Installation

Installation was pretty straightforward with this kit, and after explaining the roles of all the pieces in the setup, it shouldn't be too hard for anyone who is familiar with DIY on computer parts, and even easier for those whom have modding experience.

I am working with this Antec Sonata case which although aesthetically pleasing doesn't provide amazing cooling, and it provides even less space. With space at premium inside this case, installing a watercooling system proved to be difficult; however it might inspire more people to squeeze full fledged systems into smaller boxes.

Test setup: DangerDen Maze4 Watercooling kit with the AMD RBX waterblock, Antec Sonata case, AMD Throughbred 1700+ AXDA1700DUT3C JIUHB0502XPMW (for your overclocking pleasure), 1GB Corsair XMS PC4000, Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe, Enermax 480watt PSU, (the rest of the hardware doesn't matter for the test, but I'll list it anyway) Albatron FX5900XTV, Promise TX2 raid card, 2X IMB 60GXP's in raid 0.

The first problem with the tiny case I decided to tackle was where I was going to mount the radiator. With only two locations possible to mount it in stock positions, and no other real positions to cut a 120mm hole and attach it to, I decided I wanted to mount the radiator on the rear exhaust mount. My logic was simple, if I had the radiator inside the case at the intake, then that would be the rest of the parts would be filled with the heat from the radiator, making the ambient temperature inside the case terrible, eventually the heat would soak up into all the parts, and the benefits of having a watercooling setup would be diminished.

After I figured out that I wanted to install it in the rear, my problem became the order in which I would install the radiator and fan into the system. Would the radiator and fan fit internally? Or would I have to install them on the outside. Or perhaps, one on the inside, and one on the outside? Well to cut to the chase, I had to install both the radiator and the fan on the outside of the case, and here is why: on the Antec Sonata, there is a divider bar between the PSU and the rest of the case at the top which also helps to keep the case square. The radiator and fan are so large, that they interrupt that bar, and although I could simply cut it out, that isn't the sort of answer I prefer. Here is a picture of the bar in question:

Another problem is that with both of them installed inside, it becomes impossible to mount waterblock inside the case, because the radiator and the fan will actually be in the way ontop of it! The issue with having the fan on the inside and the radiator on the outside was simply the fact that the mounting holes on the radiator do not go all the way through the radiator. This means that I would have to have the perfect length screws to go through the fan, then through the case, and finally through the reservoir. A more simple setup would be if I could install bolts all the way through the three, but the reservoir doesn't allow that.

After I figured out how I wanted it, I needed to get rid of the honey comb grill that comes with the stock Sonata case. Shown here:

With my trusty Dremel and simply cutting the thinnest points of the comb, I ended up with something that looks like this after some filing and sandpaper sanding:

This will allow for better airflow, additionally it will allow me to install the fan and radiator appropriately, because the honey comb stuck out and was three dimensional.

With that problem out of the way, I quickly ran into another. With the radiator outside of the case, how would I get tubing to travel to it? My solution was simple, and not very elegant, but it works none the less. I decided I would cut a hole double the width of a piece of tubing (as to allow a tube to go to the radiator, and from the radiator). I simply drew a rectangle in the area I wanted the hole like this:

And then cut it out with a Dremel so it looked like this:

That picture was before filing and sanding, with a very fresh cut. It's simple but affective. Of course after I filed and sanded, I made sure to alcohol down ALL surfaces, as any metal dust is death for electronic parts.

With that out of the way I installed the waterblock to the motherboard. The RBX block installs into the four mounting holes that are no longer AMD spec, but all the good enthusiast board manufacturers still use them. This is where I came into another problem; the DFI LanParty NFII Ultra B motherboard in which I normally use was incapable of mounting the blocks onto the board. This was due to the fact that there were transistors so close to the holes that if I was to put in the plastic washers and bolted them down, it would crush them! This forced me to move to the trusty A7N8X-E deluxe. The Asus board had only one such resistor that was too close to the mounting holes shown here:

Because of this, I simply used an exacto knife and carved out a small potion of the washer to make sure it didn't crush the transistor.

Although I didn't get instructions with the kit, (bad DangerDen!) I found them online and found that the mounting hardware was supposed to be mounted like this:

Nut -- washer -- motherboard -- washer -- nut

This configuration of course makes perfect sense. I tightened the bolts using a pair of pliers on either side to make sure that they weren't going anywhere. After that, simply place apply thermal paste (in this case it comes with AS5, so I used that) and install the block on top of the processor, and have the four bolts go through the four mounting holes on the block. The mounting hardware on top of the block goes like this:

Waterblock -- spacer -- spring -- plastic washer -- hand screw nut

After that, the only thing that is needed is cross nut installation. This means that you must not install the hand screw nuts one after another (in a circle). Instead after installing one hand screw nut, screw in the one farthest from the first on you did (IE: the one on the opposite side). This will insure that even pressure is on the CPU. Having a motherboard tray is a feature that makes installing the motherboard with the CPU waterblock so much easier, and would have helped with installation. The Antec Sonata doesn't have one, but I would definitely recommend you install this kit into one that does, the convenience of not having to bend your hands into a pretzel would be nice. With the waterblock installed and the motherboard installed into the case, it looks something like this:

Installing the reservoir was easy, and went on without a hitch. First things first, I installed the appropriate barbs on the reservoir like so:

This of course is with the rubber grommets. It's shown here with only one entrance and one exit installed, when I moved to the RBX block, I used both entrances, so barbs were installed into all three positions.

The Sonata has a pull out tray for the 3 ½" floppy bays, and so I simply installed it into the rack. Additionally, this will allow the reservoir to be seen from the front of the case, when the door is open like this:

Shown here with protective paper still on it, since this is a test fitting.

The pump simply has 4 rubber feet on the bottom of it, and could simply be placed anywhere on the bottom of the case, so that was the easiest part! More or less pick a spot and stick it on. This is good and bad. Although it makes installation a snap, I personally desire a more permanent solution, like bolts for instance. This of course forces one to mod more, but is that really all that bad?

Now a list of the parts inside, the whole project:

The reservoir and intake fan:

The waterblock and rear exit fan with radiator:

With all the parts inside the case, all that was left was installing the tubing. With seven feet of tubing, all I did was spot check the length, add a bit more to that measurement, and also make sure that all the bends were gradual, as to not pinch the tubing which would result in less flow. After that, I made sure all the barbs had a good grip on the tubing; obviously leaks would be a bad thing. I had a problem with the pump in this section, as the pump had a strange attachment mechanism that in short didn't work (I follow instructions well, I just think that the pump was designed for slightly smaller tubing. This forced me to use the provided clamps, or deal with leaks. Of course I chose the clamps.

NEXT