A newbies journey through watercooling

First of all thanks to everyone who has helped me in various ways on this forum from recommending parts to helping me design my rig.

Kit
Swiftech H20 Apex Ultra Water Cooling Kit
AquaXtreme MP-1 GPU Water Block

My case is a chieftech Dragon bought about 4-5 years ago

heres my case and i have marked off the relevant areas and components

I couldnt really find a concesus other than fit it in however you can concerining placement of components.


Recommendations from Swiftech handbook
The PUMP
-Be at the bottom of the case for maximum water flow
-Avoid Sharp bends
-Always connect the resevoir discharge directly to the pump inlet

Resevoir
-For bleeding purposes, hold/install resevoir at the highest point of the loop
-Can be stored anywhere provided it is kept upright

RAD
-Anywhere provided there is sufficient airflow
-If close to the ground will be prone to dust

The final loop i decided on was:
Pump -> CPU -> GPU -> RAD -> Res -> Pump

And the design i am going to use is:


Since there isnt really anywhere to screw in the res without creating sharp bends for the tubing, i decided to create a bracket for it to sit on:


This has the advantages that the Res is as high up as possible without blocking things behind it, aswell as making it easier to fill.
I added some nuts for the screws to screw into and used some metal from a spare case i was going to throw out.

Heres the finished product, i found some funky clips which have bolts attached to them which simply slide onto the side i thought it was a great idea so added them too :

The bracket with RES in it:


This will screw into the back of the case where the rear case fans used to be (i removed all the fan holders), i drilled the holes for the bracket into the back plate, so it now looks like this:

Im pondering whether to neaten up the fan grills, or leave them as they are to keep the air flowing through the case.
I will probably leave them

Disaster :< and it was all going so well, i made a template on tracing paper of where i needed to make the holes for the RAD, but took a break after i had finished making the template. When i came back i had put the template the wrong way round, DOH! so the holes wont fit ><
I also have my reservations about the RAD itself, the thread for the screws to screw into look very small and the RAD is reasonably heavy. More so when its full of water, and i dont think they will hold its weight i think i will kill 2 birds with 1 stone and make a bracket for the RAD to sit on and so that the holes i have drilled line up.

Finished the Bracket for the RAD, here it is in all its glory ^^:
Bottom View:

Top View:


I even left a bit of space to stick a dust filter in, i have ordered it and it should arrive next week


Even tho i say so myself i think it looks rather cool, damn shame i wont be having a side window because it would look awesome with a LED at the back highlighting the holes along the side, ah well ce la vie
The grils on the top are intended to be on the outside of the case not the inside, i put them on for sake of showing how it all fits together

Drilled the holes in the top of the case


Pump holes also drilled, and i added some "rivet on" things to screw the screws into (i forget what they are called)



I need to get some screws as i am a couple short so work is on hold until next weekend again

More soon

Ok here it is with the RAD in place and screwed in, i will change the PSU to a OCZ soon as i get some time
I'm actually rather proud of myself as it fit like a glove first time



Replaced the default fans with Akasa Ambers to reduce the noise and cut and installed the tubing.
I used my old Seasonic for testing, short pins 14 and 15 using a paperclip and we were good to go.
Forgot to put the pump to its lowest speed so got a few air bubbles but these should clear out in a couple of hrs.
Heres a pic of testing for leaks, the stuff in the juice bottle is the leftover coolant mixed with water. Its a shame they said 1litre water with the whole bottle of coolant was needed, as you can see there is pleanty left so if your reading this is suggest 500ml of water with half the coolant bottle should be sufficient then you can keep the small bottle spare for when you need to top up the loop .
I will leave it like that for a few hours and start putting things back this afternoon if i get the time

I also noticed when i started putting it all together I seem to be missing 2 hose clamps for my Apogee waterblock (i know /slap me for not checking before i started) so i will need to contact Swiftech to see if i can get some sent to me as i dont really want to take this all apart and have to start again. It seems to be running ok with no leaks so far but i would rather no tempt fate with real components in the case

Taken the heatsink off my MSI NX7900 GTX 512mb, i wrapped the old heatsink in cling film to stop the little pads they provided from drying up in case i want to sell it.

No leaks after 4 hrs testing, which is good enough for me
I put in the motherboard,
Note: I could get away with mounting the CPU block afterwards because the backplate for the socket was from a Sythe Ninja and is stuck to the back using the double sided foam they provide, some double sided take would have the same effect. I personally think this is a much safer method as it means the water in the event of a leak is nowhere near your motherboard.
The PSU and GPU, then i added the support sleeves to the bends in the tubing, these also are useful for tethering tubes together
heres what it looks like without anything else put in for a better look at the WC system:

I am still unhappy at the placement of the res, being below the RAD it doesnt really give any indication of the current water level. I would much prefer it at the same level as or above the RAD but due to lack of space this needs some thinking about. One alternative, ableit a not very pretty one would be to mount it on the outside.

Thats all for today more next weekend

Doesn't the Swiftech come with its own GPU waterblock?

placeholder#5

The Apex Ultra+ comes with CPU & GPU mounties.

Watch where you place the pump. I forgot about the variable control and placed the pump right in the corner. And then found it was set to one. I now have it set to five all the time.

Also like the bracket you made for the MCRES, I didnt trust using the supplied velcro.

