1st Watercooling Build - Help Req.

Melankolic

Melankolic

Melankolic

Associate
Joined
30 Mar 2013
Posts
4
Ladies and gentlemen...
I plan on watercooling my PC! My reasons are two fold; a more esthetically pleasing and quieter PC.
As this will be my first attempt I just wanted to run my plans past a few of you knowledgeable folks.

Note: None of my hardware is overclocked (subject to change) and all of this will be going inside a NZXT Phantom 410 or Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 (depending on how it all fits together)

My planned purchases:
1x OcUK Tech Lab - V8 Watercooling Kit 240
1x EK Water Blocks EK-FC7850 Full Cover Waterblock - Acetal+Nickel
1x XSPC EX120 120mm Radiator
Plus: Various additional tubing etc etc.

My loop will look something like this: (Excuse this ham-fisted attempt in MS paint)
AAYvZeD.jpg



So, a few questions..
1. Will this work?
2. Will my flow rate be ok? And all the other stuff I've read about but struggle to understand?
3. Are two radiators required or could i get away with just the 1 EX240 that comes in the watercooling kit to cool both the CPU and GPU?

Thanks in advance.
 
I'm presently cooling both my cpu & gpu on an xspc EX240 and it is only just enough. Load temperatures are low 60's, idle is mid 40's. I'm moving up to a pair of 240mm radiators to help cool things down a little more. (this is an overclocked phenom II x4 and overclocked 6970) I also found that it is only quieter due to the loss of the gpu cooler as i still have to run the fans quite fast in order to pull sufficient air through the radiator. (the problem with higher fin density) My second radiator is an alphacool XT45 which has a much lower fin density which should help with noise. The xspc rx series are better in this regard but are usually too thick to fit in smaller cases.

That pump might struggle with 2 rads and 2 blocks. I went for a D5 (xspc vario and the acrylic res/top, which is the absolute cheapest way to get a D5) which gave me plenty of headroom, although i chose based on reliability and lifespan. The EK dcp pumps are cheaper than liang and seem to have a good following.

Having had a look at the case, I'd say a 240 in the top and a 120 in the front with a better pump would probably be your best bet. Similar to the one in this image, except that you would use a different reservoir and a waterblock for your gpu.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the reply. Guess i might need to have a slight rethink on the parts i need, specifically the pump.

What about the loop itself? Is that ok? Or should I think about cooling my GPU first, then processor second?
 
Whether you have enough radiator is not easy to calculate but will certainly be enough to be better than what you have now. It will depend on room temperature, fans, how long you run at load, what noise you can tolerate. Do it, and then see if it's good enough; if it isn't tinker some more.

This isn't an exact science (unless you're massively anal); it's more of an art. So go do it, post the result and tell us if you're happy or want more.
 
No idea on how much trouble draining and refilling will be, but i will be finding out next week once my other radiator and fittings arrive. I imagine it may be fun trying to avoid spilling trapped coolant out of things like the radiator. Leaving the tubing attached and bunging the ends whilst moving parts might be a good idea.

Your loop design looks fine but without plotting it onto a image of your case, it's more difficult to visualise.

Order wise, I'd probably go Res/pump > 120 Rad > 240 rad > cpu > gpu
 
Draining isn't so hard. Turn everything off, disconnect the PSU from the wall, disconnect the PSU from motherboard and graphics cards. Tilt case so lowest point in loop can be put over a bucket (this helps if you have three hands or someone to help you), disconnect pipe. Not all the water will drain first time because of water pressure so you then have to loosen a fitting nearest the top.

Alternatively, build it so there is a fill port at the highest point with a simple T-line and another T-line at the bottom. Put bucket under bottom plug. Take out bottom plug. Dribble or two. Then take out the top plug. Watch it all rush out.

I have never bothered with all that malarkey and just do the first method. Always worked for me but then I've been doing this a while.
 
More than likely, it's more powerful but can be turned down. However I've never heard one in person.

All I know is I recently got an XSPC 750 V4 and no longer have a watercooled system because of it. I then got an EK 2.2 pump which is no where near as powerful as the 750 V4 but is completely silent and will do the job of cooling a stock GTX 680 perfectly I should imagine.
 
Bay res' can supposedly be quite loud. I'd go with a tube res plus a D5 if you can. Mines pretty damn silent. Plus the tube res' look so much nicer tbh.
 
As above, bay pumps are generally much louder due to being bolted straight into the case without the ability to reduce the vibrations.

Get a pump which you can mount in the bay anyway with some foam so will be much quitter and then get a tube res if you have the space.
 
^Yeah, Ive been using a phobya 'noise destructor' with my D5.
Only picked it over the shoggy because it's black. The orange would never have worked :D

Works like a charm.
 
I just used a piece of packing foam from a motherboard box folded twice. Not particularly nice to look at but does the job as my D5 is pretty much silent even at maximum speed. (can't really be seen anyway as my 690 II has no window)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom