Help with working out what I need.

Vince · 13 Nov 2017 at 20:04

Evening lads, I have been digging around the overclockers site for the last few nights trying to build a basket of what it is I need to watercool my rig and have been failing quite miserably. I am getting lost in sizes of tubes, fittings and what kind of rad space I actually need. I am also wondering what pump and res is best or should I get one of these all in one jobbies. I am looking to cool just my GPU at first and once that's all good I was planning to add my processor into the loop as well.

The GPU is a Vega 56 and the chip is a Threadripper 1950x. There is an image of it below albeit I am currently running the Asus x399 Prime at the moment and not the Taichi in the pic. This could end up changing again in the next few weeks to the Gigabyte Designare.

The things I am basically set on are:

- EK Vega Nickel Block
- EK Nickel Backplate
- EK Supremacy Evo Full Nickel
- I want hardline tubing but no idea which diameter is best.
- Has to be smart and fit the current colour scheme which is blue/black/silver

The last time I watercooled anything was probably back during the days of Barton 2500m and the ati 9700 pro so its been a while and watercooling appears to have come a long way since then. Any help on this or suggestions on fixings to use tube size, rads to use etc would be a massive help.

Cheers lads.

Doobedoo · 13 Nov 2017 at 20:09

What case is that?From the looks of it you can fit a 360mm in the front and a 240mm up top?

Where were you planning to put the pump and res? It looks quite tight for space in there.

Vince · 13 Nov 2017 at 20:12

Doobedoo said:
What case is that?From the looks of it you can fit a 360mm in the front and a 240mm up top?

Where were you planning to put the pump and res? It looks quite tight for space in there.

Good point... Case is Corsair 460X.

Not sure on positioning of stuff yet but the case is quite deep.

Doobedoo · 13 Nov 2017 at 20:21

Ok so you an fit a 360mm rad in the front with a maximum height of 395mm and a 240mm in the top.

That flappy bit at the bottom near the fans, is that a removable or slide-able pat of the shroud?

Vince · 13 Nov 2017 at 20:24

Doobedoo said:
Ok so you an fit a 360mm rad in the front with a maximum height of 395mm and a 240mm in the top.

That flappy bit at the bottom near the fans, is that a removable or slide-able pat of the shroud?

Yea you can remove the shrouds. Right now there are a couple of 8tb hard disks and a psu under there.

Doobedoo · 13 Nov 2017 at 20:28

I was thinking of the possibility of mounting the pump and res there. You may have to mount it horizontally on top of the shroud. You really haven't got much space.

Doobedoo · 13 Nov 2017 at 20:49

So far I've come up with this.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x XSPC X4 Photon 170 Reservoir / Pump Combo= £89.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-FC Radeon Vega Backplate - Nickel= £33.95
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-FC Radeon Vega - Nickel= £104.99
1 x Magicool G2 Slim radiator 16 FPI - 240mm= £27.95
1 x MagiCool Copper Radiator III - 360 mm= £36.95
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-Supremacy EVO Threadripper Edition - Nickel= £52.99
2 x EK Water Blocks EK-HD PETG Tube 16/12mm 500mm (2pcs)= £6.95
6 x EK Water Blocks EK-HDC Fitting 16mm G1/4 - Nickel= £5.99
4 x EK Water Blocks EK-HDC Fitting 16mm G1/4 - Elox Black= £5.99
1 x EK Water Blocks EK-AF Ball Valve (10mm) G14 - Black= £14.99

Total: £446.11
(includes shipping: £10.50)

The tank and pump an lay on top of the shroud but you may have to double check measurements.

I've never done hard tubing so maybe someone else can advise further but potentially I have included the bits you may need, unless you want smaller diameter tubing. Their is both black and Nickel fittings so you can have one or the other or even something completely different, my thinking was the nickel would offset the black rads and the black would offset the Nickel blocks.

I have included the drain tap but not the extra fittings to plumb it in or for the t-piece so adjust accordingly if you want the drain tap. Other than that you may want to use 90 degree elbows to make tubing runs neater.

