First Loop.

[MrMD]

Nice, that does look clean. Any reason for only having one fan on the 360 rad, i would have thought dust would be an issue with negative pressure.

I actually removed that fan,it was cool the Mems on the GPU,but it actually wasnt necessary and looked kinda weird.


I have 3 Noctua F12's pushing through the radiator,they are mounted on the outside between the front of the case and the front panel.I done this for spacing reasons.A rad+ fans mounted inside the case takes a lot of space,and you almost always can never use the right hopswap bay with a rad+fans on the inside.

Edit: This means you cant fit the front dust fiilter.You can just stick to the outside of the front panel to block dust.Its a bit ghetto tho,I just bought Akasa 120mm Dustfilters and placed them on the fans before attaching them to the rad/case.

 

[40Four]

I actually removed that fan,it was cool the Mems on the GPU,but it actually wasnt necessary and looked kinda weird.


I have 3 Noctua F12's pushing through the radiator,they are mounted on the outside between the front of the case and the front panel.I done this for spacing reasons.A rad+ fans mounted inside the case takes a lot of space,and you almost always can never use the right hopswap bay with a rad+fans on the inside.

Edit: This means you cant fit the front dust fiilter.You can just stick to the outside of the front panel to block dust.Its a bit ghetto tho,I just bought Akasa 120mm Dustfilters and placed them on the fans before attaching them to the rad/case.

I think i am going to have to go that way because my card is 11" long which also rules out a thick rad. I'm definately going to be pushing it at the front space wise.

I was thinking about what you said with the pump above the Psu but i am going to have to use the 5.25 bays or just below as i have all the SSD racks full. I know there are combos designed for 5.25 bays so i'll have a look at those.

 

[MrMD]

I think i am going to have to go that way because my card is 11" long which also rules out a thick rad. I'm definately going to be pushing it at the front space wise.

As long as the fans are mounted on the outside you could easily fit a thick rad on the inside(60mm), and still have clearance between the rad and your card if you choose to.

 

[40Four]

As long as the fans are mounted on the outside you could easily fit a thick rad on the inside(60mm), and still have clearance between the rad and your card if you choose to.

Yeah have just been looking at that. I am getting a good idea about how i want to proceed, just need to finalize the parts and wait for the Gpu block to come out. I am also still to decide between barb or compression fittings although i am leaning towards barb to try to keep costs down a little (although with the clamps on top it may not be too dissimilar). One thing i am hoping is i can reuse the back-plate that came with the card as i really like it.

 

[40Four]

I am looking at compression fittings. There are brass-nickel or brass- anodized aluminium that i have seen so far. Which ones would be best? Again thanks for any hhelp.

 

[MrMD]

I was thinking about what you said with the pump above the Psu but i am going to have to use the 5.25 bays or just below as i have all the SSD racks full. I know there are combos designed for 5.25 bays so i'll have a look at those.

Bay res's are a real pain in a 540 due to the orientation of the bays.Just to get them to fit you will have do some dremel work to the front panel for most of them as they have faceplates.Theirs other concerns such as port orientation and just difficulty in working with one in this case.Its generally something to aviod in a 540.

For SSD's,you can fit two in the front obviously(even if you cant use the right hotswap bracket,SSDs can still just slot in anyways as they have no moving parts)and velco/sticky tape the others in bak where ever they fit In the 5.25 bay is a good place to do this for instance.

A d5 pump/res combo can be mounted in the front still,i have seen a few people put Photon combos mounted parallel to the IO panel.

Edit:

I am looking at compression fittings. There are brass-nickel or brass- anodized aluminium that i have seen so far. Which ones would be best? Again thanks for any hhelp.

