First Loop need advice

rebel rebel · 9 Dec 2019 at 16:50

Good evening.

I'm just about to build my first water cooled pc. I have the following items heading my way any day now. I guess they're waiting for the GPU to be built.

AMD Ryzen 9 3900X Twelve Core 4.6GHz (Socket AM4) Processor - Retail
Product Id: CP-3B5-AM

Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Hero Wi-Fi (AMD AM4) DDR4 X570 Chipset ATX Motherboard
Product Id: MB-6DY-AS

Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO Black 16GB 3600 MHz AMD Ryzen Tuned DDR4 Memory Kit
Product Id: MY-4C1-CS

Corsair Force MP510 series 960GB NVMe PCIe M.2 Solid State Drive (CSSD-F960GBMP510)
Product Id: HD-065-CS

OcUK Tech Labs Gigabyte Aorus Geforce RTX 2070 SUPER Water Cooled Graphics Card
Your selected configuration:
(1x) Phanteks Glacier RTX 2080Ti / 2080 / 2070 Gigabyte Aorus with RGB Lighting - Black
Product Id: WC-19B-TL

Lian-Li PC-O11 Dynamic Midi-Tower - White Window

I now need help choosing the water cooled bits. All I really know is that I want hard tubing, and a Lian Li compatible distribution board. But I'm completely clueless on what to order. My budget is around £500. I'm pretty sure that's enough.

I think I need 2 360 rads?

Edit: I'm just cooling the CPU and the graphics card.

rebel rebel · 10 Dec 2019 at 14:40

I would like to order the bits I need tonight. If someone could spare me a few mins that would be very much appreciated.

rebel rebel · 10 Dec 2019 at 19:17

What size hard tubing would I require for the following items?

tyler_jrb · 10 Dec 2019 at 21:23

I'd go 16/12 personally if using hardline tube, depends on the size of the case and your look preference. 13/10 looks a little thin in my opinion.

Don't forget you will need a bending kit (mandrels, heat gun, tube cutter, silicone insert) and appropriate fittings.

You may struggle with the XE rad to be honest as its 60mm thick. Will have to research if it will fit as 85mm thick with fans attached. I had a 37mm in mine at that was quite tight.

HDC 16mm (choice of colours)
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ek-water-blocks-ek-hdc-16mm-hard-tube-fitting-white-wc-674-ek.html

Tube
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ek-w...-tube-12-16mm-500mm-2pcs-clear-wc-866-ek.html

You may also need some 45/90 degree rotary elbows, extensions etc depending on your layout.

The dynamic XL would probably be a better choice due to the increased size and compatibility etc. Depends on your circumstances etc with size, what you want though

.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/lian...ied-aluminium-midi-tower-white-ca-77l-ll.html

With the standard dynamic the distro will obviously block of the side fan positions but im sure you can still fit a rad in the bottom. Thickness depends on components above it.

You can get 3x360 rads in the dynamic though. I used to have the rog edition.

rebel rebel · 10 Dec 2019 at 21:40

Yeah I only realised the other day that I'll have to bend the acrylic myself. Another skill to learn I guess. With the acrylic and fittings you've linked I'm pretty much there now. I think I'll be going for Mayhem X1 fluid.

And regarding the 90degree elbows, I'm not totally sure how many I'll need, until I work out how everything lies, and what tubes will be bent.

The Lian Li 011dw should be able to fit 2 360 rads, top and bottom and the distro as well.

Thanks for your help.

GilesGuthrie · 11 Dec 2019 at 10:44

If you're set on hard tubing, I'd recommend getting one of the bending kits, like this: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ther...be-od-12mm-id-10mm-bending-kit-wc-018-tt.html

I am awaiting that distro plate arriving to do my first watercooling loop. I'm taking the easy route and using soft tubing to get started. Something tells me that these guys on YouTube are making it look a lot easier than it actually is, and I'd rather not deal with the frustration of going through metres and metres of failed bends before I can get up & running.

rebel rebel · 11 Dec 2019 at 11:39

GilesGuthrie said:
If you're set on hard tubing, I'd recommend getting one of the bending kits, like this: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ther...be-od-12mm-id-10mm-bending-kit-wc-018-tt.html

I am awaiting that distro plate arriving to do my first watercooling loop. I'm taking the easy route and using soft tubing to get started. Something tells me that these guys on YouTube are making it look a lot easier than it actually is, and I'd rather not deal with the frustration of going through metres and metres of failed bends before I can get up & running.

If I run into trouble I'll soon swap to soft tubing. Don't worry!

May I ask what components you are using?

GilesGuthrie · 11 Dec 2019 at 13:12

rebel rebel said:
May I ask what components you are using?

