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XPS 8930, GPU and CPU Liquid Cooler, PSU, Case Swap, Upgrade
Computer: Dell XPS 8930
CPU: i7 8700
CPU Cooler: UPGRADE: Corsair H60 (2018 Model) Hydro Series AIO Liquid CPU Cooler
Graphic card manufacturer / model number: UPGRADE: Liquid cooled MSI GeForce GTX 1080 SEA HAWK X 8GB 256-Bit GDDR5X PCI Express 3.0 x16 ATX Video Card
Bios: 1.0.12
Operating System: Windows 10 Home v.1803
Power supply: UPGRADE: Seasonic Focus Plus Gold, SSR-850FX, 850W Compact Modular Power Supply
Monitor: Samsung S34E790C - 34-Inch Curved WQHD (3440 x 1440) LED Monitor using Displayport.
Edit: 06/06/19
Case fan upgrades here
PSU upgrades here
Non-Dell GPU upgrades here
Phanteks case swap summary here
Case swap rather than case mod for more cooling options here and here and here
Motherboard connections for case swap here
Full liquid cooling with waterblock here
Tests slim 15mm fans with HWInfo.
Idle CPU Temps 32C.
Idle fan speeds intake 450-500 RPM
CPU FAN and TOP FAN = motherboard headers
***Prime 95 v2.66 CPU Torture Test, Small FFT, 12 cycles. 60 minutes:
CPU temps 66-70C. Max temp 75C (boost)
Clock speeds 3492 mHz (~10% overclock @ 65W TDP), max 4490 mHz
Voltage stable at 1.022, max was 1.3
Upper Intake Fan (CPU FAN) CPU cooler max RPM 1078
Lower Intake fan (TOP FAN) GPU cooler max RPM 1019
Upper exhaust fan fixed 1500 RPM.
Prime 95. initial boost of CPU 100% load at 4490 mHz at 110 W / 1.3v. Then tests at stable ~10% overclock 3492-3589 mHz at ~65W at 1.022 volts, temps 66-70C.
***3d Mark Fire Strike Test for system 1080P, ~ 7min.:
CPU Temps: Max 75C
Clock speeds max 4388 mHz
Voltage max was 1.31
Upper Intake Fan (CPU FAN) CPU cooler max RPM 906
Lower Intake fan (TOP FAN) GPU cooler max RPM 869
Upper exhaust fan fixed 1500 RPM.
GPU Temps: Max 79C
GPU Fan speed, 1100 RPM idle, max RPM 2822
GPU Clock max 1961 mHz
So far, CPU temps okay. But GPU temps high, will check bezel airflow.....
***3d Mark Fire Strike Test 1080P, ~ 7min
(front bezel off to test airflow restriction)
CPU Temps: Max 72C
Clock speeds max 4388 mHz.
Voltage max 1.31
Upper Intake Fan (CPU FAN) CPU cooler max RPM 853
Lower Intake fan (TOP FAN) GPU cooler max RPM 1183
Upper exhaust fan fixed 1500 RPM.
GPU Temps: Max 72C
GPU Fan speed, 1100 RPM idle, max RPM 2611
GPU Clock max at 1965 mHz
Changes with front bezel off:
CPU temps dropped by 3C
GPU temps dropped by 8-10C
CPU temps acceptable through bezel. GPU airflow through bezel needs tweaking!
==========
The install:
Tasks for upgrade in new XPS 8930:
1) Install Corsair H60 (2018 Model) Hydro Series AIO Liquid CPU Cooler
2) Install lower front intake fan/radiator with liquid cooled MSI Sea Hawk GTX 1080 HYBRID GPU
3) Upgrade PSU to Seasonic Focus Plus Gold, 850W Compact Power Supply
I need to accomplish this keeping in mind the following:
-Run the Corsair CPU cooler pump at constant 100% speed
-Requires fans connected to both 4 pin fan headers (CPU FAN) and (TOP FAN) to avoid startup error.
