First Water Cooling Rig (H100 Vs custom EK)

[buzzlightweight]

I have never done any water cooling but when EK bought out their kits i just had to have a go!

My rig set up is -

i7 2600k
8gb Corsair Vengeance 8-8-8-24 ram
Asrock fatal1ty mobo
Corsair AX750 psu
Corsair H100 cpu cooler
Corsair 800D 6GB/s case
ATI Sapphire 5870
Corsair force 4 SSD 120GB

I will appologise now as i am no photographer but i have tried :/
The above rig did well with the H100 with temps on a 4.7ghz oc @ 1.34v hitting

under load and

idle. (yes this was not a scientific test and i was bored one day!)

Ok lets get down to what i bought, i had an EK H3O Watercooling Kit - Supreme HF 360 **2011 Compatible** kit on back order for over a month and due to impatience i ended up sourcing else where so due to a lot of time spent waiting i had the chance to plan cooling my gpu as well.
The reason for doing this is i will be buying the new 7000 series from amd when they are out so i want to be ready. My shopping list

EK H3O Watercooling Kit - Supreme HF 360 **2011 Compatible**
Ek 5870v2 GPU block
Ek 5870v2 back plate
Phobya G-Changer V1.2 140mm rad
3x viper 140mm fans (to replace the stock corsair ones)
4m of red non uv 1/2OD 3/8ID tube
blood red dye
mx4 paste

AND LASTLY!!!

Hardware Labs Black ICE GT Stealth 360 Radiator (i will explain at the end!)

As it goes the EK is very good value and the products are great quality, my only real gripe is the instructions can be a litte hard to follow as they try and explain components in other kits as well but that is a minor gripe.

So here is a few befores

So that was the removal of the H100 done (easy and for sale in the MM) and the instalation of the block done. I have to say the block was so easy to install and looks the nuts!! So on to the rad for the GPU.

Now those with sharp eyes will notice i installed the 360rad in the last pic. In the EK kit it says they will not RMA a rad that has had the wrong screws fitted! NOW in the ek kit i only found one set of 12 screws for the rad which i assuemed were the correct ones as it came in the kit!! So i wanted to take out the rad and instal the bottom set of fans before i secured the top ones so i removed the rad but thought i know i will have a look to see if i may have over tightened them and to my horror ONE had gone through a fin! I franticly did a water test and lets just say a bucket with holes in holds more water
Now upon looking through the kit i found a second set of smaller screws!!! only by a few mill but it would have beenenough, it would be nice if the instructions said "WARNING TWO DIFFERENT LENGTH OF SCREWS IN BOX!"
Any way that is why there is a second rad bought, i was low on funds so cound only afford the cheepest ocuk had to offer but it is an amazing rad with very high densaty of fins!

I was very pleased with how the GPU block looked once it was built and with the back plate it just looks amazing and the drop in temps are better than i had hoped for.

On air and oc'd to 1ghz/1300mhz i was hitting temps of 70-80c at load and 48c idle

just look at the bottom figure, but now its taken nearly 20c off on idle!

I found the 800D to be a great case IF you buy the right components! The supplied pump is a little to big to go in the belly of the case as intended buy the two tubing holes on the deck, that is why i have put my pump where it is, i will move it when i get my 7000 series.

As you can see i have got 6 vipers on the 360 and two on the 140, all on a fan controller, the pump is noisy but let me say its tolerable, i have just bought a pump controller as well.

As for temps i am very very happy with them

idle

load

Well i hope you have enjoyed my little rant let me know what you think about my cherry popping session!

 

[buzzlightweight]

ok i am just uploading new resized pics, (sorry :/)

 

[buzzlightweight]

Looks nic m8 think you need to get rid of the lime green fans though, doesn't got well with the red.

I was thinking the same! I have just started Googling how to remove the blades so I can spray them red.

Those viper fan are the nuts, I will never use any other fan again, they really are quiet and move an incredible amount of air!

 

[buzzlightweight]

Why not have the single rad on the inside? Kind of defeats the purpose of having such a huge case if you have to install the rad outside.

I did try but it's way to wide with a fan on the inside and out!

Mod the case and have a 240 rad in the bottom like others have done. Looks nice though great job m8.

That's a great idea! I will look it up, I was looking at modding te roof to take a quad, iv found a special made cover for the top so fan an be mounted on top

Nice build, which pump controller did you get?

It's a koolance controller I should be getting it tomorrow

 

[buzzlightweight]

Could you not put the single rad in the bottom chamber of the case?

i could have done but that would mean a lot more tubing than i already have as i wanted to have a rad before a block to keep them at their coldest

Build looks good Shame you had the problem with the rad but good to see it didn't put you off. I love viper fans too, though not use the 140mm fans but I guess they are just as good. As far as I can see and work out you can't take the blades off the vipers. I tried to do it and googled how to and couldn't find any info on how to do it - if you do find out how to please please let me know as I have 5 more I need to paint. If you can't find anything then it will be the masking tape route which is a right PITA.

pic of one mine taped up and primed: http://i1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff397/Greboth/PC Mods/DSC_0787.jpg

ok buddy thanks for the info, and great pic
yer rad-gate caused me a lot of greaf but i just thought C'est la vie, when i have saved up enough i will be putting a quad in the top any way

 

[buzzlightweight]

Perhaps I'm not looking at it properly, but it looks as if the amount of tubing you have used to reach the rad outside would easily be enough to reach it in the bottom chamber

trust me it would have been a nightmare routing the tubing plus i dont mind where it is

 

[buzzlightweight]

I like the fans. I'd change the tubing.

to what colour?

