First time WC tomorrow, some pointers?

pgi947

pgi947

pgi947

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Joined
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Aberdeen
Hi again :)

So after a few minor setbacks I'm as ready as I'll ever be to fit the water cooling into my system tomorrow, I've read countless guides and viewed many many videos, but theres nothing quite like IMO some personal help and feedback.

The main worries I have at the moment are...

Tubing and compression fittings, the tubing is extremely tight to fit over the compression barb, it does fit over eventually I just need to work it over gradually. My concern is putting too much pressure on connected components, any tips for getting the tubing over hassle free?

Fitting the GPU full cover blocks, is the suggested method from EK the best one? two cross pattern of paste (have MX-4) over the chip, thermal pads over everything else and a dab of paste on each stand-off/spacer to hold them in place?

Also any other general tips or things to look out for that I may have missed in the guides is most welcome :)

Thanks in advance, and a huge thanks to everyone thats helped me out so far - a wonderful forum.
 
Plan to install the pump last to avoid that :D Must have been an experience for you?

Some recommend a 24hour leak test, but I suppose it depends how much you trust your own work, I'll give it maybe a few hours, with the exception of a sunday the longest my machine is on is 1-2 hours a day at the very most.

It might be hard to install the tubing to the fittings first and then screw them in as once the tubing is on the fittings the fittings and tubing will all rotate, meaning as I screw one end in the other will un-screw :)

Given my self a 6 hour window, assisted with allot of cigarettes and maybe a couple of beers once its in.
 
SeraphX said:
GPU? yeah you've got the basics, if your lucky and or clever you won't have to use a little paste to keep the spacers in place, i didn't :p don't do two crossed lines, too much paste tbh, use the slightly overlarged rice grain. :)
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Thanks, I did think the two cross might be a little excessive, I'll try the large grain, check the spread, clean and reseat to double check!

w3bbo said:
Enjoy it! Don't panic and fret. After all, building a watercooled system, not just the results is why a lot of folk do it.

Do not power on the pc until you have done the leak test with components in place. I see little point in leak testing outside a pc only to take it apart and then fit it all back together inside again. Jump start the pump if possible without powering on the PC, leave it for an hour with tissue around the fittings. If there are drips, the tissue will show them which otherwise may go undetected unless you notice a pool of water.

When it's all up and running, tilt the pc in different directions to get rid of air locks. 'Pulse' powering the pump (1 second on, one second off) sometimes works too.

Don't worry about little bubbles in the loop, they will go over a period of a few days.
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Thanks for the tips :) Going to use a spare PSU I have laying about to avoid even accidentally switching the PC on

wazza300 said:
Dont you realize theres a hosepipe BAN!!!!!! haha
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Not in Aberdeen ;) Hell I don't even have to pay water rates :p

I thought I had both parts of Arcti-clean left, but I can only find bottle 1 (cleaner), safe enough not to use purifier? Its probably in my 'crap cupboard' somewhere but I don't fancy sifting through the mountain of old cables to find it :D

Going to set the rad flushing from the hot tap for an hour or so as its huuuge while I fit the GPU blocks then give it a flush with some DI.

Edit: If anyone wants to follow the stress live I should be logged on to steam on my macbook (pgi947) :)
 
Thanks jokester, I have plenty of cigs for the stressfull points! Also told the Mrs to keep clear of me till its done :)
 
Changed, I don't think they were especially important anyhow important anyhow, the water pockets didn't go near them.

First card done in a record time of about an hour and a half :p

Rad is well and truly flushed now too.

Also note to everyone, don't get MX-4 in an open wound, it stings!
 
Both GPU blocks now on, second one took less than half the time :)

Just in the middle of gutting out the H80, changing some fans and sorting pump location!
 
Almost ready for test (I think).

Giving my thumbs a rest, two of the compression fittings I have are 'OcUK tech lab' ones, an absolute nightmare to put on, thanks to which I am now missing skin :p bitspower and EK fittings, a doddle.

The warm water trick worked a treat too!

Got 4 cans of stella and a chinese waiting for me when I'm done too :D
 
Its now working?

From reading around it seems it may be purely down to the amount of air in my system to begin with.

I filled the res (its 2.5L) first before I powered anything on.
 
Haha! :D

Yeah I'm going to leave it going while I have my stella and chinese!

No leaks so far.

I felt like crying into my beer when I heard that noise!
 
Jokester said:
Ah you using the Reserator?
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I am indeed, with the reserator pump ripped out and un-needed holes blocked off :)

Getting a minor leak from the bottom join of the HF top, I did question the gap with CS they said it was fine, obviously not, next time I'll buy the parts and build it my self. Going to attempt to give it a little nip up now, I'm going to choke someone with the pump if the top cracks!

Currently running the D5 at the highest speed to get shot of some of the air, once its out I'll probably drop the speed down to 2-3 (of 5).
 
Tell me about it, I had to get two long strips of 8mm flat bar, clamp the bars in a vice, slot the reserator into the flatbar, then put a 1/4" nipple in the hole and then a 4ft bar on the end of the nipple and push like hell, certainly not designed for the end user to remove I would say :D
 
Nah, I'm hopeful the pressure the pump creates wont draw in too much of the freshly dumped water, if it does its just come out of a 1080 rad so should be cool either way.

Thinking of making an external overkill res for yourself jokester?
 
It should certainly help, iirc the reserator (v1/1+) can dissipate between 160w and 200w of heat.

If you have them laying around then it wouldn't hurt to try :)

Have you removed the pumps already?
 
Thanks guitarman0 :)

I think/hope everything is now leak free and working, most of the visible air bubbles are out of the system, the res dropped about half a litre while bleeding so thats now topped up. Had a basin on hand, also the res and rad are both connected with QDC's which were also on hand, so if the worst happened then everything was at arms reach to minimize spillage.

Tightened the pump top up, managed to get another 3/4 turn on each screw with ease before it started to feel tight.

Will be updating my project log with pictures either later tonight or tomorrow morning.

My thumbs are now starting to develop blisters thanks to those tech lab compression fittings :p
 
We are up and running!

Remember when I disconnected the 8pin EPS cable to leak test? yeah well I didn't, plugged it back in powered on, got a CPU Error LED, wanted to cry, realised the EPS cable was hanging out, plugged it in and we are go!

Just did some quick IBT runs, idle temps over 16c (amb is around 22c), after 5 runs we peaked at 48c, to put that in context my H80 would hit around 72c from a few runs.

Both GPU's are sat idling at 21c :D

Only problem at the moment is my Xonar isn't picking up a power source, I've probably knocked something loose while brute forcing the other side panel on :p

Edit: Just did a quick Kombuster test on the preset extreme, on air it would float around the 80c mark, now it peaked at a whopping 29c!

Very happy atm, a huuuge thank you to everyone who has helped, its taken me nearly 9 hours in total, but worth it :)
 
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And a picture of my efforts too:

IMG_20120317_223544.jpg
 
Will be pics of everything going up later, need to clean up first, pretty much trashed my flat doing the build.

Pump is still on 5, its sat on a thick rubber mat and I can't really hear anything :)
 
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