Water cooling advice

Nice going.
I'm going to kick off my water cooling build this year (famous last words) I swear!!

However, I'm not sure if I need water in the winter. I went away for Xmas/New Year and I turned the heating off in the house and left my PC on. I got back home last night to find the side panels on my P180 all warped outwards and the Q6600 with the retail Intel HSF on sat at 9c on idle!!!
 
I have ordered a few more things for my rig so hopefully next weekend I can pull it apart and put it together.

I was thinking about trying to get it all to fit internally. Do you think this is a good idea? I think the only way I could do it though is fit the fans below the rad, do you think there would be enough airflow between the gfx card and the bottom of the fans? Also, would it reduce the cooling potential having them pushing air through rather than pulling air?

Also, is there a correct and incorrect orientation for the cpu block/ gfx block to get the best results. My CPU is a dual core so don;t the cores run a certail way on the chip and so you want to orientate the block to match that?

Also, I have my water feeding into the gfx cooler on the right and out of the left barb, is this correct or does it make no difference. I had a quick scan online but couldn't find anything about it.

Cheers

EDIT: Just had a quick look at the CPU block instructions and already have seen that the in/ out tubes are the wrong way round, I'll rectify that the I take it apart.
 
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Personally I think your loop is the wrong way round mate.

It should go
Pump -> Rad -> CPU -> GPU -> Res (if used) -> Pump

This way the cpu which you want to cool the most gets the coolest water straight from the rad.
I used to have a plexi res on top of my DDC but had the same problems with bubbles, so went for a T-line and now a res.
The best thing I have found for the vibration is mount the pump on the anti-vibration rubber mounts that come with it.
Either in a drive bay and ditch the res or you can use 2 on the pump mounts. But they really made a difference to mine and all I hear are the fans on low speed setting!

EDIT - Neat loop though mate
 
I've got a DDC 18W with alphacool top and i just stuck that to the base of my case with some thin double sided tape, never had issues at all with vibration or pump noise
 
Phunky Phish said:
Personally I think your loop is the wrong way round mate.

It should go
Pump -> Rad -> CPU -> GPU -> Res (if used) -> Pump
Click to expand...

It's not that easy though since the nmotherboard is mounted up side down so the rad is at the top and the cpu is at the bottom. This way has the least amount of tubing in the system.
 
It is that easy, you just need more tubing!! :)

As you are going
Rad -> Pump -> CPU -> GPU -> Rad
I dont think it will make a huge amount of difference actually.
 
Slinkie said:
I was thinking about trying to get it all to fit internally. Do you think this is a good idea? I think the only way I could do it though is fit the fans below the rad, do you think there would be enough airflow between the gfx card and the bottom of the fans? Also, would it reduce the cooling potential having them pushing air through rather than pulling air?
Click to expand...

Anyone have any idea about this question? I am going to try tonight and see how it affects the cpu and gfx card under water but what about the air flow around the case. There might only be a couple of inches betwen the gfx block and the bottom of the fans
 
If it was me Slinke I would mount them inside.
If you have 2" gap then it should not be that restrictive to airflow out of the case through the rad.

May I ask are the fans on the front and back sucking air into the case? As you have 3 fans in total extracting (2 on rad, 1 on psu) it would be best if they where to try and balance air in/out. This will help greatly with airflow also.

If you are worried maybe you could fit the rad in the bottom and the pump off a bracket above the rear fan. Will make priming the system a lot easier?

EDIT - You have tons of room compared to my Lexa case :(
 
The ran can't go any lower, it won't fit anywhere else so the fans either go on top or below. I will try below tonight and see how it affects temps.

The fan at the bottom rear is an intake as will the fan that will sit above the psu so 2 fans sucking in air at the bottom and it being exhausted out of the top
 
Ok, that will balance but dont forget the psu will draw some air out. I prefer positive air pressure inside the PC as my old PC's which only hard fans extracting air would get a lot of dust into the cd drives and anywhere else air could be sucked in!

As for performance you should not see any difference in temps unless the gfx card obstructs airflow, but at 2" gap I really dont see this being a problem for you mate.
 
I tried it with fans below and the temps were 1-2 degrees lower! Result! Plus it looks a lot better with the grill flush to the top. The only problem is now is that the PCI wifi card won't fit. I just need a couple of mm!

When a few more of my bits turn up I'm going to mod one of the fans to remove part of the casing so the PCI card should fit then. Should be an easy job with my trusty hack saw.

Of is currently in bits now and will be until I rebuild it on weds evening so browsing on my phone for the next couple of days!
 
The order in the loop is not important. It is only important to have a loop that has the least restriction in it. More tubing is not the answer as it increases resistance and reduces flow. Make your loop as smooth as possible. The res does not even have to go directly into the pump although it makes filling easier. It is more important to have a smooth loop than one that cools the water after the pump's minimal heat dump.
 
Slinkie said:
I went over the entrance and exit to the res and the pci plate so you can see it easier, did anyone else have this problem with this pump/ res combo?
Click to expand...

Had the same problem with mine

Here's another picture to illustrate the problem

3082501197_d54cdd7fbd.jpg


The inlet "tube" is too close to the impellor inlet, so the bubbles shoot round the system then straight back into the res, then into the pump.

In the end I tipped my case on it's side and ran it for a couple of hours, that got rid of most the bubbles. I then left it overnight for 12hours or so with the case standing normally which got rid of the rest.

It really is an excellent top though, just a shame about this minor problem with it.

Good job with the PCI plate though!
 
MikeTimbers said:
The order in the loop is not important. It is only important to have a loop that has the least restriction in it.
Click to expand...

I agree that a smoother loop is better than lots of bends in tubing but I said is its best to put pump/rad/cpu/gpu/ and lets be honest, it would add what.. 1/2m of tubing?

Would you recommend putting a CPU after a GPU in a loop to say half the tubing and remove 2 bends? What about all those people who have rad box's outside the case? All that extra tubing must almost stall their pump in that case Mike?

PS. I did end it with a nice neat loop mate!! :D
 
It's not better to go pump rad cpu if that makes the loop more complex. The pumps simply do not put out enough heat to matter. Most pump heat is radiated out through the body of the pump, not into the water so we're talking tenths of degrees difference.

As for radboxes and tubing stalling pumps, who said anything about pumps stalling? Please don't imply that I said that :(

Loop order doesn't matter that much. It has been observed in countless tests that the water temp only increases by 2-3 degrees in a loop (over several heat-producing components), therefore it makes almost no difference which order you cool the parts in. If you are really concerned about the GPU affecting your CPU temps and vice versa, go dual-loop and separate them completely.
 
FLIP!!!!!!

I put everything back together again tonight, spent ages hiding all the cables, modding a fan so I could still use my PCI slot for my wi fi card and re did my loop only for my rad to develop a leak!

I must have pierced it with a screw! It didnt leak much, some of the fezer got on my 4870 but other than that everything else was un touched. I wiped up where it leaked and all the components are out of the case so they can dry if they did catch a drip. The pc was not on at the time, I only had the pump running so hopefully everything will be fine. I have already put an order in for another 120.2 so hopefully I can finally get my pc up and running at the weekend.

Fingers crossed all my components are ok!
 
Unlucky Slinkie

I have had a few errors in my learning curve and... touch wood... so far not killed anything.

With no power to the componants and as long as you dry properly you should be 95% safe! I wont say 100% as its never that easy!!
 
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