Keep it cool

I ended up strapping my res to the holes on the back of the case (V1000) with tie wraps. Didn't trust the velcro either. Good work on that bracket though, very neat. Your setup's pretty much the same as mine, I'll find a pic.

I thought I'd add my experiences here of the Swiftech H20 Apex Ultra+. This kit comes with waterblocks for CPU, GPU and chipset.

First off it took me ages to get this fitted. It's really a collection of parts rather than a full kit. So allow a bit of time. But it's not that hard if you ead the instructions.

First a couple of negatives:

1) The PCI plate for the tubing (to the external rad) is difficult to get in place and the tubing gets compressed. So I've left it off for now. This is probably adversely affecting my case air flow so I'll probably try to fit it again later.

2) The chipset on my DFI SLI-DR is directly underneath the primary gfx card. So it wouldn't fit. I could probably just put the card in the second slot but that would only be a short term solution as I'll probably get SLI at some point. So I've left the chipset air cooled for now. It means slightly more noise but then again the water temps will be cooler.

3) The GPU ramsink glue is rubbish. They just keep fallibg off. I could thermal epoxy them on but then I could never resell the gfx card air cooled later. So I used some arctic ceramique (NOT SILVER!) to hold them on. They are still loose but it seems to do the job. It's a bit of a bodge though.

Now for the positives:

1) The coolsleeves work very well to stop the tubing from kinking.

2) The system worked first time with no leaks. I was very pleasantly surprised.

3) I have a 7800 GTX 512mb Extreme clocked at 580mhz. It used to go to 590mhz on air. Now it runs at 611mhz without breaking into a sweat. I could probably push it further if I voltmod as it're really not getting hot now

3) My CPU overclock hasn't gone up as I think I was at the limit anyway. But it's now a lot cooler. My dual core Opty dual core was getting rather warm previously (60deg+ under load). Not it's at 29 deg idle and about 35 deg under overclocked load . This would go up if I watercooled the chipset too of course.

Overall the system is not any quieter at idle, and not overclocked, than when it was aircooled. But it is a lot quieter than when it was on air when heavily overclocked and under load.

Would I recommend this to everyone? Probably not. You can get acceptable performance from a good air cooled solution if your case has good ventilation or you are happy with loud fans. But for overclocking it quietens the PC down a lot. I'm very happy with it indeed.

2bullish said:

Doesn't the Swiftech come with its own GPU waterblock?

Click to expand...

nop, only a CPU block, RAD, Pump, Mini Res and assorted tubing

Thanks. I do have a Zalman nb cooler but the gfx card has a large chip exactly where it should go so I still don't think it will fit. I'll try it though.

EDIT: Also two new issues have arisen:

1) The PWM area is getting very hot (whatever that is?) so I'll need to cool it with a large fan when I find out where it is lol.

2) I'm now addicted to watercooling and want a bigger and better rad

Hades said:

2) I'm now addicted to watercooling and want a bigger and better rad

Click to expand...

You could always fit a couple of DELTA's

Taken from the Blackbird SR-71 (and just as loud) these should cool the system even further.

Chronictank said:

Drilled the holes in the top of the case


Pump holes also drilled, and i added some "rivet on" things to screw the screws into (i forget what they are called)



I need to get some screws as i am a couple short so work is on hold until next weekend again

More soon

Click to expand...

How did you cut those big air holes in the top of your case? They look perfect.

thanks for the review, i havent bought any GPU ramsinks as yet as i read in a few places they arent actually needed, i will have to think carefully what i am going to do about them.
Concerining the chipset you could just use a Zalman fanless heatsink and bend the fins around the gfx card

neocon said:

How did you cut those big air holes in the top of your case? They look perfect.

Click to expand...

1) i drew a circle with a piece of string and a pencil (hold the string in the middle and then draw a circle with the pencil)

2) you get the smallest drill bit you have and make loads of holes slightly away from the edge all the way round

3) get a slightly bigger drill bit and make the holes bigger

4) get a bigger drill bit than 3 and make them bigger till you eventually cut the piece out

5) you can either sand down the edge into a circle by hand or you can get one of those circle pieces for the drill and tape a strip of wet and dry to it and sand down to the line you made earlier

6) get some finer wet and dry to get rid of the sharp edge and you got your holes

Hades said:

Thanks. I do have a Zalman nb cooler but the gfx card has a large chip exactly where it should go so I still don't think it will fit. I'll try it though.

EDIT: Also two new issues have arisen:

1) The PWM area is getting very hot (whatever that is?) so I'll need to cool it with a large fan when I find out where it is lol.

Click to expand...

if you got a lanparty its the area next to your chipset i personally made a hole in the side of the case and stuck a fan on it to push air over that area

if you got a lanparty its the area next to your chipset i personally made a hole in the side of the case and stuck a fan on it to push air over that area

Click to expand...

Yep got it thanks. Just sellotaped a slow 120mm fan over the area. I'll try to find a better way of fixing it tomorrow. I don't have a blowhole but at least the fan will circulate some air. It's dropped the temps on it quite a bit already.

Keep the guide coming. Great work and the same case as me makes me sway further towards water cooling. Can't to see the finished product and get some benchmarks.

This looks great chronictank, nice to see that older cases can still accommodate today's more demanding systems, with a little bit of thought.

Very clean work so far.

This is great stuff. I'm looking to change to watercooling too but don't have a clue so this invaluable!

Keep it coming!