First time build - please check details

muffles

muffles

muffles

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21 Jun 2012
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Hi everyone - I am trying to put together a watercooling loop to cool my CPU and 2 GPUs.

I'll address what might be a popular question first - I'm not planning on buying a bigger case :) (I know, it would probably make the layout more straightforward, but humour me...)

Here's the layout I'm planning - green squares represent a 90 degree angle being required, and blue represents a 45 degree angle being required. I hope it's clear why the angle is required but please ask if not.

I've revised the layout several times to try as much as possible to avoid 90s, this is about the minimum I can get it with the aesthetics I want. I purposefully put (what I thought was) a powerful pump so I have spare capacity to ensure the loop runs at an optimal speed.

watercoolinglayoutnewco.jpg


Here are the parts I'm looking at using:

* XSPC Raystorm for CPU
* Watercool HeatKiller GPU-X Core LC for GPUs (backup alternative: EK Supreme HF Bridge edition)
* Watercool HTF4 140.3 radiator + feet + fan shroud (this is the external rad on top of the case)
* Alphacool NexXxos 120.1 radiator
* Aerocool Shark 140 fans (covered in another thread + comfortable with these)
* Alphacool VPP655 pump (D5 I believe?) and HF pump top
* Monsoon 3/8" 5/8" fittings
* Masterkleer or XSPC 3/8" 5/8" clear tubing

Less important parts (it seems these are more personal choice, but in case anyone is interested):
* Aquacomputer Aquabox 5 reservoir
* Aerocool Touch 1000 fan controller
* Aquacomputer inline temperature sensor for loop
 
What case is that?

To make it cleaner I'd see if you can fit a 240 in the front, have the pump/res down by the PSU, moving drives up into the 5.25 bays.
 
It's a Coolermaster Silencio 550 (I'll freely admit I bought it without planning for watercooling, lol).

Unfortunately the HDD cage that's in there isn't removable without cutting, otherwise I'd probably have thought about swapping the 120.1 for a 120.2 as you suggest (btw I'm not sure if you meant replace the 120.1 or the 140.3 - I presume the 120.1 as otherwise I don't think I'd have enough radiator?).

Btw I forgot to mention I will be tidying up the cables, there are holes and space to allow much better management behind the motherboard.
 
I'm probably going to mount it with velcro adhesive pads on the feet - it's hard to show the details as all the links will be to competitor sites, but Watercool do feet that you can attach to the radiator - I want the version that lets you put it horizontally (4 feet as opposed to 2, which is used when it's vertical).

The velcro isn't load bearing of course, it just keeps it in place.
 
I would really consider a larger case for your kit or make a box & have everything run from this apart from the blocks etc.

The routing for your tubing is going to be painful with your case as is :(

If you swapped the 420mm for a 480mm radiator you wouldn't need to add the 120mm radiator & could simplify the tubing a bit more also maybe look at a pump/res combo to help further something like the EK D5 X-Res Top 140 for Laing D5.
 
Is it not the case that the only out of the ordinary bit is the external radiator? If you think it'll seriously affect performance I'll certainly reconsider it. I'm really interested in how much, though (or some kind of quantification) especially with the more powerful pump. I'll take a look again at the pump and reservoir though, see what I can do - not sure if there is room to fit the reservoir where I've got the pump currently, and the only other location blocks the case intake fans.

Thanks for the feedback though, I do appreciate it. I would really like to get it working with this case, I see it as a challenge! :)
 
P.s. I wasn't initially going to go with the 120 (think the 420 will be ok for my needs) but it seemed the routing had to go that way anyway so no reason to leave it out? If its a big issue let me know and I'll reconsider that.
 
Good Luck with your challenge! :)

The rule of thumb is 120mm per component + 120mm extra, having said that just checked the size of your case and a 480mm would have over hang. I might be tempted to just try getting away with the 420mm & add that 120mm later if your find it a bit more toasty than you would like, try to avoid adding further restriction to your flow where you can.

