First time watercooler - spec + questions

Damien.

Damien.

Damien.

Soldato
Joined
20 Nov 2006
Posts
6,878
Never water-cooled before so really after some help and guidance.

Case: Lian Li PC-011D
CPU: 5900x
GPU: 3080FE

Firstly, has anyone else used the side mounted distro plate? would the pump be up to the job of cooling the CPU and GPU?

Secondly, what size and how many radiators would be recommended? Provisionally I have space to have 2, one at the bottom and one at the top.
 
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Them distros come with a pump easily capable of cooling what you have. 2x 360mm thick radiators should fit on your case easily.
 
D1craig said:
Them distros come with a pump easily capable of cooling what you have. 2x 360mm thick radiators should fit on your case easily.
Click to expand...

Great, thanks. In that case so far I have;

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £620.81 (includes shipping: £9.90)​
​
 
I’m pretty sure you could go for thicker radiators. They will hardly be seen so don’t need to worry about following the brand.
 
Damien. said:
Great, thanks. In that case so far I have;

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £620.81 (includes shipping: £9.90)
​
Click to expand...

Don't forget your fittings and tubing!

I find it helps to mock something up in paint or similar to get a feel for what the loop will look like and figure out what kind of angled pieces you might need etc.

Also, a drain port is never a bad idea for convenience of maintenance.
 
SirConfused said:
Don't forget your fittings and tubing!

I find it helps to mock something up in paint or similar to get a feel for what the loop will look like and figure out what kind of angled pieces you might need etc.

Also, a drain port is never a bad idea for convenience of maintenance.
Click to expand...

Great idea, I'll mock it up this weekend.

Can anyone with this case comment on stagnant air? Does a rad on the bottom and top restrict air flow? The only other place for mounting fans will be taken up by the distro plate.

Also, what sort of temp improvement will I expect going from air to water on the 3080?
 
Hi Damien , I am in the middle of my build with O11D and the side Distro plate and I will try and help you by recounting the problems I have had so far.

Firstly the good news. The case is amazing and so well thought out , a 60mm thick radiator at the top with the fans fits just prefect and I so far only have fans at the bottoms but I can see a 30mm thick rad would be fine with fans so not a problem. The usb 3.0 connector may be a problem if it is at the bottom of your mobo, look for a usb 3.0 90 degree motherboard connector, I got the Mzhou extender and i hope it works, they do 2 different types so make sure it is the correct one if you go for it. Wiish OCUK or other retailers stocked this type of adapter but I can uderstand why they do not because it is very niche.

Now the bad and the unknown. Not actually got the system running yet so no idea about temps/performance or whether the pump can do the job but what I can say is do not go for 16mm fitting with this distro plate. The spacings are close and will make your life hell and mean you need a lot of extra fittings. I have to keep ordering extra bits and the tight bends with hard tubing are a real pain. If you are going going soft tubes then you are fine I guess but smaller/fittings tube will help. Not sure what rads you have or whether you are willing to start cutting the case but the run from top rad to distro plate is an issue i am struggling with and i cannot see how to make it work without these type of fittings.Once again if you going soft tubing it will be a lot easier.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ek-w...rotary-offset-14-fitting-black-wc-a67-ek.html
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ek-w...tic-male-female-extender-black-wc-9zf-ek.html

If you find any good examples for routing with this distro plate then pls share because the ekwb instructions are rubbish.
 
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This is mine right now (please excuse the dust). Been making some measurements this evening and going to draft up a watercooled layout.

 
Ok took some pics.

https://ibb.co/b3HV5Rh

Not much of a photographer or used to uploading pics so I hope I did not break the forum.

The major issue I am having is to route from the fitting closest to the distro plate to the distro plate. I have a 60mm Alphacool Nexxos rad and it fits beautifully but the clearances for fitting are really tight and I had to remove it and then the fans to even get fittings on the rad and I am going to have to remove some plastic from the Lian Li fans to be able to screw them in.

https://ibb.co/CQNThbC


That pic is a mix of Corsair 90 degree fitting , 2 x Alphacool 16mm HTC and EK 14mm offset fitting. If I got a 34mm male to male fitting i should be able to make it connect. I am really struggling with that connection and until that is done nothing else can be started.

Thoughts I am having.
1-Buy some small soft tube fittings and just do that link in soft tube. I would be looking at it all the darn time so that is the last resort.
2-Look for different fittings till I can make it work. I think I can make all fittings link with a 34mm male to male extender, will look at how to make that work and may have to look elsewhere.
3- Rethink the route and go from close fitting down to lower port near the pump. This would mean half the distro plate is not in use.
4- Get drunk.

For your own build you have to decide on what rads you want and whether to go hard or soft tubing. Whether you go hard or soft tubing I would recommend small fittings. The EK Quantom Vector has the in and out ports very close and 16mm Alphacool fittings I have to do not fit without adapters so you will have to think what to get.
 
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