First watercooled build - all-black, frosted hardline!

[LuckyBenski]

[progress/photo album: https://imgur.com/a/2M62lFG ]

Hi all, so I won a competition over Christmas for a load of WC gear from Aquatuning, on the basis that I review it. I decided to start a new build to justify the cooling potential, as I don't normally overclock or run particularly high-end parts.

For me, a massive factor in any build is noise, so my main gaming rig has a low-TDP chip and passive heatsink, for instance. What appeals to me about water cooling is first quietness, second aesthetics and the fun of creating it yourself/tinkering, and performance/overclocking comes third. Nonetheless I figured I'd better get a k-series chip and upgrade to a GTX 1070!

It took a while to plan and spec up all the parts I'd need from Aquatuning, with lots of advice from them. At the same time I was sourcing components and planning a few extra things. I've been reading up on water cooling for maybe a year, and waiting to take the plunge. I have lots of experience in working with wood, metal and plastic so figured I had the skills for a hardline loop. Case mods are also fun for me so I'll be adding a few bits of trim/vanity stuff like a PSU shroud.

Anyway enough waffle, time for specs and then photos!

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690k (delidded during this build, Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut applied)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z97X-SLI (with heatsinks anodized black to match the build)
Memory: 16GB (2x8GB) Team Group Xtreem DDR3 2666MHz
GPU: EVGA GTX 1070 Superclocked
SSD: WD Blue 240GB
HDD: 750GB 2.5" 5400RPM (low speed to keep noise down - hard drives are the noisiest component in my other PCs)
PSU: EVGA 600B Bronze rated
Case: bequiet! Pure Base 600 (surprisingly accommodating to build in)

Cooling setup (all Alphacool):
XPX CPU block (black)
NexXxos GPX M01 block for Nvidia GTX 1070 (reference PCB)
Eisbecher 250mm reservoir with VPP755 pump (D5 style)
NexXxos 360mm radiator - 45mm thick
NexXxos 120mm radiator - 30mm thick
16/13mm acrylic tubing, satin
Cape Kelvin Catcher clear coolant

Fittings (all Alphacool, black):
16mm Eiszapfen hard tube fittings
Eiszapfen L-connector, rotatable (for making right-angle connections)
Eiszapfen 2-way ball valve (for draining)
Eiszapfen screw plugs
M3 hex head screws

Corsair SP120 fans for radiators
bequiet! Pure Wings 120mm and 140mm for air intake

I've also used an abundance of cable extensions, splitters, fan distribution (more on this later) etc.

 

[LuckyBenski]

Main Components:

Motherboard before heatsink anodizing:


After anodizing:


Delidded the 4690k and scraped off the flaky old paste

Pure Base 600 all stripped down for layout planning


SSD heatsinks also anodized... I may not use this SSD as it's got a green PCB. The heatsinks I made myself from a Pentium 2 heatsink I've had since I was 12

 

[LuckyBenski]

Cooling Parts:

All the goodies from Aquatuning



Removing the EVGA cooler and fitting the GPU block





Assembling and testing the pump for leaks and noise




CPU block - I got a white custom colour kit but mostly to replace the blue LED. Planning to go colour-neutral and add some LEDs later so I can choose colour when I like.





Preparing to flush the radiators using a spare pump

 

[LuckyBenski]

Decided to try making some cable combs as my girlfriend got a laser cutter over Christmas. I made lots and sanded some to get the satin effect. I think this matches the case and radiators better.







Much sanding later...


And trying them in situ

 

[LuckyBenski]

Trying out layout of components. Graphics card in the first PCIe slot made for a very tight connection to the rear radiator so I decided to try it in the lower slot, and settled on that.



Having the reservoir at this height makes for cramped fittings at the top of the front radiator, but I managed to make it work in the end.


Planning how to attach a drain loop/T-junction. In the end I used the extra port at rear of the pump top, and tucked the tube away under the PSU shroud area. The T-fitting got really bulky and ruined the look of that area completely.


Trying the reservoir at different heights

 

[LuckyBenski]

Fitting the CPU Block

Figured I would use the GC-Extreme thermal paste that came with the CPU and GPU blocks seeing as I would be reviewing the hardware. Damn, this stuff is STICKY. I'm used to Arctic MX-4 and the blob method, so trying to spread this stuff evenly and thin was a real challenge. In future I'll try to warm it up first. I found moving the spatula/spreader slowly and pushing hard was the best combination.






