My First Water Cooled PC

Larco79 · 19 Feb 2015 at 15:55

Hi All,

I've been wanting to build a water cooled system for years and after contemplating a decent system update I thought I might as well go the whole hog! the budget was tight but I think I've managed to put together a pretty hardcore system...I'd like to get some feedback so tell me what you think...

Ok starting with my old system (this is what is being replaced):
MoBo: ASAS M3A79-T
CPU: AMD Phenom II 940 BE (3.5Ghz)
GPU: XFX Ati 6950 2gb
CPU Cooler: Generic 120 single fan radiator (cant even remember the name)
RAM: 4x2Gb DDR2 1066Hz Kingston

This is it all over the floor

Time to rebuild the New System:
Mobo: ASUS ROG Maximus Ranger
CPU: Intel i7 4970k (4.6Ghz)
GPU: EVGA GTX 970 SSC v.2 4GB
RAM: 2x4GB DDR3 2400Hz Kingston Hyper X beast
Water blocks: All Alphacool, 480 radiator (4.5cm), D5 pump
SSD: Samsung 850 Evo 250GB (worth a mention)
HDD: 2x 1TB seagate barracuda

And after putting the water pipes in:

Replacement 200mm fan, which i had to actually super-glue into place! i fitted the radiator by taking a circular saw to the top of the case and three screws later and it was in...this is an Antec 900 case which isnt really designed for water cooling...but i like a challenge!

I could only fit one of the 240mm fans due to the heat spreaders on the RAM being slightly too large - so i might replace this at some point...but that does mean 8gb of RAM going to waste and its not really causing an issue

Temps are brilliant, despite the single fan - I guess the 200mm fan makes a big difference...the system will idle at 28-30 degrees both CPU and GPU! under load (Far Cry 4, Grid Autosport and Star Citizen all maxed out) about 45 Degrees 50 at the most!

My best 3D Mark score is 10875 on normal settings, which is apparently in the top 7% - Sweet!

Had the system for about 4 weeks now and its been rock solid - let me know what you think!

Cheers
Larco79

skaif · 19 Feb 2015 at 16:04

Looks good, congrats on your first attempt on watercooling! Glad it went good

Larco79 · 19 Feb 2015 at 22:31

Thanks very much, wasnt nearly as difficult as i thought it was going to be!

Supa Koopa · 20 Feb 2015 at 11:42

Congrats on the build.

Maybe it's just me, but I see flashing warning lights at electronic components spread across a static laden carpet.

Larco79 · 22 Feb 2015 at 13:32

The actual build was done on a glass topped table, I had to lay everything out for taking pictures. There's not a lot of room in our spare room! I take your point but needless to say it wasn't an issue

Raggs · 22 Feb 2015 at 19:04

Nice one congrats looks great i like the alphacool stuff and the d5 pump is great have it in my build. is that a antec case?

Larco79 · 22 Feb 2015 at 19:52

Yeah the alpha cool gear is pretty solid...my only complaint is the dual bay water tank, very bad design with the filler on the front instead of the top...And yes that's an Antec 900, swapped out the fans with some decent corsair ones...had to chop a section out of the 200mm outlet on the top to accommodate the radiator as well

Randall8686 · 23 Feb 2015 at 22:33

Supa Koopa said:
Congrats on the build.

Maybe it's just me, but I see flashing warning lights at electronic components spread across a static laden carpet.

Has any one actually killed any pc component with static ? Many years ago when i was at collage studying Microprocessors with took a then fairly current mobo (AMD XP something or other) and hit it many times with Static we could create including one of those electric balls you put your hand on. We had spark after spark after spark and even a few black marks from striking the board in the same place several times and we could not kill it. We managed to upset the CPU after creating sparks across the pins (on about the 5th attempt) but this was with charged capacitors. I have not used any form of protection (oi oi) for my last 10+ builds and never had any issues. Has any one managed to kill something with static ?

Sarah469 · 24 Feb 2015 at 11:22

is that an antec nine hundred case? I've still got one of those knocking around somewhere lol, nice build grats on your first loop!

Supa Koopa · 24 Feb 2015 at 11:45

In one of my previous places of employment we had a case of dodgy ram. It would work but the system had random crashes errors which were fixed when the ram was replaced. The guy in question had a habit of just removing pc components and leave them laying around. I don't think they just fail but can cause them to go a bit shady. JMHO

Larco79 · 25 Feb 2015 at 00:36

I've been building my own rigs for about 15 years and static has never been an issue. Mate of mine once told me about a system he fried, something about a dodgy molex cable aparently...

pigeonguyuk · 25 Feb 2015 at 01:13

Sarah469 said:
is that an antec nine hundred case? I've still got one of those knocking around somewhere lol, nice build grats on your first loop!

antec 300 looks farmiliar to my old 300 many years ago