First time water cooling build

[toon_mad]

Hi, so having been building a few PCs for myself, friends and family for the last few years I have decided to make the step up into the world of water cooling, this is also going to be the most expensive build I will have done as most my previous builds were heatsink and fans, typically were AMD.

As of right now all the parts have been ordered so awaiting those before the actually build starts. As a few of you may already know I struggled for a whole week deciding what option to take in regard to water cooling. I originally planned for the H100i as a simple step into liquid cooling, then I decided to try the Fathom All In One 240mm and for basically the whole week couldn't decide between either before finally deciding to just jump in and do it properly with an XPSC Raystorm kit.

So with that said, this is the spec of the build I am going for:

- Corsair Obsidian 750D
- Corsair RM Series RM850 Gold Fully Modular
- Asus Maximus VII Hero Z97
- Intel Core i7-4770K Retail
- 16GB TeamGroup Xtreem LV 2400MHz (2x4GB)
- Sapphire R9 280X Toxic 3GB DDR5
- XPSC Raystorm 750 EX280 Water cooling Kit
- Mayhems Ultra Pure H20 5ltr
- Samsung 840 Evo 250GB Solid State Drive
- 1TB Hitachi 7200rpm HDD
- TP-Link 300Mbps WN881ND
- LG GH24NSB0 24x

Some accessories I also ordered:

- Zalman Gaming Keyboard and Mouse
- Wireless Xbox 360 Controller and Receiver
- Venom Headset with Led, Microphone and Vibration

Other things I had to buy were:

- BenQ GW2760HM Led Monitor 27"
- Piranha Computer Desk
- Office Leather Chair

I think I included everything but will update anything I may of missed out.

As soon as the build starts I will take some photos and will update the top of this page. I am mostly wanting to do this build log so I can hopefully show other watercooling beginners that it is not as scary and tricky as you might think (I hope!).

So stay tuned and thanks for looking

EDIT: Updated with some packaging photos, Graphics card still has not arrive. Also rather dissapointly Overclockers shipped the LG DVD drive without any packaging other than bubble wrap.

This is the final picture as of now, feel free to read through the posts to end of the thread for the build information etc

 

[toon_mad]

Subbed,
Shame about the wireless
no cable options ?

What's wrong with the wireless? I was looking at the Asus one for £19.99 but for some reason changed to this one.

I'll be keeping an eye on this. I've been looking at a custom water cooled build of my own since I started reading the build logs. Why did you pick the 750D?

Well I guess the reason I chose this case is because in the past I have been guilty of buying gaming tower looking cases (NZXT Guardian, Raidmax Sagitta II, Zalman Z9 etc) and while they did look good (especially the guardian) I found space with them rather cramped (mid-tower) and the overall feel and build quality of them have perhaps been not as good as I hoped, not to mention poor cable management and airflow.

Someone mentioned the Corsair Carbide 540 and when I saw it I instantly loved the way it looked, and that was the tower I was going for, but then after finally deciding on the XPSC Raystorm water cooling kit it says the reservoir uses 2 front drive bays. Because the Corsair 540 only comes with 2 front bays anyway it would mean I have no space for a DVD drive, so this is where I looked for a similar case that had 3 front bays when I found the Corsair 750D.

The Corsair 750D looks massive, supports graphics card over 400mm easily, has all the cable management cut outs etc and it looks amazing with a more professional look to it then your usual gaming tower cases. The main thing with this tower is the options for watercooling, you can have many different sized radiators to fit in there and the hard drive cages can be moved or removed totally so you have good options.

I cannot wait to get building with this and will be definitely taking my time with the water cooling side of it, leaks are my biggest fear but everyone says leaks are normally from user mistake such as rushing or not checking everything properly first.

 

[toon_mad]

Just the 300mb/s bottleneck, can slow up tasks and it's another thing that can go wrong.
I used it for years with little problems, But it's something I try to avoid where ever possible.
Also tho antennas **** me off a lot of the time as my case's window faces me

Well I have a bad internet connection anyway and am lucky to get 7mb-10mb speed so I would not reach that speed of 300mb/s anyway but its there if and when I get faster internet.

and yeah I know what you mean the antennas are a pain, they get in the way of the rear cables too like the HDMI and DVI to your graphics card. Also can you not just rotate your case 90 degrees the other way

 

[toon_mad]

Well I hope Overclockers receive my message as I have asked them to cancel the i7-4770K and will pre order the Devils Canyon i7-4790K.

