Installation Experience
Firstly, I have to (again) commend XSPC on the instructions. As my first time working with a water cooling installation, I was probably a good test for the quality of the instructions. I couldn’t have been clearer on what I had to do. I also jumped online to check out YouTube and Google for some tricks and traps for first time water cooling installers – this added some confidence on my part but highlighted how good the supplied documentation really is.
Components
The standard kit doesn’t include coolant. We decided to go with a green theme so we purchased:
- XSPC EC6 UV Green coolant ($19)
- XSPC 3mm and 5mm Green LED kits ($4 each)
- XSPC 3mm and 5mm UV LED kits ($4 each)
The test build involved a new motherboard and case so we really wanted to make sure that all the components were working before installing the water loop. This involved installing the motherboard, CPU, RAM and PSU into the case and connecting up the SSD. We used our Noctua NH-U14S to cool the ‘pre-install’ system and verify that everything was right to go. All system fans ran fine and we were able to get a feel for how loud the system was without the water kit installed. We noticed that the although the NH-U14S cleared the first RAM slot but fouled the top PCIex16 slot on our Gigabyte Sniper M3 motherboard check out the photos below but this is a compatibility consideration to note for some mATX boards and larger coolers. The NH-U14S didn’t have the same issue on our P8Z77-i mini-ITX board. All the more reason to use water cooling in this particular build.
By ‘dry-fitting’ the components, we were able to look at potential issues with hosing, cable routing and the logistics of motherboard removal for leak testing.
Fan Setup
By default, the Arc Midi R2 has one 140mm fans in each of the roof, the rear and the front. We needed the roof space cleared for our radiator so we moved the 140mm fan from the roof to the spare front mount. Both the lower front and upper rear 140mm fans were connected to motherboard headers with a 5v fan reducer to give a constant and virtually silent flow of air through the chassis. The pair of 120mm fans on the radiator would extract air from the case, pushing it through the radiator fins. We connected the radiator fans and the upper front 140mm fan to the Arc Midi fan controller that has settings for 5v, 7v and 12v. The logic behind this was around maintaining some form of relative increase in the feed of air to the case – where the front intake would increase as the radiator fans exhausted the air out the top.
Installing The Water Loop
After taking some benchmarks with the NH-U14S “air” cooler, we removed it and started installing the XSPC kit as per the instructions
After assembling the radiator unit, attaching the barbs to the CPU block and reservoir, we installed each component into the Arc Midi R2. Whilst we could have fitted the radiator to the front or floor of the case, we elected to go with a roof mounting scenario and installed the lower drive cage in the front most position.
If you want to use screws that don’t come with the kit, be careful with the length as you can damage the radiator if the screws are too long. We went with the included screws and it all assembled as expected. Attaching the barbs to the radiator, CPU block and dual bay reservoir was straight forward and we gently used our appropriately sized shifter, being careful to get a firm fit but not to over tighten or strip the thread.
Next was to install the reservoir in the dual 5.25 drive bay and the CPU block with protective film still attached (for sizing only). When installing the radiator we measured the hosing allowing for the reservoir to be pulled out enough to allow access to the fill port.
Cutting the hose was slightly tricky and it’s really important to use the sharpest and strongest scissors that you can get your hands on. We had a large pair of household scissors (about 25cm from tip to the back of the handle) which were probably a minimum requirement for cutting the hose cleanly. It’s critical that you get a good even cut so it pays to cut the hose slightly longer when fitting in case you muck up the cut and get a jagged finish. If the cut isn’t even, then you are risking a bad seal which could mean a leak. You can buy special hose cutting scissors and if we were doing water cooling build regularly, we’d have these in the toolbox for sure.
Pressing the hose over the barbs was hard work. The barbs are 1/4″ and the hose is 7/16″ inner diameter which means that it’s intended to be tight. We managed to fit the hose to the barbs on the radiator and the reservoir whilst the components were installed in the case but made sure to take the CPU block off the motherboard before attaching the hoses. After attaching the hosing, we verified that the CPU block when placed in it’s correct position didn’t cause any kinking in the lines. We also checked that the barbs had not been loosened in the process and then attached the included black clips to the base of each barb. I’m not sure if these clips are technically 100% required or a safety measure but they went on easily, fitted snug and didn’t look too noticeable. Either way, we were following the instructions to the letter.
Next came the evacuation of all electrical components. We had to remove the radiator fans in order to reach the top line of motherboard screws so the fansand grills came out first, followed by the power supply and then the motherboard.
The power supply was sat outside the rig, the ATX bridge plug connected and then the reservoir and LEDs were connected to an available molex. The moment of truth was getting closer. We opened the fill port and used a small funnel to start filling the reservoir. Once the reservoir was initially full, we switched the power supply on and watched the water level from as the pump started sending coolant around the loop. as we added more, the hoses filled and the bubbles intensified briefly before settling down. We filled the tank almost to the top – for real, the level should be to the top of the window but we were conscious of how it might photograph so we left it a few mm from the top. After looking at the UV and green LEDs with the CPU block and coolant, we left it to leak test for 24 hours. The white paper towel in the case was not there to protect anything, but more so to show up any drips if there was a leak that wasn’t obvious. We also positioned the water block as close to how it would sit for real in the CPU cut out to make sure that the hose flex wouldn’t cause an issue later.
Leak testing went perfectly and we didn’t see any issues with water bubbles, gurgles or other quirks. The pump emits a low hum that is audible in an otherwise quiet room but not outright noticeable.
Once the leak testing was complete, we reinstalled the motherboard, then the PSU, radiator fans and CPU block. We ran everything up and checked it all out before doing a tidy up of the cable routing. As we didn’t need the middle drive cage, it was left out of the build to let the upper 140mm fan do it’s work without an obstruction. Between the neat cabling, the short power supply and the missing drive cage, the Arc Midi R2 looked spacious.
The line from the radiator to the reservoir was about an inch or so longer than it should have been and hung low, near the graphics card – this was an oversight on my part but it hangs clear of the graphics card by 15-20mm, the photo makes it look closer than it really is. Although not a problem, I was trying to avoid kinks and allow enough slack to pull the reservoir out enough to access the fill port. Experience now tells me that I would have gotten away with less slack.