[WORKLOG] [NEW UPDATE 5!] - 1/2/2025 | Project: Alpha [i9 + 4090 + FormD T1 + Gold Plated Tube]

Hi all,

For those of you who don't know me, I'm aeries and I've been an avid WC fan for almost 10 years. During this time, I've embarked on a couple of projects with the goal of creating a work of art which I can also turn on to use as a daily machine.

It's been a good three years since I've done a personal build log. It's probably the most ambitious project I have to date, but in one of the most compact SFF cases you can find in the market. No modding required for this one...I hope

HUGE THANKS TO THE RESELLERS, DISTIS AND VENDORS BELOW FOR MAKING THIS HAPPEN:

Mwave
Cooler Master
ASUS
Rocket Science (Saate)
Leader Computers

Specifications:

Case: FormD T1 v2 Sandwich
CPU: Intel i9 13900KF
MB: ASUS ROG Strix Z790I
RAM: Kingston Fury 64GB
GPU: Inno3D RTX4090 x3 iChill | Alphacool block
SSD: Crucial T700 2TB | SAMSUNG 990 PRO 4TB
PSU: Cooler Master V1100 SFX | Dreambigbyray Customs
Cooling: EKWB Direct Die Velocity Gold Intel Edition (#79/100) | EK DDC | Rocket Science Fittings | EK + Barrow Fittings | Noctua A12x25 | XSPC TX240



The plan is to house a beast in a SFF and really test the thermal limits of this thing. Everything will be under water and cooled by a TX240...am I mad??

Hope you guys will enjoy reading/trashing on this build log as much as I enjoy writing it. Hopefully I'll have a video up later (studio quality, maybe) detailing some of the processes and work I've been doing on it. Thanks for stopping by!

 

Project Updates:

UPDATE 1: 14/04/2023 - MIS EN PLACE
UPDATE 2: 21/12/2023 - EIGHT MONTHS AND BEYOND
UPDATE 3: 20/04/2024 - TO ATTAIN PERFECTION
UPDATE 4: ??? TEASER IMAGES???
UPDATE 5: 01/02/2025 - BOILING POINT

Milestones:
22/03/2024 - 250+ upvotes on Reddit
04/05/2024 - 5000 views on OCAU
11/02/2024 - 10000 views on OCAU
16/02/2024 - 50000+ views, 750+ upvotes on Reddit in 24h!

Features:

TBA

 

>13900KF + 4090
>125W/250W turbo + 450W TDP
>single 240mm/20mm thick rad

I detect much undervolting or Delta screamers in your future. But down for the madness.

 

I'm 100% down for seeing how you achieve this!

 

I am also ready to live vicariously through this thread

Reminds me of mrbean_phillip's old Blackbird build! Lotta wattage on a little radiator

 

I'm here for the update with a mora rad being strapped under the desk

Keen to see how you go

 

Hope you've been looking at GGF events on YT aeries, man pumps out a lot wc'ed ssf systems and shows off good techniques for sff work

yep been down a similar path, now have a bykski 1080 rad sitting in it's box next to me

 

Oh boy, can't wait to share with you everything within my power to reduce the thermals

I hope that I won't disappoint

When juzz and jjjc are following, it makes me feel like a somebody on the forums and Agg liked it too! Worst case, I'll have another thin 240 but definitely no MoRa I'll throw however much coin i need to at this I guess HAHA

TBH haven't really watched any KOLs doing builds in SFF - scratching your head and cutting your hands in the tiny space is part of the fun

Judging by what's going on behind the scenes, expect an update in early March, when I get to do some work!

 

reserved for update 1 coming later next week, but here's a preview:

 

UPDATE 1: MIS EN PLACE

Finally have time, between a mileage run and taking delivery of this bad boi:



CARBON FIBAH

Update 1: mis en place

This log officially started with the arrival of this thing:



Unboxing it, and this is what I'm greeted with:



I got #79 (missed the number by 10 ), production delay on the second batch. It looks awesome though, so I'm not complaining.

This was probably the most important thing though:



Because this allows me to do this:



Hopefully this, with a -0.1v on the vcore, will allow me some thermal headroom...

The next part would be downsizing this so it actually fits:



I actually did a lot of research and debating re: the 4090 - I would have loved to use a Strix card or an Aorus Master card, but unfortunately they were both too big and neither had a block with a terminal at the end to keep the water path relatively straightforward. I actually purchased a FE from StockX but the yank pulled out last minute and I never got the card... all good though, saved some coin and picked that up instead along with this nice block:



CARBON FIBAH

Once all this prep was done, it's time to build the FormD and spend 10 minutes trying to find the instructions



After shoving everything in...



excuse that random face he was building in the T1 i swear...



And that's it for now...

next update - cables, pipes, gold and air

also can someone teach me an efficient way to upload photos please

 

Damn that's bloody nice!
The PC and the M3!

 

just for reference (and shits n giggles) can you take a pic with the 4090 air cooler next to it?

