First WC Build

radial

radial

radial

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Joined
8 Apr 2009
Posts
41
Hello chaps,

After much messing about with dodgy AIO's I've decided to do a custom loop, it'll be my fist ever so go easy on me :)

I am a watercooling moron, so I think I'll buy a kit from OC rather than messing about with individual parts, but looking at other peoples builds I really like the idea of 45º and 90º fittings with Acrylic Tubing, would I be biting off more than I can chew going this route for my first loop or should I stick with a kit?

The one I'm looking at is: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-308-XS

So I am going to be cooling a 4790K which will be overclocked at some point, and I have a GTX980 (which I don't think I am going to add to the loop just yet but I will do as and when I add a second one I think.

With that in mind I believe the kit I've chosen above should be just fine for the CPU & SLI although overkill for the CPU on its own for the time being.

Am I good to go with the above kit? and would you guys recommend I just go for distilled water and coloured tube or a pre mixed fluid (thinking Mayhems X1 UV Green as it matches my build theme) and the clear tube that comes with the kit?

I am going to be building in an NZXT H440 Special Edition so any tips as to where to place the res/pump? I assume I am likely going to have to make some minor mods to the case to allow for fitment of the res/pump

So many questions, I'm sure I'll have more.. Thank you for any input :)

R.
 
The parts in this kit are great in terms of quality and performance.
I would stick to normal(bendy) tubing for now as it is included in the kit anyway(and so are the fittings).
It is also much easier to use and there is quite a steep learning curve (and increased cost!) if going for hard acrylic tubing as you will have to buy the bend kit, new fittings etc..

This would be fine for your cpu + a gtx980 however if adding a second gtx980 I would make sure you have good fans (push/pull) as a 360mm may not quite cut it . - it will work but maybe not at the temperatures you are looking for. You can always add another 240mm in the future anyway I guess..
 
Thanks for the reply dude, I think you're right I'll go with the standard fittings and tube for now...

Should I go with clear tube and a dyed fluid or distilled water and coloured tubing, I'm seeing pros and cons for both, but after quite a bit of reading I'm swaying toward coloured tubing and distilled water/kill coil, if I go this route should I use some sort of anti-corrosion treatment?

I've read in many places a 360mm rad is fine for a CPU & SLI, but I have the room for up to another 360mm rad should I need it, will this help massively or is it a marginal thing?

I guess I should also think about adding a drain point too, not sure how I'm going to fit all this in, but it'll be a good challenge.
 
REALLY nice mate, exactly the sort of thing I would like to achieve, but I think I'll probably go for that on a second build, I'd like to get a little experience under my belt first - get all the first time nerves out of my system :)

Subbed to the thread to see how it goes though :)
 
The XSPC bundles are pretty decent quality wise apart from the tubing,xspc tubing is pretty bad when combined with dyed coolant.,maybe a little expensive imo

Heres pretty much an identical setup but £40 cheaper

Same pump/res,slightly better Cpu block,better fittings,plus the extra you would need for a GPU(i just selected red,but that can be changed),better tubing,similar rad.All that it needs added are fans and coolant,but your £40 saving over the bundle could easily cover them too

YOUR BASKET
1 x XSPC D5 Photon 170 Reservoir/Pump Combo £129.95
1 x XSPC EX360 120mm Radiator - Black £47.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-Supremacy MX £34.99
1 x Monsoon 16/10mm (ID 3/8 OD 5/8) Free Center Compression Fitting Six Pack - Red £24.95
1 x Primochill Primoflex Advanced Tubing 16/10 - Clear £5.99
2 x Monsoon 16/10mm (ID 3/8 OD 5/8) Free Center Compression Fitting - Red £4.99 (£9.98)
Total : £263.45 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 
For your first loop I would stick to bendy tubing. It's a helluva lot easier.

I did a build in the H440 recently with the XSPC RX360 in push pull in the front and a thin push 240mm in the top of the case.

That only just fit with my pump/res mounted on the front rad and between my GPU and top rad. You can see how I fit it all in here.

I chose clear tubing with coloured coolant over coloured tubing so I can drain and refill to change colour rather than draining and changing all the tubing then refilling. I also prefer the look of this, it feels more real and the res is also coloured.

Drain points help but aren't a necessity. I don't have one cause I don't empty my loop often enough.
 
MrMD said:
The XSPC bundles are pretty decent quality wise apart from the tubing,xspc tubing is pretty bad when combined with dyed coolant.,maybe a little expensive imo

Heres pretty much an identical setup but £40 cheaper

Same pump/res,slightly better Cpu block,better fittings,plus the extra you would need for a GPU(i just selected red,but that can be changed),better tubing,similar rad.All that it needs added are fans and coolant,but your £40 saving over the bundle could easily cover them too

YOUR BASKET
1 x XSPC D5 Photon 170 Reservoir/Pump Combo £129.95
1 x XSPC EX360 120mm Radiator - Black £47.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-Supremacy MX £34.99
1 x Monsoon 16/10mm (ID 3/8 OD 5/8) Free Center Compression Fitting Six Pack - Red £24.95
1 x Primochill Primoflex Advanced Tubing 16/10 - Clear £5.99
2 x Monsoon 16/10mm (ID 3/8 OD 5/8) Free Center Compression Fitting - Red £4.99 (£9.98)
Total : £263.45 (includes shipping : £8.00).