Have also ordered a cheap basic Intel Celeron G1820 2.7GHz to use in the mean time should they make the change

 

[toon_mad]

ooooooh nice,
I was looking at them, but with my MoBo & CPU not due to be upgraded till next year I'd wait and see what else might pop up

You know hardware changes so fast and I've only really been out the loop of components since beginning of this year and I completely did not see the Devils Canyon

From my quick read of it sounds like they addressed the thermal issues the Haswells were having so I'm hoping this will run a lot cooler for better overclocking

I have a decision to make now though, do I put the basic CPU I mentioned in and have it water cooled and then it is setup for when the new cpu arrives, or do I run stock cooling until it arrives?

If I water cooled it now would be a simple job as taking the waterblock off and swapping the CPU (with water still in the tubes), or would I have to drain the tubes before taking the water block off?

PS, if you upgrade next year they might be a bit cheaper anyway

 

[toon_mad]

So maybe I should do the water cool in a few weeks and maybe just use stock fan for that basic CPU for now. I was hoping it would be as simple as water cool now anyway, then when new CPU gets here just take the water block off swap CPU and put block back on bit I have no knowledge on if this can be done or not.

 

[toon_mad]

Yeah they are both Socket 1150

So if anyone can confirm or has experience with changing a processor in a watercooled pc, is it as simple as lifting the waterblock off (water still in tubes) and change cpu, then screw waterblock on?

I might ask in the watercool section actually.

 

[toon_mad]

Well the folks in the watercooling forum say it is like I said a straight swap

But the thing is Overclockers never got my message to swap to the i7-4790k because of a backlog with the webnote service so they have despatched my order and the i7-4770k in the past 20 minutes

I don't want to pay more money to return it so looks like I will be using the i7-4770k after all which I guess is not the end of the world and suppose it saves me buying a basic Haswell to fill the time gap waiting for the new ones coming in.

Must admit I expected Overclockers to be more on the ball as they have never let me down in the past, oh well

 

[toon_mad]

Ok folks got all my parts delivered today apart from the graphics card which I dont need yet anyway.

I have been taking photos but will get these put up some time tomorrow.

So far I installed the PSU and Motherboard though I have not connected them or anything (just put the power cables etc through the cutouts in the case ready to connect to motherboard).

The pump/reservoir is sitting nicely in the front of the case, radiator at the top (internal) and I have all the tubing fitted rather nicely (apart from the odd cut which was not as clean and straight as I hoped!)

I have added the coolant in which was rather handy and easy to do as all I had to do was tilt the pump/reservoir slightly out the front of the case.

The XPSC Raystom watercooling kit I am using also comes with a handy PSU shorting adapter which plugs into the 24pin power, all you have to do then is basically connect those two, connect the pump/reservoir molex to the PSU and switch on. At this point the water is been pushed through and I see no leaks anywhere so far

So right now its just going through some leak tests and getting the air bubbles out. My only slight concern right now is I may have cut one of the tubes just a little too short so when I install the waterblock tomorrow that is going to be a little stressful to see if it reaches ok or not! And as I said before some of the cuts were not exactly straight as I would have liked, but its been about an hour or so and leak wise seems good

Will update tomorrow some time with the photos.

Subbed

Want to see the finnnished project after all the changes of mind

You could always refuse the chip when it rurns up and then order the new one when they are available/refund is given.

Well I wont be changing much now

And yeah could change the cpu but now I might just settle with this

Well, It seems they were on the ball with shipping products, which isn't a bad thing.
it is a shame though

Cannot fault the delivery service but webnotes could be faster to be honest.

As someone else who is curious about water cooling, will keep an eye on this one

Hopefully no disasters and you can see it is not as bad or difficult as you might think (provided I have no major troubles )

 

[toon_mad]

ah **** I have only gone and done it!