==========
Installing Corsair Liquid CPU Cooler:
New 2018 Corsair Hydro Series H60 has 157 x 120 x 27mm radiator and SP120 PWM fan. Pump has rotating barbs for hose placement to avoid the swinging PSU. Pump connects to a PSU SATA cable for 100% power and the radiator PWM fan to the CPU FAN motherboard 4 pin header. Optional tach cable to monitor pump speed and provide a signal to the fan header to prevent startup errors. Fan specs: SP120 PWM, 1700 RPM, 28.3 dBA, 57.2CFM.
Slim fan for tight location: Noctua NF-A12x15 PWM, 1850 RPM 23.9 dBA 55.44 CFM / 1400 RPM 16.8 dBA 41.67 CFM
The 3 pin version is a good option at fixed speed to noise tolerance for constant airflow.
Review below posted 60C temps with i7 8700K CPU 30 min stress test at stock clocks.
https://proclockers.com/reviews/cooling/corsair-hydro-series-h60-120mm-liquid-cooler-review
Nice installation guide here:
https://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/corsair-h60-review.html
The XPS 8930 chassis is similar to the Alienware R5/R6/R7, but the Alienware allows for CPU liquid cooling by having an opening to mount the fan/radiator through the top of the chassis, an installation bracket, and a top cover to house the unit.
With no such space in the XPS 8930, I saw two possible locations a liquid cooler could be installed: Upper exhaust and front intake.
1) Tried the upper exhaust position first without success with the radiator in the top exhaust fan location. The problem is that the rigid hose fittings protrude into the case 20mm. The PSU bracket is not able to close.
I also tried the radiator upside down with the hoses above the motherboard. But with the radiator lined up with the top exhaust opening, a CPU power connector, capacitor and fan header block the area at the hose fittings.
2) Next the front upper intake position at the hard drive location. With intake cooling, cool air enters the radiator but warm air exits into the case. Should not be a problem if CPU temps are ok.
I found that the radiator can install with hoses up or down. With the radiator upside down, the hoses can spread on either side of the motherboard ATX connector.
Picture bottom install location:
Flipping the radiator upright, the swinging PSU bracket negates any liquid cooling in that location with the hoses up as the bracket cross bar crushes the hoses when lowered.
However, I found that by removing the cross bar off the bracket and a small corner off the bracket support leg it would work.
So I chose having the hoses up as the installation path.
1) Flatten the wire holders in that location.
2) Remove the two support legs and the swinging PSU bracket by removing screws at the leg supports and a few at the rear.
3) Used dremel reinforced cutting wheel to do about 5 minutes worth of cutting, then deburring the cut edges.
Picture dremel cuts. (Additional recommended cut to use 25mm fan here)
4) Then placed the radiator up with the hoses at the front of the chassis. The bottom of the radiator fits between the two screws that hold down the supports of the PSU bracket.
5) Attach the 15mm fan with the model label showing for pull orientation and use 4 - 1” or 1 ¼” 6-32 machine screws to attach the radiator. NOTE: The 6-32 screws used for the radiator have a different thread than the 6-32 hex head screws being used in the case. Big box stores have these screws.
Pic of screws
6) Carefully mark the location of the holes in the radiator and drill four holes to mount the radiator to the front of the chassis.
How I did this was place the radiator, then use tape on the front of the chassis to mark the sides of the radiator position.
Then put another piece of blue tape across the front of the radiator at the middle of the top holes.
With the radiator in position inside the chassis and the sides lined up with the tape, look through the rear grill at the blue tape and mark the height of that tape on the front chassis. Marks represent the height of the radiator holes.
Mark the height of the holes with another piece of tape across the front of the chassis.
You now have the height of the top holes.
7) Place a fan on the chassis between the two pieces of tape at the sides and line the two top holes with the radiator mark. Mark all four holes . Again tape off the case well to make sure you don’t get metal filings anywhere.
Mount the radiator with fan to the chassis using ¾” 6-32 machine screws.
9) Installing the pump head:
Clean CPU with alcohol. You see the 4 mounting holes here
Using th 4 double sided pins, put the lower pins into the mounting holes. No modifications needed, the unit is set up for the Dell motherboard LGA1151 CPU socket. Mount the cooler pump by placing the corner attachment brackets on the upper pins and tighten the thumb screws. You can’t overtighten these, they just won’t turn any further when tight.
