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April 1st, 2021 09:00
Project Papaya: Water cooling a R11 (internally)
This thread will act as a running commentary, mistakes and all (and there will be PLENTY) of my project to convert a stock Alienware Aurora R11 with 10900KF and RTX 3080 into a fully internally water cooled system. This follows on from an earlier thread where I asked various questions, bought various items, and basically built up the courage to undertake this project.
I will post more later on the exact build planned, but here is a brief summary:
240mm radiator on top in push-pull, 120mm radiator on bottom in push-pull, reservoir in 3.5" drive bay at front of case, D5 Next pump and head in bottom of case, 3080 RTX with water block, CPU water block.
To fit this internally, I need to do the following case mods:
- Cut out the foot to allow a fan to fit inside it, and to create air flow for that fan
- Modify bottom of metal case to feed cables inside at front to tidy up for D5 pump
- Hide SSD in that same section of the foot
- Drill bottom of case to allow airflow for radiator
- Replace from fan with 15mm Noctua
- Drill mounting holes for EK FLT 120 Reservoir in front top bay
- Drill holes into top of metal case to allow tubes to enter and exit radiator in roof
- Dremel out the roof to create room for 240mm radiator, with inlet/outlet to front of case
- Dremel out a new fan intake on top of case
Today is day 1. The dremel has come out!
So to start with I am going to take the foot, and a single Arctic P12 PWM PST fan, and fit it into the foot. This will also require me to create a large air channel to bring air into the fan, and up into the radiator, which will sit inside the case.
Then I cut down into the rear of the inside foot to create a space for the fan. I managed to get a perfect fit, with no wiggle room at all, and flush with the support lines that the metal case sits on:
Here you can see the view from the back bottom of the foot. There is now a clear funnel for the air to enter:
This is a better shot of the fan sitting flush. May want to drill some holes into the case to mount the fan, but that is probably redundant as it is a really snug fit into this space:
[to be inserted later ..... saying I have uploaded too many already]
Finally here is what the foot looked like with the cut-aways, but before I polished out some of the cuts. The polishing I did was still quite a rough job because this is all 100% covered, so no need to be a perfectionist!
[to be inserted later ..... saying I have uploaded too many already]
So part 1 is done. I have fit a 25mm fan into the foot of the case. There is a hole already in the metal case that the fan cable fits through perfectly, and I am using PST fans, which allows me to daisy chain the two for the 120mm radiator push-pull, and then plug them into my D5 Next pump (which has a fan controller built in). That is for another post. Anyway, task 1 was successful!
Hewligan
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April 1st, 2021 10:00
You are absolutely correct. My son told me the same thing, but the plan is to have it on a table and if this project goes well my hope is to build a custom side panel in clear plus papaya acrylic and make a show-case with orange LED.
So theoretically not on a floor, but if it is, yes, a filter will be essential!
bertro514
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April 1st, 2021 10:00
@Hewligan great job!! Subscribed for updates
You might want to find a mesh/filter to add under that fan, since it will be pulling air from your floor. You don't want to end up with all the dust/hair/etc inside your PC.
r72019
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April 1st, 2021 10:00
@Hewligan Nice photos, I look forward to reading about the process.
Just fyi that your service tag, and express service code, are both clearly visible in picture #2 (the base). You might want to delete that image and repost.
Hewligan
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April 1st, 2021 11:00
@r72019 Thank you, but only a 20 minute window to edit posts, so it shall live for eternity!
Hewligan
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April 1st, 2021 13:00
You are a legend!!!
I will post my maximum 10 images tomorrow with replacements. Tonight I dismantled the case. It is now just an empty husk.
markburv
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April 1st, 2021 13:00
@Hewligan I think you can delete images from your profile album, maybe this can remove from your post
Anyway great job, this is gonna be an awesome adventure, I will be watching with keen interest
markburv
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April 1st, 2021 16:00
Cool that worked, credit goes to eagle-eyed @r72019
Hewligan
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April 2nd, 2021 10:00
I removed the CPU, VRM, top push-full, etc... The case is now totally in parts. I have lots of photographs but this forum really limits me to a very small number of uploads.
markburv
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April 2nd, 2021 10:00
No stopping you now awesome plan, it's gonna be a fun Easter weekend, looking forward to more news of your progress @Hewligan
Hewligan
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April 2nd, 2021 10:00
FIrst up, here is the layout I have planned:
Second is my dremel:
Foot before final tidy-up work, but after creating fan space and air tunnel:
This is how the fan fits, although I have since moved it down half a milimeter. The fan cable snakes up into the case very neatly:
Hewligan
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April 2nd, 2021 10:00
Slowly I will catch up with photographs, but here is what I used my day off for:
So that leaves me with quite a few major jobs for tomorrow:
I will be done by the end of the weekend. I would put my chances of success at about 50% at the moment.
Hewligan
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April 3rd, 2021 15:00
Quick post before I follow up with more tomorrow.
Build is complete but untested.
Another photo or two:
markburv
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April 4th, 2021 02:00
I have never opened a GPU and not researched what needs thermal pads, I think you are fliping the waterblock to assemble from right to left and left to right highlighted by the green lines for padding chips.
I wonder if you need to pad both upper mini chips near the screw holes
One green is covered, the other red is not?
And what about that chip under the GPU chip, highlighted red?
Just being concerned for your future icy cold temps
Hewligan
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April 4th, 2021 03:00
It works! It isn’t perfect, and with infinite connector options I may have got a better fit, but it works.
I can confirm that the Arctic P12 does cause the Bios error on startup. Annoying, but only takes a few seconds to press the escape key to boot.
Front fan (Noctua 15mm) also does not spin. I will need to try and get to the connector (easier said than done) and see if I have maybe not seated it fully.
Hewligan
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April 4th, 2021 03:00
Take a look at the shocking thermal paste job on the stock nvidia cooler: