First time WaterCooling project

[Solemn]

So Having received what I thought were all the tools, parts and components I would need to complete my water build I decided to make a start on it. I started at about 22:30 Friday night, and finished up after two trips out to stores finished at about 4 Saturday afternoon.

Hardware

Water Cooling Components
Main Components
Radiator: Black ICE GT Stealth 360
Reservoir/Pump: XSPC Dual 750
CPU Block: Swiftech Apogee XT Rev2
GPU Block: EK-FC5870-Acetal
Fittings
Compressions: 2 x Steel 1/4 - 3/8 1/2 / 2 x 2Pack Black 1/4 - 3/8 1/2
Tubing
Hose: 3meters 3/8 1/2 Clearflex 60
Clips: 2 x Purple PVC
Coils: 3meters Black Primochill AntiKink
Consumables
Heat Pad: Coollaboratory Liquid MetalPad
Thermal Paste: Arctic-Cooling MX 2
Coolant: 2 x PrimoChill ICE 32oz UV-Purple
Misc
Memory Cooler: Zalman ZM RC1000

PC Components
CPU: Intel Quad Core Q8400 OverClocked to 3.2
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3LR Intel P45
Ram: Kingston 8g DRR2 1066
Graphics: XFX ATI 5870
PSU: OCZ ModXStream Pro 600w Silent
Case: Silverstone Raven RV02

Collectively

I thought to start off It would be a good idea to remove any components or obstacles from my case that would get in my way and eventually end up p1ssing me off hehe.

Case With GFX card

Case W/O GFX card

Case with messy Cables. I intend on my next stab at this to tidy these up with some sort of braiding. will have to wait and see

First thing I thought about doing, was adding the Pump/Reservoir to the mix. I knew/thought it would be an easy way to start off as it's just meant to slide into the 5 1/2 drive bays.... hmmm well.. TBH it did fit, but not without some excessive persuasion =P It does look quite good when it's in though.

Reservoir

Front of Reservoir (Fitted)

Rear of Reservoir (Fitted)

Next was the GPU block. This was a relatively easy and the only difficulty I seemed to have was struggling with cutting the different dimension thermal pads for the various size chips on the cards PCB. However after using some thermal paste to hold those fkers in place I managed to mount the block quite easily.

Block fitted

Blocked fitted and front of old heatsink

Block fitted and rear of old heatsink

Next was the radiator that I wanted to mount to the bottom of my case above the 180mm fans. I was very happy to discover that the SilverStone Raven RV02 came with mounts for this exact purpose making my life a hell of allot easier.

Radiator and mounts

Radiator fitted

Now one of my biggest concerns when building this set-up was that once my radiator was mounted then the GFX card would no longer fit in the case. As I'm sure you are all aware the 5870 is a monster sized card!! but I managed to squeeze in WooT

Close Fit

All I had left to do at this point was mount the CPU Block and then do the piping.... However after opening up the CPU block and attempted to mount the fker, I noticed that the backplates I had been given are for the i7 and the i5.... no 775 plate =(

CPU Block

It was at this point that I made a trip to ******** to get a 775 backplate and then from there needed to go to Homebase to buy some nuts and bolts to mount it all. Currently I have no pictures of the temp build I have done, but here are some before mounting the CPU block.

Also some pictures of me half way through, and the nice little mess I was making hehe =)

More to follow next week =)

 

[Solemn]

that beige tower in the last pic is wayy better

haha you like it? Well I will sell it to you for 30 pounds Collection only

 

[Solemn]

it looks good, i think i would have gone over the GFX card though, and perhaps moved the config of the tubing about a bit...now for the fun bit some benching.

I'm still open for susgestions! I've got plenty tubing left, so if you think a different approach is better, please do say =)

Like I said this is my first project, so I dont expect to have made a few noob mistakes =)

 

[Solemn]

Did you test the 5870 before removing the stock HSF?

