My new water build...

[*Rich*]

Hi all,

Firstly i hope this is in the right place. If not sorry.

My aim is to have a fairly decent Gaming/editing PC that isn't constantly stressed by being on the edge of it's limits.

So after changing a few components around in my old system, i decided i'd just start a whole new build. This has taken place over the last few weeks, with a couple of minor niggles to sort out.

After using a X58 Gigabyte board (Guerilla G1) i decided i had to have another G1 board, so i went for the G1 Sniper 3 this time, Z77. 4 PCI-e slots (2x 16x and 2x 8x plus a few more too)

The CPU i chose is the familiar 3770K, which handles everything i need easily.
I was using a Noctua NH-U12P SE2, very good air cooler and kept my chip in check at 31'c idle, not sure on loaded as i never really stressed it.

Ram is 16GB of Kingston Hyper X 1600mhz XMP. A bit overkill, but got it at a good price when on offer.

GPU's come in the form of 2 x Gainward Phantom GTX 680 4GB.

Storage is sorted by 2 x 1tb WD HDD's and the operating system runs on a Corsair 360gb GS SSD.

The case is the Cooler master Cosmos 2. (yes it's bloody huge). Lots of room and easy to work inside.

Monitor is a Asus VG278H 27" 120hz 3D @ 1920x1080p. It's a res i like and don't want anything bigger really.

Anyway here's some pictures of the progress....

First up a picture just before i decided to water cool it.

Stripped out ready to install water blocks etc..

GPU's ready for the chop lol, very nervous about taking them apart as they aren't that old.

Fan section removed.

Stripped open. heatsink visible.

The bit that makes it go

New XSPC waterblock ready to go on...

And the bottom side too...

Radiators used are XSPC EX360 and RX240.

Close up so you can see the difference in the fin structure...EX on the right.

After fitting a few more bits, XSPC dual bay res/pump routing the tubes and fitting the CPU block, (EK supremacy full Nickel)
I was ready for some leak testing....(eek, very scared in case i missed something)

All went well and managed to get rid of the bubbles too...

And the nearly finished rig.

The fan controller is in the bottom for now, as i don't have anywhere for it to live until i think of something.
Temps are much cooler too, CPU idles between 22'c and 27'c and the GPU's sit around 24'c @Idle. I'll do some tests soon to see what they are loaded.



As this is my first ever water cooled pc, what do you think of it? Have i missed anything?

 

[*Rich*]

Thanks.

Do it, it was my first time with water.

 

[*Rich*]

Cheers. I nearly had the aquagrafix blocks, glad I got these in the end.

 

[*Rich*]

No I'm exhausting out the top, need to fit three more fans up top so it's push pull setup.

Rear fan is also exhaust as the front case fan is intake so hopefully air will flow through ok.

Bottom fans are push pull but they have their own section of case.

Cheers.

 

[*Rich*]

Nice build. What temps are you getting?

Thanks.

Both gpu's sit around 24 idle and I've only had 48'c max in bf3 so far.

Cpu seems to idle around 25ish not seen loaded temp yet.

 

[*Rich*]

gorgeous build matey. Please show us your temps under load

you mean screen shots?

 

[*Rich*]

Thank you.

Just the water cooling parts all came to £580, all from ocuk.

It can be done cheaper, rads can be cheaper and the cpu block could also be cheaper too.

 

[*Rich*]

Ok so i'm trying my hand at overclocking the CPU on its own before attempting the gpu's.

What can you tell me from this picture? Is voltage too high or is it ok?

The only things i've changed are, turned off turbo mode, turned off c states, adjusted vcore manually and adjusted core multiplier manually.

4.4 @ 1.24 vcore.

Cheers Rich.

 

[*Rich*]

I had the air cooler (silver arrow) and testing the same 4.4GHz at 1.24v and get pretty low temp under 59C on full load for an hour. Surely your watercooling should be less than that ?

Well i need to add more fans to my rads and the fans are on lowest settings too, maybe because of the two gtx blocks in there too....?

 

[*Rich*]

Just to add......at the minute my top rad has three fans in pull setup and lowest setting and my bottom rad has two fans in push setup. When i get some more fan cables they will all be push/pull rads, so hopefully temps will decrease.

 

[*Rich*]

2 pumps?

It's a D5 and it seems to flow quite well on just medium power. I wouldn't have thought 2 pumps would make a difference.

 

[*Rich*]

Cables?................more like jungle at the back.....but i don't look there lol.

No don't need the push pull, but i'm gonna do it anyway.

Thanks.

 

[*Rich*]

I've just realised I have the input and output on the cup block the wrong way round. Ek say it must be input closest to centre of block.

Would it be ok just to reverse the flow around the loop?


Thanks for the comments too guy's.

 

[*Rich*]

But if I rotate it, it's still has fluid going IN the output slot.....

 

[*Rich*]

Decided i would change the input and output of the bay res/pump around, doesn't seem much different in temps really, just happy knowing the cpu block has the correct flow now.

What next.......?

 

[*Rich*]

Very nice build Rich. Very tidy job How did you find the cosmos case to work with? I ummmed and arrred before pulling the trigger on the switch.

Thanks. I found it quite easy, there seems to be plenty of options for cable routing everywhere, so would work for most folk. Bottom rad rails are only good if you want your rad in a certain position, otherwise find your own way to mount it.

Pleny of room around the back of the motherboard too to keep cables tidy (although i havent tidied mine yet lol ). Lots of room for fans. And generally lots of room. Although it is huge.

Okay thanks for the info!

No probs.

 

[*Rich*]

you don't need two pumps for a loop like that at all.

your temperatures on a single loop will be similar to very high end air cooling but capabilities at higher end overclocks and noise levels will be vastly different.

I only have one pump.....?

Who said i have two?

 

[*Rich*]

Are you sure the 240mm rad is an XSPC RX240? With the 2 rads sat next to each other they look to be the same height. Plus, to me, the fin spacing looks too tight.

Still nice looking build.

I'm assuming that board uses a bridging chip to get that many PCI-e lanes. Have you have any issues with it?

Yeah i got it wrong, it's an RS240 35mm thick, i think that's because i wanted the rx240 as width didn't really matter.

The board runs perfect, no problems at all. I use the two x16 slots for my gpu's, but they took up two slots each due to the coolers, but now i've gone water cooled it doesn't matter. Also got a wifi-bluetooth card plugged in too, all works fine. Just wish that the pci slot was at the bottom for my sound card, although the onboard sound is actually quite good.

Thanks.

I think rjk was answering a suggetsion from another member

I just re-read a few posts and realise this now.

Thanks.

yeah, bulldog was saying you should go for a dual pump/loop solution.

which is totally unnecessary

As above just re-read. I think it would be over kill too on this single loop, as i only use the pump at slow to medium speeds for good results.

Thanks.

 

[*Rich*]

No reason really, but if you look at the last picture, you'll see i now use a solid bridge connector instead. Just looks a little neater.

Thanks.

 

[*Rich*]

This looks like a great little build

Cheers, not quite little though considering the case size