water cooling for the first time any advice?

fritzo

fritzo

fritzo

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16 Nov 2005
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111
Hey all,

so I've now ordered all the parts I think i'll need for my first loop, and while waiting for everything to be delivered have got round to thinking about how to go about putting it all together and after some pointers, advice and a sanity check on anything ive missed or ordered wrong, so bear with me:D.

In my head I have a rough idea of the order and position of everything and hopefully have covered all the items i'm likely to need, parts are as follows:-

enthoo evolv atx case
5820k
x99 krait edition
16gb hyper X predator 2400mhz
ref r9 290 (from old machine)
120gb & 500gb Samsung evo 850 ssd's (from old machine)
corsair RM650 (from old machine) ordered braided cables from cable mods (excellent service from them btw)

water cooling parts
ek xres 140 revo d5 pwm
ek r9 290 acetal+nickel gpu block
ek supremacy evo x99 cpu block
360mm coolgate g2 rad
240mm magicool g2 slim rad
mayhems ultra clear 10/16 tubing
alpha cool 16/10 fittings 2x 45°, 4x 90° 6x compression
for a drain point 1x Y 45°, ball valve, double nipple and 3/8" barb
ocuk 120mm 3 fan bundle, 2x corsair sp120 led 1x corsair af140 led
1litre mayhems pastel ice white
and finally some thermal grizzly paste and coollaboratory cleaning set

the plan will be for the 360 rad to sit in the front of the case and the 240 to go in the top with the components in the following order:-

360 - pump - cpu - 240 - gpu - 360 with hopefully enough space to get the drain point in the bottom of the case

so given the above is there anything I've missed?

as to the build itself I do have a few questions:-

1) I take its good practice to flush the rads, can I hook them up to a tap or do I need to fill it with DI water and give it a shake?
2) Given that the cpu and mobo are new should I build everything out of the case 1st using my current air cooler off my 2500k to make sure it boots and install the os and drivers while i'm at it?
3) regarding the os, I take it just need to win 10 home and not the pro version
4) when I fill the loop do I take I just take the pug off the top of the res and fill by that?

any comments, questions and advise would be greatly appreciated as it'd be nice for this to go smoothly as possible for change

regards

fritzo
 
fritzo said:
1) I take its good practice to flush the rads, can I hook them up to a tap or do I need to fill it with DI water and give it a shake?
2) Given that the cpu and mobo are new should I build everything out of the case 1st using my current air cooler off my 2500k to make sure it boots and install the os and drivers while i'm at it?
3) regarding the os, I take it just need to win 10 home and not the pro version
4) when I fill the loop do I take I just take the pug off the top of the res and fill by that?

any comments, questions and advise would be greatly appreciated as it'd be nice for this to go smoothly as possible for change

regards

fritzo
Click to expand...

Someone with the same case can probily give you some advice regarding layout,but for your other questions

1.Yes you will want to flush your rads,you can hook them up to a tap if you want,if you do this make sure you also flush them a few times with some DI afterwards tho.
2.Yea if the HW is new,you wanna make sure its all working before setting up the loop,install your OS do a couple quick benches to stress the cpu ,if any of its faulty it should be apparent very quickly.
3.If upgrading from win7/8 that would depend on what version you are upgrading from.
4.Yup,assuming you have easy access to the res this is by the far the quickest method :D

Their is one possible issue i can see tho,your parts list only says Compression fittings x6? Your gonna need 10 compression fittings total m8, 2 for every component.
 
Last edited:
Cheers for the response, I should probably post on the phanteks case thread as I do have a couple of questions about the fan hub that comes with it

Apparently the alphacool elbows have a compression fittings built into one end, which is why I only went with 6 compression fittings, at least i hope I read that right lol best go check

I upgraded from win7 pro to 10 on my current machine already so from what I understand it's a one time only upgrade locked to that machine hence having to buy another copy - which sucks given I only did it a few weeks back as I was originally just going to Watercool my current rig - but scope creep and all that
 
If you can install and activate 7 on your current machine then you can upgrade to 10. Or just try and activate 10 on your new machine with your 7 key. I'd definitely try this before buying a new copy.

Buy extra alphacool rotary fittings. At least a third of mine leaked.

I was very cheap when I built my loop. Flushed the rads with hot water from the kettle, no dedicated drain point, isopropyl alcohol for cleaning the thermal paste and the ocuk Silverstone FQ121WC fans. None of it has bitten me back.

Loop order doesn't really matter. Do whatever is convenient/clean looking.

Phanteks PWM hub reads a PWM signal and adjusts the voltages of connected fans .
 
Yeah will probably give it a go first with win 7

lol not what I needed to hear about the alphacool rotaries, was originally going to go with monsoon compression fittings and fixed elbows but couldn't find them in stock in the colour I wanted anywhere, seems to be a common theme at the moment I've literally ordered parts from 5 different retailers due to one thing or another not being in stock

My issue with the fan hub was more to do with the amount of reports of the thing not working due to being faulty and whether or not I should go with a standalone fan controller and save the grief, especially as all the fans I brought are 3 pin so can't even use splitters from the mobo header
 
The alphacools that didn't leak are still going strong. And I love their rads.

I had to buy from lots of various retailers too due to lack of stock - I bought every EK compression I could find in the UK. Unfortunately specialtech aren't around anymore...

I use EK rotary fittings for visible connections. Your other fittings screw into them.

If you want a fan controller the NZXT grid+ V2 gets my vote. So easy to set up and use.
 
so after being let down by one of the retailers twice who were due to supply all the alphacool fittings, I now need to re order from elsewhere.

Given what I read above regarding the failures on the alphacool rotaries, i'm looking for suggestions for good quality compression and 45/90 fittings

the bitpower stuff i'm assuming is good but comically expensive, I've ek blocks and pumps is it worth going with them? also should I be avoiding rotaries all together?

answers on a post card

fritzo
 
I use 2 EK barbs, 5 EK compressions and 2 EK rotaries. No issues with any of them. Being a cheap skate I ask Ocuk to price match when I buy them.
 
After staring at the monsoon hardline bending kit for 10minutes day dreaming, I ended up going with the ek fittings before I saw your post so happy days

then after placing the order realised I need another 2 for the drain point so had to place another order - this is not the first time this has happened this week. I swear I've must have spent 60quid in the last few day on shipping fees

Unfortunately Overclockers had 1 ek compression fitting stock so had to go else where
 
Shipping fees during my first watercooling loop were the reason I started posting. I remember making a couple of orders on consecutive days as bits appeared. I bought every single EK 16/10 nickel compression fitting I could find in the UK. I still use barbs on the non visible sections of the loop.
 
Well it's kept me amused over the last week ordering bits and pieces, I've only managed to over order on a pair of fans when I panicked thinking I forgot them and placed an order only for them to turn up in one of the other orders :D

I ordered a barb for the drain point and it did occur to me these would have been fine for the out of sight bits

Ideally I'd have started the build today but guess it'll give me something do next weekend

Anyways I appreciate all the advice disco, and I'll keep the thread updated with progress, lol I might even do a build log, that'll give everyone a chuckle ;)
 
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