Check My 1st Custom Water Cooling Attempt

Combat squirrel · 7 Mar 2007 at 00:00

Hey all, had a swiftech kit before, was good, not amazing compared to my T Tower, however im thinking of a W/C kit that will knock socks off, which I can use on my dual core opty now and also for my quad core 775 when I get it, so after a little research iv come up with:

D-TEK FuZion CPU Block
Barb - Size: 1/2"

HWLabs Black Ice Stealth GT360 (Black) x 2
Barb - Size: 1/2"

Laing D5 Vario pump

Cape Coolplex 25cm Black Reservoir
Barb - Size: 1/2"

Danger Den 1/2" ClearFlex 60 Tubing (15 feet worth)

Zinc Plated Jubilee/Wormdrive Clip 12mm to 20mm (12)

6 x 120mm 14db fans

Zerex Super Coolant 50ml

What do you think ? its got 2x 120.3 mm rads, and im thinking of installing with flow starting with pump:

pump --> cpu block --> rad 1 --> rad 2 --> res --> pump again etc

Or could have the above setup but go rad 1 --> res --> rad 2 --> (so water 'sits' as long as it poss can)

Any comments, made any massive mistakes, all the above is using 1/2" tubing setup, what would you change ?

EDIT: Oh also im trying to find a case that will accommodate 2 or 3 x 120.3mm radiators nicely and 7 or 8 hard drives easy, trying to find the large 'cube case' that some custom w/c company's use but no luck as yet, anyways any help would be awesome

Combat squirrel · 7 Mar 2007 at 00:45

Been avin a look around, only case I can see thats big and square and could -possibly- be modded to take 2/3 120.3 rads is the Thermaltake VE1000SWA Mozart TX, I dont use internal optical drives, so I suppose I could cut out the 5.25inch bays and stick in the rads on the 'left side' of the case, however id want the version without see through panels so I can mount the rads on the chassie, a lot of work tho

Zimrann · 7 Mar 2007 at 02:24

You not thinking of watercooling the gpus or chipset in that setup then?

Jokester · 7 Mar 2007 at 07:38

In terms of heat disposal it makes no difference what order you put the components, though you want to keep tubing lengths as short as possible so order them that gives you the neatest layout.

Jokester

ichabod crane · 7 Mar 2007 at 08:39

also your temps are not going to be any different having two rads than if you had one 120.3, you can only cool with water down to room temperature and this is do able with a single radiator putting in a second or a third is just going to add restriction and maybe increase temps

Marci · 7 Mar 2007 at 11:02

What do you think ? its got 2x 120.3 mm rads, and im thinking of installing with flow starting with pump:

pump --> cpu block --> rad 1 --> rad 2 --> res --> pump again etc

Or could have the above setup but go rad 1 --> res --> rad 2 --> (so water 'sits' as long as it poss can)

Google for and read "Watercooling Myths Exposed". Order of components makes no difference. Slower water thru rad does NOT equal better cooling performance.

also your temps are not going to be any different having two rads than if you had one 120.3, you can only cool with water down to room temperature and this is do able with a single radiator putting in a second or a third is just going to add restriction and maybe increase temps

Depends ENTIRELY on heatload and fans and choice of rad. Without defining the total system's heatload in watts, the choice of rad, and the fans to be used on that rad, you can't state the above I'm afraid.

A PA120.3 with Nexus fans at 12v would NOT be able to cool that a heavily oc'd quadcore suitably. A GT360 with 14db fans DEFINITELY won't manage it (PA120.3 outperforms GTX360 at low CFM levels - ie: with silent fans). A PA120.3 with Panaflow H1A fans at 12v would easily cool it.
2x PA120.3 with Nexus fans at 12v WOULD be able to cool that heatload.

Choice of fans (ie: noise level preferences) determines whether one or more rads is required.

The 14dB fans referred to I'm assuming are SilenX iXtrema or Pro fans. Obviously purchasing them for low noise - I'll say this: the specs lie. They aren't 14dB, and they certainly don't shift the CFM that they say they do. These fans tend to perform worse than the supposedly noisier Nexus fan, and also shift less air despite specs stating they shift more.