10) Connect radiator fan to the 4 pin CPU FAN header.
11) Attach pump SATA power to the PSU.
12) With no cross bracket on the PSU swinging bracket, there is room for the pump hoses to flex under the PSU. There is a smooth rounded edge where the bracket contacts the hoses when closed. As an additional precaution install braid wrap on the upper part of the hose for protection at that point.
Done!
Picture again from top, note no bar on the PSU bracket and the edge of the lower part of the PSU bracket that will contact the hoses when down.
==========
Installing MSI GTX 1080 Hybrid GPU: The 151mm high radiator is installed in a sideways position with the hoses in front. The GPU is 10.5” long leaving little room for both fan and radiator at the lower intake position.
With little space to put a fan on the radiator inside the case, the slim 15mm fan was mounted in front of the chassis and under the front bezel. The front bezel is over 20 mm deep so the fan is able to still pull air from the bezel front side vents.
Picture front bezel
1) The only problem encountered was a large raised hole in the middle of the front of the chassis which interfered with fan placement. Keep turning the fan to the position centered to the radiator where the fan frame doesn't hit that large bump.
2) Check that the side of the radiator is clear of the swinging arm of the PSU bracket. Important!.
3) Drill 4 holes, attach the fan to radiator using 4- 1 ¼” 6-32 machine screws.
I also used a10mm foam compressible Phoyba radiator gasket on the radiator due to the 1" wide flange at the rear of the front chassis.
It supports the Alienware R5/6/7 front intake fan bracket that snaps in at this location. That piece of metal prevents the radiator from sitting flush. The gasket took up that space. It has adhesive on one side to attach to the radiator.
Note: In the picture of the front bezel a large plastic hollow pin sticks up that would hit the fan in that location. Trim with the dremel cutting wheel.
Picture front install, note no bar on the PSU swinging bracket.
4) Connect the slim fan on the AIO radiator to the 4 pin header (TOP FAN). (Noctua NF-A12x15 FLX 1850 RPM 23.9 dBA 55.44 CFM / 1400 RPM 16.8 dBA 41.67 CFM)
Notes
Protect the radiator fins with a piece of cardboard taking the GPU in/out. They are bent easily by the corner of the GPU.
Edit 9/18/18 GPU temps resolved here: (must read prior to installing, grillwork is removed)
Edit 02/23/19 Recommended cuts to use 25mm fan on CPU radiator here and here
Edit 03/15/19 Fixed speed radiator fan CPU temps 55°C range here
**This thread edited for accuracy, add'l pics and current information.
HanoverB
798 Posts
0
March 16th, 2019 22:00
AlienBlaster.
Significant CPU temp difference with the fixed speed fan on the CPU cooler radiator.
So still wondering why no one has tried your recommendation of fixing the fan speed of the stock cooler or 92mm afternarket coolers like the Arctic Freezer 11 LP or the Noctua NH9LI LP. Mentioned it on a few posts in another thread with your reasoning behind it i.e. heat build up with the conservative motherboard fan curves. No one has reported back.
The stock cooler fans would probably sound loud loud loud during the test. But the Arctic Freezer fan max is 2000 RPM and the Noctua LP cooler fan max is 2500 RPM and with a LNA is 1850 RPM.. The SE cooler would be harder to test since you have to remove the CPU heatsink to get to the CPU FAN header to make the change.
If anyone has the Arctic Freezer LP cooler or the Noctua LP cooler, a front intake fan and the SATA to 3/4 pin fan power adapter, the fixed speed fan test for CPU temps would be easy to do:
Connect the CPU cooler 4 pin PWM fan to the SATA to 3/4 pin fan power adapter.
Connect one of your front intake fans to the CPU FAN header to avoid getting the fan startup error.
AlienBlaster
20 Posts
0
March 17th, 2019 12:00
Hey HanoverB,
Where did you find the info that the H60 SP120 fan draws 0.3 amps? The retail SP120 fan draws only 0.18 amps at max rpm of 2350. It is unlikely that a 1700 rpm version draws almost double the power. Any chance you also include the pump in the reading?