Yes, I did, it was idling between 50 - 60C and when playing games like bad company (something that really pushes the card) my pc would restart.. I'm pretty sure it was from over heating, as since I've installed the WC loop, I havent had a single random restart =)

 

[Solemn]

Second phase of my water cooling build happened last weekend with some rather interesting results. The main reason for this second phase is that my CPU was still getting quite warm, I believe this was because I was running heated water from my GPU directly onto the CPU. To resolve this I decided to throw in a second small radiator to cool the water some between the GPU and CPU.

New Components:
4 x generic 120mm fans. (mostly fans I found lying around)
Lots of different sized purple cable braiding (still turned out not to be enough)
1 x Stealth 120mm Radiator
2 x 3/8 - 1/2 BitStopper Comps
Correct 775 plate for water block =)

Firstly I thought I would take some pictures of the first phase build, where I had to use bolts from homebase to hold the CPU block to the motherboard. This was because the block did not come with the 775 backplate. =(

Before, Full system

Before, CPU block

Before, with Lighting on

Before, Back of CPU block

Also wanted to show you guys the awesome Blood Elf that was drawn for me by SnakeByte (guy from i39). This picture doesn't really do it allot of justice, but it looks super hot =)

So the first step I wanted to take was to remove all the fan blades and spray them purple to go with my purple and black theme =) After a few hours of fighting with the little washers, I managed to remove the 8 blades.

My skills with spray paint did leave allot to be desired tbh. but the end result didn't look too bad hehe

End result of 180mm fan

180mm fans installed

It was my intention to braid all the cables excluding the PSU cables as they were already done stock. However, half way through the process I discovered I didn't have enough so will have to finish this up in phase 3 =)

This again, ended up being an all night project which started at about 6 on the Friday afternoon and finished up on the Saturday morning.

Results of sprayed metals

Finished results of the inside

CPU Block now

With Cover on and LED on. (Accidentally broke one of the cathodes so will be replacing that in phase 3 as well)

The only problem I seemed to have after completing this, was that when turning the PC on there was the burning electrical smell o.o; which is never a good sign... However after watching the temps of all internal components, I noticed that not a single thing was overheating... so I believe this much just be the smell of the paint maybe getting warm somewhere. I hope... hehe.

 

[Solemn]

looking good man
is it possible to braid fan wires without removing the header?

how are your temps with the extra rad in now?

depends of the size of the braiding cord I guess, but to do it correctly I would remove the header tbh. its not difficult to do. I bought the molex toolkit which helps allot but for the 3pin fans a tiny flat would work fine.

The extra rad has dropped my cpu temp down by about 10C so much much better this way =) also using a couple of extra fans which i believe is helping allot =)

 

[Solemn]

Is the cpu block oriented the correct way for a mobo in a Raven case? Correct me if I'm wrong but shouln't the outlet port of the block (corner) always be physically above the level of the inlet (centre)? This is so that any tiny bubbles which remain in the loop after the main bleeding process cannot get stuck in the cpu block.

I have it the way the display image(that came with the swiftech block) said to have it. But you seem to have a valid point.. the Raven case isn't really like other cases. :S hmmmm

 

[Solemn]

Final advice, rotate it so the outlet is in the top right as you look at the mobo pic. This should satisfy the screws in line with lever rule, and outlet above inlet.

Thanks =) Will swap that around this weekend =)

Do radiators also have a certain inlet/outlet, or does it not mater on the flow of the radiators?

Cheers =)

 

[Solemn]

BTW if I were you I'd mount one of the 120mm fans in your single rad sandwich so it on the outside of the case, if the rad will clear the card slots that is. You'll clear up some room inside and it should still fit under the cover which goes on top of the Raven, which I believe is perforated in that area.

I would love to but the Radiator wont fit in that gap unfortunately =( Might look into modding the case some to allow the radiator to fit there... its that will even be at all possible.

 

[Solemn]

So, on to phase three. The main thing I wanted to add in this phase was LED's to all my fans and and LCD Fan controller/Temp Monitor. Considering I have 8 fans currently in my system, I did struggle a bit to find a nice FanController! Also wanted to ensure that all my lights would be able to be controlled with a single switch.

New Components

Fans
12cm Fans: 3 x Xigmatek Crystal purple LED fan
Fan Controller: NesteQ Max Zero 5.25" Fan Control Black
Fan Cover: 1 x dual (240)/ Honeycomb acrylic black
Fan Cover: 1 x Phobya radiator grill single (120) HEXX - black
LEDs
LED PORT: Mod/smart 20 Station LED Power Board : Black
White LEDs: 3 x Twin 5mm ultra-bright white
Purple LEDS: 1 x Ultra Bright UV Twin LED Lit 3mm
Molex Switch: Molex 4 Pin on/off Power Rocker Switch
Cathodes: Akasa 12" Cold cathode - UV 2 Pack

Cabling
Braiding
8 x mod/smart Flex Sleeve 3mm (1/8") UV purple
3 x mod/smart Flex Sleeve 6mm (1/4") UV purple
8 x 4mm Black Cable Braid
8 x 6mm Black Cable Braid
Heat Shrink
3 x mod/smart 6mm (1/4") 3:1 ViolettHeatShrink
2 x mod/smart 12mm (1/2") 3:1 Violett 30cm
3 x 6.4mm Heatshrink with 2:1 Ratio : Black
3 x 9.5mm Heatshrink with 2:1 Ratio : Black
Connectors
8 x mod/smart PSU Power Connector 4pin Molex - UV Purple
3 x mod/smart PSU Power Connector 4pin Molex - UV Purple
Other
2 x spiral wrap sleeving 6.0mm black
4 x mod/smart Wire Saddle 3/8 in.Clip Style- Black
4 x mod/smart Wire Saddle 9/16 in.Clip Style- Black

Misc
Flow Monitor: Flow indicator with filter G1/4'
2 x 13/10mm (10x1,5mm) screw-on fitting outer thread 1/4 - black nic
Stickers: 10 x 3cm Anarchy 'A' - Black
Stickers: 10 x 3cm Circle background - Purple

Fans Braided and with Anarchy stickers

Fan Controller braided

Again first thing I did was strip the PC as much as would be needed.

Next step was to drill holes into all my fan's housing to fit the LEDs, and the to try and put the fan back with the new covers I got for them. It was at this point I realised that the 120mm fan covers were 140mm in size I was unable to fit te single 120mm onto the radiator (only part of radiator thats showing because the cover covered up the inlet and outlet holes for the pipping.

Next thing I did was fit the second Rad to the top of the case and then re-tube my Loop. I also added the flow indicator between the CPU and 360 Rad.

Now to fill her up and preform the leak test =)

Once happy with the Loop it was tip to play about with the LED's and wire everything up. It was at this point I started having troubles with the LED power board and the Twin White LEDs (Now cut down to Singles). For some reason some LEDs worked and others didnt, then I had them working sporadically until two LEDs no longer light up (I think they might have blown maybe:/) So it was at this time I gave up with the LEDs and decided I would have a play with the electricals in Phase4

Wiring (Will be tidied more with the spiral wrap once all LEDs are connected)

At night with Lights on

Front. (The power light looks purple, these are just lousy pictures)

 

[Solemn]

OK. so still to do,

Sort out Fan LEDs
Thinking about buying the corrrect sized 12cm Top Rad so I wont need the additional two fans as placeholders.
(might replace the new cathodes as they look more blue than purple (left, bottom)
Tidy up cabling
Might in future buy a quiter pump (mine is quite noisy tbh =[)

 

[Solemn]

Just wondering though, aside from the possible answer of "to see if i could do it" what are your reasons behind WC'ing. I'm assuming noise is not an answer as you're still using huge 120mm air fans all over the place.
Is it purely to reduce temps? Cos thats one helluva huge case, i wouldn't have thought temps would be an issue.

Hey I'm a girl its totally acceptable for me to like Purple!! Blue is so over used


As for my reasoning, my cpu and Gfx card kept over heating, I have it in a small stuffy room atm, so needed to find a way of keeping it cool.. When it was air cooled I was getting random restarts under any kind of load, and when idle I was seeing temps of 65 for gfx and 60 + for CPU =(