QuadCore CPUs and 8800GTX's shifted the bar for watercooling. Multiple radiators are becoming the norm. ThermoChill rads offer the least flow resistance by a good margin, so are generally the best to choose if you intend to use more than one radiator on a single loop.

If you intend to watercool GPUs and Chipset, say so NOW... if you don't plan for their heatload (which will be equal to a second quadcore CPU) then you likely won't be impressed when you add them to the loop at a later date.

EDIT: Oh also im trying to find a case that will accommodate 2 or 3 x 120.3mm radiators nicely and 7 or 8 hard drives easy, trying to find the large 'cube case' that some custom w/c company's use but no luck as yet, anyways any help would be awesome

MountainMods Duality series, but it's designed for ThermoChill PA120.3 rads - the blowhole spacing on the case won't align to BlackIce rads.

w3bbo · 7 Mar 2007 at 12:02

I've got both a thermochill PA 120.3 and Black Ice GT stealth 120.2 in my setup. The GT is cooling a 8800GTX and the PA is cooling the cpu and chipset. The PA is a far better rad imo - the only thing its lacking in is paint finish - it scratches far too easily however for performance at a tolerant noise level it cant be beaten imo. The black Ice rad IS better finished but due to the high density of fins it needs a higher cfm fan to cool it adequatley which obviously raises the Db. The GT stealth is much thinner though which you may also need to consider - another PA would have been very cramped in my setup due to the thickness of them. If space isn't an issue and you like silence then you would be mad not to choose thermochill imo.

Combat squirrel · 7 Mar 2007 at 12:02

hmm interesting, the mountain mods case is the one I was looking for, with additional modding It could take 3/4 rads I reckon, would it take 8 harddrives? using 3.5 ---> 5.25 hd converters id guess so ?.

The thermochill rads look fine to me as long as they work well ?

I WONT be cooling the chipset (little point with modern chipsets, new high end heatpipe chipset coolers do the job well if need b)............as for the 8800GTX, its a possibility id definently entertain the idea of 3 120.3 rads as long as there is a pump that could drive it all, for a heavly overclocked quad core and 1, -maybe- 2 GTX's id need at least 4 physical 120.3 rads, in that case Id obviously create 2 seperate loops

So my spec above is ok, except swapping to thermchill rads ? would the d-tek block take that amount of heat ok ? Any recommendations always welcome, ill update this post with shots and building it etc

1st of all though a comprehensive list of parts and recommendations is of course needed! more input always appreciated

many thanks

w3bbo · 7 Mar 2007 at 12:05

The UFO is the most popular atm - see the thread in cases section. But as Marci said there is more room (with more expense) in a duality - 2xpa 120.3 goodness

My recent build in a U2-UFO :

Marci · 7 Mar 2007 at 12:15

would it take 8 harddrives? using 3.5 ---> 5.25 hd converters id guess so ?.

Mountainmods changed the way their cases work. They don't have ANY harddrive uprights in there at all. Instead there are a pair of brackets per 120mm blowhole, each pair of brackets holds 3x HDDs.

Idea being you attach fan to case, brackets to fan, HDDs to bracket...
OR, fan to case, rad to fan, brackets to rad, HDDs to bracket.

SO, total number of HDDs fittable = total number of 120mm blowholes x 3.

ThermoChill rads - I'm in no position to comment without being called biased, but long n' short of it is that with fans at 100cfm or lower they definitely outperform every other brand rad of the same size using the same fans. See http://www.thermochill.com/PATesting/

D-Tek block will take whatever heat you throw at it. The Radiator determines maximum heat dissipation of the system, not the waterblock.

Stop guessing at 3 or 4 rads. There is no need to guess anything with watercooling - the specs and maths are out there, but first you have to define the PC that you wish to cool.