Regardless, I wouldn't worry too much about the Noctua statement about using RC7 with other fans. As it's just a simple inline resistor of about 50 ohms, the only risk you are running with a high power fan is that the voltage allocated on the fan will be lower than the startup voltage (usually 3-5v) so the fan won't start. Noctua is just being extra careful will the legal consequences as a non-working fan may result in system overheat and damage other hardware, and hence damage their reputation.
In your case, you know it's already spinning so you don't really have that risk. Even if a PSU or motherboard does not always supply a stable voltage, and lets say it only supplies roughly 10-11v instead of 12v in the worst case, you will still get enough voltage to start your fan as you know it also works with a ULNA with higher ohms (such as RC9 or RC11 at around 100 ohms), so a 10-20% undervolting is no problem even if you are very conservative.
That's of course your call, but IMO it's not worth worrying since those adapters are critical for balancing noise and performance especially for a Dell.
HanoverB
798 Posts
0
March 17th, 2019 18:00
AB, check this out
OEM SP120 fan off H60 cooler: .30 amps on the back sticker
Also the the previous version of their OEM SP120 fan on the Sea Hawk radiator draws .26 amps.
Thank you for your take on the LNA. It did work fine and didn't seem hot after I pulled it off the fan..
But I think I am going to err on the side of caution and change the Corsair fans out. I'm thinking with the 50 ohm resistor that fan was probably turning less than 1000 RPM, but still got those lower CPU temps below 60C.
The Corsair fan as a pull fan is not as noisy because the fan noise is muffled by the radiator. I had it that way in the XPS 8930 case, it was tolerable as a PWM fan with a range of 650-670 RPM. But as a front intake fan at max speeds in the push position, there is a little more noise than I prefer.
I've got a couple of NF-F12 black chromax fans in another computer and I will set those up. They are quite a bit quieter at their max speed of 1500 RPM and pull onty 0.05 amps. They should outperform the Corsair fan as well. I will look in the Noctua boxes but I don't think they come with the RC7 LNA even though it's listed as an accessory. I'll report back on those temps.
HanoverB
798 Posts
0
March 17th, 2019 23:00
Phanteks Elite P350X testing CPU radiator fan fixed speeds.
Good temps after swapping Corsair SP120 fans on both radiators to NF-F12 PWM Chromax Black fans (same spec as NF-F12 PWM fans). MUCH quieter than the Corsair SP 120 fans at 1700RPM.. Similar temps (-1C better), nice balance of noise/performance.
***Prime 95 v2.66 CPU Torture Test, Small FFT, 12 cycles. 30 minutes:
CPU temps at end of test run was 53C. Max temp was 68C.
Thermal throttling: NO
Clock speeds stable at 3390.9 mHz, max was 4291.6 mHz at 100% on all cores at start of test
Voltage stable at 1.007, max was 1.264.
CPU radiator fan fixed at 1500 RPM
.
AlienBlaster
20 Posts
0
March 18th, 2019 08:00
HanoverB
798 Posts
0
March 18th, 2019 09:00
http://thermalbench.com/2015/05/05/corsair-sp120-led-120mm-fan/2/
On this review of the SP120 LED fan on the Sea Hawk fan rated at 0.26a (3.12W), the reviewer said that two samples they tested consumed 0.186a (2.23W) including the LED on this fan. They mentioned the same startup boost using the additional power consumption reflecting the fan rating.
The 0.30 amp fan must be a fan they manufactured to put on the Asetek radiator for the H60 cooler. It doesn't show up anywhere on the Corsair website..
HanoverB
798 Posts
0
March 23rd, 2019 09:00
rwgordon
25 Posts
0
March 24th, 2019 06:00
We should refer to this as the XPS 8930 refresh(like intels i5&i7 9xxx chips!) Is your project complete now?second thoughts?
HanoverB
798 Posts
0
March 24th, 2019 10:00
Pretty much done and I wouldn’t hesitate to do this again. 100% functional and no issues at all with the case swap.
