Installing Windows with water-cooling

GoogalyMoogaly · 14 Sep 2010 at 16:54

I'm just about to build my first ever water cooled build from scratch. The thought has just occured to me, should I go with water cooling straight away or should I go with air cooling until I have windows installed and some temp monitoring software?
I'm worried about something going wrong while windows is installing and me not realising.
It would also allow me to compare my temps under water and air. But it would mean unboxing the sealed Titan Fenrir that came with the OC'd bundle.

What do you other guys do?
What would you advise for a first timer?
Build logs seem to miss out the windows install part...

twist3d0n3 · 14 Sep 2010 at 16:58

no.

you only really have to worry about installing windows with everything overclocked, aside from that, just make sure you leak test with no power to the components (obviously power the pump(s))

bifday2k · 14 Sep 2010 at 17:17

As twist said, as long as its leak free, connect everything up as normal, boot up, and install windows as normal.

GoogalyMoogaly · 14 Sep 2010 at 19:05

twist3d0n3 said:
no.

you only really have to worry about installing windows with everything overclocked, aside from that, just make sure you leak test with no power to the components (obviously power the pump(s))

Thanks.
Are there likely to be issues installing while overclocked? Presumably there is an overclocked profile, should I reset the BIOS to defaults for the Windows install and then re-load the OC profile afterwards?
How long should the leak test be done for? I think I've seen people say 'overnight', but what happens if it leaks? by the time you wake up and check you could have a PC full of water and a pump running dry?!

bifday2k said:
As twist said, as long as its leak free, connect everything up as normal, boot up, and install windows as normal.

Thanks. Always nice to have a second opinion.

twist3d0n3 · 14 Sep 2010 at 19:27

with an overclock that you haven't tested, it means you could have instability, which when installing the OS could cause it to cockup (noticeably as in a crash, or even some corruption to the disk which may not show up until a area of the registry is used etc). it's just safer to have everything at stock whilst installing the OS.

if you've already got an oc profile, the best thing to do would be to load that profile, set everything to do with overclocking to auto, then save the profile separately - this way you keep any of your other settings such as raid/sata on-board audio, primary boot drive etc etc.

leak testing is all down to preference, some like to leave it going for 12 hours+ (which is a good idea if it's your first time watercooling) but i'd want to keep an eye on it, some like a couple of hours (like me) as if it's going to leak, it'll be apparent straight away (from experience). At the end of the day, it's your hardware, and only you will suffer if you kill it through lack of care

When leak testing, you put down wads of loo/kitchen roll under every part when the hose is linking into a component (waterblock, pump, rad etc). Then you prime the loop (filling) and cycling the pump as to not let it run dry (quite important in not shortening the life of your pump). once the loop has water whizzing around it, you'll see then if it's going to leak. As i said before, if this is your 1st time, i'd leave it for a bit longer as you can have a hose flying off at any point, which won't be good (ideally, don't do it overnight, do it whilst you can be sat near it to keep an eye on it).

hope you find that helpful