IE: post the full specs of the intended PC, including future graphics card purchases as relevant... and anticipated overclocks and voltages you'll be using... THEN we can design you a system to cool it.

w3bbo · 7 Mar 2007 at 12:25

Hard drive mounts - you get two sets of these for a maximium of 6 drives.

I only used one set as the other I used for mounting my pumps

Combat squirrel · 7 Mar 2007 at 12:48

Marci said:
Snip

Ok, well ill be mounting the HD that way in my duality case, + 2 in the 5.25" bays

Specs are likely to be when I get it:

AMD Opteron 170@ at least 2.8ghz with that setup, 1.55volts
2gb ram
dfi xpert NF4
8800GTX (1 when I get it)
8 Hard Drives (2 raptor 74gigs, rest seagates)
pci-e tv card
xfi
FSP 700Watt PSU

Range of 120mm very quiet 4pin fans so I can hook up all fans to psu

And a likely change of spec couple months after getting kit will be as above except:

-Quad Core QX6700 (possibly AMD's quad if its out mid summer), either way both I intend to overclock massivly, of course if I wasnt i wouldnt buy all this water cooling stuff

- ~ 680i Mainboard, hopefully DFI will have one then

~ 4gb Ram, right now id buy the OCZ 6400 2gb kits x 2, cuz its awesome ram for the price

- a possible 2nd 8800 for SLI

The rest will remain the same......poss change the PSU to something more beefy as and when needed

So for now whatever is specced obviously the cooling system will be overkill for my opty setup, but hey at least I can clock it something stupid

, a couple months later and a couple pay cheques later ill change to the monstor PC as listed above, or the equivilent of at that time, (june/july ish)

So yeah looking at a setup to take crazy hot quads and poss 2x DX10 monster cards, thats alotttt of heat

Marci · 7 Mar 2007 at 13:08

So, 550w to 600w of total heatload.

1x PA120.3 with Panaflo H1A fans will cool this fine, (105cfm per fan)
OR
2x PA120.3 with Nexus fans at 12v (38cfm per fan).

Any less airflow and you'll need another rad to maintain "decent" temps.

Combat squirrel · 7 Mar 2007 at 13:23

Marci said:
So, 550w to 600w of total heatload.

1x PA120.3 with Panaflo H1A fans will cool this fine, (105cfm per fan)
OR
2x PA120.3 with Nexus fans at 12v (38cfm per fan).

Any less airflow and you'll need another rad to maintain "decent" temps.

2x 120.3 it is then, perfect for the duality case.............that defo enough for quad and 2x 8800 cards? (or equivelent)

jellybeard999 · 7 Mar 2007 at 13:33

You do pay for thermochill, but as they say, buy cheap, buy twice... the radiator and pump are the most important aspects of the system... buy them wisely

Do whatever Marci says

Combat squirrel · 7 Mar 2007 at 13:35

jellybeard999 said:
You do pay for thermochill, but as they say, buy cheap, buy twice... the radiator and pump are the most important aspects of the system... buy them wisely

Do whatever Marci says

Plan 2 ! lol, Marci is the Laing D5 Vario pump ok for my planned dual 120.3 setup?

w3bbo · 7 Mar 2007 at 13:38

DDC Ultra would be better imo - more head.

ichabod crane · 7 Mar 2007 at 16:52

Marci said:
Depends ENTIRELY on heatload and fans and choice of rad. Without defining the total system's heatload in watts, the choice of rad, and the fans to be used on that rad, you can't state the above I'm afraid.

this is just my own personell experience, of having two radiators in series there was no drop in temperature at all just added more pressure on my pump, but having two seperate loops works spot on one rad for CPU and one rad for GPU

Jokester · 7 Mar 2007 at 18:10

I didn't notice significantly different temps using a PA120.3 + PA120.2 over just using a single PA120.3, I've even used a single PA120.2 with 2 Nexus fans on a quad core at 3.6GHz and 8800GTX SLI without problems.

Jokester

w3bbo · 7 Mar 2007 at 19:00

Agreed 2 x PA120.3 is overkill