The case swap maximize the potential of the XPS 8930, you actually get what you thought you should be getting when you purchased it.
It certainly solves the issue of the XPS 8930 in terms of noise and cooling without any cutting and you are not limited by the XPS case as to what types of CPU and GPU cooling you can use, number of HDD’s/SSD’s and locations, fan placements, cable management, etc.
The swap also gives you the opportunity to individualize your computer as little or as much as you want. I think this stock Phantek’s case with just the front bezel and side lighting looks great. The Meshify case looks great. The Corsair case you are using and the NZXT cases have that new streamlined look. It’s nice to have choices.
Look at the way these newer cases are setup with the PSU shroud to hide the PSU and HDD/SSD’s, the side window, multiple cooling options, built in fan filters, and the great cable management. Tesla1856 has been screaming for months about the new i7 CPU’s and the need for liquid cooling when delivered to the customer. I know the hardware product cycle planning takes time, and these types of cases are fairly new to market. Dell should take a page from these manufacturers and use these design features in their next XPS case. They would have a winner.
To get the XPS 8930 stock machine cooling properly, you have to go to the lengths of buying a new upper fan (and a bracket off Ebay if you got stuck with a 92mm fan from the factory), a new lower Aurora intake fan with bracket off Ebay, add an upper front intake fan, and add a liquid CPU cooler to cool the CPU. Or do a case swap that takes care of these issues and adds more flexibility for close to the cost of those three fans without the headaches.
If you have a K processor, the stock setup will be problem. Period. No overclocking possible due to temperature and noise issues. Even the Alienware Aurora users have hit a ceiling with their i7 overclocking and temps because of the thermal limits of the single 120mm AIO liquid cooler. They have no way to use a 240/280mm radiator in their case.
With the case swap you do lose the USB-C Gen 1 and a USB 3.1 port on the upper IO panel, but gain two additional USB 3.1 ports on the back with the PCI-E card. That front USB-C port is only USB 3.1 speed anyway, and you still have the high speed USB-C Gen 2 port on the back of the machine.
You also lose the slim DVD drive unless you use a case with an optical drive bay. But you can buy a $20 USB 3.0 enclosure. If you have a more reliable 5.25” DVD/Bluray player lying around, you can buy an USB 3.0 enclosure for that as well.
In terms of the fixed speed fan on the CPU cooler, I was able to do some testing and AlienBlaster’s idea of using the right fan with a fixed RPM on the CPU cooler needs more exploring. It should just take a little tweaking with an air cooled low profile CPU cooler in the stock XPS 8930 case to get temps lower and manageable. For the liquid CPU cooler, with the fixed speed fan on the radiator, the temps really improved without any noticeable increase in noise.
That’s about it.
I almost forgot one thing. The only tricky part of the case swap would be the USB connectors on the motherboard. They are very tight and it’s easy to break off a pin so be careful and pull straight up on the connectors. Do not rock side to side when removing them. I used a headlamp for most of the work. My older eyes…..
Thanks for helping me figure out the workarounds guys, really helpful!
Fishing is just getting started.
HanoverB
798 Posts
0
March 24th, 2019 11:00
Could have used this...the machine does have an Alienware look now.
The Dell logos came off this site:
Little tricky to put on, the L in the Dell is free floating and needs to be kept aligned, the circle also needs to be kept aligned as you pull off the outer backing. Not sure how good the adhesive is and how long it will stay on. Fun anyway.
It's a Dell!!
HanoverB
798 Posts
0
March 24th, 2019 11:00
Gone fishing!
Malcher93
1 Message
0
March 28th, 2019 07:00
rwgordon
25 Posts
0
March 28th, 2019 18:00
Maybe when he gets back from his fishing trip! Actually he documented this thread amazingly well and if you start at the begining it is pretty straight forward , just take your time with it.
RawRanger
7 Posts
0
April 6th, 2019 16:00
HanoverB
798 Posts
0
April 13th, 2019 17:00
Bought one from Home Depot. You are cutting into plastic so doesn't have to be anything special.