There is a smaller version of that res/top combo & other companies make similar products when your more space constrained, its a shame you don't have 1 more 5.25 bay as you would then have enough space for dual bay res/pump(although these are harder to dampen noise from, which can resonate through your case)

The D5 vario is a nice powerful pump but you don't want to have to use it a full speed if you can avoid it, keep it as quiet as possible, you can barely hear it from setting 3 downwards, if you try to avoid adding restriction to your loop & try to keep it simple you shouldn't need to run the pump at full speed, you only need flow to be above 1000L/ph :)
 
Thanks, I had a look around and it seems like that reservoir top you mentioned is a bit hard to find :D - I found it (out of stock) on one site though. I also found something else that might work - an XSPC one. It would sit in about the same amount of space as the pump/top I've got now, but push back further into the case (which is fine). The only thing is that because I want some fairly neat routing, I would still have to have that right angle at the top right (between CPU block and pump) otherwise the tubing would end up curving over the graphics cards. Decisions, decisions :)

I also had a quick rejig of my layout above and I could possibly get rid of a couple of connections, and change the 90 on the CPU to a 45:

watercoolinglayoutnewco.jpg


I couldn't easily remove the reservoir/120mm radiator in the above picture as I'm working from a 'base' picture where I've already added all the parts, haha. But I'm not decided on the reservoir and 120mm radiator yet, based on your suggestions :)
 
Ok - after much mulling over I've decided that I think I'm going to stop trying to fit square pegs in round holes and buy a new case.

It looks like the NZXT Switch 810 is a really good case for the money - £150 odd: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-075-NX&groupid=701&catid=7&subcat=35

Any other suggestions for cases? It's likely I'll go for this based on reviews but good to hear some alternatives. One thing to bear in mind is I'm not a fan of lights and things so not really into the cases that look like they're out of Transformers. You can probably get an idea from the NZXT and the current case (CoolerMaster Silencio 550)!
I can just about live with the window on the NZXT :p
 
Excellent, that's the review I've seen as well but wasn't sure if I could post it (do they count as a competitor? Not sure if they only do reviews...).

The fact he said it's the best in this bracket (and showed why) is why I'll likely be going for it too :)

I want to put a 360/420 in the roof and a 240/280 in the front (vertically in front of the fans) - what have you gone for?
 
muffles said:
Excellent, that's the review I've seen as well but wasn't sure if I could post it (do they count as a competitor? Not sure if they only do reviews...).

The fact he said it's the best in this bracket (and showed why) is why I'll likely be going for it too :)

I want to put a 360/420 in the roof and a 240/280 in the front (vertically in front of the fans) - what have you gone for?
Click to expand...

I think his website is just for reviews, he gets posted around a lot, so i just followed suit :P

I've gone for a 360+240. Just waiting on the "out of stock" items i bought...lol.

Mine when done hopefully will look something along the lines of this, diff colours.
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=22056227&postcount=1191
 
Cool, mine will be similar too (front radiator vertical though, I want to put the pump on the floor).

Do you (or anyone else) happen to know anything about the dual hard drive 5.25" bracket he mentions in the review? I have to fit 1 x 2.5" and 1 x 3.5" hard drives into the same 5.25" bay...so far, I haven't found a single bracket that can do this. I can't even find a dual 3.5"-to-5.25" bracket (to which I could add a single/thin 2.5"-to-3.5" bracket as well).
 
muffles said:
Cool, mine will be similar too (front radiator vertical though, I want to put the pump on the floor).

Do you (or anyone else) happen to know anything about the dual hard drive 5.25" bracket he mentions in the review? I have to fit 1 x 2.5" and 1 x 3.5" hard drives into the same 5.25" bay...so far, I haven't found a single bracket that can do this. I can't even find a dual 3.5"-to-5.25" bracket (to which I could add a single/thin 2.5"-to-3.5" bracket as well).
Click to expand...

Couldn't you use the Hotswap to hold the 3.5" and stick the 2.5" anywhere?
I personally will be keeping one of the bays as i have 3 HDDs and an SSD (what i'll stick to the back, should be enough room)
 
Unfortunately I plan to get rid of the hotswap too, lol. Basically my 4 bays would be (from top to bottom):
Fan controller
DVD drive
Reservoir
HDD/SSD

Where are you talking about sticking your SSD to? I could do the same, that would work for me...
 
muffles said:
Unfortunately I plan to get rid of the hotswap too, lol. Basically my 4 bays would be (from top to bottom):
Fan controller
DVD drive
Reservoir
HDD/SSD

Where are you talking about sticking your SSD to? I could do the same, that would work for me...
Click to expand...

Bit of velcro, stick one side to the case and the other side to the SSD. I was going to put it at the back (where you rout all your cables) out of sight, out of mind...that's if the sides are wide enough (should be)
 
Ah, yep I'd seen that mentioned. I may end up looking at that too, but first just going to check out mounting options - I saw someone mount their SSD on the outside of the 5.25" cage - just using the top 2 screws though, that looked quite neat.
 
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