For compression fittings just stick to XSPC/EK/monsoon ones,they will be fine. Im a big fan of the monsoon compression fittings personally You need 2 fittings per component,for your prosposed setup you would need 10 fittings total(with a pump/res combo)

 

[40Four]

Ok here is an updated parts list

Alphacool NexXxoS XT45 Full Copper 360mm

Alphacool NexXxoS XT45 Full Copper 240mm

EK-ATX Bridging Plug 24 pin

PrimoChill PrimoFlex Tubing

EK-Supremacy EVO - Acetal

EK-XRES 100 D5 PWM with Pump

EK-Ekoolant EVO CLEAR Premix

EK-Msi Gaming 980Ti Water Block

EK-Msi Gaming 980Ti Backplate

EK-ACF Fitting 13/19mm Soft Tube Compression Fitting G1/4, Brass - Black Nickel Plated x 10

Rough price around £450. Still need to look at rad fans and quick disconnects.

Thoughts please

 

[MrMD]

Ok here is an updated parts list

Alphacool NexXxoS XT45 Full Copper 360mm

Alphacool NexXxoS XT45 Full Copper 240mm

EK-ATX Bridging Plug 24 pin

PrimoChill PrimoFlex Tubing

EK-Supremacy EVO - Acetal

EK-XRES 100 D5 PWM with Pump

EK-Ekoolant EVO CLEAR Premix

EK-Msi Gaming 980Ti Water Block

EK-Msi Gaming 980Ti Backplate

EK-ACF Fitting 13/19mm Soft Tube Compression Fitting G1/4, Brass - Black Nickel Plated x 10

Rough price around £450. Still need to look at rad fans.

Thoughts please

This is a good list of parts

A few things to consider

You will want a couple 90 and 45 degree angled fittings.Especially if you do put the pump/res in the back.Following on from this,if you do put the the pump res in the back it may be worth considering a slightly less thick 240mm rad.

I have a 37mm thick rad at the top,with a 90 rotary connected to tubing that goes through the gromet to the pump in the back.This is just enough clearance for the tubing to come straight out the Rotary through the gromet wouth out kinking.With a 45mm rad tubing would have to kink up then back down,it would be extremely awkward.I''d consider swapping to the 30mm thick model of the NeXxos radiator.That entire series of radiators are good tho

Fans,it depends really,are you after silence? or just raw performance.What fans do you already have?

 

[40Four]

This is a good list of parts

A few things to consider

You will want a couple 90 and 45 degree angled fittings.Especially if you do put the pump/res in the back.Following on from this,if you do put the the pump res in the back it may be worth considering a slightly less thick 240mm rad.

I have a 37mm thick rad at the top,with a 90 rotary connected to tubing that goes through the gromet to the pump in the back.This is just enough clearance for the tubing to come straight out the Rotary through the gromet wouth out kinking.With a 45mm rad tubing would have to kink up then back down,it would be extremely awkward.I''d consider swapping to the 30mm thick model of the NeXxos radiator.That entire series of radiators are good tho

Fans,it depends really,are you after silence? or just raw performance.What fans do you already have?

Thanks for all your help. I will def get the 30mm thick rad and some angled fittings.

I've currently got a few 120mm fans about, 2 x arctic f12 3 pin, 2 x CM Jetflo PWM (These are very nosiy when they pick up speed) i also have the 2 stock fans from the H80 i'm currently using (again quite loud) running at the lowest setting. I used to use a Thermaltake Urban S31 that's sat in the cupboard now hence i have a some laying about. Apart from the F12's they are all very noisy which is something i would rather avoid. Would the stock 140's on the 540 be good enough for the 360mm rad? Ive never seen any specs on them so have not idea about cfm or sp. I tend to see people recommend Noctua however i'm not keen on there colour scheme.

 

[MrMD]

Cant use 140mm fans on 240/360mm rads,they need to be 120mm's due to the mounting ect.

Noctua make great fans.I use Noctua F12 focused flow fans on my rads,they are fantastic.They are expensive tho(£16 each). They can operate at as low 350rpms.I have mine on a pwm curve that keeps them at 400-500rpm while idling and ramp up to 800-900rpm while under load(Gaming),they can go as high as 1500rpms.At max speed they arnt particularly quiet but no fan is at these rpms.They do excell at performance at lower speeds however,where they are extremely quiet.Also no clicking or odd resonances at low rpms like a lot of other fans.