Connected all the tubes to the waterblock, filled and test leaked no problems and today I go to mount it to the motherboard and I have, I forgot the dam waterblock plate that sits between the waterblock and tubes!!!

So now I have to either cut the tubing or find another way to drain it. If I cut the tubing there might not be enough left to complete it so may need to order more tubing

I think there is a drain thing on the back of the pump/reservoir so I am going to take a look at that..

 

[toon_mad]

Ok, so I will update with photos on the build so far.

PSU fitted:

Notice the hard drive cage at the bottom, there was another which I removed to allow more space and better airflow. If I can get away with removing the other hard drive cage later on then that would be even better, but I would need a place for the hard drive.

Motherboard fitted and primary cables from PSU rooted through the tower (24pin and CPU cable):

This will make keeping the cables tidy from the beginning for later in the build.

Front bay DVD Drive put in:

Radiator from the watercooling kit:

Barbs fitted to the radiator and fans mounted also:

A view of the radiator fitted to the top of the tower:

The pump/reservoir:

Putting the first piece of tubing on:

The idea was to secure the first piece of tube on, put the pump/reservoir in place (front dual bay) and then I can determine the length of tubing to the radiator.

A view from the front with the pump/reservoir fitted:

A closer look inside now one of the tubes is fitted from pump/reservoir to the radiator:

... And another look:

Water leak testing stage:

Note I dont have photos here of the initial leak testing. For this I had a jug underneath and paper towels covering various places. The photos below are with the system turned off but coolant sitting in the tubes.

Whilst testing for leaks I frequently went around the connections with a piece of paper towel and dabbed around to see if any water was there.

WHERE IT WENT WRONG!!

Notice the little plastic plate in the bottom left corner of the photo? Well that was supposed to go on top of the water block before I connected the tubing but it completely passed my attention and I had not put it in. So this morning I went to install the back plate and connect the waterblock to the motherboard when I realised this was no longer possible

So at this stage I have removed the motherboard, I will be either covering the PSU or removing it from the tower and then I will be cutting the tubing and emptying the coolant out. I have ordered more tubing and some better hose clips which are due tomorrow where I will basically have to do most of it again.

Yes it is annoying but I was not 100% happy, the leak test proved ok but some of the tube cuts were not clean, and I did not allow enough slack with the tubing so it would have been tight and possibly pulling on the waterblock had I managed to fit it.

On the plus side I feel a lot more confident with what I am doing and have learned a few things. So hopefully I can drain this and restart tomorrow with a bit more knowledge and with a better cutting of the tubes

 

[toon_mad]

Just a update following on from the disaster earlier.

I removed the PSU from the case to be safe, placed a jug under one of the tubes and cut away catching the coolant. Repeating for each tube and also shaking the case to free up any trapped coolant in the radiator or reservoir.

And here are some photos after the drainage:

One good thing I discovered is how amazingly tight and strong the tubing actually is. I was putting a lot of force into pulling the tube and it just would not budge even after I took the hose clips off (which I discovered are reusable by using a knife to prize them open). Even more surprising was the durability of the tubing especially with the coolant been held inside, using scissors and a sharp Stanley knife I effectively pushed right through the tube and twisted and still nothing came out until the tube was practically cut right off.

So this gives me that extra confidence knowing how tight the tubing is to remove and how durable and strong the tubing actually is.

Back to the build I put the motherboard back into the tower mostly to determine the length of tube needed for the water block.

With some of the remaining tubing left I have connected to the radiator to the water block - MAKING SURE THIS TIME TO PUT THE WATERBLOCK PLATE OVER THE TOP FIRST. I have no tubing left now so tomorrow I am hoping to get the x2 1m replacement tubing I ordered from OcUK which was despatched today 1st class standard royal mail.

Hopefully the tubing arrives tomorrow and I can get ccracking with it

 

[toon_mad]

I found its better to have all the blocks in place and then fit the tubing to them in-situ so to speak. Also then you (mostly) eliminate most tubing length guesswork and also kinks/twists.

For a proper leak test you need to have the pump running as its the pressure that will tell you if you have any leaks or not.