Here you go:

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x EK Water Blocks EK-Velocity RGB AMD CPU Water Block - Nickel + Plexi= £82.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-Vector RTX RE Ti RGB Graphics Card Water Block - Nickel + Plexi= £129.95
2 x EK Water Blocks EK-CoolStream PE 360 (Triple Fan) Radiator= £77.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-Duraclear Tubing 13/10 - Clear 3M= £13.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-Torque STC 10/13mm Soft Tubing Compression Fitting - Black= £6.95
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-Torque Angled 90° Rotary Fitting - Black= £9.95
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-AF Ball Valve (10mm) G1/4 - Black= £13.99
7 x EK Water Blocks EK-Vardar EVO 120ER RGB (500-2200 rpm) Fan - 120mm= £17.99
1 x XSPC Temperature Sensor 2 x G1/4" Fitting - Chrome= £7.99
2 x EK Water Blocks EK-Cable Splitter 4-Fan PWM Extended= £5.99
1 x Alphacool Ice Water Crystal Blue Ready Mix - 1000ml= £9.95
2 x EK Water Blocks EK-RGB 4-Way Splitter Cable= £7.49
1 x Lian-Li O11D Distro Plate G1 For High Performance Liquid Cooling Designed by EKWB= £179.99

Total: £775.12 (includes shipping: £10.50)

I just put in one of each type of fitting - you can do your own calculations for what you need. I suspect I may need additional fittings to integrate the temperature sensor, but I will re-plan that during the implementation phase. Also, I chose the Alphacool liquid because I wanted a strong deep blue in a low-maintenance fluid. Time will tell how that plays out

One thing that caught me by surprise was the need for the RGB splitter cables (these were not on my original order and will arrive tomorrow). I'm not sure how I envisaged it all hanging together, but the EK fan comes with 2 leads - one for the PWM header and one for the 4-pin 12V RGB header. To connect up that much RGB you need splitters. The Raijintek box doesn't fit, and it looks like the Corsair Commander Pro also will not work. So if you want a really easy RGB fan install, go with the Corsair Commander and the Corsair fans - I hear they have a single PWM + RGB proprietary connection. I bought the EK fans because they were something like £5 cheaper per unit, and are well-regarded by the YouTubers from whom I've been leeching knowledge these last few months.

EDIT: I see you've chosen to go with the XE (thick) rads. On the basis that you're also using the distro plate, I'm assuming you're going with a top/bottom mounting. I think you're going to struggle for room. I have the 011 Dynamic XL with the vertical GPU mount, and there is not a huge amount of room between the bottom rad (mine is the medium thickness) and the base of the GPU mount. I would advise you to re-check your clearances. Also, you probably don't need 2x 360mm thick rads for a 1xCPU/1xGPU loop

rebel rebel · 11 Dec 2019 at 13:23

Thanks mate, that's helped me a lot. I was going to go with a digital temp sensor, not sure which one yet.

One thing for sure is I've blown through the budget, big time.

Why are you buying 7 fans?

rebel rebel · 11 Dec 2019 at 13:31

This is what I've gone for. Not sure how many of each fittings I need, so I just got 4 of each. We'll see how that works out when everything's in front of me.

GilesGuthrie · 11 Dec 2019 at 13:56

rebel rebel said:
Thanks mate, that's helped me a lot. I was going to go with a digital temp sensor, not sure which one yet.

One thing for sure is I've blown through the budget, big time.

Why are you buying 7 fans?

I've seen some sexy digital temp sensors, but they've all had reviews along the lines of "great for the first few months then unreadable", which is a shame.

7 fans? 3 on the bottom rad as intake in pull orientation; 3 on the top rad as exhaust in the push orientation; 1 on the rear as additional intake to maintain positive pressure and to bring cooler air in than that which is rising off the bottom rad.

Here's my tube fittings map:

CPU – Plate (CPU End)
CPU – Plate(Plate End)
Plate– CPU (Plate End)
Plate– CPU (CPU End)
GPU – Plate(GPU End)
GPU – Plate(Plate End)
Plate– GPU (Plate End)
Plate – GPU (GPU End)
TopRad-Plate (Rad End)
TopRad-Plate (Plate End)
Plate-TopRad (Rad End)
Plate-TopRad (Plate End)
BottomRad-Plate (Rad End)
BottomRad-Plate (Plate End)
Plate-BottomRad (Rad End)
Plate-BottomRad (Plate End)
Tube-Temp Sensor (In)
Temp Sensor-Tube (Out)

Remember that I haven't screwed this together yet, so the above may be wrong, but basically you're looking at 8 tubes - in & out for 2 rads, 1 CPU and 1 GPU, as each component connects back to the distro plate. Fairly obviously you need a fitting on each end, so that gives you 16. I bought some right-angle fittings to help with the fact that the pipes exit the components in the wrong orientation.

rebel rebel · 11 Dec 2019 at 14:09

Damn I should have realised that each tube needs a fitting no matter if it needs a right angle or not. I'll have to amend that.