First Time watercooling please comment

Oh yeah, good point Biffa. Don't overtighten.

OP- are you planning to use any rotary fittings in your loop? If so, don't use long barbs on them such as the EK barbs. Something that I learnt via RJK, the EK barb is too long that the o-ring doesn't actually make contact with the rotary.
 
Im not planning on using any rotary barbs, i should be able to cope okay with the fixed barbs and a little bit of gentle bending of the pipes i would hope
 
TheCenturion said:
:o

I used a spanner, did I fail all over my watercooling? :(
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i remember one of your pictures having a mashed o-ring :p

the only time i used a spanner on a barb connected to my pump, it leaked.

i drained the loop, took off the barb and sure enough the o-ring was squished.

i took off the o-ring and put on a spare one, hand tightened it and it was fine
 
That mashed o-ring was only because I had removed the gpu waterblock to reapply thermal pads :p Also that wasn't an o-ring that was attached to a barb

When tightening my barbs with the spanner I did it so that it was only slighter tighter than if I had done it by hand, just to be sure :)
 
TheCenturion said:
That mashed o-ring was only because I had removed the gpu waterblock to reapply thermal pads :p Also that wasn't an o-ring that was attached to a barb

When tightening my barbs with the spanner I did it so that it was only slighter tighter than if I had done it by hand, just to be sure :)
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ah fair enough :)

i guess there isn't really an answer to using a spanner; use one if it mates you feel more comfortable, but you don't need to is what i'll go with :D
 
See now i have totalled everything up cost inc delivery and the VAT is £550, now im questioning if I should, im tempted but its a lot of money for cooling the majority of which I will have to dispose of when new hardware comes along.
 
Revised it a little again after some reading:

Black Ice SR-1 360 Radiator
Black Ice GT Stealth 120 Radiator
XSPC 7/16 UV Clear Blue - 1m qty - 10

13mm (1/2") fitting G1/4 with O-Ring (High-Flow) - revolvable - black nickel qty - 10
13mm (1/2') 90 angled fitting G1/4 rotatable - black nickel with O-Ring qty - 2
clamp 10 - 12mm plastic black Qty - 14
EK Water Blocks EK-FC5870 MSI Acetal+Nickel Qty - 2

Alphacool Hose cutter Plastic (Cuts Pastic Tube lengths to perfection)
1L Feser Aqua - Ultra Pure Water (bi-distilled) water cooling systems (Non Conductive < 0.1 µS/cm)
Laing D5 Vario Pump 12v (MCP655) 1/2" ID for Watercooling
EK-D5 X-TOP - Acetal G1/4 Rev.2
EK-Supreme HF - Nickel water block for all socket CPU's
EK-Multioption RES X2 - 250 Advanced Capacity 285 ml
 
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ahh when you said hardware i thought you were on about new gpu/cpu/mobo etc :p

lovely set up that will be!

i'm bias towards compression fittings and 1/2" hose personally, but i started on barbs and found them fugly after a while so got some shiny compressions ;)

before you know it, you'll be cooling your motherboard too :D
 
yeah im just doing the water for convieniece dont have to stress about the liquid and I have a silver kill coil setup to go with it too, from the product blurb they rotate within the socket not sure if I am going to use them but the non rotating ones are the same pricing.

I have been reading from RJK's postings that the 7/16 tubing and the 1/2" fittings have been leak free which is something i would like to have as well
 
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Okay so I have been reading around and have come across "static pressure" the viper fans I have give 2.98mm static pressure and I was thinking having seen some stats on other fans as high as 30mm static pressure, would it be better to change fans?
 
EnderXi said:
Okay so I have been reading around and have come across "static pressure" the viper fans I have give 2.98mm static pressure and I was thinking having seen some stats on other fans as high as 30mm static pressure, would it be better to change fans?
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yes the better the static pressure is the better you system will be cool!. I will be using the same rad as you and i will be having 3viper fans on the top pushing air through and on the other side what will be inside my case is 2 140mm fans pulling air...

+1 For the viper fans ;)...
 
EnderXi said:
Okay so I have been reading around and have come across "static pressure" the viper fans I have give 2.98mm static pressure and I was thinking having seen some stats on other fans as high as 30mm static pressure, would it be better to change fans?
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Which fans have 30mm static pressure? I know the apaches have a typo showing them as 26 mm when it should be 2.6, just wondering whether a fan is that good or whether its a typo.

As for the fans though, definately on the SR-1 the fans do not need to be that good as its such a low FPI rad. I have just the SR-1 and my vipers never need to above 800rpm. Taking into account your xfire and extra 120rad I can't see you needing to, if at all, have fans at higher rpms than this.
 
I think your fans and rads will be fine as is.

I have the EK CoolStream Radiator XTC 420mm with 3x Enermax T.B.Silence UCTB14 operating at 750 RPM and they are doing a pretty good job of cooling my i7, NB and 2x GTX 480s, plus they are silent too. My pump is running at 40% and CPU is currently at ~ 25 C (although to be fair I'm not pushing it much typing this message!). I have overclocked it to 4.25 GHz and it still holds up (although the pump does go faster). If I go mad with the overclocking I may consider switching the fans to something beefier but then I'd plan on controlling the speed according to temps. For more details see my project log.
 
TheCenturion said:
No need to get a new psu as the above have said. Seeing as it's cpu, dual gpu and dual rads, I would recommend getting a D5 pump.
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This makes no sense, the D5 has a much lower head pressure than a DDC Ultra + top (which is approx. the same price as a D5) and only slightly better max flowrates.

The head pressure is the most important factor in a water loop, the max flow rate is almost completely irrelevant (unless it is horrendously low).

This is because the pressure difference that the pump generates is essentially what 'pushes' the water through your water blocks.

The max flow rate of a pump is just that, the maximum amount of water that the pump can move if there is no restriction whatsoever. Much like in electronics your flowrate (current) is actually determined by the water pressure (voltage) and resistance in your loop (circuit).

In short I'd recommend a DDC with something like an EK X-top over a D5 for your loop any day. It is also worth nothing that there has been a PWM controlled speed variable DDC released which would even take away the noise advantage the vario has.
 
so would this be a better choice of pump for that, I had read that it was the better pump for large loops but I couldnt find anything bad about the D5 Vario either:

EK-DDC X-TOP rev.2 Plexi
Swiftech MCP355 18w with 3/8'' (10mm) Fitting, Max 22 PSI powered by Molex 4pin
 
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