would install the CPU and memory before fitting the motherboard to the case but for the Arc Midi R2 review, we really wanted to see how much room there was to work with. The blue RAM wasn’t the most aesthetically pleasing choice for our green and black themed build but it was all we had on hand – the plan is to sort that out in a month or so. The backplate for the HSF was installed after the motherboard was screwed in place because there is a generous CPU cut-out in the Arc Midi R2. The Noctua backplate is easier to install than the XSPC one but they will both fit.

Closing Off The Initial Build

We established a rough plan for cable management – this involves taking a look at the location of the motherboard headers, the routing options for the front panel IO cables and where the fan cables need to be.

The ‘interim build’ involved running hard drives outside the case initially to verify that all electronic components are working properly – basically it’s a rough build to make sure nothing was DOA. Hard drives and SSDs are typically easy to install in a mid tower case and the Arc Midi R2 that we are using here makes the cable routing easy – even late in the process. You will note that we don’t have an internal optical drive – this is for 2 reasons, the first being that the Arc Midi R2 has 2 bays and our reservoir needs both of them, the second reason is that I don’t typically use optical media so to install an optical drive is of limited value. We have a USB optical drive in the tool drawer for installing drivers etc.

We didn’t test the graphics card because we know it worked from a previous build and because the NH-U14S was blocking our top PCIe x16 slot. There was a risk that the slot on the motherboard could be faulty but we accepted it and proceeded to installation of the water kit.

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