There is a start at least if you need to refine it or adjust then just give us your feedback.

Vince · 13 Nov 2017 at 20:50

Doobedoo said:
I was thinking of the possibility of mounting the pump and res there. You may have to mount it horizontally on top of the shroud. You really haven't got much space.

I am sure I can find space. It will be compact but thats fine

Vince · 13 Nov 2017 at 21:20

Doobedoo said:
So far I've come up with this.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x XSPC X4 Photon 170 Reservoir / Pump Combo= £89.99

1 x EK Water Blocks EK-FC Radeon Vega Backplate - Nickel= £33.95

1 x EK Water Blocks EK-FC Radeon Vega - Nickel= £104.99

1 x Magicool G2 Slim radiator 16 FPI - 240mm= £27.95

1 x MagiCool Copper Radiator III - 360 mm= £36.95

1 x EK Water Blocks EK-Supremacy EVO Threadripper Edition - Nickel= £52.99

2 x EK Water Blocks EK-HD PETG Tube 16/12mm 500mm (2pcs)= £6.95

6 x EK Water Blocks EK-HDC Fitting 16mm G1/4 - Nickel= £5.99

4 x EK Water Blocks EK-HDC Fitting 16mm G1/4 - Elox Black= £5.99

1 x EK Water Blocks EK-AF Ball Valve (10mm) G14 - Black= £14.99

Total: £446.11
(includes shipping: £10.50)

The tank and pump an lay on top of the shroud but you may have to double check measurements.

I've never done hard tubing so maybe someone else can advise further but potentially I have included the bits you may need, unless you want smaller diameter tubing. Their is both black and Nickel fittings so you can have one or the other or even something completely different, my thinking was the nickel would offset the black rads and the black would offset the Nickel blocks.

I have included the drain tap but not the extra fittings to plumb it in or for the t-piece so adjust accordingly if you want the drain tap. Other than that you may want to use 90 degree elbows to make tubing runs neater.

There is a start at least if you need to refine it or adjust then just give us your feedback.

That doesn't look half bad that. I like the pump/res combo and am quite sure I could find a place for it. I wonder is there any benefit going 16mm over say 12mm. With space etc 12mm might be more manageable but how does cooling capacity etc compare?

Doobedoo · 13 Nov 2017 at 21:23

Vince said:
That doesn't look half bad that. I like the pump/res combo and am quite sure I could find a place for it. I wonder is there any benefit going 16mm over say 12mm. With space etc 12mm might be more manageable but how does cooling capacity etc compare?

I think it's only for ascetic purposes really as the rad and blocks will be the bottleneck regarding flow.

Doobedoo · 13 Nov 2017 at 21:28

Maybe it might be worth you taking a trip over to youtube to have a look at some pipe bending videos. That may give you a better idea as to what's involved and how you may do it.

Vince · 13 Nov 2017 at 21:35

Doobedoo said:
I think it's only for ascetic purposes really as the rad and blocks will be the bottleneck regarding flow.

I was just having a look through and it appears that there are more options for fittings, 90 degree ones etc with the 12mm fittings that are not available in the bigger sizes. I just wonder if it is a bit more difficult bending and getting the smaller tubes right.

Doobedoo · 13 Nov 2017 at 22:09

Vince said:
I was just having a look through and it appears that there are more options for fittings, 90 degree ones etc with the 12mm fittings that are not available in the bigger sizes. I just wonder if it is a bit more difficult bending and getting the smaller tubes right.

I couldn't tell you to be honest. I'd imagine anything that is smaller will be more fragile but ultimately I guess it depends on what you want and how much effort your willing to put into it.

You could always buy a pack of either and have a go for yourself.

Vince · 13 Nov 2017 at 22:16

Doobedoo said:
I couldn't tell you to be honest. I'd imagine anything that is smaller will be more fragile but ultimately I guess it depends on what you want and how much effort your willing to put into it.

You could always buy a pack of either and have a go for yourself.