 

[buzzlightweight]

I think it could look cleaner if you had the loop like this:

res>pump>gpu>120 rad>360 rad>cpu>res

also, having the pump under the mid-plate

its such i tight fit under there :/ i do understand what you mean thou. i will have another play around soon but for now im happy.

i was also looking at changing the colour of the tubing to a uv green to go with the fans as spraying the vipers looks like a lot of hard work

once i have figured out the route of the tubing with the pump moved and additional fittings i will crack on with it

 

[buzzlightweight]

It is indeed but they look so good painted. Shame I already sold the ones I painted red otherwise you could have had them.

Blue ones

Or more interesting for you, red ones

damn!! those red ones do look the shizzzzzzz!
did it take you long to mask them up and spray?

 

[buzzlightweight]

You should try and get a Laing ddc pump from the mm for cheap and put it under the midplate, that'll be able to fit

that sounds like a good idea (another one to look in to )

nice build bud would look good with the red bladed fans

ty buddy, i am now siding with spraying the fans red

 

[buzzlightweight]

ok to do list:-

1x spray fans red (ty Greboth)
2x re locate pump under mid plate (poss new pump)
3x try to fit 140 rad inside

i was just toying with the notion of having two loops, one drive bay/res combo for the CPU and using my current gear for the GPU.

i think i can manage the tube routing better and re locate the pump bellow for the GPU.

what do you think?

 

[buzzlightweight]

some thing like this?

 

[buzzlightweight]

yer i have been looking into that as an option, and you are right it would be a lot cheeper! just had a look at how much extra £££ it would cost for more fittings tube and a res/pump combo and it nearlly cleared £200 with postage O.o so i wont be going that route but i will buy some 90deg and 45deg fittings and some uv reactive tube when i get paid then i will look in to this sequence -

I think it could look cleaner if you had the loop like this:

res>pump>gpu>120 rad>360 rad>cpu>res

also, having the pump under the mid-plate

i like the look of this and it would give me scope to try and relocate the pump as well as move the 140 rad inside

 

[buzzlightweight]

sweeeeeet, i need to wait a couple of weeks till pay day, i have already worked out what i need.

3x 90s
3x 45s
3x straights

2m of tubing (non uv for now sticking with same tube to keep cost down)

2x primer
2x red paint
masking tape

oh and lots of patience ;p

 

[buzzlightweight]

this, the external rad ruined it for me, except for that nice rig

dude the external rules, it drops nearly 30c off my gpu!!

 

[buzzlightweight]

Surley it wouldnt put 30C having it mounted inside your case :/

no i was trying to say that having that 140 has dropped 30c off my gpu, my bad ;p

 

[buzzlightweight]

UPDATE

ok small update, I got some more fittings and tubing today the purpose of this was to work out if I could move the pump down stairs and the 140 rad inside.

I got - 3x 45's
3x straights
3x 90's
2m of tube just in case (get it? in case ) (sorry lol)

Well, I started by turning the 360 rad round so the inlet and outlet were in the drive bays (DVD and blu ray drive had to be moved, no problem), I then started on the 140 which with two fans will not fit in the case. If I dropped to one fan and cut the fan mounts at the end of the 360 down it will fit but tbh it really doesn’t bother me having the rad external, it gives me some external drain points and frees up the inside which is on show.

I was however toying with the notion of getting a 120 and replacing the 140 but that isn’t important to me right this min.

To make the tubing go the right way i actually had to mount the cpu block upside down to get the inlet to face the outlet of the 360, i dont know if it was the way i first seated the block but i have lost 2c off my cpu?

The pump was a nightmare, it would not fit down below with the mounting bracket on so that had to go and it is very tight to the window so made a hum, I have the pump slightly angled and now it makes 100% less noise than when it was on the deck with the stand kit.
I have the pump on high now with less noise than when it was on the stand at low speed O.o

Any who now I have everything in place, when I get paid next week I will make a move on those vipers. If you notice I replaced the bottom 120 fan with a viper, I did this two fold 1) it was the only fan which wasn’t a viper and 2) so I could try and remove the blades.
Well I failed at that, I carefully pealed the stickers off which produced a small magnet on the back which is easily removed but from what I can see does nothing? I tried pulling it off (ready to destroy it) but it is really fixed on their very firmly so C'est la vie I will mask them up (all 11 of them!) and spray them red

 

[buzzlightweight]

ON A FUNNY NOTE

I did think that i had managed to some how break my mother board and destory all my hdd's and ssd. when i had finished leak testing and was ready to plug everything back in i made a mental note to check all my connections after i had done that i switched on my pc and i just kept booting into the uefi bios so i thought the worst when i checked the boot config to find it saying there were NO hdd's or my OS ssd!! o.O

old dip s__t here had only forgotten to plug the cable back into my psu in fact if you look at the image above you can see it dangling there at the bottom lmafo

 

[buzzlightweight]

You should've put the tube from the gpu to the res at the bottom of the res

why? its not a problem to change it

 

[buzzlightweight]

know what i didnt see that

+1