It's hard to tell but the outlet from this radiator and into the CPU block are ridiculously close, and don't line up nicely with right-angle fittings at all. I ended up making a crazy loop in order to be able to approach each fitting from the right angle. It took a few tries but it's in there now!

 

[LuckyBenski]

Fooling Around With Fans...

So, being obsessed with silence, and fully aware I can get air cooling virtually inaudible with the right setup, I set myself the challenge of keeping this rig as quiet or quieter than my main gaming/HTPC machine. That machine has 3x Nanoxia Deep Silence fans, max 1300RPM but idling about 400RPM and about 800RPM at load. Plus the PSU and GTX 970 with two 92mm fans.

The Corsair SP120s are NOT quiet fans, at stock or even at middling speeds using PWM. They max out at 2350RPM and that's just not doing it for me. But they are static pressure optimised and I had a good deal on 6, which let me cherry-pick the quietest 4 (fans tend to have a lot of variance, it's always worth having a few spares). Plus, they look killer and I think matched the build really well. So, I had to do some experiments. Being an electronic engineer and a chronic DIYer I tend to rig up my fans on a breadboard with a 6V/12V supply and some resistors. This lets me test different case configurations and at different speeds, so basically I plan my noise levels before I actually fit any components into a case.

I had to get pretty creative with these SP120s - if they were too loud even at slow speeds, I needed to source new fans and fast. The Pure Base 600 has a fan controller that outputs fixed DC at 5V, 9V and 12V. I wondered if I could combine this with PWM control to create a kind of "quiet mode" and "performance mode" that were still PWM speed-controlled based on temperature. I did some research, then some experiments on breadboards, and when I was happy I went to the real deal. I rigged up a method to use a variable DC supply for the fans, but deliver PWM control signal from the motherboard CPU fan header. It worked like a charm! Using Speedfan on my gaming rig which has DC and PWM control of fan headers, I was able to draw up a chart of the speed ranges at each voltage. While I was recording this data I also paid attention to the noise and noted when something was considered "inaudible", "audible" and "unacceptable" from where I was sitting on the sofa. I colour-coded the chart and my evening's nerdery was complete

 

[LuckyBenski]

Testing fans hooked up to my current rig (using three fans to estimate noise levels in the final build)



Clearly using the bequiet! case's low and medium settings would offer me either a good range of silent up to loud, or if temperatures were a real issue, acceptable up to very loud. I have no expectation of needing to go even close to 2000RPM, so I anticipate keeping the fans at 5V all the time.

Mounted the fans:


I have to say I really like the setup in the front of this case: There's a recessed area that can accommodate fans, or a radiator up 45mm, maybe more. I think this gives a little breathing space between the front panel and the fans/rad, pretty clever as solid front panels which help with noise tend to be pretty restrictive airflow-wise. In the end I opted to have the radiator inside the case and the fans outside, hidden behind the front panel. This keeps the inside of the PC looking clean and makes all the fans invisible. I also set both radiators as exhaust. I'll never understand why people set radiators as intakes, when you've managed to carry all the heat to the edge of the case already. If you have radiators set to exhaust, then the internal air temperature should never get hot enough to affect the cooling ability through the rad anyway.

At this point I decided to test with the bequiet!'s fan controller a) to make sure it all worked as expected and b) for a more accurate idea of noise. Airflow through radiator fins is more turbulent than free air and hard-mounting fans to a case can amplify their vibrations too.


I also figured the gaps around the frames of the fans would both waste air pressure capability from the fans, and also leave some areas of radiator un-ventilated. Inefficient! I bought foam gaskets for the edges while I'll fit if need be. But for now, I've stuffed the gaping holes between the fans with matching grey foam.

 

[LuckyBenski]

Right - I've sorted out fan control, got all my cabling set up and ready to go, and laid out my components. Now I need to figure out my tubing runs and learn to bend the stuff! I trained as a guitar maker and we bend the sides of acoustic guitars on a hot iron, so I realised bending tubing can be quite similar. Not to say I don't have a mountain of scraps, failed bends and offcuts!








Time for leak testing. Yes I was nervous, don't judge me!