I think I may just do that, bending it shouldn't be rocket science, a heat gun and different size sockets screwed onto a board should do for all my bending needs. Done right it could be really nice, done wrong and I could murder many components. I just want it to be quieter. It's quite now but vega can be noisy, so under water I should be able to live again in silence. I might change the colour of the shroud while I am doing it, I was having a look just now and there is space between the front of the case and the drive bracketry, I might even be able to come up with some modifications to the shroud and HDD location to allow me to mount the res/rad at the bottom with the res/tubes coming up through the shroud.

Doobedoo · 13 Nov 2017 at 22:21

The other option is to use straight pieces of tube and 90 degree fittings for your bends. It can't that hard though, surely, with a bit of practice and many cups of tea you'll have that knocked up in no time. I see quite a lot of builds nowadays using hard tubing so it's more than possible.

Now the fun begins as you imagine many different ways of doing it. Good luck and keep us informed.

Something like this may also come in handy.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

1 x EK Water Blocks EK-HD Tube D.I.Y. Kit 10&12mm= £12.95

Total: £21.65
(includes shipping: £8.70)

Vince · 13 Nov 2017 at 22:24

Is this any good?

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ek-water-blocks-ek-xres-140-revo-d5-pwm-incl.-pump-wc-886-ek.html

It's got a smaller diameter/footrpint than the previous pump/res combo and I can mount it just above the video card at the back of the case. Or even at the bottom with some modifications to the shroud. I think it would look best done like that tbh, more work but a better finish.

Also rads, there are massive difference in prices for the same footprint rads. Are the EK rads worth double the magicool?

Doobedoo · 13 Nov 2017 at 22:29

If you've got the space for it then yeah i'd personally have that over the other one.

Also if you use the correct fluid it should be non conductive, so even if you do have a little leak when testing your loop, you shouldn't kill anything.

Vince · 13 Nov 2017 at 22:46

Doobedoo said:
If you've got the space for it then yeah i'd personally have that over the other one.

Also if you use the correct fluid it should be non conductive, so even if you do have a little leak when testing your loop, you shouldn't kill anything.

I think I am going to do it, perhaps over the next week or so ill start getting the parts in. I did try the Eiswolf to quieten the Vega down but I didn't much like it. Aesthetically it was not to my taste so it had to go, I sent it on to another forum member to have a play with so the only option left is to do a full loop. I should really decide on what board I want to be my full time board before I get going which really means ill have to buy the designare in the next few weeks as that's looking the most promising. Otherwise I am going back to the Taichi and living with some of its shortcomings.

Kei · 14 Nov 2017 at 09:13

Personally, having got pretty much identical hardware that is water cooled, I'd substitute the ek CPU block for the xspc, phanteks or of you can find it, the heatkiller as they have the full size cold plate whereas the ek block has the same fin area as the other supremacy blocks.

Mine is cooled with 480 & 240 alphacool xt45 radiators and peak temps are around 48 on the GPU and 68 on the CPU. It's able to push the ambient temp in my room up from 22 to nearly 30 at this time of year. I keep having to open the window to cool the ambient back down. I'm dreading next summer.

Vince · 14 Nov 2017 at 14:15

Kei said:
Personally, having got pretty much identical hardware that is water cooled, I'd substitute the ek CPU block for the xspc, phanteks or of you can find it, the heatkiller as they have the full size cold plate whereas the ek block has the same fin area as the other supremacy blocks.

Mine is cooled with 480 & 240 alphacool xt45 radiators and peak temps are around 48 on the GPU and 68 on the CPU. It's able to push the ambient temp in my room up from 22 to nearly 30 at this time of year. I keep having to open the window to cool the ambient back down. I'm dreading next summer.

Hmmm I did not realise this and info like this is why I posted. Thanks for the heads up! I guess then that I will swap that over to the XSPC model which I assuming just does a better job. I am not one for worrying too much about temps if I am honest, so long as its pretty silent and not overly hot I am happy. I will probably never be worrying about ambient temps etc it will get fitted up and pretty much forgotten about providing the temps are decent at the beginning.