My Custom Hardline Watercooled PC Build
I’ve always wanted to build a watercooled PC ever since I was in high school. Now it’s a dream come true.
Overview
This build is sort of a DIY custom build. Every part about this PC has been altered in some way to fit my needs. I’ll have a full gallery of my build at the bottom of this page.
I’m a well seasoned PC builder as I have built many of my family’s PCs, but this is my first time getting into custom watercooling.
The specifications:
Ryzen 7 3700X
EVGA GTX 1070 Superclocked
Asus B450i Strix motherboard
G.Skill Trident Z RGB 16GB 3600MHz CL18
Corsair SF600 80Plus Gold
WD Blue NVME 500GB, Intel 660p NVME 512GB
Nouvolo Steck with Tophat
Watercooling parts:
Bykski AM4 CPU block
EK GTX 1080 Acetal block
Alphacool 240mm XFlow Radiator
2x Noctua NF-A12x25 fans
Alphacool DDC Pump
Bykski and Barrow fittings
Thermaltake 16mm PETG hardline tubes
Bitspower water temperature sensor
Use case
I mainly do 3D modeling on my rig, so I needed a PC with fast single core performance. I use Fusion360 as my main modeling tool, which favors faster core clocks rather than multi-core systems.
I also do video and photo editing, so I also need a system that has decent multi-core performance.
And who builds a kick ass computer without doing a little gaming? I do light gaming on the side in my free time. I consider myself a casual gamer so I don’t really need the highest frame rates or extreme detail.
Knowing all of this, a Ryzen 7 3700X and my GTX1070 from my old system works perfectly for me.
What modifications have I done to the case?
I originally wanted to go with a Louqe Ghost S1, but one look at the prices and that turned me away real quick. I found the Nouvolo Steck (which looks like a total ripoff of the Ghost S1 design) which was about half the price so I went for this instead. I’ll explain later why I think this was the wrong choice.
I bought the PinkyPie version of the Steck which was on sale for $180 USD. Initially, I wanted to spray paint it silver and black to give it a Ghost S1 vibe, but as I was walking around Home Depot one day I saw this beautiful bright blue can of paint and I knew I had to have it.
I plastidipped the entire case white, and then sprayed on the blue over the plastidip. The best part about this is that it’s totally reversible! I can go back to PinkyPie any time I want.
White & blue color scheme. Totally reversible too!
In order to get everything to fit with the custom loop, I had to make a small modification to the power supply bracket. I had to move the power supply up a few millimeters in order to get the clearance and look that I wanted. The power supply in the Steck is mounted rather low compared to the Ghost S1. I drilled out two new holes on the center frame and pushed the bracket up. This gave me clearance to fit the tubes and pump.
I also 3D printed small window risers to move the tempered glass windows out about 5mm to make room for the fittings on the GPU block. You can see them in the picture below.
3D printed risers to fit the watercooling components. The windows sit right up against the GPU fittings.
I also didn’t like how the radiator bracket covered up my fill and drain ports. Also there were huge bars going right over the middle of where the fans would expel heat. I’m not fluid dynamics expert but I think this would cause lots of turbulence in the airflow and ultimately hurt cooling performance.
I designed new brackets that solved these issues and printed them out in PETG. I didn’t want to print them in PLA since this is where the brunt of the heat will be coming from my PC. PLA would deform at this temperature.
Custom radiator brackets that fixes all of my issues with the stock bracket. Nice airflow and the fill/drain ports aren’t covered up!
You can also see some of the original PinkyPie color peep through.
Overclocking and Temperatures
I managed to squeeze out a manual overclock of 4.3GHz at 1.275V on the 3700X. This isn’t the best manual OC out there, but it’s decent enough for me. I’ve seen people on Reddit post some insane results with their 3700X. With that being said, I’m perfectly happy with what I have.
I left my GTX1070 at stock settings. I didn’t feel the need to OC it since I’ll barely even notice a difference. Although, with the GPU block hooked up, I’ve noticed that my 1070 auto boosts up to ~2100MHz, which is insane! The rated boost clocks of this card according to EVGA is 1784MHz, so this EK block is putting in some serious work.
Temperatures in this have been awesome. I’m using Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut on both my AM4 and EK blocks and temperatures have far exceeded my expectations.
The highest temperature I’ve seen my 3700X go is 68C with an all core load. In real world scenarios it hits around 60-65C. I’m able to reach 5100-5200 cores in Cinebench R20.
The highest temperature I’ve seen on my GTX1070 is 48C!!! It stays nice and cool during gaming sessions like Star Wars Fallen Order and Halo MCC.
My max coolant temperature is 43C, which is well under the thermal limit of the DDC pump and PETG tubing. I’m not too worried about the pump failing or tubes deforming under the heat.
Things I wish I did differently.
As with all DIY projects, there are always small things that irk you along the way.
First of all, I wish I hadn’t bought the Nouvolo Steck over the Ghost S1. I wish I saved up a little more and bought a more quality product. The build quality on the Steck isn’t bad, but it’s not exceptional either for a $180 USD case. Building in this Steck made me yearn for a higher quality build with thick aluminum milled parts.
I also wish I hadn’t plastidipped my case. The plastidip peels way too easily, so every time I work with the case I have to be extra gentle. I wish I straight up spray painted it from the beginning so it’ll be more solid. I was more worried about messing up so the reversibility factor weighed a large part in my decision.
Going with 16mm tubing was a poor decision on my part. I didn’t really have a scale for what size tubing i should have went with since it’s my first time, but 16mm is a bit big for an ITX form factor. I with I had gone with 12 or 14mm tubing. It would have made the bends much easier and cleaner in my opinion.
I love this build.
Despite all the things I would change, I love this system. It’s my first watercooled system and I put a ton of work into planning and building this thing. Whenever someone comes over and asks about my PC, I’m always proud to show it off. Nobody else has this build. This system is unique to me.