You could prob use your jetflows on the 240mm rad,and voltage reducers on them to limit their max speed(and thus their noise).I hear they alright for radiator fans.

 

[40Four]

Cant use 140mm fans on 240/360mm rads,they need to be 120mm's due to the mounting ect.

Noctua make great fans.I use Noctua F12 focused flow fans on my rads,they are fantastic.They are expensive tho(£16 each). They can operate at as low 350rpms.I have mine on a pwm curve that keeps them at 400-500rpm while idling and ramp up to 800-900rpm while under load(Gaming),they can go as high as 1500rpms.At max speed they arnt particularly quiet but no fan is at these rpms.They do excell at performance at lower speeds however,where they are extremely quiet.Also no clicking or odd resonances at low rpms like a lot of other fans.

You could prob use your jetflows on the 240mm rad,and voltage reducers on them to limit their max speed(and thus their noise).I hear they alright for radiator fans.

Bolded- Noob error on my part.

I was just looking at the price of Noctua's, they certainly aren't cheap although i see you do plain black fans now. I will have to think about that. I will probably reuse the stock H80's and the Jetflo's for a while (possibly with a fan controller). I think i have quite a few voltage reducers aswell.

On the 360 rad would it make much difference if i went 30mm with that as opposed to 45mm? I'm more curious than anything as i will probably still go 45 regardless. I figure the more info i can get now the better off i'll be when i finally get round to ordering. I have spent quite a lot of time looking at guides and completed builds the last few days and have got a bug of sorts.

Do you have any more pics of your build, i would especially like to see some of the other side.

 

[tamzzy]

just get ek vardar fans. they're as good as gentle typhoons (which are arguably one of the best - if not the best - watercooling fan)

 

[MrMD]

Bolded- Noob error on my part.

I was just looking at the price of Noctua's, they certainly aren't cheap although i see you do plain black fans now. I will have to think about that. I will probably reuse the stock H80's and the Jetflo's for a while (possibly with a fan controller). I think i have quite a few voltage reducers aswell.

On the 360 rad would it make much difference if i went 30mm with that as opposed to 45mm? I'm more curious than anything as i will probably still go 45 regardless. I figure the more info i can get now the better off i'll be when i finally get round to ordering. I have spent quite a lot of time looking at guides and completed builds the last few days and have got a bug of sorts.

Do you have any more pics of your build, i would especially like to see some of the other side.

A thicker rad will give you slightly more cooling capacity,its not gonna be a huge difference however.If you can fit a bigger rad into your build(space ect) theres no reason not to get a thicker rad.

Dont have any other pics handy,im actually gonna be moving my rig on to my desk later 2nite to do some work on it,will grab a pic of the back and post it later on

 

[40Four]

A thicker rad will give you slightly more cooling capacity,its not gonna be a huge difference however.If you can fit a bigger rad into your build(space ect) theres no reason not to get a thicker rad.

Dont have any other pics handy,im actually gonna be moving my rig on to my desk later 2nite to do some work on it,will grab a pic of the back and post it later on

That makes sense to me, better to have that bit extra. I'm just hoping they release water blocks for my Gpu soon and that i can keep the back plate that came with the card, on the EK site it literally says coming soon so i'm guessing around 2 - 4 weeks.

After that i think i'll be all set to order, just need to pick quick disconnects, some angled fittings and choose some fans (although i may use the ones i have for a while).

 

[40Four]

just get ek vardar fans. they're as good as gentle typhoons (which are arguably one of the best - if not the best - watercooling fan)

What are they like for noise? I really want them to be as quiet as possible and will take a couple of degrees temp hit if i have to.

 

[RyanF]

I'm using some F2-120s in my rig and can hardly hear them, I've got them going as slow as my fan controller will let me, around 500RPM. I can hear them if I try but any sort of noise whatsoever, even just typing on my keyboard, drowns it out