Is this going to be a problem?

[kenny saunders]

The is probably an obvious question but I am assuming the pics are work in progress before you added the gpu, and that the other plugged port on the bottom rad will be going to the bottom port on the distro plate, just trying to visualise the final loop. If so then it looks like you are using the top fill port on the Res as the integral return to the Res from the front rad, as well as a fill port. With that type of Res and that loop order you will always be getting air going up the fill line and back into the front rad, it won't get trapped in the Res as it should in normal Res setups. What you've effectively got there is a very small old fashioned Tee line between the Res and the front rad, which were used in the olden times before reservoirs became the norm It will also be a sod to fill, as you seem to have found. With that tiny effective Tee line you basically have no capacity for trapping air away from the rad, and so you will have to make sure the loop is completely filled, and I mean completely. It would have been better to have used one of the inlet ports on the bottom of the Res, rather than trying to use the fill port as the inlet, if it was me.

Yeah where the ball valve drain port is here is actually the manufacturer defined inlet port to the res, I think I only used the top one so as not to block the res with a tube but I guess I can send it up the side of the res. Also another downside is the noise from the water dropping into the res was annoying. I'll have to abandon this and go from the front rad out, straight to the proper inlet of the res. And just forget about the fill port, just simply stick the bottle nozzle in the res.

Can you explain what is happening here, why the water drops when i turn the pump on then refills when i turn it off? I assume there is air in the system, is it in the top rad or the front?

https://1drv.ms/v/s!ApDZ5zl1onU8gt0ijlj8YQnVnd6BaQ

 

[LuckyBenski]

Yes - the fluid falls out of that return tube, and the return tube is left with air instead. When you pump water through the loop it fills the return tube and the reservoir water level drops.

If you have the return from your loop below the air level (or fill level really) then this won't happen. Any air pushed around the loop will escape into the top of the res but the water in the tubes will stay in them. It's the same principle if you add a return to the top of a cylindrical reservoir - you need a tube which pushes this returning fluid below the water level, so the fluid doesn't "fall out" and let air in the return tube.

 

[Bubo]

@kenny saunders

What I would do turn the bottom res rad around so the ports are at the front of the case. You can then connect the frontmost port on the bottom rad direct to the proper inlet on the res. The other port on the bottom rad can then be sent up to the front rad, since this will be the backmost port on the rad it will go behind the res and be hidden to some extent, and you shouldn't need to redo the line between the front rad and top rad. The outlet from the res would then go direct to the distro plate. This means losing the middle pump you have there altogether, but as others have said you don't need this extra pump, and it will look way cleaner. The loop would then be: proper res inlet>pump>res outlet>distro bottom>GPU>CPU>distro top>top rad>front rad>bottom rad>proper res inlet. You can still use the fill port with this, drain would go on the proper drain port, or if it gets in the way of the outlet in the above loop do without or try and use the spare inlet port on that res as a drain. Or you could put a drain in the line from the res outlet to the distro plate. Personally I have no qualms about not having a proper drain and either siphon water out of the fill port when it comes to it or just turn the case upside down.

edit: I always get res and rad mixed up when typing out this stuff

 

[kenny saunders]

@kenny saunders

What I would do turn the bottom res rad around so the ports are at the front of the case. You can then connect the frontmost port on the bottom rad direct to the proper inlet on the res. The other port on the bottom rad can then be sent up to the front rad, since this will be the backmost port on the rad it will go behind the res and be hidden to some extent, and you shouldn't need to redo the line between the front rad and top rad. The outlet from the res would then go direct to the distro plate. This means losing the middle pump you have there altogether, but as others have said you don't need this extra pump, and it will look way cleaner. The loop would then be: proper res inlet>pump>res outlet>distro bottom>GPU>CPU>distro top>top rad>front rad>bottom rad>proper res inlet. You can still use the fill port with this, drain would go on the proper drain port, or if it gets in the way of the outlet in the above loop do without or try and use the spare inlet port on that res as a drain. Or you could put a drain in the line from the res outlet to the distro plate. Personally I have no qualms about not having a proper drain and either siphon water out of the fill port when it comes to it or just turn the case upside down.

edit: I always get res and rad mixed up when typing out this stuff

Yeah thanks. I might do something close to that but I spent £200 on that pump/top/brackets so I'm at least going to use them until I switch the fluid after 6 months. One thing I would really be interested in at that time would be to have the res mounted to the case somehow then I could have all EK X3M fans.