Hello everyone,
I thought I would share some pics with the start of a Thermaltake Tower 900 build. I chose this case because it supports two 560mm radiators and two pumps/reservoirs for two liquid cooling loops. What I'm after is silent, high performance cooling.
Case - Thermaltake Tower 900
Motherboard - ROG Strix Z690-F Gaming WiFi
CPU - i7 12700KF
Memory - Kingston Fury Beast 16GB 6000MT/s
GPU - ROG Strix 3090 Ti LC OC
SSD - Seagate Firecuda 530 1TB
Fan controller - Lamptron FC5-V3
Case fans - 2x Gelid Solutions Wing 14 uv Blue in the front and 2x stock 140mm fans in the rear
PSU - EVGA Supernova 1600w T2 Titanium
Water cooling:
Fittings - EK Quantum Torque STC 10/16mm (3/8 x 5/8)
CPU water block - EK Quantum velocity2
GPU water block (soon to come) - EK Quantum Vector2 ABP set
Pump/Res - 2x Swiftech Maelstrom X300 D5 V2
Radiators - 2x Hardware Labs SR2 560 MP
Radiator fans - 8x Thermaltake Ring 14 Blue
Tubing - Koolance uv/clear 3/8 x 5/8 soft tubing
Coolant - Koolance 702 uv blue
Temperature sensors - 2x Alphacool Eiszapfen flat stop plug sensors- chrome
I like how the Tower 900 is laid out with the hardware in the front and the radiators in the back, there are three glass panels to see in the front and both sides. But, I have two cons with this case.
1) It's Big, it's Bulky and it's Heavy. Empty it weighs 54 pounds, by the time it's built expect it to weigh 100 pounds.
2) Airflow - This case is meant for liquid cooling EVERYTHING and the front does not offer proper airflow, you get one exhaust fan above the motherboard and a hard drive fan mount in the center of the case. The vents at the bottom allow cool air to be drawn in.
Other than that, it's a solid well built pc case.
As I'm waiting to get a few more things, I went ahead and made a few changes. I took the two stock 140mm fans and put them on the back panel as exhaust and added two 140mm uv blue fans. There are no hard drives, it's just to help move air and hopefully give off a uv glow.
I flushed the radiators with hot distilled water, I didn't use any chemicals such as Mayems blitz or vinegar. The one radiator took 40 flushes, yes 40, until absolutely nothing came out. If I saw one particle it got it again, the other radiator took only 10 flushes.
A tip about the HWL radiators - I don't know if this holds true with all their radiators but the screws HWL provide with the SR2 560 MP are not long enough to use with a mounting bracket, you'll need to purchase 4x30mm screws to use a mounting bracket.
The Tower 900 comes with pump/reservoir mounting brackets for Thermaltake's pumps/reservoirs and they didn't match up with the Swiftech Maelstrom pump/res combos.
So out came their mounting brackets and I drilled holes in the bottom of the case to mount them, but I ran into an issue here too. The Swiftech mounting brackets are too wide, I had to make four cuts to get them to fit flush on the bottom.
Two cuts for each pump/res, this is one.
After that, they test fit nicely.
More to come.
I thought I would share some pics with the start of a Thermaltake Tower 900 build. I chose this case because it supports two 560mm radiators and two pumps/reservoirs for two liquid cooling loops. What I'm after is silent, high performance cooling.
Case - Thermaltake Tower 900
Motherboard - ROG Strix Z690-F Gaming WiFi
CPU - i7 12700KF
Memory - Kingston Fury Beast 16GB 6000MT/s
GPU - ROG Strix 3090 Ti LC OC
SSD - Seagate Firecuda 530 1TB
Fan controller - Lamptron FC5-V3
Case fans - 2x Gelid Solutions Wing 14 uv Blue in the front and 2x stock 140mm fans in the rear
PSU - EVGA Supernova 1600w T2 Titanium
Water cooling:
Fittings - EK Quantum Torque STC 10/16mm (3/8 x 5/8)
CPU water block - EK Quantum velocity2
GPU water block (soon to come) - EK Quantum Vector2 ABP set
Pump/Res - 2x Swiftech Maelstrom X300 D5 V2
Radiators - 2x Hardware Labs SR2 560 MP
Radiator fans - 8x Thermaltake Ring 14 Blue
Tubing - Koolance uv/clear 3/8 x 5/8 soft tubing
Coolant - Koolance 702 uv blue
Temperature sensors - 2x Alphacool Eiszapfen flat stop plug sensors- chrome
I like how the Tower 900 is laid out with the hardware in the front and the radiators in the back, there are three glass panels to see in the front and both sides. But, I have two cons with this case.