Yeah I learned this rather quickly, and also to allow a bit more length before cutting in the actual place you measured just to be sure. I've also given myself more slack now so when I pull the front pump/reservoir out the case it can move more freely and come out more. I know it is best to keep the loops as small as possible but by given the marginally extra tubing I should be able to pull the pump/reservoir out the front quite easily so already this would be a bonus as I can unscrew the drain port at the back and catch the coolant this way rather then cutting the tubes

Shame about the error but seems you are back on track - nice one!

Thanks mate

Yeah it was annoying to say the least and it delayed the build by a couple of days

I managed to use some of the left over tubing toget going again but I just need one final piece so I am desperately hoping the replacement tubing gets here today

I will post some more pictures in a couple of minutes of the new tubing in place INCLUDING the waterblock plate in place so I CANNOT FORGET TO PUT IT ON!

 

[toon_mad]

Ok, these might not seem much different to the earlier pictures but I wanted to get as much steps on as possible to show my progress. Note the drops in the tubes are just that, drops of coolant that had dripped from the top radiator from the previous leak test - the loop is not complete yet so there is no coolant filled up.

The below pictures are the putting the tubing back in place, but as my previous comments mention I am allowing more slack to enable the front pump\reservoir to be pulled out the front of the case if needed (useful for future draining because of the rear drain port).

So nothing fancy here just yet, basically the connecting of new tubes:

NOTE THE WATERBLOCK PLATE BETWEEN THE WATERBLOCK AND TUBING!!

Now waiting on the replacement tubing when the postman decides to show up...

 

[toon_mad]

Well all is up and running

Sorry I will have to reply to all your posts later on as I am having trouble installing the Graphics drivers so I will be off to another thread in a moment.

I will respond tomorrow with updated photos too. my cable management could have been better but it is not fully done yet so if I can zip tie some of them into the corners this will help.

Just a quick mention though, first boot into BIOS and reported the CPU Temp at 26c which changed by the odd degree probably while the thermal paste sets in.

So yeah just setting everything up in Windows right now while keeping an eye on the tubing for leaks. It been several hours so far and all is good, I know most say test for 24 hours but others say after a couple of hours if it looks good finish the build but keep a close eye on it.

 

[toon_mad]

I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable pushing tubing onto a barb on the CPU block if it was attached, but I follow that mechanism with compression fittings

The waterblock was not attached, it was hanging freely, if I follow you basically when everything was connected (waterblock and tubing etc), it was just dangling down so had there been a leak it would have mostly went into a jug, not the PSU/motherboard.

I don't remember the barbs on one of my old setups requiring so much force it would cause issues. But hey, it's a valid method as well

The barbs did not require much force, the tubing however need a fair amount of push/strength to go over the barbs.

I have never killed anything doing this in the 10+ years I have been water cooling. You dont need the actual cpu under the block just the block in its final place to get the correct lengths.

I know what you mean Toon as my rig looks untidy because I need slack to be able to remove my front res time to time.

Exactly, I kind of held the waterblock where it would have screwed in just to get a feel of the tubing sizes needed.

As for the cables, maybe I am just naturally bad at preparing and organising. Having said that, now the side window is on looks really good.

We want to see the pictures!

Pictures coming shortly

Give us some benches with the Celery!

Whats celery, the veg or some kind of tool I have never heard of?!

 

[toon_mad]

Here are the final build pictures, the very last picture I will put in the first post of the thread.

Excuse the cable management as I know I could do a lot better, but Im happy with it as I am sure could be worse (my very first builds were shocking for wires! )

Also as I said in previous comments I had to give myself slightly more tubing as the way the pump/reservoir is positioned in the front bay, I need the slack to be able to pull it a few inches out of the front of the tower if I need to drain or refill etc.

There is more pictures I just need to get them off my phone..

 

[toon_mad]

Final build pics...

 

[toon_mad]

A tanglefoot to celebrate - good call might have to get one myself now

Haha yeah it makes it all worth while mate

 

[toon_mad]

Now I am thinking maybe add some extra lighting in there especially near the bottom, maybe a cathode or light strip or something. Or just keep it minimal as it is. Not sure.