Click to expand...

Much prefer this over the EK bundle, even if it is just because of the nice fittings :p

Regarding the drain port,
I personally do not have a drain port because I just pull the pump outside the case and undo one of the hose's.
There are some good suggestions in this thread
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18659429

If using distilled water you should only need to add a few drops of a biocide.
 
I have the black Monsoon fittings,they are very nice :D

They hella tight out the box tho,had to use pliers to be able to separate them the first time:eek:
 
OK... I've looked at the options given above, and while I really appreciate the input I've changed the CPU block, I don't like the look of the suggested one unfortunately so have changed back to the Raystorm as I really like the look of that one, especially when I get some green LEDs under it (will this make a huge difference?).

Question, how much fluid will I need to fill the loop, also should I buy some distilled water to flush the rad etc (should I flush with boiled water as I've seen suggested elsewhere?)

If I was to go completely balls out at the start and add the second rad and gpu block/backplate, does the below spec look good to go or would you make any changes?

I currently have an assortment of fans, Akasa Apache Black, Corsair SP120 and Akasa Piranhas, are any of these OK for the set up? Noise isn't a massive issue, but fan headers might be (running off of an Asus Z97 Sabertooth Mark 1) I do have some PWM splitters with Molex power so as long as I have enough PWM headers then I can speed control the fans in banks.

My one major concern is space in the case, I think if I mount the 360mm in the front and the 240mm in the top I will have a spare 120mm space at the top to feed a fill port through, but mounting the pump/res is going to be a challenge, I will measure up shortly to make sure it'll all fit, I *think* it will...

Will I have any issues with the above with mixed metals or anything, it's all copper but copper/brass in the rad?

YOUR BASKET
1 x XSPC D5 Photon 170 Reservoir/Pump Combo £129.95
1 x XSPC Razor GTX 980 Waterblock £89.99
1 x XSPC RayStorm CPU WaterBlock (Intel) £49.99
1 x XSPC EX360 120mm Radiator - Black £47.99
1 x XSPC EX240 120mm Radiator - Black £37.99
2 x Monsoon 16/10mm (ID 3/8 OD 5/8) Free Center Compression Fitting Six Pack - Green £24.95 (£49.90)
1 x XSPC Razor GTX 980 Backplate £21.98
2 x Mayhems X1 UV Green Premixed Watercooling Fluid 1L £7.99 (£15.98)
1 x XSPC Hose Cutter (0-25mm) £6.95
1 x XSPC LCD Temperature Sensor (Green) V2 + G1/4" Plug Sensor £5.99
2 x Primochill Primoflex Advanced Tubing 16/10 - Clear £5.99 (£11.98)
1 x Bitspower 24 Pin ATX Always ON connector (BP-WTP-J02) £1.99
Total : £480.28 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Thank you so much for the help so far, this is FAR further than I ever got with WC before, I'm actually nearing the stage of ordering (pending feedback) which is something I never through I'd do :)
 
You build list looks fine m8

Only problem i can see is the temp sesnor,the only place you have to plug it into is the extra ports the GPU blocks,that would be a little untidy imo

Get these instead

COLOR="Yellow"]YOUR BASKET[/COLOR]
1 x XSPC LCD Temperature Sensor (Green) V2 + G1/4" Inline Sensor £8.99
1 x Bitspower IG1/4" Extender - Black Matte Finish £2.99
Total : £14.26 (includes shipping : £1.90).




Plug the the 1/4' extender into the T junction with the sesnor in it,then attach this to the in or out on the pump.Then continue the loop as normal.
The fans you have will be fine for rads,probily not even that loud either as they are static pressure optimized,so you dont have to run them at full speed for good performance.
To be extra sure get 2 bottles of coolant.My 240m rad/cpu loop uses just over 500ml,1l on your setup is probily pushing it
Regarding the fillport ect,im not to familar with the 440,some1 else im sure will let you know tho :)
 
Last edited:
Thank you :)

What about if I just went for one of the multiport rads instead would I be able to install the sensor in one of the unused ports? or would that be a bad idea?
 
radial said:
Thank you :)

What about if I just went for one of the multiport rads instead would I be able to install the sensor in one of the unused ports? or would that be a bad idea?
Click to expand...

Yea you could that,again depending on positioning ect it may look a little untidy,but no other reason not to do it this way if you wanted

Edit:

I just relised i linked the wrong extender for my proposed solution above ^^ lol
Its this extender you would want not the bitspower one,my bad

YOUR BASKET
1 x XSPC G1/4" 10mm Male to Male Fitting (Chrome) £1.79
Total : £4.07 (includes shipping : £1.90).

 
Last edited:
Thanks bud :) I'll mull it over this evening how I want to do it.

Last one from above, anyone know if I will have any issues with the above with mixed metals or anything, I think it's all copper but copper/brass in the rad?
 
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