1) It's Big, it's Bulky and it's Heavy. Empty it weighs 54 pounds, by the time it's built expect it to weigh 100 pounds.
2) Airflow - This case is meant for liquid cooling EVERYTHING and the front does not offer proper airflow, you get one exhaust fan above the motherboard and a hard drive fan mount in the center of the case. The vents at the bottom allow cool air to be drawn in.
Other than that, it's a solid well built pc case.
As I'm waiting to get a few more things, I went ahead and made a few changes. I took the two stock 140mm fans and put them on the back panel as exhaust and added two 140mm uv blue fans. There are no hard drives, it's just to help move air and hopefully give off a uv glow.
I flushed the radiators with hot distilled water, I didn't use any chemicals such as Mayems blitz or vinegar. The one radiator took 40 flushes, yes 40, until absolutely nothing came out. If I saw one particle it got it again, the other radiator took only 10 flushes.
A tip about the HWL radiators - I don't know if this holds true with all their radiators but the screws HWL provide with the SR2 560 MP are not long enough to use with a mounting bracket, you'll need to purchase 4x30mm screws to use a mounting bracket.
The Tower 900 comes with pump/reservoir mounting brackets for Thermaltake's pumps/reservoirs and they didn't match up with the Swiftech Maelstrom pump/res combos.
So out came their mounting brackets and I drilled holes in the bottom of the case to mount them, but I ran into an issue here too. The Swiftech mounting brackets are too wide, I had to make four cuts to get them to fit flush on the bottom.
Two cuts for each pump/res, this is one.
After that, they test fit nicely.
More to come.
Thank you ahfoo !
I got the nickel/plexi Velocity2 and went with nickel fittings, black may have looked better. I did get black for the pump res/combos.
Installing fittings into an acrylic water block - I haven't worked with acrylic much but I've done plenty of research and one thing I came across is cracked acrylic water blocks due to over tightening or too much stress on the fitting. This I want to avoid at all cost.
One thing overlooked is screwing on the collar, over tightening the collar will over tighten the fitting.
So how will I know I'm not over tightening? Swiftech has a chart to go by, a good stern hand tightening is more than enough. Basically, screw the fitting in until the o-ring touches then give it a 1/4 turn for minimum torque.
I went ahead and installed the Ek Quantum Torque fittings.
I got the nickel/plexi Velocity2 and went with nickel fittings, black may have looked better. I did get black for the pump res/combos.
Installing fittings into an acrylic water block - I haven't worked with acrylic much but I've done plenty of research and one thing I came across is cracked acrylic water blocks due to over tightening or too much stress on the fitting. This I want to avoid at all cost.
One thing overlooked is screwing on the collar, over tightening the collar will over tighten the fitting.
So how will I know I'm not over tightening? Swiftech has a chart to go by, a good stern hand tightening is more than enough. Basically, screw the fitting in until the o-ring touches then give it a 1/4 turn for minimum torque.
I went ahead and installed the Ek Quantum Torque fittings.
The EVGA Supernova 1600w T2 power supply mounts in the back in its own mounting bracket.
The front HDD section is removable and will make wiring much easier, I'll remove it and start wiring some of the cables. I'm using the EVGA cables that came with the psu, I'll eventually get a set of custom psu cables if these end up looking too bad, the cables are as thick as black snakes but have nice leads coming off of them so we'll see once they're installed.
The front HDD section is removable and will make wiring much easier, I'll remove it and start wiring some of the cables. I'm using the EVGA cables that came with the psu, I'll eventually get a set of custom psu cables if these end up looking too bad, the cables are as thick as black snakes but have nice leads coming off of them so we'll see once they're installed.
