HAF2O Build

Gazibaldi

Gazibaldi

Gazibaldi

Associate
Joined
11 Feb 2009
Posts
28
Hi everyone,

I've not long finished my new i7 build (920, Rampage II, GTX295, Enermax Revo 1050 PSU) in my HAF 932 case. It's great but I fancy watercooling it. I've never water cooled before so I'm a bit unsure on what's best. I haven't actually spec'd anything up hardware wise yeah, but here is my plan:

double rad in the roof of the case with fans blowing out,
single rad in the back with fan blowing out,
Res (with two inlets and one out, probably the EK Multioption) running to pump, which then y splits,
one split going to the single rad, then to the cpu block and back to res,
other split going to double rad, then to gpu, then nb then back to the res.

Air in wise, I'm going leave the side fan as an inlet and the front fan to blow in and give a little extra air and to cool the HDDs.

I've already have the chip upto 4Ghz on air (running a Noctua cooler) but not at volts and temp I'm comfortable with for 24/7. Ideally I want the above solution to give me the 4Ghz 24/7 stability I'm after.

Any thoughts?
 
Last edited:
Two loops - use a pair of 10W DDCs with XSPC reservoir tops. Anything else with just be a compromise.
 
choose some things carefully.

Laing pumps as WJA96 says are the most convenient. Never seen the need for the custom tops though. I have 2x18w DDC's powering my cpu/nb loop and although they are attached using the hardwareluxx dual attachment, this is just for convenience. The 18w version with standard top will outperform the 10w no matter what top u put on it.

Make sure reservoir is mounted above pumps for easy filling.

Radiators mounted at the bottom of the case are guaranteed to fill with no air, but if you are using them to intake air into the case then heat from components will be dumped into the case.

I used to have a single loop powered by the 2 18w DDCs. Would first send hot water to the radiator at the top of the case (blackice GT 360) to get rid of 90% of the heat. Then i had a thermochill pa120.2 at the bottom of the case just to get a couple more degrees out the water.

Tubing size should be 3/8" rather than 1/2". 1/2" is a pain in the *** and has no advantages over 3/8".

EK Supreme is now available with i7 bracket, but i believe swiftech gtx is most popular waterblock for these chips atm. I personally use dtek fuzion, brackets for 1366 are available for these blocks on XS forums.

How you planning on cooling the NB??

Jubilee clips are the best way of fastening tube to barbs.

Best radiators to use are thermochill/feser. I would probably choose feser these days (even though ive never owned one) as they use G1/4 fittings rather than 3/8 fittings on the thermochill rads.

Any more questions, id be happy to help :D

heres a link to how my rig looks (well kinda different now as the specs have changed...but gives u an idea!)

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=57693
 
oh yer...coolant! Use a 5-10% mix of a decent antifreeze mix...such as mobil, and 90% deionised water. Dont use a fancy UV coolant or something or you will probably find crap growing in ur loop or in ur blocks before long (speaking from experience :P)
 
Cheers for the reply guys.

So far I haven't really settled on any brand or gone to far in depth into the setup as I want to get the layout straight first then bash away at the individual products later.

I've read good things about the thermo rads and the fesers look good too, if a little more expensive.

i'd probably go with the recommended nb block from the rampage's manual, which I think is a swiftech. Ii was looking at the GTZ for the block too but they seem to be pretty rare these days so will probably go for the EK Supreme like you mentioned.

I don't really fancy having two separate reservoirs as i'd like to use the fillport on the top of the HAF if I can. What i will probably do is have the res feed two pumps using a t section that will then feed the loops.

Will a single rad (probably a feser as I normally do end up paying a little more if I know I'm getting the quality) be sufficient to cool the cpu and NB? I figured since it was all going to end up back in the single res, it would all essentially get mixed up and go through both loops anyway which should keep the overall flow temps of the liquid down yeah?
 
I'd go dual loops rather than faffing around with splitting the flow with a y-tube and possibly getting one half getting crap flow and running too hot. Not sure what heat dump the northbridge is likely to put into the loop - could you not have two loops; one 120.2 for cpu and the other 120.2 for the graphics and nb?

What's your budget?
 
Not really got a budget. I'd like to keep it reasonable if possible (if only to not have to explain it to the girlfriend). About £170 - £200 would be nice, much higher and I'm into frivolous expenditure lecture territory :)

Like I say I doubt really have the first clue about it really other than the research I've done so far. If the consensus is two separate loops are better I'll take that and run with that. One loop will have to be a single size rad tho. I doubt I can get two double rads in the HAF.
 
i used to run 1 loop on all the same pipework...dont split into parallel or u will get problems. The hardwareluxx attchment i got from coolercases.co.uk but it was intended for the older orange impellor DDC pumps not the newer 3.2 blue impellor DDCs. Whether they have changed it to be compatible now i dont know. Got the bracket for it from specialtech.co.uk just made the bottom plate to take the place of my hard drive rack in the lian li case.

two loops (as i run now with 3 pumps lol) is easier for maintenance...but more messy. acryan do a cool reservoir somewhere thats split down the middle and caters for two loops nicely. Swiftech micro res is a good choice if ur not using overkill pumps (like i kinda do :P).

Ive never had a problem running it all in 1 loop with 2 rads...im certain even with 1 rad i wouldnt have had a problem. Case is much fuller now ive got two loops...but swapping out parts is a bit easier.

i have a PA120.2 cooling the Q6600 in this @ 1.58v. The chip seldom goes above 50 degrees. X38 northbridge is on that loop too
 
What about one of swiftech's pre-made kits??? they would probs be good for someone starting water cooling. I started off with a koolance exos...and for all the jibbing people give them, the thing is excellent.

If you wanna go custom, the feser rad would probably be the best from a leaking point of view...thermochill rads use 3/8npt thread with isnt meant to be used as a water tight seal. Black ice rads also use the thread to seal as well, rather than an o-ring...at least its 1/4bsp though, and u can get round the problem on them by using some things called "dowty washers" check spelling on that :P.
 
Cheers for the advice guys. I'll go with a dual loop, two pump, two res solution. Monday is payday so I'll get the components sorted after that. I'll keep you all posted :)

cheers again.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom