Testing the Sharkoon Rebel C50 – how much hardware fits into a case for around 100 euros?

Custom-PC Build

Now we come to the part that probably interests most people. What did this guy put together? Yes, I’ll get to that now. But before I go into detail, I’d like to say a few introductory words.

Everything that is not or no longer needed in the Sharkoon Rebel C50 has already been removed.

A custom water cooling system, regardless of whether you use components from Alphacool, EK or Corsair etc., is a costly affair. You have to take that into account. What I’m going to show you today will end up costing around 1000 euros extra. My goal for this build is:

1. That anyone can rebuild this without having to modify the case.
2. To create a very visually appealing PC – which will of course be as RGB-tastic as possible.
3. To work with the smallest possible cooling surface so that the temperatures are ok, but the volume (with my measuring device) is preferably not measurable at all.

The assembly

I didn’t bother with 3D planning this time, as I had a clear idea of what the PC should look like in the end. The first step was to dismantle the case: Fan removed, the cable cover, the top radiator bracket etc. Why does Sharkoon use black cables and black fans here? There are cost reasons. I can understand that for the cables, but the fans? My suggestion to Sharkoon: offer the cases completely without fans.

First, I installed the 240 mm radiator with the 120 mm Rise fans and the expansion tank on the rear wall. The fans draw in cold air and push it into the case. I also installed three 120 mm Rise fans in the front and one in the rear. Airflow!

You can already see that it’s pretty tight. The return from the radiator to the pump looks a bit strange. Will it work like this? The leak test will show that. Next comes the mainboard, which should be prepared: Socket the CPU, unscrew the water block, insert the RAM and install the SSD.

 

The vertical kit is also already installed. I really like this, because compared to the old cable mod kit, you don’t lose any installation length and the kit from Sharkoon also supports 3-slot graphics cards. Next comes the feed from the CPU to the 240 mm radiator.

The inlet disappears into the front area of the power supply cover. This is where the drain tap goes, because you have to drain the water at some point. A hose (EPDM) also goes down from the CPU.

What you can already see here is that I also have a fan drawing in air from below. Next comes the graphics card in the case. The Sapphire Pulse AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT is used here. But this time on an Alphacool water block.

First of all, I have to get the connection cable from the pump to the graphics card to the right length. As you can see, I have now connected the fans, USB, audio etc. to the mainboard. Next comes the hose from the GPU to the upper 280 mm radiator.

The power supply unit is also already in place. The EPS connections and graphics card are already connected. To better understand how I did it with the hose from the GPU to the radiator:

Now the 280 mm radiator goes in at the top and the connection between the GPU radiator and CPU is closed. The loop is then virtually finished…

It’s very tight at the top left, but it fits. Feels like 1000 and an angle piece have made it possible. The 24-pin cable including jumper plug for starting the pump is already ready. But before I start the water march, I’d better check for leaks.

Unfortunately, I had a real problem. I had to completely dismantle the return line. Fortunately, I remembered and rebuilt it. Unfortunately, this left visible traces and I no longer had any corner connectors. I should have sealed the area beforehand with a blind plug and checked it. Unfortunately, the thought didn’t occur to me until I was writing the article. Better late than never. At least you can learn from my mistakes.

Inflate once to the maximum (approx. 0.7 bar) and leave it like this for 30 minutes. Take a photo of the pressure gauge and then see if you have a pressure loss. If so, then you have to find out where! In my case, everything was tight. Anyone wondering where I connected the pressure measurement system?

Right there, on the drain cock. You can also see that I have another fan pumping air into the housing from below. You don’t necessarily have to do it this way, but since I still had it left over…

And this is what the whole system looks like now. Yes, some people will find the fan under the GPU out of place. I’ll chalk that up to a matter of taste. I’ll let some water in and then we’ll see if the system starts up.

That doesn’t look too bad. If you implement it well, soft tubing almost looks like hard tubing. Basically, you only see two tubes. The one from the GPU to the radiator literally merges with the mainboard. I would say: So far, so good. It’s time to fine-tune the fans etc. – in other words – stress test! I also have a small gallery with a few pictures for you…