 

[orbitalwalsh]

Looking good! Set pump speed to lowest when filling her up , makes life easier in all cases.

 

[LuckyBenski]

Draining is harder than filling. Managed to get maybe 85-90% of the distilled water out but there are a couple of bits I can't. I'll leave them in as I have 1L of coolant handy and the loop takes ~1.1L.

Leak tested for a week as I've had a lot on, hopefully I can run all my cables, install PSU and fill tomorrow. Thank god for bank holidays!

 

[bbbearrr]

new to watercooling and enjoyed looking through the pics of the process. am i right in thinking the pump is the block at the bottom of the reservoir ?

When it comes to leak testing whats the process there? just plug the pump in and watch the water move through the loop? what happens if you do have a leak and it gets on a pcb? watercooling has always impressed me but terrifies me at the thought of trying it lol

enjoyed looking through your pics of the process!

 

[LuckyBenski]

new to watercooling and enjoyed looking through the pics of the process. am i right in thinking the pump is the block at the bottom of the reservoir ?

When it comes to leak testing whats the process there? just plug the pump in and watch the water move through the loop? what happens if you do have a leak and it gets on a pcb? watercooling has always impressed me but terrifies me at the thought of trying it lol

enjoyed looking through your pics of the process!

Thanks! I did a LOT of reading last year but still found the entire process scary.

More or less yes, the block is referred to as a pump top and the cylinder under it is the pump. These days they're generally available as a unit but that's how the mechanism works.

Yep, put some water in the reservoir, if it doesn't leak anywhere, run the pump to push it along, put more in, keep watching all joints. It's sensible to leak test with the PSU removed and certainly don't turn the PC itself on. Just power the pump externally, and any leaks can be caught on paper towels or mopped up. If a component gets wet, dry it before using!

Hopefully filling and closing up the build tonight!

 

[bbbearrr]

Good luck with it!

I'll keep an eye on this thread in the mean time

 

[dave28]

Yea good luck, hope it works out well for you

 

[Bluntwrapped]

Looking great so far. I have the same RAM in my system, it's brilliant stuff for tweaking. 2666 is a big ask so there's every chance the CPU won't post with the XMP setting enabled. If you can't get it to boot I would recommend manually tuning the frequency, timing and voltage to 2400 10-12-12-31-1 1.65v. Could potentially save you some hassle so I thought it was worth mentioning lol.

 

[LuckyBenski]

Looking great so far. I have the same RAM in my system, it's brilliant stuff for tweaking. 2666 is a big ask so there's every chance the CPU won't post with the XMP setting enabled. If you can't get it to boot I would recommend manually tuning the frequency, timing and voltage to 2400 10-12-12-31-1 1.65v. Could potentially save you some hassle so I thought it was worth mentioning lol.

Ah thanks, that's really good to know! I was planning to go straight to XMP, maybe a bit arrogant on that one.

 

[Bluntwrapped]

If you manage to get it running at 2666, it's likely going to be slower than at 2400 with the timings above.

When you go beyond the max frequency of your CPU's IMC, the system may still be stable but the read/write performance will plummet compared to a lower frequency.

I only had a very quick chance to test the kits with a Haswell chip, but 35000 read/write at 2400mhz drops to 21000 when I enable 2666 XMP. Quite the difference if you're looking to optimise everything.

 

[Legend]

Looking good. Interesting that you managed to bend that tubing without any issues. I've seen Alphacool themselves say they don't recommend heat bending it, as it can cause the frosted appearance to change, but seems you didn't suffer from that, which is good.

 

[LuckyBenski]

Thanks!

Looking good. Interesting that you managed to bend that tubing without any issues. I've seen Alphacool themselves say they don't recommend heat bending it, as it can cause the frosted appearance to change, but seems you didn't suffer from that, which is good.

Interesting, I didn't know that! I did find that the more I worked the tubing, it sheened over. The piece I used for measuring, test fits etc ended up worn quite smooth. Skin oils from handling also made it shinier and more clear. I tried polishing it too, to see how that looked. Lots of experimentation. Then I went ahead and used fresh tubing for all the real pieces.

Bending went ok I thought! Wish I could afford enough fittings for a proper straight tubing build haha.

Must add more photos tonight. Systems been running a few weeks.