 

EK has stated some people had some issues with those direct die blocks but they will help if you are affected: https://www.facebook.com/EKWaterBlocks/photos/a.204208322966540/6103756639678316

Looks good. Interested for more updates.

 

Haha, it still lives, that one! Good memory though

Good luck with your build, aeries, and by undervolting the cpu, I suspect you will be doing pretty well with the build. I’ve been running a 3090Ti and 12900KS, both balls to the wall, on my iRacing PC, with an Alphacool UT60 280 cooling it, and it has never missed a beat.

Had that same rad in service since about 2014 or something, have to take my hat off to it.

 

necroing this thread, since there's actually some progress...



more to follow...

 

Looking neat

 

Update 2! Finally have a bit of time...

Let's bring this back four months, back into April.

Since I got the CM PSU and it WAS very new to market, not a lot of people had custom cables for them. These needed to be short, because otherwise there's no way to fit everything I want to fit. So I emailed PSlate and cricket noises, but another guy, Dreambigbyray got me.

I love, and have always loved, MDPC sleeving because it just looks so clean. However, this would be a nigh impossibility for something of this size, so I had to go with silicone cables this time around.



And here it is with everything installed:





Unfortunately they sent me the wrong sata power cable. I didn't think too much about it at the time, but that's a story for later down the post. So up to end of May, a list of my problems/to do list:

1. Need to figure out a route for my water to run
2. Need a small pump to actually make this work
3. Adjust the rad and fans because it's sticking out of the top and I'd like to close my case
4. Need to source a small reservoir or figure out how to fill this thing
5. Try to find places to fit everything in securely


Now, for Computex:



Here we have a "well respected" and renouned figure in the IT industry... and Linus

Met a couple of new and old friends, covid really did a number on everyone. Alphacool was one of those friends, and they gave me a little gift:



Unfortunately this thing was fragile as piss in the wind, didn't last Day 1 of Computex because the wires all just fell apart:



Got my mate to solder it back on, but in reality I haven't tried it and I don't think I'd want to. It looks like it shit the bed and I don't really want to use it.

After coming back, I had no time to touch the PC or even dabble in it, so let's timeskip a bit til about a month ago.



As you can see, I flipped the orientation of the rad and the fans, and now the fans are mounted to the bottom of the case. The idea behind this is to bring in cold air from the bottom as the intake, there's enough space at the bottom and the case is mesh so I think airflow shouldn't be an issue. I'll need to control fan speeds based off coolant temperature, but that's really just a minor issue compared to the plumbing woes at hand... This was also a time where I started to consider how to run everything to make it work. You can see towards the bottom left that there's a little silver fitting coming towards the camera (not the one connected to the rad.)

Actually, the biggest problem was finding a pump and res solution. My ideas as below:

1. Alphacool small pump res thing -> went to shit because the thing is so fragile
2. Plumb without a res and use a T block to fill
3. Get the smallest res known to man (Swiftech? Bitspower hex tank too big ) and fit it in somehow -> this was where idea 1 came from, since it was technically a pump res combo

So, idea number 2:



I can't believe I don't have a proper photo for it (I'll update it later...) but you can see now my DDC is hanging off a block of white plastic. I got a mate to 3D print me a mount for a DDC that would fit the top of the case, and it turned out amazingly well in terms of fitment for the pump, and you can see the clearances are absolutely spot on. So you can see the out port sticks out to the CPU side, where I can make it work easily. However, the in port is really bad. There's almost no clearance if I use a T block, and it's offset as well diagonally. The best case would be to get an SLI fitting to see if I could adjust the length and have a faux rotary to the GPU to make my life easier in terms of fitting everything, but the T block to the in port would have been about 7mm, which, uh, one of these could potentially solve:



What a name

But also, I run the risk of it not being a rotary and it just not aligning at all. So, plan 2 is also out the window.

Which leads us to the only solution available - get a small res. The smallest someone can possibly do. And since they're not commercially for sale, it's time to print one. I measured a 3x4x5cm tank with four holes, so I'll need to get a G1/4 tap to get the holes drilled.




So, all in all, the plans for the CPU side are really quite easy:



And this is EXACTLY how it turned out, it looks amazing and I really couldn't imagine it any better:



But the GPU side is the pain that needs to be fixed now. I've asked my mate to get the res printed, and we'll see where we go from there.

And with that said, that's my update done. Hopefully it'll be another half year before I finish with this, when the RTX 6090 and Core 9 20900K is out

oh wait.



!!!!!!!

Till next year, because I'll be getting a "healthy" dose of atmospheric radiation for the next three weeks.

 

Still keen to see this thing up and running

Would something like an EK FLT fit in that gap in front of the GPU?

 

thanks kindly for the fittings!

FLT is too big, and the ports won’t align unfortunately looking at something custom will probably be the cleanest way, and block out the PSU sticker…

 

At this rate, you might be able to start your own custom SFF watercooling parts brand. Would happily stock your parts