The evga cables have no cable combs and they're a little glossy but they're black and don't look too bad, I think I can be happy enough using them. They're pretty stiff too, I bent them into position before installing them.
The ROG Strix Z690-F Gaming Wifi has two 8-pin cpu power connectors. Only one needs to be connected but I connected both for the extra stability when overclocking. It has one USB 3.2 Gen 1Header that I connected for two front case USB ports.
I connected the HD Audio cable, not sure I have a need for it, I might disconnect it just because of the different colored unsleeved wires.
Where is my Q-Connector? I sure missed that when connecting the front panel power switch/led, reset switch etc. After looking in the manual, I'm pretty sure I have them connected correctly.
The ROG Strix Z690-F Gaming Wifi has two 8-pin cpu power connectors. Only one needs to be connected but I connected both for the extra stability when overclocking. It has one USB 3.2 Gen 1Header that I connected for two front case USB ports.
I connected the HD Audio cable, not sure I have a need for it, I might disconnect it just because of the different colored unsleeved wires.
Where is my Q-Connector? I sure missed that when connecting the front panel power switch/led, reset switch etc. After looking in the manual, I'm pretty sure I have them connected correctly.
I disconnected the HD Audio cable and rerouted the front panel power switch hdd led, reset etc.
Since it is a thin ribbon cable, I was able to route it behind the motherboard, this looks better.
Since it is a thin ribbon cable, I was able to route it behind the motherboard, this looks better.
The Tower 900 has two rows of cable cutouts, I took the bottom row of cable cutouts out and had an RGB Thermaltake plate made to go in its place.
I had to peel the backing holding the RGB cable to hide the cable and so it would line up flush with the other row of cable cutouts.
There's no visible wiring so this should be ok, I'll install it and see how well the mounting tape holds.
I had to peel the backing holding the RGB cable to hide the cable and so it would line up flush with the other row of cable cutouts.
There's no visible wiring so this should be ok, I'll install it and see how well the mounting tape holds.
As with any tape I'm always skeptical of how well it's going to hold and this tape is what it says, Extreme. It's a thin rubber tape not film. Press and hold for 60 seconds and done.
It's sticky, I know it's not coming off, probably have to pry it off it's stuck on there so good. But that's ok it's what I wanted, stuck tight.
The ROG Strix Z690-F Gaming Wifi has one RGB header, it's right below the ARGB header I used for the Velocity2 water block. There is an arrow on the RGB cable, connect the arrow to the 12v pin for proper connection. I was able to route the RGB cable behind the motherboard as well to help with a cleaner look.
It's sticky, I know it's not coming off, probably have to pry it off it's stuck on there so good. But that's ok it's what I wanted, stuck tight.
The ROG Strix Z690-F Gaming Wifi has one RGB header, it's right below the ARGB header I used for the Velocity2 water block. There is an arrow on the RGB cable, connect the arrow to the 12v pin for proper connection. I was able to route the RGB cable behind the motherboard as well to help with a cleaner look.
While I'm waiting on some other stuff to arrive, I can do some more things.
The pump/res combos are new and have been kept in their boxes up until now, one thing I notice is the black tops and black pump parts are oxidized.
I lightly test rubbed the top with a little dab of vegetable oil on a soft cloth and then wiped it clean. You can see the spot where it made it black again, I'll remove the plugs and do this to both pump/res combos. This seems to be working but if anyone has a better solution for oxidized parts, feel free to share.
The pump/res combos are new and have been kept in their boxes up until now, one thing I notice is the black tops and black pump parts are oxidized.
I lightly test rubbed the top with a little dab of vegetable oil on a soft cloth and then wiped it clean. You can see the spot where it made it black again, I'll remove the plugs and do this to both pump/res combos. This seems to be working but if anyone has a better solution for oxidized parts, feel free to share.
Thanks for the suggestion ahfoo,
Even though I have one, I don't think a dremel tool will be necessary, lightly rubbing them with a few drops of vegetable oil on a soft cloth did wonders.
Even though I have one, I don't think a dremel tool will be necessary, lightly rubbing them with a few drops of vegetable oil on a soft cloth did wonders.
